Developing Worship Leaders: Developing a Worship Leaders Heart - Part 6 | Reimagining Worship Guide

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Transcript

What's going on. What's happening. What's going on. What's happening.  Thank you so much for joining us. Welcome to the reimagined worship podcast. My name is Trevor Chin, and I have the privilege of being the host of this here podcast. Listen, if you're new here, welcome. Welcome. Welcome. If you're back, welcome back.

But if you're new here. 

Introducing the Mission of Reimagined Worship

I want to welcome you here at Reimagined Worship the mission of Reimagined Worship is to foster an environment that inspires and empowers creatives within the church,  celebrating their unique gifts and harnessing their talents to embrace worship, enhance worship experiences.

We're committed to nurturing a community that values creativity as an expression of faith, fostering connection and promoting a deeper relationship. With Jesus in short my, my only desire, our only desire is to help strengthen the church's creative department specifically in the way of worship. So listen, welcome.

Personal Updates and Engagements

Hey, it's been a few weeks. It's been a little while. I've been under the weather. I don't know if you can hear it. I shaved for the first time today in a few weeks. So I'm feeling clean. I'm feeling back. I'm feeling a little bit better. Sound a little crazy. So work with me a little bit.

I got a hat on cause my hair looked crazy. It's been, listen, it's been a whirlwind. If you're watching on YouTube, if you're on podcasts, just act everything. I got a fresh retwist and all that kind of good stuff. But Hey, listen, if you're new here. Please check out Trevor chin.

com or reimagine a worship. org. Whatever one comes most natural for you. They both go to the same exact place. You can follow me and my wife on Instagram me at T C H I N creates teaching and creates T C H I N C R E A T E S her at Melissa T music. So  all of that said. 

Developing the Next Generation of Worship Leaders

This season has been a fun one.

This season that we've been talking through a course of developing your next worship leader  to give a brief synopsis. Every day, every week, every month, I have another conversation from someone that says, I'm looking for a worship leader. I'm looking for a worship leader. And my argument is that we haven't done the necessary work to do enough development.

So this seeks to be a tool for people who are open and willing and have a desire to  develop. Maybe it's you, maybe you're listening to this podcast and it's man, I really want to. Learn how to be a better worship leader, be a better musicians, be a better leader in the space of worship. Maybe you are a pastor looking to develop someone else for the next generation.

What it, maybe you're looking maybe there, there are younger people that are in your church. They're like, yo, I want to make this investment early. And now that's a strong recommendation for me. Like I would definitely say Hey, listen. This is a good time to start cultivating that stuff and putting some of this stuff into practice.

I have all the transcripts from these podcasts right on the podcast stuff. And then I have a bunch of resources on trevorchin. com. You can find a lot of this information on there. And then I'm working to make all of this after we're done.  I think it's 10 or 11 parts after we're done looking to make this into an e book so you can just have all of this good stuff like I'm just encouraged to be able to strengthen the church and help a disciple and develop other people.

But I'm grateful today has been a, is, has been a, god day. There's been so many things just going on in my heart. That's another reason why I been out and M. I. A. for the last few weeks. It's just been a lot going on in my heart in my life and the transition. And it's just by way of transparency, like  when I was looking at this section, that was next.

I was having a hard time and I was just feeling a deep level of conviction, having a hard time communicating it in from a healthy space. Just cause I was in a rough patch, and listen, Hey, listen, it's fine leaders. We get exhausted leaders. We get frustrated.

Leaders hit rough patches. Leaders have to grapple. And I think grappling and all that kind of stuff is things that are not talked about enough in the Christian faith. So when then believers hit these rough patches, it's Oh my gosh, I'm the only one that's going through this. God didn't abandon me and all that kind of stuff.

No, that's not the case. This is just part of the sanctification process. I even think about people like Jonah, like even as he was trying to run, as he was trying to leave, as he was trying to do everything, but everything, but what got call him to do God, even in his rebellion, didn't allow him, didn't let him go.

