Leading them in worship - and bearing their burdens

The sense of grief in the room was palpable. News of the tragic and unexpected death of two young missionaries – known to many – had left a significant proportion of the congregation devastated and bewildered.

I was there leading the sung worship only as a guest; I knew neither the couple who had died nor most of those in the room, but I still found myself deeply affected.

As we lead sung worship, we have the privilege of bearing the burdens of those we are leading. Our personal experience of what this feels like are as diverse as we are individual. But if you’ve led others in sung worship, I expect you’ll know something of what I mean.

I think this is part of the reason that leading sung worship can be quite exhausting. It goes deeper than arriving early and multitasking between singing, playing, leading other musicians and leading the congregation. Yes, as we lead we set a spiritual and emotional tone, but we also reflect it, and are affected by it. This is the privilege of our ministry.

First, a spiritual ministry

Being aware of this dynamic shapes our approach to leading. It reminds us that, first and foremost, what we share in is a spiritual ministry of God’s word before it is a practical one of chords, keys and tempos. (In fact, this reality shapes all of those smaller choices, but that’s for another time.) Secondly, it helps us to be prayerful, that we would be sensitive to the mingling of the joys and the sorrows present in the hearts of those we lead. Thirdly, it helps us to anticipate that we may well feel drained after leading, and that we need to care for ourselves afterwards with healthy habits like sleep, exercise and – above all – sitting at the feet of Jesus.

In God’s mercy, on that night of grief the passage to be preached (and around which we had planned the songs) was a psalm of lament. The words of Romans 8:18 and following almost caught in my throat as I read them, and to be honest, I didn’t even get through all of He Will Hold Me Fast. But maybe that’s part of our spiritual leadership as well: modelling the grief and the joy of those we lead. What a privilege.