Worship Values: What I Care About When I Lead Worship
I was preparing for a coaching session with a new worship leader and reading a chapter in the book we’re working through called “How To Lead Worship Without Being A Rock Star.”
In the second chapter, Dan Wilt lays out five worship values based on his church context. They are:
Intimacy
Accessibility
Integrity
Cultural Connection
Kingdom Expectation
Reading the descriptions inspired me to write my own. They are:
God-centric
Authentic
Inviting/Welcoming
Moving/Stretching/Growing/Discipling
Free
Grounded and Very Broad
Maybe it’d be helpful to say just a bit more about each of them.
God-centric
He is the Host. It’s His party. Everything is centered and gathered around Him. As we create spaces where people can meet with God, it’s easy to focus on the people, on us, on what songs we picked, on...stuff other than God.
Authentic
Man, is this you? I want to make sure you buy it before I’ll connect. You be you. And hey, this likely isn’t a stadium of Australians or mega-church Texans you’re leading, so it probably won’t feel, look, or sound the same. You guys be you guys. Don’t compare or imitate, but be inspired by the other guys...and then translate it to your hometown.
Inviting/Welcoming
When I worked at Starbucks, we were taught to be welcoming. There was no script we had to follow or mandate requiring us to greet a customer when they got to within 6 feet of us, but we, by all means, needed to make them glad they were there. We, as the Church, could learn from that. From how we talk to folks, how we open ourselves and lead vulnerably, to the volume we choose at the beginning. There are no rules; just make sure that what you decide to do has a good chance of making them feel like they belong there.
Moving/Stretching/Growing/Discipling
Entertainment? Feeling good? Sentimental fuzzies? Comfort? Um, no. When we lead worship, we are to be making disciples. It’s our job to stretch people a little. (A little!) They should be a little deeper in their relationship, a little more sold out, a little more fearless, a little more Christian (read: little Christs) by the time the last song is sung.
Free
So here’s a sure way to tell if God’s Spirit is at work in a room: there’s freedom. Every Sunday morning, this little thing tries to bite you in the heel or backside to make you tense up, formalize, and get churchy...and it’s not nerves or the Holy Spirit at work! Kick that thing. Tell it off. Send it to its place, back where it came from. Abide in the Vine and bear the fruit of those things against which there is no law! :-D (Galatians 5:22)
Grounded and Very Broad
Here’s a news flash: Church didn’t start on May 4, 1972. It’s been happening for a loooong time! Praise choruses and hymns are a great place to start in the lineup with current tunes, but did you know? Chants, Kyries, and twelve-tone beauties are all part of OUR music heritage. So dig in. And while we’re at it, we have such breadth in what we could be using. Musically, perhaps we should ask WWHD - What Would Herbie Hancock Do? (bit.ly/Herbie036) There are so many more textures and grooves and ensembles and combinations and arrangements and... I mean, use this video (bit.ly/Without036) as a launching pad... it’ll make you rethink throwing away that old typewriter!
Oh, so what’s special about that 05.04.72 date? Christopher Dwayne Tomlin joined us. Remember him?
That prompts me to ask, what are yours? It’d be a worthwhile five-minute investment to excavate the insight from your context...and it’ll help you communicate them, aim for them, teach from them, and make decisions from them. I’d love to hear from you!
-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)
Worship Values: What I Care About When I Lead Worship (Nº 36)
