Top Ten Mistakes Worship Leaders Make April 7, 2008
Posted by Gordon in Worship.Tags: Baptist blog, church worship, worship leader, Worship leading, Worship service
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Rex Miller is a church consultant and author of The Millennium Matrix who has compiled an interesting list of the Top Ten Mistakes Worship Leaders Make. I will balance it out by my own list of Top Ten Things Worship Leaders Get Right, but for the time being, here’s 8 of his list of 10, found at his blog The Millennium Matrix
When I travel and consult in the church world, I’m always a student of leadership, communication patterns, and the intersection of spirit and culture. Out of that, over the years, I’ve developed a list of 10 universal and pervasive mistakes which worship leaders make.
Mistake #1 - Assuming that everyone has tasted worship.
Mistake # 2 - Worship is a means to an end
Mistake # 3 - Talent and Beauty over Heart
Mistake # 4 - Worship in a box
Mistake # 5 - It’s only about music
Mistake # 6 - Excellence equals complexity
Mistake # 7 - The latest and greatest
Mistake # 8 - The Secret formula
Do you have any to add?
Did you mean 8 mistakes?
Anyway, this totally hits the nail on the head!!!
Let’s see, can I add one? Hmmmm… This may be redundant, but “Out with the old and in with the new”.
I don’t know. Your list will make me think for days!
I wonder how he can possibly gauge those…they are so subjective and dependent on your own perspective.
I think sometimes we look at what someone else is doing, and make a whole heap of assumptions we have no right to make.
No, I think he’s right on. For example, #1 - let’s face it, while everyone has tasted God’s grace in one way or another, not everyone has intentionally worshiped the Living God. We’re wired for worship, but most people worship something else.
I’ll just add an amen to the one about worship only being music. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “We’ll worship and then read the Word…” or “We’ll pray after we worship…” or whatever… All that is worship!
I think we need to watch being judgmental, but I don’t think he was. I don’t see any finger-pointing. But it is helpful to work out a definition of worship. If we don’t think about what worship is, we will not be careful, wise and intentional about it. I think that he is simply trying to get people to think about what they call “worship”.
Maybe
I just wonder what the other two are.
Firstly, only 8 listed cos that’s all I could harvest off Rex’s site.
Mark I think he’s on the money, and that’s from my experiences in Africa, Europe and Aussie. To what degree these are prevalent, true, that is subjective. However, as someone who tries to educate and shape worship leaders in leading our congregation into meaningful corporate worship times [including far more than singing] I find myself coming up against these assumptions/motives constantly.
You must have a pretty good bunch at Bedford, what do you feed them? Either that, or as a Freo fan you’ve been conditioned to accept mediocrity:)?
” “We’ll worship and then read the Word…” or “We’ll pray after we worship…” or whatever… All that is worship!”
semantics….I am so over the whole “worship” argument. People say, worship is not only what we do on a Sunday…blah blah blah…after a while that gets a bit old. Of course ‘worship’ is not only singing….but I suspect we often say that to justify our own cleverness….I hope that does not sound too harsh.
And I stand by my point….if you have a problem with this or any other issue, I reckon the best way to make change is to lead by example…
blessings!
BTW Gordon…what team do you support?
creative post. i dig it.
Mark-
The Mighty Mighty Brisbane Lions.
Sing along now:
We are the pride of Brisbane town,
We wear maroon, blue and gold.
We will always fight for victory,
Like Fitzroy, and Bears of old.
All for one, and one for all,
We will answer to the call.
Go Lions, Brisbane Lions,
We’ll kick the winning score.
You’ll hear our mighty roar!
“I reckon the best way to make change is to lead by example…”
Mark, I wholeheartedly agree. I have tried through inviting people over to our house, through the worship class I teach at school (the kids then lead the worship in chapel) and through any opportunities I get at church. Talk is cheap. I say, plan a meal, plan a simple liturgy around the resurrection of Christ, and invite people to enter into worship in your living room!
You know, as I’m pondering… I think, Mark, while I don’t 100% agree with what you’re saying (comment 6), you have an attitude about worship I like - and we all, as worshipers (leaders or not) need to adopt more. I’m getting (just from the little I’ve read in your comments) that you want to see worship uniting, not dividing, the church. I’m guessing that’s all our hope. I think all I’m saying is I don’t want to see other aspects (non-musical, visual etc.) of worship pushed out or belittled is all. But again, I dig your attitude. God bless!
Thanks…if God is the object of our worship, how do you think He feels when he watches us argue over what iworship is and isnt?
I am just as comfortable, and enjoy, singing along with 35, 000 others at Hillsong conference, as I am with a group of fellow pastors having communion together, wine and bread, at the Pinnacles.
(http://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Pages/Attraction.aspx?pid=9001684)
God is so creative and diverse…who are we to tell Him, or others, that what they are doing is wrong?
At my church we have an excellent guitarist, and when some of his mates come along, they jam..I am talking blues, distorted guitar…and its great…because it is creative…and its worship…even if it is ‘just music’.
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