"What is Worship Leader/Director?" Video Transcript

Video Transcript: What is Worship Leader/Director:

How to be an effective worship leader. What is a worship leader or director? Really, we're looking at the qualities qualities of a worship leader. I'll just quickly go through all of them and then we'll spend a little time with each one. worship leader is a worshiper, a facilitator, a learner, a leader, a servant, a team player, an encourager, an organizer, a tactful motivator. Committed music lover, a gifted musician and a delegator. So that's the list that we're going to go through together. A worshipper Ephesians 5:19-20 sing and make music from your heart to the Lord all giving thanks to God the Father, for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you're the leader, certainly you have to be one who loves worship, and not just on Sunday but worship is something is part of your everyday life that that you're always looking at life and seeing the things around you. You see the sunrise you see a sunset and the thoughts of worship come to your mind. Me for myself when I go to a mall and I've never been to this mall, and I see you know, the decorations and the high ceiling and I see banners and so on hanging from the mall. I right away think of worship space, I think of Wow, it'd be really cool to have church in here. I see. You know what they did with a streamer lifts my heart It gives me joy and I think, man, you know color God created all this wonderful color color and cloth and and what can we do with our church so I'm always I've seen worship everywhere any space there's a there's a grassy area by our church and then we have these mammoth trees and with the leaves hanging over one little section looks like a cathedral to me. That's where we're going ever outdoor service this summer. It's like a natural it's it's the trees are lining and the and the branches and the leaves make it a cathedral.

You have to see God everywhere in the sky and the heavens and the stars and in the cloud formations. You know, be a worshiper, be a worshiper or certainly on stage with your worship team. Sometimes, you know, a band is on stage and they're they're trying to get their notes and they're the eyes looking at their music. And you can tell they're just working at trying to make this good but you're not sure that worshiping God are are the singers they're leading and they have a music stand and they're looking at the words and they're trying to get the harmonies and and they never look up but they never look at the people. And you're not sure if they're really are they worshiping? Are they just singing a song is this like, like karaoke or so you have to genuinely love to worship God and not just up front on the stage and not just in your life. But but but but when you're in the crowd. We had a worship leader at our church who, you know, when he was on stage, and he had the microphone and he's part of the singing group. 

He would be singing his heart out and the closing his eyes and moving and and swaying to the beat. And then I would notice on the days that he isn't singing, sometimes he wouldn't even be in church, but when he was in church, he was standing there. Standing there not not singing not moving his feet, not, you know, so up front, you know, I'm one person. But when I'm in the crowd, I'm another person. We tell our worship leaders and worship team. Look, you are a worshiper, no matter what, whether you have a microphone or you don't have a microphone. And you're a leader people, you know, we need people in the congregation who actually sing, who, who move who actually, you know, look like they're enthusiastic about this whole thing. So we told them, Look, you, you can't be one thing on stage and another thing somewhere else you have to have, you have to be a worship.

A person of integrity in your worship is your worship, to teach your people to be worshipers. Secondly, a facilitator Ephesians 4:29. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful and are these words for building others up As a worship director, as a music director, your job is to build others up. And there's a bit of a conflict between the music director or the worship director, and leading the singing. You might be a talented worship director, you might be a talented singer, a player, and the tendency is to then be the one that leads all the worship. So all the worship songs you introduce all the singing, you take the lead part, you're the focal point and people need a focal point they people need a person to follow because contemporary music especially is a little harder and people don't know when to come in so they need someone to follow. But if you're center stage all the time soon, it will look like it's about you. And, and other talented gifted musicians will See that that slot is taken. And you'll have a hard time building a very big team, because the really good players will go somewhere else. I mentioned my wife is an excellent, excellent, excellent music leader. She's an excellent musician. 

