The Call of the Worship Leader
The worship leader is not only somebody who chooses and leads songs, but is an ambassador and barrier for truth for the people of God. For me, as study in God’s Word continues to inform and mature my theology, my position on truly dangerous music groups in the Christian genre continues to shift as well. Many of you know my position on blatantly heretical groups like Bethel and Hillsong, but the more I learn about their beliefs compared to the teaching of scripture, the more rigid I’m becoming in my purposeful distance from them. At one point, I maintained a safe distance away in that some of the songs are defensible and could be utilized with caution because most of the seriously dangerous error comes in during the teaching of these movements rather than the music. At this point though, and this may seem pretty darn rigid to some, with the exception of the songs that don’t originate in these movements but are maybe just recorded by them, I am completely staying away.
The way I’ve personally begun to look at it, if a song originated in the Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness cults, even if the lyrics were sound and not overtly in conflict with scripture, I still wouldn’t do it. In the same way, if a song that originates in a version of Christianity that teaches a false gospel catches the attention of the culture, what matters for the true church is not a singable song, but one that aligns wholeheartedly with God’s Word. Heaven forbid that I lead a song that seems sound, that somebody falls in love with, searches for online, discovers Bethel or Hillsong, attends a concert when they come through town, gets exposed to the teaching, and drifts away into cleverly devised myths. That’s probably an extreme case, but as the ones who choose the songs, our focus must be Christ and the truth and knowledge He’s given us rather than placating to modern cultural leanings.
The Word of God is the only incorruptible source of truth in this world. As a Worship Pastor, leading worship music is something I've dedicated my life to, but it must be noted that a worship song, even though it's beautiful art derived from truth, is still inferior to scripture. I've heard many people along my ministry tell me, in essence, that reading the Bible is fine, but worship music is how they really, truly connect to God. Again, as a Worship Pastor, as passionate as I am about worship music, it's not! It's a great auxiliary way to both edify us and glorify God, but if you ignore the Word because it's boring or difficult to understand, you are trading living in the vastness of the most beautiful valley for a Polaroid of the same thing.
