• Exalted One - Elevation Worship
• We Are The Free - Matt Redman
• One Thing Remains - Jesus Culture

God has blessed me with an amazing family. I have a beautiful and wise wife.
She challenges me as a husband, leader, and follower of Jesus.

Recently she challenged me with something I had picked up a long time ago from Carlos Whittaker’s blog post “12 THoughts For and From A Worship Leader”. - Paraphrased it’s basically the idea that, as a worship leader, what I say on stage between the songs I lead on Sunday is equally if not more important than the actual songs we sing. 

Kristin challenged me to be more intentional about what I say. I fall into ruts. I think most worship leaders do. One of my ruts is to say “Isn’t it great that we get to do this?”

Now it is great that we get to sing songs about God, to God, for who He is and what He has done for us. That is a great thing. It’s awesome, cool, amazing, “insert your favorite adjective here”. The problem is when that become my default. When it becomes my default, I’m on auto-pilot. When I’m on auto-pilot I’m not intentionally listening through or planning through what I need to say or what God wants to teach us.

When I’m on auto-pilot I’m relying on my own strength.
I do things out of habit instead of out of humility.  

So I’m starting a new practice. 
I’m calendaring time to literally script out / pray through the songs we’re doing each week and what I will say before / after / during them.

My goal as a worship leader is to give people the opportunity to respond to Jesus because of who He is and what He has done for them. That means that I have to be there already. If I’m helping people take steps, then I need to be some steps ahead on the path beckoning them onward and closer to Jesus.

I’m hoping through this new practice that I’ll get better at listening to the Holy Spirit’s leading. I’m hoping I’ll become a better leader. I’m hoping I lead people to Jesus.