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Music Workshop This music training article is an excerpt from Bob’s book, Exploring Worship. Bob is an internationally known speaker and music minister. This book is available in its entirety from the book section of Balancing Preparation with Inspiration By Bob Sorge
Sometimes we feel like we are on the back of our heels, arms flailing, and we don’t know whether to fall back or stand squarely with both feet firmly planted. God will repeatedly put us back on our heels so that we can be influenced one way or the other with a gentle breath of God’s Spirit. If our feet are planted squarely and we know exactly where we are going in worship, chances are that we will plow ahead with our program and miss God. A sincere worship leader will frequently experience that sense of uncertainty, with is designed by God to keep us totally dependent upon him. When we lose that sense of total dependence upon the Lord and begin to get overly confident in our own abilities, God will bring along a “bad” worship service. He will sit in his holy heaven and design a divine disaster with our names on it, in order to keep us completely dependent upon him. If this sounds too threatening – if we would rather know exactly where God is taking us every step of the way – then we should find a vocation other than worship-leading. Our churches are already loaded with enough song leaders who remain insensitive to the gentle voice of the Spirit. What we now need are worship leaders who are willing to forsake human institutions of worship for the sake of following the Spirit of God. A worship leader must come to the service prepared but then should remain open to any changes inspired by the Holy Spirit while the service is in progress. The changes the Holy Spirit would initiate, however, do not always include an alteration of the songs being sung. Worship leaders must be open to more than simply singing songs different from those that were preplanned. They must also be sensitive to discerning God’s will in terms of the exercising of spiritual gifts. Does the Spirit want to bring forth a prophecy, or a word of knowledge, or an exhortation? Is it time to change gears and move into a season of prayer or of quiet contemplation? These sorts of activities cannot always be easily anticipated in advance of the service, and yet they are critical elements in the success of the worship service. It is crucial that the worship leader be adequately prepared, and this should include the preparation of a list of possible songs to sing. But far more important than being prepared musically is being prepared spiritually. This preparation comes through time spent on our knees, through worship and prayer. The tendency of some is to spend thirty minutes selecting songs and five minutes asking God to bless that selection. We may need thirty minutes or more to choose our songs, but we should spend far more time than that in spiritual preparation. The spiritual preparation of the worship leader is much more than a Saturday evening or early Sunday morning phenomenon. The worship leader, like any pastor, must learn to cultivate a daily prayer life. Worship leaders need a level of spiritual sensitivity that comes only through a disciplined, daily devotional life. (To acquire Bob Sorge’s complete book entitled “Exploring Worship,” we invite you to the book section of the
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We need a balance between preparation on the one hand and a continual sensitivity to the direction of the Spirit on the other. It is not uncommon for worship leaders to feel uncertain frequently about what direction to take the people during a worship time. They know the frustration of spending hours in prayerful preparation, only to find that they cannot seem to discern God’s direction in the middle of worship. Worship leaders should be comforted to know that they are not alone in feeling this uncertainty, and that the problem is not always wit them. It is not necessarily because they did not spend enough time in prayer or preparation – it is because God will purposefully keep them entirely dependent upon him.