Worship leaders appear to be "a dime a dozen" these days, but "spiritual" worship leaders have become difficult to find. We posted our church's open position twice on church staffing websites and received over 150 resume's each time. Sadly, most candidates had a shady past, were unhappy where they were, had been released from their previous position, had no experience, received an unfavorable reference, etc. Out of all the resume's we received, we only seriously considered about 12 of them each time. There are some good worship leaders out there, but most of them are already involved in a church, and the others seem scarce.
I've talked to numerous pastors who have experienced the same difficulty in finding "spiritually minded" worship leaders. Our search started when our last full-time worship leader engaged in adultery. Sadly, this seems to be the norm among worship pastors, rather than the exception. The church in which I grew up experienced this same situation 30 years ago. One of the churches in which I served had the same experience... with several worship leaders. In another church, the male worship leader ran off... with a man. Sounds unbelievable, but pastors across the country are sharing the same sad stories -- it appears to be an epidemic!
What happened to the days of the music "minister?" What ever happened to leading people into God's presence, rather than whipping them into an empty emotional frenzy? What happened to those who served in the background, rather than today's prima donnas who love to be in the spotlight? What happened to using music to prepare people for preaching, rather than making music the main event? What happened to those worship leaders who were godly examples... soul winners... true ministers?
How do we change the trend? How do we repair the damage imposed on onlookers? How do we teach people to trust "spiritual" leaders again? Something MUST be done! My suggestion is that we start by focusing on God as the object of our worship; rather than worshipping worship.
By the way, our church is still looking for a spiritual worship leader. Interestingly, the best worship leader we've had in my 7 1/2 years at EBC was a layperson, a lady that God brought into our congregation. She understood the importance of balancing styles, emphasized spiritual lyrics, loved people, and developed others. She was humble, and anything but a prima donna. She would move over to play the piano and allow others to lead publicly, she would share the responsibility of leading our choir, and she understood that her role was "ministry" through music. We brought her onto our staff and thought that would be a long-term relationship, but God had other plans and relocated her family to Myrtle Beach. So... we're looking, again, and praying that God will send us a true "minister" of music, who can truly lead people into authentic God-focused worship.
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