THE ROLE AND COMMON STRUGGLES OF A WORSHIP LEADER
A Worship leader is the confident voice of inspiration, the praise song leader, the trumpet, the leading voice, the buffet host, the mass feeder, the humbled lead server, the forerunner, cheerleader, bridge between God and His people, the representative voice of the people to God.
The Common struggles of worship leader are:
1) Support & Accountability:
Worship leaders frequently are literally at the front of criticism and judgement from leaders and congregation. They lack the nurturing support and spiritual accountability, in His Presence.
2) Key selection against comfortable range:
Keys of songs should not be chosen to serve the preferences of the musicians, but the worship leader. Result is worship leaders lead inefficiently and un-wholeheartedly as long as they operate outside of their most comfortable range.
3) Non-dynamic, unbalanced worship song mix and flow:
Many worship leaders do not serve a variety, much like a balanced diet. Rather, many serve the same, just cooked differently. It satisfies some, but not all. For eg, quite often worship leaders forgo fast praise songs while utilising more the medium and slow worship songs, not mindful that there are people in our midst who need the burst of praise to breakthrough in their heavy heart and in their spirit.
4) Working with a Inefficient Band:
Worship leaders struggle with bands that have weak music fundamentals, musical dynamics, weak discipline, individualistic band members, and importantly, an absent or ineffective Music Director.
5) Working with non-harmonizing vocalists:
Worship leaders frequently 'fight' for space when backup vocalists 'crowd' on the same melody line, which rightfully belongs to him/her. WLs don't feel collaborative support, instead vocal competition.
6) Not co-leading:
Worship leaders often grow tired planning and leading entire worship sets. Very few have the openness and courage to share space and leadership with other co-leaders.
7) Not understanding music:
Not all worship leaders are musicians but the most effective worship leaders are musicians. We cannot lead those whose lingo, we cannot understand and communicate.
8) Not operational during free worship:
Worship leaders are frequently lost on how to create simple, musical and practical hooks for everybody to follow and flow freely.
9) Congregation not responsive to their leading:
Worship leaders might have chose songs too new and difficult to follow. Maybe a simple welcome to His sanctuary needs to be done to start things off right.
Kingdom Music is a place where worship leaders improve themselves both in music and in team leadership. Let's pray for their deeper worship, greater anointing and extravagant worship expression.