by John Chisum, Nashville Christian Songwriters (with apologies to Stephen R. Covey)
1. PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE STYLE PREFERENCES OF YOUR CONGREGATION—SING WHATEVER YOU LIKE.
Music is an emotional language. Almost all of us remember the first song that ever touched our hearts in a special way, a song that was popular when we fell in love, or a song that can still make us cry when we hear it. People who attend church have strong musical preferences, too. They like what they like and want to hear what they like when they come to church. One of the most deadly habits a worship leader can have is to pay no attention to these preferences.
Come to terms with the musical personality and preferences of the majority of your congregation. Take the time to understand their tastes, their age demographic, their location, and their culture. As Christ spoke to farmers in the language of a farmer and to shepherds in the language of a shepherd, you need to speak to your congregation in the musical language they understand. If you don’t, they will not tolerate you for long. Your job is to facilitate their song, not your own.
I once visited a writer I’d managed at Integrity who has published many well-known songs. He was worship leader at a small church in what was obviously cowboy country. There was more denim in that church than in a Levi’s factory. My friend led contemporary songs in the service I attended, but no one sang along.
At lunch afterward, I said, “ Those people love country music. They’d probably appreciate worship with three basic chords and simple rhythms.” He tried that and the congregational participation increased instantly. He transformed himself and his style of worship in order to speak to the people in his congregation in their native tongue: country music.
2. DON’T BOTHER TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR TEAM, PASTOR, OR CONGREGATION.
Relationships are the currency of the kingdom. You need to love the people in your congregation. If you don’t, they will never receive the kind of transformational leadership from you they deserve. If the ministry is more about you than about them, they will feel it and resent it. Complaints will flow in your direction, or worse, in the pastor’s direction, and your days of effectiveness will be numbered.
Your team also deserves to be loved authentically. The Bible says, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?“ (Amos 3:3). A praise team is like a small discipleship group. As their leader, you need to provide strong direction, love, and a lot of encouragement. If you do not regularly pay attention to all the members, they will become discontent. Either they will unplug or they’ll try to step into the lack of leadership and fix it for you. Neither option works well. You are the leader, and you need to build a program that shows these people how important they are to the life of the church. Artists function on the fuel of appreciation, and that appreciation must first come from you.
Your relationship with the senior pastor is as vital as your relationship with the congregation and the praise team. If a pastor-worship leader relationship isn’t working well, trouble is not far behind. The most successful churches capitalize on the full package of “the service is the sermon” instead of breaking it into pieces, fragments, and the start-and-stop style of the past.
Nurture your relationship with the pastor. Share good books with him. Discuss the theology of worship to get his understanding of what works. Never make fun of your pastor for not understanding musical terms or what makes music work. Love your pastor, and you will be loved in return.
3. BELIEVE THAT YOUR PRIMARY PERSONAL WORSHIP TIME IS SUNDAY MORNINGS IN FRONT OF THE CONGREGATION.
Many musicians and singers on praise teams across America never touch their instruments or sing except in rehearsal or on Sunday mornings. Even many worship leaders do not spend much time with the Father except when they’re working in ministry. This is deadly. Ministry works best out of the overflow of relationship with Christ. If we’re not deeply in love with God every minute of every day as leaders, what do we have to offer anyone else? We’re fooling ourselves to think that we can lead people into deep, intimate worship if we never practice it ourselves.
Too busy, you say? Yeah, we all are. But we all make time for the things that are most important to us. We make time for the kids and the spouse and coffee time with friends. We make time for the television and the Internet. We make time for just about everything except personal worship. This is what corporate worship is built on: the mysterious union of our hearts with His. You need to make sure that is happening for you before you get up in front of people.
4. THINK THAT YOURS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MINISTRY IN THE CHURCH.
Unbelievably, a church can function with no music ministry. Many churches in China work fine with no drums, guitars, or PA systems. Underground churches around the world get along with no projected media, no stages, and no worship leader other than the Holy Spirit. You are not indispensable.
When your pride and arrogance outweigh your usefulness, you are in a dangerous place. I have watched incredibly talented men and women slide into the fallacy of thinking that they were what made the church go ’round. Most of these people are no longer in ministry.
Yes, you are important. It is a glorious thing to help people come to a greater experience of God’s presence. But keep things in perspective. You serve the congregation.
Sometimes we think that the stage and the building are the church, and that is what needs to be supported. But this is backward. The people are the church. They need to be loved, supported, prayed for, blessed, anointed, set apart, encouraged, taught, and released to their ministries in the marketplace. Music is one small part of making this happen.
