Perspectives: A heart for our congregation

I read blogs and books and tweets and articles and have myriad conversations about leading worship. Go figure.

I have been thinking lately about how many of those blogs, tweets etc. handle the subject of worship leading from a practical perspective: song choice, music style, media use, lighting and technology, video production etc. These practical details, no doubt, are important in today's church. But today I would like to briefly examine this subject from the place where I feel the Lord has ignited a passion for me...from what I'll call a prayerful perspective.

(I often feel like I am marching to the tune of a different drummer.)

As a worship leader, I feel that it is very easy to get superficially wrapped up in the practical details. It seems there are just so many things that must fall into place. Those not involved in the crafting of a worship service often have no idea the amount of work that goes on in the days and weeks ahead to attend to such details. But, it is easy for us as worship leaders to get very caught up in these elements, and to make such a high priority of them that our services become more like an event or a concert than an invitation to commune with the Living God.

As easy as it has been for me to get caught up in the elements, it has been just as easy for me, at times, to neglect the prayerful perspective of the worship leader.

(Let me take a moment to clarify what I don't mean by prayerful perspective. I don't mean "Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for the many wonderful gifts that you have given me. Thank you for my talent and for my opportunity to use it this morning. I pray that the audience, I mean *cough* congregation, would be blessed by my many talents..uhhhhh... I mean, would be blessed by You. InJesusnameamen.")

No, what I mean by prayerful perspective is our heart for the people in our congregation whom God has called us to lead. If we want to "wow" them, then we can stick with focussing on the practical stuff - the newest songs, the more lights, videos, props. If we want to please them, then we can easily get caught in the crosshairs of whatever music-style debate is currently fashionable.

But if we want to lead them to worship, we need to passionately pursue the King and ask Him to show us how He sees them.

God can and does ignite a passion in our hearts for our people, if we desire that. When He ignites a passion for our people, He will lay a heavy burden on our hearts for them each to know the satisfaction of an intimate, transforming relationship with Him. When He ignites a passion for our people, He will give us the desire to bring out songs that are rich in theology and thanksgiving, that display a depth of emotion and a clear representation of the Truth. When He ignites a passion for our people, we will not be able to plan and execute a set...rather, we will travail in prayer for individuals and weep for their situations and families, and shout out praise for His grace and victory in their lives. And what we sing on Sunday morning will have been born out of our times in prayer for the very people now uttering the words. And as they sing, our hearts will soar and break, celebrate and mourn all at the same time, and we will experience an altogether-new intimacy with the Lord because we've been interceding for His sheep.

I believe that this perspective might need to trump the other.

Without media, without cool lighting and 4 guitars and programmable loops, I can still lead worship! I need only to be in honest pursuit of the King, and to intercede on behalf of the people in my congregation, asking the Lord to give me His heart for them...and then sing songs declaring the Truth of who He is, and the songs born out of my times in prayer over them. We will pour out, He will be glorified. We will minister to our people and our God.

And we will be amazed at our heart's capacity to grow in love for our congregation.