This is a topic someone brought up via email (thanks, Allyn!). This phenomenon doesn't happen very often, but often enough – having the pastor (preacher) as the worship leader too. It's not very surprising if you stop and think about it, many of the skill sets overlap. Planning for songs or sermons, leading a worship team, ministry team or a congregation, communicating clearly with people on a larger scale than a typical one-on-one conversation – the skills seem to just carry over from one form of ministry to another.
In fact, there are a number of pastors in Singapore who have performing experience, started serving God as worship leaders and eventually became preachers. And when I get online and nose around, this appears in other countries too. People go from leading the worship for a Bible study meeting, to leading the Bible study for the meeting, to preaching. What I personally suspect is that
1) Worshiping Jesus, the Living Word of God, intensifies the hunger to meet him in the Written Word;
2) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10) so as worship leaders worship Jesus more they grow in the wisdom of God. And start to share it.
3) When these worship leaders show themselves faithful in doing a little for a few people, God entrusts them with the responsibility of doing more for more of his people (Luke 12:42-44, 16:10).
There are also cases of people who have been active in the performing arts before they believe in Jesus or receive their assignment to full-time ministry. Singers, songwriters, musicians, magicians, actors and actresses have made the switch before. So they switch their focus from performing for their own glory to performing behind the pulpit, and for the glory of God.
So if you are a worship leader and the preacher at the same time, here's some things to take note of:
1) Create a platform for others to minister.
If you are in a small church or one that is just starting off, you may have to do everything yourself at the beginning. And that's fine. You are probably the sort used to handling everything by yourself anyway. We musicians can be such control freaks, right?
But as you do so, remember that your task as a pastor is to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:12). And that means creating the platform for people to step up and serve. In his book Sticky Church, Larry Osborne says "I learned long ago that no one steps up until there's a vacuum that needs to be filled." You may enjoy leading worship, but in the long run Ephesians 4:12 means that you may have to let go of taking that role all the time and begin sharing it with someone else.
2) People are still going to follow your lead, so…
Even when you let someone else lead the worship, remember that the eyes of the congregation will still be on you. Which means:
I understand if you have a lot of things to manage even up to the moment you step up to the pulpit and start preaching God's Word. Such things happen in small churches. I highly recommend that you hand these things over to a volunteer, or if you can't do that, settle them where the congregation can't see you, where you won't be a distraction to them.
But the litmus test comes when your apprentice does what YOU do. Does it work for them? If not, don't do it. First, your congregation will prefer how you do things (or they would have left your church a long time ago) and if your leader tries the same things and falls flat you have diminished your leader in the eyes of the congregation. Second, even if your leader ever checks out how I lead worship and I have the glory of God coming with enough power to raise the dead, your leader will still prefer to do things your way (even if it doesn't work). So you will hamstring me in my teaching ministry too. (Yeah, it's a selfish reason. At least I am honest!)
Maybe an example will help: There's this pastor in Singapore, (former worship leader, by the way) who likes to sing through the verse and chorus of a song ONCE. Then he exhorts, preaches or prophesies as the choir (yup, it's a large church) oohs and aahs in the background. Then at the right moment he rallies everybody for a rousing final chorus.
Now that works for him because, in the natural realm he has loads of charisma to spare AND an intuitive grasp of the music (exhort for 16 bars before it's time for the chorus again), and in the spiritual realm he has a strong prophetic gifting. That means that when he talks, things happen, the people are strengthened, encouraged and comforted (1 Cor 14:3). So it's all fine and dandy for him.
Problem comes when a musician comes along, sees what that pastor does and decides to do the same thing. All he has in common with that pastor is the ability to count out 16 bars before going into the chorus again. Charisma and prophetic ability? Nah. And this musician takes things a step further than the pastor. The pastor does it for ONE song and it works, so he tries exactly the same thing, but for FOUR or FIVE songs in a row. Exactly the same structure and template, everything.
Do I even need to tell you what happens next?
3) Performance experience helps you speak powerfully into a performer's life.
Even though worship music and performance music are two different genres of music, usually it's the performers who will have the guts to take up the challenge of the worship ministry. That makes sense, since they already have dealt with the stage fright issue to a large degree.
