Leading Worship as Evangelists, Part 3

Again, I love what I do. Standing on the platform and watching people connect with Jesus is a staggering privilege.

Yet I wish I'd been gifted to be an evangelist. Which means I often ask myself, how can a worship leader be an evangelist?

If you share my struggle, here are the 10 things I’ve been trying to do for a while now:

1. I work hard to connect with people in my community who may not be connected to Jesus or His church.
2. I step into non-musical roles when invited and emphasize personal evangelism.
3. I regularly encourage worshipers to invite family, friends, and neighbors to join them.
4. I diligently pursue a worship gathering that is high quality; excellence often translates into credibility.
5. I choose songs that sound more like what is on the Top 40 radio station than my grandparents’ 1940's radio.
6. I use language that isn’t crafted for insiders, but makes what I’m talking about available to everyone.
7. I have pushed hard for our worship gatherings to be streamed on Facebook Live.
8. I teach those our worship ministry about the role of worship in evangelism.
9. I plan services where we sing the gospel.
10. I pray.

I’ve covered the first 6 in my previous posts. Today, 7-10.

Streaming Worship Gatherings— My pastor is simply an amazing communicator. I’ve been privileged to work alongside several strong preachers, but Tim Harris is a unicorn among horses. He has a spectacular gifting. Three and four years ago we did some work on the analytics of his sermon views on Vimeo and I knew we had something unusual going on. There were people watching in dozens of countries and his sermons were being viewed thousands of times every year…from an agricultural community with a population of about 350. When Facebook Live came along, we got to work upgrading our lighting and video to improve our ability to send a “good product” to the online world. There are now about 8 billion people in the world and 1/4 of them are on Facebook. In the US, 75% of us use it. This was a game changer. On a typical Sunday, we’ll have 600-700 people attend one of our services. But we’ll have over 1,000 watch online. The evangelistic potential for this ministry is virtually unlimited.

Deploying Worship Ministry Members— I work consistently to encourage those in the worship ministry to be on the lookout for people they can invite to church, and to Jesus. Specifically I’m thinking a bass guitar player probably knows another bass player who doesn’t attend church right now. Same for drummers, singers, etc. So I regularly ask folks in the ministry to invite folks to the ministry and the church. It’s why we have a church orchestra ever 4-6 weeks, to engage the gifted in our church family and to invite high school and college friends who play. It’s why we have an annual “Faith and Art” Sunday, where we reach out to our local university. If our worship warriors are also on the front lines of inviting people, it’s a win for everyone—especially those who come to faith or come home to Jesus.

Sing the Gospel— Every Sunday I plan services so we sing the gospel. My thinking… if lightning strikes the steeple 25 minutes into the service and we don’t get to hear a sermon, everyone in the room should have already seen and sung the good news of Jesus. This affects song choice in the week-to-week as well as in the bigger picture. 

Pray— I pray for my friends who are disconnected from Jesus and His church. When we do prayer time in rehearsals, or when I get to lead prayer time for our church, I invite people to share the first names of their lost friends and family members. I write a prayer guide for people to use as they pray during services. Part of that includes praying for the lost. I encourage this kind of thinking in conversations with those outside the worship ministry—staff, deacons, etc. 

Having written about all ten as if I’m some sort of high-functioning worship evangelist, I find myself compelled to confess that I need to step it up. In some of these areas I’ve grown lazy or unfocused. In others, I see ways I can grow. I’m no expert. I’m just a fellow traveler trying to be faithful to the calling of God on my life and ministry.

Again, I have no doubt that many of you are better at this than I will ever be. I’d love to read your comments. How do those of you who lead worship (point person or team member) get to exercise your passion for reaching those far from God?