The Weight of Leading Worship

For most of my life, things at church just happened. That is, events are scheduled and I just show up and participate. Having been part of a church plant, and now a young church, I've learned that there are people doing the planning and preparation to make those things happen. For example, weekly worship on Sunday.

At Redeemer Church, we organize worship in two halves. The first half includes the call to worship, prayer, a hymn, first scripture reading, a corporate confession of sin, assurance of pardon, prayer for our needs, and another hymn or two. This part is led by one of the ruling elders (usually). The second half including the second scripture reading, sermon, Lord's Supper, final hymn, and benediction, and is led by our pastor or a guest pastor.

Even when I was young I had some notion that pastors prepared their sermon each week. However, I didn't think much about making the rest of the worship service happen. Now, as a ruling elder, I have to prepare to lead the first half about once a month. There is a two-part burden to this. One is the preparation, which for me is reading things out loud until I can read it clearly, and preparing notes for what to say and how to pray. The second burden is heavier - the act of leading others in worship.

Other elders may experience this differently. For me, it feels like a weight on my heart to go up to the pulpit and lead our congregation through worship. It's not fear of public speaking, which grad school trained out of me. The weight is more about the sense of coming before God and leading others in such a high and significant task. It is made worse knowing I myself am a sinner, in need of grace, and of no particular worth in myself to justify standing before others in such a place. For me, I try to use that weight or burden as I lead worship to convey the seriousness of what we're doing.

I also admit to thinking about the incident of Nadab and Abihu every now and then when going up the stairs to the pulpit.

But for all that weight, it is a deep joy to be a part of leading worship, to point others to our infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God, and to help make worship "just happen" for others.