Women worship leaders???

[ackparker]

Why it is so hard for churches to embrace WOMEN as worship leaders? I mean I know we have Hillsong, and others - but most job descriptions for a church that is looking for a worship leader specify a man. I just wondered what others thought on this.

[thetentguy]

Hello! I think that perhaps there is still a stigma in this area in many fellowships that goes deeper than just doctrine. It would seem that many people seem to think that men are more forceful as leaders and in the western church we fall all over ourselves to get charismatic personalities into our leadership teams... who cares about their core values? They can sing / preach / teach / lead, so why not get 'em involved? I've seen some incredible female worship leaders who weren't overly forceful to the point of being repulsive, but strong enough to facilitate an atmosphere of creativity in the band. What it all comes to is heart. I don't care how much charisma a person has when I evaluate them to put them on the band or have as a leader. I look for that snap in the eyes that tells me they have a heart for God and His praise that transcends any gender stigma or expectations people might have of them. Just keep doing what you do and God will open the doors!

:::===={o~}

[p.alhdcf]

I know exactly how you feel. I used to attend a church that if they were going to have a female lead worship she had to co-lead with a man. It was hard knowing that God has called you to lead but if you don't have a guy by your side you could pretty much forget it. I kept doing what I could to follow what I knew God wanted for me. Several years ago God called me to a different church where they encourage women leaders. Because of their encouragement I am now where God wanted me all along. Keep the faith, if you know that God has called you to lead He will guide you to where He knows you can give your best. Be encouraged God has a plan but you must be faithful.

[russhutto]

Personally, if I had to "choose" a worship leader I would choose them based on their worship-leading skill set, regardless of their gender.

Obviously, it's a ministry, but it's also a set of skills. Those who participated in ministering to God and to people in the Tabernacle/Temple system were talented and worked hard to hone their skills.

Now, this is a personal observation, not an opinion, but I think there are many more skilled men musician/worship leaders than there are women, as a whole. Not to say that there aren't very skilled women musicians, I just think that if you took a snapshot of the number of men who had skill sets that lent to leading worship and compared/contrasted it to women with the same skill sets, you MIGHT find that there are just more men. Not better. Just more.

That being said, some of my most favorite worship expressions come from the hearts of women like Lynn Deshazo, Misty Edwards, Rita Springer, Darlene Z., and some local women you've never heard of :)...

[lytesource]

I'm a women worship leader and the senior pastor's wife. At most Calvary Chapels it is not typical for women to oversee or lead a ministry where she is leading men, so I'm a bit of an oddity. I have discussed this topic many times at worship conferences and with other pastors and worship leaders and it has taken me a long time to be 'comfortable' as the worship leader/director. I have to admit that I still feel that with the right man as leader it would be more fruitful. I say that because it has been my experience that when a man leads, somehow, most men are more responsive,.... at least in my experience.

I've posted an article by Darlene Z. on my site that was an encouragment to me when I was doubting God's calling.

check it out here:
http://www.worshipone.org/articles/article/1331609/26740.htm

[ackparker]

Great article! Thanks for sharing that!!

[Rom8girl]

Hi there! I can understand your frustration. I think many churches view this subject in a variety of different ways. It may depend on whether they view this postition as "teaching," or "having authority over men." If so, it may alter some folks' biblical perspective a bit, taken from 1Tim 2:12.
I've been leading worship since 1995 at my church, and in the early years I hadn't realized a problem with it until a man came up to me and told me he'd had reservations when he first came to our church about my being a "female worship leader," until he perceived that the worship was genuine and from the heart. I still don't get the fact that it was now OK to have a female leader because she's genuinely in love with the Lord. But to me, it emphasized the importance of having a submitted heart of gratitude, adoration, dependence, etc. to the One we love. Either gender can fall prey to playing music without a heart of worship. So, all I can say is worship from your heart - to His heart. If you are placed there by the leadership and they support what you do, then submit to them, then give Jesus your all - and he'll take care of the details. He is faithful! And what part of honest worship does God not like?

[fmckinnon]

Great thread, Andrea -

IN response to Russ' comment:

, this is a personal observation, not an opinion, but I think there are many more skilled men musician/worship leaders than there are women, as a whole. Not to say that there aren't very skilled women musicians, I just think that if you took a snapshot of the number of men who had skill sets that lent to leading worship and compared/contrasted it to women with the same skill sets, you MIGHT find that there are just more men. Not better. Just more. ...

