The only "worship leader" in the gathering of believers should be the Holy Spirit. If a group is using human beings as the worship leaders" then there is a humanistic bent to the group.
God never commanded the church to appoint leaders over the worship other than Jesus Christ.
If anyone is following a person they are not following Jesus Christ. There is only one mediator between the believer and the Father and that is Jesus Christ.
1 Timothy 2:5 "5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave Himself as a ransom for all—the testimony that was given at just the right time."
Our husbands are not the mediators between us and God, wives are not mediators, church elders are not mediators, no one in the church is a mediator between the believers and God the Father, only Christ is the mediator.
If anyone is following a man they cannot be following Christ.
The Holy Spirit brings glory to God the Father, human leaders bring glory to themselves and to others, not to God.
John 16:13-15 "…13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you. 15 Everything that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will take from what is Mine and disclose it to you.…"
When we come together to worship every word, every prayer and every action should glorify Jesus Christ, not ourselves. We come together to speak of Christ, to pray in His name, to speak of His attributes and what He did on the cross. Anything else in the gathering detracts from Him and elevates the world and self.
Believers are not to come together to vent their political views, pray for their own needs, or to focus on anything in the world. We come together in worship to speak of Christ, glorify Him, and seek His Face. Today's churches do not worship as God commanded, they are coming together, as a rule, to glorify themselves and beg for their own stuff.
Teaching is another matter, this is where we get into the deeper principles of God's Word, His promises, and His purposes, it also is not a time to vent about politics or commiserate over problems of the world.
We take our troubles to God all the time, in prayer meetings, in our homes when the purpose is to petition God, this is separate and different from the time of worship.
Putting the Lord's Supper at the end of a gathering just to say we did it without spending time in prayer to glorify Him, expound on His Word and praise Him for His Own sake, not to do anything else but worship about Him.
The American church and perhaps the churches in the world today to put on a self-oriented time of venting, begging for our needs, and praising self. It is not the worship God speaks about in His Word.
I once heard a preacher praise the gathering from the pulpit on how good they were all doing. Frankly, it disgusted me, there out to be weeping and solemnness in a church gathering, no one was so perfect during the week that they would be praising themselves rather than convicted over their failures during the week to be cleansed of their flaws and failures.
Worship toward God is nothing about us, it's all about Him.
In conclusion;, the time of worship is all about Christ, all about Him and nothing else, this is worship.
The American church views God as a genie in a bottle to do our bidding, mostly to make us feel more spiritual and as though we have done our "obligation" by attending the building they call a church.
Is it any wonder the church as a whole has become apostate? People do not know what worship is nor do they seem to care. I notice too that most Christians do not speak of Christ even in the gathering, they let the "leaders" do it and only to entertain rather than equip the saints to go from the gathering to be strong in their witness for Christ in their communities.
As one preacher said it well, we have the pulpit people and the pew people. The pulpit people elevate themselves because of their education and the pew people believe everything they say without question, even reviling anyone who says something different from the pulpit person.
In the description of worship in the Bible there are no "pew people and pulpit people." Everyone worships and the Holy Spirit is the leaders.
Read 1 Corinthians 14:26-38
"26 What is the outcome then, brothers and sisters? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. All things are to be done for edification.
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, it must be by two or at the most three, and each one in turn, and one is to interpret;
28 but if there is no interpreter, he is to keep silent in church; and have him speak to himself and to God.
29 Have two or three prophets speak, and have the others pass judgment.
30 But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, then the first one is to keep silent.
31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted;
32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets;
33 for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.
As in all the churches of the saints,
34 the women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says.
35 If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.
36 Or was it from you that the word of God first went out? Or has it come to you only?
37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.
38 But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.'"
There is no mention here or anywhere else that we should have a one-man paid pastor to lead everything. The idea of the one-man pastor system came from the Catholic church many years ago, the entire hierarchy system was man's concoction, not God's.
God intended for the Holy Spirit to be leading everything according to His design.
The one-man pastor system has done away with the leading of the Holy Spirit as well as denying that Christ speaks in the heart of every believer.
It is human nature to be lazy and just follow a man rather than seek Jesus Christ Who dwells in believers. It is easier to follow a man they can see than to follow Christ Who is unseen.
The modern church is in a colossal mess because of the lie the devil has spoken, that is that gatherings must have paid men educated by human colleges to lead the gatherings. Trusting in the Holy Spirit has been mocked and demeaned as people are led to the slaughter by other power-seeking men who love their notoriety.
We are living in a time of great apostasy, we will not be able to find men of God who are not sucked into this worldly man-centered gospel according to their own mindsets absent of the working of the Holy Spirit.
We must remain, faithful, just know that this faithfulness to God's Word will cause division and will isolate us from those who love their worldly man-centered worship. We agonize in our Spirit over the foolishness and lies that are coming from pulpit people, knowing this is one of the signs of the end of the age.
Luke 18:9-14 "9 Now He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’
13 But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”"
