Attractional vs. Missional part1

The Worship Leader

The responsibility of the worship leader is to first and foremost lead people into the presence of God through spiritual songs. Now this can be at first glance a daunting task, but if a worship leader views his/her task as being more of a spiritual guide who is taking the people of God on a journey into the heart of God by the leading of the Holy Spirit, then the burden lightens because the worship leader is not alone in this endeavor. It is the Holy Spirit’s task to draw people to the Father through the Son, in which worship leaders are invited to be apart of.

Some good questions to ask when choosing worship songs are: 1) What does the song say about God? 2) What does the song say about us? 3) What does the song say about how we relate to God/Gospel? In thinking a bit deeper on this, I’ve come up with a few guideposts to help worship leaders think through some of the components of the journey.

1) Entering into worship (an invitation)
2) Crying out for the Lord (“I/we need you Lord”)
3) Receiving the assurance of Jesus (forgiveness, redemption, salvation, etc.)
4) Encountering the presence of God (holiness, power, mercy, grace, love, etc.)
5) Surrender/Submission to God (“I/we bow down”)
6) Expressing love for God (“I/we love You Lord”)
7) Expressing thankfulness to God (“thank You Jesus”)

Also, because of the pervasiveness of individualism, it is wise to include at least one song that is corporate in nature (we, us). This is important for at least two reasons: 1) it addresses the stronghold of individualism and 2) it reinforces the reality of being part of the Body of Christ. There is a difference between singing corporately (as a group) and singing songs that help people to identify as the Body of Christ. When a person sings, “I love you Lord” this has a different feel than singing “we love you Lord.” The latter fosters a sense of community.

Having five of the seven categories in a worship set is ideal, but that may not always be possible. But, a good rule of thumb is to have at least three categories. There may be times where a worship leader may be led by the Spirit to highlight one category, but having five songs on just one category would be unbalanced. So, breaking up the worship set with songs from two other categories helps to balance out the focus. Remember, a worship set should never lose the journey theme, which happens when only one category is focused.

Please feel free to express your thoughts:

Are you starving Jesus?

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:12-14).