Something I wrote for the worship team...

Below is what I wrote and sent out to the worship team for this gathering that's coming up. Tom, Tim Hughes, Matt Redman and many others have said these things much more eloquently and simply than I, but perhaps this will be of value to others out there...

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What does it mean to be a worship leader?
Simply put, I'm much less concerned about the music as I am about actually creating a time of worship. With practice, I see us doing pretty well, musically, but I want to make sure we don't fall into the trap of just playing through a song set and assuming people will be able to just take our music and somehow make it into their worship. The lyrics of our songs of worship are beautiful and heartfelt, and yet we, as leaders of worship, have the responsibility of not merely providing these songs, but using them as building blocks to create an environment where people are ushered into God's presence.


->Worship is a community builder. We sing together as one body. By joining the chorus of those around us, we affirm our belonging to the christian community, and the common ground amongst those who gather in the house of God.
->Worship is an affirmation. In our worship, we bring forth the love, the emotion, and the desire that we harbor for God, and declare those as truths. Our truths.
->Worship is a confession. It is a time for us to lay our hearts and hands at the table, and truly open up ourselves for God to come and speak with us, be it in joy or in sorrow, in steadfast love or uncertainty.
->Worship is a heritage. We worship as the christian body has worshipped, throughout
the two thousand years of its history. And we draw from the richness and the
wisdoms of our forefathers as we prepare our own songs of praise.
->Worship is a preparation. The house of the Lord is a place for love to be built. Worship is the welcome mat that allows people to dust themselves off and clean themselves so that they may properly enter...and properly be sent forth.
->Worship is a conversation. Our time to get right with our father, and listen for the encouragements and wisdoms that he has prepared for us.

Those who lead worship are in the best position to enable these things to come to pass. They're in the spotlight specifically so that they can be sheperds, guiding people into worship through their music, and all the lyrical and emotional themes embodied within it, as well as through their actions, their words, their convictions, and the thoughts with which they challenge their flock. The greatest worship leaders I know are the ones who know the hearts of those that they are leading, and are first to articulate those longings so that others may do the same. They lead others by--to use a common phrase--being worshippers themselves, but more than that...they are worshippers with such clarity in the 'how' and 'why' of their own worship that others can understand why they themselves are being called to worship.

As we assemble this team of worship leaders together, this is what I value most. The music, the organization, the song choices...these are secondary. Give me a band that has enough musical knowledge to know when to play loud, when to play soft, and how to navigate between those extremes. (Doing so in proper rhythm and pitch are a plus ^_^). That's the extent of my "talent" requirement. But having worship leaders up there on stage, working together to build that house of worship...that is what I long to see as we go forth and teach one another, so that in a month's time, we have the foundation for that.

And so that in coming years, worship on this campus will carry on these values and our fellowships thusly enriched by the unity that comes when those who worship do so with common purpose.