So I've just be encouraged if maybe right now you're like, just say super Segway, maybe right now you're going through a rough patch in your life and your heart and your ministry and your marriage with your kid, whatever the case may be. Maybe just. Spiritually, you just, you feel like you're in a drought and you're just struggling.

Hang in there, hanging to God has not forgotten you. God is still with you. He is still beneath you, around you, in you. So be encouraged. Yeah, just be encouraged. So I'm just recently coming out of some stuff and and the Lord has just been super faithful and showed himself faithful to me, a new and a fresh all over again.

Some of that might spew a little bit today, but we're going to continue with this idea of.  Developing your next worship leader. We talked about some of the spiritual components. We talked about some practical components practicing, knowing, understanding your instrument and all that kind of good stuff.

Cultivating a Worshipful Heart: Rhythms of Grace

Today, chapter six, section six of this series we're diving right in. It's called rhythms of grace, cultivating a worshipful heart,  rhythms of grace, cultivating a worshipful heart. Leading worship goes beyond mere performance. It's not just a Sunday morning when you're getting up on stage and grabbing your instrument or grabbing a microphone and performing for a congregation.

It's about embodying a worshipful heart that sets the tone for the entire congregation.  You're you we are the worship leaders. We are the lead worshipers on Sunday morning. It's it's it goes deeper than. The right song, the right lyrics,  the right things to say the right preparation.

It flows from a worshipful heart. I think I shared this earlier. It's bigger than just it's bigger than our preparation. It's the overflow from our preparation. The songs that we sing when we're exhorting is not what we've studied. It's not what we've taken in. It's what we've taken in. What was spoken to our heart, what the Lord spoke to us through those things.

And we shepherd those kind of our congregations through that same space.  So it's about a heart posture.  It's about a head posture, but it's also about a heart posture. And it all starts with your personal time of devotion.  It starts with your time of devotion. It starts with that inner room. It starts with that that, that prayer closet.

It starts with that devotional time. It starts with that, even in the preparation, I don't want to demonize the preparation time because the Lord shows up in the preparation time. Like the Lord, the Holy Spirit is with you. For those who are in Christ, like he's with you and he is helping you in that preparation for this.

I don't want to, I don't want to diminish that, but like those, these are where a lot of those things happen at. So I'm going to talk through a few ideas today around that. I want to talk to a few practical examples around that and how to really cultivate that works your full heart. And yeah, let's  hang on to your bootstraps and let's roll. 

Sorry. I got a halls in my mouth. Notices.  If it's distracting, I apologize.  I've told you I'm going through, but I just, I felt led. I'm gonna be honest with you.  After the last 24 hours that I've had just of just being reminded of God being a restorer and all that kind of stuff. Like I just felt led to share this section Of this today so might not sound the greatest.

Transparency in Leadership: A Key to Effective Worship

I sound crazy I ain't got no water and if I start coughing give me a little bit of grace, but  Let's just go ahead and dive in the first idea is transparency in leadership.  I didn't do that, but that's a perfect example. Be transparent in your leadership. Authenticity is key to effective leadership.

Authenticity is key to effective leadership. People understand when you are finessing, people understand when you are capping, I'll say that They understand when you're putting on a performance real recognizes real. We hear that saying we've been hearing that for years. Authenticity works and goes so much further.

Honesty, integrity, authenticity the importance of transparency and vulnerability and how how sharing your walk with God is an encouragement, is a reminder that. That, that it's a sanctification process is a reminder that God is still making all things new. It's a reminder that like we're living in this, in the kingdom, but it's already, but not yet idea that all things are not fully new yet.

Like there there's things in life and we can time it. And I don't want to get hung up today, but there's time and time again, I think that we can give off this persona. Everything is hunky Dory. And I have so many friends. Right now  that are going through so much personal loss from parents passing to children passing to this so much loss that's happening right this second family is a battle.

Life ain't no joke. Life ain't no joke. And sharing how sharing the things that you're going through in a transparent and authentic way and not brushing it like it is what it is. I'm good though. I'm good though. No.  I'm hurting right now. I'm tired right now. Being honest with those things. First  share your own challenges and how you overcome them, which can inspire trust and openness in the team. 

