The Purpose of a Worship Leader

I have seen music take hold of an unsaved life and bring complete emptiness. This is why I cringe when people tell me to go get famous or audition for the,"oh so wonderful", American Idol. This is why I am completely uncomfortable on stage in a setting where I am expected to perform for myself. We were made for more than that. We were made to worship. I think in order to define a Worship Leader we must first define "worship" itself. Personally, I would say that worship is any act that brings God glory. From the message from the pastor on Sunday morning to the fellowship that comes afterward, if God receives glory, it is worship in my eyes. However, for the time set aside as music time, our worship is the expression of love to God through beautiful noises.

The purpose of a Worship Leader is to create an atmosphere and environment in which the church can give God glory in. This means they are probably in the front making it clear what the congregation is supposed to be singing and giving them something to sing with. I suppose everyone could sing A Cappella and guess where and how to stop and start. But it's distracting when everyone is trying to figure out what to do on their own. The Worship Leader is designed to be the example and "backtrack" per-say so that the church can freely worship God together as one body. However, personally, I think the Worship Leader has another hat. In the Bible, the first Worship Leader example I see is David. The reason David is known as a Worship Leader is simple. He wrote the Psalms. As a matter of fact, I am not aware of any Worship Leader in scripture that didn't write worship songs. This is why I think it isn't just a good idea, but it is important, for the Worship Leader of a church to provide new songs for their congregation and others to connect with and worship God with themselves.

Honestly, it hurts my heart when people tell me to become famous as a compliment. Not because there is something wrong with being popular or well known, but because that has become our measure of success. Even in a "worship" setting, that is what is expected of us. In all the efforts of a Worship Leader, I can't think of one reason fame should be at all a part of the goal. In a secular world, only playing music for one group of people every week is seen as failure. But I don't want to play music for one group of people every week. My goal is to play music for one God and to get others to join in. Playing music for people is something I have only seen result in emptiness. This is good, actually, because if bringing glory to a human being like ourselves was fulfilling, then we must be worthy of the glory. But we aren't. Only God is. So as a Worship Leader, I want people to look at me and see an arrow pointing up so that they can give the Father the praise due to Him.