She's an incredible player. She has an incredible voice. You know how many solos my wife saying last year in our church? Zero. She does not put herself up front. If you came to one of our worship services, you would not know that she is the leader. She is willing to be and that's the next thing a servant, Romans 12:3-6. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you do not think of yourself more highly than you are but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. for As each of us has one body and many members and these members do not all have the same function, so we in Christ, though many form one body and each member belongs to all the others, we have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. My wife sees that she sees, you know, the talent in people, and she doesn't have to take center stage. I am, you know, as I watched my wife over the years, and we've had an established church, we planted a church, the current church that we are in now was a dying church, when we came and we had to turn the whole thing around.

And she has succeeded getting an incredible worship team, every place she went, and incredible, talented people. And these incredible talented people. She helps some of them become that we had one singer who really was not a singer at all, and all of a sudden he can say our current bass player Never played bass before and she encouraged him said, Hey, why don't you try this? And so she knows how to find it and help people become better than they are. But also, good talented people are attracted to someone who will help them become even better. What is it all about them. If you put yourself as the center of you put yourself on the stage, then you will not attract talented, gifted people. You have to be a servant. I am here to help all of you. A learner. Proverbs 18:15, an intelligent heart acquires knowledge and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. My wife is listening to music every day. She's listening to new music. Every day she's practicing. She grew up playing the piano. It's nothing for her to play the piano for three hours just she works at it, and she's willing to learn and you Need a team of people that are willing to learn to learn chords so learn the patterns to learn the lead parts. Some people don't know how to read music you can learn all these things or something you can learn and as the music director you have to set the example if you're the know it all, if you know everything and you never have to learn You're the one correcting everybody. 

Then people will be want to be just like you the people that you're leading will want to be like you and if you're a know it all, they'll become the next quality is a leader you have to be a leader Philippians 4:9, whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me put into practice. I got a piece will be with you. You have to be bold enough to tell people to do what you do. You put into practice what I am trying to teach you, you have to be willing to lead. You can't just come to a practice and go Okay, so what should we do? If you do that, that all the want to be leaders will all compete for that leadership position. One of the one of the secrets I think my wife has in producing such a good team, she leads, it doesn't mean she dictates. she'll ask people what they think. But she only asked a few things. She hasn't well planned. She listened to the tape, we're gonna follow this one on the tape or she'll bring a song Okay, here's a song where I want you all to creatively figure out what we can do. But she knows what song we're doing what with and she keeps the practices and you know, the rehearsals and then the service. She keeps it going and she's on top of it. You have to be a leader without without a leader. It turns into chaos.

Next you have to be a team player, Romans 12:4-5 just as our bodies have many parts, and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body and we belong to each other. The team feel there's nothing more important than that. It's not about, you know, individuals succeeding. And this one looking good. It's about the team. We just did a, we did kind of a 40 minute concert in the park just a couple days ago, sponsored by our little town. And so we had all these players and we had all these singers, and my wife could just take the tour three of our best people and just make it a killer show. But she realizes that this is a time when people invite their grandmas and grandpas and people of our church and friends from work and they all come to the park and it's so beautiful setting. 

It's not about just being the best band in the park. It's about building the body. It's about building the worship team. So she has, you know, you know five people singing on this one because we want everyone to feel a part of it. It would have been better if just these two people sing. but but no she she's looking and then and then we had a couple bass players and you you plan this one we have two drummers so this this drummer plays on this one this one. So she works at it. How do we become a team? We we we don't we want to get everyone off the bench. Next encourager. Let us consider how we may spur one another on. Sometimes as a music director, you have to spur people, you have to tell people where the wrong note is or someone comes to the practice they haven't practiced at all. And you have to tell them look, you know, if no one practices on their own, which is wasting their time with this rehearsal, so sometimes you have to tell the truth in love, but often it's about him encouraging people, musicians are incredibly insecure. Really. I mean, you, you put yourself out there you play something you sing, and your voice is very personal.

