So some of you that lead worship mights struggle with this. You might feel like you can’t really worship while you are leading because you have all this going through your mind and you can’t just let go because if you raise your hands then the music stops(if you’re playing guitar). How do you lead worship AND worship at the same time? Let me put a thought in your mind about this.
For those of you that went to training camp, you remember Ron Walborn talking about Discovering your spiritual instinct. He talked about seven different types of worship instinct; The aesthetic, the experiential, the activist, the contemplative, the student, the relational, and the naturalist.
When most people think of worship in a contemporary musical setting, they confine if to the experiential alone. They want to experience God primarily through “feel”. Feel the joy, experience raising of hands, dancing, singing.
I think that this may not be the prime spiritual instinct for the worship leader, at least not while he’s worshiping. At least, I know that it’s not for me. Actually, it’s not the prime spiritual instinct for me at any time. I struggled with this for a while. Leading praise and worship while people closed their eyes and raised their hands and danced and all that. And then when I found myself not leading but in the congregation, I didn’t know what to do. I felt out of place and that I was a phony because all of these people worship this way and me, the worhip leader didn’t. But that’s only if you focus on one specific spiritual instinct. Kinda like my last article, if you are looking for love in one specific way, you are totally missing out on all of the other really cool ways to experience it.
So where did that leave me as a worship leader? I liked to lead worship, and yet didn’t experience it the same way everyone else did. I found out this is because when I lead worship, my spiritual instinct is not the experiential, but more towards the activist and/or the relational. When I lead singing, I experience worship by serving God through serving others, and by bringing everyone together to worship.
Maybe this only makes sense to me, but it made me feel better to understand it in this way.
So as a worhip leader, don’t think of missing out on the experiential. In reality, you get even more ways to worship. Activist, relational, student(through studying music and worship), and for some the aesthetic. You can still participate in the experiential too.
Remember that worship is a sacrifice. And leading worship is even more of one. Peace.
