To Find a Worship Leader - Christianity Today

A friend is on a search committee seeking a full-time worship leader. So far they have sifted through more than 100 names. Picky? Yeah, but the committee has to satisfy five culturally defined generations that now populate most churches. Each has its own taste in worship, and each thinks the other four are a bit off-the-wall. So the search is difficult.

How we got here

Fifty years ago they would have sought an arm-waving song leader who fired up people to sing three gospel songs, led in prayer, sang a solo, and turned things over in a timely manner to the preacher. Sound systems didn’t exist then; neither did light bars, words on screens, or drums (in church anyway). Under those conditions, “Blessed Assurance” never sounded better!

About forty years ago, song leaders morphed into choir directors, who were paid (this ticked off some folk) to recruit a choir and present anthems. Most people came to like this and didn’t notice that we amateur worshipers in the pew were singing less now.

Thirty years ago (give or take) full-time ministers of music appeared. They championed age-graded music programs: multiple choirs, cantatas, concerts, and complex musical extravaganzas with orchestras (and live animals at Christmas even). Most of us thought this development was quite classy.

But in truth we pew-people were worshiping less and being entertained more. Clapping (to do or not to do) became a serious issue for elder boards. The professional Christian musician debuted, and a star system was born.

Over the past twenty years, we saw the advent of the worship leader and the worship team. Each team member was armed with a long-cord microphone (uniformly held). The team was usually young, sincere, enthusiastic, often quite talented. Organs were replaced by electronic keyboards, drums, and bass guitar; and we all learned to clap (on 2 and 4, I think). Hymn books were discarded, and churches mounted video projectors and displayed PowerPoint. Sound speakers grew bigger than your garage; programmable lighting stirred the senses; artificial smoke simulated Gethsemane.

We worshiped. But, sometimes, we sacrificed the experience of worship to the … well, the experience itself.

The good and the bad

My opinion: for many young people choosing a church, worship leaders have become a more important factor than preachers. Mediocre preaching may be tolerated, but an inept worship leader can sink things fast. Worship leaders now do more to define a church’s culture than anyone else on the staff. This is my opinion, not my wish.

The good things about worship leaders: they arouse our feelings and our desire to be joyful; they offer less performance-based music (exit ministers of music) and more congregational singing (enter leaders of worshipers); they realize that people need to spend more time loving God through personal and corporate expression. A good worship leader is a precious gift.

The not-so-good things: some worship leaders don’t quit a song easily and tend to take the endings into mantra-like overtimes. Many seem unaware that the over-50 crowd can physically hurt when they stand too long (pitched floors are deadly on hips, knees, and feet, while stages are flat). Oh, and many worship leaders don’t seem to know that worship involves more than music. Thoughtful, sensitive prayer, provocative readings, and soul-stirring liturgies enlarge the menu.

Spotting a good one

You can appreciate why my friend’s search committee has a bear of a challenge on its hands. If they sought my advice, here are five things I’d tell them to look for in a new worship leader:

How the worship leader prays in public. Are the leader’s prayers marked by deep reverence? Do they reflect an awareness that every decade of an adult’s life brings new issues and preoccupations needing intercession? Some younger people know this; others don’t. Are the prayers purposed to accomplish more than just segue between songs?
The dignity given to public reading of Scripture. The people need to hear the Bible read with a quality that rivals that of a good soloist.
The songs the worship leader picks. They should be singable (so we can hum them during the work week; sing them if we go to jail, like Paul and Silas). Realistic (not schlocky, with vocabulary we’d never use outside church). Honest (not promising God things we really have no intention of being or doing). Broad (representative of the varied singing traditions of the last several centuries; old songs with new instrumentation is a great idea).Worship music that speaks to us is both timely and timeless.
The use of corporate silence and encouragement of historical reflection. Not all worship is done to the beat of a drum. We need expressions that speak to all the senses. And we need connection to the ancient expressions of our faith. Note how the worship leader feels about the great historic traditions of creed, liturgy, and sacramental symbol that remind us that folks have been worshiping for centuries before we arrived.
How the worship leader lays the carpet for a sermon to reach both heart and mind. Are the worshipers prepared emotionally and theologically to be encouraged, challenged, or reproved?I have tried to think of the single greatest worship experience I’ve ever had. It happened, I think, just after midnight on New Year’s Eve at the InterVarsity Urbana Missionary Convention of 1976. There was no worship leader. Not even a preacher (which amazes me).

The convention concluded with a Communion service. After the benediction, 17,000 students began to head for the arena portals and their buses for trips back home. Someone in the crowd—not a worship leader, but a worshiper—began the song “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord.” It’s one where the men sing a line and the women echo back.

Some 17,000 stopped in their tracks and sang! And sang, and sang, and sang. We sang it over and over, without leaders or musicians. No one wanted to exit from holy ground, to abandon the memories of sacred hours, to step out of God’s special presence. So we just kept singing.

My daughter, Kristy, then nine, was with me. She felt the charisma of the moment. She grabbed my hand and said softly, “Daddy, this is what heaven is going to be like.”

I think she was right. I want to tell my friend to find a worship leader who can make that sort of moment happen more or less regularly.

Gordon MacDonald is editor at large of Leadership