Ten Things Worship Leaders Should Never Do

1Leading worship provides so many opportunities to make mistakes and be humbled and grow in maturity. I’ve made so many mistakes I’ve lost count. The benefit of those mistakes is that I now have an idea of some things I should never do. Will I do these things again? Yes. But should I? No. Here are ten things worship leaders should never do, courtesy of mistakes I’ve made (and will keep making) in all of these areas.

Don’t Willfully Disobey Your Pastor
Willfully disobeying your pastor is one sure way to grieve the Holy Spirit and put yourself on thin ice.

Don’t Publically Correct a Worship Team Member
Praise publically. Correct privately.

Don’t Allow Yourself to Be Made Famous
Take practical steps, in small ways that add up to big ways, to resist meaningless fame in your congregation.

Don’t Make Minor Things into Major Things
Think long and hard about whether or not you want to make a big deal out of what you’re making a big deal about. Is it really a big deal? Probably not.

Don’t Make the Major Thing a Minor Thing
The major thing is that people are able to see and savor Jesus Christ. You can do that in a lot of ways. But if you can’t do that, then that’s a major thing.

Don’t Neglect Praying with Your Team
Before you rehearse. Before you lead a service. Huddle up and pray together. If you regularly neglect to do this, you send the message that you don’t need any help.

Don’t Fish for Compliments After the Service
Pity the poor soul who sits across from you at lunch after church while you not-so-subtly fish for a compliment. Just be quiet and eat your lunch!

Don’t Leave the Room During the Sermon
Think about what you’re saying if you slide off stage and eat a donut and surf Facebook during the preaching of the word. Stay in the room and listen to the sermon.

Don’t Be a Diva
Set up your own guitar stand. Coil your own cables. Get yourself a water bottle. Be a pleasant/humble personality for your other volunteers/staff to interact with.

Don’t Forget Your Family
There is such intense pressure to prove your worth by how many hours you work and how busy you are. Nonsense. Give yourself first and foremost to your family, and fit your ministry responsibilities in when you can – not at your family’s expense. 

How to Handle That Guy

1A few weeks ago I had a Sunday off at my church (our students were leading worship that morning) and so I accepted an invitation to lead at a church whose worship leader needed a sub since he was going to be the one preaching that morning. I had a great time, and really enjoyed meeting the congregation and musicians there.

After our pre-service rehearsal, one of the singers said to me “Sam is going to be so happy that you’re doing so many hymns!” I laughed and said “You guys have a Sam too?”. It’s true. Every church has him. Maybe his name isn’t Sam, but you know who I’m talking about.

He’s that guy who’s very comfortable letting you know whether or not you/your songs/your number of hymns/your choice of the wording of “Be Thou My Vision”/your choice of whether or not to wear a tie has been met with his approval or disapproval. You see him coming and you’re tempted to run the other way.

How do you handle “that guy”?

Don’t let him get under your skin. Don’t let him intimidate you. Don’t let him approach you in those sensitive minutes before or after the service and throw you off your game.

Instead, give him what he wants: an equally strong opinion back, with a smile and a laugh. “That guy” has a strong enough personality to confront you with his opinions, so you have to channel a strong enough personality to hand it right back to him.

Don’t be a jerk, but do be firm. Find him amusing. Love him. Call him by his first name. Give him a firm handshake. If you’re in the mood, listen to what he has to say, thank him, and tell him what you think. If you’re not in the mood, say hi to him and tell him it’s not a great time. He’ll appreciate your strength and he’ll back off.

Whatever you do, don’t let that guy get under your skin. He’s just a person who wants to be liked. Like him, be firm, and be comfortable being strong.

We Believe Our God is Jesus?

1What do you do when one word introduces theological imprecision to an otherwise good song? This is the dilemma in which we find ourselves with a song titled “Once and For All” featured on the new Passion album “Let the Future Begin”, written by Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Jason Ingram and Matt Maher. It’s a great song written by great worship leaders, but I want to highlight how one word can present a problem.

The first verse, second verse, and bridge have solid lyrics and a memorable melody. They say:

Verse 1:
Once and for all, the Father’s love
He is the light in the darkness
He took on flesh and took our place
The weight of the world on his shoulders

Verse 2:
Once and for all, our debt is paid
There on the cross it is finished
The Lamb of God for us was slain
Up from the grave he is risen

Bridge:
Jesus, Jesus, God from God, Light from Light
You are our salvation
Jesus, Jesus, God from God, Light from Light
Your Kingdom is forever

Nothing is the matter so far. The verses and bridge all point to the person and work of Jesus, him being the demonstration of the Father’s love, the one who secured our salvation once and for all, and the one who is very God and the light of the world. Great stuff.

