The Worship PriorityChikamu

More Than a Worship Leader

Regardless if you are on the platform or not, you are first a worshiper, and second a leader. God’s called you to minister to all and to guide his people in praise. Importantly, He’s called you to Himself (Isaiah 43:1). Aside from being on the worship team, there is more to your identity than what you realize.

In Exodus 3, God calls Moses alone by a burning bush. This was Moses’ first encounter of worship. What’s interesting here is that we see Moses being moved from a man of doubt and excuses to a man of definitive obedience and growth in God’s will.

He is God’s worshiper. As he moves closer, he discovers more about who God is beyond himself. Not through the power of his staff, the assurance of Aaron, or even the miracles themselves, but Moses is beginning to understand his complete identity in the Lord His God.

The second encounter of worship happened when Moses stood before the people. God performed His work and spoke His word through him. Even the assembly became aware of God’s compassion and mercy beyond the miracles and the messenger.

The uniqueness of Moses’ leadership was found in his humility and vulnerability before God and man. Upon this foundation, Moses was able to lead the masses, yet he understood His dependency to God.

When I first began worship ministry, I firmly believed that my first calling was to be a worship leader. But as I continued every week and searched for deeper significance, I realized that my identity was not fully resting in Christ Himself. I was simply clinging to the title.

When I wasn’t leading, I felt disconnected and even placed aside. Sometimes I wondered if I was even on the right path. The truth is, when we put self and our ambitions ahead of Christ, we stand on another foundation that will suffer loss (1 Corinthians 3:10-12).

Know this, worshiper, you are His kid first. Just as a child looks to his earthly father for provision, we look to our heavenly Father for eternal dependency. When we tap into our identity in Christ, allowing this to absorb the fiber of our very being, God renews our minds, transforms our senses, and shapes our will (Romans 12:2). As we are changed, our desires change, our priorities change, thus our delight in Him also changes.

No matter if we are in the action of leading worship or taking part in worship among the church, we are instruments of His grace. Did you know that leading worship, or being led in worship, are one-in-the-same, because it involves relationships?

I love this quote from Jack Hayford: “The inevitable fruit of vital worship will be a transformed people who become transforming instruments of God’s grace and deliverance to the world.”

In those times when you are feeling undeserving about your position on the team, or uneasy when you’re not on the platform, be reminded of your identity: it's about who you are in Christ, not what you do for Christ.

God works His ministry through you to impact other people. You are worthy to God, and He has enlisted you to serve, not based on your own merit, but by His grace. Our Christ-like attitudes serve as a pathway to help usher people into worship.

Aside from your position on the team, your service in the church, and even your talent unto God, your identity is first found in Christ. It’s up to each of us to seek out and follow His will. As Proverbs 3‬‬‬ indicates, He will direct our paths. When we do, we can be comforted by His presence and mindful that each of us are instruments of His grace.