Ahhh! Walk into most modern churches about 5 minutes into a Sunday Service and what do you see center stage? Correcto! The Worship Leader! Now is some churches this position is not as glamorous as it is in others, but a person who chooses the songs and the choir sings them, or an individual sings them is irrelevant. I am questioning the very position itself, rather center stage or not! So to stick to my normal style of writing I am going to ask a question. How should worship look in a gathering of saints? I am glad you asked. I want to propose a couple of scriptures and talk about them briefly.
Ephesians 5:
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Now the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul is addressing how we should interact with one another. This has to be in some type of gathering, because it would be quite weird if I saw one of my brothers in Christ at the Super Wal-Mart and he came to me singing and reciting other psalms and hymns! But this could be a stretch so lets Go over to Corinthians 14
1 Corinthians 14:
26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
No denying this one. Paul is addressing how orderly worship is to be conducted. Note what he says: “EACH” has a hymn, lesson, etc……
This raises my next question. How is it that when I come to “church” on Sunday, someone has already picked which songs are “going to prepare my heart” to receive God’s word? What if I have a song that is going to prepare others heart? What if I came across a Psalm that I think will “BUILD UP THE BODY”? Which scripture gives this authority to a “worship leader”? What if my 12 year old newly converted son (hypothetical) came into to worship and wanted to share a song with the body? This shouldn’t be so people. What if the song is theologically unsound? What if there is biblical error in the song and it has a nice melody? I ask again, who gives this right to one person and who takes this right away from the believers?
Here are the last few verses found in Colassians 3:
Colossians 3:
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Paul tells the Church at Colosse how they should interact with one another.
So I ask who is qualified to lead worship? The answer is easy, anyone who has been given a new heart! We are each psalmist, each of us are responsible for building one another up through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. This burden doesn’t rest on one individual.
The obvious and blatant results have been crippling to the local gathering. People flock to churches because they have “good worship” it is so bad that people actually makes a church choice because of this. This is ridiculous. We have men and women being paid to (exuberant amounts at times) to “prepare us”. So next time you go to church ask can you lead worship and if not, then tell them they are not allowing you to do what the scriptures clearly commands each of us under the New Covenant to do!
Another aspect of this discussion is the faulty idea that “worship” only happens when there’s music playing. In fact, worship is (hopefully) the entire service, including attending to the Word, prayer, and even the giving or tithes and offerings!
Greetings brother Lionel, while I have been reading your blog for well over a couple of months, this is the first time I felt ready to respond as such. I must say that from a biblical standpoint I must agree with your exposition. I also wanted to make reference that according to verses you mentioned, could it be possible that on a given gathering that any man would be allowed to teach and not only the pastor, if they have a word/ the Word
Hey Tarre, I just posted part two and this should answer your uestion. But my answer is yes any man should be allowed and what is spoken should be weighed.
While not exhaustive I think you’re onto something, brother Lionel. The principle you have here is general and is contingent on a sense of propriety or order within a corporate church service as well as subject to judgment by such as elders so that it is scriptural and edifies rather than tears down the church.
I thought of your previous post about the sizes of churches as I read this. I’m in a large church with an average Sunday morning attendance of over 1200. Many of our membership have come from other churches and denominations that have stopped being faithful to God and have found a home in the hard, solid truth in our teaching and worship as well as a heart for ministry outside of our four and twenty walls.
With a large church, we’d be there for a few days if we opened up the floor to anyone who had a word or a song. However, leading in worship at our church is open to anyone who wishes to participate. This is why we have a large choir and orchestra and a wealth of opportunities to minister in worship – and not just on Sunday morning. The staff is particularly open to ideas and suggestions and will schedule people who have something to offer so that they can offer it. They will work with anyone who is off the mark to correct them so that nothing not edifying to the church or glorifying to God is presented.