Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God

by Bob Kauflin

We’re helping people connect with the purpose for which they were created—to glorify the living God. We’re pointing their hearts toward the Sovereign One who is greater than their trials and kinder than they could ever imagine. We get to display the matchless Savior who died in our place, conquering sin, death, and hell in the process.

Worship is about what we love. What we live for. It’s about who we are before God.

Worship matters. It matters to God because he is the one ultimately worthy of all worship. It matters to us because worshiping God is the reason for which we were created. And it matters to every worship leader, because we have no greater privilege than leading others to encounter the greatness of God. That’s why it’s so important to think carefully about what we do and why we do it.

Your greatest challenge is what you yourself bring to the plat-form each and every Sunday. Your heart.

Because I want to make it clear from the start that worship isn’t primarily about music, techniques, liturgies, songs, or methodologies. It’s about our hearts. It’s about what and who we love more than anything.

While it’s simplistic to say that worship is love, it’s a fact that what we love most will determine what we genuinely worship.

How do I know what I love the most? By looking at my life outside of Sunday morning. What do I enjoy the most? What do I spend the most time doing? Where does my mind drift to when I don’t have anything to do? What am I passionate about? What do I spend my money on? What makes me angry when I don’t get it? What do I feel depressed without? What do I fear losing the most?

That’s why as worship leaders our primary concern can’t be song preparation, creative arrangements, or the latest cool gear. Our primary concern has to be the state of our hearts.

The Great God values not the service of men, if the heart be not in it: The Lord sees and judges the heart; he has no regard to outward forms of worship, if there be no inward adoration, if no devout affection be employed therein. It is therefore a matter of infinite importance, to have the whole heart engaged steadfastly for God.

The better (i.e., the more accurately) we know God through his Word, the more genuine our worship will be. In fact, the moment we veer from what is true about God, we’re engaging in idolatry. Regardless of what we think or feel, there is no authentic worship of God without a right knowledge of God.

Good theology helps us keep music in its proper place. We learn that music isn’t an end in itself but rather a means of expressing the worship already present in our hearts through the new life we’ve received in Jesus Christ.

If our doctrine is accurate but our hearts are cold toward God himself, our corporate worship will be true but lifeless. Or if we express fervent love for God but present vague, inaccurate, or incomplete ideas of him to those we’re leading, our worship will be emotional but misleading—and possibly idolatrous. Neither option brings God glory.

While God can work through us in spite of our mistakes, incompetence, and lack of preparation, he commends skill and uses it for his glory. When Moses had to find men to oversee the construction of the tabernacle, he didn’t pass around a sign up list. He chose craftsmen whom God had gifted with “skill and intelligence” (Exodus 36:1). When David looked for a Levite to lead singing, he picked Kenaniah “because he was skillful at it” (1 Chronicles 15:22, NIV). Under divine inspiration, David wrote that musicians are to “play skillfully on the strings” (Psalm 33:3), and David himself, as king over the people, “guided them with his skillful hand” (Psalm 78:72). In the New Testament, Paul referred to himself as “a skilled master builder” (1 Corinthians 3:10). Skill matters to God. It should matter to us too.

the point of our practice isn’t to receive the praise of others. It’s to bring him glory.

And remember, the goal of practice isn’t doing something until you get it right. It’s doing it until you can’t get it wrong.

Our varied skills should function like the frame around a classic painting. If the frame is too bold or extravagant, we’ll hardly notice the picture it displays. On the other hand, if the frame is cheap, shabby, or marred, we’ll wonder why such a masterpiece is surrounded by junk. The right frame complements the picture in all the right ways, directing our eyes to the brilliance of the artist, not to the frame. John Piper calls the right balance “undistracting excellence.”

Being a leader inevitably involves disappointing people. Someone will eventually misunderstand or criticize our decisions. But our goal is pleasing God, not trying to make everyone happy. Our goal is to serve the church with our gift of leadership.

The important thing to recognize is that leading the church to worship God requires more than a sincere heart and good intentions. It requires skill. And that involves work, time, and preparation.

My role isn’t to direct people’s eyes to me, but to the God in whom I trust. The primary way I do that is by making sure I’m looking to God myself.

the most important worship leader is Jesus. He reveals God to us and through his perfect sacrifice provided the only way into the Father’s presence (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 10:19–22).

We can’t do what only Jesus does. But in a culture infatuated with musical experience and expression, worship leaders can be erroneously expected to lead us into God’s presence, usher in the presence of God, or in some way make God show up. People can start to think of us as “musical high priests” who bring God near through sheer musical skill, or as it’s often called, anointing.

every week those who lead congregational worship have significant opportunities to teach, train, and encourage God’s people in praising him rightly and living for his glory.

A faithful worship leader magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit by skillfully combining God’s Word with music, thereby motivating the gathered church to proclaim the gospel, to cherish God’s presence, and to live for God’s glory.

Faithfulness means firmly adhering to the observance of a duty, keeping your word, fulfilling your obligations. It involves being loyal, constant, and reliable.

More people doesn’t always mean we’re pleasing God. It could just mean we’re good at marketing. Like the disciples, we can have a hard time understanding a Savior who’s more concerned about obeying his Father than about seeking out a large crowd (Mark 1:36–38).

My job is to make sure I provide the opportunity for them to be affected by the right things. And that means being faithful to draw people’s attention to the God we’re there to worship.

On the other hand, if we sow to God’s glory in Christ, we’ll reap the fruit of people in awe of God’s greatness and goodness.

Leading for the glory of God, does not preclude from making sure the musical aspects (chord progressions, arrangements, etc) are good enough to provide a distraction free environment, were the congregation can focus con God.

Faithful leadership doesn’t always result in being commended, applauded, or appreciated. Sometimes we’ll be criticized for doing what we believe is biblical.

But experiencing opposition doesn’t necessarily mean we’re godly. It could be we’re just dumb. We think we’re being Spirit-led when actually we’re being distracting or unwise.

Our goal isn’t success, popularity, or personal fulfillment. It’s anticipating—by God’s grace and for the glory of Jesus Christ—that we’ll hear on that last day, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, 23).

John Owen, a Puritan pastor of the seventeenth century, wisely wrote, “We must not allow ourselves to be satisfied with vague ideas of the love of Christ which present nothing of his glory to our minds.”