Oftentimes, oftentimes  I believe the Lord will allow you to go through things. He can bring you through that thing so you can encourage someone else or the next person how to get through that thing whatever that thing may look like and I've and I'm telling you I've had some of these moments even recently We're like I'm like Lord.

I don't know why you allowing this to happen to me I don't know why you're lying this to be for me to be in this situation right this second and he just continues to show Me one of those things and I'll just be vulnerable with y'all  is my back. I have two herniated discs and If I have a lack of activity for too long it will it, it jams up.

sciatica all down my leg. I'm feeling it right this second, just because of my lack of activity. It's a regular reminder for me that the Lord is saying yo, I'm not going to let you wallow in your stuff. I'm not going to let you just, yeah. Just be sad and sit down and eat chips and Karen all night.

And it took a year. 18,  19 months for me to really get this, get that grasp or that, if that reality, like this, that was the Lord saying I'm not gonna I'm not gonna let up.  I'm not, this is a regular reminder for you. So either way but share some of those. Those challenges that you've had, some of those thorns that you've had, the things that you feel like you just can't break.

Cause oftentimes the Lord will allow you to go through things so you can help someone else through some of those things. And there's been time and time again, where I've asked God Lord, why are you allowing me to go through this right this second? And he'll show me in small moments when someone like, man, I'm really struggling with this.

Yo, I'm struggling with that too. Let me tell you about this. So share those struggles. Be honest, be open, be transparent. Be real and authentic about who you are, about the struggles that you're dealing with and how you are intentionally working, then accountability can be set in place.

There's so much that can happen in that transparency and leadership aspect.  The second idea is regularly discuss both successes and failures with your team to foster a culture of honesty and continuous improvement.  Keep this in mind.  If you're not authentic and transparent and honest and real with your team, you cannot expect them to be honest, open, transparent, real, all that with you. 

You can't ask for real accountability.  If there's a lack of vulnerability and if you showcase a lack of vulnerability, you can't expect vulnerability in return. This is a way that we can pull ourselves off of this, like this perfectly pedestal to let folk know like struggles are real.

And maybe it's not even now thing.  There were certain struggles that I had pre marriage that I didn't have post marriage. There's certain struggles I had pre kids that I didn't have post kids, like maybe there was things that I've struggled with, me at one point in time that are not necessarily, me things that are continuous stories in my life share once upon a times.

Feel free to share once upon a time, but regularly discuss and these successes and failures with your team to foster a culture of honesty and continuous improvement.  Another big thing, the third, last one in this idea is holding hold a Q and a sessions with your team. While nothing is off limits, like promoting just transparent dialogue, like have real open, honest sessions yo,  real talk, how y'all doing this week.

You know what I mean? These are the things that y'all communicated that y'all are struggling with in our last meeting or you're struggling with, whether it be if it's a one on one, if like in your last meeting, like, how are those things going? What are some things as a group that we're struggling with?

You'll be so surprised about what comes from some of those conversations and the fruit and the breakthrough. Listen. You can't expect breakthrough to happen if they think if the chains aren't shown before you, you like, you don't know what to pray for. You don't know what to pray for and you can't expect change to break if they're, if they're hidden under a hoodie no. Have these open and honest sessions these Q and a things. So just the transparent leadership is a really big thing. As we talk about.  This cultivating a heart of worship transparency, leadership, show your own challenges and how you overcome them.

Regularly discuss both successes and failures with your team to foster a culture of honesty and continuous improvement and hold Q and A sessions and dialogue promoting transparency, even within your team. 

Curating Worship Sets: Beyond Music Selection

The another the another, the next topic is, um, really just like this. 

This heart of this worship song selection aspect, selecting songs for a worship is a spiritual process as much as a musical one. How to curate worship sets that reflect. The heart of the congregation and encouraged participation aligned with the with the theme aligned with the field.

Maybe you're going through a difficult season in your church. Maybe there's there are major ideas or topics that the church as a whole are feeling, maybe their losses at the church as a whole are feeling maybe the season that that we're in culturally is a season of lament. I remember through COVID and all that kind of stuff, man, they were.

