Charlie Hall leads worship for the Passion Conferences. He has a great article on leading worship at www.worshiptogether.com. In order to get to the article you have to subscribe, but I’ll share the parts that really meant something to me. Here’s the link for the whole article, but you’ll need to register as a worshiptogether member.

Of course we know, and have been hearing for a while now, worship is not just the songs we sing. It is a life laid down that says “burn me up God. Use my money, time, energy, skills, family, job, all I have. Help me make you a big deal and pull the attention on you.” Songs are one vehicle that helps a group of worshippers do this. These songs come along and they inspire, remind, and punctuate the life of a Jesus seeker. This being said, the goal of worship is not to just to sing songs. The goal is Jesus, to peel back the beautiful curtain of “the song” and see the one the song is about. Music, songs, art, are vehicles to pull back the curtain. They reveal Him. When we gather around meeting with God, we can know He is there. But simply knowing He is there and treating Him as the centerpiece of the room is different. We should pull Him to the center of the room and let everyone look on Him and say the most beautiful things that can flow from our hearts. That is how I approach leading. The songs are built to honor and convey things to him and about Him through art and creativity. As they are sung, people begin agreeing, “yes, God is like that. Look how wonderful He is…”
I used to feel such heavy responsibility in terms of leading people. I am learning to release this slowly. Not that I don’t feel the depth of sincerity, but that I don’t feel responsible to make everyone worship. I can help create the atmosphere, free people to engage in God, give them vehicles to seek God, invite the Holy Spirit, place God as the center piece, call all eyes to look on Him and then release the whole thing. It takes God to reveal God. My buddy says that we are Christ’s body and Christ longs to rise to worship His father through his body on earth. Go past the song and to the one the song is about…The idea of moving past singing and past songs to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is most important to the church. How you go about this has endless possibilities as you use your life to be burned up for God and become more than a song singer.

These are some great thoughts to think about as we go about leading worship in various venues.