And and and in the beginning of a song It doesn't sound so good or you go through something and it's usually not together and it just I know for myself I just couldn't do it I know you know when I go to a thing and it's a new song and and I look at it and I'm like, I'm ready just give up I'm like, we're not going to be able to do this and my wife just Okay, let's just keep going or let's work on this part. Let's work on this part. Okay, let's try that. And she just patiently puts it keeps working at it. You know, I think you're getting at it and why don't you go home and see if you can improve on that and she just few pointers here and there. But she just gently, totally encourages, encourages, encourages and surprising to me. It always turns out good. I mean it's amazing what you know a couple weeks what happens from from You were to what it becomes unbelievable. You have to be an organizer that is so hard to organize Joseph, you know, he had all these bad things happen to him. But the first thing he did is he tried to make order out of chaos. 

He's thrown into prison. And he ends up putting that in order. He was an organizer. And to be a music director, you really have to organize your music. You have to have a song book that has all the songs. You have to organize your teams and who's singing what, and have a balanced approach to that you have to connect with the pastor and what's happening with the service. There's Special Services baptisms, Lord supper, there's Christmas, there's Easter, there's Good Friday, there's all this stuff. And it's a mountain of work. And and some of these things happen every year and if you can go back to what you did last year and see what it is and adapt and change. It makes everything a lot easier. You have to keep things organized. Or again it will be kaos and you won't be able to leave. committed, committed Philippians 3:12-14. Not that I've already obtained all this have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do I forget what has behind.

I love this straining toward what is I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heaven worthy in Christ Jesus press on you have to be a person that presses an Yeah, the whole music thing can be tremendously discouraged. You can work with someone develop talent and all of a sudden they leave for some other church, better opportunity. And so after all your work there are gone. or You can work on things and and get it all prepared and that people just don't show up for practice. commitment, it takes commitment. I remember I dropped my wife off the practice every Thursday, the practice for two, two and a half hours every Thursday and then an hour before the service on Sunday. And they do that every week. Okay, that's just the normal commitment that our musicians and so on and so I dropped her off at church. And then I went and visited my sister, and we talked and we talked and, and we got into things. And I was there for like two and a half, almost three hours. And I said, Yeah, and she said, finally said, Well, why are you in this area? And I said, Well, I dropped my wife off at seven o'clock for the practice and she said, seven o'clock, it's 9:30. How long do your does your team practice? 

And I said, Well, I don't do it half hours, usually three. But she said, This is what she said. She said, Well, that's why your your church worship band is so good. Because their team practices for like a half an hour 40 minutes and then they're done. It takes commitment not only is it practice time, but it's practicing on your own time there's no way that the band and the singers can pull it off without working on things at home. So it takes commitment and and why not be committed? This is our worship to God. There's a reason why 50% or whatever is of our time of the worship service is singing and music. It's because it enables people to worship. So if the people that are leading aren't committed, then the people doing it won't be committed. This is this is why God made us He made us to be worshipers.

tactful motivator. First John 4:19. We love because He first loved us sometimes it's hard to love people. It's It's It's hard to get them motivated. But we need to motivate out of love. Not out of guilt. We can make people feel bad. And you know, it's easy to do. I mean, I have done it often, you know, someone's slacking off and they're not practicing. They're not doing anything. And it's like, okay, we're not doing this for ourselves. We're doing this for God, what did God do for you? Oh, He sent His Son to die on the cross for you. And your responses, you can't even practice enough to, you know, be able to lead on Sunday. You don't know your part well enough so that you can't, you know, so it's easy to lay on the guilt.

But how do we tactfully motivate how do we come up to someone and you know, maybe their their their worship leading but they just they're not expressing it. They're not really helping people saying, you just tactfully come up and say, help them. Hey, can I help you a little bit. You know, you probably think you're lifting your hands like this, but you're only going like this. Hear, let me let me help you let me sing with you. How do you tactfully and gently help people become all that they can be? Next quality is a music lover. My wife loves music, she listened to music all the time. Whatever problem problems at night is you can't turn it off. That she's, you know, can't get to sleep because there's tunes constantly going on Ephesians 5:18-20 be filled with the Holy Spirit singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves making music to the Lord in your heart. Give thanks for everything to God the Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, if to be a music lover, listening to music, playing music, you know, I'm in the music band. Once in a while I in the beginning, they needed a lot of help. So I was there but again, you have to be a servant of the people come on, the people get developed. 

