Necessities for the Worship Leader: The Word (part 1)

This is the first topic of a series I'd like to do on different necessities for the worship leader. I've been involved in the worship ministry for several years and have been leading worship in our church for nearly 4 years. That said, the more I serve in this wonderful ministry, the more I see how much I really need to grow. There are many priceless lessons I've learned from other wonderful leaders. I've also learned through personal experiences, be it through successes or learning from mistakes. I'm at a point in my own ministry where I'm branching out into new aspects of it that I've never done before. More members are being added to the team, and I'm primarily learning many practical things at the moment - how to conduct a team and arrange songs, how to direct someone without particularly knowing how to play the instrument they are on, and how to wisely and effectively use the very short amount of time that we have each week to practice.

For anyone who might read this and is interested in listening to a 3-part series on worship that we went through in our church, please click here (teachings are only in Russian. Sorry everyone who doesn't speak Russian :)

I would like to start this series out with the Word – our utter need for the Scriptures. There are many important aspects of the Scriptures concerning worship. In fact, without the Word of God being the foundation for this ministry and our role as worship leader, the house that we will try to build will crumble.

This post will be the first of a 2-part topic concerning general applications of the Word to our ministry. The first area (and what we'll be looking at in this post) is personal application in the worship ministry. The second part in the next post will be the application of Scripture to corporate worship.

What is the goal of corporate worship?
The very first question we worship leaders should ask ourselves is "what is worship about? What is the goal of this ministry?"

Worship is about seeing Jesus - who He is, what He has done (justification), what He is doing (sanctification in the believer and mission to the lost) and what He is yet to do (our hope in His coming kingdom). Worship is not only seeing Jesus, but enjoying Jesus. Rejoicing in the truth of what His word says about Him. Lifting Him up for His victory that He has freely imputed to us. Humbling ourselves in submission before Him in His lordship. Coming to Him before His throne just to be with Him in His presence, cast our cares upon Him and receive refreshment from Him based upon His promises to us by His grace.

If the ultimate goal of corporate worship is to see Jesus, enjoy Jesus and magnify Jesus, what is the one thing without which we cannot do this? His Word. How can we see Jesus aside from what His word shows us about Him? How can we enjoy Jesus without experiencing all that is the Good News of Christ, which is revealed primarily and ultimately through His Word? How can we magnify Jesus without knowing, through His Word, for what He is to be magnified?

Seeing ourselves first and foremost as Christians, sons and daughters of God, we must recognize and give ourselves over to the vast importance of the Scriptures for our personal lives. His Word is the source of truth and life. Worship leaders, are we daily seeking Christ through His Word? Are we seeking to see, enjoy and magnify Christ based upon what He has spoken to us through His scriptures about Himself? Are we meditating on the Gospel and allowing Christ to mold us more into His image? Without this, we will fail in our ministries. Jesus, revealed through His Word, is the cornerstone of our life and our service to His people.
Now, coupled with the utter importance of Scriptures is prayer. I was contemplating making prayer the next topic. Though there is much to be said about prayer, it's so tightly linked to our reading of the Word, meditating on it and applying it to our lives that I opted to speak of it here. Also, I would like to avoid being redundantly repetitive. :) If we are not praying through the Scriptures, asking Jesus to reveal Himself to us, asking Him how to apply it to our lives, His Word will not have its full effect on us.

Sound doctrine

The next application of the Scriptures to the personal aspect of the worship ministry is sound doctrine. We'll look at this more in the next post concerning corporate worship, but needless to say, if our doctrine is not sound in our own minds and hearts, the songs we sing, the prayers we pray, the encouragement we speak to the people must be put under question – is it glorifying God and truly edifying the body if it's not of sound doctrine?

The Word unifies the team

This third application in this section involves both the personal and corporate aspects of the worship ministry in a sense, but is being applied specifically to the worship team. I've found it to be vastly important and beneficial to be in the Word together as a team. I would not force this opinion (that all worship teams must have Bible studies or devotions together) on other churches, but I can sense the benefit of it in our team. I must admit though that this aspect has been scarce of late in our team. With it growing and the fact that we have a very limited time for practice, I've let devotions slip aside, if not altogether disappear. Usually what we do is go through a psalm each week together before beginning music practice. One of us will read it and share a short devotion we prepared. Sometimes we'll have time for open discussion. What have I found to be beneficial in doing devotions together? 
1) It refreshes each of us on the team. 
2) It unifies us as a team in our vision of Christ, our doctrine, the direction that the Lord is leading us from week to week. 
3) Depending on the size of the church and team, on the amount of services and activities held throughout the week, and your own busy schedule you have as the worship leader and other responsibilities in your life, you may not have a chance to meet up with all of the members of your team aside from practices and Sundays. You may not have an opportunity to share with your team, ask them how they're doing in their walk with the Lord, disciple them. Doing devotions together is a great chance to know that your team is in the Word, seeking the Lord, growing in Him and being led by them. Of course, this must not replace their personal time with the Lord, but it is, again, a benefit for the team and the worship leader. If this will be a regular part of our practices, we then, as the worship leader, must pray and plan accordingly. You know how much time you have, you know your team and where people are at in their musical abilities. I would suggest you do all that you can to keep this time succinct and to the point. If you will apply devotions to your practice, will it simply be a reading of a section of Scripture and prayer? Will it be a time to read and one person shares what he sees in the passage? Will you add to these things a time of discussion about the given Scripture? Another thing that I've applied to our practices is asking how the Lord worked in the members' of the team during worship on the previous Sunday. Again, we've not been doing this so much lately simply because the team is growing and more time is demanded to practice music. But I would like to get back to the place where we can read together and shortly share with one another.

