How to Become a Better Worship Leader

By Kim Linton, eHow Editor

Leading Worship

Worship leaders have an awesome responsibility to lead others into the presence of God. Some believe the only requirement for being a good worship leader is to be a good musician or singer. Unfortunately, being a good musician is only the beginning. Understanding the nature of worship and our role in it is crucial if we want to become effective leaders. Here are a few tips that will help you become not only a better worship leader, but also a better Christian.

Step1

Spend time with God. This is the single most important thing you can do to become a better worship leader. It’s only when we spend time in God’s presence that we learn who He is and what pleases Him. You will never be able to lead others in worship if you don’t spend time with God.

Step2

Listen to God. Ask God what He wants, not only for each individual service, but also for your worship team as a whole. Allow God to direct you in all things. Spend time in prayer before each service asking God to show you which songs He wants for the service. Always be open to new suggestions from God.

Step3

Study the Bible. It’s crucial that as worship leaders we know what we believe. Worship leaders don’t have the luxury of being lukewarm Christians. If you are not grounded in your faith, your worship will be dry and ineffective.

Step4

Be humble. Because leading worship puts us in a position to be noticed by others, sometimes our egos become a problem. Try to maintain a spirit of humility as a worship leader. Remember, pride always comes before a fall.

Step5

Exercise authority. Although we are to maintain a humble estimation of ourselves, it’s important to exercise the authority God has given you. Take charge. You are the one God has chosen to lead your congregation into His presence.

Step6

Avoid rebellion. You will not always agree with your pastor or those who are in authority over you. Sometimes they may ask you to take the worship service in a different direction from what you believe God wants. That being said, you should always try to submit to those who have rule over you unless God tells you otherwise. In the end, God will bless you for your faithfulness.

Step7

Pray. Spend time in prayer daily for your pastor, your worship team members, your congregation, and mostly for yourself. If you are not spiritually strong, you will not be an effective worship leader. Pray for God to give you the strength to lead people in a way that is pleasing to Him, and ultimately to become a better worship leader.

How to Become a Better Worship Leader | eHow.com

Integrity – An Absolute in Worship

By Brian Doerkson

This time out, I would like to look at the issue of integrity in our worship. If there ever was a time when people are looking for integrity in leaders, it’s now. It’s evident that people are expecting more integrity from political leaders and business leaders. They are expecting trustworthiness in all of life, and are not quite so willing to separate the private from the public. So what does this have to do with worship? In my opinion everything!! Integrity means everything to God and it means everything to us. Integrity simply means ‘wholeness, naturalness, the condition of being undivided, a consistency between private and public life.’

Think about that for a moment. Integrity brings freedom. God wants us to worship Him with integrity from where we live, to be ‘who we are’ and to not change our personas or the way we talk when we come before Him. A religious approach to worship means we have divided lives. One part is where we really live, the other part is our ‘best behaviour’, the part we save for ‘worship times’. Maybe that’s why Jesus said these powerful words to an outcast woman from Samaria.

‘It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God . . . . That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before Him in their worship.’ (John 4 The Message)

It was these words about integrity that inspired some of the words in the song ‘Come, now is the time’.

‘. . . .Come, just as you are to worship

Come, just as you before your God, Come. . . . ‘

God loves our worship when we are ourselves, and when we live our whole lives as lovers of God. And when it’s time to gather together with other believers to worship, we look for leaders with integrity that we can be ‘safe’ with. That’s why I have committed myself to the part of the Body of Christ that I have. I trust those who lead me because I see integrity in their lives. A genuine naturalness is one of the things I loved about John Wimber when I met him in the mid 80’s.

Safety and trustworthiness are two of the key reasons why people love people with integrity. Why does God love integrity in our worship? Actually it’s quite simple. God is truth. God is trustworthy. He is the definition of integrity. And He longs for us to become like Him. He wants our words to match our lives. He knows we were made for integrity. Integrity not only brings freedom but responsibility. When we lose sight of our responsibility, he reminds us. He gave this timeless warning through the prophet Amos.

