Leadership

8 October: Liturgy + Set List

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  • GRACE ALONE

    Call to Worship: Psalm 8

    Worship does not begin and end. Everyone, everywhere is a worshiper. One of the things we do as we gather with the people of God is re-aim our worship toward the One who has set His glory in the heavens and moved toward us in and through the person and work of Christ. Let’s sing to him together.

  • LAMB OF GOD

  • ONLY A HOLY GOD

    Sermon: Mark 10:32-52

    The Apostles’ Creed

    Baptism Affirmations

    Baptisms

  • NO BODY

    Benediction

1 October: Liturgy + Set List

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  • REJOICE

    Call to Worship: Psalm 16:7-11

    If you are here this morning as a follower of Christ, the fullness of joy and eternal pleasures are not just a future promise but a present reality in and through Christ. And so we are here to once again set the Lord ever before our eyes. We’re going to introduce a new song this morning that gives us a clearer picture of who Jesus is and what He has done…

  • NO BODY

  • HYMN OF HEAVEN

    Sermon: Mark 10:17-31

    We started our morning with a call from the last verse of Psalm 16, I want you to hear the first verse of Psalm 16 as well:

  • Psalm 16:1-6

    If you are here as a follower of Christ, whether your life feels abundant or constricted - the boundary lines have fallen for your in pleasant places, and you have a beautiful inheritance - not an inheritance of earthly riches, but the inheritance of Jesus. Jesus is your inheritance. Let’s sing to him and about him…

  • GOODNESS OF GOD

  • BE THOU MY VISION

    Benediction

Don't Jump Off A Bridge

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“If everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you do it too?”

Maybe that was something you heard growing up. The truth is, we are just as susceptible to peer pressure as adults as we were as children. And even as worship leaders, we can feel pressure to participate because it is what everyone else is doing. Song choice, style, format, aesthetic, technology - just because ‘everyone’ is doing it doesn’t mean you have to.

So much of what we do is gray, and requires a knowledge of our people, our culture, and our the communities in which we serve. As worship leaders our decisions about what, why, when, and how should be measured over and against the mission, vision, and values of our church and a philosophy of ministry.

I am incredibly grateful for the way technology, and the internet gives us access to songs, churches, worship leaders, training, and artist we would otherwise not know. But one of the downsides to this reality is that we can only see the outworking of another group’s philosophy of ministry. When we simply adopt the songs, style, or aesthetic of another church, group, or worship leader, our services can easily become cheap, karaoke versions of something that was originally crafted with intention. We want the look, feel, style, and response we see on those beautifully lit, and mixed YouTube videos, when our unique contexts look nothing like what we see online.

I am not saying, ‘Don’t use those songs…,’ I use those songs! But do not let what you see, or what others are doing be the single most significant determining factor in the decisions you make as a worship leader. Do the hard work of understanding your people (the congregation), and your team (the skills, gifts, and weaknesses), and allow the mission of your church, and your philosophy of worship to shape the decisions that you make.

Singing Theologians

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I define worship as the right response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself. That is a definition that I have Frankensteined from some of the most helpful definitions I have heard over the years.

In Romans 12, Paul tells that all of life is a spiritual act of worship lived in response to the mercies of God. This means that right worship does not begin with us, it begins with God. God reveals Himself to us, and we must respond.

God created us worshipping, but sin broke that perfect response of worship. Sin did not stop our worship, it distorted, and warped our worship - making us worship everything and everyone besides God (This is a concept I learned from Harold Best in his book, Unceasing Worship). But right worship is living our whole lives in worshipful response to God.

In Romans 3, Paul tells us that no one seeks God. Again we see that right worship is only our response to God’s revelation of Himself. So if we are merely responding, how does God reveal himself to us? There are many ways, here are five:

Through Jesus. We see the glory of God in the face of the Son. 2 Corinthians 4:6

Through His Spirit. The Spirit leads us into all truth. John 16:13

Through His Word. All scripture is breathed out by God. 2 Timothy 3:16

Through His Church. We are His ambassadors on earth. 2 Corinthians 5:20

Through His Creation. The heavens declare the glory of God. Everyone is without excuse. Psalm 19:1, Romans 1:20

Why does any of this matter? Why should it be important for worship leaders to be people who deeply know, believe, treasure, and study the person and work of God? Because every one of us is a worshiper, and every one of us is a theologian. Professor Gordon D. Fee says,

“Show me a church’s songs and I’ll show you their theology.”

As worship leaders we do not lead songs, we lead people. We are in fact singing theologians.

Leading: Yourself, The Team, The Congregation

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Search ‘leadership’ on Google - almost three billion hits.

On Amazon? Over 60,000 titles.

