Chapter 3 Leading worship

The main focus of this chapter is on leading worship in a small group setting such as a homegroup or house church. The reason for this focus is explained in my book Simple Kingdom: Home Fellowships, and for those who haven't read that book I'll repeat its key thesis here:

The mission of the church is to advance the kingdom of God. This is accomplished by making disciples who are obedient to Jesus as King. Discipleship primarily takes place in home fellowships because that's where church really happens. Home fellowships are where people can experience God's kingdom and learn to love one another. They're also where everyone gets to play, which allows them to safely develop ministry and leadership skills without worrying about failure. In short, home fellowships are where people can become more like Jesus by learning to do the stuff he did (and continues to do through us).

Because home fellowships are the place where church really happens they're also a place where genuine, Spirit-filled worship can happen (John 4:24). And although it's possible to have simple and intimate worship in a large corporate setting, it's easier to do this in a small home fellowship. And everything covered in this chapter about how to lead worship is just as applicable to leading worship in Sunday morning church services and in large gatherings like celebrations and conferences.

Skills and qualifications

The skills and qualifications for leading worship are simple:

Basic musical competency. To lead worship in a home fellowship you just need to know about a dozen basic guitar chords and be able to strum and keep tempo. [Note #5: A guitar is best for leading worship in a home fellowship. Keyboards are more suited for team worship and large corporate gatherings.] You should also be able to sing in tune and with confidence i.e. loud enough so others can follow. It's not necessary to know how to read music as you can learn most songs by listening to them and using trial and error to find the chords you need to play. But it does help to have some basic knowledge of musical notation, especially if you want to write worship songs and share them with others.

An honest and humble heart. Be assured you will make many mistakes as you try to lead others in worship. You'll play songs too fast or too slow. You'll start songs in the wrong key and hear people's voices cracking or growling. You'll pick songs that are too difficult for some to sing or unsuitable for where most people are at. But if you keep at it you'll eventually start to see people engaging in worship and connecting with God. It's beautiful when you see this happening and you realize God is using someone like you to bring others into His presence.

Phases of the heart

Before we look at choosing songs for leading worship, it's important to understand what happens in people's hearts as they worship God. In the Equipping the Saints article mentioned earlier in chapter 1, Wimber described five basic phases through which leaders attempt to lead the congregation during worship. You can read John's full description of these phases in the article in Renewal Journal [Note #6: See the article https://renewaljournal.com/2011/05/19/worship-intimacy-with-god-by-john-carol-wimber/ referenced earlier in chapter 2.] so I'll just briefly summarize them here:

Call to worship. Songs are selected that convey the idea that "God deserves our worship so let's do it, let's worship now." The goal here is to get people mentally focused on God's love so they can begin to worship Him.

Engagement. Worship starts to flow freely as the people connect with God, praising Him for who He is and what He has done.

Expression. Worship becomes more intimate as people express their hearts to God. Expressions of adoration, thanks and repentance are accompanied by actions like kneeling, raising hands and bowing down.

Visitation. The Spirit of God moves upon the congregation bringing salvation, healing, sanctification and deliverance. Scripture promises are brought to mind; visions and revelations may occur; prophetic words are received and delivered to strengthen and encourage God's people.

Giving of substance. True worship involves not just singing but giving God our whole lives by freely offering our money, love, help and hospitality to those in need.

Wimber also pointed out in his article that these phases aren't always separate and distinct. But while they often overlap, it's helpful when preparing to lead worship to choose a series of songs that can lead people sequentially through these different phases of worship. Let's examine this now.

Preparing a worship set

A good way of understanding how to prepare a worship set (an ordered selection of worship songs) that follows Wimber's worship philosophy is to examine an actual worship set from the early days of the Vineyard and see what lessons we can learn from it. Below is a series of songs used by Carl Tuttle as he led the evening worship at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim during winter 1982 [Note #7: This live worship cassette tape is available in digitized format (.mp3 files) from the author upon request.]:

As we gather
In moments like these
He has shown thee (Micah 6:8)
I want to praise you Lord
Jesus I love you
Lift Jesus higher
Exodus XV
A shield about me

Let's see what lessons we can learn by examining this worship set. First, only two of the songs (#6 and 7) originated with the Vineyard. The rest are mostly drawn from Maranatha! Music, a ministry of the Calvary Chapel association of churches to which the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim had until only recently belonged. [Note #8: For a good overview of the history of the Vineyard Movement, see Bill Jackson's book The Quest for the Radical Middle (Vineyard International Publishing, 1999).] Our first lesson then is that when you're putting together a worship set you should feel free to choose songs from various sources as long as they fit your purposes and flow together well.

Second, all the songs in the set are short and easy to learn. If you're not familiar with any of them, google their lyrics and you'll discover that this is the case. This is important because the songs you select (or at least most of them) should be simple enough that people can learn them after singing them once or twice. This lets people sing from memory with their eyes closed so they can focus attention on God instead of on the overhead screen—or worse, on their cellphones.