Perspective and priority
Fourthly, the Scriptures maintain perspective and priority in our ministry. Because of the nature of the worship ministry, it has potential to be dangerous for us. Rather, we, as sinful people, have the potential to make it dangerous for ourselves. We're on the stage week in and week out. Sometimes several times a week. People see us, people follow us. People see our talents and abilities. If not careful, we can make worship about us on stage. If not careful, we can make worship about the music we play. If not making it about us or music, we have the potential to make it about our feelings and experiences, our emotions that we feel through the music and poetic words. 
However, worship is not about us first and foremost. Its goal is not even to primarily affect our feelings or emotions. It's about Jesus. It is about the Living God. It is about His glorification and His work within the body. It's not that our feelings and emotions are a bad thing or have no place in worship. It's that our feelings and emotions, being effected by the melody and content of the music, do not create worship. Enjoyment of the Gospel creates worship. If the Gospel is not causing us to worship Jesus, no song, experience or emotion ever will. Nothing else is capable of such a task. 
Those who participate in this ministry (or anyone in any ministry where people see or hear you) can understand the potential danger that lies in our prideful and selfish hearts. I have found in my own life and ministry that the one and only way to keep worship about Jesus first is to be in the Word. When my life is about Jesus, my thoughts and desires are fixed on Him; when my goal is Jesus and the body to be focused on Him and His glory – then and only then am I freed from making worship about me, and can focus my attention on Jesus.


Of course, this list of personal application of the Word to the life of the worship leader is not exhaustive. If you have any thoughts, additions or questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Does Independence Equal Freedom?

Freedom is one of the main themes of Scripture. Nearly every story in the Bible is in one form or another an account of freedom or deliverance. Let's look at some examples. Joseph: Joseph was first sold into slavery by his brothers, then became the slave of Potipher. Through a dramatic series of events, he was unjustly thrown into prison. Through an even more dramatic series of events, he was set free from prison and his story culminates with him becoming second in command over all of Egypt. David and Goliath: Israel was facing potential rule by the harsh and wicked Philistines. Through David's act of bravery, his defeat over Goliath feigned that potential rule at that time. His victory was imputed to Israel. Lot and (most of) his family were freed from the judgment of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah. The books of Ruth, Esther, Job, Judges, and nearly every prophetic book in the old testament are accounts of freedom and deliverance. But the most popular and most important story of deliverance is that of Israel from Egpyt. It's most important as it's the most vivid picture we have in the old testament of redemption through the cross. When Jesus began His ministry, He Himself said that the purpose of His coming to this earth was to set the captives free; His ministry was a ministry of freedom (see Luke 4:17-19).

But how did the people of His day receive His message of deliverance? Many of those who followed Jesus, believing He was the Messiah, thought that He came ultimately to set them (the Jews) free from the rule of Rome. They even wanted to start a revolution at one point and make Him king. Our culture (“our culture”, meaning general western culture) today, even unchristians, love this. We all love what the Bible says about freedom - “Yes, slaves should be free! Yes, we should be set free from tyrannical rulers! Yes, the poor should be free from oppression by the rich!” and so on. The majority of the world would agree that these things are good, and they truly are. But, how does our modern/western culture understand this freedom? And does our culture's understanding of freedom truly agree with the Bible's?

How does our culture define freedom? Here are some definitions of freedom found in popular dictionaries - “Freedom from capricious or despotic government; Freedom from external or foreign rule. Freedom from control, interference, obligation, limitations and hindering conditions; the right and power to think, act and speak according to personal conscience.” And my favorite - “The freedom to do as you wish and go where you want.”

I think that our society would agree with all of these definitions as aspects of freedom. Now, there are many different realms of freedom – political, familial, artistic, speech, religion and so on. But we're not speaking of freedom in just one of these areas. We're talking about the overall theme and application of freedom. In reality, when we think or speak of freedom, likely what first comes to mind, consciously or otherwise, is independence. For example, the Declaration of Independence was signed, making the United States independent of British reign. Therefore, because America is independent, many would consider it to be a free country. Or, on a much more simple level, a child moves out of his parents' house – he is independent of his parents and their rules – therefore, he considers this his utmost freedom.

