“It’s not that you shouldn’t lead worship.

It’s just that your passion to lead others has overwhelmed the necessity of leading yourself.

The best worship leaders are those who are in tune with the Holy Spirit – so engaged in the Person of Christ – that they help others to be vulnerable. They lead with an honest, open heart – freeing others to surrender all.”

When I first wrote that, I was preaching to myself. I felt God challenging me to step up my leadership.

I mean, how could I lead a room in worship if I was unwilling to lead myself?

Lead myself in worship – that’s something we don’t think about right?

But when your personal times with God drift to few and far between, when you’re more excited for the things of this world, and when your passion revolves around the spread of your own name and influence, something needs to change.

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“Wow, that worship service was amazing.”

It’s a phrase we all hear, all the time. Whether you’re leaving the arena after a Jesus Culture concert or driving to the buffet after Sunday’s worship, we’ve all said it.

But what is it, I wonder, that constitutes “incredible” worship? Because you may be reading this article and thinking, “My church’s worship is far from great. Matter of fact, it’s terrible.”

Oftentimes, our judgement of a worship service comes down to how it makes us feel. If it was charged with emotion, we like it. If the band has it together, we like it. If it’s not so loud that our ear drums hurt, we like it. If they sang “Oceans”, we like it.

That’s also what scares me about our modern worship culture. We attend concerts, idolize artists, and chase experiences because of how they make us feel.

But it can leave us discontented with the local church God has called us to and distract us from asking the most important question of all.

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