But then we have the chorus. And in the chorus is one word that presents a dilemma.

Chorus:
We believe our God is Jesus
We believe that he is Lord
We believe that he has saved us
From sin and death once and for all

Did you catch it? It’s in the very first line of the chorus. The other lines are good and strong, but the first line, “we believe our God is Jesus” is the issue. You might think I’m being incredibly picky. Maybe I am. OK, I probably am. But let me try to explain:

To be clear: we do certainly believe that Jesus is God. There were early Church fathers who spent their lives defending this doctrine. Jesus is fully man, and he is fully God, and this is a clear and foundational doctrine of our faith. 

But to be just as clear: we believe that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We worship a God who is one in being yet distinct in three persons. Neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit is any more or less “God” than the other “person”. It’s a mind-boggling truth, but it’s one we embrace, and it’s one that this good song, in one little line, makes unnecessarily fuzzy. And the fact that it’s the first line of the chorus makes it a prominent fuzziness.

To say “we believe our God is Jesus” should feel just as odd to sing as it would be to sing “we believe our God is Spirit”. Your reaction should be “well, yes he is, but he’s also Father and Son”. To say that “our God” is only one person of the Trinity is a bit of shame, particularly in a song that will be downloaded and purchased hundreds of thousands of times, be incorporated into thousands of churches’ repertoire, and inwardly digested by the people singing the words on Sunday mornings all over the world.

When I heard this song for the first time, I wondered whether anyone else thought it was odd to say “our God is Jesus”. As I looked at reviews of the album online (which, I have to say, is a really great CD and has some wonderful songs on it and I recommend it) no one raised any concerns.

I did read one review that mentioned this song and said, interestingly, that it “…is a remediation of the Nicene Creed, and… proclaims the attributes, character, and mission of Christ”.

Not quite to the first part of that statement. The Nicene Creed is a robustly Trinitarian statement of faith which begins: “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty…” continuing with: “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light…” and concluding by saying that: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life…”

So while this song does feature the phrase “We believe…” and “God from God, Light from Light”, it could hardly be called a “remediation of the Nicene Creed”.  But I agree that it proclaims Jesus’ “attributes, character, and mission”.

I really do like the song! Just not the first line of the chorus and I wish they had changed the one word to avoid all of this confusion. If the line said “we believe our King is Jesus”, I think that would be an improvement.

I asked Dr. Lester Ruth, Research Professor of Christian Worship at Duke Divinity School, whether he thought I was being unreasonable in my criticism of this line in the song. He kindly responded and said:

Great question. You hit the nail right on the head. If our God is Jesus, then one has to wonder who the Father is in “The Father’s love” and who the God is of “Lamb of God”. Does this just mean “Jesus of Jesus”? Of course not…

I don’t think that single line (“…our God is Jesus…”) should disqualify the song, particularly if you can couple it with other liturgical items that bring out a more Trinitarian, New Testament way of speaking. Put the song in a good, strong, more balanced context. The line is not wrong per se but it is not the best way to express things.

I thought that was very helpful feedback.

I also asked Simon Ponsonby, the Pastor of Theology at St. Aldates Church in Oxford, for his thoughts. He said:

In an age when so many worship songs are little more than self-centered emoting, void of theology and a vision of God’s glory, I am grateful for song writers who are attempting to write in a modern idiom, biblical, theologically robust songs, that exalt God. This song is just such an attempt by a gifted song writer.  The question for me is not so much about the phrase “we believe our God is Jesus”  – though the sentence does sound unusual to my ears –  rather, in a song that echoes the Nicean Creed, I personally would have liked to see a similar Trinitarian completeness.  The statement “we believe our God is Jesus” without reference to Christian belief also in God as Father and Spirit, might appear to some observers to reduce God to Jesus per se.  And that is not what I believe.

So from all of this, there seem to be 5 takeaways:

  1. To say/sing “We believe our God is Jesus” is not technically wrong, but misleadingly incomplete.
  2. This line doesn’t disqualify this otherwise good song, but raises the stakes of completing its theology with the other songs/liturgy surrounding it.
  3. If the song really were a remediation of the Nicene Creed, it would have been more careful.
  4. One word can make a huge difference in a song.
  5. I need to use the phrase “per se” more often in my writing.

I’m grateful to God for worship songwriters like Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Jason Ingram, Matt Maher, and so many others who seek to serve the church by providing it with fresh, congregational songs of praise to the glory of God. It’s harder than it looks to write good worship songs, and these guys consistently do a good job and I am one of millions who have been blessed and edified by their work.