Third, if we examine the songs closely and the order in which they were sung, we can see that this worship set aligns well with Wimber's "phases of the heart" worship philosophy of leading people towards greater intimacy with God. To see this let's look at some of the words of the songs. The set begins with the following:

As we gather may your spirit work within us... In moments like these I sing out a song...

Those first two songs are a call to worship that convey the idea "Let's worship, let's do it now." Next comes this song:

He has shown thee O man what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.

While the third song seems like an exhortation to live a godly life, what it also does is remind us who God is, that He is just and merciful and that He is our God and we are His people. And once the truth of Micah 6:8 penetrates our hearts, the engagement phase has begun.

I want to praise you Lord, much more than I do...I want to know you...I want to love you...I want to serve you...

Worship is progressing from engagement to expression with songs that express the people's hunger for God.

Jesus I love you...Jesus I need you...Jesus I want you...

Worship now moves towards visitation as God's people experience intimacy with Him, pouring forth their praise and thanksgiving. Experiences of God's power may occur which are echoed in the words of the next song:

Lift Jesus higher! Lift Jesus higher! There's power power in His name...There's healing in His name...

The set concludes with songs that encourage the people towards giving of substance as they dedicate their lives afresh to serving God, trusting Him for protection and provision:

The Lord is my strength and my song...And I shall prepare Him my heart...Thou, O Lord, art a shield about me...

Simple and intimate—worship doesn't get any better!

Being a servant

If you listen to the recording of live worship from the early Vineyard, you'll notice that the people enter easily into worship and seem fully engaged. As a worship leader it's wonderful when this happens, but what if it doesn't?

If the people you're trying to lead don't seem to be engaged during worship, the problem is likely with you. Maybe you aren't perceiving where the people are at emotionally or spiritually. Perhaps there's a spirit of disappointment over the congregation, or resentment from unresolved conflicts, or weariness from too many setbacks in the mission of the church or in peoples' lives. Or maybe the air conditioner has broken down and the room is just too darn hot for people to want to stand up and praise the Lord.

If any of these are the reason why the people don't seem to respond as you lead worship, stop and shift gears. I first learned this lesson when I was playing keyboards on Andy Park's worship team and we visited a church one Sunday to do the worship there. Our team had practiced several hours the evening before and had prepared what we felt was a solid worship set. But on Sunday morning after we finished our first song, Andy turned to us and said we were going to play some different songs we hadn't practiced. The result of this was that the people at the church had a wonderful time of worshiping God.

How did Andy know that the songs he had chosen weren't the right ones for the church? He led worship with his eyes open, watching how the congregation responded instead of focusing inwardly on himself, his playing or his own experience worshipping. In other words, he was doing his job—serving others instead of himself.

In his Healing Seminar recorded live on video in the mid-80s [Note #9: Available to watch online at https://vineyarddigital.org/item/john-wimber-healing/ with a membership to Vineyard Digital.] Wimber taught us to keep our eyes open as we pray for people to be healed. John called this "praying for effect", meaning that as we pray for someone we look for signs of the Holy Spirit coming upon them like trembling or altered breathing or changes in posture. At the same time we also attune our hearts to God, asking Him to guide us by giving us words of knowledge about the person's condition. I believe the same principle applies when we lead worship. In other words we should lead for effect, keeping our eyes open to watch how the people respond while also listening attentively to the Spirit for direction.

This way of leading worship contrasts with what I have often seen as worship leaders zone out while leading worship. It's painful for me to see a worship leader who, with closed eyes, chooses to blissfully ignore their congregation and focus instead on their own inward experience while the people disconnect and start looking around or checking their phones.

It's easy these days for a worship leader, especially a musically talented one, to get caught up in focusing on performance or expressing themselves artistically instead of observing whether the people are engaged during worship. Perhaps the reason this happens is because in today's world gifted musicians and songwriters are seen as superstars, as idols—as gods. But in the kingdom of God, things are different.

John Wimber was himself a talented musician and a gifted songwriter, so he well understood the temptations worship leaders face when they lead from up front. In her book about her husband's life and the early days of the Vineyard, Carol Wimber relates the following [Note #10: See page 33 of John Wimber: The Way it Was by Carol Wimber (Hodder & Stoughton, 1999).]:

He [John] couldn't be moved by the worship leader's need to express himself through the music. "It isn't about you, it's about Jesus, and your only job is to lead the people to him," he would say. Displays of artistic temperament and endeavour left him cold. When the worship leader would go off into an introspective indulgence of musical meandering, he commented, "I suppose to them, it's fraught with meaning, but I'm not impressed!"

"It isn't about you, it's about Jesus, and your only job is to lead the people to him." In a nutshell, that's exactly what being a servant is all about: doing your master's will, not your own. As Jesus said:

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

If Jesus is our model, we should do as he did.

Or as I sometimes like to put it: "Want to be a superstar in the kingdom of heaven? Eat dirt here." [Note #11: A colorful way of saying that we should humble ourselves if we want to be exalted (see Matthew 20:12).]

---> Go to chapter 4