Leadership: Worship

Leadership Series No. 1

I have been wanting to write a series of articles on leadership for a long while now. The idea for this particular article was birthed when a friend asked me a great question: how do you pick songs when you lead worship? Having studied worship theology and doctrine for the past four years, I might have considered this a simple technical question to me. However it is far from it, and I want to use this question as a jumping point to talk about deconstructing and reshaping the way we approach worship leadership and preparation.

The standard for worship leadership and preparation in our western context places its central value on technical excellence, planning, production, and execution; regardless (for the most part) of style of music, worship tradition, or denomination. These are factors of worship that we can easily control, improve, and measure in ways that make us feel like we are creating/participating in something beautiful, worthwhile, and efficient. When all of these factors line up well, the congregation is happy, the pastor is happy, and the worship leader feels good about accomplishing something good and presentable. This is what many in the congregation would call "a blessing" or "worshipful". In other words, these are the things that generally make people feel good about their worship, and worship leadership. However, as I learned more and more about the upside down nature of the kingdom, I began to ask myself a very serious question: are these the things God values about our worship?

As I sought the answer to this crucial question, I began to notice patterns in my environment that I hadn't given much thought to before. For example, I noticed that God was not offered the same level of enthusiastic praise that the solo artist students received on a weekly basis (even from the worship leaders themselves). One of the big things that shocked me was that the choirs set apart for leading worship had all of their time devoted to singing backup for a broadway solo artist one year, rather than actually leading worship. It was at this point that God revealed to me a correlation between the way we study and practice worship, and the fruit of the doctrine. The more we focus on the parts of worship that we could control and shape in ways we thought were right and beautiful, the more emphasis and importance we put on production than God Himself. In this way worship is devalued and becomes primarily a practical skill rather than a spiritual discipline.

So the question still stands: what are the things that God thinks make our worship beautiful and worthwhile? What should we be focusing on in preparation to lead worship? After doing some digging, I found that God's standard for our worship has been very consistent throughout all of scripture and time. In fact, God outlines His standards over 24 times across every unique literary segment of scripture. I think the most familiar of these instances is found in Psalm 51:

"You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; You are not pleased with a burnt offering.The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart." - Psalm 51:16-17

The psalmist knew that God was not interested in the production of his worship, God was concerned with his heart. The tough part of this truth is that God does not just care less about our worship production, He never asked for our production in the first place - just our hearts. Does this mean it is bad to offer God technically excellent worship? Not at all! What it means is that in putting so much of our time, energy, and resources into worship production, we end up comparatively ignoring the one thing He has explicitly asked us for. We have constructed our worship doctrine and training to be mostly about the building up of our natural gifts, and just enough about our hearts and spirituality in theory to satisfy our theology. In other words, we have constructed our worship doctrine and training to be about what we think is beautiful, and not what He has commanded us to give Him. This has been a problem that has plagued Yahweh's followers for thousands of years. Jesus even pointed it out in the Synagogues of His time saying:

"These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.” Matthew 15:8-9

We learn from this passage that it is entirely possible (and a very common problem) to honor God in the eyes of men, yet worship Him in vain. In other words, if you are not giving God your heart in worship, your honoring acts mean nothing. Even further back, Yahweh Himself addressed His prophet Jeremiah concerning the issue:

"...for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. However, I did give them this command: Obey Me, and then I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you. Yet they didn’t listen or pay attentionbut followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward." - Jeremiah 7:22-24

I started realizing just how prevalent this concept was during my time studying music and worship in other world cultures. Western definitions of excellence and beauty do not translate well to different cultures around the world - especially to nomadic and tribal cultures. All around the world music, art, production, and other expressions of worship take forms that do not meet the Western standards of excellent worship. Many of these expressions are equally - if not more - pleasing to God because they are simple expressions of adoration rather than elaborate but empty works of art. As a dear friend of mine once put it, "We need to stop loving music because we can make something good out of it, and rather make music because we love Someone[God]."

Before moving on I do want to address the number one issue many people have with this truth. I am not saying that "excellently" produced worship is wrong, or should be avoided across the board. It is good to bring God things that have been worked hard on out of pure love and adoration of a surrendered heart. Rather, I am saying that people in the West - namely America - need to let go of this kind of these practices/teachings of "excellence" in order to truly understand what worship is. Because of our western cultural presuppositions about what is excellent, meaningful, and beautiful, we are more prone to fall into this trap. These ways of practicing worship have become crutches to our people group that keep us from growing deeper in our faith and expressing the fullness of our hearts to God.

Having established what God is looking for from our worship, I return to the original question that prompted this train of thought: how do you pick songs when you lead worship? The answer is that I sit and I pray and ask God to make me aware of the condition of my heart. When I know where my heart is, I sing a song that is reflective or appropriate given the condition of my heart in Spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). Many trained leaders will say this is a bad process, they will encourage the worship leader to put on a smile (forced or not) and tough it out for the congregation who may need encouragement. This instruction is usually followed by a teaching that failing to do so is selfish, and that worship is not about the worship leader, but about the leader ministering to the congregation. On the contrary, the purpose of worship is not first ministering to the congregation, but ministering to the heart of God. If the biblical worshipers are any example honesty of the heart and real intimacy with God in genuine expressions of devotion to Him are some of the purest encouragements a leader can give the body.

So what does this look like applied to our churches and communities? Imagine if the hours and hours that went into rehearsing and producing were to go instead into discipling and preparation of the heart? What if, instead of being obligated to produce something professionally acceptable, we were required first to offer something heartfelt and spiritual. How much more could we bless our communities if the thousands of dollars that are budgeted for production and programming every year were instead devoted to the actual practical ministries of Christ - helping those less fortunate in our communities and those members of the body that need financial assistance (James 1:27). These are the things that Jesus taught us were important - not the professional quality of worship and church. If the heart of Christ was our focus, our ministries would not be dying and through genuine discipleship more people would experience the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

It is time for those of us who are leaders in the body of Christ to start conforming to His standards, even if they feel lower, lesser, or foolish compared to those of the world's. God is fervently pursuing the hearts of His children calling them to make Him their King and watch the wildfire of His Spirit take hold. I have talked with many church leaders who are yearning for revival, but they are unwilling to go as far as He is calling us away from the culture to experience His power. The door is always open. Pray this week and ask Him to teach you what worship is, and how you can love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength - even if that means letting go of false comforts and bad habits in order to be changed. He is gentle and loving, and waiting for us to offer Him our hearts in worship!