In this instance, I think this line slipped past some theological editing that would have made the song a lot better. My hope is that this post will convey my thankfulness to these songwriters for their work, and encourage all of us to be careful in what words we put on our congregations’ lips.

The Joy of Leading Kids in Worship

1The highlight of Easter for me this year was leading worship for our 10:15am family service. It was loud, crazy, fun, and sweet. In between our “main” services in the auditorium we welcomed families with young children to the gym for 40 minutes of songs, the Easter story, a short message, brief prayers, and some more songs. We handed out lollipops as kids (and adults) left, had a huge bouquet of balloons up front, and kept it moving to keep kids’ attention.

The best part was having my 3-year-old and 2-year-old come up and join me (they did it on Good Friday too). I didn’t expect that, but they seemed to love it and I did too.

Leading worship for kids is one of the most fun worship leading experiences in the world.

It keeps you humble. Leading worship for kids is NEVER below you.

It shows kids they matter. To have the regular worship leader, and a full band, lead for a kids’ service sends them a powerful message.

It shows you whether or not your songs say anything important worth remembering.

It helps you think carefully about whether or not you’re leading in an engaging way. 

It provides you a chance to get away with saying things like “now come on, that was terrible. Let’s try that again.” How many times have you wanted to say that in the “main” service?!?

It reminds you that you need to be more childlike. Stop acting like such a professional and loosen up a little bit.

If you haven’t led worship for kids in a while, or ever, I can’t recommend it enough. It will bless you, bless your church, and thrill your children’s ministry director to have someone volunteering to help. And it will make you more effective when you get stuck with the adults again.

Jesus Can Melt Hearts of Stone

1Much of my childhood was spent sitting in a minivan. A Dodge Caravan to be exact. In 1994 we upgraded to a stylish Toyota Previa (and by “stylish” I mean “hideous”) which we took all around the country on summer vacations. I even learned to drive that wonderful automobile.

I spent so much time in minivans that I promised myself I would never purchase one for myself. I was too cool, and they were too dorky. I was too manly, and they were too girly. I was too sophisticated, and they were just too, well, practical.

So before I got engaged I bought a Ford Escape. Not as manly as an Explorer, but not as girly as a Jetta (no offense). Then, after several years, including marriage to Catherine, the birth of our first daughter, and the impending birth of our second, I traded in the Escape for one a massive, gas guzzling, four-wheel-drive, dark blue, rugged, menacing Chevy Tahoe.

My ego was thrilled. My pocketbook, however, was not. Turns out that Chevy Tahoes use a lot of gas. And if you need to put 4 new tires on it, those tires cost a lot of money. And they’re not cheap to insure. And the county likes to charge you a lot of taxes every year to register the behemoths.  Not to mention the pesky debt I had plunged us into.

It was extremely impractical for my growing family. Yes, you could fit a killer whale in the back (or so I’ve heard), but it wasn’t terribly easy for Mom to reach back and fetch a dropped pacifier in the middle of a grueling five-minute drive to the grocery store. But, darn it, it was NOT a minivan.

I was the most anti-minivan guy you’ve ever met. I openly laughed at my friends who purchased them. I knew that I would never succumb to the allure of the automatic sliding doors. And the in-floor storage. And the DVD player. And the easy access to the 2nd and 3rd row. And the easy-fold seats. And the window shades. And the massive amount of cargo space. And the easy access to car seat LATCH systems. And the little mirror that lets you look back and see your kids. Oh and the windows roll down all by themselves when you hold down the unlock button. It’s amazing!

Last week we traded in the Tahoe for a Honda Odyssey and I couldn’t have been more excited.

How could a die-hard anti-minivan SUV driver have such a change of heart? I think Jesus did it. I began to see how a different car would serve my wife and kids better in the small spaces of a grocery store parking lot. I began to see how owning a massive Tahoe wasn’t good stewardship of our finances, nor a wise investment. Jesus melted my heart of stone and replaced it with the heart of a practical Dad.

Jesus is in the business of melting hearts of stone. He does it at his pace and in his time. Just two months ago I wouldn’t have been ready. But a week ago it was perfect timing. Jesus knows what he’s doing, he knows how to work on stubborn resistance, and he can turn ardent opponents into tender recipients.

You can picture the faces of ardent opponents, or stern-faced resisters, in your congregation as you read this. They stare at you during worship with a look that says “I am not impressed”. They look down on you and you wish you could do something about it.

Pray for them. It’s as simple as that. Pray that Jesus melts their heart of stone. And smile at them too. Maybe even offer them a ride in your manly minivan.