Spirit-Led Worship and Modern Day Pentecost

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. Psalm 100:4

Worship encompasses more than music ministry. The truest form of worship is whatever is done unto God from your heart. Music, technology, and creativity are useful tools/applications to advance the purpose of drawing people closer to the heart of the Father in a church setting. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24.

In selecting songs, in building a team, in working inside the vision of the Lead Pastor: a sincere heart of worship sees every part as valuable to what God wants to do. No part or portion is more or less important, all of it serves the objective of the Holy Spirit in drawing people to Jesus.

As Pentecostal churches, we firmly believe in the Acts 2 outpouring of the Holy Spirit and His gifts that edify and strengthen the Body. We fully embrace sensitivity to the Spirit’s guidance. Freedom and spontaneity in worship can only be fostered and then stewarded from a familiarity with the Holy Spirit, His character, and His heart for the Church. Developing the trust relationship with both the Holy Spirit and the Lead Pastor as well as a servant heart in worship ministry, it is possible for every church to see the gifts of the Holy Spirit at work in times of music ministry and beyond.

On the most practical level, worship as it is defined as a set portion of service utilizes scripture, music, technology, and creativity to break up the ground for both the Word brought through preaching or teaching and the moving of the Holy Spirit in altar time.

Praise vs. Worship: Leading People Well

Yet I know that you are most holy. You are God-Enthroned, the praise of Israel. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Psalms 22:3

What a joy and privilege to know that God lives in our praises! The simplest difference between praise and worship can be put like this: We praise Him for what He has done, what He does, and how He moves. We worship Him for who He is, who He has always been, and who He will always be. When we praise someone, it’s because they’ve done a good job, accomplished a goal, or completed a task. When we worship someone, it’s because of a deep love, admiration, and near obsession with who they are in their entirety. One is about doing. One is about being. Both serve an important purpose in moving the Church nearer to the heart of the Father. Just as we referenced above, we are instructed to enter His gates with thanksgiving and praise. This accomplishes a couple of things: adjusts the attitude of the believer, corrects our perspective, aligns our heart with His reality, and reminds us of our history with the only great God.

There are places in worship you cannot get to without a proper entrance, and the proper entrance is praise. Worship flows out of a heart to see God rightly. You cannot worship the one you do not know. This is why sound theology and scripture should be the cornerstone of your worship and music ministry culture. When He is magnified as He is, we are challenged, convicted, and changed.

Excellent worship (in heart, not just execution) leaves behind it good ground for the sowing of the Word.

As another vital note for worship pastors, you cannot lead people where you have not been. The vitality of the personal relationships of your team will become the ceiling for where the Holy Spirit is able to lead. It would be highly unusual for a congregation to surpass the intimacy with or sensitivity to the Spirit of the worship pastor and team.

Lead and Worship Pastor Relationship

The hierarchy of leadership within the church should be clearly communicated and wholly adhered to. The vision of the Lead Pastor as they align themselves with the Holy Spirit’s guidance will serve as the umbrella that every other ministry lives under, including worship ministry.

It is not uncommon for a Lead Pastor to request songs or ask for a specific theme in a set. It is not uncommon for a Lead Pastor to give direction to the Worship Pastor based on where the Holy Spirit is moving. The servant model of leadership maintains a respectful, trusting relationship between staff as they all work inside of what the Holy Spirit is doing. The Lead Pastor must trust the Worship Pastor to see their Holy Spirit gifting be used in following the Spirit through the ministry of song. The Worship Pastor must trust the Lead Pastor in hearing the voice of the Lord in what will serve the church, in both planned and spontaneous moments.

Developing Spirit Sensitivity

The question of how to be sensitive to the Spirit and His moving can be and often is overcomplicated, but the fact of the matter is that He longs to come. We simply have to not quench what He is doing. How do we do that?

1. Align Your Plans With The Spirit

What you sing, the scriptures you read during worship, and the order in which you intend to do everything should all originate with what you feel the Spirit is doing in both personal and corporate times of prayer and seeking. If we decide ahead of time that we go where He goes, no matter where He goes, and submit our plans to Him both in our heart and intentionally in pre-service prayer time, we give Him permission to move with and in spite of what we plan. Preparation is just as spiritual as spontaneity when we submit it to Him.

