I never feel like I can worship while I’m leading worship.

Question:

Does anyone ever struggle to actually worship when leading a team? Leading worship, when I'm leading a worship night for example, all I ever desire is to be like the people standing in the back and worshiping freely.

Yet because of all the logistics, being a key instrument, having to lead both vocally and musically, etc., it's really hard for me to worship in that freedom. Of course, I can just do this at home alone, but I'm just really longing to worship in community without the “burden” of leadership.

Unfortunately, I'm in a situation most times, even in an unplugged kind of setting, I'm always the one who has to take the lead because of the fact that I play guitar and sing. Limited in lead instruments.

Am I alone on this? Any tips?

Answer:

Raise your hand in the comments below if you can relate to that.

How many of us have felt before, I know I've felt it before, where it's like I have a lot of responsibilities when I lead worship? And if you're doing it right, you do have a lot of responsibilities whenever you're leading worship.

Understanding Corporate Worship

What I'm hearing in this question is actually a good thing because it tells me that this person is not letting their personal worship usurp their corporate worship time.

And that's what we need to understand: when we gather together, we are supposed to be worshiping with the other people.

You function as leader of that time, and so it's not that you aren't worshiping whenever you are leading worship; It's that you have a different role in the gathering.

But guess what? Everybody has a role in the gathering. Nobody is supposed to be just standing there having a personal time of worship with God. We are supposed to be encouraging the people around us.

And so, when I hear people talk about how I can't worship when I lead worship, we need to understand that leading worship is worship.

We need to understand that our obedience and our leadership in the church is worship. It’s bringing glory to God.

Worship as Glorifying God

Worship is not, "I have this feeling and I feel the presence of God, me one-on-one with him, this vertical connection." That is not what worship is.

That is sometimes a result of worship, but that's not what we're chasing. We are chasing giving glory and praise to God, and in his abundant grace, he reveals himself to us.

But that's not what we're chasing after. So, we need to start seeing our worship leading as worship.

Like you said in your post, you can worship at home alone. That is what that time is meant to be.

When we gather with the church, we are gathered together.

The Worship Leader's Unique Perspective

And I would argue that you as the worship leader are probably experiencing more what corporate worship is supposed to be than the other people in your church.

Because a lot of people come into corporate worship with that consumer mindset where it's just like, "What can I get out of this today?" But that's not how we're supposed to worship when we're together.

And so, as somebody who's thinking about other people, thinking about the responsibility that you have to the other people in your church, that's what corporate worship is.

So, you aren't missing out. It just looks different. And we've all been taught for our entire lives that we are supposed to have this personal connection with God on Sunday morning and forget everybody else around us when that's not how it works.

So, understand that your worship leading is worship.