Amos 5:21-24 “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

The living Bible says it even more pointedly to those of us who express worship through singing and music.

Amos 5:23 Away with your hymns of praise–they are mere noise to my ears. I will not listen to your music, no matter how lovely it is.

We need to face the truth that if we don’t have integrity God hates our worship! There is such protection in this truth. God doesn’t want us to come to Him as we think we should be, but as we are. And if what we are is not pleasing to Him, and not in line with His Word, then we cry out for mercy to change. That’s all He asks of us.

Lance Pittluck, senior pastor of the Anaheim Vineyard, said something very profound recently. ‘Gifting gets you into ministry – character keeps you there’. We can get attention from people through being gifted even in the church. In our culture singers have profound influence because they can make a beautiful sound with their vocals chords. They might be able to stay popular as singers without the character of integrity, but in God’s eyes and ministry, only integrity and the character that comes with it will make it last.

If God hates our worship when we don’t have integrity can you imagine how He feels when we worship Him with integrity? His heart must explode with delight. Every time we show a small kindness, every time we serve the poor, every time we are faithful to our families. And when we gather to sing as an overflow of a life of love, God’s heart must be filled with joy.

And when it comes down to it, the greatest joy in life is to bring joy to the One who made us.

via Vineyard Midwest Worship Leaders – Integrity – An Absolute in Worship.

Five Qualities of an Effective Worship Leader

* By LaMar Boschman

* Published 01/12/2007

Worship is a spiritual activity before it is an artistic one. If the focus of a worship leader is to bring people to an awareness of God, then the Bible is the ruler by which we should measure our effectiveness as worship leaders. Here are the five most important qualities of a worship leader who is effective in the biblical paradigm of worship. Listed in order of importance, they will help any worship minister excel in leading spiritual worship.

1. Knowledge of God

A. W. Tozer said in The Knowledge of the Holy, “The low view of God…with our loss of the sense of majesty has become the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine presence. We have lost our spirit of worship.”

It is imperative that a worship leader have a large view of God. When we lead worship we are leading people to the Lord – to who and what He is. It is a journey upward. A worship leader should know the theology of God and be able to convey in song, prayer and exhortation the attributes of the Divine.

2. A Worshipful Heart

Worship begins in the heart of the believer, not on the platform or a guitar. Only then can it be expressed outwardly. A worship leader should have a lifestyle of worship before God, since worship is private before it is public. It is impossible for us to lead others in worship if we are not ourselves worshipers. If we don’t know God’s presence in our daily lives, we are less effective in finding His presence, much less leading others to it.

3. Intuitiveness

The ability to discern where the Holy Spirit is leading, both prior to and during a worship service, is critical. Without the ability to discern what the Holy Spirit wants at any moment, a worship leader is handicapped. Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and to those we lead is essential.

4. A Pastoral Heart

The worship leader is a priest before God and the people. He must have the concern of those he leads at heart. He does not primarily lead songs but people, people who may be dysfunctional, hurt, discouraged, faithless and lethargic. A performer cannot lead them to the presence of God as well as someone who has a pastoral heart.

It is important to be relational, friendly, caring and concerned about the spiritual welfare and growth of others. One worship leader told me that he makes it a point to invite a family from his congregation to his home for a meal every Sunday. He said it has greatly increased his ability to lead worship. They trust him and will follow him because they know him.

5. Musicality

Notice that we have not come to music until now? Though we come into His presence with singing (Psalms 100:2), we worship in spirit, not music (John 4:23).

Yet music is a powerful tool in expressing our worship. It colors, flavors and gives language to the worship that takes place in the heart. Musical skill helps facilitate the worship expressions of others and minimize distractions.

These qualities will make a worship leader a catalyst for touching the Lord – a valuable resource to any local church family.

LaMar Boschman is an author, founder and President of

www.WorshipInstitute.com. and Dean of the International Worship Institute

via Five Qualities of an Effective Worship Leader.