LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
Leader Research Paper
Submitted to Dr. Kimberly Martin, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the completion of the course
WRSP 530
Principles of Leadership for the Worship Leader
by
Rachel Morway
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Students will research a leader for the purpose of considering how the leader impacts the
way he/she leads their ministry team. The student must include the following information:
1) why this particular leader was chosen; 2) thorough research related to the leader; 3)
analysis of the leader in light of course lectures and reading material; and 4) conclusion
including four or more principles of application to one’s own leadership. This is a formal
paper (5–7 pages not including title page and bibliography) that must be completed in
current Turabian format. A minimum of five (5) scholarly works must be cited and used in
support of the project.
Introduction
There is no such thing as a perfect church. How is this possible? The answer is simple:
churches are full of people, and people are imperfect by nature. This is why we need the saving
grace of Jesus in our lives – He is the only One who can make us anywhere close to being whole
and righteous. If we do not keep in the center of our lives and in our ministries, we will be
doomed to become even more flawed and imperfect than we already are. As ministers, it is
important to understand that while we can never truly be perfect, we must strive to lead ourselves
well and our ministries towards looking and being more like Jesus.
In saying this, I have taken a good, hard look at the ministry I lead currently and have
found four needs that I intend to address in the near future. I need the Lord’s help to accomplish
these tasks, but I also need to put forth practical steps and strategies learned from various sources
in our texts and presentations, along with outside sources as well. In this paper, I will attempt to
explain the four various needs inside my ministry and how I plan to address them and solve them
if possible.
Need #1 – More Spiritual Discipline
In the world of worship ministry, a leader usually has to deal with an array of volunteers
who sometimes “crave the platform.” Because worship leading has an obvious appeal of
performing and being in the spotlight, this attitude can be very difficult to handle in the hearts of
volunteers. Over my years of leading worship, I have found that in order to successfully squash
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the mentality of craving the spotlight, one must put spiritual discipline and striving for humility
at the forefront of the ministry. However, this can be difficult to achieve when you are already
asking your volunteers of so much in regard to rehearsal schedules, call times and preparing
musically on their own. Adding spiritually high standards can sometimes be seen as an extra task
to the average volunteer, but it does in one way separate the wheat from the chaff (Matthew
3:12).1
I have noticed that even though we pray a lot as a worship team during rehearsal and
Sunday mornings, I do not really ask my team members to adhere to a higher standard of
spiritual discipline. I believe I need to be more involved in the spiritual lives of the team, and I
think the best way to start that is to be more open with my own spiritual journey. If I share with
them what God is teaching me, what I am reading in my quiet times, and what I am currently
praying for, it will hopefully begin to stir the hearts of my team members to also want the same.
“If we can’t pastor our own team effectively, we’re not going to be able to pastor our
congregation. People will smell the disconnect.”2
I think my team does a great job at leading worship in their own ways, but we can always
improve and go deeper spiritually, and it starts with how we are leading ourselves in our own
personal walks with Christ. However, I know that I need to fan the spiritual flame by showing
them the benefit of sharing openly how the Holy Spirit is moving in my life. Maxwell states that
“good leadership is learned in the trenches,” and I need to dig deep within my teams and provide
1 Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the New International Version (Grand
Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995).
2 Ross Parsley, “Worship Leader or Worship Pastor?,” Worship Leader Magazine, February 3, 2020,
https://worshipleader.com/magazine/worship-leader-or-worship-pastor/.
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spiritual guidance and accountability so that our worship experiences may become even more
full of the presence of God.3
Need #2 – Salvations
Last semester, I took a class that really made me think twice about my walk with the
Lord. I learned that evangelism and worship were truly synonymous, and one could not solidly
function to its fullest potential without the other. With that being said, it stirred a fire within me
to see more people in our church become saved. Sure, we see our share of people come to the
altar for prayer needs and healing, and we see God move in this way every Sunday. However, I
believe there are far more people that need to be reached in our community with the love of God
that are not attending our church on Sunday mornings. Our church does a great job of serving the
community in different ways, but I believe the worship ministry I lead could do a far better job of
reaching to those who are outside of our four walls. Because our ministry is mostly on the
platform, we sometimes get bogged down by the mentality that our ministry stops there.
