What makes a 'great' worship leader? I think there is certainly a place in the life of the church for a worship leader who imbues a service with their personality (hopefully, of course, a warm, lively, loving, inspiring, God-connected and God-centred personality). I know that in some places such worship leaders - if we speak honestly and frankly - are liked for how they lead services by many of the congregation but not by all. As a Kiwi I have never quite worked out whether the 'but not by all' is largely a cultural phenomenon - something about the reserved, serious, modest aspects of our culture resents the leadership which is overly enthusiastic!
I am also intrigued by leadership of worship which seeks to minimise the personality of the leader with a style of leadership which is spare, constrained, concise: minimal directions, for instance, offers less opportunity for the leader to impose themselves on the service. Sometimes moving in this direction is not 'great worship leadership': if so few directions are given, for instance, that people get lost in the prayer book, or, in a different kind of service, get caught out standing when everyone else is sitting, then some in the congregation may feel strongly that they have not been well led!
As we lead services, hopefully doing so often enough to get a sense of what our personal style of leading is, and then leading some more so that we can experiment with a different style, let's keep reflecting on what we are doing and why we are doing it. All with the aim of becoming a great worship leader!
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5 comments:
Thanks for your ongoing reflections here, Peter,
I am hoping that, as you tour the diocese, you are keeping some formal records. I am intrigued, for example, by your description of people getting lost in the Prayer Book. I would be fascinated to have your statistics on which parishes, what percentage, etc. use the Prayer Book (and I mean the actual book, not merely liturgies from it) at their main service. Similarly, we have talked previously, what percentage follow the lectionary & how much of it (eg. 3 readings & the psalm). Some objective statistics like this will help us reflect & also, hopefully, make decisions about training and formation into our future.
Blessings
Bosco
Hi Bosco,
No, I am not keeping formal statistics.
I will think about that, but I would want to take the greatest of care that people did not think twice about inviting me to preach etc because they also thought about the 'inspectorial' nature of the visit.
I may be wrong, but I do not think I have been to one parish which has all three readings AND the psalm.
Because of your formal position within the diocese, your visiting parishes will inevitably have a formal component - you can paint that negatively ("inspectorial") or positively, Peter.
You did not answer my question about the use of a prayer book - in my experience the book itself would be rarely used at a main service?
Also, the parishes I mostly participate in would always use all readings and the psalm set, and as a parish priest that would be my normal practice. There are real questions IMO about selecting from within the lectionary in a main service in a parish context and on what basis and by whom that selection is being made!
In my experience, communities that do not spend significant time with God's Word together within the service tend to continue to clutter the vestibule of preparation so they do not understand the grammar of liturgy and spend more energy on preparation than what they are actually preparing for!
Blessings
Bosco
Hi Bosco
Few parishes are using 'the prayer book' as in the red book itself; but many of those I visit are using some reprinted service in a booklet (or, much less frequently, on a screen).
So some issues:
1) Breach of copyright
2) Why we do not have the copyright to our own Prayer Book
3) Why we authorised a prayer book if it is so hard to follow
4) How we train worship leaders to lead from a prayer book
5) How we design booklets that are easy to follow
6) What is going on when clergy are struggling to lead well through booklets that they themselves have mostly designed
Blessings
Bosco
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