Check Yourself...

WORSHIP LEADERS UNITE!

Let's be honest - worship leaders are a weird lot.

It's not without cause, though. Leading worship is a strange and terrifying job; you have to stay aware of the needs and responses of a large group of people, you have to keep an eye and an ear on numerous technological and musical element all at the same time, you have to make sure your heart is right and your mind is focused on scripture, you have to wade through tons of songs and ideas about worship leading.

Add to that mix the fact that you're also seriously messed up.

I say that because I'm messed up, too. Chief among sinners and all that, you know?

That's why it's so vital that we check ourselves constantly. Because adding our own egotistical, arrogant, insecure drama to a job that's already a difficult needle to threat is dangerous and foolish.

Lately, I've been compiling a list of questions I need to constantly ask myself when it comes to my ministry. For me, answering "yes" to any of these questions means I need to do some work on my heart and get my mind right.

• Am I choosing songs just because I like them? Am I pounding songs into my congregation over months in an effort to make them connect with those songs?
  
  
• Do I talk about gigs more than what God's doing in my local home church?
  
  
• Is my image (how I look, sound, am perceived) taking priority when I lead worship?
  
  
• Do I name-drop?
  
  
• Do I think my 25 minutes are the most important part of the service?
  
  
• Do I balk when asked to cut a song, change a set, adjust from my previous plan?
  
  
• Do I "play" to a certain group of people in the congregation?
  
  
• Do I spend more time on song lyrics or spiritual books/blogs/tweets than in scripture?
  

Let's face it, worship leaders...we operate in a relatively high-profile capacity. It's easy to get consumed with self. It's tempting to become obsessed with our own ministry. We want it to be so good, done with such quality, but we have to be careful.

These are just a few questions I need to ask myself on a pretty regular basis. What about you? What other ways should worship leaders "check themselves?"