Philosophy of Worship
My overarching philosophy of worship is that we need to make sure we preach the gospel, using the scriptures, and glorify God. Every set that I plan should be able to pass all three of those criteria. Each piece is meant to reflect a different thing: the gospel shows us the focus of worship (Jesus and the work he did for us), glorifying God shows us the purpose of worship, and the usage of the scriptures shows that we ought to have a Biblical foundation for worship.
Using worship to focus on God
Worship music is something that we can use to teach our congregations about Jesus “At the beginning, then, we must realize that worship is derived from the very nature of God, worship is a response to God’s invitation, and worship is eternal (past, present, and future). Our understanding of Christian worship starts with our understanding of God. Only when we establish worship services on solid footing are we faithful and true to the character of worship.” (Constance Cherry, The Worship Architect)
When picking songs for worship, therefore, we should ALWAYS church a song that speaks truth of God. To ensure that I am focusing myself and my worship on the message of Christ, I like to choose songs like Living Hope, O Praise the Name, etc. that communicate the entire reason we worship.
Accountability as a Worship Leader
Being accountable to other people is very important in church ministry. “16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16, NIV) This verse clearly shows us that it is important for us to talk about our sins with each other and keep each other accountable.
I have several friends in my life now who have gotten to know me well and are able to discern when something is off for me. They are also friends that I know I can confess sins to and will help me work through them. For example, last fall I was dealing with anger issues (a long story made very short), and Annabelle was a friend who was able to tell me that I needed to reel myself back in a lot of the time.
Leading in Intentional Worship
My goal with my philosophy of worship is to make our worship more intentional. The scriptures tell us what to believe about God, and that is the God we worship. As I mentioned in my philosophy statement, we should teach the scriptures with worship. That means that in addition to picking songs that use scripture, we can use scripture to open or close a set, or to transition between songs. A good example of this is the song Build my Life. I often like to use the interlude between the second chorus and the bridge to read from Matt. 7, which is the story of the house built on the rock. This story shows that when we build our lives on his love, then the hard parts of life won’t shake us, which is what the song also says.
Historical and Biblical foundations
I got the chance to lead at a liturgical church back in January. Liturgical churches use historical material when planning their services. The church I was at uses the Worship Sourcebook for all their liturgy planning. It was cool to be able to pick up a book with historical prayers that have been used over centuries to plan a worship set.
Honing my skills
Being in music lessons constantly helps us hone our craft. In the last 3.5 years at GCU, all of us have had some music lesson, class, or instruction every semester that has helped us get better. I try to practice multiple times a week whenever I am on the schedule to play as well. We have also taken classes and internships that are designed to help us with the administrative parts of being worship leaders.
Daniel Floring Music 