Every time I talk to a worship leader in our church I mention to them to never forget two very important things (1) To minister to the heart of God, and (2) To minister to the people so they can worship God. As worship leaders the first is the most important thing, and the second is the product of the first one.
1) Ministering to the heart of God - the Most Important!
I remember when I started leading worship. I used to be worried all the time. I wanted everything to go well. I already had some insecurities that didn't really help. So I would struggle with trying to have everything go right and not mess up. But I realized that I was focusing so much on myself and on others that I was missing out on worshiping God. I then learned that I needed to treasure the heart of God before all things. I pushed myself aside and decided that I would not make it about my fears or insecurities. I decided that every time I would make it about God, because it IS ALL ABOUT HIM.
I decided to give him an "Abel" offering, the best dance, the best smile, the best clap, the best voice, the best I could give Him. My passion, my shouts of joy, my everything...for HIM! Because of who God is, what He has done, what He is doing, what He will do. We as worship leaders must treasure the heart of God. When we get up to lead, our main desire must be to make our God smile. To lift His holy name. To really desire Him and to give Him all the glory, without holding anything back. To treasure Him more than treasuring the outcome of the service. To praise and worship Him with NO FEAR, NO SHAME, NO INSECURITY.
2) Ministering to the people so they can worship God
When we are passionate for God and we realize it's all about Him it automatically moves us to lead the people to that place where they can also worship God with everything they have. We have many people that come with different backgrounds, different challenges and needs. So our task must be to lead them to Praise and Worship. We lead them with our example of passionate worship and we also lead them by communicating with them and pointing them towards God. For example, when we say "Let's give shouts of praise!" or when we prompt them for what is coming in the next lines of the song. Or when we ask them if they could please join us in raising their hands or closing their eyes. These are all means to an end. The end is in glorifying God with everything that we have.
So let's always use these two things. The first and most important one, to praise and worship God with everything that we have. So much so that it's contagious! They'll see us delighting ourselves in the Lord and that passion will move us to lead people to want to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8).
