Be Excellent Yourself!

As we move out of the introduction and into developing yourself musically, the principle is simple to state: if you want a musically excellent team, you must be musically excellent yourself.

God didn’t make a mistake choosing you

A lot of worship leaders feel inadequate — “I got thrown into this, I don’t have a good voice, I don’t really know what I’m doing.” If that’s you, take heart:

God did not make a mistake when he chose you. He chose you because you were the person he wanted in charge of this ministry.

He is the sovereign Lord of the entire universe; he doesn’t make mistakes. If he wanted someone else leading, someone else would be leading. So the question isn’t whether you feel qualified — it’s whether you’re working on your own musicality.

Leaders set the pace

You can’t ask your team to give what you’re not willing to give yourself. You have to lead by example.

• It’s very hard to inspire a team to be musically excellent if you can’t sing on key or keep a simple rhythm on guitar.
• Even with a tight team behind you, if you’re sloppy, they’ll have a hard time staying tight behind you.
• Leaders set the pace, and our teams follow. When you play well and sing well, you set the standard for your team to match.

And even if you’re not where you need to be yet, your team should at least see you actively improving — taking lessons, learning new chords, chasing better tone, making visible progress each week.

Get help — and know your role

We’re blessed to live in a time of incredible training. Alex points to online resources like Worship Online and Worship Initiative (linked below the video) for developing your guitar and vocal skills.

But here’s an honest caveat: musicianship might not be your natural gift set. Maybe God made you the administrator, the shepherd, the inspirer — the Moses who needs an Aaron to musically lead the band and singers. That’s an okay thing. You don’t have to be good at everything. Find that person — and keep developing yourself anyway.

This module is Alex’s contribution to that development: practical ways to improve your guitar playing and your singing as a worship leader. (If you play keys, he doesn’t — so seek out tutorials online for that.)

Application

• Evaluate yourself honestly: are you where you need to be musically? If yes, you have the foundation of an excellent team. If not, where exactly are you sloppy — rhythm, pitch, tone?
• Does your team currently see you improving? Pick one concrete habit (lessons, a new strum pattern, daily practice) they can watch you grow in.
• If music isn’t your gift, who is your “Aaron”? Name the person who could musically lead your band and singers — and still commit to growing yourself.