Do you run through your worship set before you lead on Sundays?
Most worship leaders have made it to the point where they understand that, in order to lead worship well, you need to know how to play the songs you're leading well.
This excellence in musicianship removes distractions and frees your mind up to focus on other areas of worship leading.
But, there's a step that happens AFTER you run through your set list that is often ignored.
That is WORSHIPING through your set list.
What's the difference? RUNNING through your set list prepares you to lead the songs musically. WORSHIPING through your set list prepares you to lead the songs spiritually.
Here are 3 benefits of worshiping through your worship set:
1 | Allows you to go on the journey before you lead people on the journey
A helpful metaphor for worship leading is to understand that we are taking people on a journey: you have a plan in place and you are guiding people along a path.
Therefore, if we are leading our church somewhere, it's helpful to have gone on that journey before we lead others on that journey.
Think about if you were climbing a mountain and had someone leading you. What if you asked them, "How many times have you climbed this mountain?" and they said, "Oh. This is my first time but I have a pretty good plan of how to get to the top." You'd trust them a lot less to lead you than the leader who answered: "I've climbed this mountain thousands of times."
Go on the journey before you lead people on the journey.
2 | Allows for a personal time of worship
Let's be honest: sometimes we get so caught up in our preparation for worship leading that we miss out on our personal worship time.
Worshiping through your set list allows you to have a personal time of worship.
In those moments, you don't have the responsibility of leading other people so you can simply focus on worshiping.
3 | Forms your speaking transitions
Worshiping through your set list gives you the opportunity to hear how God might speak through your time of worship.
As you worship through your set list, pay attention to what God is saying to you and then consider how that applies to your church.
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