They can do it. I don't have to do it. Okay, and frankly, I couldn't do it. I don't know if I love it as much as some of these people. I mean, they, they go to the rehearsal, if there's an opportunity to sing it, some place some parts in mall, they want to go do it that they would sing every single night somewhere. They love, love, love, love now, I love music and and I think of myself as a music lover, but, you know, maybe not to be a music director. You gotta love music. gifted musician. Ah, that's, you know, my wife serve attitude and helping other people succeed. She doesn't need to be the star. I'll tell you. That's number one. That's the number one reason why she has been a success. But secondly, she's gifted. I mean, she knows music and she can handle the brightest and the most talented and when they come and they're part of the band. They respect her because she knows her stuff. 

She knows Music she knows chords she, she knows she could just hear and go, okay, someone is playing wrong note. Alright, and she can find it. And she, you know, okay, the tenor part is this and she could just sing it. Again, the alto part is this and she can just sing it. And if there isn't a tenor and alto part, she'll sit down, okay? And she can figure it out. So she really knows music and because she knows it, people will respect her leadership. So maybe you are you know, you love music, you love getting people singing, but maybe the musician part is where you're still struggling, but that's what this course is for. So that you start learning even things like sound and the sound board and, and, and reverb and, and how to hook up with, you know, those things. The more you know about all these things, you're not to be an expert, but the more you know, the more the people on your team will respect you because you know what you're talking about. You know why the sound is a lot of money and what what can possibly be done to fix it? patient, Romans 8:24-26 for in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is no hope at all. who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope, we hope for what we do what we do not yet have we wait for it patiently. 

Okay. So this is what I was talking about when you're learning a new song, you have to have patience, things take time people take a while to learn things and you know, I'm not a real patient person. So at the beginning, I just I just, I have no hope that this is gonna work out. We did this big huge music Christmas program every every Christmas and we have all these songs we have to learn all these things and parts and there's bells here. There's a violin there and it's all this stuff. And it's like I just look at it go it's gonna be impossible. My wife is patient, she, she can see what I can't see. I can't see how it's all gonna come together. And yet she can see because she has those eyes of hope she, she knows if we just keep working and if I keep encouraging, we keep practicing, keep doing it. It'll all come together and often it does. And then finally a delegater, delegate, Luke 10. After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. Go I'm sending you out like lambs among wolves. Jesus spent a little bit of time with disciples. And these aren't even just the 12 disciples to 72 and when they had just a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of who he was, he set them up. You know, I'm gonna send you out. 

You're going to be Leader, you're going to go out there. You need to do if you're a music director, you need to challenge people. Don't just leave people in their comfort zone. And don't just do what you know is going to work challenge somebody, look, we're gonna have you be the lead. You're gonna have to learn how to do that you have any questions, help them. This person has been playing the guitar, maybe he's been playing with the youth and he's been playing with the kids and so on. given him an assignment we'd like you to play with the guitar guitar person isn't playing this Sunday. We need you have them step up. He's got to practice. Maybe it takes him two weeks, but he learns those things. Someone that has never sang a solo, maybe you try them and just to just a small little part. You just, you know, maybe it'll work. Maybe it won't. But to be a delegator, you have to give people responsibility. Instead of doing all the transposing You know, sometimes you have to transpose size. 

We'll talk about how, how to do that in a future session, but teaching people on your team how to transpose themselves so that they can do the work delegate help people succeed again, it's not about you remember, worship is certainly not about you. It's about our praise to God. And even as the leader of the praise to God, it's still not about you. It's about your team. It's about helping people in their leadership and ultimately, the whole worship thing. Ultimately, it's about getting your people singing the congregation, singing in the church and singing in their homes.