And if they step up and begin serving God along with you, the proximity and close contact with you will give you a powerful and precious opportunity to mentor these people and sow into their lives directly. Make full use of that opportunity!
Moreover, if you have performing experience, it lends more weight to your words when you speak into a performer's life. In case you don't know, skilled musicians and performers usually have up-sized egos. And they usually don't have a lot of patience for non-musicians or non-performers telling them what to do. Either that or they will dismiss it with "what do they know about life as a musician anyway?"
But if you have performing experience, things become different. When you talk to them about being a light for Christ even as they sing and play in pubs, and you can look them in the eye and say "You can do it. I did it, and the same Jesus who lives in me lives in you!" they will be moved. They will start to think that there is hope for them to grow likewise in serving Christ. Your experience allows you to say to them "follow me, as I follow Christ!"
It doesn't sound pleasant, talking about winning the respect of performers this way. But sometimes it just has to be done. Here's my personal experience: when I conduct a workshop for playing piano in worship, one thing I emphasize over and over again is freeing up the sound space for the rest of the band to be heard and for the congregation to sing more freely. And that means playing in a careful, bare-bones fashion.
Now if there is a performance-crazy pianist listening to this, one who spends hours and hours drilling post-modernist avant-garde bebop jazz riffs, shows off those riffs while playing for worship and thinks he's doing all this to the glory of God, what's he gonna think? "Does JJ tell me to leave out the good stuff because HE can't play it?"
So part of my explanation HAS to include a brief demo of overplaying, crazy flamboyant overplaying, to show people that: yes, I CAN do it, but no, I choose NOT to do it, so I serve the congregation better.
And, more importantly, when you do this you are showing this person how to mentor and guide other worship leaders later on. What you do can multiply and be duplicated, as Paul described in 2 Tim 2:2. The best example of this will be John Wimber and Carl Tuttle . Give yourself some time, head over to Carl Tuttle's website and read his sharing on the years John Wimber worked with him. There are many, many powerful lessons to learn from that.
OK, that's about it for this post. Be blessed!
In fact, there are a number of pastors in Singapore who have performing experience, started serving God as worship leaders and eventually became preachers. And when I get online and nose around, this appears in other countries too. People go from leading the worship for a Bible study meeting, to leading the Bible study for the meeting, to preaching. What I personally suspect is that
1) Worshiping Jesus, the Living Word of God, intensifies the hunger to meet him in the Written Word;
2) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10) so as worship leaders worship Jesus more they grow in the wisdom of God. And start to share it.
3) When these worship leaders show themselves faithful in doing a little for a few people, God entrusts them with the responsibility of doing more for more of his people (Luke 12:42-44, 16:10).
There are also cases of people who have been active in the performing arts before they believe in Jesus or receive their assignment to full-time ministry. Singers, songwriters, musicians, magicians, actors and actresses have made the switch before. So they switch their focus from performing for their own glory to performing behind the pulpit, and for the glory of God.
So if you are a worship leader and the preacher at the same time, here's some things to take note of:
1) Create a platform for others to minister.
If you are in a small church or one that is just starting off, you may have to do everything yourself at the beginning. And that's fine. You are probably the sort used to handling everything by yourself anyway. We musicians can be such control freaks, right?
But as you do so, remember that your task as a pastor is to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:12). And that means creating the platform for people to step up and serve. In his book Sticky Church, Larry Osborne says "I learned long ago that no one steps up until there's a vacuum that needs to be filled." You may enjoy leading worship, but in the long run Ephesians 4:12 means that you may have to let go of taking that role all the time and begin sharing it with someone else.
2) People are still going to follow your lead, so…
Even when you let someone else lead the worship, remember that the eyes of the congregation will still be on you. Which means:
- When your apprentice worship leader is leading the worship, raise your hands really high, sing out loud and follow his or her lead. If you don't you are sending the people the message that it is OK for them to not follow the leading of your worship leader. That will hamstring his or her ministry from the get-go. It's bad if the people see you standing there listlessly when someone else leads worship. It's even worse if they see you peering over your sermon notes and scribbling in them, or waving an usher over to you to whisper frantic last minute instructors during the worship.
