You won’t find a worship leader in the New Testament. This is unsettling for those of us who look to Scripture as our guide. No description of our role? No instruction for our work? Not even a mention of our name?

You want to be a good worship leader. You want to serve your church and honor God. Where do you start? What are the essential ingredients? It’s right there in the name. It starts with being a worshiper and a leader.

Embrace God’s Design For Worship

Although passages about sung worship under the New Covenant are rare, they aren’t non-existent. Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5 provide valuable insight. Jesus sang a hymn on His way to the garden. Paul and Silas sang in chains. Revelation gives us glorious images of angels, elders and peoples from every nation singing and praising. These verses give us a helpful start, but they’re only the first step in the right direction.

There is a rich, deep treasure of Scripture on what it means to worship God rightly. They may not reference sung worship specifically, but that’s okay:

• Romans 12 tells us that worship is wholehearted sacrifice.

• 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us worship is transformational and fixed on Jesus.

• John 4:23 tells us worship is in Spirit and in Truth.

• Hebrews 4:14-16 tells us worship is only through Jesus Christ our Mediator.

And many, many more.

You Cannot Worship What You Do Not Know

To worship God rightly, you must know Him intimately. This means consistent, personal time in His presence, seeking His face. This means intentionally studying the character, nature and attributes of God: the person and work of Jesus Christ. The person and work of the Holy Spirit.

I say learn to worship God “rightly” because it’s possible to worship God wrongly. Many in the Church are unwittingly worshiping a false god. A god of their own design. A god they’ve fashioned into their own image. A god that looks more like a combination of personal tastes and pet doctrines than the God of the Bible.

Jesus revealed to the Samaritan woman, “You worship what you do not know.” Jesus rejected the Pharisees and scribes declaring, “In vain do you worship.”

Let’s not allow the same to be said of us.

We can’t look solely at our favorite celebrity worship leaders to know what true worship looks like. Scripture is both the anchor fixing us to the truth of God and the map leading us closer to Him.

When The Leaders Lead

A good worship leader is a good leader. You can be a great singer but a poor leader. You can be charismatic and engaging but a poor leader. You can hold the title “Worship Leader” but be a poor leader.

How do we become a good leader? Once again Scripture is our guide. It may not tell you how to plan your services or who to choose for your volunteer team, but it does give clear instructions for the leader.

• John 3:30 shows a leader seeks the fame and glory of Jesus.

• Philippians 2:3 shows a leader counts others more highly than themselves.

• 1 Peter 5:3 shows a leader is not a ruler but an example.

Jesus is our perfect example of a leader. He was a servant. Bold in His convictions. Committed to prayer. Loving, gracious and patient with His followers.

Countless volumes have been penned with leadership lessons from Scripture. Indeed, growing into a Godly leader takes a lifetime. Don’t let that discourage you. Start now! Become a student of Scripture and what it says specifically to leaders. Surround yourself with good leaders. Find a mentor.

Become a worshiper who knows God and worships Him rightly.

Become a leader who knows their people and serves them sacrificially.

A worshiping leader. This combination is fierce and powerful. A mighty weapon in the hand of the Lord to be used for His purpose and His glory.

I walked to my car disappointed.

I found myself wishing our church family was more engaged. More hands in the air. More passionate singing. More of an obvious, visible work of the Lord.

Our Measure of Success

My experience after a recent Sunday morning is something worship leaders everywhere struggle with. We’ve all enjoyed those worship services. You know the ones. A reckless abandon in praise. An unashamed adoration. Voices lifted high to the Lord.

For churches with a contemporary worship style, this type of visible response has become the goal. Success is measured in how many hands are raised, how many eyes are closed, how many knees are bent. In short, we measure in visible expressions.

A Better Measure?

But I want to push back on that type of thinking a little bit.

The Bible commands and instructs us to physically engage in worship with visible expression. But it’s important to remember that visible expression is not the only way we worship. I would suggest it’s not even the most important way we worship.

Jesus calls us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

When we worship through singing, dancing, kneeling, shouting or lifting our hands, we’re mostly worshiping God with our heart (and some strength). Our emotions are stirred toward the Lord. We lift up religious affections. We feel the joy of the Lord. We feel His smile toward us.

The reason I left this particular gathering a little disappointed was because we never quite reached this place of obvious, visible adoration. Through the lens of our contemporary worship movement, this could be seen as a failure.

Visible expressions are a part of our worship. But they’re just that – a part.

There is more.

Worship Listens

On this particular Sunday, we began by reading Psalm 146:1-9. The living, breathing, word of God was read loudly, clearly and unashamedly.

It didn’t have the energy of a driving drum beat. The flurry of a melodic hook. The subtle drone of an artfully crafted keyboard patch. But the word of God is more powerful and more beautiful than any of these things.

The word of God will endure forever.

The word of God is breathed from God Himself.

The word of God has the power to cut to our very soul.

Although it’s important to sing our words to God, it’s even more important for us to hear His words to us.

Worship Gives

We also recognized that giving financially is just as much an act of worship as singing a song. Perhaps even more so. Why? Because to worship something means to invest in it. To give yourself to it. To sacrifice. To pour yourself out even when it isn’t easy or convenient.

