Poll: How important is the worship leader in setting the tone?
Poll, Worship Leading — By Keith on October 12, 2009 at 7:13 am
How important is the worship leader in setting the tone for the entire worship assembly?
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11 Comments
Well, as a worship leader, I’d like to say I’m significantly important to many aspects of “setting the tone.” Ultimately I’m finding out as I’m growing in leading more people to be worshippers- that the people set the tone more than I can control.
Anyone could create a false tone, but until the hearts of the individuals in the assembly become daily worshippers, our acts of worship on Sunday morning are not going to be that affected, unless we create some environment where they feel a certain way in church than out of church- which isn’t healthy.
I would say that while our worship leaders are usually hired to spend much of their time on creating excellent music, I think a better place to start would be to encourage the hearts of those in the church to live out life as Jesus would have us. It will lead to worship that is overflowing because our lives will be overflowing with God’s goodness, love, mercy, grace, compassion, adoration, everything we look for in our assemblies and talk about will come if we can create a community of those who are daily worshippers in many ways.
So- yes the worship leader can have an impact, but not as great an impact as if we had pews full of daily worshippers who gathered together on Sunday at their local meeting place.
The Worship Leader is vital! I makes a huge difference in energy and the flow of the service and in everything about the service!
It’s a tricky thing because it’s a “public” thing. No one can make me nor prevent me from worshiping in my heart, but poorly executed leadership can sure put a damper on things. Whereas a skilled, sincere, and worshipful leader can definitely fan any flames that may be just below the surface.
I totally agree with Andrew.
To put it in slightly different terms…
I do believe that the worship leader has a great influence in setting the tone of the assembly…but I think that influence is based on the long haul by living out the Christian life together with the congregation much, much moreso than their particular demeanor on stage on a certain day.
That’s why I find it much easier to lead worship at my home church than on the road or at a big event. I have a relationship with these friends – we share victories and struggles together, thus I feel like our worship is much more authentic collectively.
I’m sure I didn’t say that well. Hopefully it makes some sort of sense.
I want to say that the worship leader is vital, but … well we have a guy that leads our worship and on a scale of 1-10 he is probably around a 4 or 5. He struggles to keep the right pitch and tempo. But we still have great worship. It seems to me that we meet early and fellowship and stay late to fellowship and worship happens in the midst of it.
There are times that I wish we had a dynamic worship leader, but I am constantly amazed at what people can do when they want to praise God.
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It is the two wings on an airplane: one is a great leader, the other is a crowd that is doing what they are supposed to do all through the week. If you have both, you will fly high. If one or the other is imbalanced, you can still fly, albeit in a circle in the direction of the short wing. If you have neither, you can get some good ground speed, but no flight.
This is much like the elder/congregation relationship. Elders should be shepherds, but congregations are also to make the elders’ job easy. Worship leaders should lead well. Congregations should do everything they can to make that easy for him, including paying for training him, if necessary.
A great worship leader has the desire to bring all people into the throne room of God with him as he goes – even those that are so down, they just barely made it to the assembly at all. This is more than musical training, it is spiritual training, well beyond “song leader”. Unless we do that well, we’re missing out on joining with heaven as an assembly.
Great comments Brad. I like the airplane analogy, as I have seen many congregations that seem to be flying in circles, or worse, not even “getting off the ground. Thanks for sharing.
Brad, that’s a great way of looking at it.
This is a reminder to churches that the leader can’t do anything magical if they aren’t doing what they are to be doing.
It’s a reminder to leaders, that if things aren’t going like “they should” then maybe it’s not your fault, possibly it’s the people you are leading.
It really comes down to everyone doing their part, whatever their part actually is. Paul was pretty good at explaining this in 1 Corinthians 12:14-18.
As a musician, when I go to events and see people using their talents for the world… I always have a sense of “mourning” that their gift isn’t sanctified (set a part) for the glory of God.
Good point, Andrew. We need our very best, leading God’s people.
I’m intrigued by all the people who voted “extremely important” on the poll, but have yet to put “why” it’s so extremely important.
We all know that leading the worship is important, but if we follow the money at most congregations, we find out the ministry from the pulpit is the most important to many shepherding or financing groups. We don’t have money set aside for training young men for leadership or for scholarships to singing schools or leadership workshops. Seems to be secondary or third-ary, in the scheme of things. I’m glad that singing schools and leadership workshops are enticing enough for people to pay their own way just for their love of worship and singing.