When you lead worship do you find yourself needing to give a lot of instruction or commands to get people to do certain outward actions or 'acts of worship'. Is there a lot of prodding involved? Lord knows some days with some groups it can be more like 'plowing' then others. But I'm not personally one for giving a lot of commands in worship or requesting specific actions... and here's why:
My thinking is: I'd rather INSPIRE a response than request it.
As worship leaders of course we all want people to be engaged. And of course there is a whole debate possible about whether we can really judge "true worship" by outward actions in worship. (Many evangelicals are programmed to display these now regardless - so outward actions don't always signify true inward worship) But, lets take a 'standard' Biblical act of worship like raising your hands... Would you rather have someone raise their hands because you said "come on everybody, let's raise our hands in worship now" or because you were simply directing people's attention to God and someone caught a glimpse of who He is that made them want to respond to God that way? Obvious answer really. - So since the hand-raising isn't my endgame but rather the heart-response is, I'm going to focus my time and attention when I'm leading there.
People worship in response to revelation. Our worship is a response to the light in which we understand or fail to understand who He is. Big revelation will result in big worship. Revelations 4 gives us a picture of this and it's what we have in store for us before long. For most of us though here and now, God is often drowned out by the world around us and too small and therefore so is our worship. Our job as worship leaders is to help with the revelation part - not skip to coercing the response.
In John 12:32 Jesus said "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" Of course here Jesus was referring to his death on the cross. But I believe He was also referring to another kind of lifting up as well. As we lift up, remind, display, proclaim, simply who He is - HE will draw people to himself. Who He is is SO AMAZING people can not help but be drawn to Him! We love because He loved us first. There is nothing else in existence that holds a candle to Him and there is a deep call built into each of our DNA for exactly this. We just need a true picture of Him to start the sparks flying.
If we focus on drawing men, or jumping straight to the desired response we miss the point altogether. If you seek to be a better worship leader, seek to be a better REVEALER of God rather than a motivational singer. Inspire people again with God's greatness and love and grace for them. When people catch again who He really is you'll get your response - and it will be real! Choose songs and exhortation and scriptures that reveal Christ. Leave room for the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ. Sing testimony and truth that paint who He is. Lift him up - and let Him do the drawing!