However, a good worship leader will not just lead worship in music but in their own lifestyle,
carrying it outside the doors of the church and into their workplaces, homes and friendships.
One way that I could empower my teams to reach the unchurches is by encouraging them
in our weekly rehearsals and prayer times. Like I said earlier, I need to do a better job of sharing
my spiritual journey, and that includes sharing my thoughts on evangelizing to those who need to
hear about the love of God. Our city is highly saturated with all different kinds of churches and
denominations, but I think our community sorely lacks what following Jesus really looks like
outside of religion and tradition. I can share with my team what it really looks like to lead
someone to the Lord, sharing personal stories and giving them practical advice on how to build
3 John C. Maxwell, The 360-Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the
Organization, (Harper Collins Leadership, 2005), 9.
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relationships with people without scaring them away from church. I need to teach them how to
truly fall in love with people like Jesus did. “Falling in love with your people will cause you to
know God better (1 Jn. 4:7-8) and foster an environment where people will experience God’s
love in greater measure (1 Jn. 4:12).”4
Need #3 – Sabbath
As part of my personal testimony, I have learned what ministry burn out tastes like
firsthand. A few years ago, I had to undergo surgery on my vocal cords because I did not take
care of my gift, and it was a long and humbling process of learning how to sing and lead again.
However, during this difficult season, I learned the importance of rest and how if God Himself
rested after creating everything we know, we as His creation needs rest even more so.
Because I have built a ministry over the years based on striving and achieving as much as
possible with little to no rest, I subconsciously have asked the same from my staff members and
team members as well. I need to do a better job of incorporating rest into my own daily life but
also into the lives of my ministry leaders. I need to educate them on the value of the Sabbath – it
is a commandment that we need to take very seriously as God’s children.5 “Rest is about trust.
Do you trust that God will provide for all your needs as you rest in him?”6 If we continue to
strive in our ministries, we are basically saying that we are more powerful than God, attempting
to always do things on our own without His divine intervention and help. We were not created to
do things on our own – we were created with relationship in mind, and we must lean on the
Father in order to be healthy and whole, especially if we are called to minister and lead others.
Jesus spent His time wisely, and He spent His times of rest with the Father. “The secret of Jesus’
4 Parsley, “Worship Leader or Worship Pastor?”
5 Exodus 20:8.
6 Mark and Carrie Tedder, “Beating Burnout: Sabbath Rest for Worship Leaders,” Worship Leader
Magazine, February 18, 2020, https://worshipleader.com/magazine/beating-burnout-sabbath-rest-for-worship-
leaders/.
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serenity lay in His assurance that He was working according to the Father’s plan for His life – a
plan that embraced every hour and made provision for every need.”7
Need #4 – Relationships
My worship teams are comprised of all different types of people from different
backgrounds, ethnicities and age groups. They do a fantastic job of getting along, for the most
part, but I am noticing that I could do a better job of fostering relationships between them. We
have four separate worship teams that each lead monthly, but more often than not, the teams look
different month to month depending on various commitments that could not be met amongst the
team members. Because of this, there are quite a few people who do not know each other, and I
am a firm believer that when there is unity in a worship team, it emulates from the platform into
the congregation.
It has been on my to-do list for a long time to create a “Team Night” for our worship
teams, choir and production teams at least once a quarter. My hopes in creating this space for
people to fellowship, worship and gain spiritual insight, are a part of my overall vision to see our
teams become more unified and on the same page. “The true measure of leaders is not the
number of people who serve them but the number of people they serve.”8 I want to instill a heart
of servanthood in my leadership that puts others first, and in doing that, I hope to see more
relationships built through that mentality of serving.
7 Oswald J. Sanders, Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer, (Chicago, IL:
Moody Publishers, 1967), 115.
8 Maxwell, The 360-Degree Leader, 289.
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Bibliography
Maxwell, John C. The 360-Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the
Organization. Harper Collins Leadership, 2005.
New International Version. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995.
Sanders, Oswald J. Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer. Chicago,
IL: Moody Publishers, 1967.
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