Worship Leaders Need Oil
So often, worship leaders hear the latest songs and want to include them in their set without spending time with them or genuinely understanding their meaning. Thoughts like “The team would crush this song!” Or “I like the way this song sounds” can be why songs are added to sets. Instead, Worship leaders and pastors should spend time with the songs they lead in the secret place. I do not mean practicing the song (that is important too, but should come after); I mean actually worshiping Jesus with the song and creating history with the song.
The oil will be evident when we spend time worshiping in the secret place with our songs and sets. But we do not get oil from just adding songs to our sets and practicing them. Just as preachers should not read their Bibles only to craft a message, worship leaders should not choose songs without oil and history. If we don’t have oil, it can unintentionally become a performance. Spending time with the songs in the secret place with our instruments and Bibles open will transform how we lead.
Worship leaders and pastors teach theology through the songs they lead. This is why we must not just listen to a song and choose to do it because it sounds cool or we like it. We must contemplate the lyrics, open our Bibles, find what the songs pull from scripture, and discover the correct biblical context.
We should know what we are singing and what we are leading others to sing. As teachers, through song, we will be held to a stricter judgment. “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment” (James 3:1). We are not just singing songs as the bookends of a church service. Every song we lead teaches theology; now, we must ask ourselves if the theology is correct and if we even know what we are singing.
Don’t just listen to worship music to create a set. Worship Jesus to songs, and from that place, create your sets.
Get alone with God and songs that you feel led to lead. Look at Him and sing them right to Him.
Open your Bible and learn where the song is from in scripture.
Look up the artist to see if they have a song story about how and why they wrote the song.
Encourage your team to do the same thing with the sets each week!
