Worship leader complex is a serious disorder suffered by 98% of worship leaders (at least in Baptist Churches). Before explaining the complex itself, I will first define “worship leader.” Notably, this is a bad term, as worship is more than singing songs. A better title would be “song leader.” But for purposes of this blog, I will define worship leader as either the guy wearing jeans and a plaid shirt, Puma’s or chuck’s, nicely sculpted hair playing a guitar or the old guy in a choir robe with large glasses waving his hands as if he actually knew how to direct a choir.
Worship Leader Complex is a disorder that causes worship leaders to preach a mini-sermon between songs. Those with worship leader complex are not content with simply doing their job (i.e. leading songs), but also feel the need to preach.
Anyone who has been to a Baptist church where the average age is below 70 (which, I admit, rules out a large number of churches) knows what I am referring too. After singing “Mighty to Save” for the hundredth week in a row, the worship leader reads a passage of scripture and then expounds on it before going into a chant of Kumbaya. Or perhaps he will attempt to explain a verse of the previous song. It should be noted that though this expounding takes at least 5 minutes (in which the audience must of course be standing), the worship leader actually shares nothing that is not said in the scripture itself.
Here is an example of what a worship leader might say (Biblical passages are in italics). “In the beginning was the Word…the Word, it was present, in the beginning. And the Word was with God…the word, it was present in the beginning…this word was present with God. And the Word was God…not only was the word present with God in the beginning, the Word was God. So you have the Word with God but the Word is God and the Word and God are actually one being, and these are two parts of the trinity and are therefore with God in the beginning but actually they are all one God, so God is present with himself in the beginning…”
(It should be noted that some worship leader are actually capable of making sense, unlike the one in my example).
I have several theories as to why worship leaders feel the need to preach. Perhaps they feel like the pastor just isn’t all that good at preaching. Perhaps they like hearing their voices. My biggest belief as to why worship leaders preach is because they all want to be preachers, but God gave them voices to sing and not preach.
Worship leaders should sing, and pastors should preach. Does your pastor pull out a guitar and lead a song in the middle of the sermon? No, because his role in the service is to preach. For the record, I have seen a couple pastors belt out in a song or a chorus during a sermon. I could count the number of times this has happened on three fingers. I see worship leaders preach like every week.