I understand if you have a lot of things to manage even up to the moment you step up to the pulpit and start preaching God's Word. Such things happen in small churches. I highly recommend that you hand these things over to a volunteer, or if you can't do that, settle them where the congregation can't see you, where you won't be a distraction to them.
- How you lead worship may not be the best way to lead worship, even if it works for you. You may have some mannerisms, tricks or preferences for leading worship. And the congregation sings their hearts out when you lead worship, so you think you're doing fine.
But the litmus test comes when your apprentice does what YOU do. Does it work for them? If not, don't do it. First, your congregation will prefer how you do things (or they would have left your church a long time ago) and if your leader tries the same things and falls flat you have diminished your leader in the eyes of the congregation. Second, even if your leader ever checks out how I lead worship and I have the glory of God coming with enough power to raise the dead, your leader will still prefer to do things your way (even if it doesn't work). So you will hamstring me in my teaching ministry too. (Yeah, it's a selfish reason. At least I am honest!)
Maybe an example will help: There's this pastor in Singapore, (former worship leader, by the way) who likes to sing through the verse and chorus of a song ONCE. Then he exhorts, preaches or prophesies as the choir (yup, it's a large church) oohs and aahs in the background. Then at the right moment he rallies everybody for a rousing final chorus.
Now that works for him because, in the natural realm he has loads of charisma to spare AND an intuitive grasp of the music (exhort for 16 bars before it's time for the chorus again), and in the spiritual realm he has a strong prophetic gifting. That means that when he talks, things happen, the people are strengthened, encouraged and comforted (1 Cor 14:3). So it's all fine and dandy for him.
Problem comes when a musician comes along, sees what that pastor does and decides to do the same thing. All he has in common with that pastor is the ability to count out 16 bars before going into the chorus again. Charisma and prophetic ability? Nah. And this musician takes things a step further than the pastor. The pastor does it for ONE song and it works, so he tries exactly the same thing, but for FOUR or FIVE songs in a row. Exactly the same structure and template, everything.
Do I even need to tell you what happens next?
3) Performance experience helps you speak powerfully into a performer's life.
Even though worship music and performance music are two different genres of music, usually it's the performers who will have the guts to take up the challenge of the worship ministry. That makes sense, since they already have dealt with the stage fright issue to a large degree.
And if they step up and begin serving God along with you, the proximity and close contact with you will give you a powerful and precious opportunity to mentor these people and sow into their lives directly. Make full use of that opportunity!
Moreover, if you have performing experience, it lends more weight to your words when you speak into a performer's life. In case you don't know, skilled musicians and performers usually have up-sized egos. And they usually don't have a lot of patience for non-musicians or non-performers telling them what to do. Either that or they will dismiss it with "what do they know about life as a musician anyway?"
But if you have performing experience, things become different. When you talk to them about being a light for Christ even as they sing and play in pubs, and you can look them in the eye and say "You can do it. I did it, and the same Jesus who lives in me lives in you!" they will be moved. They will start to think that there is hope for them to grow likewise in serving Christ. Your experience allows you to say to them "follow me, as I follow Christ!"
It doesn't sound pleasant, talking about winning the respect of performers this way. But sometimes it just has to be done. Here's my personal experience: when I conduct a workshop for playing piano in worship, one thing I emphasize over and over again is freeing up the sound space for the rest of the band to be heard and for the congregation to sing more freely. And that means playing in a careful, bare-bones fashion.
Now if there is a performance-crazy pianist listening to this, one who spends hours and hours drilling post-modernist avant-garde bebop jazz riffs, shows off those riffs while playing for worship and thinks he's doing all this to the glory of God, what's he gonna think? "Does JJ tell me to leave out the good stuff because HE can't play it?"
So part of my explanation HAS to include a brief demo of overplaying, crazy flamboyant overplaying, to show people that: yes, I CAN do it, but no, I choose NOT to do it, so I serve the congregation better.
And, more importantly, when you do this you are showing this person how to mentor and guide other worship leaders later on. What you do can multiply and be duplicated, as Paul described in 2 Tim 2:2. The best example of this will be John Wimber and Carl Tuttle . Give yourself some time, head over to Carl Tuttle's website and read his sharing on the years John Wimber worked with him. There are many, many powerful lessons to learn from that.
OK, that's about it for this post. Be blessed!
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