Question:
Um, well, maybe I'm in the wrong section but Believe the Lord is leading me into this whole worship circle, and a) how did you worship leaders become worship leaders, and b) Could anyone give any tips?
Answer:
Quit while u can. What i am just kidding. I finally understand worship and want to continue with it and i am slowly finding it easier to lead worship from the back of the room, i started with sound and now i am working my way through the band, i get to play for the first time saturday night at this church i go to now. One bit of advice, Pray
Jc will let u know. Have the faith of a child!
JC ROCKS
Answer:
a) I happened to know the most about music at our church... and was the most qualified for the position so the church elected me as worship leader.
b) Listen to a lot of music, get good at leading (basically singing, talking, playing in front of a large congregation), be humble... nobody likes the big-shot that thinks they know everything.. and you need good leadership skills its hard to get a band to do what you want them to do.. there are a bunch of different personalities and you have to bring them all together and it can be tough at times...
EDIT: That timeline thing seems like a good idea
1995-2001 Started Playing Keyboard at church.. (i was 9 years old.. we had quite a small church then)
2001-2003 Started singing backup vocals and playing keyboard.. near 2003.. i began to take more leadership in the praise band, the band at that time didn't have a definite leader.
2004 became worship leader
Answer:
Ok, here's a timeline for you...
Aug. 2000: Started as a male vocalist on the youth/college worship team at my church at the time in St. Louis.
May 2002: Promoted from male vocalist on the youth/college worship team to the "adult" Sunday morning worship team at my St. Louis church.
August 2003: Moved to Oklahoma City where I now reside and attend law school.
Sept. 2003: Started attending my current church in Oklahoma City.
Nov. 2003: Joined my current church's worship team as a male vocalist.
Aug./Sept. 2004: Promoted to "associate worship leader" and led worship for the first time ever. This is rather recent, and was rough. I just sing and don't play an instrument, but the congregation was blessed anyway. I would strongly recommend praying and developing a close relationship with your pastor. Also, don't forget your role is to "model" worship as an example for the congregation. Hope that helps- Jonathan
Answer:
You yesterday.....
i work my tail off to try and understand "worship" and sometimes it just doesn't make sense, i know that when u say you are Holy, what it means, but i don't see the point of havin to repeat it dozens of times in a row, but isn't worship from the heart. thus, making it so i only have to say it once, instead of 34 times in a song. another question came to mind the other day, how does standing during worship make u any closer to God. how does raising your hands or dancing? i sometimes feel as if it is very distracting, and if i worship sitting down in the middle of a crowd standing it is distracting as well, but should we b told how to worhsip? i do not think so.
You today
Originally Posted by alteregowar Quit while u can. What i am just kidding. I finally understand worship and want to continue with it and i am slowly finding it easier to lead worship from the back of the room, i started with sound and now i am working my way through the band, i get to play for the first time saturday night at this church i go to now. One bit of advice, Pray
Jc will let u know. Have the faith of a child!
JC ROCKS
Answer:
You yesterday.....
i work my tail off to try and understand "worship" and sometimes it just doesn't make sense, i know that when u say you are Holy, what it means, but i don't see the point of havin to repeat it dozens of times in a row, but isn't worship from the heart. thus, making it so i only have to say it once, instead of 34 times in a song. another question came to mind the other day, how does standing during worship make u any closer to God. how does raising your hands or dancing? i sometimes feel as if it is very distracting, and if i worship sitting down in the middle of a crowd standing it is distracting as well, but should we b told how to worhsip? i do not think so.
You today
alteregowar said:
Quit while u can. What i am just kidding. I finally understand worship and want to continue with it and i am slowly finding it easier to lead worship from the back of the room, i started with sound and now i am working my way through the band, i get to play for the first time saturday night at this church i go to now. One bit of advice, Pray
Jc will let u know. Have the faith of a child!
JC ROCKS
those are two different ppl sean
__________________
Answer:
I believe it to be impossible for me to make a mistake (even at 5.am.) So you must apologize to me for suggesting it possible that I made a mistake. I AM PERFECT!
Answer:
Originally Posted by Akshay those are two different ppl sean
__________________ ...okay You've got me. I have no idea what you're talking about. How are these different people?
/forum...67&postcount=4
Answer:
sorry i was confused.. i thought you were quoting someone else on the first quote
Answer:
u are all right, it was me both people, i had some major problems and prayed and looked up some good stuff in psalms and understood where my fault came into play, i gave up arguin ok, i just have questions,
anywho sorry i am straight now
Answer:
My advice to people new to leading worship is to always pray. You can never be "in tune" with God enough. My other main piece of advice is always keep your mind open to new ideas, always take the steps to take your relationship with God to the next level, I dare say that while in our human bodies, we can always become closer and more obedient and more understanding of God and his ways. Never be complacent with where you are spiritually.
