Worship is given solely for God’s glory and honor.

God is worthy of praise whether or not we receive

anything our self from God in the worship time. But because of his amazing grace and love for us, he
comes to us and we feel his presence. Things happen when God comes, he rains on us, he delights over
us and quiets us. His love and healing power comes and our lives are changed. We gain a new
understanding of who God is, and learn to hear his voice. Our relationship with him is strengthened.
Worship is essential in our relationship with God. If we know God at all, how can we ever cease
worshiping him?
LEADING WORSHIP

Leading worship is amazing; to be given the responsibility of leading people into intimate worship with
the living God is such a blessing. It could be the most rewarding and worthwhile thing you’ll ever do! But
the responsibility can also be quite overwhelming. It’s not an easy job, and is often frustrating,
exhausting and even demoralizing.

Leading worship is a call to humility. We have to respect the trust that God has given us and be a servant
to his will, staying humble, selfless and willing to learn.

The role of the worship leader is to engage people with God. I think of it as trying to get everyone to
forget who and what is around them; to get them to worship God as if there is no-one else in the room,
and to encourage their own relationship with God. Worship is a corporate activity, and we are all one
family. But I want people to have freedom in worship, a sense of abandonment as they sing to God. I
don’t want them to be concerned with what everyone else is doing. I don’t want them to have to rely on
a worship leader to be led into worship, I want them to be able to lead themselves there. I want to
encourage them in their own personal worship.

"The responses between God and his people should be dynamic, natural and spontaneous" (John
Wimber)

The most important thing you can do when leading worship, is worship God personally. If you
passionately worship God, then people will see that passion and be drawn into worship themselves.
Your own worship and passionate relationship with God will model and teach others how to worship
continuously themselves.

It is important that you’re yourself, don’t try to be anyone else when you are leading worship. Don’t
compare yourself to others, and don’t compete with them in your hearts. Do what God has made you to
do, God has made you different for a reason. Use your own musical style and giftings, You have to be
real, you have to be yourself, otherwise it won’t work.

In reality the real worship leader should be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit directs the worship through
you, the worship leader. You need to be open to what the Spirit is doing so he can lead you in leading
the people. "Real worship is worship led by the Spirit" (Carl Tuttle)

HEART WORSHIP

As worship leaders, it is important that our hearts are in the right place. Worship is not just expressed
through our songs, but through a life that is devoted and pleasing to Jesus. If we don’t spend time with
God throughout our whole lives, and leading worship is just a thing we do on Sundays, then it is not a
real honest expression of worship. We must be in an attitude of worship continually. And we must look
to be holy and pure in sight of God.
"Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12v1-2)

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that
confess his name." (Hebrews 13v15)

Holiness, Godly character, remaining or spending time with God, is so important. The more time you
spend with God, the more you will become like him, and the easier it will be to recognize his voice. God
will bless you in those times, increase your anointing and your heart for worship. God is always with us.
If your heart is in line with his, then you’re both going to be doing the same thing. And God will be there
working with you and through you when you lead worship.

You can’t lead anyone into worship if you are not there yourself. It is essential that we worship on our
own, when we’re not leading. It is so important to have our own time with God. Otherwise our
relationship with him suffers. In the times that I have alone with God he speaks to me personally; I can
feel his love and his presence, I get refreshed, he gives me new songs to sing and he gives me guidance
for everyday situations and for leading worship.

Leading worship is a time of serving the church, it cannot replace your own personal time of worship,
you need to be able to receive somewhere. Otherwise you will dry up and burn out.

It’s important that you worship God yourself when leading, but, if you don’t consider the people, you
will lose them. Don’t get lost in your own world. Especially if you are in a different place emotionally and

spiritually. If you are feeling depressed, then it’s not going to do them any good if you selfishly lead
them in mournful songs. The same goes for musical taste, sometimes you may have to play songs you
don’t like. But if it’s going to serve the church, then lay down your agendas, your pride, your desires, and
God will bless you for it.

