Worship leaders (L to R) Lorie King, Brooks Ritter, Rebecca Dennison
As announced last Friday, today is the first in a series of ten weekly posts, which will come to you each Friday, to examine the ten most common questions and complaints that people have about worship leaders. I’m joined by Lorie King, who has led worship at Sojourn since early in the first year of our existence (Sojourn was birthed in 2000). She’s also led worship in many other churches and settings from the U.S. east coast to the west, as well as Brazil, Cyprus and other countries, and has a Master’s in Worship from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. So, here we go.Â
To determine the top ten “pet peeves about worship leaders” I’m using informal blog polling by Carlos Whittaker at ragamuffinsoul.com, tabulated and configured into the “top ten” by Kent Shaffer at churchrelevance.com.
Pet Peeve #1: When worship leaders ask the congregation to do things like raise and clap their hands or greet those near by, and when they try to pump the congregation with words like “Come on and make some noise!”
Click the player below to listen to my eight-minute, informative discussion with Lorie on this subject. Or, subscribe to our free podcast, Sojournmusic.com Radio, to download the interview. You can find our podcast at iTunes and many other podcast directories.
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Sometimes the congregation needs to be shaken a little, they need to have their cages rattled to realize they are partaking in something desperately important. That being said, less is way more. I was under a worship leader who would, on a nearly weekly basis, come close to getting angry with the congregation if they weren’t worshipping as he saw fit. He didn’t need a worshipping congregation, he needed Xanax and a vacation. On the other hand, if a congregation is acting out in corporate complacency, they ought to have their butts kicked a little. I suppose there is a third option. Some worship leaders may do it in an effort to force involvement and volume so as to convince their own battered ego they are doing a good job, that’s a load of stuff-you-step-in-that-you-have-to-wipe-off-on-the-grass-or-else-you’ll-track-it-in-the-house-which-is-bad.