Psalm 33:3
Note: The ideas expressed in this post are simply the author’s opinions, and do not claim to have any bearing on truth.
As promised, I will write about some of my thoughts in regards to leading worship. In particular, I want to talk about why I believe it is important to play and/or sing well, or as the Bible says, skillfully. Now, before I say anything else, I cannot stress enough that nothing I write in this post takes precedence above worshiping God from our heart. Truly worshiping God is the most important thing that a worship leader is responsible for. That being said, let me explain some reasons why I believe playing skillfully is important as a worship leader.
First, I think a worship team should strive to play well because it benefits the worship service and the congregation. What do I mean by this? I like to think of it like this. Imagine that you went to a church service, and the pastor was giving a message, but he looked unprepared. He constantly stumbles over his words, his sermon doesn’t make sense, and he is unfocused. How are you going to feel? Of course, you can still be blessed through the service, as God can work even in the most broken times, but I believe most people will struggle to learn from the sermon. In the same way, if the worship team plays poorly, constantly making mistakes, it can detract from the congregation’s ability to worship. The worship team is there in order to make a worshipful environment for the congregation and the worship service, so they should be prepared.
Second, worship team members should strive to play well because it benefits the worship team. I don’t want to pick on any one instrument, so I will just use myself as an example. Imagine if I come to a praise practice, and I cannot keep a steady tempo on the drums. The other musicians will be frustrated at me, since I am making practice very difficult. In fact, there was a time early in my worship experience where I was absolutely horrible at keeping tempo. This made practices much harder for the other members, so I kept practicing in order to get better. A worship leader should always try to play their best in order to support the rest of the worship team. As I alluded to in my Thanksgiving post, the less you have to worry about the music, the easier it will be to worship God from your heart. If everyone plays well together, the worship band can put more emphasis on worshiping God rather than fixing the music.
Third and lastly, a desire to play better should naturally arise in worship leaders. I find that the better I get at playing instruments, the more I can worship God. Also, the more I worship God, the better I want to get at playing my instruments. If you found out that the President was coming over to your house for dinner, you wouldn’t treat it in the same way you treat any other dinner. You would clean your house, and prepare the best meal you can (or if you are like me, buy the best food you can). A worship team is worshiping someone greater than even the President, so we should treat it that way. We should strive to play better because we want to worship God with our best. If we really believe that God is all that we say He is, shouldn’t our worship reflect that? A worship team does exist to serve the congregation, but ultimately they are there to worship God. Why would we ever want to give God less than our best?
As I stated at the beginning, nothing is more important than worshiping God from our heart. I think it bears repeating because it is so important to remember that. I also think that playing skillfully should be a natural desire for worship leaders. Worship leaders should always strive to play better, because of the reasons I mentioned above. Now, a natural question is, “how can I play more skillfully?” To answer this, I will write another post with some very practical things that I have found really helped me improve musically. I’m curious to know if you agree with these points, so let me know if you feel so inclined to comment.
-Smart
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