Have you ever been in a great worship service and the worship leader and team seemed to disappear and your complete focus turned to worshiping Jesus?
Strong worship leaders know that worship is never about them, it’s about putting our gaze and attention on Jesus. Here are some keys to leading people toward Jesus in worship.
1. Worship Jesus in private
The secret of Jesus’ public success was His time spent in the secret place. In fact, Jesus said that He only spoke what the Father revealed to Him. Spending private time with Jesus in prayer, Bible reading and worship is the main key to having a strong sense of His presence with you in your public worship time.
2. Live your life totally surrendered to God
True worship is surrendering your life to God. Paul said it this way…
I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. ~ Romans 12:1 NLT
God is looking for people who are willing to lay down their own dreams and desires and follow Him completely. God will use you in ways beyond what you can even dream about if you willing lay down your life for Him.
3. Know the music so well that you rarely have to think about it
Leading worship at a strong level includes many activities that go on at the same time. There is singing, remembering lyrics, playing an instrument, remembering the chord structure and form, leading the band, engaging the congregation and the list goes on.
The more you have the music memorized, the more time you have to focus on the two most important things: Worshiping Jesus and leading your congregation to worship Jesus.
4. Rehearse the team so well that the music is second nature
As the leader of the worship team, you need to spend enough time in rehearsal for them to feel so comfortable with the music that they can also worship. Having a whole team on stage totally focused on worshiping Jesus is a very powerful key to becoming invisible in worship.
When people see the whole team totally engaged that encourages them to do the same. And paradoxically that leads them to focusing on Jesus and not the worship team.
5. Lead your congregation from just singing songs to worshiping Jesus
The first part of the worship service is often moving people from singing about the Lord to singing directly to Him. To do that successfully, you often need to pick songs that are upbeat, and easy to sing. From there you move people along to singing strong worship songs that are sung directly to the Lord. It is so important to pick songs that don’t just sing about Jesus but songs that move your heart to directly worship God.
6. Make sure your body language matches what you are singing
Your body language speaks stronger than your words. If your singing about the joy of knowing the Lord and your face speaks the opposite, people will get the message that you don’t believe what you are singing. When people sense and see your sincerity in worship that will lead them to focus more on worshiping Jesus themselves.
7. Purposely lead people to Jesus
My goal on Sunday mornings is to lead people to focusing on the Lord. I use the song choice, song list progression, musical keys and musical transitions with that one purpose: leading people to worship Jesus. That’s my main purpose as a leader and follower of Jesus: lead people to Jesus. Jesus is the one who saves them, heals them, gives them peace, gives them direction and brings joy into their lives. It’s all about Jesus.
Question: What other ways have you found to point people to Jesus while leading?
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as a bassist, I think like a studio musician/hired gun-
the goal in a musical situation is to try to disappear in the mix and not draw attention to yourself or your lines. players who stand out is usually due to annoyance rather than doing something right.
this is the first step in becoming invisible before becoming invisible to the congregation.
I really love the idea of becoming invisible in worship, I think you ‘ve just nailed true worship on the head. One thing I do also is choose easy songs that simply adores God, especially the ones with simple choruses. Then I repeat the chorus a few times to draw my own attention to the lyrics which also gets others to really engage what they say. I also love the idea about making up my mind to draw others to Jesus. It’s all about him!
Thanks.. it is all about Him!
It has to be all about God , and being in his presence, and getting eyes on God and off everything else, and when God shows up ,hearts are mended, and troubles vanish.
Amen! Totally!
Worship obviously goes beyond the songs and lyrics. These principles should apply to every aspect of service, fellowship and ministry, if we are to be instruments and vessels on honor to achieve kingdom purpose. It is really about Him, total surrender and conviction of souls. Our best for Lord.
Stand among the congregation not on a stage up higher and keep it simple.
Let the Holy Spirit give you songs rather than man.
We need to stop singing about ourselves and sing about the Lord, as you say in point 5, too many songs are about what He has done for us…is this true worship?
And yes you need to be a worshipper in every area of your life, paying the cost..it’s a pretty sacrifcal life!
Hi Sue.. thanks for the comments..
I think it’s hard to be a leader when you stand in the congregation… the exception to that might be singing in the round.. but most congregations are not set-up for that.
I believe the Holy Spirit is always giving us suggestions for songs.
Stand among the congregation not on a stage up higher and keep it simple.
That is the pattern in David’s tabernacle. It would be wise to follow that.
Let the Holy Spirit give you songs rather than man.
Amen to that
is this true worship?
No it isn’t. Worship is about the nature of GOD. Not about what HE has done.
And yes you need to be a worshipper in every area of your life, paying the cost..it’s a pretty sacrifcal life!
It is indeed a costly venture. The person that wants to get to this level needs to be ready to give up ‘things and activities that are not of themselves sinful but lead to a more pure life.
The words praise and worship a (these days) used as interchangeable. They are not the same thing. Praise gets us ready to worship but is not a substitute for worship. True worship is at least in part the human spirit worshiping GODs spirit.
In David’s tabernacle the singers and musicians were on the same physical level are everyone else – not up on a stage under bright lights in a dark room.
To live life at this level makes one a bigger target to the adversary. Expect strong push back and attacks. However as we walk in the manifest presence on a daily basis, we are changed in the image of Jesus and the presence of GOD on us convicts the unsaved of their sin. We also walk with a higher level of protection.
To not walk at this level is sort of like being a boy scout with a pocket knife whereas to walk at the higher level we can walk as a highly trained Navy seal ready to crush.
I write this from personal experience.