The tone of the church wasn't everything is, every, everything is great and hunky dory right this second yo, listen, there was a season of lament, like people passing loss of jobs, loss of finances, loss of the idea of what was there was so many things that were lost and it wasn't, we weren't going to just jump into a space of everything is great.

That's why even just as a sidebar, man, we need songs of lament that. Can cry out from our hearts to God and Lord, I need you. You feel distant. I feel like you're not there. I know you are there. Like Psalms 13, like how long will you forget me?  How long will you hide your face from me? We need these songs because he's still different expressions of worship and communication with God.

But engage with the congregation to understand their worship preferences and experiences. I would just have lunches, have some conversations with some folk in the congregation. What do you feel like we are as a church? How do you feel like the worship is going? What, how can the worship be better?

Have these, it's some, I'll have more smaller conversations. Um, The people that tell you that the music is too loud. Like just forget about those. I'm just playing. The second idea is collaboratively playing worship sets with the pastoral team to ensure alignment with the message and the church vision.

I want to make sure we talked about this. I talk about this all the time.  Make sure the songs, selections the set, the sets that you're doing for your quarters or the, that you're doing for your month, that they align with what's going on with the actual message. If you're doing a series of faith, make sure it's, that you have songs that are Reemphasizing the, what the topics are, or what section of the Bible that y'all are your pastor is preaching from be intentional with that and introduce new songs alongside familiar ones to gradually guide the congregation into new expressions of worship.

We talked about a lot of this in our last section. A lot of this in our last section around, um, expressions of worship and growing in that space, even genre or song selection or style or feel or instrumentation, but but have some of these regular conversations and work to guide and shepherd.

Listen,  the microphone on that platform on a Sunday morning is one that shepherds and directs and leads with care and with love and with intentionality. I'll tell you something again, transparent moment. I'll tell you something that I was having some difficult conversations with my wife recently.

And and she said, listen,  you know what?  Okay.  Okay. But do me a favor,  make sure you pray about it first so I can follow you as you're following Christ. And I was like, dag,  all right, Lord. Let's get to it.  But what that did was challenge me and remind me  that as I'm leading my family, it's not based on my own wit or my own idea or my own vision or my own goals and direction. 

They are, my family is following me as I am following the direction of Christ. Same thing as pertains to a Sunday morning, your family or your church family for that matter is following you  as you are being led by the spirit. 

Nurturing a Personal Vision for Worship Leadership

So keep all of that in mind as you give me, as pertains to all of that was just said The third big idea is nurturing a personal vision, nurturing a personal vision  as a worship leader, having a personal vision for your ministry is critical. 

It should guide how you discern through nurturing your vision, ensuring that the, that it complements the broader vision of the church. And then it serves the church community effectively. What does this look like? Set it, set aside time for personal reflection to clarify your vision for ministry.

Back in the day, we used to call it a POM, a philosophy of ministry, this is the mission. This is the framework of vision of the church. How does my mission or vision for this team align for this team, but has its own nuance because it's a, and I've saved this all the time. Like the worship team is a team within a team.

It's a it's a church within a church. There's a lot more creatives. There's a lot more people that are usually the larger, it's the second, it's like the largest team in the church. We're talking about band the creative, from the creative department. We're talking about the band, the singers, the worship leaders. 

Videography, graphic design, presentation, lighting, blah, blah, blah, blah. Marketing, all of that kind of falls under that, like that creative arts department. That's usually like the largest squad in the, in, in the whole doggone church. I always think is wise  to have your own kind of individual vision and direction of how you're going to lead that team.

Through different seasons and ebbs and flows of the church, but  make sure that it aligns with the vision of the church. Do not make it two separate things. If the churches  were a church that we're going to work on discipleship and fostering a community of disciples here in this zip code and dah. 

Make sure your vision is we're going to reach everybody in a mama and dah. So just and neither one of those are wrong. I'm not saying whatever the case may be, but make sure that those visions are aligned. The second idea is seek mentorship and feedback to refine and validate your vision. 