If we often consider freedom and independence to be one and the same, how then do we try to gain our freedom by way of independence?

“If only I could get free of this job. Then I could find another job that I like, with better pay, better co-workers and a better boss.”

Or, (and this example is very popular) “if only we could be delivered from this political party. Better leaders would come in, end corruption, global warming and high taxes. Then I could live a life I deem worthy and fulfilling.”
Or, “if only I could be freed from my husband/wife. They don't love me for who I am. They don't even understand me and are always trying to change me.”

In all of these cases (and the many other possible examples) that which a person claims he wants most is independence. He wants to be autonomous. He wants to be free to be himself, do what he wants, how he wants to do it, when he wants to do it. This will make him happy.

But why does this actually not work? The fact is that no matter how much someone says “I want to be independent, I want to be autonomous!”, no one actually completely believes that. Their lives contradict it. How so? The statement “I want to be independent, free to be me in whatever I do” is actually very ironic and self-contradictory. Why? Because the desire to be autonomous is a standard from our culture. Our individualistic and humanist culture dictates that the only way to be happy is if you are free to dictate who you are – your personality, your work, your family, your beliefs, your convictions, your politics, your style, your sexual preference and on and on. But the irony is that by claiming “I want to be independent”, and trying to live out this world-view, you're in direct contradiction of that which you claim to desire. This is a contradiction because culture mandates you to be independent – therefore, if you follow cultural mandate, you're dependent upon the culture.

Rarely does anyone who wants to be freed from his work desire complete independence from all work in general. (Okay, maybe there are some people who would rather not work at all, but they love money and stuff too much, so they're forced to undergo the torture...) So in reality, most people don't seek their freedom in complete independence from work; they seek their freedom in a job they prefer more – one with more money, conditions, benefits etc.

Most people seeking freedom in the area of politics aren't seeking complete independence from all political authority. Most people aren't anarchists. But they consider their political freedom to be the transfer of rule and authority from the current party to a party that better agrees with their convictions, beliefs and morality and policies.

Sadly, many people divorce in our day because they claim to desire independence. “I want to be me and my spouse isn't allowing that. They're bringing me down and I need to let them go.” But in reality, in most cases, this person doesn't want complete independence – it's not that they don't ever want an intimate/romantic relationship with someone again. They do want that. They just want that relationship with someone who they think will allow them to be who they want to be without the threat of being forced to change.

We see this in Scriptures as well. Check out Exodus, Judges, 1-2 Kings and the prophets. When God delivers Israel, He never says to them “ok, go on and be little anarchists!” No, He always delivers them for a purpose – that they may worship Him and be His nation under His authority. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

No matter how much we say “I want to be free and autonomous”, our lives completely contradict it. Not to say that independence is a bad thing. Also, I'm not implying that a independence is not a part of the process of freedom. The problem is when we consider independence and freedom to be the same thing. And we've already discussed, both logically and through the Scripture, why this just doesn't work.

In reality, we (everybody ever) don't want complete and total independence. Okay, what then do we want? Above all, we want complete and total dependence. Why do our hearts so deeply desire dependence? Because this need to absolutely give ourselves over to the authority and sufficiency of something/someone else is the nature with which God created us. It is who we are as humans.

Because of this nature, we're always dependent on something. In fact, we're always dependent on that to which we ascribe our highest value. The fact is, freedom is not our highest goal. No, we want something so much deeper. The highest goal is that in which we are seeking our freedom, that is, your idol. That which we consider freedom to be is merely a by-product of closeness with what's most glorious to us. Let's summarize this idea in a very practical statement – our savior sets us free.

Do you think financial security makes you free? “Of course, if I'm financially secure, I don't have to worry about my childrens' education, retirement, house payments, natural disasters. I've got all of my bases covered and I'm free to live life to it's fullest.” Is it possible then that you really are worshiping comfort, safety and security through material things, and that feeling of freedom is merely a product of serving that idol?

The problem with having anything or anyone else other than Jesus as your savior is that, sooner or later, they'll let you down. And when that happens, there's chaos and depression. And you have to do everything in your power to gain back that freedom. The banks crashed and you lost all of your money. Your savior let you down. Now your savior is a new job. This new form of a savior will regain you your freedom. All you have to do is sacrifice yourself, your family, your time, your strength and all of your resources on his altar. Your savior is a significant other. And if your spouse is anything like me (a rotten sinner), he'll probably let you down at one point or another. What happens at that point, maybe a month, maybe a year, after you get married? You realize he's not the person you thought he was. You start to think “this side of him doesn't make me happy. He's trying to change me. I can't be myself with him.” You begin to see he's not the knight in shining armor you thought he was and that he's incapable of giving you the happily-ever-after ending to the fairy tale you always dreamed of. So what then? Maybe you married the wrong person. Maybe what you need is someone else. You married Shrek, but what you really want is Prince Charming.

