Introduction to Worship Leader
The term Worship Leader is spoken of frequently in Christianity today, but what does it mean? What is a Worship Leader, and what do we need to know to be a good one? That is what this page will begin to answer using relevant examples from Hillsong Church, Hillsong United and others. To start off with, it has something to do with music - and then what next?
Scroll down to learn more from videos, links, photos, blogs, books, Twitter, news and so on updated regularly - or grab the code at bottom and embed this page in your blog or website.
Featured Person: Senior Pastor Brian Houston, Hillsong Church
Watching the October 24, 2009 episode of Hillsong TV with Brian Houston, I noticed that he was commenting on worship leaders. As I recall he mentioned that when he looks at worship leaders he always looks to whether they mention having a relationship with Christ, and that it was not all about the music. He was commenting on the content of what is happening in worship leadership. So, who is he to say being a pastor? or would a pastor of a church that contains a lot of worship leaders be a good source of insight?
Looking to his Wikipedia web entry, they say that "Brian Houston has authored 12 books." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Houston_(pastor) His current publisher Thomas Nelson on their website describes his latest book succinctly as "If you do not know the meaning of life, he says, you will never live a life of meaning." http://www.thomasnelson.com/Consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=0849919134&title=&author=Brian_Houston From his latest book, I chose perhaps a relevant quotation to his comments on television "Jesus stepped into humanity's desperation, stood up against the injustice of the world, and bore it on his shoulders. No price was too high" (p.170, For This I Was Born: Aligning Your Vision To God's Cause (Houston, 2008). Click on Hillsong Church in the Related Mahalo Pages for further links to his book, and church with links to Hillsong TV, Hillsong International College that teaches Worship Leadership etc. Fyi, his own website along with his wife Bobbi, who is also a pastor at Hillsong Church, is here http://brianandbobbie.com/. Comments can be left below or continued on in the Message Board link found at the bottom of the left column. Apologies if I have not accurately represented him, you can check out the sources yourself!
Photo is Creative Commons by Pink Sherbet Photography thanks to "D Sharon Pruitt" owner
Darlene Zschech Hillsong Australia 'Heart of Worship' Part 1 July 01, 2009
"Darlene Zschech is one of the most influential Christian worship leaders in modern times." according to AwesomeCityTV. They go on to explain that about 2530 million churchgoers sing her song Shout to the Lord every week.
The first minute is a clip of Darlene singing, followed by an interview where she talks about her work and what being a worship leader can be like. An inspiring and sincere interview on its own - worth a watch.
Darlene Zschech Hillsong Australia 'Heart of Worship' Part 2
This continues the interview with Darlene Zschech. She is very candid in her answers, so other worship leaders and those considering the field can perhaps find something helpful here. Very easy to listen to, a great quality video technically also.
Alma Rivera singing "Above All" "Sobre Todo" By Michael W. Smith
This video would not have shown up if you were searching for "worship leader". However, it sure looks like it. This looks like a church setting and they are singing and worshipping. So, in case you are looking for something from a worship leader also try search words like praise, Christian, worship, religious, gospel, inspirational together with music, song, songs, singing, singer, singers, choir, perhaps together with whatever kind you are looking for. This video has many of those keywords as well as "Latin" and "Latino".
Be careful also that some search engines only search words if they are capitalized or lower case and skip the opposite so if that is the case, be sure to try a search with and without capital letters to see it all. I suppose that goes for those who are looking for work in this area - it may not necessarily say "worship leader" in the job ad. Perhaps it will be called "music director" or "choir master" instead or other phrases.
Hillsong: "Yahweh" Worship and Praise Song featuring David Ware (HQ)
From the description given with the video, "Worship and praise song called "Yahweh" from Hillsong featuring David Ware, worship leader. This song is featured on "Faith Hope Love" DVD/CD 2009 release." This is a Hillsong worship leader in full performance mode in concert.
Voice Lesson and Singing Tips: How to Lead Praise and worship
Dileesa Hunter from Americansingingstudio gives us a great how to video on singing tips for worship leaders and the what is the difference between a great lead singer and a great leader. Very clear and easy to understand good quality practical video.
References
Fast Facts
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According to Wikipedia Entry:
"A notable feature of contemporary worship is the worship leader."
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Who are they?
"A worship leader is normally a musician (often a guitarist or pianist) with good singing ability whose role it is to lead the congregational singing. Many composers of contemporary worship songs are also worship leaders."
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Did you know?
a google.com search finds "about 19,300,000 for worship leaders needed"
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Worship Leader Role
according to Ken Godevenos, MBA, CCP, CHRP "is the senior position which coordinates the congregational singing, guest vocalists, drama, orders of services, special audiovisual aspects and so forth"
