Today we continue our “Why Do Worship Leaders Do That?” series, where we examine ten major pet peeves that people express against worship leaders. We’re drawing these pet peeves from a list published at churchrelevance.com, using comments originally compiled at ragamuffinsoul.com.
See the original episode in this series for links to the source articles
Today’s topic is pet peeve #4: Why are worship leaders unprofessional? As always I am joined by series interview subject Lorie King, a long-standing worship leader at Sojourn who has also led worship in many other environments around the world and completed a Masters in Worship from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
You can download this interview from our free podcast, Sojournmusic.com Radio, at iTunes and other podcast directories. Or simply click the player below to listen to this short discussion now. Specific issues that we discuss include:
- When the worship team starts the service late.
- Why the singer talks to the praise band while leading worship.
- When the worship leader changes the key of the song and does not tell the rest of the team.
- When the worship leader and/or band member turns away from the people to mess with their gear.
- When the production team on stage are laughing, joking, and gesturing behind the worship leader to the soundboard guys in the transition between music and the sermon.
We discuss the tension between this “unprofessional” topic and last week’s pet peeve, “Why Do They Turn Worship Into A Concert?” In some ways, this can be a “you can’t have your cake and eat it, too” dilemma. On one hand, many people grow disenchanted if worship services grow too polished or “slick.” We say, “The band sounds great and they never miss a beat. But where’s the heart?”
On the other hand, if a worship service seems to go less smoothly than a concert or some other stage production, we fault the worship team for failing to deliver excellence.
Of course, these two pet peeves don’t have to conflict with each other: a tightly run music set that delivers strong theological content, by worship leaders who are truly submitted to the leading of the Holy Spirit, passes on both counts. But to what extent are we in the congregation crossing a line that we should not cross when we grow so critical as to judge our brothers and sisters who are leading us in congregational song and scripture reading? These and other issues are the focus of this nine-minute audio interview.
See series’ installment #1: Why Do Worship Leaders Ask People To Do Things?
See #2: Why Do Worship Leaders Talk So Much?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Once in a while, you start late because you can’t find Lorie King.
You’ve just made my day.
I’m so thankful for Lorie. She’s a gifted leader and musician.
1. Worship leaders may not be the sole reason the service starts late. The entire leadership team may have a relaxed attitude towards the timing of the start. Pinning the blame of the worship leader may not always be fair. When it isn’t fair drop it. When it is fair, perhaps the leader is simply unaware of the problem and is willing to change when it is brought to his/her attention. On the other side of the coin, maybe the leader is a little too left brained for their own good and, if starting late is truly a problem, they need to be told it’s a problem.
2. Sometimes it is to communicate something important and necessary (ie: “Tag this” or “modulate” or “take it down”). Sometimes it may be a sign of a lack of professionalism. But don’t take every instance of talking with band members as inherently wrong.
3. The worship leader should have told the band. Often, the band is made up of better musicians than the leader and, despite their best efforts, they have difficulty following a guy who isn’t clearly communicating with them. Unlike #1 and #2, this one probably is a sign of the worship leader lacking a degree of professionalism.
4. Pretty much the same answer as #2 just in different terms. Maybe they turn away from the congregation (since when is that wrong?) to tweak gear because their gear does in fact need tweaking. It’s a catch-22. If they can’t tweak the gear, they can be accused of sound “unprofessional”, if the do turn around to tweak the gear they can be accused of being “unprofessional.”
5. That probably is a problem, and it certainly is one if it serves as a distraction. There are occasions when the band needs to communicate with the technical crew and maybe that’s all they’re doing. If they consistently make a show of it and seem to be making light of their roles as leaders and partakers in the most sacred human act, well they ought to be told as much.
Good thoughts, Tyler. Thanks for sharing them with us.