I have been leading worship for some 25 years now and it has been a great journey. I have never had a huge plan for profile, or for influence but have often found myself in that place. For some strange reason, I find myself increasingly in a position where I am gathering and cheering on and encouraging more and more worship leaders. I find it strange because I still consider myself as a pretty average worship leader and technically not very proficient.

But because I do find myself in that place, part of what I feel I need to do, more and more, is seek the voice of the Lord; to catch the way the wind of His Spirit is moving and be responsive and obedient in it – because the more our roles and spheres of influence as worship leaders grow, the easier it is do become part of the status quo and become less open and responsive to what God is doing. Time, diaries, networking, relationships, projects, emails, phone messages. They all crowd out the voice of God if we are not careful.

And as I have listened to Him over the last few months, I sense God has been challenging me personally in a few areas – areas that I think our church needs to press into in worship, things that I think are big challenges to the wider church as it seeks to grow in it’s gathered worship. These are:

Our ability to relate to our culture

Our culture is media based. Whether we like it or not, this is a reality. It is dominated by the TV, the newspaper columnists, blogs, on-line communities and global brands. As a result it is a culture that is increasingly consumerist in nature and far more individualistic than ever before.

Now I am not one of those people who think that all of this is inherently evil: I like Costa; if I had more money I would buy more designer labels; I am a MAC. But whereas I don’t think it is all inherently evil, I do think it brings huge challenges to the church. You see, not only do I think that the church worldwide could be better at engaging with culture in it’s communication , it’s design, it’s programs, and it’s worship styles (and incidentally my view is that there are no ‘sacred’ worship styles, only ‘helpful’ worship styles) I also think that we need to be people who buck the trend of individualism and not let it devalue the priority of gathered worship: times when the church comes together to sing, to listen to God’s word, to pray and minister to one-another.

And actually, although we need to engage with culture in the way that it is thinking, accessing information, and engaging with intellectual and emotional issues, we still need to be distinctive on this: because once we lose the wonder of gathered worship, I truly believe the church will start to die. In fact, the ability to hold on to the wonder of gathered worship is, in my mind, our number one challenge.

Our ability to retain creative integrity

It is so easy to be critical of the worship industry – and having been ‘around the houses’ on this one many times myself, I am maybe a little more cynical than some (although I have to say, as New Wine begin a new working relationship with Survivor Records, I feel we have found people to partner with who buck the trend), but what we do need to do is somehow hold in our minds that a ‘good product’ that sells well, and even resources the church with great songs, is often, in itself, very different to ‘good worship’. What works well on a CD or a recording, even in it’s ability to share songs and resources with the wider church, does not necessarily provide a template for worship in our churches on a Sunday.

When we listen to the latest worship recording, we need to celebrate and enjoy what it offers, whilst also recognising that the way it relates to our everyday church life may involve us making some wise and thoughtful decisions: often the worst thing we can do is try and recreate it in the context of a Sunday celebration.

I really think that, at it’s heart, creativity is about catching the wind of the Spirit and responding to it. You see, new songs and new expressions of worship tend to accompany fresh moves of the Spirit, and we, as worship leaders, need to take a lead in responding to those moves of the Spirit. I met with a group of worship leaders recently and we talked a lot about the conversation of worship that often happens as we gather as churches to sing – conversations that are unscripted and full of waves of singing, prayer, listening and more singing. We need to be confident in allowing this to happen, and not allow our pursuit of the commercial success or the worship we hear on the latest CD to drive us. We need to be people who are comfortable in patterns and expressions of worship that are fluid and responsive to the creativity the Spirit releases to us.

Our ability to pass this whole worship thing on to the next generation in a better state than we received it.

Over all the that years I have been involved in worship leading, I can think of seasons in the life of the church where the growth and development of worship has only been possible by leaving the traditional church and starting up new expressions. One of the worship leaders who has immense integrity and influence in the church at the moment is Brian Doerksen, who talks of when he started out in worship leading; he talks of wanting intimacy in worship that just wasn’t provided or explored in the traditional church, as a consequence, having to move to be involved in worship in the way he wanted in a different church setting (the Vineyard).

One can look back and see the blessing that has come out of such things. But we also need to ask: should it have had to be like this? Or more importantly, should we be careful that it doesn’t need to happen again?

Psalm 61 talks of David acknowledging that he had received ‘the heritage of those who fear Your Name’. And that word ‘heritage’ leaps out at me from the page.

Heritage speaks of something more than just history. Heritage talks of something that we have been given, something that has been bestowed upon us, something that may have it’s roots in the past but is also something that lives and breathes in us in the present and for the future. And it strikes me that we, as a generation of worship leaders, have a heritage that we need to ensure carries on into the next generation and doesn’t die with us because of our selfishness, or our inflexibility to move forward.

It seems that, all-to-often, the church has only grown in worship, only moved on with fresh and new expressions, from a place of frustration: people sensing the move of the Spirit, and having to start something different to be able to respond to it. And one of my themes in life is that I won’t be one of those people who are the ‘no-change-not-here-no-way’ sort of people. Even though I consider myself as part of the ‘modern worship scene’ that rebelled against traditional organists and choirs etc, I don’t, ultimately, want the next generation to feel they have to do the same when their time comes.

I would like the next generation to take over the reins of worship leading from a place of security, empowerment and confidence. I would like to pass on this heritage to them in a good state of health.

Our church in Cheltenham nearly closed some 30 years ago. At that time, with numbers down to a handful, a few ladies started praying that the church would be filled again. Some of those ladies are still in our church. They sit at the back, in the place where it is the quietest. They don’t really like the loud music. But as one of them said, ‘We’ve been praying for the church to be full for 30 years. Now it is full, we’re not going anywhere!’

I hope that the things I do in ministry will empower and encourage the next generation. And I hope that as they grow into it all and take on more and more of what I do, that I will be an enthusiastic and wise cheerleader, having been able to pass on this whole worship leading thing in a better state than when I took it on.

Neil Bennetts