5. BECOME JEALOUS OF ANYONE WHO IS MORE TALENTED THAN YOU ARE.
Sometimes I’ve wondered if God gypped me. To be honest, sometimes I feel like I received a half talent while others got a whole one. I’ve been moderately successful, in my eyes, but why couldn’t I be as talented as, say, Michael W. Smith? That guy rocks! His songs are stellar, his voice incredible, and he’s made a million or so off his craft. He has blessed Christians all over the world, and he has had a large platform from which to declare truth. I want that. I have tried a few times to make my hair look like his, but he’s got professional stylists, I’m sure, and mine looks like it got caught in the blender.
How do I deal with the jealousy that rises up in me? I celebrate him instead of comparing myself to him. This is the secret to avoiding jealousy.
Celebrate those who are more talented than you are. Make room for their talents and give them the platform to stretch out and bless everyone. I have been on the wrong end of jealousy a few times, even though I’m not as handsome as Michael. A music minister became jealous of me in my younger years. He stopped letting me sing any solos in the church and refused to make any room for me. It really hurt. I had a sincere and tender heart that he stomped through his actions toward me.
Jealousy is a demon. Avoid it at all costs. Rejoice in the talents of others.
6. STOP GROWING IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS AND ALLOW SIN INTO YOUR LIFE.
When we stop growing in a personal, vital relationship with Christ, we open the door to the devil. God created us to be in spiritual relationship, and we will do that either with Him or with His enemy. Seventy percent of all men (including Christians) are addicted or involved with Internet pornography. This epidemic is sweeping through the church and the world. Even one moment spent viewing these sites is a crack in the door to the devil. We must have discipline. We must be accountable. We must be brave to face the darkness in us with the light of Christ and declare Him Lord of all.
There are many subtle sins, like control or manipulation. Pornography may seem like the big one these days, but it is no worse in God’s eyes than less obvious sins. Neglecting prayer may be the most pervasive sin. Most of us doubt some portion of the Scripture. We don’t really know what we believe. Even a freshman philosophy student could talk us out of what we cling to as truth.
We can continue to minister outwardly even while sin is present in our lives. Our hearts can be a million miles away from God while we are singing our hearts out in the sanctuary. I know because I have done it many times.
When my church split a few years ago, I went from a wonderful sanctuary one week to a convention center the next. I was mad at God and everybody. I had moved my family to another state to take this job and then the church split. Some Sundays I led worship knowing the Holy Spirit wasn’t within ten feet of me because of my horrible attitude. In spite of me, God still blessed the people. But I missed the connection and communion with Him.
7. BECOME BITTER AND RESENTFUL BECAUSE NO ONE TREATS YOU AS YOU DESERVE.
Bitterness causes more worship leaders (and people in general) to leave churches than any other reason. They become bitter or resentful because something negative happened to them and they cannot get over it. Staffers and people in the congregation may resent the pastor because he or she was insensitive to their needs in some way. Most of these people never bother to talk things through with the pastor when their feathers get ruffled. Instead, they ditch the place.
It is a natural tendency for humans to protect themselves. But the church is a unique organism that God has created to reflect Himself. That means we should be flowing in an amazing amount of love, His love, for one another. We should do what J.B. Phillips said in his translation of Colossians 3:14 (Letters to Young Churches, 1947, p. 129): “And put on love, which is the golden chain of all the virtues.” How often do we do that?
Let me tell you something that may startle you: you will never be treated as you deserve to be. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you’re already being spared what you deserve: an eternity in the fiery pit of hell. Instead, you are receiving the ecstasy of being with Him forever. Everything else is gravy.
When you walk around on this planet believing that people should treat you better than they do, you have put yourself in a place of pride and pretentiousness that causes nothing but discord. When you start thinking that your pastor isn’t treating you as you deserve, check your pride. Is he really treating you badly, or is your puffed-up imagination affecting your perception? And how are you treating him and others around you? Are you celebrating their gifts and talents the way you want yours to be recognized? You reap what you sow (Galatians 5). And pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16), because pride is the fall.
Here are the qualities I believe are essential for the effective worship leader:
Of course, the only one who has all these qualifications is Jesus. He is the only perfect worship leader who has ever lived, and He still lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25 NKJV). Jesus Christ is our worship leader. He stands in the heavenly Holy of Holies, representing us to the Father, presenting our worship in Himself to God.
We could never perfectly love or worship God. What we cannot do for ourselves, He has done and continues to do for us. Jesus is our model worship leader, intercessor, and worshiper. All that we do is in emulation of Him as He stands in our place with Father God.
As we grow spiritually through the disciplines of our faith, we advance in the integration of His traits in our lives. We will never accomplish these tasks perfectly, but we can continue to improve in them under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
This short excerpt is from John Chisum’s practical e-book, Five Keys to Engaging Worship, which is also available in paperback at Amazon.com along with John's most recent e-book, Seven Proven Strategies to Write Better Songs. Check out www.nashvillechristiansongwriters.com for more information and special offers.
Click here for other John Chisum articles available at DiscoverWorship.com.