The Spiritual Formation of the Leader (e*g)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt.

I’m going on retreat tomorrow at InTheStillness in St. Martin’s, New Brunswick. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while, and find the timing of this section of the course very interesting.

Something that Dan mentioned a few times in his videos was the idea that the leader’s interior life must become larger than their exterior life. I recognize that it is a treat to be able to go away like this. I hope that during these days that I build habits that I am able to make part of my routine. I’m looking forward to examining the “movements of my soul”, as Ignatius would put it, in peace and stillness. I am especially excited to have time and space to walk, rest, sing, play guitar, dance, explore and enjoy. Oh, how my soul is smiling!

The value of Kingdom Expectation... (e*g)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt.

Sometimes I get frustrated with our attitude towards the Church and what we do when we gather together. It’s like I have a tug-of-war in my heart: I know that we are meant to love the Church as She is, and, that we should be unsatisfied with where She is at, so as to ensure that we are continuing to be transformed. Sometimes it seems like we have become so completely comfortable with the way things are that we cannot even muster up the passion to hope for Heaven to invade earth as we worship together.

Only, how can we ask our communities to actively expect the in-breaking of the Kingdom during our gatherings if we never talk about it? In the back of our minds, we know that worship is a Kingdom activity, and yet we have become such complacent worshipers that we can go week after week without seeing any signs of the Kingdom and not even be fazed by it. That’s not alright! I know that we need to maintain our focus on God Himself and not on what He does, but to not yearn to see His Kingdom in action seems a little contradictory. Thoughts?

I’ve been thinking about accessibility and cultural relevance.. (e*g)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt.


Last weekend my old youth group asked if I would come lead worship after their monthly “HardStone Cafe”. There were a few guys who had come to play at the cafe who stuck around afterward for the sleepover. Which meant that they would be there for our time of musical worship. I didn’t know who they were, who they had come with, or what they were about. I knew that they were not the usual youth group kids. A lot of the crowd that comes to the cafe are into metal and like to smoke pot. Not really the type that would willingly subject themselves to music about Jesus.

A few thoughts came to my head at once:

First, did they know what they were getting into? Last year while I was helping to lead this youth group, the kids had developed a real comfort in worshiping with one another. It was really amazing to see them open up and let themselves loose before God as the year went on. It was different every time - "as distinctive as wine from a bottle, not as generic as Coke from a can!"1 - sometimes they would just soak it all in, sometimes they would giggle and dance around, sometimes they would fervently intercede and pray with one another. I never know what to expect when it comes to these kids and God. It is not a static experience!

Second, are the kids going to feel free to give themselves fully to Father if they feel like they’re being watched?

What followed couldn’t have been more opposite than what I had expected. I’ll be honest in saying that I was a little anxious about their presence, although still trusting that God knew what He was doing even if I didn’t. I asked a couple girls to pray with me about my anxiety, and that these guys would somehow be blessed by what we were about to do.

While I was setting up, (I had forgotten all my music and overheads, and someone else had taken the sound system that night) the boys were still jamming from the cafe. I didn’t know how to transition - “hey guys, maybe you could stop so we can sing some Christian songs now?” Besides, they were really good, and I was enjoying listening to them.

Everyone had gathered by then, and I was grateful when the youth leader, Jon, said that he was going to pray and we were going to start. He prayed, and I started singing, trying to choose songs that most people knew the words to. I was aware that the guys were still in the room, and I was completely at peace. The songs were flowing, people were singing. It was a really sweet time. (Not sweet, like “awesome”; more like honey).

Somewhere in the middle I started singing “When I Survey”. I knew that most people wouldn’t know the words, but I knew that I still had to sing it. The stillness in the room was incredible - not a sound, as I sang my heart out, and tears began to slide down my cheeks.

When we had finished, the guys stood and walked out without saying much. I wasn’t sure what kind of impact it had had on them.

The next day when I checked my email, one of the guys had written on my wall on facebook. It said, “hey, I just thought I'd let you know that when you were playing that big medley of songs after the cafe this weekend, I don't think I've ever heard anything so packed with genuine emotion and inspiration. That helped me understand why people are religious.”

Father is so incredibly powerful. He amazes me every time I lead people in worship. He took my feeble efforts, my disorganization, my apprehension, and opened the doorway for these guys to see what a relationship with God can look like. That it doesn’t have to be boring, or restrictive, or any of the other pre-conceived ideas they have about God and His Church. That it’s for real.

Dan wrote about cultural relevance being the art of creating atmospheres that are authentic and that build bridges for those can cannot build them for themselves.2 I'm really glad that God's a bridge builder, and that He gets us to help Him build them sometimes.



1. Eddie Gibbs. Time in a Bottle: Reflections on Worship. (Vineyard Music: Inside Worship: Volume 44, 2001) p.251.
2. Dan Wilt. Essentials in Worship Leadership: The Values of Accessibility and Cultural Relevance. (New Brunswick: St. Stephen’s University, 2009) p.5.

I've been thinking about integrity and intimacy.. (e*g)

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt.


“It never fails to surprise me that my capacity to portray something on the outside that is not alive on the inside is still present after all of these years of leadership. The art of integrity is the art of being the same person in private as we are in public. What God and the angels know of us is infinitely more important than what men and women think of us (Horace Mann). Integrity in worship means that we are a consistent people – we don’t just sing what we believe, we sing what we already live.”1

Every worship leader goes through seasons of being on fire, and then just feeling satisfied, and then finally we fall into complacency. Yet somehow we manage to keep our chin up and make it through without anyone noticing that we aren’t living what we’re singing. What is it about being able to play guitar or sing that makes people think you’re “super holy” all of a sudden? And why isn’t it acceptable for us to have a bad day once in a while?

We sing things like “We must go live to feed the hungry”2 and “Broken I come to You”3, and we don’t feed the hungry or admit when we’re struggling. When we are not willing to be transparent with one another, community does not work. When we are not authentic with one another in our joys and our struggles, we don’t bear fruit.

I wonder what would happen if we stopped pretending that everything was alright. Maybe if we sang about what we were already living, whether that was about being justice makers or sinners in need of a Saviour, we would start to grow.

As worship leaders, our role is to create spaces for people to encounter God. If we are not in that space ourselves, it’ll be difficult to invite others in. Therefore, we must ask, “Is my life lining up with the lyrics? With what we’re communicating? Am I pursuing a life of purity?”4

Leading worship is about so much more than singing songs. We must be aware of the state of our inner-world. Brian Doerksen quotes 1 John 4:16-21 saying, “if we say we love God whom we can’t see, and don’t love our brother in need whom we can, our psalm is false.”5

Lord, let our psalms be found true..



(1) Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Leadership: The Values of Intimacy and Integrity. (New Brunswick: St. Stephen’s University), p. 8.
(2) Tim Hughes, God of Justice.
(3) Kathryn Scott, Hungry.
(4) Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Leadership: The Values of Intimacy and Integrity. (New Brunswick: St. Stephen’s University), video.
(5) Brian Doersken, Integrity. (New Brunswick: St. Stephen’s University), video.