As worship leaders, we have so much work to do that it’s easy to focus on just getting it done, but that puts the focus on us. My mentor once said that our job in the church is to work ourselves out of a job. Simply put, we are called to raise others up to lead worship to create a team of leaders instead of just singers and players. This has never been more evident than last Sunday, when I was supposed to lead worship all morning and continue straight into our LIFT Benefit Concert, making it a full 12+ hour day. There was a time when pulling that off filled me with a sense of purpose and even joy, but God wants to do something greater at our church. We decided I should step down from worship that day, but instead of our worship pastor leading it herself, the job landed on the remaining team, and they did a great job! There were rough edges with the service flow, but the time in worship was profound, and God’s presence was very clear.
I’ve led worship for several years at Crescenta Valley Church, where we have about 400 attenders, and due to the size and talent of our worship team, I’ve led most of the songs, only having someone lead the occasional song when it was a good fit. Lately though, I’ve sensed God calling me to coach the team into becoming leaders themselves by speaking into the life of an acoustic guitar player who’s clearly a worship leader struggling with his identity, bringing in new singers who are actually worship leaders, and raising them up to do what they were called to do.
It has been such a blessing to see our singers change from simply singing the songs into leading people in worship. There used to be a time when I was the only worship leader, but now God is raising up these new people to bring people closer to Himself. Our worship times are richer for it. I’m leading fewer songs in our worship set, but loving the answered prayer of playing electric after years on the acoustic due to my newfound freedom.
It’s very clear that like John the Baptist, we are called to become less and Jesus to become more. As worship leaders, there is no more evident way of doing this than raising up people in our teams to step into the role of leading worship instead of being just singers or players, allowing and training them to become all that God is calling them to be.
And how did the LIFT Benefit Concert go? It was amazing! We had a full house, over 30 new guests, a fantastic band and five people singing lead in totally secular Top 40 songs by Macklemore, Hunter Hayes and Katy Perry. And I sang one of them.
Good words, Petri. I think it’s vital that we work to duplicate ourselves as worship leaders, as you say. For me that means sitting down with team members one-on-one and finding out where their hearts are at–how do they want to grow as worship leaders? Finding those worship leaders who don’t realize they’re worship leaders (like you mention) is how most new worship leaders are found!
Hi Eric, totally agree! I think there’s a big revelation in leading our team members one-on-one and giving them your undivided attention at times. We all need to lead teams, but unless we lead team members individually, we leave them in a vacuum where they will possibly be stuck for a long time. May we have the wisdom, discernment and energy to put in the time with them so that they can soar!