“Why does the worship leader dress and act like some kind of sex symbol?”
“Why is she standing like she’s scared or half asleep?”
“Is that his real hair?”
We’re now in the second half of our series “Why Do Worship Leaders Do That?”, in which Sojourn worship leader Lorie King talks about ten common complaints and questions that people all over the world express about worship leaders in many churches, traditions and denominations. Besides her work in Pastor Mike Cosper’s worship team at Sojourn for nearly eight years, Lorie has led worship in many contexts in the United States and several foreign countries, and has a seminary Master’s in Worship. She uses this experience to help worship leaders understand how they can use this criticism constructively, and also to help the Christian in the pew to understand the worship leader perspective.
You can find the articles where these “pet peeves” were originally publicized and tabulated (in www.ragamuffinsoul.com and www.churchrelevance.com, respectively) by clicking the link to the introductory interview in this series below. Today’s interview concerns Pet Peeve #6, which deals with a worship leader’s appearance. We discuss issues such as:
- Why do worship leaders often sing with their eyes closed?
- Why do some singers look like they are really bored while they’re leading the congregation in worship?
- Why some worship leaders dress or sing in such a way that looks or sounds seductive.
Click the player now to hear this short interview immediately. You can also download it for free from our podcast, Sojournmusic.com Radio, available at iTunes and other podcast directories.
Discussion of Pet Peeve #1: Why Do Worship Leaders Ask People To Do Things Instead Of Just Singing?
Discussion of Pet Peeve #2: Why Do Worship Leaders Talk So Much In Between Songs?
Discussion of Pet Peeve #3: Why Do Worship Leaders Act Life Church Service Is A Concert?
Discussion of Pet Peeve #4: Why Are Worship Leaders So Unprofessional?
Discussion of Pet Peeve #5: Why Can’t Worship Leaders Sing Very Well?
Where do you draw the line on some of these things? Where do you go from looking nice to being a sex symbol or from not leading well because you are worshipping inside to not worshipping at all.
Thanks for asking, Jennifer. Lorie may be able to reply later, but I’ll just throw out a couple quick things:
Obviously the Bible doesn’t give us specific guidelines for the exact length of a skirt, for instance, or the exact manner in which a worship leader should present himself or herself. But God’s Word does promise us the Holy Spirit, to guide, inform and shape us. We should be prayerful and we should listen to the what the Spirit says to us. Also (and as Lorie mentions) you should have the counsel of your pastor.
And in some of the “body language” issues, it’s helpful to remember that the perspective is a fairly moderate one. For instance, on whether a worship leader should close his eyes — first of all, if you don’t close your eyes in private worship, why would you do it when leading? If you do close your eyes in private worship, then it’s not always wrong to do so while leading worship. The problem would come if you were habitually keeping your eyes closed nearly the whole time.
As a worship leader who tends to sing with her eyes closed and has a low range for a woman (refer to the previous topic “why can’t worship leaders sing”) I appreciate this series. It’s so easy to defend our personal habits and refuse to examine them to determine whether or not they are truly edifying to the body.
Jennifer,
That is a good question. Bobby makes good points about the “body language issues” (closing eyes, etc.). In terms of dress, I would say this is a great example of how important godly counsel and accountability are to the body of Christ. Worship leaders and teams should be getting regular feedback and pastoral counsel on matters such as these, among others. They should be reflecting regularly on all aspects of their service to the church, individually and as a team. I’ve been blessed to serve with godly women on our worship team who will ask, for example, if how they’ve been dressing is appropriate or not. This is fabulous! And just what we SHOULD be doing. If someone is doing something from the stage that others in the body consider “seductive,” that brother or sister needs to be lovingly informed. It is most likely not their intention to appear that way (and if it is, then that needs to be addressed too). This is part of loving each other well, like family, as the Word of God commands.
Of course we want to look good (and, let’s be honest—we want to be hip), but we need to temper that with humility and wisdom and make sure that everything about our leadership is pointing others to Christ (or, at the very least, not distracting them from Christ) and, as Rebecca said, edifying the body. And, let’s face it—just because people “like” something doesn’t make it edifying for them. Hmm…
The way to think about this, for me, is to consider the question of motivation. It is far too easy for any of our behavior to “become a talent show” (to quote a song we sing at Sojourn). I fight it all the time. We must guard against a mentality and behavior that confuses what we do in service to our family (the body of Christ) with a performance. And this temptation is so often tremendously subtle and seemingly justifiable.
We never want to create “new rules”—a fresh form of legalism. But we must remember that everything that is permissable (and culturally acceptable) is not always beneficial, to paraphrase Paul. And we are called to spur one another one to good deeds and greater holiness.