Ten ways to improve your worship leading (part1)

(copied from an article by Mark Cole from www.praisecharts.com )

1. Study under a great worship leader:

This is the best way to learn and it can take on many forms. Jesus used this method to teach His disciples. If you have a good mentor in your church, watch them and learn from them. In this situation you can watch them in a weekly worship setting. Tell them that you are interested in learning, study what they do. Study what makes them successful and learn from their strengths and weaknesses.

If you’re not blessed with a good mentor in your local church, search out a mentor. This can take many forms. You can go to worship conferences and watch the leaders and attend their classes. You can go to local worship events and watch leaders. You can attend other churches as the opportunity arises and note what each church does well (and not so well). You can also buy videos of worship leaders and note their different styles and ways of leading.

2. Make worship a daily part of your life

Anything that you do daily, you improve on. Spending time with God on a daily basis is a basic prerequisite for being a worship leader. This should include daily time in the Bible. I would suggest that you read a Psalm and a Proverb every day and I use a daily reading plan that takes me through the whole Bible each year.

I once worked with Billy Graham and he said that no matter how busy he got he always read at least one Psalm and Proverb everyday. Reading a psalm each day will give you insight into what the biblical worship leaders have gone through. You’ll notice that they have their good days and bad days. You’ll notice their passion and trust in God. You’ll notice that they also have victories and defeats like most people.

The Proverbs will give you insight into human behaviour. One of the most crucial areas of leading worship is relating to people. You can’t be a leader without people. Proverbs gives great wisdom into relationships, finances, work ethics and a host of very important areas that all leaders must deal with.

Reading the whole Bible every year will give you an overview of what God is saying to man. I’ve read the Bible through every year for the last 20 plus years and I learn something new every time. God’s Word has a way of being relevant for the situation that you’re going through right now.

Another important part of spending time with God is a prayer life. Prayer is better if you spend more time listening than talking. The well known pastor Dr. Cho of Korea, who pastors a church of a million people, said that the key to his prayer life was ‘I pray and I obey’. The key to prayer is finding out what God wants you to do and doing it. That comes through reading His Word and listening to the His Holy Spirit daily for direction.

A prayer list and journal can also be a great asset to a life of prayer. Keep a record of things that you are praying about and note when God answered them. I keep a list of areas that I’m praying about and note each time God answers my prayers. Keeping track of answered prayer helps your faith to grow.

As you spend time with God daily, you will know Him better and love Him more and your passion for worshipping Him will increase. The best worship leaders worship much more privately then they do publicly. Your public ministry should only be the tip of the iceberg.

3. Learn the great worship songs

God is birthing great songs around the world. There has never been a better time to learn worship songs. We now have access to great songs and recordings from around the world. There are great songs from Canada, Australia, England, South Africa, America and many other parts of the world. We have hymnbooks full of songs from our spiritual heritage and songbooks full of the new songs that God has been birthing this century. Learn the old songs and the new songs. Find the songs that God’s Spirit is resting on. Find the songs that are blessing the nations.

I personally try to buy every new songbook and worship CD that comes out. I have a Maranatha Collection, a Vineyard Collection, a Hosanna Integrity Collection, a Hillsongs Collection, a Worship Together Collection, a Praisechart Collection, a hymnbook collection and various other songbooks. I use songs out of them all. There is no one organization that has the corner on God’s songs. Each publisher has a slightly different slant and style. It’s great to be able to incorporate all of that into the local church.

A good place to find out the most popular worship songs is to look at the lists that Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) has compiled. They track the songs that are sung in most English speaking countries. Their lists, from over 160,000 churches, will give you a good indication of what the Body of Christ is singing around the world. Their lists tends to favour the songs that have been around for a while but it is still a good place to start. If you have access to the internet go to www.ccli.com and check out their website.

Another good resource is Praisecharts.com. There are over 350 charts of the most popular worship songs of our time.

Take time to memorize these songs. I’ve memorized hundreds of hymns, choruses and new worship songs and it is amazing to see how they enrich your life and worship.

One of the keys to leading a great worship service is to pick great worship songs. A great worship song will almost lead itself. All you have to do is sing along and worship. Different songs have different purposes. Don’t pick a song just because it sounds great on a recording. Find songs that cause people to set their hearts on God.

4. Understand the progression of worship

Psalms 100:4 says I will ‘I will enter His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. God likes it when we come before Him with singing. One of the most common ways to begin a worship service is with songs of thanksgiving. These songs are often songs that are sung about God as opposed to songs that sing directly to God. They are often (but not exclusively) faster songs that are more praise orientated. It often takes time for the general congregation to get warmed up in a worship service and starting with thankful upbeat songs is often the best way to start a service. Worship leaders shouldn’t get in the habit of using formulas to program the service. Starting with more upbeat songs is just a general observation. A worship leader should always listen to what God wants for them to do in that particular moment and situation.

People often come to services with their minds on anything but God. A leaders responsibility is to help everyone focus on why they really came to church in the first place: that is to meet God. Having a progression in the worship service can help people to set aside other distractions and focus on God.

The progression of songs often goes from general upbeat songs that talk about God and give thanks to Him to songs that talk directly to God. When we sing songs that talk directly to God we are beginning the progression toward worshipping Him. The term ‘Praise and Worship’ indicates that general trend of going from praise about God to worship to God.

5. Understand the importance of worship in the Bible

The largest book in the Bible is a songbook (the Psalms). There are songs sprinkled throughout the Bible. Some of the greatest men of God were songwriters. Moses, David and Solomon are among the most prolific. God is looking for people to worship him. In John 4:23-24, Jesus said ‘But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as those to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." God loves worshippers. King David was called a ‘man after God’s own heart’. He was also one of the chief songwriters of the Bible and a man who loved to worship God. In spite of his failures, his desire was to be close to God and worship was one of the best ways for him to express that.