Leadership is complex, multi-faceted, and nothing that I will seek to maneuver in great depth in a 500-word blog post. We can learn from experts and books, but the first movement of leadership is internal - we are called to lead ourselves first. And if we are not seeking to lead our serves well, we have no hope of leading God’s people in corporate sung worship as we gather. Because leading worship moves in concentric circles from leading yourself, to leading the team, finally, to leading the congregation.

Lead yourself first.

As a follower of Christ, you lead yourself by being led by the Holy Spirit. Are you dependent on His leading as you live, move, and have your being? Are you being led in your preparation for the gathering as you turn your mind’s attention on the beauty of Christ? Are you feasting on the Word of God? Are you investing in the Body of Christ throughout the week? Do you make time to enjoy God’s creation? Are you allowing the good gifts to lead you back to the Giver of every good and perfect gift in gratitude, wonder, and worship? We must fill our minds, hearts, and lives with the beauty and worth of Christ, so as we gather the team, and gather the congregation, what spills from us is a continuation of a life of worship already in progress.

Lead the team second.

Most people understand that worship leaders need to have some ability to lead a team musically and practically - through a rehearsal, through a service. Sadly, I think many of us stop short: leading the team practically, but not spiritually. You cannot love Jesus for your team, but are you living the kind of life that your presence makes them want to know and love Jesus more? Are you shepherding their hearts, not just their skills to delight and respond to Christ? Are you equipping them in their theological understanding of Christ, and encouraging them to worship throughout the week? Are you articulating the vision, this beautiful, sacred responsibility to lead God’s people in sung corporate worship? When we become more concerned about what people are bringing to the team, then who they are becoming as followers of Jesus, our priorities are misaligned in leading our team.

Lead the congregation third.

The natural overflow of leading yourself in worship will be leading your team in worship, when you lead your team in worship, the natural overflow will be leading the congregation in worship. Is the team going first when it comes to treasuring Christ? Are you connecting the worship gathering to all of life? Is God’s glory on display or your musical abilities? Are you connecting the songs to the sermon? Does the congregation walk away from the corporate gathering enamored by the music, or beholding Christ in sung worship?

You will be a better leader to your congregation, and your team when you are first led. Led by the Holy Spirit in a life of personal worship and devotion. When you are leading yourself, you are better able to lead your team, pointing them to the Giver rather than their gifts. When you lead your team, you are better able to lead the congregation, pointing them to behold the beauty of Christ, rather than all of the noise of the world.

Identifying and Developing New Leaders

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I had been leading worship all of three months when my youth pastor said, ‘Your goal as a leader is to work yourself out of a job.’ Discipleship, that is the goal. As a worship leader we make disciples of those we lead in corporate sung worship, but we also make disciples of our team, and those who carry culture, responsibility, and leadership as a part of the worship team. Whether your team is made up of two, or two hundred, whether you have been leading worship for three months or thirty years, as followers of Christ we are called to make disciples (Matt 28:19).

So what does it look like to make disciples, to raise up leaders, to pass on authority, and responsibility to those under our care? I believe the first step is identifying who you already have in your team. Who are the people who are unintentionally shaping the culture of your team? Who are the people on your team who are naturally servant-hearted, who are showing up early, staying late, arriving prepared, who are teachable, and passionate about Jesus, His Church, and leading His people in worship of Him? Sometimes those individuals will raise their hand in interest of taking on greater leadership roles within the Church. Sometimes you will have to observe, learn, and invite people to step into greater responsibility. Either way, this requires discernment and wisdom. I have often found that these people are not necessarily the ones that the world would peg as the obvious choice for a leadership role. These are often people who are quiet, consensus builders, who are as happy to serve in the background. When you see consistent characteristics in an individual that you would hope to be true of the entire team, these need to be individuals who you cultivate to take on greater responsibility. Call forth these characteristics, heart, and gifting, and invite those people to do what comes naturally to them, intentionally for the service of the team.

Training is ongoing for all of us. But if you are seeking to develop and train a new worship leader, whether someone has never functioned in that role, or is new to your church and team, we must be clear and intentional about explaining the why behind the what. How do you run rehearsals? How do you build teams and set lists? How do you communicate with the pastor through the week? How do you run rehearsals, set up sound, and lyrics? All of those things are important to communicate to a new leader, but just explaining what you do makes them competent to lead worship in your specific environment and culture, but does not train, develop, and equip them to know what motivates the reasons behind your specific context. What is worship? Why do you pick these specific songs, in this particular order for the Sunday gathering? Why do you not use certain songs? Why is it important to plan your liturgies in line with a sermon/series? Why do you work to build relationships with the worship team? Communicate the what, and you will train people for a specific context, communicate the why and equip them to be a leader in any context.

