When you consider how many times we gather together for corporate worship times including meetings in which worship is present, it is important that worship remains fresh and not mundane. The question is “how do we keep worship fresh in the midst of structure and form?”

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Structure and Form

Structure and form are important in our worship experiences but they must never exist to please themselves and become lifeless acts of time spent being comfortable and predictable.

Within structure and form there brings with it familiarity and assurance. These are important elements to help the worshiper disengage from the to-do list and engage the presence of God with all abandon leaving behind all hindrances to the glorification of God.

Worship is meant to be an encounter that should always have aspects of the fresh and exciting. Our relationship to Christ should be one that is full of life and energy and we need to cultivate a sort of unpredictability in our worship experiences not forsaking principle and order but allowing people to move past instinctive response and into an atmosphere that is dynamic, exciting, and energetic.

Leading Worship

As a worship leader it is so important that your lifestyle reflect that of leading in worship. Your relationship with Christ should be exciting and fresh, never routine.  It should exemplify an on the edge type relationship lives in and by the Holy Spirit ready to push through barriers with a desire for others to experience freedom in worship.

Routine comes easy especially when you continue to practice and plan which is so very important.  As a leader in worship it is equally important to leave room for the Holy Spirit who wants us to take us into the depths of God and it is not always the same way we have been before. We have to leave some room for the Spirit of God to move unpredictably.

Who ultimately leads worship? As a worship leader we know that the Holy Spirit is the one who actually leads and we are to follow where He wants to go and to wholeheartedly engage in worship to be an example for others.

According to Matt Redman this brings huge implications for worship leaders:

1. It takes the pressure off and reinforces the fact that you can’t make worship happen. No amount of striving or hyping can communicate worship.
2. It keeps us dependent. The key is to remember that there can never be a substitute for the Holy Spirit of God. If He’s not involved, everyone will know it and no amount of good musicianship or skillful arrangements will ever be able to fill that gap.
3. Not all worship can originate from the stage.

These are true worship leaders—people who, with their lives, and when they gather together, keep alive the romance of the first love with hearts that are always ready for the unpredictable.