Check your heart to see what is giving you the desire to lead worship, make sure it is not selfish
ambition, Check that it isn’t because you desire to be seen and heard. God knows your heart and will
humble those who are proud.

"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke
14v11)

Worship leading is not a performance. You will hurt others if your heart is not in the right place. Stay
humble, on your face before the Lord. "Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve".
prayer preparation

It’s essential to get alone and pray to God for his mercy, strength and anointing, as well as receiving
prayer from others. There’s nothing worse than feeling totally alone when you’re leading worship.
Surround yourself with good people, people who you can trust, be accountable with, and go to in times
of need.

"The worship experience ought to be very sympathetically, very sensitively, conducted by people who
are fully prepared of the Holy Spirit. One of the greatest and most important things a worship leader can
do is spend some time in intimate fellowship with the Lord - before they come to bring the church into
worship" (John Wimber)

Pray for God’s spirit to come, pray for direction, ask God what he wants to do. Prepare your own heart,
seek his face, open yourself to hear God’s voice. Pray that people’s relationship with God will be
renewed. Pray that lives would be changed. Pray that people will meet him for the first time. Pray that
people will worship with all their heart. Pray for freedom in worship. Pray for everything.

Musicians and especially worship leaders are often under a lot of spiritual attack. Your ministry will not
go unopposed. Satan does not appreciate our worship leading one bit. The enemy will do whatever he
can to disrupt the worship of Jesus. Broken strings, sore throats, headaches, faulty sound equipment,
car problems etc. are all part of his attack.

A massive part of the spiritual warfare is sin and distraction, watch what you watch and think, lust of the
mind and eye, even teasing and joking. You’re often vulnerable just before and after you lead worship.

You are assaulted with all sorts of insecurities and temptations. Do not get down on yourself. Find
someone you can be accountable with, someone you trust, and be totally honest with them. God uses
the broken hearted. By remaining in him, being in a continuous attitude of worship, you can really work
against any temptations that come your way. It’s the best way of freeing yourself. And don’t forget
there is always grace for those who fall.

PRACTICALITIES
There is a lot to leading worship. Just because you have musical ability and skill does not mean that you
have worship leading skills. The opposite is also true; if you don’t have great musicianship skills it
doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t lead worship.

"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord
looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16v7)

However there are benefits. The more skillful you are at your chosen instrument the more comfortable
you will be when leading worship. And it will also draw people into worship more effectively. If you are
having to think too much about playing your guitar, which chords to play etc. then you’re not going to
be able to worship God and lead people to him as easily. It’ll make things a lot easier if you improve on
your instrument. Play along with worship tapes and with other people, practice, improve your skills,
make your gift of service to God as good as you can make it. It’s him we are trying to please.

"Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy." (Psalm 33v3)

Play through songs until you know them off by heart, words and music. Making mistakes, forgetting the
words etc isn’t the end of the world but it does help if there are fewer distractions. Also if you make
mistakes, try not to highlight them by making faces or stopping and apologizing. Just carry on, because it
can take the focus off Jesus. Most people don’t notice mistakes anyway.

SONG LIST

It is very useful (to you and the band) to have a song sheet made up for when you are leading worship.
Even if you know all the songs off by heart, it is still useful to have them displayed in front of you, so that
you can refer to them, think about which song to do next, make sure you get the words right etc.

It is really important to be open to God’s direction when leading worship. Remember, you are here to
serve God and his people. If you feel God speaking to you during the set, then obey him. Even if it means
that it screws up your amazingly thought out plans.

Put more songs on the sheet than you intend to do, so that you have flexibility when leading to change
direction and do something that God might tell you to do. Plus, If you’ve made up a list of songs one
week, and the worship time was really good, it doesn’t mean that it will work again. Don’t use the list
again. God will probably want to do something different next time, so make up a new list and do it
through prayer.

