Rise Up and Sing: Equipping the Female Worship Leader, by Lex BuckleyI ordered this book when I stumbled across it on Amazon. I recently started leading worship monthly at the contemporary service at Orange United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, and I was beginning to run into quirks and snags that come with being a female worship leader--for example, for the next time I lead worship at Orange, I had to completely redo one of the charts because it's simply not available in a key that's good for the female voice. I realize I'm fortunate to be able to do that--not every worship leader has the skills or the software to make something like that happen. Anyway, I by no means feel called to occupy the role of worship leader long-term, but I was interested to hear from other female worship leaders.
Lex Buckley is currently leading worship with her husband at River City Church in Jacksonville, FL. Being me, I scoped out their website. I liked the "wear a crash helmet, not a tie" tagline (do they know that's Annie Dillard?). But, being me, I wasn't fond of the "religion-free" banner that popped up the second time I loaded the home page. Anyway. That's another issue. RCC is a plant of St. Mary's in London. I'm not clear on whether St. Mary's is Church of England or what--they received some help from the Bishop of London at some point...anyway.
Rise Up and Sing is essentially a primer for the new or inexperienced worship leader. Buckley and the other contributors (including Beth Redman, Christy Nockels, and Kathryn Scott) give practical tips for how to determine whether you ought to pursue being a lead worshipper, how to lead a band, how to work with your pastor, how to deal with gender issues, etc. They highlight important qualities like humility, communication and relationships, and I appreciated that they were intentional about including sections intended to be read by a female worship leader and her male pastor, if different genders are a part of the leadership dynamic in a church setting. They discuss the ins and outs, pros and cons of leading from guitar or keys or without any instrument, what sort of preparation is necessary to lead worship, how to know the congregation and to be creative in worship without leaving them behind. The book went really quickly for me partly because this isn't dense or profound writing and partly because a lot of what the book had to say was helpful, but they were things I had picked up along the way already.
I was a little dissatisfied with how they took gender roles at face value. I absolutely believe that there are fundamental differences between men and women, in a generalized sort of way. But chapter 2 starts with Buckley gushing about how fun it is to be a girl--to dress up, wear makeup, and go shopping. OK, fine. Even I need a chick flick every now and then, and I like to be pretty. For what it is, this book is practical and useful, and it's good to see at least someone acknowledging the gender divide among worship leaders, but I wanted something a little...meatier. I get that this isn't an academic work, and maybe that's what I need. Maybe I'll just have to write it myself. :)
Favorite Quotations
"It seems that God often sets limitations around our gifts so that we lean on each other and let another person shine where we don't."
"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!"
"Our musicianship must not get in the way of our leading worship, but rather facilitate it and give us a form foundation from which to lead."
"Diversity is one of our strengths as a church, but it makes leading worship tricky sometimes. We want to make people feel safe when they have stepped out... We don't want to 'go for it' if that means leaving people behind; yet, we also don't want to hold back from following where the Holy Spirit is leading just because we are trying to make sure everyone feels comfortable."
0 comments:
Post a Comment