Worship at Practice, Practice at Worship

Worshiping with people whose sole purpose is to chase after God’s heart is the most encouraging thing that I can experience as a worship team leader. Leading a group of teenagers into God’s presence supersedes any personal ambition that I have. Sharing a stage with a group of imperfect teenagers whose desire is only to love God is my reward. I love it when the team’s hearts are about worship and when worship practice is viewed as groundwork for the service. The opposite is also true; whereas I hate it when practice is merely seen as a preparation for a performance by the members of the team.


Truth be told, there is no real difference between worship and worship practice; there is worship, and there is the striving to get better at leading others into worship. Worship Practice should be defined as when a team gets together to express their love for Jesus through their God-given talents of music. Worship Practice is not about the perfectly timed introductions, the meticulously thought out transitions, or the music that is a result of the vibrating sound waves coming from the amplifiers. Worship Practice is about the pursuit of excellence in preparing for one of the most crucial times in any service, particularly a youth service.

Many a worship practice, the team that I was working with looked at the practice time as a chance to get the musical and technical aspect figured out, while worship took the backseat. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a need for excellence in our worship and we should always seek higher levels of praising God. Psalm 33.3: “Sing to him a new song, play skillfully, and shout for joy.” But if our hearts are truly 100% undeniably all about leading others into worship, why is it that we don’t worship during worship practice? If a team is preparing to lead a few hundred people into worship, yet can’t even close their eyes to focus only on Jesus during a practice in an empty room, the standard is either too low, or the standard is not being made clear.

I am just a little curious to why it isn’t always natural for some to actually worship God during a worship practice. Albeit there are the occasional pauses in order to sort out an order of a song or to decide how we want to interpret a song. There is music that has to be memorized in order for there not to be a wall of stands around us during the worship service. There are musical flaws that take place, causing us to wince and eventually resume the rhythm. But amidst all of the impurities of a human led worship practice, Jesus needs to remain the center. If Jesus doesn’t fill the center role of worship practice, he will not fill the center role of worship, in our hearts, or in our music.

In no way is this blog intended to offend or dishearten anyone, but I felt it necessary to emphasize the importance of worshiping God while rehearsing for him. I am not perfect in this area either, so I’d like to open the door to accountability to keep our hearts set on Jesus and not all the technicalities. I love my worship team, and couldn’t be prouder of how far they’ve come in these past 8 months. During worship practice, let’s strive to be better worshipers. Let’s practice at glorifying God in every opportunity we have. After all, worship is a lifestyle, and honoring him should never take the back burner.



Romans 12.1-2: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

Psalm 95.6: "O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!"