SUBMISSION
An important thing to talk about, is submission to your leadership. You need to communicate with the
leadership. It can be hard if you and the leader are trying to do different things. But remember, you are
on the same side, talk to them about what you think God wants to do in the service. Find out how many
songs you can do etc. The leader may want to interrupt the worship after a couple songs with something
God has put on his heart. Expect things like that to happen, be flexible, don’t get irritated that he/she
has got in the way of what you want to do. If you feel that God has told you to play a particular song,
and the leader seems to be doing something else, then just quietly talk to them, say what you feel, and
ask them whether you can do the song. If you’re hearing from God then the leader will probably agree
that the song is a good idea. You must be humble and submit to God and his appointed leaders.

"Do nothing out of vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you
should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be
the same as that of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2v3-5)

OPEN YOUR EYES

As you lead people into worship, it is important that you know what is going on with them; how they are
responding in worship. To do this you need to open your eyes every now and then, and see what is
happening out there. Be aware of what God is doing. You can see if the people are following you or not,
and if they aren’t, then you can change things to bring them back into worship.

You need to get a balance between looking after the congregation and worshiping. If you are constantly
looking at them, you won’t be able to worship God. And you can’t lead people somewhere if you are not
there yourself. People will find it very disconcerting if you aren’t worshiping, but instead are looking out
at everyone.

If you are passionately worshiping God yourself, then that passion will come across and draw people
into worship too.

You need to read where the people are. Remember, worship leading is serving, so you need to start
where they are. They won’t be in the same place as you, because you’ve been preparing for worship
already. Are they ready to worship? Sometimes you know it’s going to be a good time because people
seem really up for it, and you can feel God’s presence in the room. It’s as if God is just waiting for you to
start so he can do his stuff. Those times are so good.

You may be a great singer/guitarist, but if you forget what you’re doing, get lost in your own world,
you’ll be a distraction. Especially if you’re just singing really loud and putting loads of elaborate riffs into
the melody etc. Always be sensitive to the people, and listen to the band, you’re not competing with
them but working with them, so check yourself occasionally. You have a responsibility to lead worship,
but not a responsibility to stand out or sound amazing.

Also, You don’t need to sing throughout the whole set. Singing can be very tiring. Give time for people to
use their own words and expressions of worship. And model it by singing your own worship, rather than
telling them to sing in tongues or whatever. Sing with the people, step back from the microphone
occasionally (if you have one) and just worship God. Or you could simply listen to the people’s voices, it
can be amazing.

Maybe you should just stay in silence for a bit, which can be very powerful, some words of prophecy or a
new song might appear. In these times, use the opportunity to ask God what he wants to do, where he
wants to take you, and listen to him.

Once you’ve started worshiping then try not to interrupt the flow too much. If you stop between every
song and say a prayer or introduce the song, it can be really distracting for people. However sometimes,
if you do sense apathy, or some kind of spiritual oppression etc. it may be good to stop and pray, Pray to
God, focus the people, but don’t talk at/to them.

Try not to tell people what to do, "now everybody headbang!" for example. People may not want to
headbang at that point in time! (but the same goes with less extreme actions, such as clapping your
hands) Don’t talk and manipulate people into worshiping a certain way, it has to be their own decision.

It’s not your responsibility to make them worship, if they’re not willing, then that’s their own problem.
Let the Lord inspire their response. There must be freedom in worship.

DYNAMICS WHEN LEADING WORSHIP

Dynamics are so useful when leading worship. There are many benefits, if you change the volume and
feel (the dynamics) of a section or song, it can keep people’s attention from wandering off.

Many new worship leaders (especially if they are limited musically) will play the whole song and all other
songs after it with the same rhythm and volume. This can get boring and people can lose their focus on
God. Often it is the case that they play songs quiet and slow because it is easier to change chords, that
isn’t necessarily bad, and they can do this well, but if they introduced some change in volume/pace it
will keep the people with them.

When leading worship I’ll often change the feel of the song and play a chorus a bit quieter than usual. If
you reduce the volume of a section, it has the effect of focusing people on what they’re saying more,
rather than just singing songs and words without thinking about them. This is a good thing, especially if
you feel that people are not engaging with God. Then, once you’ve engaged them again, you can build it
back up and get people fired up and passionate.

