About Worship Leading

8/8/2019 About Worship Leading

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1) Watch what you do. Be (or become) aware of your body language and gestures. If you can, have someone take a

video of you leading worship so that you can observe yourself and see what you might be doing, consciously or

unconsciously, that is awkward, distracting or helpful. Our body language and gestures should be natural,

relaxed and appropriate. Remember that you are seeking to invite and enable the congregation as a whole to engage

and participate in what is going on, not to be the poster child for how a person ³should´ look when

worshipping. Carefully consider whether what you would normally do in private worship or as a participant in the

congregation±or even what you do naturally when you hear music±will be more helpful or distracting when leading

from the stage.

2) Keep your eyes open. Watch the congregation. Shocking, I know. In order to lead well, however, you need to

know what¶s going on around you. You may notice that people aren¶t singing along, but rather look confused or

perplexed (or bored). Hmm«maybe they don¶t know the song? Maybe they don¶t know they¶re supposed to be

singing? You can invite them to sing with a statement like, ³Now that you know it, let¶s sing that again together,´ or

simply ´Let¶s sing that truth/prayer together again.´ You have not only let them know that participation is encouraged

and expected, but you¶ve pointed them to the content and substance of what is going on.

3) Sing it like you mean it. Sing clearly and in such a way that people can easily sing along with you. We¶re not

being good leaders if people can¶t follow! Reflect on and give an appropriate facial or bodily response to the words we

sing. The intent is not that we ³act out´ each song we sing, but rather show, by our expressions and actions, that we

understand and agree with what we¶re singing. If a song is joyful, smile! When singing a true statement about God, I

will often affirm and agree with the statement by nodding my head as I sing that line. When singing a truth about our

hearts, I often indicate that by placing my hand over my heart. When we lead songs, we are proclaiming that truth

(telling that ³story´) to everyone there gathered, inviting them in to sing it and realize what we¶re saying with us. You

can do this well without being overly emotional, dramatic or distracting.

4) Cut down on ³down time´. There are two things that commonly happen to a congregant or a vocalist during an

instrumental solo or extended instrumental break in a song: either they disconnect (because there¶s nothing for them

to do) and stand awkwardly waiting for their next cue to sing, or they start noticing and admiring the skill of the

instrumentalist. Is this always the case? No. Is it often the case? Probably. This is not to say that arrangements

should be so simplified as to cut out all intricacy and beauty, or to deprive instrumentalists of using their skills to offer

their sacrifice of praise. But it is a call to worship leaders and arrangers to consider what is going on for the

congregation and the singers during those times. Are all the interludes, solos, instrumental transitions necessary? An

overly showy arrangement with extended instrumentals and/or solos can be just as distracting and awkward as a

song sung off-key.

5) Use readings and transitions wisely. Be reverent, conversational and sincere, but use appropriate

expressiveness and emphasis when you read or speak. Slow down a bit: don¶t drag, but remember that not everyone

in the congregation is a fast or good reader. With regards to readings, a seminary professor once pointed out that

verbs are actually the most important part of any given text. Practice emphasizing verbs instead of pronouns,

adjectives or adverbs. You¶ll be amazed at how this highlights the truths of Scripture.



6) Show and tell. Show or tell people how the song we¶ve just sung relates to what we¶ve just done or are about to

do. Mention the Scriptural truth that gives us the basis for this action, song, or activity. Be honest about how our

feelings may not seem to line up with what we¶ve just sung or what we are about to sing, pointing out that truth is not

so subjective.

7) Get engaged. As I¶ve mentioned, our primary role is to facilitate and enable people to engage and participate in

what is going on in the corporate worship service. We¶ve talked about a few ways to do (and not do) this when

leading songs and readings. One big factor in on-stage presence is what we¶re doing when the focus is not on us.

People can still see you, and they are watching you if you¶re on stage. At our church, we often have a liturgist do the

readings in between songs. During those times, it¶s crucial that those who are on stage, even if they¶re not talking or

playing, model what it means to be engaged in what is going on. If someone else on stage is talking or reading,

turn your body and your head towards them. Listen to what they are saying. React appropriately. You are leading

even in those moments.

) Listen to your mom. And what did she always say? ³Practice, practice, practice,´ right? Yep. One of the best

ways to look and feel comfortable and relaxed and engaging on stage is to know what you¶re doing. Learn the words

and music to the songs so you can look up from the page and establish eye contact with the congregation. Practice

your readings out loud several times so that you are familiar with all the words before the service. Run through the

order of the set and service as a team before going up on stage so that everyone knows what¶s happening when and

where.

9) Embrace imperfection. Whoa! That caught your attention, huh? What I mean is that, when it comes to worship

leadership and serving the Church±much like anything else we attempt to do±perfection is rarely possible and

certainly not our ultimate goal. The unexpected and unfortunate will happen. No matter how much we practice, we will

forget lyrics. We will stumble over phrases. We will feel and look awkward. But, you know what? More often than

not, those imperfections can serve as a gentle reminder to us and everyone else that what we¶re doing is not

a performance to entertain and wow, but rather the people of the Lord living and worshipping together as family. Our

congregations are not crowds and audiences to be impressed. Be humbled by that. Be freed by that!

