8 posts tagged “worship”

Passion 2

I am finally getting back to a little series on the worship leader that I began two weeks ago.  I started off with background on me and the road that I have walked to be where I am today.  Today, I want to look at the role of the worship leader.  I did a Google search on this topic and ended up with a ton of blog posts from various individuals.  I was reminded how much this position is still very new and developing, as it's existence has been less than 30 - 40 years.  Wikipedia had this:

A notable feature of contemporary worship is the worship leader. A worship leader is normally a musician (often a guitarist or pianist) with good singing ability whose role it is to lead the congregational singing. Many composers of contemporary worship songs are also worship leaders. The worship leader has a prominent role in contemporary worship services and is responsible for much of the spiritual direction of the meeting and often will choose the songs that will be sung. This can be contrasted with traditional churches, where the entire service is normally led by a member of the clergy.

One quick thing that strikes me off this is the incredible responsibility that a worship leader has.  Being responsible for the spiritual direction of the meeting is HUGE!  So many people aspire to be on stage and they have no clue the weight that role bears.

According to the above definition, I see a few roles that every worship leader fulfills: planner, facilitator/teacher, musician.  In effort to keep these from getting to long, let's look at probably the most unknown aspect of a worship leader's job, but one of the most vital...

Role 1: Planner

Church services today range drastically in style, format, and time.  This is where the worship leader, usually one of the primary planners of a service, has to be intimately involved in what's going on.  I can only speak from my experience and from those I've had the privilege of talking with, so here's the process I go through.  Steve, our pastor, will meet with a group to discuss and set the topics of upcoming series, usually, 3-6 months in advance.  Once this is done, our Creative Team will begin to brainstorm and dream about how we can package each series so that it is fresh, engaging, and culturally relevant.  Music is a big part of this for TrueNorth. Our music philosophy is that we will use styles of music that are popular in our culture today, as well as Top 40 type songs that connect with those who may be visiting for the first time that are still unconvinced in regards to Jesus.  Engagement is huge!  If someone walks in and hears a song they know or music that sounds like what they listen to everyday, they will engage in the message of the service much more.

My approach to planning a service is to weave a theme throughout the music that is consistent with the message topic.  This prepares people to hear what is said better, but also leads us to celebrate and reflect on specific characteristics of God.  For example, we recently did a service on compassion.  Each of the songs we used built upon that topic, leading us to sing and declare that we would go and love those in need.  It was a powerful service as all of the elements of the service (music, message, video, prayer) flowed together perfectly.

I want to tread carefully here because it can be easy to stop there when planning.  I am guilty of this, as are so many others out there.  But the most important part of planning is pursuing God and His plan for the service.  Spending time in prayer and study takes the written plan and transforms it into a unique encounter with the Living God.  I confess that, after leading worship for over 10 years, I have learned how easy it is to fake worship.  I can learn the songs, the phrases, the exact moment when I should throw my hands up in the air, but it is so empty.  The times I have experienced an incredible outpouring of God's Spirit is when I am pursuing Him and allowing Him to lead.

I am going to close out with this: No one can lead worship better than the Holy Spirit (believe me, I've tried!).  No can plan better than the Holy Spirit (believe me, I've tried!).  But it can be the biggest struggle for a worship leader to remember this and practice it.  So I would encourage you to remember the worship leader(s) in your church in your prayers.  We need the support and encouragement that comes from that.

Next time...the worship leader as facilitator/teacher.

I'm always on the lookout for young worship leader's that I can get plugged in at TrueNorth.  Well, here's my buddy William.  He may be a few years away from getting plugged in, but this boy's got some skillz!

Life is good

I've been seeing this slogan a lot lately on t-shirts and bumper stickers.   It's a  fun reminder that , well, life is good!

But then I got to wondering about the times when life isn't so good.  What then?  Walt, our student pastor at TrueNorth, sent me this article the other day and it really hit home with me.  It's so easy to focus on the celebration aspect of worship when I'm planning services.  After all, TrueNorth is a body of Christ-followers that loves to celebrate!  And that is so cool.  But I've also realized that during the times we've played songs or had times of response that address the troubled times in life people end up responding in a major way.

It broke my heart reading the article that Walt sent.  To read the words that guy spoke about not feeling like he belonged at church at that time made me wonder how many people sit in the seats every week at TrueNorth and feel the same way.  For too long the church has made people feel like they have to put on their Sunday mask and hide their hurt and pain.  But that's not what people need and that surely isn't what God has called His Church to be!

I'm learning that worship is as much tears and crying as it is clapping and shouting...

I ran across this quote from A.W. Tozer's book Whatever Happened to Worship.  (Great book by the way.  I highly recommend reading it.)  He talks about the importance of being aware of the Presence of God as we go into our work week on Mondays.  Here it is:

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God --1 Corinthians 10:31

On Monday, as we go about our different duties and tasks, are we aware of the Presence of God? The Lord desires still to be in His holy temple, wherever we are. He wants the continuing love and delight and worship of His children, wherever we work.

