TWLL #30: Understanding The Purpose Of Spontaneous Worship

read time: under 5 minutes

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Whether you’ve been incorporating spontaneous worship into your sets for years, or are just stepping into this for the first time— it’s good to have a clear idea of the purpose of spontaneous worship.

Today I want to offer a few thoughts that will hopefully encourage you as you lead spontaneous worship.

Recent Popularity

In recent years, spontaneous worship has become more common in many churches, and I think that’s largely a good thing.

But I think the challenge is that on the surface— especially in churches where spontaneous is newer— it might look like the particular worship leader or singer initiating that moment is stepping into rockstar mode.

Think about it for a minute, and put yourself in the position of a person in the room.

You’ve been singing a worship song, and suddenly there are no lyrics on the screens, someone on stage is singing something you’ve never heard— and you can’t sing along.

Can you see how it could look like that singer or worship leader is basically having a rockstar moment?

And yet the reality, if the singer or worship leader is executing it well, is really the opposite.  Let me explain…

Beholding Him

A spontaneous worship moment, when navigated well by the singer or worship leader, is going highlight some attribute or aspect of who Jesus is.

Let me give an example.  Let’s say you’re leading a song, and you beging to sense the theme of fear emerge.

So you transition out of the song, and begin to sing about fear.  But you’re not going to just keep singing about the fear, right?   

You’re going to sing about the answer for the fear— which according to the Word is God’s perfect love.

So you eventually start singing about His perfect love, and how it casts out the fear, just as I John 4 describes it.

Now you’ve just given the room a beautiful opportunity to behold, and meditate on the God whose perfect love drives out fear.

And remember that it’s when we behold the Lord, that an authentic response of worship to Him from us comes forth.

Conclusion

I want to encourage you as a worship leader, whether you’re new to spontaneous worship or have been doing it for years, to be confident as you continue incorporating these kinds of moments in your worship sets.

Realize how you are providing an opportunity for the room you lead to corporately behold Jesus, when you lead spontaneous worship.

Far from it being a rockstar moment, when done well, it will bring your room back to the heart of worship.

That’s it for today, more to come next week.

PS- Happy Thanksgiving!!

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