Hey worship leaders, I would love for you to answer this question:
What are the main pitfalls for worship leaders? What causes us to struggle, get off track, etc.?
Now everyone, for this blog, if you are not an active worship leader somewhere, please refrain from commenting this time. I just want a little vulnerable discussion among worship leaders, not comments from others on what you think our struggles are. I look forward to the next blogs on which I would love to hear all your opinions. Thank you very much.
Thoughts?
Todd
I think it can get hard to balance pouring your heart out into a Worship Offering and putting a good “product” on the stage.
I’m speaking from the perspective of someone who does Worship in front of a Church congregation every week.
I may post a deeper response later. I’m on a phone right now 😉
I have been leading worship at a small church for over ten years now.
When I first began I was so concerned about making everyone happy, and
not messing up, I truly had no joy in what I was doing, it was out of obligation.
As the years have gone on, the Lord Jesus has given me such joy in what He has
done for me, I no longer care much about “bringing the worship service”, instead, I come
to worship Him myself, with not much thought of what people think.
I believe our self awareness hinders our ability to “lead” worship.
We can only lead by example, If we worship, they will worship.
I am so easily derailed when it comes to being organized and on time. Something throws me for a loop and I really struggle to get caught back up.
As a worship pastor it is easy to turn worship into “Lets make myself the focus time…” I know it is so tempting to tell stories of how I overcame sin or other issues – with the focus of the story being on “me” and not God. Personal stories are good as long as they point to Christ and how He has delivered us. However, a major pitfall is turning attention away from God and on our own feeble accomplishments!
Personally, I find myself struggling when I’ve so clearly heard the LORD’s voice and when I respond in obedience sometimes the people I’m leading might not respond how, or in the way I think it should happen.
That’s when my the thief really works my mind over. I Start questioning…ya know?
Probably just me.
Thank God for Jesus.
As a worship leader for a small country church (average attendance is around 60), one of the biggest struggles I have had is getting to a point to where I feel free to let the Spirit lead in every aspect. I personally, let the Spirit lead whatever I do – no matter what songs I lead, but I have, in the past, taken a lot of flack for either picking too many contemporary songs, or trying to update the old hymns. We now have a minister who backs me (and my team) completely. He knows where our heart is and that our only goal is to glorify God. BUT we still catch it from some of the older ones in the church, and Satan tries to make those battles feel personal. I have to remind myself from time to time… This isn’t about me. It’s hard sometimes when attacks are made to feel personal. This isn’t my battle, this is His battle. And when I remind myself of that (when the Spirit reminds me of that), it makes the load feel lighter. Thank you for listening.
Hey Todd-thanks for this question. I am a worship leader at a small church, about 120 regular members. I would like to say that the struggles I faced in my early days were different than they are now, but they are not and they have even got worse. But my strength in God and my relationship with Him has saved me in more than one way! But there were some times I was too close to the edge. I have wrestled with Pride, arrogance, the temptation of adultery, and dishonesty. I went through a time I lost my focus on my ministry, and directed it to my own “fame”; I forgot who was calling me into my calling. I was amazed at the people I encountered who only wanted to be around me for what I did on stage on Sunday, who I hung out with, who I knew or what I could do for them. But I was ok with it, because it fed my ego. A Pastor mentor, called me out and recommended a book, that would help me then and have gone back to it for years now; it would help me refocus and get myself back on track. The book “The heart of the artist” by Rory Noland; best book I can recommend for any new worship leader or any musician joining a worship team for the first time.
Wow, thanks for your Honesty and letting us see your heart. Would definitely love to sit and Worship our God with someone who has a clear heart like yours that can ‘truly reflect His Glory ‘. I’ve written a book on the historical tracking of Hebrew Worship. You’re problem that you’ve been so honest about- is a historical one- that’s hindering many from being reflectors of His Glory. Thanks again for your honesty. Where do you lead Worship at? My email is keystoworship@gmail.com Thanks and God’s best be with you.
The 2 biggest personal pitfalls I’ve experienced are 1/Getting tripped up & very focused on negative feedback/criticism and 2/Keeping pure motives. I think to 2 are related for me, but as much as I LOVE music, music is not the focus of a worship setting…Jesus Christ is to be the focus.
Since I am bi-vocational, the greatest pitfall is finding the time I need to prepare – the music and myself. It is easy to prepare for worship sets, it is much more difficult to find the time and space to prepare myself to hear God’s leading for our team. I need to have more extensive time to separate myself from the everyday from time to time in order to truly be able to deeply listen. In January, for example, I got to have some time and received confirmation that God was leading us to enter into the prophetic. I need more time to let God speak into what that means.
I’ve noticed that I get sidetracked by the sound system playing up or a lead or some other bit of equipment. I think this can be demonic.
Our Pastor/worship leader is leaving so I’ll be once again assuming that position. Have been playing bass but will be dusting off the guitar again. Not naturally a singer, I struggle with playing and singing (aka, walking and chewing gum). I hate to show my struggles in this area and potentially quench the spirits moving by my errors in playing or lack of vocal ability, or even song selection.
