Ragamuffin Soul had an interesting post, asking the question, “should your worship leaders GO to your church?”
I don’t know all situations, but worship leading is something that I play pretty close to the chest, so I couldn’t stop from responding to this one. I have to say that I absolutely believe that worship leaders NEED to be a part of the church they serve. I believe this having been a worship leader who showed up, played, and left every sunday morning for a year. It sucked. Even I would’ve fired me. Thankfully, I worked for more gracious men than I. There are so many reasons why I believe it is so vital to a church’s success to have worship leaders from “the ranks,” but I’ll try to only touch on the ones beating the wall of my heart down.
- Leading worship goes deeper and further than Sunday mornings. When worship leaders consistently come and go, so do “worship experiences.” Inconsistency breeds inconsistency. An ever-changing “front line” means that people will “check in” when the guy (or gal) leading “has it,” and they will check right back out when they don’t. Inconsistent leadership makes worship more about the personality on stage than about the Holy, Transformational presence of God.
- Church is family. Church is family. Church is family. And family is not and cannot be looked upon as disposable. Family matters. The whole idea of a worship team and a worship leader is that the family on stage and the family off stage are all coming together with one heart and one mouth to declare the praises of Jesus Christ, the crux of history. The last thing the church needs is an atmosphere of expendability.
- You know great leaders by the great leaders they leave. Leading worship is ultimately an act of discipleship. Discipleship takes time. Visit NewLife Church on any given Sunday and, whether or not the band “nails it,” whether or not the lights light or the fog fogs, you will find a family that loves to abandon all and worship their guts out. Ross Parsley has been used by God in an amazing way to raise up a family that worships together through hell and high water, and he’s done it by being faithful to that church for more than 15 years.
- Having disposable worship leaders can spoil your church and can make worship about the wrong things. I understand that many churches, especially in their younger days or in a time of transition will rotate through lots of outside people to provide “worship experiences” for their congregation. But let me ask you this:*Would you rather be able to consistently provide impeccable sound, stellar technical worship elements, and talented, charismatic personalities each week; OR
*Would you rather develop a culture of people who will worship their faces off even if the “team” consists of a one-legged man with a Wal-Mart keyboard?
Now I’m not saying that the two are mutually exclusive, in fact if you know me at all you’ll understand my passion for using technology and talent to facilitate transformational worship experiences.
But either we lead out a lifestyle of on-your-face, unashamed, uninhibited, unrestricted worship, or we teach people that “worship” means a killer band and lasers. It is a thin line, and we have to check our hearts and turn our eyes before we get up on stage ourselves or ask someone else too.
bright and beautiful 