A lot of people think John the Baptist was Baptist. You know, like, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention or the Georgia Baptist Convention or whatever- you get the idea. This, obviously, is not the case. “Baptist” here means something more like baptizer or washer. A preacher who communicates regularly for my church often refers to him as “John the Washin’ Man.” He was the one who baptized followers of Jesus’ way- even before Jesus arrived on the scene! And, just as a side note, John’s worship leading is of a much different style than you’d find in your average Baptist church- the one I grew up in included. John the Charismatic could have been a more appropriate term were his name a reflection of his denomination or worship flavor as some have supposed. Maybe John the Pentecostal, I don’t know. Anyhow, John the Baptist is an extremely influential lead worshipper we see in scripture, yet there’s not one mention of him sitting at a piano or holding a guitar. John did two things well, two fundamental, essential things well, and if you or I ever hope to become effective lead worshippers for God’s glory we’ve got to begin modeling our worship leadership in large part after what we find John (a) implementing and (b) having success with. 

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