|
Worship
What
Does a Worship Leader Do? Part 3
By
Bob Kauflin
Director of Worship Development, PDI Ministries
June 20, 2002
 Worship
Matters- Apart from the activity of the Holy Spirit,
it is impossible to worship God.
PDI
Ministries -
We’re in the midst of a series on the responsibilities
and goals of a worship leader. Last time we looked
at what it means to lead effectively. The second
phrase in the definition I proposed is this: an
effective worship leader is “aided and led
by the Holy Spirit.”
Apart
from the activity of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible
to worship God. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:3,
“For we are the real circumcision, who worship
by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and
put no confidence in the flesh.” Gordon Fee
writes, “For Paul, the gathered church was
first of all a worshiping community; and the key
to their worship was the presence of the Holy Spirit.”
(Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, pg.
884) But what does it mean to worship by the Spirit
of God?
In
his 1980 book, O Come Let Us Worship, Professor
Robert Rayburn sheds light on the relationship between
our worship and the Spirit of God. “The enabling
of the Holy Spirit, so essential to true Christian
worship, according to the Scriptures, means that
worship is not just an act of man alone, but in
it man is moved and enabled by the Spirit of God.
If worshipers are not consciously dependent upon
the Holy Spirit, their worship is not truly Christian"
(Robert Rayburn, O Come, Let Us Worship, pg. 22).
If
we don’t recognize our need for the Holy Spirit’s
involvement as we worship Him, what we’re doing
can’t be defined as Christian worship. Certainly
if Christians in general need the Holy Spirit to
worship God, it must be true of the one who is leading
them in public praise.
In
practice, this involves listening for the direction
of the Holy Spirit before, during, and at the close
of the meeting. This is not about whether you consider
yourself charismatic, nor is it about tossing scriptural
principles to the wind and trusting your “spiritual
knower.” Rather, this is what the Bible clearly
teaches. We MUST in some way be aware of the Holy
Spirit’s presence and active involvement in
what we do as we gather to worship God.
Some
worship leaders excel at having every song, transition,
arrangement, and word planned out before the meeting
begins. Others thrive on the spontaneous aspects
of corporate worship, disdaining all advance preparation
and study. The truth is, planning and spontaneity
are both important. We must be diligent to plan
– without being ruled by our plan. The Holy
Spirit wants to be involved in all aspects of our
worship. This marks the difference between simply
singing songs and expecting God to interact with
us.
To
be aided and led by the Holy Spirit is also to resist
the urge to become familiar with what we do, as
though our actions were totally responsible for
what transpires during our time together. We need
a better reason to do a song than “it really
got people going last week.” While songs, format,
settings, and sound are important, none of them
make the involvement of God’s Holy Spirit any
less crucial.
Similarly,
leading worship is more than uttering all the right
phrases. It involves responding to God’s spontaneous
initiatives and promptings. A phrase that inspired
faith last week may sound flat and uninspired this
week. What part of His truth and character does
God want to bring to the forefront of people’s
minds THIS week, and what is the best way to do
it? That is the question we seek to answer as we
are aided and led by the Holy Spirit.
Until
next time, may you be freshly aware of God’s
kindness in sending His Holy Spirit to apply to
our hearts all that Jesus secured for us.
For
His glory,
Bob
|