The words “I Surrender All” are easy to sing but very hard to live. Financial giving takes the songs we sing out of the theoretical and brings them into the practical. It puts weight behind our words. It demonstrates to the Lord that we mean what we say.

Now passing an offering bag doesn’t have the smoothness of a sly transition. Writing a check or punching an amount into an app doesn’t have the effortless ease of simply closing your eyes. The pang of letting money go when there is already so little to spare is in stark contrast to the pleasure of being swept away by a rich musical arrangement.

But is it possible that more genuine worship is happening in these moments of giving than in most moments of singing?

Worship Remembers

Psalm 105 tells us to “Remember His mighty deeds.”

I was homeschooled throughout my elementary years. As the fifth child, my mom had pretty much worked out her teaching methods by the time I came along. I would ask a question, desperately hoping for just a simple answer. That never happened. She would always reply with something like, “Do you remember what we learned last week?” Or “Write it out for yourself and see if you can find the answer.”

Hearing spoon-fed facts takes little effort. Remembering for ourselves requires more.

On this same Sunday, we received Communion. Communion gives us a special chance to remember. We remember that we were once lost in sin. We remember that God’s wrath was poured out on Christ instead of us.

It’s easy to listen to a worship leader sing, “It was my sin that held Him there…”. It’s a little harder to stop and consider the weight of your sin. Not just the idea of sin itself, but YOUR sin. The specific things that have separated you from God, to repent and receive mercy from the Father.

When this sinks in, reverential awe comes over our soul.

This awe isn’t often manifested in clapping, dancing or shouting. This internal work of the Spirit may not be immediately visible during the service. But it will soon be seen clearly when our lives begin to bear lasting fruit.

A New Measure Of Success

Reading Scripture, receiving an offering and taking Communion can be seen as disruptions. Obstacles impeding our precious “flow.” Bumps in the road that jolt people out of their eyes-closed, hands-raised, sonically induced state of serenity.

It’s a wonderful thing when hands are raised and voices are lifted, but ask yourself: Is this your measure of success?

What about a church family hearing and receiving the Word of God? Or a church family worshiping practically and sacrificially? Or a church family remembering God’s mighty works?

Now that sounds like a successful day to me.

Marty was my favorite.

I came up as a worship leader in the days of Hillsong United’s early albums. Joel, JD, Jad, Marty and Matt were like The Avengers for worship leaders. Everyone had their favorite, and Marty Sampson was mine.

After flying under the radar for years, Marty shared an explosive Instagram update:

“I’m genuinely losing my faith, and it doesn’t bother me”

“All I know is what’s true to me right now.”

My heart broke when I saw this. Not because it’s wrong to wrestle with your faith. Not because doubts and uncertainty don’t come our way. But because his full statement revealed something deeper. He had rejected the God of the Bible for a god of his own design. And this god had failed him.

He isn’t alone.

The version of Christianity Marty has rejected reaches throughout the globe.

I’ve been a pastor for 10 years, and I can confess, I’m tempted by its seductive call. This version has an age-old allure. We are the hero of our story. We are the masters of our fate. Here are a few statements from Marty’s post:

“How many preachers Fall? Many.”

Seeing our leaders fall is painful. When a pastor succumbs to moral failure, it’s undeniably destructive. Right now, many of us still feel the pain from wounds wrought by an unfaithful pastor.

But these failings are not an indictment on the holiness of God. They’re an indictment on the sinfulness of man. If anything, they just confirm that what God said about us is true. We are sinners. They confirm what Jesus has done is essential. We need a savior.

It’s easy to hang our faith on leaders. In our head, we know Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. He is the only pure and perfect image of God. “But hey, what about this guy? Can he be my mediator too?” And if he falls, you crumble.

If you put your faith in man, your faith will fail.

“How many miracles happen? Not many”

My wife and I were told we may never be able to have kids. Doctor’s appointments and tests revealed that conceiving would be nothing short of a miracle. And then it happened. We got pregnant. After countless hours of prayer, our miracle baby had come.

And then she was gone.

Our miscarriage is the most devastating thing I’ve been through. Not only because we lost a cherished life but because my wife and I were floating on our miracle. When that miracle was pulled away, we fell hard.

What is a miracle? It’s God’s supernatural intervention into our human world. Although God does choose – at times – to supernaturally intervene on our behalf, this isn’t His ultimate purpose.

He’s already performed the ultimate miracle. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God became man and made a way for eternal reconciliation and rest with the Father.

Physical Healing can fade.

Financial provision can be lost.

Salvation is eternal.

Because of God’s immeasurable grace, many of us receive both God’s eternal miracle of salvation and experience temporal miracles throughout our life. But remember, God does not promise your preferred answer to every prayer or desired miracle for every hurt.

God is not obligated to conform to your will.

His primary mission is not to supernaturally sweep away every hurt and pain and replace it with ease and comfort.

If you put your faith in God doing what you want Him to do, your faith will fail.

I’ve been in pain and despair and hurt. I’ve cried out to God to intervene, and He hasn’t. And many of you have far more reason to cry out and far more reason to despair when only silence returns.

