Joshua Hawk

Several days ago, I posted a blog entitled A Word for Next-Gen Church Leaders. In that blog, I admonish children pastors and youth pastors to teach the word to a spiritually deprived generation dependent on entertainment. In this blog, I turn my attention towards worship pastors and song leaders. Out of all the leaders in the church today, the position that needs the most admonishment is by far the worship pastor and song leader. I could easily max out my allotted cloud storage by writing on the subject of worship alone. This particular subject is one that I tend to speak about the most because the Lord has blessed me with musical ability and I have been using these gifts in the church for many years; however, I will only touch on the main issues for the sake of brevity. All I ask is this word is received with an open heart.

In 1910, a prophecy came out of the Azusa Street Revival. The prophecy stated, “In 100 years there will be a greater emphasis on praise to a God that people no longer pray to” (Ask The Dreamer 2012). In case you aren’t aware, this is happening right now! Today, prayer meetings are tragically low in attendance while worshippers fill up stadiums for concerts and conferences around the globe. The altar, which used to be regarded as sacred and approached with great reverence, has been rendered to something common like the front row seat of a concert venue. Where broken people once knelt and cried out to God in repentance is now a mosh pit full of prayer-less souls who sing and lift their hands to a God they don’t even know! As Paul once famously said to the men of Athens, “you are ignorant of the very thing you worship!” (Acts 17:23).

This greater emphasis on praise over prayer has conditioned the church, especially our young people, to believe that a musical experience intertwined with some emotion is the very best that they can receive from God. How sad!

“The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”” Isaiah 29:13 NIV

This verse epitomizes the culture of worship in the church today – worship that is void of intimacy and relationship. How can we worship God properly if we have no relationship with Him due to prayerlessness? We simply can’t! Sadly, worship has evolved into empty entertainment that reeks in the nostrils of Almighty God. The real tragedy is Christians are not aware that God has rejected our worship. Worship isn’t about skinny jeans, bright lights, state-of-the-art sound equipment, and expensive instruments. The only kind of worship that God accepts is one that is offered as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). Worship that offers anything else is vain worship.

So what can we do as worship leaders to make sure our worship doesn’t become vain? There are three things that I want to point out.

Be devoted to prayer

A ministry in worship requires a life devoted to prayer. Prayer is worship so what good is a worship pastor who is weak in prayer? A worship pastor who doesn’t pray is just as useless as a pastor who doesn’t preach or a missionary who doesn’t share the gospel. If you are a worship pastor and do not attend your church prayer meetings nor pray on a regular basis, it is time for you to start fulfilling the duties of your job title or resign from your position.

Because prayer is the key to intimacy with God, the altar should not be used as an opportunity to sing a song because what will bound to happen is prayer will be hindered and the call for repentance will turn into a sing-along. I have seen this happen time and time again! God will hold worship leaders accountable for stymying intimacy with His people! Worship leaders must stop making worship all about the music and start teaching members on their worship team and in their congregation to value authentic worship – PRAYER.

Choose better songs

Worship leaders, I implore you to be wise when choosing songs. A ministry in worship isn’t about choosing your favorite tunes to perform with a band. Stop choosing songs based on its popularity or melody. Most of these songs have bad doctrine and inaccurate theology. If someone were to say false things about your spouse, child, family member or someone you love, you’d probably get upset and come to their defense so why would you choose to sing a song that falsely portrays the character of God? Choose songs that elicit worship and align with scripture. Pray about the songs you choose. There have been many times where I led worship and had next to no contact with the pastor to sync up and establish consistency with the songs and the message. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit would lay on my heart what songs to sing and almost always the songs aligned perfectly with the sermon that the pastor had prepared to preach that same service. Prayer works if you practice it!

Maintain the anointing

If you have a gift in music, God has blessed you with this gift to be used for His purpose. God’s gifts are un-repented so He cannot take away your gift (Romans 11:29). Satan cannot take away your God given gifts either; however, Satan can pervert the purpose if you give him a place to do so. Do not let the purpose of your gift be used for something that God didn’t intend for it to be used for. Talent and the anointing are two very different things. Sampson was a gifted man but learned the hard way when he lost the anointing and when the Spirit of the Lord departed from him. Worship leaders, do not neglect the anointing. The anointing is more important than the gift itself! Live a life of holiness and stop bringing the culture of the world into the church and indoctrinating it into the worship!

To conclude, I want to remind all worship leaders that the presence of God isn’t the place for worship leaders to manifest their dreams of a music career. Worship is about giving our love and adoration to God; not about showing off our skills and talents. Let us never lose sight of what authentic worship is. Worship is not playing an instrument nor is it singing into a microphone. Worship is not singing along with a band nor is it hand raising. True and acceptable worship is a lifestyle of obedience and intimacy with God. Let us all become the men and women of prayer, then we’ll see the culture of worship change into something that is pleasing and acceptable to God.