the Chief Musician - what does that mean?

[DeanZF]

Thanks for this forum, I'm looking forward to learning much from y'all.

You're very welcome! You must be from SOUTHERN Quebec!

I've always thought that a good worship leader should be like good make up--not even noticed. 

And there ya go! Yup, for the most part a good worship leader pretty much disappears. One of the best compliments we've ever received is when someone whose spirituality we recognize and admire said, "I knew it was you, but somehow, it wasn't you up there. I did not see you. Somehow my spirit joined your spirit and we just worshipped together." That's an ideal result for us.

I've never really considered myself the chief musician. . .

If you're the one leading the music for the day, you're chief musician for at least the day, IMHO. You may not be "the" chief musician for the congregation, but for the day...

sometimes, in worship, I can have issues with "musicians".  <EMOJI seq="1f607">:innocent:</EMOJI>  (I've known too many who were more in love with music--you know??)

Ain't it the truth! And if you read the review of the worship seminar, you'll recognize that there are those who forget who they're ministering to. I've been guilty of that myself. I do love watching people "get it" and I love being part of that. There is a subtle trap involved, one that we need to make sure that folks understand: God wants us, as worshippers, to minister to HIM. Yes, there's a time for Him to minister to the folks and we surely want that. The Song of the Lord over His people is important, as it's one way that He communicates to us, again IMO and IME (experience). When the song is in the First Person, God singing to or over us, that's the song of the Lord. It can be prophetic in nature (forthtelling, not foretelling, agreeing with those things that He has already spoken through His Word), comforting, exhorting, etc. It can also be revelatory (foretelling, not forthtelling, but still in line with those things already revealed through His Word), but that's rare IME. And then we have what we've dubbed the Song of the Bride, where we sing to Him. These are love songs usually, songs of recognition of Who and What He is. We've also witnessed wonderful times of conversation in deep worship times where the song of the bride and the song of the bridegroom come out spontaneously. It's an awesome experience to hear that out loud.



Sorry, got a little carried away there. Back to the point here. I LOVE to see folks "get it", but if I'm not careful, that could easily become my reason for ministering, ministering to the people, not to our Lord. As the Croc Hunter would say, "Danger, danger, danger!" For a lot of years, I really advocated for more of a worship facilitator type mentality, where the musicians' job was really to provide a framework for others to worship. To a degree, I still hold that thought, but as a musical worship leader, I have a couple of responsibilities. The first is to worship my Lord. The second is to lead others to worship our Lord. I must never lose sight of the first one.



That second responsibility, however, is an important one that has several components. Leading implies following. Following implies that the leader is within "sight" of the followers. A good leader is one who has experienced more than the followers. Think military for a minute. A good commanding officer has better knowledge of things than most of the followers. His top sergeant(s), however, may actually be more seasoned than the officer! The officer still calls the shots, but the sergeant(s) may have input that will influence the calling of shots. The officer is the chief, but others may see things and know things that the officer doesn't. Another part is that if the leader is not leading, the "mission" can never be accomplished.



The hardest part, at least for me, is to worship at a level that does not leave the follower worshippers in the dust and wondering what just happened. Think of worship as a mountain top experience for a minute. If you, as a worship leader (musical, movement, or otherwise), are often at the highest peak of worship at the highest mountain in your personal mountain range, imagine for a minute going down the mountains, over the vallies, arriving at the foothills to meet the Sunday followers so that you can take them climbing up what seems a huge mountain for them, but is a mere hike on a speed bump for you. You have to keep them safe, but still challenge them to go higher and equip them for eventually finding the mountain tops of worship. All this while still keeping one eye on them and the other eye and your heart on Him, in worship, not surveillance!



There was a confirming word that was shared sometime ago on the Worship Discussion List. A couple went to Toronto to share in the refreshing that was going on at that time. They were tired and weary, especially the wife. They were used to deep, deep worship experiences. The attended a couple of services and came away pretty much as they had entered. The services had been nice, and had obviously affected some of the folks attending, but they were not the oasis that had been anticipated (forgive the mixed metaphors). The wife was not just disappointed, but close to devastated. If I remember the story correctly, they found a quiet place in the church, away from folks and sat and talked. She began to weep, strongly sobbing. She had arrived needing that refreshing and had come away as depleted as she had arrived. Someone from the Toronto church passed by, turned and came to her and spoke as though being able to read her heart. "Those who regularly worship at the mountain top can't expect to be refilled further down the mountain. You're accustomed to deep worship experiences. Your time here was a very high-on-the-mountain time for some of those attending, but not at the levels that you regularly experience" (Thomas paraphrase of a distant memory). That's the way of worship leaders. We do have to find times of refreshing, but the higher up the mountain you "live", the rarer those oases become. Personal worship time gets more and more important as we can really only find refreshing in Him, right??