Answer:
Here's a timeline.
1994 - I took up guitar because my friend played and it was cool.
1995-1998 - God closes door after door for me to play in secular bands. God opens door after door for me to participate in music ministry playing lead or rhythm guitar
1999 - I find my way into my current church and begin playing lead electric. I am undisciplined, young, and just a little bit cocky. The worship pastor recognizes my potential for worship leading and begins grooming me without my knowledge or approval.
2001 - In the summer I lead worship for the first time. I hate it and swear I will never do it again. I also swear I will never go to bible college.
2002 - I go to bible college and begin leading worship on a semi-regular basis
2004 - Still leading worship on a semi-regular (twice a month) basis and planning my course for gaining my music and theology degrees.
Answer:
1997 - I started playing electric guitar my senior year of high school. It was much cooler than baritone.
1998 - I found myself playing a lot of praise songs. Maybe I'll get an acoustic. Got back to college, and found that the Campus Crusade group was looking for a number of new musicians. Thinking it'd be a good way to pick up chicks, I volunteered. In the interim, I was a roadie. A few weeks later, I was playing with the band. A fwe weeks after that, the bassist asked if I'd be willing to play bass instead of guitar, so he taught me bass.
1999 - I started playing some in church, too.
-2001 - I continued playing in Campus Crusade and church. I started finding myself in the role of 'worship leader', if you want to draw a distinction between him and teh rest of the band, more often at church. At some point here, I figured out there was more to worship than looking cool and picking up chicks. Which was good, because neither was really happening for me. In the spring, I finally had someone to replace me as bassist for Campus Crusade, so I left.
2003 - Finally finished college. Eventually moved back home, and went back to my home church. Jumped in playing whatever they needed that week, and planning some of the evening services.
2004 - The other people who were planning evening services would like to be doing other things, and the pastor and worship director think I really have a gift for it, so they suggest to the council (with my knowledge and approval) that I be brought on as an evening worship coordinator. So, now I'm getting paid.
That's about that.
Answer:
Originally Posted by Jay Tea At some point here, I figured out there was more to worship than looking cool and picking up chicks. Which was good, because neither was really happening for me.
Can we get this immortalized in stone or something?
Answer:
Timeline for me:
1985 - took an acoustic guitar class in ninth grade. Our teacher broke her leg in a skiing accident and could only just sit at her chair, so she told us that we needed to learn on our own, with a little bit of her help, and pick out a song to perform for her. When we finished the song, no matter when during the semester we did it, we were done with the class. My friend and I picked Stairway To Heaven, of course. We learned it perfectly in two weeks. We performed it for our teacher, and she told us we were done, we could do whatever we wanted. So we just hung out, played our guitars, and once a week taught the class something cool.
Then there was a huge gap until the next time I picked up a guitar....
1992 - picked up the guitar again in college because I knew I wanted to be a youth pastor, and I wanted to learn how to play Metallica's black album. Taught myself. In the summer of 1992, I interned at a church in Tucson, and the youth minister said, "You play guitar? Why don't you start up a youth worship band and lead worship every Sunday morning?" It was horrible for the first month. But I kept on improving and playing and learning.
1992/93 - I played guitar and led worship several times for chapel at the Christian College I was attending, as well as played drums a couple of times.
1993 - graduated from college and interned for a year at the same church I interned the summer before. Started up a worship band again. Played for church several times that year.
1994 - had brain surgery and had to reteach myself the guitar for the most part.
1994-2000 - was youth minister at my home church. Led a youth worship band. Our band led worship for several statewide events.
2000-early 2002 - was youth minister at a church in Dallas. Started up a youth worship band. The band led worship for a couple statewide events.
2002 - present - worship and creative arts minister in Arizona. I lead three different worship teams, one which is made up of high school students. These students lead worship once a month in the main worship and do a great job. The other two worship teams lead worship the other weeks. I have some phenomenal musicians, and I believe that our "signature" is taking riffs from secular songs and inserting them into worship songs to jazz them up. For example, we took a couple of Green Day's riffs from Basket Case and put them into the David Crowder song "No One Like You".