I think Russ's observation is probably true, but I think the results are directly tied to this stigma and view by too many people that it has to be a man. It's obvious that there are more "men" ... but I'm not sure it's because they are necessarily more equipped - but it may just be that they have been given more "opportunity".

Not trying to get on a feminine rights trip here, but it could be an issue.

I think of someone like Darlene @ Hillsong ... my wife recently spent some time in a small breakout group w/ her at Free Chapel in G'Ville, GA during a worship conference .. and was totally amazed at the level of humility she has.

THAT is what makes a great worship leader. That humility .. the soft, tender, sensitive Spirit that listens and obeys. Granted, she's an incredible vocalist and expressive worshiper - but I've got to believe that before all of that, and before her "lucky day" (you'd have to know the background of the story behind how Darlene wound up leading worship on "Shout to the Lord") ... I think God surely already was seeing her faithful and humble in the small.

In my environment, I've got two (really, 3) female worship leaders that I'm developing ... and I've turned the ENTIRE WL-aspect of the service over to them before, and will continue to put them up there frequently ... they are great!

For the Kingdom,
Fred

[russhutto]

Fred, you are probably right. I guess where I'm coming from is from the observations I've made in the area of music in general.

Thinking about teens, specifically, how many girls just naturally gravitate towards music? In my experience, it's always been more guys over girls. That doesn't mean that guys are more skilled than girls at that or any level, it just appears (to me) that our society is geared more towards guy musicians. (Not necessarily singers, but musicians).

Most of my lessons (that I teach) are always guys. Every now and then I'll get a female. Maybe it's just me!! Haha.

Many times, churches hire a person based on their ability to sing AND play (while leading the ensemble). Well, in my realm of experience, at least.

[garyhodges]

Ah, lytesource! Having served in a Calvary Chapel for 14 years, I can definitely attest to the Calvary attutude toward women in ministry. It's sad when churches relegate women to women's ministry exclusively when their leadership can bring such richness to other areas of ministry.

As far as why things are the way they are, I have to disagree with the assertion that there are more men who are talented in music or that guys are more drawn to music than girls. Look at any High School or church choir. Who generally has the majority? It's the females. It was like pulling teeth getting more men to join our choir at Calvary.

Obviously, I'm speaking more in terms of vocalists rather than instrumentalists (please don't exclude singers from "musicians"). I will say that you do see more guys drawn to playing an instrument. I'll give you that one.

I think that rather than it being a talent issue or even interest issue, it's a societal issue. If you consider the number of women in bands in Western society, the number of men far outshine them. If you look at soloists, however, at first blush it would seem either evenly split or maybe even leaning toward female domination of the market. (I'll have to do some research here) So to have a woman leading a "band" just seems rather foreign to most people. Add to that the stigma within the American evangelical church regarding women in roles of leadership and you're faced with the uphill struggle of having to go to great lengths to prove the abilities of a woman in such a role over a man in the same role.

BTW - my wife can play circles around me on the piano and I consider it a great joy to be in ministry with her as my equal partner.

[russhutto]

Right on Gary, I am specifically speaking about those who play an instrument and sing. Not one or the other. I only bring up that perspective because in my experience MOST of the churches looking for worship leaders are looking for a person who can sing AND play. I know there are a lot of churches that do have just singers who lead, but like I said in my experience I've seen more of the other. It might even be different depending on worship style/denomination?

[Alison]

You already know I feel your pain, Andrea! For the most part, women do have an uphill climb in most churches...and I would say, if you truly feel that is your calling, then you need to be patient and allow the Lord to lead and open the right doors.

[Songbird29]

Wow, great thoughts! I have been the sole worship leader in my tiny but mighty congregation for almost 10 years now, and I have experienced the fustration of hardened hearts. Even now, when there are male guest leaders, the enthusiasm and participation picks up. It can be very discouraging, but it is keeping me humble, which isn't an easy thing. I am blessed that I am able to worship the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in spirit and in truth, and nothing will ever stop that! I am still working, honing my craft, and praying daily for talent to get to the next level in our corporate worship.

[garyhodges]

You go, girl!

