Worship Leadership Job Description

We won’t find a worship leader job description that is clearly defined as the expectation for elders in 1 Timothy 3. There are various opinions of what a standard worship leader job description should be. However, the Bible does say a lot of things about worship in general that are very clear.

For example, worshipping God involves instruments and loud singing. However, even before all of what we read in the Psalms we have to see that the Bible assumes or implies worship and not just what it says.

Why?

Worship is not just singing, praising God with instruments and voices. Every single time that worship happens, God is trying to establish His name and a foundation of who He is in that place.

What The Bible Says About Worship

God’s Precedence for Worship

At the very beginning of the foundations of the Earth, God is setting a precedence of what worship looks like.

Cain and Abel

When we look back at the story of Cain and Abel, we see that they offer a sacrifice to God. This was a form of their worship. Here it is clear in this story that there is worship or offering of obedience.

There is worship that is acceptable to God, and there is worship that is not acceptable to God. Cain brought an offering that was not acceptable and Abel brought an offering that was acceptable to Him.

Obedience

Obedience and not music is the core foundation of worship to God.

What the Bible assumes about worship is that it is obeying God and doing what He says. We do this by honoring the heart of what God wants for his people and for the land.

If you are serious about maturing in knowledge and character, you can earn a degree in the field of Modern Music with a Worship Leadership concentration from Visible Music College. Learn More.

Is a Worship Leader Found in the Bible?

Example of King David

King David is our most popular worship leader in the scriptures.

In the Bible, it even says in some of the titles in Psalms that he is the director of music (Psalm 4). David comes from the tribe of Judah, so before there is an explicit worship leader found in the scriptures, we see a worship community. It turns out that David would have been qualified to give a helpful worship leader job description.

Having come from Judah, which means praise, it was the priestly tribe offering worship to the Lord constantly. Judah had a stake in all of the lands in Israel, and their job description was to praise offerings and bring worship before the Lord.

Primary Responsibilities

1. Praising God.
2. Bringing the praises into songs and hymns.
3. Decree and establish God’s plans and bring the fulfillment of what He wants done in that season, heart, neighborhoods, or regions.
4. Establish God’s name in the land.

These responsibilities depend on the place of work or ministry. All worship leading positions have different requirements that are completely unique to the organization.

Church Positions

Worship as a vocational job is growing in popularity. For church positions, there are various factors that would impact the needs of the position.

For example, if it's a smaller church that can only afford to have one worship leader on staff, then that person would be responsible for the entire worship ministry. Many times that also involves overseeing the tech and media for the church services.

However, in a larger church where you may be one of many worship leaders on staff, the tasks could vary and even the type of services you would be leading could be different than the typical Sunday morning.

Positions Outside the Church

Another thing to consider is that churches are not the only organizations that have a need for worship leaders.

Many schools, nonprofits and mission organizations also hire worship leaders. These positions may require skills outside of the normal church job. Beyond leading the music and organizing a worship team, you may be required to help with other aspects of the ministry/organization.

Common Themes from Actual Job Requests

There are many similarities among worship leader job descriptions. Churches tend to look for a few key skills and characteristics that seem to be foundational in their selection of an ideal candidate.

Some of those characteristics are:

• Strong leadership skills - able to oversee, organize and lead multiple teams of both staff and volunteers
• Mature Christian faith - shepherding and modeling a Biblical testimony
• Advanced musical ability - including leading a band and the ability to recruit more musicians or teach others how to lead worship

Working knowledge of worship media and audio/video technology - typically overseeing these teams

Earn your degree in the field of Modern Music with a Worship Leadership concentration from Visible Music College

The Worship Leadership Program at Visible will prepare you for everything as a worship minister. Request more information about Worship and Modern Music.