You may know successful worship leaders who haven’t gone to college. But for many people who want to serve in worship leader roles, college-level worship leader education is a valuable step in their training. It offers many benefits, both technical and personal. An education at a school of worship may even impact you in ways you don’t expect: what you learn there can humble you.
Most likely, if you want to be a worship leader, you care about what you’ll need to do and who you’ll need to be. In a worship leading or music pastor degree program at a Christian college, you’ll learn necessary skills and knowledge. You’ll also, by God’s grace, grow in a range of Christian virtues. Classes, worship services, and conversations with peers and professors can all help you grow both in your abilities and your character.
Consider, for example, how worship leader training fosters humility. One of the greatest temptations we all face is to “make it all about us.” This is true in some unique ways for those whose vocation is on stage. For many reasons, a school of worship can be an excellent means of growing in humility.
Here are five of the ways a school of worship education can foster humility.
Striving for technical excellence can humble you.
As a worship leader, you’re a servant. Your musical performance is not about you – it’s about bringing glory to God. Technical excellence as a musician allows you to serve your congregation better. By playing well, you help people focus on God and worship Him in a way that pleases Him. It’s impossible to be a faithful and effective worship leader without cultivating humility.
The process of becoming a master of your craft can prepare you to be a humble, God-focused leader. The long hours and years of practice, the many mistakes you’ll make along the way, and your growing appreciation for the complexity and possibilities of music all show you your limits. You see how little you really know, and how much help and guidance you need if you’re going to achieve excellence.
Learning from professionals can humble you.
Learning from teachers with wisdom, experience, and technical mastery can inspire you. It can also open your eyes to how far you have to go. That’s a good thing. You become wiser from simply seeing more clearly what’s ahead of you. You become humbler when you see yourself and your gifts in light of that reality.
The faculty at a school of worship can help you both as models and as mentors. You’ll be humbled both by their excellence at what they do and by their interest in you and your education.
Learning with gifted classmates can humble you.
You may be one of the most talented musicians in your church or high school. If so, coming to study with gifted peers can humble you, because you may not stand out anymore.
At a school of worship, the presence of gifted classmates shouldn’t lead to cutthroat competition. No community is free from the temptation of rivalry, but at a school of worship your peers will be brothers and sisters in Christ. They’ll care about you, and they’ll be serving the same God.
Your gifted peers can humble you by showing you that you still have many areas in which to grow. They can also inspire and encourage you to press on and achieve excellence.
Learning administrative skills can humble you.
You may not be inspired by budgeting, time management, and managing staff relations. These tasks most likely aren’t the reason you want to be a worship leader. They’re essential parts of the job, though. To faithfully fulfill your vocation, you’ll need to do them well.
If you already have experience as a worship leader, you probably know this. You also know that few people will see or appreciate your administrative work. That’s good. The time you spend learning these necessary, unglamorous tasks can remind you that you’re serving a larger purpose.
Worshipping should humble you.
In a school of worship, you’re not just training. You’re worshipping. You’ll do this at daily chapels and Sunday church services and as you practice and perform with campus worship groups. Standing before God and worshipping him serves as a remind that this (all of this) is not about you. It’s about Him. True worship and humility go hand-in-hand.
Make it all about God
This list isn’t exhaustive. You can be humbled in many other ways by what you do and learn at a school of worship. If you sense worship leading may be your calling, learn more about the ways college-level training can prepare you for it. You want to serve well, so invest the time and effort it takes to do so. Become a leader who makes worship all about God, week after week.
North Central University offers Music Pastor and Worship Leading majors. We also have Music Performance, Recording Artist, and Music Production programs. Contact us to find out more about our majors, as well as our music scholarships, state-of-the-art recording facilities, and world-class worship teams.