Once you have identified your leader/s, and have found a rhythm of investment, communicating the why, what does it look like to equip them to lead worship as a part of your team, and church? The rhythm I have seen, experienced, and led before that I have found to be the most helpful: new leader watches me (preparation, rehearsal, leading), new leader serves on the platform with me (I am still leading all of the songs), new leader serve on the platform with me, but now they lead a song or two in the service, new leader leads worship (I am on the platform but not vocally leading any songs), new leader leads on their own, I watch. This is not a quick process, but it gives time for a new leader to feel comfortable in the role, as well as the team and the congregation to feel familiar with their presence on the platform.

Be on the lookout for leaders. They are everywhere, but often the best ones need to be called forth to be trained and equipped.

Recovering From Chaos

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Sound, lighting, volunteers, set-up, rehearsal, technology, relationships are just a few of the elements that go into a weekly gathering. Any one of those things going sideways seems to quickly send the whole of a morning careening into chaos. What do you do when you have that feeling where time is speeding up, and any or all of those elements begin to spin faster and faster?

Assess the situation. Is there something that can be fixed right now? A sound issue, or a conversation with a band member that can be addressed and corrected now? Or is this something that needs to be dealt with later?

Make a decision and communicate. If you are the person responsible for running a rehearsal, leading worship, or executing the production of the morning, the team will be looking to you to decide and direct them about a response. Do you want to pause for five minutes to see if things can be resolved? Do you want to cut a song, or just go acoustic? Do you need to delegate responsibility for another team member, volunteer, or staff member to try and take ownership and try to troubleshoot any potential problem? Like showing your work in math class, communicating your decision making will help build and grow trust among your team.

Watch the clock. How much time do you have left in rehearsal, how much time before service? You have to be aware of the time, and the morale of the team. Don’t allow issues to derail the momentum of the team.

Remain calm. As leaders, we carry and influence culture among our team. The faster things begin to spin, the slower we must move. The more chaotic things seem the more deeply we must be a person of peace. We need to be self-aware enough to recognize how our presence influences the temperature in the room, and when we are increasing or decreasing it for those we serve alongside.

Pray. Pray in your heart, but also stop and pray aloud with and for the team. Let prayer be the stake in the ground, recounting your heart and mind, that regardless of circumstance, you desire the attention and affection of your heart and mind to be on Christ. Pray for things to be resolved quickly. Pray that God would remove distractions for His people to see and respond to Him clearly.

If the wheels come off before or during the service, we can still rest, because Christ perfects our broken offering. And God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. Yes, we want to serve God and His people with excellence, but the pressure is off of us to be the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of people. God doesn’t need us to accomplish His purpose and plan, and yet in His kindness, He chooses to use us. And maybe this weekend He has seen fit to use us in spite of the chaos in us and around us. Praise the Lord!

Well Done

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New beginnings are often accompanied by anticipation, excitement, and anxiety. We welcome 2021 from a different place than we did in 2020. Looking back a year ago, no one could have imagined what the new year would hold. Many of our most earnest plans, our prayed over desires, spirit-led goals, and personal resolutions had to be adjusted, or completely abandoned. Maybe 2021 finds you unsure of how to lead and cast vision for the team you serve. What I hope and pray for you, and for me, is that we are people who live what we have known to be true all along:

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,

    but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” - Proverbs 19:21

‘Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”’ - James 4:13-15

Set goals, make plans, or dream of what could be, but live surrendered to the Lord. Open-handed, and attentive to what He wants to do in you and through you. Because our value and worth are not measured by what we accomplish, but by the ‘well done,’ already spoken to us in Christ. As Keith Green reminds us:

'The only music ministers to whom the Lord will say, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant,' are the ones whose lives prove what their lyrics are saying and the ones to whom music is the least important part of their life. Glorifying the only worthy One should be most important!'

Walk with God in this new year, wherever He may lead.

Preparing For Sunday

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Sunday happens every week whether we are ready or not. Even if you are blessed to be able to devote your vocation to leading worship, there are many details, big and small, that factor into leading and serving well each weekend.

And for those leading as volunteers, serving on a rotation, or working bi-vocationally on staff, finding regular rhythms of preparation are essential. Regular rhythms will keep you from feeling scattered or forgetting necessary details, and serve your team well as you seek to lead God’s people together.

Here are four rhythms to consider:

PREPARING YOUR HEART

How has reading and meditating on Scripture this week prepared you to lead and serve? Are you communing with the One to whom you desire to point through your songs and service this weekend? We cannot lead people where we have not been. Spending time playing, singing, praying through the songs can provide some space not just for musical preparation but heart preparation as well.

PREPARING THE MUSIC

This is an obvious need, but should not be the singular focus or final extent of our preparation. Planning a liturgy, choosing songs, song structure, choosing keys, and considering musical accompaniment all contribute to leading and serving well in our preparation and during the service.

