What Worship Leaders can learn from Snoop Dogg

When was the last time you set in a seminary class, read a book on Worship, or attended a session at a Worship conference and they told you to be more like Snoop Dogg? The truth is, being more like Snoop Dogg could revolutionize your church and your worship ministry.  So what is it about Mr. D-o-g-g that we should emulate? It’s the fact that Snoop knows who he his. Listen to a song by Snoop and immediately you know it’s him. He’s got a sound, a style to his music and his rapping is very lyrical. He takes his time, his delivery is smooth (we won’t discuss why that is but..) Snoop has a style that’s unique to him. Snoop knows who he is.

Now, enter the church. Pick any church you find online, and go visit. Before hearing the music we can already tell what it’s going to sound like. Big, loud electric guitars.  Thumping four on the floor drum beats, and lots of “yeah-ahs” and “who-ohs”. Why is it that to be a “relevant” church and to have “real worship” we have to sound like Hillsong? Why is it that 95% of church worship bands are simply bad Hillsong United cover bands?

I’ve discovered over the past 8 plus years of ministry that successful ministries seem to have one thing in common:

“They Know Who they are and who they are trying to reach”

It might sound a little un-spiritual, but that fact of the matter is, knowing who we are is very much a Spiritual issue. It’s at the core of our ministry and how we do what we do. When we make ourselves and ministries clones of other ministries, we let our pride get in the way. We’re saying to God, the desires and creativity YOU placed in my heart isn’t good enough. I don’t trust YOUR inspiration and I don’t trust YOUR design.  I strongly believe God has placed within all of us a natural leaning towards a certain approach to ministry and even personal music tastes.  It’s absurd to think Christians only listen to Indie, alternative rock.  so why does most worship music sound like that?

The point of all this madness is this, Who are you? How can you put your touch on the songs you do on Sunday? Better yet, when you do the hard work of putting pen to paper and writing songs, what does God say through you? What’s your story? What is God doing in your life, your church, your neighborhood?  Don’t just let people in Nashville, Atlanta, LA and Australia speak into your congregations life. You know them best. You know what your team is struggling with, so write songs that speak to them. Craft your service in a way that best serves and communicates to them. It goes way beyond music.

So, stop trying to be the Worship Leader God DIDN’T create you to be. Be yourself. Get in the word and on your knees and ask God to reveal to you how you can uniquely minister to your community, whether in song, word, or act. Take it from Snoop Dogg, be yourself don’t try to be someone else.

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