[Songbird29]

Funny thing, I got a complement today on the music for the last several weeks, you know, song selection and performance. It was tempered with the comment that I had been working with a man and I'm obviously letting him do the majority of the leading.

First, the music is the same as always (because we don't have musicians, we rely on the iWorship DVD's and CD's), I still choose the weekly service music, and since the male voice is predominant on those dvds and cd's, and he has the stronger voice, his voice is heard more. I prefer to do harmonys and backup (I do a great RESPECT) so I take advantage of that. I guess the whole point of this rant is that no matter what happens, sometimes if there is a male person on the platform, he is going to look like the leader. This is a good lesson in humility, to be sure. I'm just glad I look at it as whatever it takes to lead the congregation to the throne, work it!!!!!

[russhutto]

Just a few random thoughts on this topic as it relates to where I'm at.

Our "up front" point leaders are female. We don't have one "leader" per se. If we have 3 songs in a set one will do one and the other will do one, and I (nestled off to the side on keys or guitar) might do the other.

We try to do a mix of soulful and rock songs in our sets. We have a very colorful congregation and if all we did was "vanilla" oriented tunes it would exclude a portion of our brothers and sisters. The neat thing is one of our females is vanilla, and the other is chocolate. Yay for variety!!

Anyways, I was just thinking about this whole thing the other day because up until this situation I've always been in a place where there was/is ONE person who "leads" the team (during the sets). Now, I'm not specifically talking about the person who coordinates/plans the rehearsals/overall ministry, but the people who actually leads/interacts with our people.

In fact, I think it's amazing that both of our "worship leaders" don't even lead the majority of the time when it comes to the Sunday gathering. Our lead guitar player and I run the rehearsals and keep everything going, while the other vocalists actually lead the worship sets. We also have several other vocalists that we are training to "lead" vocally.

Any thoughts?

[Mike Darley]

blindeyesopen,

I don't know specifically about your situation, but I've always found it tough to be on a team where there's no defined leadership. It seems like you guys have a team dynamic that allows you to work well together without any such leadership structure, but if you're looking to have some other people join you'll probably want to move toward some kind of leadership. What you inevitably get with any group are stronger personality, and so someone ends up taking the lead anyway. Unfortunately, the de facto leader isn't always the one who you'd want as leader, rather the one with the loudest voice. Anyway, just some of my thoughts. I'm not exactly sure how all of this ties into women worship leaders.

[russhutto]

I guess my "random thoughts" were geared more towards saying that it doesn't matter if the "leader" is red, yellow, black, white, jew or greek, or male or female...and that our specific situation is a good example of that.

1) Because our point people (the ones up front interacting with our congregation) are female and different skin shades.
2) The "leaders" (per se) of the team are our lead guitar player and me. We rotate the structuring, rehearsing during the week, and rehearsing on Sunday before the gathering.

Therefore, there is a "lead" person each week. Defined, planned, and on our written (typed) monthly schedule that goes out to all team members. The set-up does indeed work, and we are growing as a team.

We have an auditon process that me or our lead guitarist holds for those (vocals/musicians) that do want to join the team. We just added 2 new members this week!

I do get what you're saying, though. I think that by generalizing about our "team" led situation you inferred that we don't have "leaders" - we do. We just have a different structure than the typical church music team setup. Basically, there are 2 people who are the "worship directors" - involved in planning, charting music, auditioning, running rehearsals, etc. And then our "lead" vocals "lead" by interacting with the congregation. More times than not, the 2 worship directors might never even sing a note into a mic.

For example, it's kind of like a rock band where the lead singer isn't truly the leader of the band, the bass player is.

Hope that's a bit clearer.

[El Ben]

Good example, Russ. The truth is, when it comes to the worship band as a unit, I'm willing to say that 80% of leadership happens before you ever are in front of people. To me, ironing out arrangements, geling (sp?) with each other, and above all, connecting spiritually with each other is where real "leadership" happens, at least when it comes to the worship band, and even then, that translates out into what actually happens on a Sunday or whenever you actually have your gathering.

I loved your point about how sometimes the "worship leader" will never even sing a note. I've been in positions before where as the worship leader I never sang. As a matter of fact, I'm running sound this Sunday and Jermaine, our piano player is leading.