Christy Nockels – The Heart of a Worship Leader

Christy Nockels, along with her husband Nathan, have led worship in their local church, on the road, and in every kind of venue imaginable for the last twenty-five years. She started leading worship at the age of seventeen and since then her passion to lead people to connect and communicate with the Living God has only grown. This has been evident since the formation of the group Watermark in 1998.

Whether in the local church setting, in a church plant, or on the road, Christy talks about the heart of a worship leader. When looking for those who would lead with her, or go on the road, she says, “I would always look for teachability, like, a teachable heart, a teachable spirit.” It is important for those involved in leading worship to have a passion for leading others to worship the Almighty God. She also talks about doing the work, showing up on time, having humility, and having a hunger for excellence. Although pursuing excellence in worship, just for the sake of excellence, can lead you onto rocky paths, pursuing excellence for the sake of honoring God is an act of worship. 

Along with her passion for music and worship, Christy is also a speaker, writer, and author of the book, The Life You Long For. She and her husband are co-owners of Keeper’s Branch Records, and her recently released EP Valor is a strong precursor to her full-length album, This Is The Hour, due out in early 2023. Since 2016, Christy has also produced a podcast, The Glorious in the Mundane, where she is learning to use her voice beyond just singing.

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Transcript

My husband, Nathan, and I have been leading for about 25 years together and have been on the road a lot of that time. And even just, you know, drawing different band members through the years, people that we wanted to take with us to, you know, lead with us places or even when we’ve been a part of church planting and I have been a part of getting to pray and kind of look around at, you know, the pool of people that we had and to go like, God, who do you have for us?

I would always look for teachability like a teachable heart, but also, you know, a teachable spirit when it came to learning the songs and like showing up and having done your homework and just that hunger, those are the people we would end up like even sometimes from our church crew, we would like pull those people to go, “Hey, would you want to go on the road with us?”

Because we would see that teachable spirit and like a humility and showing up on time and like just doing your homework. Because I think in that, it showed us, ultimately, that there was a hunger underneath them to be excellent. And what they were doing using their gifts and stewarding it well. But also I think that just immediately helps us all be unified quicker and get to a place of ministering in a place of, like, freedom and unity.