Worship is big. Worship is really big. It's what is happening in heaven right now, and it's on the agenda for the rest of eternity. Being a worship leader is a high calling. It's a thrilling opportunity with lots of chances for joy and failure, rewards and difficulties. Anything that will last as long as worship will should be taken quite seriously. Anyone who will lead something that is everlasting should take their leadership quite seriously too. Leadership is an odd thing these days. We have so many bad examples of leaders that few of us are all that excited about being leaders ourselves. It seems almost impossible to conceive of a leader with real integrity. It's easy to believe that anyone who aspires to lead must be out for power, attention, or some other selfish and dishonorable gain. If we lead, we know others might think that about us. So it's tempting not to lead at all, even in a position of leadership! In spite of all the mistakes that parents, pastors, politicians, and others have made, however, we are still in search of leaders we can trust—and we need them. People are looking for leaders in worship too, and if God has called you to lead in this way, then you are whom they seek. As a worship leader you're worshiping God, and you're helping others to do same. It can take some practice to find the balance between giving yourself to worship and leading others in it at the same time, but there is a balance! If you are worshiping God yourself, then your words and actions in front of a congregation should say, "Follow me; do what I'm doing; come, worship God." This can happen in various ways. Leading with What You've GotUse your eyes and your body to lead. Making eye contact is a great way to connect and communicate with those you are leading. Your eyes should speak to your congregation, "Isn't it great to worship God together!" Your body movements should also serve to lead people into worship. Usually this simply means being comfortable and not doing anything that is particularly distracting. Most people possess at least a couple of odd physical habits. If you have any that might draw attention to you, try to lose them in order to serve your followers. Use your voice. The best of all tools to lead others in worship may be your voice. What kind of voice helps a worship setting? Probably one that is excited and pleasant. A voice that is harsh, bored, or awkward will not help anyone worship God. I've noticed that sometimes when worship leaders call out a verse or a chorus in the middle of a song as a way of giving direction to the group, they can switch into a totally different voice. They're singing along, worshiping God, when all of a sudden they switch into "information" voice and yell out the first line of a song in a way that breaks the entire mood of a worship time. Your voice should fit the feeling of a song or set of songs and lead people more fully into the worship of God. Be aware of the people you're leading. It's easy to believe that when we lead worship we should forget about those we're leading and just focus on our own experience. There's a way in which this is true: If others don't follow us in worshiping God, that shouldn't stop us from worshiping anyway. But you cannot simply be in your own world, having an experience that ignores everyone around you. Can you imagine if other spiritual leaders, like Bible-study leaders or preachers, took this approach? Believe it or not, it's also easy to simply forget your congregation. I can recall ending a set of worship songs, turning around to unplug my guitar and preparing to walk off to my seat when I suddenly realized that the entire congregation was still standing! I hadn't invited them to sit, so they didn't know what was going on. This was an awkward (but now humorous) breakdown in leadership. They were following me, but I hadn't led them well—I had lost my awareness of them. Now I always remember to ask people to be seated when the time comes. Tune in to your congregation's current needs. Make sure your group knows where you're headed next. If they don't know a song very well, you'll need to lead them more strongly until they become comfortable with it. If your group isn't sure what verse of a song comes next, help them. Try to be aware of what your congregation is experiencing from the beginning to the end of every worship time. What will help them worship God at any given moment? What cultural, social, or holiday events might influence the congregation's focus on God? The beginning of a service at one point in the calendar year should not necessarily be like the beginning of a worship service during another part of the year. What will help people to respond to one spoken message will not be particularly useful after every spoken message. You are a leader, and to know how to guide others to a new destination, you usually need to know something about their point of departure. Plan in specific ways how you will lead each worship time. As a worship leader you'll have many wonderful opportunities to help others reach new destinations in their worship of God. Make sure you think through how to do that most effectively in every situation. If, for example, you want the participants to reflect on a particular attribute of God, give them Scripture, a story, or an illustration to get them thinking. Don't just say something like, "Reflect for a few minutes about how holy God is." Instead, tell those who you're leading what holiness is about. Give them a specific analogy or metaphor that they can relate to. Read Scripture that illustrates God's holiness in fresh ways (it doesn't even have to use the word holy as long as that's what it's about). Help people move physically into worship. If you want them to respond in excitement to God, ask them to stand. If you want them to experience God's rest, give them the option to sit. To lead worship, we must worship—we can't take others where we're not going. It is crucial, however, that we learn how to focus on God while also being aware of what the people we lead are experiencing. With that awareness, we can create situations that help others worship. Leading worship is for us, but it's not just for us. As in so much of God's surprising gospel, when we lead worship we receive by giving. Adapted from Worship Team Handbook by Alison Siewert. © 1998 by Alison Siewert and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove IL 60515-1426. www.ivpress.com. 
  Spiritual Formation in Early ChildhoodUse this material to understand how to help form the spiritual life of a child  Captivate Large Groups with Dramatic CommunicationKeep children's interest and help them learn with these effective techniques. Activity Time as Modeling Time The values you model in activity time set a precedent for the church’s future members. The Reality of Worship Matt Redman explains why worship is more than just a popular trend in Christian music.
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