by Cory Ryan
What is our job as worship leaders? Is it to manipulate?
What we do is just music until the Holy Spirit makes it worship, finding favor, making His presence known.
There is more value in praying for your congregation than there is in rehearsing the music. We want to bring our best, but perfect pitch, rhythm, and tightness is not the ultimate measure of value. It is not God’s metric. God places us in music ministry to promote relationships with Him.
The purpose of our first song selection is to bring our congregation together, to get them up and participating, easing them into the dance. It helps people experience the party. In middle school I avoided dancing until I was almost forced the first time. Suddenly, it was a blast to experience the dance and get outside myself, my own small, protected world.
Our second song helps us recognize the presence of God and to begin to worship Him.
Our third song quiets the room and the hearts so that we can hear the Holy Spirit speak to us.
Our process is to:
• Get the attention of the congregation
• Divert the attention of the congregaton to God
• Go deep with God
Worship or manipulation? The answer is yes. Our job is to manipulate the room toward worship. Are we asking the wrong question? The question is, “For whom?”
Where is our heart? Are we on stage to become a rock star or is our focus on leading people closer to Christ? Where is our heart?