Here's the reality – no matter how much culture loves to dictate it to us, we're ultimately not made for independence. We're made for complete and utter dependence. Even our idolatrous hearts point this out to us. But how do we then gain true biblical freedom? I would advise you to read Romans 6. Paul very clearly lays out to us here what the definition of freedom is in it's deepest and purest state. Notice that throughout this chapter, Paul is dealing with opposite extremes – death/life, sin/righteousness, law/grace, wages/gift.

Instead of looking at the whole chapter, I just want to unpack the few verses that deal specifically with freedom.
6:20. “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.” What does this mean?We were slaves of sin. We were totally and completely given over to our sin. We loved it, we served it like a slave serves his master. It had control over us, it had authority over us. Remember, Paul is using contrasts. Because we were slaves of sin, we were free from righteousness. This shows us 2 things.

1: It supports the premise that complete independence is a farce. We cannot be completely independent in any area of life. In this specific text, we see that before we were christians, we weren't completely independent. Yes, we were independent from God and righteousness in the sense that we weren't giving ourselves over to God's authority. But, in that decision, we were slaves of sin – we were dependent upon it. There are only two options given, righteousness/sin, and we will always be dependent on one or the other, not free from both. 6:16 - “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin [leading] to death, or of obedience [leading] to righteousness?”

2: Mankind has a big problem – slavery. Specifically slavery to sin. This is the root of every other problem in life. Because of slavery to sin, we have all other forms of slavery, murder, stealing, lying etc. But we see in this very chapter how this problem is resolved.

6:7 “For he who has died has been freed from sin. ” Now what does this mean? How can dying set us free from sin? Look at the context of this verse in verses 4-6. It is specifically the death of our old, sinful man (nature) that sets us free from sin. If we're dead to sin, we're freed from it's power. We die to sin through the crucifixion of our old man in the cross of Christ. But, as Paul says, just as Christ was raised, so are we raised into new life. A life of righteousness. But again, this form of death does not make us independent.

6:18 “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” This is very interesting. Now that we're dead to sin, we're freed from in. But, being freed from sin, we've been made slaves. Wait, isn't that a contradiction? How can a slave be free? We now remember that we said true freedom is NOT independence. Paul doesn't say “Being freed from sin, you're now righteous. Congratulations”. That is true, but Paul is telling us that real biblical freedom is found in complete dependence and allegiance. Specifically in dependence and allegiance to God.

6:22 “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.” The Bible tells us that true freedom is freedom from sin, freedom in God through His cross. True freedom is not independence. It's complete dependence on God.

But how does the cross make us free? When Christ was on this earth, especially during the time of His ministry, He experienced the same difficulties we do. He didn't have money or a home, He was rejected by most of His family and countrymen, He had no comfort in the sense of material abundance, and He even lived under the authority of a harsh and unjust ruler. But He was not dependent on these things. He didn't need these things because He was utterly dependent upon the Father. He ascribed His full worth to His Father and His love for Him. He was content without money because He knew money couldn't make Him happy or fulfilled. His happiness and fulfillment was in that the Father loved and accepted Him. He didn't need need material comfort, because He knew that true comfort is being content with what the Father provides, knowing that what He gives, for whatever purpose, is best. And if you have the Father, you have everything. He didn't need to be freed from a cruel and unjust political system, because He knew that ultimately, His Father is the judge. His citizenship, His home is Heaven – the true and eternal kingdom. But on the cross He lost all of this. There He, the only righteous, Holy, pure and obedient one took upon Himself our sin, our lawlessness, our shameful deeds, the wages of our sin. We are the slaves to sin, Jesus is the only son of God. But on the cross, Christ was treated not as a son, but as a disobedient slave. He died outside of the presence of the Father that we may be crucified with Him in His death, and raised with Him in His life, gaining the gift of eternal life and sonship in Him. We are given over to God and righteousness because Christ was given over to death and the punishment for our sin. We will only be ourselves when our identity is firmly rooted in the righteousness which Christ has formed us in. We will only be freed truly when we are freed from our sin and idolatry – finding our complete worth, value and purpose in Christ and His love for us. Basing our lives on this true and eternal freedom, we are delivered from the need to base our worth on our money, success, reputation, family and ministry. Being a slave unto Christ is the purest freedom in every way imaginable.

I'd been praying about a work-desk for quite a while. Call me pansy or selfish :), but working at the kitchen table or on a mattress on the floor just wasn't cutting it. The Lord provided an affordable desk! Thank you Jesus!