I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on my recent post on worship leadership. I’d like to take some time in the next week or so to dive into some of these qualities on a deeper level. There is a way to be a worship leader that is not burned out, stressed, and just trying to survive. It’s staggering to see that the average tenure of a worship leader in the local church is 2 years. Where are the steady, passionate, vision-filled leaders who are building up a worship team of ‘on-fire’ worshipers? Hopefully this stuff will help. Some topics covered will be:

• How to plan for a great rehearsal
• How to plan a great worship set
• The tension between spontaneity & preparation
• How do I get inspired each week?
• Getting behind the vision of your local church
• How to approach personal practice
• Creating a fun, disciplined culture
• What to do when your worship team doesn’t ‘get’ your vision

Anything else I should add?

I recently challenged the worship team at APC to memorize Psalm 40 together. My desire with this is to be more active in preparing our hearts for the weekend worship. What better way to do this than to memorize God’s Word together? Memorizing Scripture is probably the best way to prepare yourself to be a worshipper through the difficult times in life. When the storms hit, you have a bedrock of truth to recall to mind.

I sent this encouragement out today. I hope it blesses you.

“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord” (Psalm 40:3).

When people see your life and hear your words, what are they taking in? Our daily experience of God’s love and faithful help through pleasure and pain should result in songs of praise.

Now, I don’t mean you should start singing random lyrics and melodies in public when God does something. That’s a bit on the creepy side. Go watch ELF if you don’t know what I mean.

All this means is that as a worshipper of God, you are also a declarer to others. If others are not hearing your praise and declarations of faith, you are probably not worshipping. Silent, undeclared worship is no worship at all. People need to SEE your song in action. People need to FEAR GOD through it. And they will PUT THEIR TRUST in God because of your living testimony.

In this post I would like to share with you something we have done for the last few years as a worship team. We call it “Refresh Night”. All good things in life have the tendency to drift from special to mundane over the course of time. Think about it. If you don’t continually invest in your marriage and keep it fresh by ‘pursuing’ your spouse, it drifts into simply a ‘tolerating’ of one another. If you don’t keep in touch with friends, the relationship dies. If you are a musician and you choose to stop learning, the boredom leads to stagnation.

This is true of local church worship ministry as well. The awe-inspiring truth that we have access to approach the Holy God of all creation as a corporate body every week is truly a miraculous event. Yet often it becomes: “What musical arrangements will intrigue me this week?” or “Are we doing my favorite song?” or “Crap, I messed up that chord progression!”

With our annual ‘Refresh’ Night we have tried to breathe some vision into the beginning of our year as a worship team. We want to approach our weekend services prepared to meet with God and connect with a people on a journey with Christ. We want to be God-centered, Christ-enabled, Spirit-led, Missionary-minded, Glory-expectant, Acts-balanced, and Willfully-expressed. “Refresh” Night helps us do this. We take a normal Thursday night rehearsal, meet in a home, and spend some time in worship, prayer, vision, and fellowship. The Holy Spirit always does something very special.

What do you do to focus as a worship team?

This is the fifth and final post on “What Makes a Good Worship Leader?”

One of the worst mistakes you can make as a worship leader is to think you know it all. Even if you are Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Paul Baloche, and you are reading this, it applies to you too.

Now the word “study” is a very broad term. What to study? We’ve already covered that we need to be students of the Word of God. That is of premier importance. In this post I am answering the questions, “Who are your ‘unofficial’ mentors?” And, “How are you improving the practicalities that make you more effective?”

Mentors. I have many mentors that I have never met. Even mentors that are dead. Listen to great worship leaders. Study the songs they write. Study the way they lead worship. Study how they interact with a congregation. Study how the drummer and bass player connect. Study how the band has trained themselves to ‘play less’ to contribute to an overall sound. Also, read great books. When you stop reading, you stop growing. I’ve found that some books dedicated to ‘worship leading’ can be a bit unhelpful, but books dedicated to exploring the wonder of God are wonderful for growing in your leadership.

Also, how are you improving your practical skills? I once heard Don Potter say, “The reason we practice our instruments is so that when the Holy Spirit decides to use us, there is less resistance.” Do you practice your vocals so that when the Holy Spirit wants to speak through your singing, you aren’t out of breath? Do you practice your instrument so that when the Holy Spirit wants to prophesy through you, you aren’t trying to figure out what key you’re in? Do you study/memorize the Word of God so that when the Holy Spirit wants you to speak into the moment, you’re not trying to figure out what Scripture to say?

The more you study, work, and sweat behind the scenes of a worship service, the more the Holy Spirit can use you. Our preparation and His sovereign intervention go hand in hand.

Are you ready?