One thing I have learned to take hold of, is that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. Cling to that. If you are letting the Spirit lead, He will use what you feel is a lack of ability and His glory will shine through.
I just realized that I signed in two different ways. :/ sorry.
My first reaction is that this question, if I am honest, is asking me to expose my ugly, sinful nature, because I have to admit, my biggest pitfall is exactly that: me.
Am I standing up there being an entertainer (I call this the circus church experience) instead of lost in my worship to God? Do I wonder if other people think I’m cool because I am musically talented? Am I arrogant, or falsely modest and “religious” up here leading worship (which means I’m distracted and don’t even know it because I’m lost in my self-centeredness)? Am I pretending to be loving on God when secretly in my heart I am hoping that cute guy is noticing me leading worship today?
We are all people with busy lives and sometimes the team clashes or one or more people are in a bad mood – someone was late and/or we didn’t pray before the service (hurried, busy, self-important thoughts running around my brain as I get into position for worship).
If I’m leading, then thoughts about how many times we’re doing this and that – if I’m following, thoughts about what is he doing – really?! – don’t get lost – did anyone notice that flub up? We sure didn’t practice it this way! Why is she singing that part when it was made clear in practice she does not have the voice to do descant – screech! I cannot hear myself (voice and/or my instrument) in the monitor, but the drums are resonating in my body cavity and that one singer who makes me want to wear ear-plugs is mic’ed too loud again. Hey mixer-man are you deaf or what?!
My heart is just not feeling this at this moment, but I’m up here supposed to be facilitating worship so I have to look like I mean it even if my heart says I should be in a “time-out” right now.
I feel kind-of ugly and dirty, but these examples are real thoughts that have taken residence in my brain at some point-in-time when I was supposed to be leading worship. Hope that is honest and vulnerable enough for you Todd bc I’m not sharing anything worse.
Been there!
Shirley,
Who are you and how did you get into my head? 🙂 Wow…. This pretty much hits most of the nails on the head! Add to this the family stresses of getting two teenage girls and a wife out of the house on a Sunday morning, while maintaining some kind of contact with the Holy Spirit. It can be tough sometimes…..
Exactly. These thoughts and struggles make me think I should quit. Though, I have the same struggle cleaning the kitchen….gah! I’m so full of myself.
‘It’s so hot inside my soul, there must be blisters on my heart’ Rich Mullins
We have an older congregation (over half of the people are above the age of 60) and I struggle with honoring the tradition of worshipping through the use of hymns while trying to bring contemporary feel for the younger families. It seems like there is constant disapproval of new music and an unwillingness to learn from the older generation. Another struggle I have is lack of participation. It seems like many times we are putting on a show and people are just listening instead of getting involved with the service. We don’t do anything fancy. people just don’t sing. Leading a group of people that aren’t engaging with what’s going on makes the situation at times very stressful, especially when you’re trying your best to worship while leading people to worship and you’re just being stared at.
I get that too.
Well, I’m finally done second guessing my motives. If the Holy Spirit resides in me, then longing to worship and leading others to do the same is a no-brainer. And it’s incredibly enjoyable to share in that with friends/church family.
I like to enter into intimate worship, loving Him, and enjoying Him,,,, but not everyone understands the Most Holy Place and the purpose of it. Many Christians are happy with the outer courts of the temple. I want to go all the way in….and would prefer to hangout a while, have a good conversation with my Abba Father, and leave fully empowered, whole, renewed & regenerated.
So worship is not about me…it’s about true communion with Him.
Those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and In truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
Two things. Our church has two worship teams, which basically alternate weeks. I am competitive by nature and I find that when the other team is on I can sometimes spend too much analyzing and comparing than I do in worship.
The other is that I do not practice my craft enough. I sing, but would like to be the bassist on one team or the other. The truth is that I am not really ready to do this.
Biggest pitfall here is/was dreaming bigger than the here and now. God has placed in my heart such amazing things that I know will come to pass but haven’t yet. I some times lose focus on the here and now, but I have recently come to grips with the fact that right now, I have to see the stage I stand on as the most important stage I will ever stand on, even though I believe that it is not the largest. Hope that makes sense.
1) Adding anything to Jesus. Jesus Merely= everything else, all else, will balance if nothing is added to Him.
2) Forgetting the truck driver sitting with his wife and kids on the back row.
3) Motivation from fear, worry, anxiety, compulsions: Decisions made from any place but true desire to be the physical expression of Jesus for the church. This includes the need for the leader to be decisive and forthright in discipline for himself, and for/towards the team. If someone on the team needs correction, then be accountable to the role of church leader. Do not wait for change if you are the element of it.
4) Loving the actual music: Big pitfall and so easy to do! Be thankful for it, and thankful that you are called to it~but do not let it replace the love of God in you and become an idol.
5) Contriving an atmosphere: Attempting to control and manipulate the congregation’s feelings, and the general atmosphere is actually no better than witchcraft; and musicians are good at it.
6) Forgetting history and beauty when choosing songs and arrangements. The church will rise to what it is offered; do we prepare and deliver fast food? Fluff and bubble gum? Or something noble, distinctive, inspiring, and worth our intentional and conscience effort?
