woman worship leader

Of course a woman can be a Worship Leader in a church.

The person in that position should have a heart for worship, be gifted instrumentaly or vocally, and have a God placed desire in their heart to serve in that way.

Man or woman...its irrelavent the sex.

To say it must be a man is taking the "usurping a mans authority" thing to an absurd length, imo.

Blessings,

Mike

[ February 22, 2006, 06:06 AM: Message edited by: D28guy ]

 

Some of the finest lead worshippers I know are women. Of course, they take their leadership in a different way... not leading by directing or saying "hey do this" but by example.

To my mind, I see worship in three parts: Worshipper, Prompter, and the Audience. Too many times in Christian worship, the lineup is all wrong.

Worshippers: Music Minister, Praise Team or Choir.
Prompter: God (who helps us choose the songs we should sing on any given Sunday.)
Audience: The Congregation.

But I put to you that this should be turned around. The Audience should always be God. It is for His glory and honor that we praise and worship Him. Worship is our response to His revealed glory and greatness. The Worshippers should be the Congregation... in full fledged participation. And the Prompter(s) should be the Lead Worshipper (male or female, in my opinion)/Praise Team/Choir under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Instead of Worship Leading, I try to be a Lead Worshipper, one who leads by example not directing the flow of what goes on. I want to respond to God in a way that lets people know that if they follow me, we'll get to the throne room. (This also means that my life, attitude, and sins have to be on the altar daily because I'm unworthy to be in His presence. How can I lead people to the throne room unless I can get there myself?)

Just my opinions. I'm sure some will disagree, but that's ok. As far as women in lead worshipper roles, I see that as fine too, although always under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Senior Pastor.

 

TT, I wasn't implying that you didn't... merely commenting that that was the way too many viewed it. I wholeheartedly support women lead worshippers, as I said before, under the guidance the Holy Spirit and Pastor.


I'm gonna be a daddy! Pray for us, it's our first!

 

It's strictly a matter of personal preference, and not a matter of scripture. We Baptists typically interpret scripture to limit the scriptural role of pastor to a man. Where scripture is silent, we should be silent. That would make all other extrascriptural church roles, such as worship leader, open to all as each individual church sees fit.

Even in our common of interpretation of limiting the role of pastor to men, that doesn't forbid a woman from preaching. Pastoring and preaching are two completely different things (we tend to interweave them often). In fact, the Great Commission expressly calls all Christians to preach the Gospel to all, without limitation.

 

Sounds like you are under the authority of the pastor. My pastor often says women have to step up because of a bunch of sorry men.

But I still have that fundy conviction that says women shouldn't lead men. Children, fine. Other women, great.

And that's all I'll say about it. It's been very interesting to read this thread.

 

I respectfully agree.

 

Oh man, you're just holding your eyeball right up to the sharp pointy stick!

Why do you have fundy convictions instead of biblical ones?

Lead men to what? To water? To Christ? To the brink of insanity?

I know you didn't mean it that way, but I couldn't resist. Please forgive me.

 

God is in the audience, but he is not the only one. God is concerned about the way Christian worship appears to other Christians, the world and angels (1 Cor. 11:10).

(He isn't concerned if the world is attracted to it or not. They won't be if it's being done right. But He is concerned that the outward appearance conforms to His standards of decency and order.)

I think Scott J is on track with his understanding of 1 Cor. 11, though I differ on some of the fine points. In 1 Cor. 11 Paul is addressing demeanor, and waits to correct the inordinate practice of women prophesying during worship when he addresses the subject of order in 1 Cor. 14.

 

You should read it more carefully. It doesn't have to say verbatim, "Woman should not direct music in church." It's included in the command to be silent.

I remember an incident one day when my 6th-grade teacher told the class, "No talking." I whispered to my friend. "She didn't say anything about laughing." Despite his best efforts, he couldn't contain his laughter.

Guess what. The teacher meant no laughing too, and we knew it, even though she didn't say it. We got some time inside during recess to think about it.

Why let a woman doing anything? Why let her lead in the rounding up of people to clean the potties? Why let her lead the nursery? Why let her lead in kitchen duty for the pot-lucks?

As far as I know, none of those things are acts of worship.

If someone feels demasculated (is that a word? looking for word for guy feeling bossed around) by having a woman tell them what page the song is on, that kinda scares me.

The issue here is God's will on the subject, not anyone's feelings. So far the only one here to get personal with her remarks is you.

 

In 1 Cor. 11 Paul addressed their demeanor. They, men & women, were putting away their outward signs of rank. He was not telling the women that they could do something other than he admonished in 1 Cor. 14:34.

 

You should read it more carefully. It doesn't have to say verbatim, "Woman should not direct music in church." It's included in the command to be silent.

I remember an incident one day when my 6th-grade teacher told the class, "No talking." I whispered to my friend. "She didn't say anything about laughing." Despite his best efforts, he couldn't contain his laughter.

Guess what. The teacher meant no laughing too, and we knew it, even though she didn't say it. We got some time inside during recess to think about it.

Why let a woman doing anything? Why let her lead in the rounding up of people to clean the potties? Why let her lead the nursery? Why let her lead in kitchen duty for the pot-lucks?

As far as I know, none of those things are acts of worship.

If someone feels demasculated (is that a word? looking for word for guy feeling bossed around) by having a woman tell them what page the song is on, that kinda scares me.

The issue here is God's will on the subject, not anyone's feelings. So far the only one here to get personal with her remarks is you. </font>[/QUOTE]First, it is NOT personal, so calm down on that aspect. It IS a feeling to think women are leading men if they do certain things. There's no getting around the fact that feelings are involved in our lives. Even God works with that...when he convicts us, we FEEL it!

Now, how is tending to different duties in the church NOT acts of worship? When I scrub a church toilet, I am doing an act of service and I'm not hoping to please anyone. I'm doing it because God's house should be neat, clean, and in order. I hope that such action is pleasing to him. To me, that is an act of worship. Isn't worshipping anything we do to give God honor and glory? Anything done with the priority of putting God first is an act of worship, in my opinion, and I do believe that is scripturally correct. Even helping a lady cross a street is an act of worship.

Do not most people who are learned in the scriptures come to the conclusion that this referes to women leading and teaching other Christian men in areas of doctrine? I'm not understanding how you're drawing this conclusion of women not leading in music.

I'm assuming you disagree with the common interpretation that this refers to leading and teaching men in areas of doctrine. So my question is this: How are you reaching your conclusion? If you truly believe that this means women should be silent in church, how do you decide where it says to draw the line? Isn't the nursery part of the church? Answering phones? Saying hello? Singing along?

 

A worship leader has no authority over the congregation. He/She serves under its authority. It's a servant responsibility. So she picks the hymns. So she announces the songs. So she conducts the choir, or praise team, or whatever. How is that usurping authority? She's only doing what the congregation and the pastor have told her to do.

Tom B.

 

Maybe I should start another thread on this, but I don't like the term "worship leader." It implies that worship involves only the music. It says that the preaching of the gospel is separate from the worship part of the service.

Besides, the pastor is the worship leader. No pastor should cede any part of the service to someone else.

Let's don't get sidetracked on this. If necessary, I'll start another thread.

Tom B

 

I will continue to allow the Holy Spirit to lead me to worship