Worship Leaders Over 30 Need Not Apply!

In my last post, "Superman Leads Worship," I illustrated the modern responsibilities of a 21st Century worship leader. As I wrote, it became clear that there is a growing deficit of purposeful worship leadership in our churches today. The modern church is showing a tendency toward recruiting more musicians and artists to lead worship with less skill and experience in leadership and ministry... and life! There is a trend in churches today to avoid hiring worship leaders over 30 years of age!

I sat with a friend over breakfast one morning a few weeks ago. He is a very gifted contemporary worship leader who recently left a church position that began as a honeymoon experience and sadly ended in divorce. After a solid year of struggle, he left and came back to Nashville, where he knew his family would find the love and nurturing they needed to recover. The love affair was evidently in it's last stages when one of the pastors on staff thought his son, a twenty-something musician on the worship team, was better suited as a worship leader for the growing congregation, and that his youthfulness would help to bring in a younger age group to the services. Eventually, my 40-something friend was so discouraged, he surrendered to the inevitable, and was still "licking his wounds" months later as we met that morning over coffee.

It's a sad affair when at a recent, very high-profile worship conference, it was said to thousands of attendees that a worship leader over 30 years of age is culturally irrelevant. I kid you not--a friend of mine was there in attendance. After the session, my friend said he made the long trek to the foot of the stage to challenge the speaker, saying that his claim was irresponsible, uninformed and destructive! My friend asked the speaker how old he was. The guy replied that he was 40-something, but that he was an exception to the "un-cool rule"--that he was relevant. I guess it must have been true, due to his hipster deep-V t-shirt, high-water pants, scruffy thrift store shoes, scarf --in the summer--and the smallish fedora that sat at an angle on his head.  Apparently, God's people are wading in shallow waters, and if the aforementioned trend isn't confronted, the American church is in trouble.

The term "ageism" is becoming a hot topic in churches today. I am speechless when I hear of Godly people being dismissed from their positions as worship leaders because they were old and in their mid-forties. The need for "fathers" and "mothers" in churches today is more in demand than ever. The church needs leaders who have experience, managed businesses, raised children, and weathered life's storms, so young people can benefit from their wisdom and mentoring.  Musicianship, leadership and ministry skills should increase with age. I'd like someone to rush the stage at a Tony Bennett concert and tell him he's over the hill.

I get it, there is a time when we should hang up our dancing shoes. I hope I'm realistic with myself and open to the counsel of others wiser than me when my time comes. But a worship leader over 30 not being relevant? That's just crazy talking. There is a time when a younger leaders must be given the opportunity to lead, and to eventually supplant older generation of leaders. But mentoring, as was established in the old guilds, where apprenticeship and training are a part of the process, is a healthy system to establish in any organization. We need all ages--young and old, to fulfill the Great Commission.

If we head in this destructive direction of misguided ageism, our churches will eventually be managed by fatherless latch-key kids without the maturity to see beyond the next cool worship song or fashion trend. I'm afraid for a church that caters to one age group. I mean, won't there be a tipping point in those niche churches when the members become old and irrelevant...will they then hurry up and surrender the keys to the next generation? I doubt it. The truth is, "old" is always 10 years older than we are now!

I serve on the staff of a church where age is honored and maturity is respected. I hope for a time with God's people when "ageism" disappears, when young and old serve side-by-side in the community, on worship teams, on the mission field, and in classrooms.

My biggest question is: How will the under-thirty crowd make payments on these incredible worship spaces without the older folks? I pray for a worshiping church where young and old, hymns and choruses, KJV Bibles and The Message, all function together under the same roof. God is all about it, and I am too!