I've recently started listening to Ray Hughes, Don Potter, and other evangelical speakers. As I listened to Don Potter the other day he said some very profound things; some of which totally changed my thinking on how I lead worship.
As a worship pastor I've always had the mindset of “have really great worship so God will show up.” I've had it totally backwards this whole time and I can’t wait to worship God now. Instead of the “worship so God comes” mentality, we need to have a “God is HERE so we should worship Him” mentality. It’s a total shift in thinking. The Spirit of God already exists here, we don’t suddenly encounter God when we started playing our guitar. He does not suddenly decide the time to show up. “Hey, that guy can really play the guitar!!! He’s good! I’m going to send My Spirit to THAT place.” Can you honestly imagine God saying that? God is already here, so we worship Him.
If we’re worshiping when God is already here, and not to help invite Him into the place, what does the worship pastor do then? Just to get up play his best? Do you even need a worship leader? You could just put on a CD and worship with a really awesome studio band. The worship leader needs to help push away all those distractions that keep a person from encountering Him. The enemy uses so many distraction in our everyday lives. All these distractions amount up to forgetting about or missing God in the places He already resides. The people worshiping on stage during Sunday morning services can distract, too. A percentage of people will always dislike the worship at a church. I’ve had people leave my church because they didn't like how much we worshiped. Incredible musicians can occupy every spot on the worship team but it doesn't matter if people get too distracted by that guy on the drums playing too loud or the person on the electric guitar played his solo too long. We won’t ever have enough hymns or Chris Tomlin songs to please everyone. We need to develop our team and build our set lists so that we do not distract those worshiping. We do not aim to please man, but help usher people into His throne room.
