Recently as I was surfing late one night I ran across the Dove Awards on some far-flung cable channel. Who even knew there was still a Dove Awards, let alone that it’s broadcast? (By the way, congratulations to my friend Marty Funderburk on winning his first Dove Award for his beautiful Christmas musical The Highest Glory.)
On the show Kari Jobe sang her new song “Majestic” and I wondered “why aren’t there more female worship leaders?”
I chuckled at a blogger who observed an army of young, white male worship hipsters armed with acoustics storming the latest worship conference to be “discovered.” Now’s the time to be a female worship leader for the marketing value alone – less competition!
I know they’re out there, with Hillsong’s Darlene Zschech being the most famous example, but in all the evangelical churches I’ve visited over the past few years I can only remember seeing one female lead worshipper.
I do see many females leading worship, just not females as lead worshippers. In most churches I’ve seen a male lead worshipper who’s obviously guiding the service who then has a female lead worship on a song or two.
The Bible doesn’t give explicit directions for or about worship leaders. Miriam and Deborah are both mentioned as female worship leaders in the Old Testament. Some may argue that 1 Timothy 2:12 says a woman should not be in authority over a man, but I don’t really see a female worship leader as being “in authority.” Here’s an article with more in-depth food for thought.
Let’s take a poll to get a general idea of the percentage of female lead worshippers. Indicate below whether your church has a male or female primary worship leader/music director. This person is in charge, picks the music, directs the team, etc. Feel free to share this article on Facebook and Twitter so we can get as broad a sampling as possible.
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