Don't do this in a vacuum. Whether it be external, my recommendation would be to pray about it, develop it internally, seek external vision for clarity and refinement, and then take it to. Other leaders either on your team or in your church to help you continue to refine that idea to validate it to a minute or Hey, this needs a little bit of work.

And then the third one that kind of is redundant, but just for clarity sake, create a vision statement for your worship team that aligns with the wider church, like create an actual statement. For when people are at your church or on your team, specifically, they know that the vision of this team is to X, Y, Z, and PDQ.

These are our values. This is what we seek to do. Like we have we have values. I have values that, that, that are huge. Even from culture and all that kind of good stuff. That are a derivative of a lot of the, a few of the church values that we have. So. That's what that is.

Worship Beyond Music: A Lifestyle of Devotion

The next big idea is worship beyond music. Worship, like I said, is a lifestyle. I don't know if I share this here, but Harold Best has a book.  That is not with me right now.  Harold Best has a book called unceasing worshipers. And he talks about not even from a musical aspect, but that worship is all that we are, all that we have this continuous outpouring to something or someone we are always pouring outwards.

And whatever that thing is. And we can see that in our time. We can see that in our in our finances. There was a quote, say if you want to know where a person's heart is, see where they spend their time and their money.  That's what this idea is around worship. Like where are you spending your energy?

Where are you spending your resources? But worship extends beyond music into every aspect in our lives and embodies the principle of worship and our daily actions and our decisions and our and our interactions.  So one lead by example, demonstrating worship for living and your interactions and choices outside of music.

Listen, just  communicate Trent and transparency, like I said before, but also be intentional with how you present yourself also. Be intentional with your lifestyle and not even just in public, just in general yo,  live a. Godly lifestyle, live as a believer, like period. I don't want to over talk that one but lead by example demonstrate that demonstrate your humility show off those fruits of this period.

I I think that we don't. Dis do enough display of exercising the fruits of the spirit. Like I, I think that we say that we have them, but show those things off in traffic, show them off, in public, show them off in conversation, in gentleness, in love and all that kind of good stuff.

So lead by example and then teach the various forms of worship also. 

Um, communion, like all of these aspects of worship are that, that encompass our lifestyle, teach what these things are teach why giving is important, why giving is a lifestyle why giving is an active worship, TYF fellow fellowship, breaking of bread, community rest Sabbath.  All of these things are a part of worship.

So teach these things, practice these things, display these things and encourage a worship team to participate in the church community activities beyond the music ministry. We, while. I believe that the worship team is its own kind of mini church. We are a part of a greater body and our service time is usually done on the worship team,  but there's women's groups, there's men's groups, there's small groups, there's activities.

There's recreational stuff. There's discipleship stuff like  part to have you like encourage your team to participate in all of these aspects of things. Just for the holistic nature, because what can happen. And hear this well, what can happen  is  your worship team  can become a  disjointed or disconnected member of the body,  but feeling like an  intellectually that they're deeply connected because the amount of time that he spent with the worship team. 

But still deeply disconnected, especially if especially as a worship leader or a worship pastor or someone that kind of oversees that department, it's your responsibility to make sure that they feel connected to the greater body and the greater purpose and the greater vision of the church as a whole while you care, while you, All that kind of good stuff, like they need, still need that time to be able to interact with the rest of the body.

Cause we can become cliquish. We, the birds of a feather flock together idea and we know each other's love language and how we talk and how we interact and just because we process similarly and we can be our own little click. And so yeah, lead by example demonstrating worship for living, teach on various forms of worship, service, giving communion, bringing a bread fellowship, rest Sabbath silence, solitude, all that, and encourage the worship team to participate in the church and community service, community activities two more, and we are out of here. 

Spiritual Disciplines for the Worship Leader

These two have to be said, and I wish it didn't, but they do have to be said spiritual disciplines for the worship leader.  To lead others in worship, one must be grounded in spiritual disciplines.  Establish daily time for Bible study and prayer to ground yourself in leadership  and scripture and communion with God.

I'm, I might just read these. I don't want to overtalk these, but I cannot express. 

