What ‘Worship Monsters’ are you afraid of?!

The result of finding a groove and staying in it can be staid worship. Try it one week with a single instrument but four or five good confident singers who can blend, or try swapping out instruments for Communion, or whatever, but try stuff. And then if it doesn’t work, you simply say “Well, I’ll not try that one again quite like that.” and move on.

Fear of failure and excessive pride keep people out of the way they should be. Real leaders lead with Confidence, Humility and Resolve.

On the burn out thing, a church I played at this morning recently went to having a Saturday morning practice once a month to introduce new songs. And of course they have a practice on Sunday mornings to go over the songs for that day. But this is great because you can be involved without giving up a weekday evening every week.

I have a few more monsters to slay, but I am doing better as a worship leader. I have been a leader for just over a year now, and I am coming into my own. There are obstacles, as I’m sure there always will be. However, greater is He that is within me! Bring it on, Satan! I have my sling shot and my smooth rocks!

Definitely the fear of screwing up an intro to a song, usually because I can’t look at the song title/lyrics and remember how it starts.

This isn’t too bad in worship bands that rehearse the Sunday set a few days prior, but for those that just draw from a collection of songs learned historically with no week-prior practice…. serious fears abound for me.

I lead for 16yrs, then stepped out… for a little break… I think I pretty much faced all the monsters you listed, at one time or another… now I mainly sing solos & every once in a while, I add in worship, which I love. The little (HUGE-Ginourmous!!!) monster I’ve been dealing with lately, is stage fright. Go figure. After 16yrs… umm… certainly not normal… I’d get up there and feel like my stomach was in my throat… and.. well.. I kind of needed my throat and stomach (diaphragm? ;) to be in the right place and functioning properly.. especially when I sing… ;) Anyway, this happened for almost a year, up until a couple of weeks ago, when I just began praying and praying and praying, and rebuking this feeling of fear & being timid. And it worked… Hello. Why didn’t I do this sooner?? Hmmm.
2Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

Hey I’m glad you wrote that, just saying in case I forget to comment further once I digest it haha

Hi,

I lead worship occassionally at my church, and have been slowly learning guitar for the last 2 and a half years. But I cant seem to get the two to go together!!! I’m in my element at home in my personal worship time with my guitar and voice worshipping God, but I am just terrified of playing in front of my congregation!!! My playing is basic at best, but I know enough to be able to play a set of worship songs. My voice has genuinely been a recently released gift from God (I could sing in tune before, but really didnt have a great voice) and I am so grateful for how God has opened up my ability to worship him through learning how to focus on him and just sing it out in faith and adoration. I know it’s about losing myself in worship of him, so I guess I am just not confident enough in my skills as a guitarist to be able to lead others in this way. I am quite happy to only ever be a vocal worship leader (for musical worship at least!) but obviously always want to be learning and growing in my worship.

Appreciate any advice!

Hey zc I can totally relate its amazing when you take a break from being on stage and worshiping and then go back to it again its like you have never been on stage before. When you think about it everything is like that. When you stop exercising, singing, playing your instrument you have to start over. As far as the monsters go I have a bit of a perfectionist problem that I am dealing with, I also lead worship and rarely make a mistake but lo and behold I mess up on song I just feel like the worlds worst musician and you know what? it is not true it is a lie straight from the pit of hell. I am learning to use scripture to tell myself the truth. 2 Timothy 2: 15 2 Timothy 1:7 Is so right on God Bless you! TH

I had a genuine fear… Completely irrational…. That my name didn’t sound like a worship leader name… Most worship leaders have fun snappy names… I felt like I would get judged of having a boring name… Lol… Insecure or what…

Enjoyed the article and the comments, and recognise lots of the monsters. I think some of them can be put away by practicing enough to know you can do the stuff. In my business role I prepare well (mostly) for the interactions I have, and my confidence rises as a result of my preparation. In the context of worship I know my voice has not been solid so I got some advice (correct shapes for Maw, Mah and Meh shapes, blowing bits of paper against the wall, etc) and am putting in a little time each day to get it to the place where it can fade to the background in my thoughts as I lead. With Keyboard skills I’m already in a place where it doesn’t get in the way.

My most recent monster is ‘why me?’ – as in ‘do I have the right to do this given the sin and failure in my life?’ You may have other views but the understanding I’ve come to is this: He wants worship (at least in the situation I’m thinking about) to be led by someone who is coming out of Grace. What I mean is the invitation isn’t, “Get clean and sorted out then come to me,” but rather, “Come to me and offer yourself exactly as you are; rejoice especially because you can come to me this way; and notice how I clean you up as you put your hand to the plough.” I have to remember a couple of things or 3 on top of this: 1. In the grand sense I’m already redeemed once & for all. 2. It would not, in fact, be OK to lead worship from a place of ongoing and un-repented-of sin. 3. Can’t remember what (3) was. (Perhaps I should worry about the ‘too old’ monster more ;-)

Hey Ben – your name sounds very snappy…a lot more snappy than mine! Matt Zipfel

My biggest challenge is after 50 years of doing all kinds of church music, and leading worship teams and choirs, is now the talk-sing-shouting style of most upbeat fast paced worship songs that barely allow you to take a breath, let alone finish the words in a sentence. Also, the tendency for acceptable lead singing to be pitched in the alto range so the songs can be more “talked” than sung, and anyone with a higher soprano voice can’t even sing the melody, but that’s where we’re going to pitch all the songs for the congregation. Very disconcerting. I play many musical instruments (keyboards/piano, guitar, violin, celtic harp and appalachian dulcimer) and sing, and now I am facing the sound man turning my microphone down or even off, if he thinks I’m not “contributing” to the sound well enough to suit him.

