HOW DOES ONE LEAD WORSHIP?

The first rule of worship leading is this: a worship leader must himself worship God without reservation. He must give himself to praise and worship, hungering above all things for the manifestation of the presence of the Lord. There have been times I thought my heart would pound its way out of my chest as the awe of His majesty broke upon me. With rule number one in mind, this is the step-by-step procedure I recommend. The worship leader must do these things: Prepare his heart to approach the Lord with the people of God. Prepare the leadership for positive change. Prepare the people for a systematic way of approaching God. Prepare a sequence of songs that will take us on that journey and communicate the plan to all the singers, instrumentalists, and technicians who must know where we are going and the musical route chosen. Execute the plan as he is led of the Spirit and as he praises and worships God with all his might, whether the people follow him or not.

The Worship Leader must worship God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength

Please be clear that these are not "rules". All Spirit-filled Praise and Worship has to be Spirit-led and rules prevent the Spirit from blowing where He wills. But there are certain good practices that will enable the Spirit to blow effectively, and the accompanying reasons provided for these "good practices" will help us understand why. 

Prepare the heart.

In preparing the heart to lead worship, a vision for worship is essential. My prayer is that by now your vision for worship has expanded beyond a "song service." We must have a vision of His majesty. The critical phrase from Psalm 29 is "the glory due unto His name." This is the biblical standard given to the worship leader. Until a leader has the vision of the majesty and glory of the Lord Jesus, he cannot be an effective worship leader. Throughout the Bible a transforming vision of God is the turning point in the lives of the leaders of God's people from Abraham to Moses to David to Isaiah to Peter, James, John and to Paul. One of the greatest evidences of the resurrectionof Jesus is the refusal of the witnesses who saw Him after His death to retreat from their vision of a risen Lord. A vision of Jesus our Sovereign is the goal of every praise and worship time.

Prepare the leaders.

The Lord must awaken a hunger and thirst for this vision of Jesus the King within the pastor, the board, the worship leader, the music department and the people. The pastor is the key personality. The church cannot go deeper into the presence of the Lord than the pastor will go. If he watches his watch during the praise and worship time, or talks to the person next to him, or studies his notes or is merely passive while the people are offering their sacrifices of praise, the church will never surmount the pastor's personal obstruction.

To illustrate: a worship leader moved to a new church, one that was more involved in praise and worship than his previous church. At his former church, the revelation of God came through preaching not worship; worship was seen as an altar-time experience. The first time this man led worship in his new church he was amazed that so many of the people were worshiping God with all their might. After a few minutes the worship leader's old instincts told him it was time to stop before this thing got out of hand. He stole a glance at the pastor to see if he was checking his watch. What he saw explained everything. The pastor had no thought of the time. His hands were spread out toward heaven and his head was thrown back with his eyes closed. A broad smile graced lips lost in the praise of His Redeemer.

The worship leader then knew why the church was worshiping--the pastor was worshiping! And so it will always be. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all pastors and guest speakers worshiped with all their might like King David. However some do not even come into the service until after the corporate praise and worship time, sending the message that it is really not that important, only a warm-up for the main event. Such non-verbal messages are hindrances to the revelation of Jesus through corporate worship.

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