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The Journey of a Worship Leader |
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Written by Terry Butler
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Page 1 of 5 The Journey of a Worship LeaderTerry Butler
Around the age of four, while on the swing-set in my backyard, I remember singing away and having tears come to my eyes. If anyone had been around, I’d have been embarrassed. Instead, I felt warm inside and peaceful. On the swings is where I spent my alone time thinking and singing. This particular evening I began to realize that I was singing to God. Looking back on it, I can see that He was already pursuing me at age four and was calling my heart to His.
And He hasn’t stopped.
For worship leaders there is great value in looking back at the journey God has taken us on. For one thing, it reminds us that God carries out His plan for our lives in unexpected, unusual, serious and humorous ways. For me, learning how to lead people in worship has been an incredible, awesome, and hard ride!
If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share a little about my journey. Maybe you’ll see some similarities in your story and mine.
Beginnings
I grew up in the Midwest as a “preacher’s kid” in an evangelical denomination. My mom played the piano most Sundays, and we sang hymns and a few choruses. The song leader up front waved his or her arms encouraging us along as we sang.
Once in a while we’d sing a hymn that would make me sit up and take notice. “Holy, Holy, Holy” was one of these. I’d be transported to a new place when I’d sing those verses. I felt the divine mystery of words like “Cherubim and Seraphim falling down before Thee.” I didn’t know Cherubim from a Cheerio, but I knew they were doing a very awesome, reverent, spiritual thing as they bowed down to the Almighty.
My father had a great voice. Although he mostly preached he would occasionally sing a “special number” like “How Great Thou Art.” That same feeling of God’s presence would come over me. Sometimes my eyes would moisten, and I’d pretend I had played the piano for my dad. Later on, that’s exactly what I did.
I loved the piano and was always trying to pluck out melodies I heard from somewhere. My mom started giving me lessons when I was six or seven. She tried her best to get me to actually play what was in those piano books but before long I was creating my own melodies. Thank God she didn’t mind me “going off the page.”
I’m so grateful my parents gave us kids an outlet to play and sing at church. My first “gig” as a song leader was when I was twelve and they needed somebody to lead the children at Vacation Bible School. I knew three songs and. those kids probably really hated them by the end of the week.
My younger brother Randy and I started to write tunes (“ditties” is the right term, I believe) together and tried to emulate the songs we were hearing on the radio, on records or TV. My brothers and my sister and I were way into the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and other groups. Amazingly, my parents weren’t afraid of “rock and roll” and realized that our musical expression would need to be current, be our own. Randy and I shared the piano at the house but he says I finally took over and just slid him off the piano bench. Yeah, I admit it, I did. As a result, he and all the family saved green stamps (ask somebody older) and he got this plastic acoustic guitar and learned how to play it very quickly. Do you see God’s plan here? God used me to “help” Randy discover the instrument God intended for him.
We had our debut at church one Sunday night singing (with Randy on acoustic) “Turn, Turn, Turn” made famous by The Byrds. You may recall that the lyrics at the end of the song include the line “a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.” My dad had us change the lyric to “I pray it’s not too late.” This was the late sixties in a Midwestern church and my dad needed to keep his job!
We moved out to California just about the time the Jesus Movement got started. I kept banging away on the piano and eventually my mom and dad thought I was ready to accompany once in awhile in the Sunday morning service. Man, I was ecstatic. The other thing that happened is that Randy and I started a band, wrote lots of songs and started seeing kids our age come to Christ. The group grew from four members to six with my older brother Floyd and one of his friends joining us. All six of us are still very close including our families.
Now, you need to know something about my dad. He used to belt out a song every so often right in the middle or just before the conclusion of his sermon. My father is one who was in love with God and never got over what God did for Him. The scary thing is that after I started playing in church regularly he would ask me to come up to play. He’s start to sing before I reached the stage. I would try to find the key he was in and try to hang in there with him. Sometimes it would be a song I’d never heard before. Very scary! I tell you, it helped me learn some weird keys (like D#). God shapes and grows us in mysterious ways, you agree?
I started reading the Living Bible paraphrase. When I would read the Psalms or 1 and 2 Samuel, I felt this deep resonance with David. I was hooked. This was the summer of 1974. I think it was the most pivotal summer of my life. Later that year I wrote my first worship song. God came over me one day at the piano and I must have cried for an hour while writing the song. I didn’t know much of anything about leading others in worship but I started learning that God wanted my life and my music to be all about Him.
God was pursuing me… He was shaping me…
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Tips & Hints |
Managing your Worship Team
One of the most time consuming aspects of being a worship leader is managing your team. Specifically I'm talking about the administrative tasks such as scheduling, communication, introducing new songs, making sure everyone has lead sheets, etc.
Well, we have found a nice online service that we greatly help reduce the time you spend on managing your team, while increasing your effectiveness.
Check out www.WorshipTeam.com.
This is not a paid endorsement, in fact, it's not an official endorsement either. We just wanted to make you aware of something that may assist you in your ministry.
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