Yesterday we talked about one of the purposes of a worship leader is to “equip the saints for works of service.”  This is so crucial within churches.

The majority of the time, worship leaders within the church are people with a higher level of musical talent than other people within the church.  Often they are people with a higher portion of leadership or charisma than other people within the church.  It is vital that they use this talent and leadership to help equip people in the church.

A worship leader on a national platform can write all the worship songs he wants and play concerts to thousands, but he’s not going to have time to equip the church.

We are called to come alongside those in the church, use our talent and leadership to help develop their gifts.  We are called to raise up new worship leaders and step out of the way.  We are called to teach volunteers how to play better, sing better, count better, lead better.  Nationally recognized worship leaders did not get as good as they are without the help and direction of a producer.  Our volunteers will not be able to do any better than what they are doing with the help and direction of us as “producers” as well.  (that’s a post for another time!).

Let’s help out those who are not as trained as us by offering our knowledge to them to help further God’s kingdom.

This past weekend I had a great comment from Rocky and I wanted to spend this week giving a response to it. This was part of the comment:

My freshman-in-college-Christ-following-want-to-do-something-bigger-than-the-church son is an excellent guitarist and has the potential to be an excellent worship leader. He has led worship a few times at our church youth. I try to encourage him by telling him that there is no difference between him and Chris Tomlin, Lincoln Brewster, etc, except the experience (and probably a manager/producer).

But I also tell him that even though a Texas-sized dream is good, there is nothing like the local church when it is running right. (view the rest here.)

Lee McDerment, worship leader of Newspring Church, just mentioned on Perry Noble’s blog an 8th thing that every worship leader should know. He said, “The church is God’s dream, not your worship album!” I have to wholeheartedly agree with this.

Ephesians 4:11-13 (and several other places in Scripture) talks about gifts given to believers. Music is not mentioned as a spirtual gift, but the purpose of spirtual gifts and (I believe) the purpose of using music to glorify God are the same, as it says in verse 12,

for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.

What really is the purpose of a worship leader?  Is it to write worship songs?  Is it to make people more aware of God’s presence?  I believe it is to equip “the saints for work of service,” and “the building up of the body of Christ.”

All of the major worship songs written by “major worship leaders” were written to “the building up of the body of Christ.”  So many of them come out of a need within their own church, or a response to something that was taught in their own church, or a response to something that God did in their heart while at their own church.

God desires to build up the church.  Not as a physical building, but as a congregation of believers who proclaim His name.  As local worship leaders, we have the incredible privilege of being involved in the nitty-gritty building of that church.  We see the good, the bad, and the ugly.  We see the need for a certain song to be written to address something going on within the church.  We see people’s hurts, joys, fears, concerns, and everything in betewen.  It’s very hard to see these things from a national platform.

Lee also said,

“When you place God’s dream in front of your dreams it’s amazing what can take place.”

Well said.  Every worship leader that I know of that is recognized on a national stage wasn’t necessarily looking for that recognition.  They honored God as local worship leaders, and God blessed their ministry beyond what they could imagine.  Let’s do the same.

It’s been tough for me to blog lately. I’ve been a bit discouraged and down, but have had some wise advice from people and am resting in God’s strength.

I really would love to get to know who is reading, even if I know you. Would you leave a comment and just say hello and where you’re from?

Today I saw a great example of worship. There is going to be a festival coming up here to promote the various ministries within the church. The festival is in the Fellowship Hall and I just walked out into the narthex to drop off some sheets of paper on a table and happened to peek into the fellowship hall and see our small groups pastor walking the tables and praying. How awesome to see that act of worship today.

Hello all!   I’d like to try something a little different.   I’d like to get to know the readers of this blog a little bit better, and get a feel for what you’d like to know.   So, if you’re a regular reader, someone who’s lurking in the shadows or someone who just happened to stumble upon this site, would you be willing to ask a question that has to do with any aspect of leading worship within the church?   We can learn together as we do this.   So fire away!