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To Find a Worship Leader
The essential traits of that most difficult role.
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A friend is on a search committee seeking a full-time worship leader. So far they have sifted through more than 100 names. Picky? Yeah, but the committee has to satisfy five culturally defined generations that now populate most churches. Each has its own taste in worship, and each thinks the other four are a bit off-the-wall. So the search is difficult. How we got hereFifty years ago they would have sought an arm-waving song leader who fired up people to sing three gospel songs, led in prayer, sang a solo, and turned things over in a timely manner to the preacher. Sound systems didn't exist then; neither did light bars, words on screens, or drums (in church anyway). Under those conditions, "Blessed Assurance" never sounded better! About forty years ago, song leaders morphed into choir directors, who were paid (this ticked off some folk) to recruit a choir and present anthems. Most people came to like this and didn't notice that we amateur worshipers in the pew were singing less now. Thirty years ago (give or take) full-time ministers of music appeared. They championed age-graded music programs: multiple choirs, cantatas, concerts, and complex musical extravaganzas with orchestras (and live animals at Christmas even). Most of us thought this development was quite classy. But in truth we pew-people were worshiping less and being entertained more. Clapping (to do or not to do) became a serious issue for elder boards. The professional Christian musician debuted, and a star system was born. Over the past twenty years, we saw the advent of the worship leader and the worship team. Each team member was armed with a long-cord microphone (uniformly held). The team was usually young, sincere, enthusiastic, often quite talented. Organs were replaced by electronic keyboards, drums, and bass guitar; and we all learned to clap (on 2 and 4, I think). Hymn books were discarded, and churches mounted video projectors and displayed PowerPoint. Sound speakers grew bigger than your garage; programmable lighting stirred the senses; artificial smoke simulated Gethsemane. We worshiped. But, sometimes, we sacrificed the experience of worship to the … well, the experience itself. The good and the badMy opinion: for many young people choosing a church, worship leaders have become a more important factor than preachers. Mediocre preaching may be tolerated, but an inept worship leader can sink things fast. Worship leaders now do more to define a church's culture than anyone else on the staff. This is my opinion, not my wish. The good things about worship leaders: they arouse our feelings and our desire to be joyful; they offer less performance-based music (exit ministers of music) and more congregational singing (enter leaders of worshipers); they realize that people need to spend more time loving God through personal and corporate expression. A good worship leader is a precious gift. |             | |||||||||||||||||
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