still learning.
Once in a while you are walking along, thinking to yourself how everything is so well "together" and then the inevitable happens…the Lord speaks to you through someone you haven’t even met and all of a sudden out of nowhere… [boom!] …they blow your cover wide open.
I was walking along, perfectly happy with my walk with Christ and the way our worship was progressing at Twelve Oaks. Then, I go and read this article by Perry Noble… and Goodbye complacency. I have some work to do. Allow me to summarize it for you…
Qualities of a Great Worship Leader
1. A great worship leader is a Deflector. A worship leader that refuses to touch God’s glory, but instead deflects all praise and honor right back to God.
2. A great worship leader is Intimately Connected With God. What do people remember most about me at church? Is it how great the strumming pattern sounded on that second chorus of "Men of Faith"? Or is it how in love with the Lord I am?
3. A great worship leader Knows And Understands The World He Lives In. Be willing and able to connect with the culture in which we live, and maintain a proper balance of culture with worship.
4. A great worship leader must be Attentive To The Holy Spirit. I have never had a worship set list work out so well as when I truly just began to worship personally before searching through titles. The songs literally just fall into place, and I hardly have to work at "organizing the worship" because it’s a natural outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Also, we have to be in tune with what the pastor is preaching about, and coordinate the two parts well so we can successfully utilize both "wings of the bird."
5. A great worship leader must have a Great Relationship With The Senior Pastor. I can’t imagine leading worship where I didn’t have respect for the pastor that was speaking, but I can tell you that it would be a nightmare. Any tension between these two guys is immediately visible to everyone, because they are the two most visible people in the church.
6. A great worship leader will Seek Talent. Develope other leaders! You aren’t the first worship leader, and you won’t be the last. Pass on what the Lord has taught you to others in the church, and be blessed by how the Lord uses you beyond what you can accomplish alone.
I am a work in progress. I’ll be the first to admit that… thank the Lord for mercy and patience. If I was God, I would’ve fulfilled the Far Side cartoon, where God is depicted sitting at a control booth in front of a monitor, watching a piano plummet towards an unsuspecting passer-by. All the while God’s finger is moments away from pressing the "SMITE" button and ending his miserable existence. But as of this moment, I am yet-to-be-smited…because God is far more patient than I am.
Categorized as Worship