7) When choosing between musicianship or heart attitude (especially with team members), the heart wins. We’ll never sound like the music of heaven but we can worship with it.
8) The belief, and operating in the belief, that you ‘create’ something or do something so powerful (or just right, or with the right tone/inflection/prayer/ anything) that will make “God show up”. Actually, I think this is the biggest trap for the modern church worship leader, and I see it everywhere. I’ve even heard the prayer (not in my fellowship thankfully) that “invites the Holy Spirit” and is very me-ethos-centraled. The fact that the modern congregation has a consumer mentality doesn’t help (neither does it that so many modern churches worship in a shopping mall =) but resist that urge; it is utterly false. God is already there. It is your job to point Him out. Merely.
9) Forgetting the most important job is to LEAD: The congregation will be hard pressed to go any further than you are.
10) Forgetting to educate: Educate yourself, educate your congregation. Not with information but with inspiration. How do you know God exists? How do you know He saves? How do you know He is in control? How can you communicate these truths to your congregation if you cannot to yourself? Forgetting your own duty to this end is very easy to do; we get busy with business and neglect this responsibility. Private study, devotion, and worship, will always result in enough overflow to water the congregation; of this I can testify. The Lord has been gracious in teaching me this.
Blessings and much Peace!
One of the most common pitfalls for a worship leader is judging the congregation!
As musicians and singers who have been rehearsing and preparing for the service its easy to complain that the congregation don’t turn up on time, they don’t engage with God until at least the third song!, they are not singing their hearts out to that ‘very annointed’ worship song, The pastor cuts the worship off just when Fathers presence is so intense, etc, etc. What we forget is that we are there to serve both the congregation and God. We are explicitly told in scripture that we are not to judge others. we forget that the congregation is in fact “the worship team” and we are just the singers and musicians that lead them. Some may have heavy hearts and singing is really a sacrifice. Our part is to lead worship by worshiping ourselves not getting distracted by what others are or are not doing!
I agree with you to a point. But we, as worship leaders also need to know the condition of our congregation. Outside of physical responses, we should be able to feel that the congregation is encountering God. If they are not, we, as the leader , are responsible for figuring out what is withholding worship that focuses on the love and character of God. Cause when people connect with that….you know it. That is just where I feel there is a difference between judging and being aware. And let’s face face it…it can be discouraging at times…
My biggest pitfall has been focusing on the congregation more than on God. Expecting them to worship in Spirit and truth when I am struggling with it. Realizing that as a leader, the congregation won’t get beyond where we are in our worship to God. Not that it means I don’t care about the congregation. At all, on the contrary, because I long for them so much to have an encounter with God, it have to get my thoughts out of the way and worship God the way He created me to.
This is an old post, but I am going to comment anyway. I have been part of my church’s youth worship team for two years now, and I have seen both the band and our group of students go through many different seasons in that time. Now we’re at a place where neither the band nor the kids are really entering into the presence of God in our time of worship. I find myself wondering and praying on why this is and how to change it. For our group specifically, our struggle lies in a few different areas.
One being that the band really isn’t a band at all at the moment, there is no team element and we are not a united front in leading the students in worship. We have a hard time getting instrumentalists to come and be a part of it, yet we have too many vocalists and there seems to be a game of favorites possibly at play, which is in turn off putting to the other singers. Because of this there is a slight tension among the people in the band, in turn taking the focus away from God and to ourselves, making the songs we sing just songs instead of a time to worship the amazing God that we serve.
The second issue that we struggle with is that the majority of our students don’t know how to worship. Now we can tell them and demonstrate all we want, but until they experience for themselves an understanding of why we worship the Lord, there won’t be any worship happening. Which means that we need to be focusing on building relationship and encouraging each person to dig deep in the Word and in prayer to find out who God is and why we come here and do everything that we do.
It’s easy to play the blame game and say that this person or that is why worship is such a struggle in church, but that’s really when we need to humble ourselves and look at things in a sober light. Then we see that there are times when we forget what worship is about. We forget that it isn’t about the songs, or what instruments we have, how well our sound system is, or how many people raise their hands. We worship God because he is worthy of worship. I believe once there is a collective understanding of this, that is when these struggles, whatever they may be, fall away. Because worship isn’t about us, It isn’t about us as leaders nor as congregation. We worship God, we sing and fall on our knees because of who God is. So I think the solution to our problem, as with any, is to pray. Turn to God and trust and pray earnestly and simply obey him. For if we live in constant obedience to the Spirit then we can never go wrong.
Honestly… I feel like King David most of the time. I struggle with ups and downs, I struggle with sin, I struggle with being human and thinking I should surely be perfect by now right. I have been leading worship for almost 15 yrs. and there are days when I question my salvation. I found this blog when I was googling The Lost Worship Leader. Do I struggle with what everyone else has suggested? I sure do. But in my PERSONAL relationship with God is hard. It’s easy to put on a plastic face and act like everything is fine. But the Bible says out of the abundance of the heart our mouth speak. So in our worship if our hearts aren’t right we will always struggle. LEARNING to lean on God and the Promise that he won’t leave me in my mess.