Worship Training #2: Be An Authentic Worshipper

It’s not enough to simply sing songs and hope people sing along. We must worship authentically. We live by the encouragement found in John 4:24 to worship God in spirit and truth — to worship God out of a response of who he is and engaging in that truth from the core of who we are. In other words, we need God’s truth to get down deep into us so we can respond appropriately: passionately authentic worship.

Psalm 51:6 Behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart.

While there are many things that can help develop authenticity in a person’s life, here are three key things we can focus on that will help us greatly in the journey.

Develop A Worshipper’s Heart

We can’t lead others where we haven’t first gone. If we’re going to engage people in a whole-life response of worship to the truth about God, we have to both experience and model that worship in our lives first. This worship begins with recognizing our brokenness apart from God’s grace and receiving His gift of salvation and responding in gratitude.

Psalm 51:17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

This gratitude can often take the form of times of personal worship throughout the week where we connect in meaningful ways with God. This might look like times of musical worship on our own by listening to a worship cd, playing an instrument as we worship God through music, spending time in prayer, reading the Bible, or journaling to God.

These are some ways to cultivate personal devotion and worship throughout the week and keep our hearts focused on God.If we as worship leaders are not fully engaged in genuine worship in and through our own lives, however, then the people we’re leading will not likely be either. As a worship leader, it’s especially important that we are actively seeking to throw every distraction aside and fix our eyes on Jesus. This takes place everywhere we go, both in our own time of worship to God and also in public. Therefore, worship occurs in two primary places: on the stage and off the stage.

Worship On And Off The Stage

We can’t lead others where we haven’t first gone. If we’re going to engage people in a whole-life response of worship to the truth of who God is, we have to model that worship in our own life. If we as worship leaders are not fully-engaged in genuine worship, then the people we’re leading will likely not be either. When leading worship at church, we should work at playing the music to the best of our ability, but music shouldn’t be our only focus; God should be. It is just as important to worship God while we are off the stage, too. As a worship team member, we hold a great deal of influence in our church. Remember to live with integrity, understanding that worshipping Christ is much more than just singing in a church service, it is a whole life response. This includes how we conduct ourselves at home, at work, at the grocery store, with our neighbors, etc. God calls us to be holy and live lives that honor Him because He is holy.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

As we focus on worshipping God through our whole life and not just when we get up to lead musical worship for a service, our obedience to God and our focus on him in our daily lives will contribute to an undeniable passion for Him. This passion is essential to leading others well on stage as well as off stage. It communicates to others that there is something profoundly different and real about having a relationship with God that changes people’s lives. God is worth passionate pursuit in worship.

When we’re leading worship at church, we need to work at playing the music to the best of our ability, but music shouldn’t be our primary focus; God should be. We should actively seek to fix your eyes and worship Him while on stage but it is just as important (or more) to worship God while you are off the stage. As a worship team member, we hold a great deal of influence on your church. It is for this reason that we should live with integrity, understanding that worshipping Christ is more than just about singing in a church service. It is a whole life response.

Cultivate Joy And Passion

Joy is a natural response in our relationship with God. If we are not joyful, it’s a clear sign that our focus is on ourselves or other things rather than God. This creates problems for us in life as well as in leading others in worship, for we worship whatever we focus on. Let’s be worshippers who are full of joy because of our connectedness to God. Of course, challenging seasons will come, but that is the beauty of joy:  it is not dependent on circumstances. As we seek to make the most of every opportunity in leading worship, we will greatly impact others lives for eternity. What a great responsibility and privilege!

Philippians 4:4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!

Along with joy, passion is the other thing that really stands out to others but even at that, we don’t do it to put on a show or to impress people. Again, passion is our heartfelt response to who God is and is a natural byproduct of thankfulness for what God has done for us on the cross. As we passionately pursue God through musical worship, we model to people and help them see the main point of why we worship in the first place: to love and honor God with all that we are and with all of our lives. This is such an important aspect of the christian life to communicate because it is really the point of our existence!

Our worship services are a great opportunity to reach guests who very likely do not know God yet, so we need to make sure we’re making the most of the opportunity to show them the passion we have for God and the joy a relationship with him brings. The same is true in our everyday lives with those we come into contact with throughout our days. What is the extent of the impact you will have on others for eternity? The choice is yours! Hopefully you will take the invitation to partner with God in the amazing work of building his kingdom by maximizing every opportunity you have with others to the maximum extent possible.

Maximize Every Opportunity

As we reflect on all God has done for us in gratitude, we won’t be able to help but share this love and good news with others. In fact, this is one great way we can worship God with our lives — sharing God’s love with others and telling them about Jesus and His work on the cross for them.

The reality is that In this life we only have a limited amount of opportunities to make a positive influence on those around us before our time on this earth is up.  This is especially true of us being on the worship team since we are in such a visible role of leadership. How we present ourselves on stage as well as off stage is such an important responsibility to positively represent the God we serve. We have an amazing opportunity to plant seeds of life, truth, hope, and faith in those we lead by being in tune with God’s spirit and leading others in worship.

Practically, we can do this with our words, smiles and body language — essentially our demeanor. Through these things we help create an atmosphere of joy, faith, and hope in worship as we pursue God with others.