There is no reason to quit singing and leading worship just because you’re not 20 or 30 anymore. The current 20 and 30 year olds only know about .05% of the world’s Christian music, are generally not very good musicians although they are learning, and they aren’t mostly interested in expanding their knowledge of anything they define as “not worship music.”

Basically, the attitude is musical experience past about 10 years is worthless, no matter how skilled you are because you’re no longer 20 or 30 years old. Why does every song to be “hip” and “with it” have to run at 170+bpm or it’s no good?

I see nothing in the Bible that God gives us a “pass” on requiring us to worship Him because we’re “too old.” King David would turn over in his grave.

I have run into these “worship monsters” at 4 different churches over the past 25 years, and they are getting larger, not smaller. Funny, I wish they really were only a pile of dirty clothes in a corner of a dark room, not real monsters that attack your heart and soul, and threaten to eat you alive every time you play on the worship team.

Hello Vicky
Tina Hast Here, thank you so much for this blog, I have to say that I am rather
shocked and flabbergasted that these different kinds of things are happening
during worship. I have to say it is so nice to know that I am not alone with the
different insecurities. I feel so much better. I really thought I was just one of the few with these monsters. I have been leading worship for the Spring Tea at my
church for 3 years in a row and this year I am doing 2 of your songs. I am
currently seeking a band, I had a band and now they are not available I thought
I had secured another band but only the keyboard player. For everyone reading
this blog please pray the Lord will bless me with the people with a heart to play.
I am a bit stressed because I need to start rehearsals in a couple of weeks. The monster that is peering at me is not having a band at all and having to play my guitar and shouldering the whole thing. I am capable of doing that but it is so nice to have the backup of a band. Thanks for reading. Vicky by his stripes you are healed. In Christ Tina

i’ve been a member of a praise team at my church at least once a month for the past 10 years…

my monsters are:
filling the role of worship team LEADER! i’m terrified of giving the wrong cues to my singers or musicians and ruining the service and/or looking like an incompetent FOOL.

presentation of myself: i’m a very moderate/liberal Christian, in a church where membership is generally very conservative/moderate. is my skirt too high? should i wear jewelry? is my makeup too loud?

burnout: as a graduate student taking 12 units, plus working, plus unpaid internship… midweek rehearsal, night before rehearsal, and performance day can be just an extra thing to do on my list of things to do… that i dont want to do because i’d rather sleep.

Ah these monsters never fail to get to us… but God never fails to get us through them =)
I’ve already had a few of these in my past couple of years leading (I wouldn’t really say I led before then):

 1) The ‘Why Me?’ monster – feelings of incompetence, unworthiness, not being good enough… just generally not quite understanding why God has called ME to do this. But, saying that, I am coming to terms with the fact that I am called for a reason and that it is what God wants me to be doing with my life, despite how daunting it is!

 2) Also had the ‘You’re Too Young’ monster – our band (16-18
years old at the time) being undermined and people didn’t trust we were
able to lead people in worship at this SYNOD meeting (they’d even got
someone on ‘back-up, just in case’!). I just kept reminding the band of 1 Tim 4:12 where it says ‘Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young. Instead be an example in your speech, actions, love, faith and purity’. By the end of the day, so many
people had come up to us surprised but also thankful that we had led
them in worship, and said that we were truly blessed in our giftings. We kicked that monster’s butt ;)

 3) The ‘Confidence’ monster – I know I’m a good musician, but I still don’t think I’m good enough (and to be honest, I probably never will. I’ll always want to improve and think I can be better (which, in all honesty, is true)). I am fairly indecisive (to say the least) and get scared when I have to make on-the-spot decisions. I love to pray but hate praying out loud, and am not confident when doing so or reading from Scripture. I’ve had to deal with it by being thrown in at the deep end when leading the worship at a Youth Camp last summer. It was either sink or swim… the first night I sank, but the rest of the time I decided I had to swim and just trust God and go with it. I’m still not keen on it, but I’m learning and having to just go for it.

 4) The ‘Authority’ monster – it still hasn’t quite sunk in that when I’m leading I’m in a position of authority. Decisions rest on my shoulders. I have the authority to take the worship somewhere else (by the Spirit’s leading) and the authority to switch things up during a set (whether that’s changing arrangements within songs or doing a different song entirely or whatever). I think this one kinda ties in with the ‘Confidence’ monster. I’m learning how to embrace this authority, rely on God in my leading and accept that I am allowed to make these sorts of decisions.

 5) The ‘Burnout’ monster – I know this one gets me a lot. I think I’m not doing enough for the church so I try and do more. Or I feel I’m not spending enough time praying on and sorting out a time of worship. At the previously mentioned Youth Camp I led at last summer, I found myself growing more weary as the week went on and in the end we asked someone else if they would lead a couple of the morning sessions to let me rest, receive and restore my energy (we are scheduling in 2 mornings for this this year so I don’t burn out). It took a long chat from the camp director to persuade me to take a back-seat and accept that I’d completely burned myself out, but I got there in the end. I still struggle to acknowledge when I’m burning myself out, but I’m learning that it’s really not good for me (physically, emotionally or spiritually) if I burnout all the time!

Sorry for the essay chaps!
Blessings on you all as you slay your monsters too =)
Nic x