Re-Examining the title of Worship Leader (part 2)


In my last blog, we began looking at the terminology of ‘Worship Leader’ and focused on looking at to what extent we are, or should be ‘leaders’ in a time of corporate worship, and with our worship teams. I now want to turn to look at the other part of the title: ‘worship’.

For a long time I (as well as many others) had fallen into the trap of compartmentalising, or pushing the wonderful act of worship into a very small box. The label on this box read: ‘Worship is that glorious 30 minutes of singing and music that happens just before the sermon on a Sunday’. Thankfully God has been opening my eyes and freeing my mind to understand that there is SO much more to it than this!
Yes, a time of corporate or private singing is indeed worship and God can meet with us in very special ways during these times, nut this is only scratching the surface. The Bible tells us that by making our bodies a living sacrifice, by living our entire lives in a way that honours and pleases God, we are in fact enacting a spiritual type of worship (Romans 12: 1-3). In order to live this way, everything we think, everything we say and everything we do must begin and end with God. Hopefully you are thinking ‘this is impossible!’ – it is! And that’s the point. We can only live lives that are pleasing and worshipful to God, that only He alone can enable us to live. God gives us the ability to worship Him. Indeed, he gave us Jesus who became sin for us, to enable us to enter God’s presence in worship.

We should be imitators of Christ. Just as Jesus did during his time on earth, He only did what he saw His father doing (John 5: 18-20). Jesus continually abided and rested in God and His whole life was lived as worship towards God.

If we are to truly be ‘worship leaders’, or more accurately ‘worship facilitators’, we need to be aware that worship is three dimensional. Firstly it reaches upwards, from us to the Godhead, but then it must also reach outwards, from us into the world around us. As true worshippers we need to love what God loves, and God loves people.

It has been wonderful to see that along with awakening the church’s consciousness to the numerous multifaceted ways we can worship Him, God has been opening the global church’s eyes to become more involved with social justice. Justice and mercy are fundamental characteristics of the Godhead. If we study the life of Jesus, we will find that He lived out this justice and mercy every day.

Jesus was unashamed and unafraid to mix with prostitutes, beggars, hated tax collectors, the ill and outcast leapers. He carried God’s light and love into very dark places. As we do as Jesus did, as we love what God loves, as we get our hands dirty by making the difference needed in our communities. As we clothe the naked, feed the hungry and give shelter to the homeless. We are worshipping!

So then, to be true worship facilitators we not only need to be skilled musically. We also need to help those around us worship more completely. It begins with leading ourselves in all these things, and then we can help to show others the way.

Prayer:
Holy Spirit, help us to worship more completely. To worship with our whole lives. We are unable, but with Your help and strength, we can do it! Help us to love what God loves and, like Jesus, to do what we see Him doing. Continue to change our views about worship and lead us towards worshipping you more completely. - Amen

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