Jesus warned “In this world, you will have trouble”

But praise God this isn’t the end of the story!

“Take heart! For I have overcome the world.”

“How can God be love yet send four billion people to a place, all ‘coz they don’t believe?”

This is a tough one. Hell is a hard pill to swallow. It’s no wonder many pastors and churches gloss over it like the black sheep of the theological family.

My purpose here isn’t to dig into the existence of hell but to dig into what this statement is really saying.

“How can God do something I don’t understand?”

“How can God do something I disagree with?”

“How can God do something I wouldn’t do?”

When you begin asking these questions your faith is on a fault line. One day soon the plates will shift, the earth will open, and you’ll be swallowed whole. It’s true, we’d all like it if God were just a little more like us. If He did things our way.

But we are not God.

His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His plan for redemption may contain things we don’t understand.

There is the God of the Bible, and a God we’ve conformed into our image. You have to decide who you believe in.

If you put your faith in your personal version of God, your faith will fail.

I’m certain that Marty’s faith journey is much more intricate, complex and nuanced than his brief post reveals. Looking at his statements is not so much a judgment of him as a warning for me.

I see myself all over his remarks. This version of Christianity is constantly pulling me into its comforting clutches.

I want to believe in physical, audible preachers as my proxy for Jesus.

I want to believe God will always supernaturally intervene when I need Him most.

I want to believe God will do everything the way I think He should.

But the true God is so much better than any man. Any miracle. Any construct of my invention.

I choose to put my faith in Him. I hope you do too.

A lump was forming in my throat. My eyes were wide. I had thought about this moment so many times. Was it really here?

I was subtly aware there was more to leading worship than hitting the right notes, singing the right words and not making an absolute fool of myself. I was subtly aware that there was something more. A bigger reason. Another purpose for why I was on that stage. I was subtly aware, but I wasn’t sure what that reason was. And honestly, I don’t think I cared.

I was 13 years old and had spent the last year of my life endlessly practicing guitar in my bedroom, a year on the sidelines of my midwest country church youth band, waiting for my number to be called.

So what was it? That seed germinating in my heart. Was there more than just avoiding embarrassment? More than playing a few nice songs and trying not to distract anyone?

What was my role as a worship leader? What was I trying to accomplish? Maybe you’ve wondered too.

Why We’re Here

I believe Psalm 34:3 provides the perfect description of the role of a worship leader.

“Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His Name together!”

A telescope uses a series of lenses aligned in such a way that, when you look through them, objects far off in the distance can be seen clearly. Do you remember the last time you looked into a clear, night sky? Massive heavenly bodies appeared as small, blurry dots of light.

Now if you had a powerful telescope nearby, these same blurry dots would suddenly fill the entire scope of your vision. Their surface and color and edges would become radiant and vivid and magnificent. Their intricacy and beauty and detail would be overwhelming.

Imagine our songs and prayers and scripture readings are lenses in a telescope. Suddenly what was once distant and shrouded by clouds becomes the all-consuming vision of majesty it really is.

How is it that the Eternal, Almighty One, the creator of the universe, the sustainer of all life, can fade into the blurred spots of our peripheral vision?

It would seem unthinkable if it weren’t yours and my daily reality. Somehow our worries, busyness, obligations, sin, hobbies and leisure take center stage.

What can a worship leader do about all this? I like to say it this way.

The role of the worship leader is to bring the wonder of God into large, vivid focus before the hearts and minds of our church.

. We celebrate His character.

. We describe His attributes.

. We tell of His wondrous works.

. We marvel at His creation.

. We rejoice in His plan for redemption.

We magnify! We magnify the Lord by proclaiming His greatness, by exalting His Name, by giving Him honor. We magnify the Lord by showing forth something of His excellence.

Anyone who encounters the living God does not leave the same. When we are exposed to the glory of God, we are amazed by His power, astonished by His greatness, in awe of His love.

That’s Not Your Job

I keep discovering, more and more, incredible gifts God chooses to give us as we worship Him together. The believer is encouraged and edified. The unbeliever sees that God is among us. Our suffering Savior brings comfort to our heart. He brings joy through His presence. We are filled afresh with His Spirit. We receive His strength to be a voice of love and truth in our world.

The disconnect occurs when we, as worship leaders, try to MAKE these things happen. That’s not our job.

Some of you see yourself as a worship mediator. There is a room full of people and a God in heaven. Your job is to act as the middle man connecting one with the other. You feel a weight and pressure to make this happen. You feel the disappointment when it doesn’t. This is a burden no human can carry.

“For there is one God, and there is one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5-6a).

How do we “enter the holy places” (Hebrews 10:19)? How do we “draw near to the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16)? It is only by the blood of Jesus. Only through our great high priest.

So take a step back. Breathe a sigh of relief. Release the reins. Your role is to magnify, not mediate.

I didn’t pass out. My voice didn’t crack. People even joined me in singing on that first day I lead worship. But I’m so thankful that since that time, I’ve discovered what it means to lead worship with a true purpose. I’ve come to know what part I have to play in this powerful kingdom work.

We cannot make anyone worship God. But we can make much of who God is.