But don’t overdo it on the changing of dynamics, this can be worse than keeping it the same because
people just get frustrated with having to change. They feel like their worship builds up, but then gets cut
off and interrupted. Or they feel like they can’t get intimate with God because enough time isn’t given
for quiet worship, and they have to keep getting fired up for God.
Don’t pre-plan dynamics for songs. If you feel people are getting tired of dancing around because their
enthusiasm has lowered, then bring it down a bit. Use the Holy Spirit and what God is saying/doing to
direct you. Keep yourself open to his voice. Do what you already see the Father doing. Changing
dynamics does not mean changing the speed. Changing the speed can throw people off because they
keep singing the wrong timing and get frustrated.

REHEARSAL

If you have a band, it’s really important that you rehearse with them and go through the songs. Whether
you do this for an hour or two before the worship time or on a different evening doesn’t really matter.
Extra rehearsals are good if you have some new songs to go through, or if the musicians aren’t quite as
good as you’d like them to be. If the music is unrehearsed and therefore not very good, it can be a
distraction and will take away from the worship time. You don’t have to have an amazing band to have
good worship times, but you may have to simplify things if the band can’t handle it. Don’t push them too
hard, work with what God has given you.

SONG SELECTION

"Song selection ought to be directly related to the ability of the worship leader to read where the group
is and to cleverly, and artfully and spiritually select the songs that will best express the place where the
group is" (John Wimber)

Be in prayer when selecting which songs to do, ask God for direction, worship on your own. Play through
some songs and see if he points out any in particular, you might feel a strong sense of his presence while
playing a certain song, but for others songs it may feel really dry. Often (but not always.

Be wary of choosing lots of songs that focus on self and what you’re going through etc. Worship is for
God not yourself.

"Worship is us giving glory to Jesus regardless of what is happening in our life, it’s a sacrifice of praise,
not denying our feelings but laying them down in order to worship him. He is worthy of receiving all that
we are as we surrender to him. Whether we give him praise when in our pain, the focus must not be the
pain or brokenness, but the God who can far out give us and heal us and is wanting to lavish his love and
mercy on us as we come to him"

Don’t just use songs because of the reaction it gets, make sure the motivation for choosing a song is
God’s direction and nothing else. If you use a song too often, it will lose it’s effect, there are only so
many times you can sing the same words over and over again. Even if it’s an amazing song. Put songs
away for a while and bring them out later when they’re fresh again.

Use the lyrics in songs to lead people into worship. Don’t use the style or the music or the mood or
reaction to determine your set list. Songs may sound really good next to each other but that doesn’t
mean that they’re leading people into intimacy with God. That’s a mistake I’ve made. I’m not saying that
musical flow isn't important. If the songs flow musically it really helps, music is a powerful tool God has
given us. But use the lyrics to lead them into intimacy with God. Singing "Come Now is the Time to
Worship" after you’ve been worshiping for half an hour just doesn’t make sense.

The first song is quite important, It should engage the people with God, lift them out of everyday life.
but as the worship progresses you need to think about where to take them from there. What is God
saying? Do you need to go to a song of thanksgiving, or rejoicing? or something else? Try and make a
logical flow so that the songs lead on from each other. Don’t jump around different themes but think
about the journey into intimacy with God. It is important to be sensitive to where the group is.
Sometimes you can feel his presence immediately, and you can respond to that, but sometimes it can
take a bit longer.

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give thanks to him and praise his name"
(Psalm 100v4)

NEW SONGS

New songs are important for keeping worship fresh, and they often correspond to what God is doing at
that time. Always be on the look out for new songs, new ways of expressing your love and worship.

When leading worship though, you don’t want the focus to be on the new song, so try and introduce the
song slowly to them. Many people use the first song in a set as the time to do new songs because it
means that worship isn’t interrupted because people haven’t got into it yet. But this is hard work and
can be quite awkward with everyone looking up at the screen reading the words. I find that a better
place to do it, is in the ministry time or communion. These are times when the music isn’t the focus, but
people can also hear the words and learn the song without interruption.