PREPARING THE TEAM

In a similar sense there are both practical and spiritual details to consider when preparing the team. Scheduling and communicating with musicians, providing music, lyrics and recordings, all enable musicians to prepare themselves musically. As leaders we also have a responsibility to disciple our team in nuanced ways - like song choice, the flow of the service, and the sermon series. But also in more traditional ways - like knowing your team outside of a shared common task of serving, praying for them, encouraging them, challenging and equipping them, and walking together.

PREPARING FOR REHEARSAL

I will spend more time on this specific aspect of preparation next week. For good or for ill, often the rehearsal can set the tone for the morning with the team. Making sure sound and lyrics are ready for the service, and you have a plan for your time with the team will go along way in shaping the culture of the rehearsal and the team.

To avoid any details slipping through the cracks, I created a checklist that I use when I am leading worship. You can download my checklist for free, here.

Creating A Song Inventory

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In 2020, we have access to songs of a higher caliber than ever before. It can be easy to feel like you are behind if you are not introducing the latest and greatest song choice at the same rate as other churches and worship leaders. But in a world where we have almost instantaneous access to new music, we have a responsibility to be wise and discerning in the songs we choose for our congregations.

One of the most helpful ways to consider choosing songs - whether to introduce to the congregation or in creating setlists is to think about serving a meal. You are looking for both balance and variety, things that sustain us, and things to savor. Our songs contribute to the spiritual diet of the people we lead and serve.

Finding balance in your songs begins with having an understanding of the entire ‘menu.’ To begin the process of taking a song inventory, you need a Master Song List - all of the songs that are in regular rotation within your congregation. Not only song titles but the lyrics as well.

Second, you need to read through the lyrics of your songs making notes about the themes. I have found using a larger framework - like the Gospel Song Liturgy - to be a helpful tool in navigating, naming, and categorizing those themes, rather than just listing all of the potential themes - this keeps it to a few small, clearly defined categories. For the Gospel Song Liturgy, those themes are Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration, Glorification. If you don’t use the Gospel Song Liturgy, you could use categories like God, Man, Response, or Sin, Love, Faithfulness, Surrender, Brokenness, Glory.

Third, organize songs by category and observe. I like to include these categories on my chord charts, or in the Planning Center descriptions, to be searchable and easily accessible as I am planning my setlists. Some questions to ask as you have created categories: Where are the holes? Where are the diet imbalances? What categories resonate with you personally? What categories resonate consistently with your congregation? What do we need to sing about more?

Finally, use your song inventory to help you weigh new song introductions, and creating setlists. Song choice is an important part of leading worship, and leading worship is about discipleship, so we do not want to create lopsided disciples in the way we choose songs to introduce or to lead. Keeping a song inventory helps our choices not to be dictated by the whims of the latest and greatest songs, and helps us to keep a larger perspective on the work of song choice in our leadership.

Benefits of Co-Leading

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Christians are called to make disciples. I think many worship leaders understand that part of leading worship is disciple making: training the team, and the congregation to see and respond in song to who God is and what He has done. Sadly, one area of disciple-making often overlooked is identifying, training and developing more worship leaders. Of course there many factors which contribute - a seeming lack of people willing and able to serve, a current worship leader managing just enough to serve weekly (much less training others), a fear that the quality or caliber of the music/leadership will decrease as a new leaders learn and grow, and sometimes it is just selfishness on the part of a leader unwilling share ‘their’ platform. Whatever the reason, I hope to give you a vision and a desire for the benefits of co-leading in this post.

I define co-leading as collaboration in planning, and shared responsibility for leading (the rehearsal, the team, the congregation, and the liturgy) during the service.

First and foremost, co-leading is another opportunity for disciple-making. Discipling our own hearts. In co-leading we are reminded that we have no right or entitlement to position or role, and that Christ’s Church and this ministry do not hinge on our presence or service.

We make disciples of the team and congregation when we co-lead. Our teams learn that we honor and value the heart, skill and leadership of others when we make space for leaders to serve. Our congregation learns to trust new leaders, and appreciate different perspectives and styles.

And finally, we make disciples of those we lead alongside. Co-leading is a safe space to train, develop and encourage new leaders in real time. When you co-lead it can provide a sense of familiarity, and stability as new leaders learn how to lead and serve.

Of course there are practical benefits to co-leading as well: someone who can step in and serve if you are sick or traveling, providing opportunities for men and women to lead together, training and developing others for church-plants and other ministry opportunities, and cultivating and stewarding the gifts and talents God has entrusted to our local congregation.

How have you seen discipleship and development of worship leaders done well in your context?

In a future post, I will spend time on learning to identify, train and develop new worship leaders.