2. Align Your Heart With The Spirit

Make time daily and weekly to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to speak louder than your emotions, situations, or preferences. Often we find that the Holy Spirit doesn’t move on our favorite song, but rather the one that edifies the hearts of everyone in the room. We won’t miss His preferences if we have already crucified ours. He can move us where He wants to when our feelings aren’t a hindrance.

3. Align With Leadership

It goes without saying that submission to the Lead Pastor is the most spiritual thing you can do as a worship pastor. In Acts 2, we see that the Holy Spirit’s entrance was not predicated by Reckless Love or Amazing Grace but the unity of His people with His Spirit and one another in the ultimate pursuit of Him alone. So should our services reflect an Acts 2 outpouring. We unify ourselves with one another and with Him and He will always move.

Starting Where You Are to Get Where You Want to Go

What’s in your hand? Start there.

What you have, God will use. How you steward it is what determines where you can go. One church’s journey began with hymnals only and a grand piano. The incorporation of more modern music and equipment did not happen in one week, one month, or even one year. It began with keeping hymnals and adding a few modern worship songs with a casual choir of about 15 people. Within that group of people were seven elders. This one change became the catalyst for advancing the worship culture. The buy-in of the elders and the visibility of their yes in joining the choir spoke volumes to the body as a whole.

What can we learn from that? Small, intentional changes that emphasize the people in your congregation will get you where you want to go. It’s imperative for you to start with what you have and steward that well. The only necessity for great worship is a right heart and people who want to pursue excellence in the offering they bring. Great worship happens in full bands and one person with a piano. Great worship happens in megachurches and in small, rural churches.

The difference is found in making small, purposeful strides towards the greater vision to grow the ministry. Goals matter, people matter more. When you are content to move forward over time, people don’t get lost in the pursuit. They grab ahold of the vision and become part of it.

Developing a team

Building a worship team can seem like a daunting task, particularly if a church is starting from scratch. However, there are a few guiding principles that will make the process more doable.

1. Heart and Character > Talent

You are accountable for the people given a place in leading your congregation. Let’s get one, very important thing straight right out of the gate: no amount of talent will cover a weak or nonexistent relationship with Jesus and no amount of gifting is a substitute for character. Adhering to this may very well be the difference between worship that is Spirit-led and worship that is performance. Skilled and technical proficiency can be taught. Integrity cannot. The quality of the people on your team is far more important than how naturally gifted they are.

2. Prioritize People

It will never matter how amazing your worship music sounds if your people feel like tools, don’t get along, and aren’t discipled intentionally. The people on the team are the first ones to pastor, and they need to be truly pastored to thrive in their role leading people into the throne room of God.

3. Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day, But It Was Built On A Vision

There is no exact timeline for when your team will reach the milestones you hope to achieve. That is not an excuse for lack of growing, developing, and advancing. You may bring people onto your team who are not technically proficient and that is okay. There should, however, be SMART goals in place to encourage development. Goals for the individuals on your team and your team as a whole should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound. Will they take lessons? Will they enroll in online courses to learn more? Will there be skills checks before joining on the platform? You will see no growth with no vision or plan and vice versa.

4. Wants and Needs Are Different

You may want a full band for worship, but you do not need it for genuine, Spirit-led worship. You may want to do every new song, but you do not need a new song for God to move in a time of music ministry. You may want to practice twice a week, but your volunteer members need to work, earn a living, and not be overwhelmed. Particularly when you’re building a team, being clear about what is needed versus what is wanted will help keep expectations reasonable.

5. Everyone Can Be Excellent

Excellence is a Biblical mandate of every believer. In all we do, we do it as unto the Lord. Excellence has nothing to do with skill, talent, gifting, or “having it.” Excellence is the stewardship of what is in your hand so that God can bless it. Excellence is your part, anointing is the Lord’s. Perfection and performance cannot do what excellence and anointing always will. Excellence is accessible to everyone at every level. It is what you do when you aren’t being told to that grows what God has given you to work with.

It’s how you string your guitar, how you check batteries on everyone’s mic before service, or double-check the accuracy of the lyrics before projecting them. Excellence is every single thing done to prepare for the moving of the Holy Spirit. Excellence keeps you ready. If you ever want to walk out spontaneous moments well, you must first prioritize excellence.

