Lampstand one: FOUNDATION
Every structure rests on a foundation, without which the rest of the structure, no matter how well conceived, loses integrity. The Worship Leading Choir is no different.

Foundation for the Worship Leading Choir is biblical, including things expressed in the Old Testament, and implied in the New. These things include the choir’s roles as worship leader and as warrior. They answer to Jesus’ implication that we are the spirit-and-truth worshippers that the Father seeks. They provide a structure for leadership in speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Foundation also consists of things spiritual,which originate in biblical admonitions. They include learning how to present ourselves as living sacrifices; how to utilize not only our minds and hearts, but also our bodies in worship to glorify God; making certain that we are worshippers personally before we are worship leaders corporately;answering the key question, “Is the choir our idea, or is it God’s idea?”

Foundation requires and allows us to take a fresh look at God’s Word and learn to put into practice Jesus’ greatest teaching and observation about worship: to learn to truly
worship God the Father in spirit and in truth.

Lampstand two: RELATION
In the traditional choir, there is so little available time that it seems logical to proceed as though the only item of importance is rehearsal. Get your book,get to your seat and sing. Relationships happen mostly serendipitously. “Hey Bill,...sorry,I mean Bob...wanna go and grab a bite when we’re done tonight?”

Choir members often know one another as just acquaintances. Relationships sometimes progress to friendships, rarely to partnerships, almost never to anything resembling family.

For the Worship Leading Choir, priorities are different. We want to value each other more. We need to care about one another, believe in one another, pray for one another, weep with one another, and rejoice with one another. That’s Christian community, as Jesus taught it.

Also,we need to be a family because of this primary principle: It is freeing and powerful to worship with people you care about, and who love and care about you.

The worship-leading choir cannot be at its most effective until its members become family.

Lampstand three: EDUCATION
Ministers of music are harried a lot. They are jacks of all church trades, sometimes carrying in their job description the responsibility of youth or children’s ministry along with an adult and youth choir, an orchestra, a rhythm section or two, a worship team or three, a senior adult choir, and a graded choir program. It’s not unusual to find them at the church virtually every night of the week. New music they receive from whichever choral club(s) just keeps piling up under their office credenzas. The only thing more limited than rehearsal time is preparation time.

And so,week after week, this poor minister of music is charged with creating a context in a choir rehearsal, which brings new insights both spiritual and musical, with a repartee of jokes to keep ‘em in the aisles. And the last class on vocal pedagogy or conducting technique was ten years ago and even then it didn’t in any way prepare him or her for dealing with any of those catchy, rhythmic tunes that everyone seems to enjoy.

Put simply,the education lampstand seeks to give the director some new directions (Especially on the CD version), which he or she can then use to train the choir. If he likes, his choir can now actually sound more like Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, not just sing their music.

But no matter what the musical style, the Worship Leading Choir strives for excellence in serving the King, because excellence is required. And, excellence inspires.

Lampstand four: CELEBRATION!
We’ve all sat in amazement as some worship-leading giant among us artfully invoked the Holy Spirit to take us to a wonderful encounter with God. Whether it was Don Moen, Ron Kenoly, Darlene Zschech,Twila Paris, or your own personal favorite, if you’re like many, inside you the desire has burned to be able to do that. Not for any self-exaltation, but because you so desperately want that same spiritual intimacy for the people God has given you to lead.

We believe that the most powerful worship leading force is the choir (see II Chronicles 5), and if that’s the case, once the choir has arrived,you’re halfway there. The next question:How do you travel the rest of the way? Is worship leading some mystical practice only accessible to the blessed few?

Happily, you can get there from here. It takes obedience, and it takes diligence, and it takes learning to listen for the voice of the Spirit. But if others can get there, so can you.

Through listening and through analyzing, you can find the “God moments” in a time of worship (actually, they’re all “God moments”) You can learn how to prepare a time of worship and a sequence of songs that speaks to the heart of God, and moves the hearts of the people.

You can turn the half hour you most dread to the half hour you most anticipate: standing before the people, leading them in worship. You can turn your time of frustration into a time of...CELEBRATION!