Why Worship Leaders Don’t REALLY Need Good Theology
Ok, now that I have your full attention, let me begin by saying that in almost every field and profession, a person must learn not only how to do the job well, but also gain the knowledge about the field or work itself. A teacher not only learns to be a good communicator, but they must also become proficient in every subject they are teaching. A pilot not only learns to fly, but also has years of extensive study in the creation and engineering of the aircraft that will be flown. Yet, even though this is true in most professions, most music and worship leaders in the churches today are poorly trained in sound theology. (Ok, before you tune me out, don’t let the big “t” word bog you down and cause you to stop reading. Theology is just the term that encompasses a person’s understanding of who the God of the Bible really is.) When I say that most worship leaders have very little to no training in this area, I mean that he or she hasn’t been taught, or hasn’t taken the time to learn, what they really believe about the very God they lead their people to worship.
Yes, they probably know most of the basics like God is Creator, Jesus is Savior, the Holy Spirit fills us, the Bible is the Word of God, the Church is the bride of Christ, our mission is to reach the world with the gospel, and Jesus is coming back again. All of those things are true! But it’s important that worship leaders go beyond the milk of theology and dive deeper into the meat of theology (1 Corinthians 3:1–3). A worship leader with good music skills but a poor understanding of true theology is like a teacher who is great with students, but simply is not knowledgeable about the topic they are required to teach.
If you’re still skeptical on why a worship leader should study theology, let me quickly give you 3 rules… no, let me give you 3 roles a worship leader has and why studying the nature, attributes, and story of God through His Word is crucial for us to fulfill our calling.
1. A worship leader has the role of being a worship-learner.
Before we are called to teach, we are called to learn. Or another way to say it is…before we are about leadership, we must be about followship. (Yes, I know I just made that word up, but you get the idea!) Jesus told the disciples to follow him, to learn from him, to emulate him, and to imitate him. It’s one of the first and last things he said to them while He was on the earth (Matthew 4:19 and John 21:15–25). Jesus knew the first step of being a person of influence for the gospel was continually learning the ways of God. The same is true for the worship leader. The very concept of Worship itself is an unending well of treasure and beauty that no one on earth, except Christ, has ever fully grasped and understood. But we must seek to be a student and continually grow in our understanding in the things of God so that we can be a learner before we are a leader. If music is a language, then theology is the message. Worship leaders must learn the message of God so we might have clarity and understanding in presenting it.
2. A worship leader has the role of being a worship-discerner.
“Here’s my concern: that you care for God’s flock with all the diligence of a shepherd. Not because you have to, but because you want to please God…”(1 Peter 5:2) A shepherd discerns when there is danger around his flock and guides them into safe and spacious places. In the same way, the worship leader is called to guard the church from watered-down truths, sin, pride, false teachers, half-hearted worship, corrupt theology, apathy, and so forth. It takes discernment through the Holy Spirit’s guidance, along with the knowledge of the truth, to fend off that which would be harmful to the flock. But how will we know what to steer the body towards or away from if we are not knowledgeable on what is best for our people? Theological concepts like pneumatology, soteriology, and anthropology, and other domains of theology can be shaky ground if we don’t know how to navigate them. Studying and knowing the Word so that it might “dwell in us richly” (Col. 3:16) is absolutely key to having the discernment needed to lead and feed the flock.
3. A worship leader has the role of being a worship-multiplier.
Christian leadership is really about discipleship. If we aren’t making disciples, then we aren’t fulfilling the great mission of our lives and the church as a whole. The worship leader, other than the pastor, has arguably the most influential role on a local body as far as discipleship and multiplying the faith. What we sing, the truths we declare or fail to declare, interpretations of scripture, or the gospel we teach and proclaim are all teachable moments to the entire body. Therefore, we have a great responsibility to teach and multiply the faith in our people on a weekly basis. What an opportunity! However, when we fail to be a pupil of theology, we will fail in teaching sound truth and resort to leaning solely on our musical ability to impress our people instead of leaning on the truth to instruct our people.
So to all of my worship leader friends, whether you have led music in churches for 40+ years, or you feel the calling on your life to lead worship in the future, I implore you to always be a learner in the attributes and story of God, a discerner to guide and guard your flock, and a disciple-multiplier so that we succeed in our true calling. And although we never really become experts in the full knowledge of the unfathomable depths of who God is, this is a chase that is worth pursuing.