6. What You Praise Will Grow

When you begin adding instruments, vocalists, and worship leaders to your team, things will most likely not be incredible right out of the gate. But there is power in what you speak over your team. Emphasize the good, work on the bad, and always praise the effort and the heart. You’ll be surprised at the kind of dedication you will have when people feel appreciated, acknowledged, and valued.

Utilizing these guiding principles and constructing a plan for when practices can be scheduled, building a team becomes much more realistic.

Helpful Resources & Legal Issues in Worship

Now more than ever, it is imperative to cover yourself legally when it comes to the use of media in services and events. Fortunately, an abundance of resources exist to assist churches at every level of worship culture/team development, and many of these tools legally cover your organization when they’re used.

Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) https://us.ccli.com/. CCLI exists to cover churches in using music, lyrics, and creative assets. This service makes licensing simple and protects your church from legal recourse associated with improper usage of material. Your church can and should register for an annual membership to streamline your reporting process and alleviate any need to license individual songs. CCLI provides additional resources that are helpful to every church.

SongSelect is a web-based database that allows you to access lyrics, chord charts, lead sheets, and more in one place! This platform also allows you to print, download, transpose, and listen to samples, making building a song library easy. Connected to SongSelect is OnSong, an app for phones and tablets that allow you to build sets and view chord charts like a digital binder. Both are huge assets to teams of all sizes.

For churches not ready to step into live worship music, the links below offer options for bringing music into your services without instruments or teams.

https://www.renewingworshipnc.org/smallchurchmusic-com/

https://www.multitracks.com

Building A Worship Set

When moving into live worship sets during services, picking songs can seem arbitrary and may be limited to what the band knows and can execute with excellence. As the team begins to grow both in skill and maturity, selecting songs to build a set becomes more complex and important. Whether your pastor is asking you to support a sermon series or there’s a theme the Holy Spirit has laid on your heart, having a format for worship sets can be exceedingly helpful.

The Biblical form for praise and worship calls us to enter with thanksgiving and praise before moving to a recognition of His sovereignty, repentance and returning, making our requests known to Him, and finally verbalizing His magnificence and emphasizing the importance of His will over our own. You will find that leading people into worship using this model helps align their attitudes, their perspectives, their heart, and their spirit to His will and His way.

In a practical way, this often translates to:

• Upbeat Song of Thankfulness

• Mid-Tempo Song of His Might/Power or Gratitude

• Hymn or Contemplative Chorus

• Worship Anthem

This is by no means a mandate and is not the required way to construct a song set, however, it can be helpful in narrowing down an endless and vast library of songs.

A few helpful tips for any worship set, regardless of size of team or length of time:

• Choose songs with good theology that align with what the Bible says

• When working with a theme, do not select songs that all say the exact same thing. Add variation through viewpoint and think of building on the main idea, not just singing three versions of Amazing Grace, for example.

• Consider your congregation. New songs are great, but one per set is sufficient. Three new songs in one set creates an audience. The purpose of corporate worship is for everyone to join in.

• Consider your time constraints. For instance, if you only have 5 minutes, do not try to do 3 songs. Instead, do one song very well.

• Every song is worth at least one try. If your congregation does not respond to a song after one or two attempts in a set, consider shelving the song to return later on.

• When working in new songs, play them at altar times, during prayer meetings, etc. so that your congregation may become familiar with them.

• Old songs and hymns still work and new isn’t always better. There’s a reason many of them have been sung for hundreds of years.

• Don’t create hype. Encourage genuine engagement with what the Spirit is doing. We are not about emotional manipulation. Anyone who tells you there is no place for emotion in music is probably not much of a musician. But the emotion must be subject to the Spirit.

• Above all, let Jesus be the main thing. If a huge moment doesn’t happen, that doesn’t mean God didn’t move. Big moments are great, God moments are infinitely better.

Technology in Worship

The three main learning styles for all humans are visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. I purpose that we target this in our technology department for the purpose of learning and recall. We want our parishioners to be able to grow, and they can’t grow unless they first learn.

Technology is an ever-growing, expanding entity. Resources are almost endless. Check the Resources page for assistance.