The God ordained burden of Worship Leading - Part 2

For Part 1 of this post click here
If this post was encouraging you should check out Justin's post on "Leading prayerfully"


As the years of worship leading continue to go by I am seeing more and more the reasons why He’s given me my worship team! Not only for worship leaders but anyone who is leading other people in a ministry setting, God has given you an awesome opportunity to grow!

One of the primary reasons God gives us people to lead is for spiritual accountability. Because when people are analyzing and watching you every single day you can only fake them out for so long before they eventually begin to realize, I’m not seeing the fruit of what is being preached to me. Thus there is a “secret place” problem. Meaning, we are not getting time with the Lord to cultivate our own personal relationship with Him.

The second way it keeps us accountable is in the Word. In most ministry settings the worship leader, pastor, youth pastor etc is either preaching all the time, or leading bible studies or home groups with people who are looking to receive from him!

Leading small group bible studies is one of the best ways to keep yourself accountable and faithful in your study of the Bible because you have to spend time preparing. In order to initiate and facilitate conversation around a specific book of the Bible or topic, you have to spend time in it before hand or you’ll end up spectating instead of leading and participating. (2 Tim. 2:14-16)

Leading people teaches us the value of setting our minds on things above because when you’re leading people you are required to ‘check’ your personal issues at the door and pick them back up on your way out. This also teaches us first hand about the transforming power of His Word because many times you’ll find that whatever issues you ‘checked’ at the door are gone after you teach/discuss the word for an hour or two. (Ps. 19:7; 119:9, 11; 2 Cor. 4:18)

7 The law (word) of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul (Ps. 19:7)

No matter whom we’re leading in the different seasons of our lives there are always opportunities for offense and bitterness to creep in, and many times leadership simply wears people down in their hearts until they finally want to give up on everything completely. This is why it’s so important that we view leading as God’s gift to help us grow in love and humility. It’s also important that we remember that He will never give us more than we can handle at one time. (Mt. 5:3, 6; 11:6; 2 Cor. 12:9)

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (Mt. 16:25)

If we have the correct mindset about why we’re leading, then we will be able to lead long term with a joyful heart and avoid offense towards God and the people we’re leading. If the Mom who stays at home with her three kids all day everyday understands that one of the primary reasons why she’s leading her children is to become more like Christ, then her heart will flourish as she grows more and more in love for Jesus and her children. I invite you to sign up with me again a fresh today and embrace the wisdom of God and HIS perfect leadership over our lives!

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served - but to serve (Mk. 10:45)

© 2011 Justin Rizzo