Our Job as Worship Leaders

"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." - John 4:19-24


If you’ve talked to me at all about worship, you will know that my favorite passage in the Bible on Worship is the woman at the well in John 4. Jesus knows everything about her before even meeting her. In an attempt to change the subject, she brings up a local debate about worship. This cracks me up because it reminds me that some things never change. People even today are asking questions about worship – what musical style we should worship with, what should or shouldn’t we do (clap hands, raise hands, dance, etc). We even use musical style to define our church’s services (Traditional/Contemporary). All these questions and labels just get us distracted from what true worship is about!! Jesus quickly moves the conversation away from the thing that is keeping the woman from worshiping the Lord, and focuses on what's important.

Worship is the expression of love and gratitude from the heart of God’s child from the heart of God the Father. Worship is NOT a spectator sport. Many people view worship as a presentation made by the people on the platform for the people in the pews. Our role on the platform is to be worship leaders prompting the people in the congregation to glorify God. You see, God, not the people on stage or the people in the congregation, should be the audience in our worship service. Worship is giving honor to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one worthy of that kind of praise. It’s not about any person, but all about Him. God placed worship into each of our hearts to do with as we please. However, true fulfillment comes when we give that worship back to Him as an offering. Our worship together on Sunday mornings WILL BE directly related to what’s happening in our lives individually throughout the week! Another passage in Romans talks about what Worship means in our individual, everyday lives.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1

Let’s live our lives for God in an act of Worship to him, and give our very best to the Lord each Sunday because He is worthy of just that. Remember, our audience is the Lord, and our job as worship leaders is to point the congregation to Him. The best way we can do this is by living a life of worship so when we come together, our music will just be an outpouring of our love for Him that we have been living daily.

The Heart of our Father

There is a daily routine at my house that I’m sure many of you can relate to. It’s called, when Dad gets home, my girls rush to greet me with phrases like “daddy’s home” (of course for my 1 year old it’s just “AHHAHHHHAH!” ....which we all know means, “woo hoo, daddy’s home”). Alexa (my 4 year old) always has to tell me the details of her day, and always wants to know what I did at work. Most of all, though, she just wants to be close to me, and know what's on my heart. Even Olivia (my 1 year old) wants me to pick her up and hold her close to me. I love it!

So, I got to thinking, do I truly have that desire with my Heavenly Father? These thoughts probably came to mind because I’m TRYING to read this book called the Dangerous Act of Worship. For those of you who know me, I know, "try" is a pretty good term to use here as I hardly EVER read. The main challenge in the early part of this book is that many of us have missed what the act of worship is all about. At the heart of our Father, his true desire is that all people come to knowledge of Him (1 Tim 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9) It is about reaching the lost.

We sing a song in church called “Mission’s Flame”. In that song, we sing the line “You should be the praise of every tongue”. So, how can God be the praise of every tongue if we aren’t telling people about Him? Sometimes people separate “Missions” from “Worship”, when really they are inseparable. You see, true worship - living a LIFE OF WORSHIP, is loving God, loving others, and sharing with them the love that Jesus Christ has for them. It IS God’s desire, after all. Even in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) it wasn't until the disciples had fallen down and worshipped Him that God gave them the commandment to go and make disciples.

God our Father loves it when we are close to his heart, worshipping him (Ps. 147:11) just like I love it when every day I get home from work and my daughters just want to be close to me. The question I am struggling with in my own life is this. If we aren’t showing and sharing the love of Christ with those around us, and seeing people come to a knowledge of Him, are we truly living a life of worship?

How in the world did I end up here?

I want to first and foremost thank anyone that attends Faith Infusion for giving me the privilege of leading you in worshipping our Lord and Savior each week. I not only count it a blessing, but also a huge responsibility. Why is it I feel it's such a responsibility? Leading Worship is not just a job to me. It is a calling directly from God to me. So how did I end up with this calling and eventually come to Armstrong Chapel?

The summer before I was leaving college, I had everything planned out. I was going to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI in the fall to study Architecture. I was going to play baseball while I was there, and eventually marry my girlfriend who had already been at Wheaton College for a year. Those were my plans, but as many of you know, sometimes God has different; no; bigger plans for your life, and He definitely did for mine.

About two weeks before leaving for college, that girlfriend broke up with me. It came out of nowhere, and crushed me. At Calvin I really struggled with a few of my classes, and my GPA dropped after always doing very well in high school. I did take my first interest in guitar, and started teaching myself how to play.

I eventually got involved in a group called InterVarsity that first semester I was there. There is an event called Urbana through InterVarsity that I ended up going to (it was a miracle that I even went, but that story is for another time). It was there that I really saw people worshipping God with all of their heart and soul for the very first time. This brought two questions to mind. 1. Why was this the first time I had seen people worshipping like this? 2. What can I do (if anything) to have that, and share that with others? The last night I was at Urbana, we had a night of confession/revival in our small group. Each of us was prayed over as we confessed sin in our lives. I let go of my relationship with the high school girlfriend, and recommitted my life to the Lord in a deeper way than I even knew of. It was in the coming month that I realized God wanted me to take that experience and share it with others, leading and TEACHING them what worship is all about.

The following year, I transferred to Cedarville University, and enrolled in the Church Music Program. I met my WONDERFUL wife, Kelly, there, and graduated with a Church Music Ministry Degree. I have now led and taught worship in several churches leading me to Armstrong Chapel. I pray that Faith Infusion will be a place where people can come and have the same thoughts and questions I had on that first night at Urbana.

So, can we be that place? What is holding us back? What would we have to have or do that we don't now to be that place? Let me know what you think!