Effective worship leading starts at home

A couple of posts ago, I made a smart remark about how if you want to go crazy in worship, try worshiping at home.

This post is for those of you who didn't get it.

I think it's common knowledge that many Christians are merely Sunday Christians. On Sunday mornings, they're all about Jesus. Dusting off the Bible, putting on the Sunday best, driving to church with the family, singing the songs, taking sermon notes, shaking the hands, etc, etc. Then it's Monday, and they're flicking off bad drivers on the morning commute, arguing with their spouses, ignoring their children, making fun of other kids in school, or worse. Maybe they don't necessary sin but they sure aren't acting like a saint.

The assumption is that these Sunday Christians don't apply to the church-goers who are heavily involved at church. Whether they're a Sunday school teacher, an usher, or a worship team member, we automatically believe that these people are "Super Christians" at home, at work, and/or at school.

As a worship leader, I made the mistake of believing that worship team members take their gifts home with them. I love playing guitar, piano, and singing and every chance I get, I play. Sometimes I'm practicing specific songs I want to introduce to the team, sometimes I just want to jam, other times I just want to worship.

Unfortunately, Active church participation does not equate to an active spiritual & genuine lifestyle outside of the church (Heck, it doesn't even equate to an active spiritual & genuine lifestyle inside church, but I'm definitely not broaching that subject). Active church goers are even more susceptible to neglecting their personal devotions and times of worship. They get this mindset that because they're so awesome on Sunday mornings (and Wednesday nights and Friday nights), they're good for the week.

How incredibly wrong that is. Leadership equals servanthood (stay tuned for a post on this). Meaning, the people that serve the church in some form are leaders. They should be spending more time with God on their own than everyone else, not less.

This is doubly important for worship team members. Practicing their gift and worshiping on their own is essential in being effective on the stage. Jeff Deyo, a highly successful worship leader on his own and with a band, speaks to this in a podcast. He emphasizes that a worship leader (which means every single band member on the stage) cannot be authentic if they don't spend time with God alone.

I totally understand that people are busy. Trust me, I'm as busy as any of you. And no one's demanding you spend a couple of hours a day in worship and prayer. Try 15 minutes a day to start. If you don't have 15 minutes to spare, you're lying and it's pathetic. See where even just a few minutes a day can take your walk with God. Soon you'll be desperate to make more room in your schedule for Him.

And this will start to be evident in your leading on the stage as well. Where you may have botched up singing a song, or couldn't think of anything to pray, or fumbled during a free worship, suddenly all of that disappears and you start having smooth worship sets with people getting touched and set free.

And it all starts with 15 minutes a day. Get a worship CD (or iPod, or guitar, or piano), your Bible, and a quiet room and give it a try!