Before I was a full-time minister and discipleship coach, I was a volunteer worship leader for our local church. In my twelve years as a worship leader, there were moments where I had to battle with human expectations. People expected me to behave in a certain way, to have a certain taste in musical genre or to have a certain haircut (I now sport a man-bun).
Worship leaders are often treated like local celebrities and are probed as if they were public figures. That's what the stage can do to a person, Christian or not. When not viewed in the right perspective, the limelight can either overwhelm them to the point that they quit or mislead them to pride and arrogance which will also lead to downfall in the end.
I have friends from musicians to singers who have fallen out of the faith or out of the church community, but I also have worship leader friends who continue to grow in the area of ministry that God has called them. Through the years, they have thrived in ministry.
One thing that successful and burn-out worship leaders have in common though is they are both imperfect. In fact, I have never met nor heard of a perfect worship leader. Every worship leader will have one character flaw, a kink in their musical abilities or an apparent thorn in their flesh. Every worship leader has a flaw.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that there should no longer be moral qualifications for leadership. Just like pastors, worship leaders have mandated relational, moral and doctrinal qualifications, but just like pastors there will be times they will fail in some areas.
However, there is one major difference that I have seen between successful and burn-out worship leaders, and that is that successful worship leaders never acted like it was about them. Rather successful and thriving worship leaders were always the first to remove themselves of all honour and glory and throw it back up to Jesus Christ.
There is a wrong notion that worship leaders are middle-men between God and man. The Bible tells us that there is only one middle-man and only one mediator between God and man, and that's Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life, and no one can come into the presence of the loving Father, no one will be able to experience the enabling power and presence of His Spirit apart from the power of the name and work of Jesus.
Christ-centered worship is crucial for all, most especially for worship leaders. It's time we balance our perspective worship leaders. Yes, God is calling true worshippers who worship in Spirit in truth, but He is not looking for perfect worship leaders to be our bridge to God. We already have that in Jesus Christ. The only job worship leaders have is to point people to Christ.