Is it not a beautiful thing for a businessman to enter his office on Monday morning with an inner call to worship: "The Lord is in my office--let all the world be silent before Him."

If you cannot worship the Lord in the midst of your responsibilities on Monday, it is not very likely that you were worshiping on Sunday!...

I guess many people have an idea that they have God in a box. He is just in the church sanctuary, and when we leave and drive toward home, we have a rather faint, homesick feeling that we are leaving God in the big box.

You know that is not true, but what are you doing about it?

This spoke straight to my heart because I'm guilty of this quite often.  I sing my heart out to God on Sundays only to leave Him there as I go on to Monday.  But how different would my Monday be if I would start living in His Presence.  How different would my worship on Sunday be as well?

As I've said time after time on this very blog, worship is not a Sunday morning activity.  It's a lifestyle.  As a matter of fact, Sunday worship should only be an overflow of the worship we've been living the rest of the week.  That's when we'll start to see the Presence of God become real and active in our lives.

This morning I popped in a song that I haven't listened to in quite a long time. It's a worship tune from the late '90s called We Are Hungry. I was first introduced to the song from the Passion: The Road to OneDay album that came out in 1999. Anyway, as I listened to this song, I couldn't help but fall on my face. I began to cry out to God to make this song true in my heart as well as in our church...to be hungry for God.

Through it all, I decided to make a little video to this song with pictures of worshipers from different events at TrueNorth. So here it is...

Alive. I've been thinking about that word a lot this week. What does it really mean to be alive? The dictionary defines it simply as "living; not dead." Another definition I saw was one that reads "continuing in existence."

Steve talked a lot about what it means to be alive this past Sunday. You can read a recap of it here. And then last night at JTeam, we watched a Louie Giglio message titled "Alive", which was a look at the intricacies of the human body. He spoke of how our bodies are made up of over 70 trillion cells. 70 trillion. That's a lot of zeros!

So what I've learned through it all this week is that God made me, and in a incredibly amazing way. As Psalm 139:13-14 says, "For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." I guess what's so captivating for me with this is that God knows me intimately. He knows what foods I like, what music I'm in the mood to listen to, the amount of stress in my day...and He knows each of the 70 trillion cells in my body. That's amazing to me!

I have to say that I want to be more than "not dead". I want to be ALIVE! I don't want it to be said of me that I'm just continuing in existence. I want to take life head on and live for Jesus with passion and excitement.

Life is definitely more fun when you live it ALIVE..

I was checking out the myspace page of my buddies Merge Sunday and they had something that's got me thinking. The section talking about who they are says this:

Four passionate guys with hearts for worship and a passion for sharing that through their musical talent. mergeSUNDAY is a lifestyle. What if everyone took the way they live on Sunday morning and made that a part of every day instead of saving it for that one special day of the week? We were made to worship, and not just on Sunday mornings. God doesn't want the best of what we have; He wants ALL of it. Our bad days, our good days, our broken and bruised. All of it. Live every day like it's a Sunday.

What if we lived everyday of our lives with the same passion and energy for God that we save for special occasions, whether it's church or a Facedown-type event? I was talking to Gene today about worship and that worship is, at its simplest form, our relationship with God. It's how we respond to Him when He reveals Himself to us. Did you catch that? It's our response to God's revelation of Himself.

Have you ever wondered why people act they way they do when they sing a worship song or say the things they do in everyday conversation when talking about God? People raise their hands, shout at the top of their lungs, clap their hands, fall on their face, sit silently...and that's just a few things! I've heard people say that they are better then they deserve, or they are blessed. Why is that? I believe with all my heart that it is because they are feeling something inside that they have to get out through speech or action.

I'm curious...why do you respond to God the way you do?

I have been suffering from MAJOR writer's block lately. I think it's because life has had my head swimming. Sometimes I come home at the end of the day and my brain is just dead. I'm worth nothing for about an hour or two until I can unwind.

That's where it's good sometimes for me to play hide-and-seek like we did tonight with our kids. Now, I'm at a slight disadvantage because I'm what you'd call a "big guy". Hiding a 6'4", 200 lb frame is not the easiest thing in the world! And then you have Laurie who can lay on the bed and throw a blanket over her and the kids can't find her for a good 20 minutes. What's up with that? So how do you unwind?

I read this post the other day and it really got me thinking about how I would respond. I mean, the idea of faking worship? But there is something there. If I were to really be honest (which I'm going to be, so watch out!), I would have to say I'm going through a worship funk right now. What??? The worship leader is going through a worship funk? What's that all about? But it's true. I'm human and sometimes it happens. It's hard to keep things fresh and real. Reading the above mentioned post was good for me because it made me realize it's okay not to be "super worship guy". In fact, I don't want to be that. I just want to come unashamedly just as i am.