In a time like this, where there has been, there's so many things, so many coaches,  look at me,  so many coaches and people and things telling and vision and ideas and strategies and X, Y, Z,  listen, all of this is for not, if it's not rooted and deeply connected with the true and living God.  Establish that time, that relational connection.

One of the, one of the worst things that can happen is for you to begin to lead purely like this, like purely horizontal leadership, where you like you're being asked questions is matriculating in your head and you're recommunicating from a strategy or from experience or from background.  If you don't have the vertical relational connection where you're being downloaded and then downloading.

Man, hurt can happen from that church. Hurt happens from there.  Heresy happens from there. Issues happen from there. So all that kind of stuff. Incorporate fasting. Second idea, incorporate fasting into your routine.  During key moments of the church calendar, we're in one, right? This second, depending on when you're listening to this right now, we're in Lent find find liturgical times within the church calendar that you can practice some of these things, do a weekly thing, Wednesdays from sunup to Sunday, like whatever the case may be, like do little things like that to be able to fast.

And the practice, silence and solitude regularly to listen from God's  practice, silence and solitude regularly to listen for God's direction and refresh your soul.  Silence and solitude has been one of the greatest things I've ever done. Sometimes even in my prayer time, I'm just,  I just sit,  I read a little bit and then I just sit and listen.

So I can't.  Beat that up enough. I think I want to do a whole nother podcast just on the spiritual disciplines. I might have a guest on that's what I'll do in a few weeks. I've a guest, a surprise guest. I won't say who it is, but I have a surprise guest. I'm gonna have come on here and help me talk through the spiritual disciplines piece for the worship leader specifically.

And what do some of those things look like and practical tools for all that? 

Impacting the Congregation's Heart through Worship

So, , finally, and lastly for this section, impacting the congregations heart A worship 

leader's heart  can impact the congregation and will impact the congregation in one way or the other.  It'll either be performance driven,  artist driven, artistry driven,  or it would be care. It would be shepherding. It would be emotional stewardship. And it's important, even all of those things that I said before, it's important that you can find ways to be able to show and communicate this transparency in this heart.

To your congregation,  create moments in your worship service where you can share some testimonies, create moments or encouragements for your congregation of how to engage in worship moments throughout the week, develop playlists for the congregation so they can soak in some of the songs that you did, develop a soaking track for an hour long, just with some pads and hit it with a loop and just  our job  is to shepherd and to steward the emotional spaces, the God spaces.

Our job is to care for our congregation's heart is to lead them into worship. We have a unique privilege to  bring our people before the throne  every Sunday.  Let us not take that lightly.  It's our time and opportunity from non believers who, or from new believers to seasoned believers, to young believers, to old folks that for from the, from people that are new in this Christian space, what worship looks like, how you shepherd them in that direction.

It's our responsibility to even from a  evangelistic standpoint, how to.  Communicate songs and present songs and to lead in worship to to outsiders, to non believers in a way that's compelling, that is gospel centered, that you are reminding them and telling them the truth of the scripture. Like the weight and the burden is heavy  and it's a responsibility that we have that we need not take lightly. 

So family, I pray that you were encouraged man I I love this section. I love this section. I want to just run through it again. Transparency and leadership the heart of worship nurture, nurturing a personal vision. Teaching worship beyond the music, spiritual disciplines and in, in the real impact that you have with your congregation and how all that's important.

That was chapter six. 

Wrapping Up and Looking Forward

I'm looking forward to next week or next time. Let me just say next time that we jump into chapter seven for now, don't forget to check me on YouTube. If you're on podcast, check me on a podcast. If you're on YouTube, Instagram. If you're not on, if you're on Facebook, we have re imagining worship Facebook group.

I want to encourage you to jump in there. We have people engaging in there on a weekly basis. And then lastly, if you're in the Baltimore area, this Saturday, we're doing a re imagining worship conference. I'm so excited. The tickets is 40, but it includes all the materials. The materials. 

The lunch and the, an all access pass that's on my website right now. That's that is at the cost of 20. That gives you all the, all of the previous trains that we've ever done. All the different conferences that we've done around some of these topics. So listen, hop on, check us out, Trevor chin.

com. All the information is on there. Hope to see you next time.