So in my supreme arrogance, I tend to think there are three types of church leader response to the relativity new, music-based office of worship leader.
There’s the accepter, the rejector, and the integrator.
The accepter is excited by worship leaders as people. They love their passions, personalities, and gifts so much that they say ‘on you go, have fun!’ They let worship leaders run the show however they feel.
The rejectors are much more likely to bring up performance and human-centredness criticisms. They generally wont allow a worship leader to have any space at all when involved in music other than to strum their guitar quietly in the corner.
The integrator is excited to see how a worship leader might fit into the worship without actually leading the worship. They will seek to find specific place for their passions and gifts without running the whole show. I.e. without bunging the whole ‘lead people into God’s presence’ burden one person’s shoulders.
The acceptor tends to be the most loved by our worship leaders, the rejector is the most rejected, or ignored, and the integrator ironically in practice seems to be the most hated by worship leaders.
Or is it just me?
I’m an integrator by the way, and I tend to get on worship leader’s wicks. It might just be my personality (probably is to some degree), but my suspicion is its something else too.
Worship leading in the 80s and 90s came from a highly separatist and rebellious set of movements. It segregated the congregation more than anything since the sunday school movement (rants on that to come). It came from groups that saw worship in a particular light and went for it, regardless of whether it fit those who we’re already in church. It sought to make church and worship more relevant to an outside culture, and more reflect the joy values in scripture of praising God.
It made some amazing points! We do need to move on in our styles, we do need to engage with those outside by making changes to the inside, we don’t want disinterested people in the pews, we can bring many more types of music & technology into play, there can be extended periods of response and teaching through artistic media… etc. etc. Fab points!
But nevertheless it was separatist, it segregated, and it rebelled. These are not good words when it comes to celebrating church unity and diversity. Y’know, the whole 1 Corinthians thing.
This might be why responses tend to be extreme. Acceptor or rejector; all or nothing. This also might be why it’s so hard to actually discuss with worship leaders how they might be integrated without being in charge. It also might be why so many worship leaders in music-based events and ministries around the west today are behaving more like pastors and spending more time teaching.
As such I wonder if the ‘do it my way or the highway’ gene has filtered down into our worship leaders today a wee bit. Some awry teaching certainly has.
Think about the talks, seminars, or books you’ve heard or read by worship leaders. What do they say? Isn’t it understood that a worship leader’s job is to lead people into the presence of God – That this happens primarily and powerfully in the music – That worship frames the message and provides a response for it – And that worship is about personal engagement with God as if no one else was around you?
Where do these quickly-becoming-accepted truths come from? Are they Biblical?
Where in the Bible is a music leader synonymous with a worship leader? Yes the Levites in in 1 Chron. 6 were charged with mediating the presence of God, and yes they we’re also in charge of music. But 1. there were lots of them, a whole tribe in fact, and 2. they didn’t lead the worship gatherings – the King did!
Where in the Bible is worship actually synonymous with music and singing? Its not. It comes sometimes as part of worship – but worship is more about atoning for sin, making sacrifices, bowing down, hearing God’s words, and having ceremonial meals.
What is the most artistically expressed worship in the Bible? It’s not joyful praise, it’s actually heart-felt lament. Particularly dealing sin and asking for forgiveness. I’m guessing from the top of my head that 70% + of the psalms are laments in one form or another and 20% or so are joyful praise (with some overlap here & there). The songbooks of the Bible place a totally different emphasis on how to approach God.
One more, who engages who in the Bible in times of worship? People engage and address each another, they sing to each other to remind each other about God’s promise keeping and character. God also addresses them through prophecy and scripture. Finally sometimes they address God – but most often through a mediator. Note on this last one, Jesus means that we no longer need a mediator so we can address God personally – but talking to God personally is still not the primary engagement in worship.
Of course this is simply talking about corporate worship in the gathering, its not even touching on lifestyle worship or private worship.
Now you can see why I get beaten up a lot.
Its so important to be clear on what worship is in the Bible if we want to lead people in worship today. And as an integrator I accept we need gifted, powerfully spiritual, equipped, and released people today to lead the music aspect of the worship.
But they also need to be mentored and understand, title not withstanding, that they are not the worship leader. They are part of a whole team which is seeking to lead the congregation in the presence of God, led primarily by the pastor. The service leader, the speaker, the people leading prayers, the group discussion leader (oh if churches paid for more of those!), the youth and children’s leaders, the notice reader – anyone at the front has a responsibility for the leading of the worship. The whole team effort is crafted into worship leading through prayer, discussion, and understanding prior to the service or event. This allows the right set of boundaries for the congregation themselves to be led, and lead each other in worship.
I’m thinking this should probably end up being a few posts as I’ve got so much to say on the topic I’m going to keep veering off it!
I’ll end then, with some summary, practical thoughts on integration.
- Keep channels of communication between the service leader and music leader (aka worship leader) wide open all the time.
- Make sure it’s clear who is the one to vet prophecies and spontaneous messages from the front.
- Keep strategic barriers between who is leading the music and who is leading the teaching. I’ve seen too many service leaders try and throw another song in that the band hasn’t prepared for; and too many musos go into teaching something they just read & are excited about. If this is going to happen – have it checked beforehand! Or check graciously during – and be willing to be told no.
- Keep a clear hierarchy of who’s in charge of the direction of the worship. And it probably shouldn’t be the same person as is leading the music. Ideally the Pastor if its church based.
- Provide more space than ‘song space’ for the muso leader to create atmosphere, craft times of silence, repeat as they feel called, pray spontaneously, cut/add backup songs, and communicate with the band about musical direction changes – yes as they feel led by the Spirit. Do this with all the caveats from the previous points in place.
Go out for drinks together! Go bowling, Laugh a lot, pray together, read your Bible’s together, watch movies, go on double dates. Get the relationship right off the pitch first!
Cheers folks.
Discussion
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