What's in a name?

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Permalink Reply by martyn burt on 3 December 2008 at 9:43am

Those of us leading the band used to be called 'worship leader' or 'worship group leader' but a change of vicar and we have been renamed 'music group leader' to avoid the interpretation that worship is only done by music ('let's worship the Lord').

However some still refer to us as 'worship group', or others 'the band'.

Personally i like the term worship leader but i can understand the reasons why it can change.

It is also interesting that at no time in recent years have any of the current music/worship group leaders ever been singled out or highlighted as being a 'leader'. We are kept very anonymous!

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Permalink Reply by Gav on 3 December 2008 at 10:40am

hi guys,

interesting discussion. for me i like 'music leader'. that way we dont confuse music being the only way to worship God as has been said. mother theresa was an amazing worship leader for me, but not involving music, so i think worship leader is a confusing term. the same goes for worship group, but im not sure anything will really change in churches much around this issue.

God bless,
gav.

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Permalink Reply by Kieran Metcalfe on 3 December 2008 at 10:51am

But do you think that 'music leader' precludes a leader from also leading prayers, or other areas of the service?

Just playing devil's advocate... ;)

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Permalink Reply by Eric on 3 December 2008 at 11:59am

Surely if they lead prayers they then have a new role - prayer leader. So a music leader, may also take on other roles in the service, leading prayers, serving communion, even preaching but then they are just taking on other roles.

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Permalink Reply by Eric on 3 December 2008 at 12:04pm

One of our music group leaders leads prayers, children’s talks, sermons, communion etc. The other will lead prayers and of course the singing, and sometimes will play solo as a meditation. They have different gifts and so their parts in a service are different too.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Mason on 3 December 2008 at 5:21pm

Some roles need leaders, others just need people to lead.

Music needs someone to lead, as its important there is a co-ordinated attempt (how interested would it be if we all just sang whatever song we wanted at whatever time we wanted, and the group that managed to get people to sing thier song won out. - what a mess!)

So, you don't necessarily need a prayer leader, but in a prayer meeting you would need a person to keep the prayer focussed, and encourage people to pray. - wether that is a service leader or a prayer leader is a symantic - the role is to encourage people to pray.

Can we all sing, can all pray? - yes. Do they need to be leaders to do so, - no.
Can all play? - No. Do you need to be a leader of the band to instruct people how to play, - probably.
So role and position (and perhaps then expectation) are different.

No one needs a title to be good at serving. - but some positions are necessary to help people know who to look towards to direct them in worshipping together.

Perhaps everyone who leads should be called 'spirit enablers' since they should work in tandem with the spirit in all things?

I wonder what our prediliction for titles and position says about us?
Why are we not happy to be called ' team member with responsibility for co-ordination?' - other than its a bit of a mouthful?

What about 'servant of God and the church?' - would that be a more suitable monacler?
perhaps any of the following?

'least important adorer of God'
'first to arrive and last to lock up'
'keeper of time'

I guess its because shorthand [ 'worship leader' ] sic, for what we do is more easier than wordy descriptions of function, and so perhaps reluctantly we have to accept them.

I get more unnerved by worship 'pastor' than I do by worship leader, as I see no reason why such a position should have responsibility for teaching, pastoral care, direction or significant elevation of status (ie, its not a church office)

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Permalink Reply by Eric on 3 December 2008 at 5:38pm

I would agree that "worship pastor" would often be inappropriate. But I am sure there are individuals out there where such a term would be ideal. My disquiet with “worship leader” as a title is it is usually applied to the leader of the music group, and reinforces the incorrect thinking that “worship” = “singing”. Leading the music group is only a small part of what is appropriate for a worship leader. (Yes I know often the music group leader will also do a significant amount of other leading in a service, and sometimes in our church all the rest.)

I am not sure I can think of a better term, and I don’t really have a problem with “worship leader” but I don’t think a worship leader has to be musical. Were as a music group leader – well pretty essential for them to be musical.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Osgood on 3 December 2008 at 11:13am

this is a perennial problem - all the terms we use are only shorthand so there's inevitably room for confusion. When I use the term 'worship leader' I'm actually meaning something like:

the person who works with the service leader or others in leadership in a corporate worship setting to guide, facilitate and enable the congregation to praise and engage with God, primarily but not exclusively through corporate singing, encouraging congregational contributions as appropriate, and giving direction to other musicians involved in that setting.

That's a real mouthful so I don't tend to use that definition much in everyday conversation! However it is there in my mind so whenever anyone questions 'why are you called the worship leader' or 'at XYZ church they only have music leaders/lead worshippers - haven't you got it wrong?' - I can give an explanation for what I actually mean by the term. I'm not a huge fan of 'music leader' because you then run the risk of giving the impression that you're just leading a corporate sing-song that isn't worship whereas of course (hopefully!) it is.

Re Martyn's point about worship not being seen to be synonymous with singing, service leaders can be key in this by introducing different parts of the service as worship: 'let's continue worshipping God as we bring him our prayers and intercessions' or 'we're going to take the offering now which is part of our worship' and so on.

I think every church will find a short-hand term that suits them, and I'm not really that fussed about it - I do think though that it is important for the music leader/worship leader/dude with a guitar/lead worshipper/choir director/resident music monkey/whatever ... to have a good understanding of what they're doing, why they're doing it the way they do it, and be able to explain that to anyone that asks.

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Permalink Reply by Gav on 3 December 2008 at 1:06pm

good points matt,

im not saying its about having just a sing song, but the problem is for far too long imho the church has emphasised music above other things when it comes to worship. singing songs and playing music isnt a more important offering of worship than anything else. why cant the person who goes and cleans peoples cars in the neighbourhood as outreach be called a worship leader also? why do we think its just "washing a car" and not think of it as worship? the problem comes when we think the worship begins when the music starts and ends when it finishes. i know im preaching to the choir when i say worship is the whole of our lives, thats why i like music leader. yes that can include prayers keiron (good question tho!) especially as many songs are prayers also if you think about it.

God bless,
gav.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Mason on 3 December 2008 at 5:32pm

indeed they have. [emphasised music more than other forms of corporate worship] - perhaps because its very easy to encourage people to actively participate in such things together.

I'm not sure what we expect the congregation to do when they observe a drama or a see a painting, a dance or hear a poem. For that matter I'm not sure what we expect people to do when we sing a song we don't expect them to sing. - So I started another thread on this

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Permalink Reply by Julia Chantrell on 3 December 2008 at 4:54pm

At ours, they've got round it by calling Daniel the Worship Co-ordinator - which means he's technically in charge of anything to do with worship...

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Permalink Reply by Gav on 3 December 2008 at 5:50pm

thanks julia for that perspective, the problem i see is that technically everything could become daniels responsibility then?

ie flower arranging, making tea, outreach, toddler time, music, preaching, welcoming, housegroups, etc etc. see what i mean?

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