10) Pray. If it¶s a day ending in ³y´, then it¶s a day in which you¶ve experienced the pervasive power of sin in your own

heart and mind. We customarily and easily fall into thinking more about ourselves than those we serve. We want to

be admired and respected and affirmed and praised for what we do and how we do it. We want to shine. We want

things to go smoothly, to feel in control, to avoid conflict and evade embarrassment. We are obsessive and fearful

and insecure and prideful. So we must pray. Grow ever quicker to acknowledge and confess your sin before the Lord

and those who hold you accountable. Ask the Lord to make you useful to Him in ministry. Ask Him for wisdom and

guidance in how to love and lead His people well. Pray for and cultivate a humble, teachable heart to learn from those

who give you feedback and serve as mentors. Pray for those you serve, and those with whom you lead. Pray

together faithfully as a team.

Tips for leading worship

Many, many years ago, a good friend and I sat down and wrote down a bulletpoint list of things we had learned to do (and not do) when leading worship.

The original bit of paper has long since been lost, sadly, but this page willhopefully encapsulate all the things we'd like to share with anyone else giventhe responsibility of leading people in worship of God.

There are plenty of other web pages devoted to leading worship, of course,but many either concentrate on the spiritual aspects or else go to town on



learning guitar chords, etc. The following tips are simply practical things whichhave worked well for me.

1. Know your material! I don't just mean practice it a few times andreckon you can make it through the printed music without making

mistakes. Learn the songs, words, tune and chords. And thenpractice/worship with them sufficiently that you can play the songs withyour eyes closed (not that you're going to, necessarily - see below!).

As much of your concentration and effort as humanly possible needs tobe on worshipping God and helping his people. Having to devote 30%to your fingers and 50% to reading off the next words and chords meansthat there's not a lot left!

2. Try to keep your eyes open as much as possible! Yes, this is easier said than done, it's very tempting in worship to close your eyes and blotout anything distracting you from worship of your Creator. But you'resupposed to be leadi ng worship, which means that you need to maintaincommunication with the congregation, eye-to-eye. Your aim should beto encourage them with your eyes, your words (of course), your inflections and (preferably, where appropriate) a big smile! You'releading them up the mountain of praise.In more intimate worship, you'll still need your eyes open. Both to seewhat's happening (God moving/people restless/whatever) and to keepan eye on your pastor/leader.

3. Examine the lyrical content of your worship material carefully. No, notfor doctrinal errors, don't worry, this isn't that sort of web site. Songs tendto fall into three categories: Man-to-man (e.g.'Let's praise Him', 'We area chosen people'); Man-to-God (e.g. 'I exalt Thee', 'God of glory, weexalt Your name'); and God-to-Man (e.g. 'Listen to My voice').I'm sorry if this seems a cliché, but you almost always have to get theabove categories in the right order in a service. It's great to get to placewhere every person is reaching out to God, His Heart to our heart, butthe whole environment can be totally ruined by a poor choice of song,

perhaps slotting in a Man-to-Man song which forces people to detunefrom God and come back down to earth.

4. Make sure that you're up for it, spiritually. None of us lead perfectlives and there's alway s something that you'll need to sort out with Godbefore you can help bring His people into the privileged place of worship. N ever lead worship if you're feeling guilty or depressed or



lacking confidence. Repent and pray and get right with God before youpick up your instrument, so that you can lead with a pure, confident and

joyful heart. And if you can't resolve things, be honest with your worshipteam or pastor and step down until things are OK again.

5. Be passionate! I heard a quote recently - "It's not perfection Godwants, it's passion. He already has and knows perfection." As youworship God, you'll feel emotion, drama and momentum. You're boundto. Don't be afraid to let some of it out.I'm not advocating rehearsed shouts or harmonies or whoops, simplythat you let your singing voice reflect what you feel inside when singingthe words in question. Get excited! We're talking about Almighty Godvisiting your church, after all!

6. Keep things simple. Good advice in any walk of life, but especially inworship. The new multi-segment, syncopated song with four verses,each of which has a slightly different tune and cadence, may havesounded great on the CD, may have been OK in practice, but you canbet that the less musical congregation will struggle. And with all their attention on getting through the song, none of it will be on God. Whichdefeats the whole point.So, keep your songs/hymns/arrangements as simple as possible.Remember that worship songs are simply vehicles for us to expresstruths to each other and appreciation to God. Just because a song

includes a magical diminished seventh chord does not guarantee thatthe Holy Spirit will immediately be present. Sorry.

7. Finally, and maintaining the theme of keeping things simple,don't gettoo ambitious with your band unless there's a l ot of time to rehearseproperly. Every band member with an instrument to tune andarrangement/part to follow, every effects pedal or foldback monitor that'snot working properly, all take away time from simply preparing to leadpeople to God. Which is what matters most.

I hope and pray these tips are useful to you in the coming days.

1) BE PREPARED I define being prepared as making all of the necessary arrangements in advance that will help the

rehearsal, and ultimately the worship service, run as smoothly as possible. Being prepared showsthat I respect the time commitment and effort that my team members give me week in and week



out. While it¶s true that most who are reading this are ministry leaders, we also need toremember that we are servants.

So leaders ± serve your team members by respecting their time!People tell me that I¶m a pretty organized person so I thought it might be helpful to outline what

a typical week looks like for me as I prepare for our rehearsal and Sunday services.MON

DAY: When it¶s available, I review an outline of my pastor¶s message and come up withsong ideas that will help support the theme.TUESDAY: I email the first draft of the Worship Service Set (WSS) to my media ministry

leader so that she can begin preparing the lyric slides.WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: I actually do a prayerful run through of the WSS to check on

things like song choices, arrangements, keys, song placement and general service flow.THURSDAY: Once I¶m happy with the flow of the service, I email the final master schedule to

my media person so she can make any adjustments to the song arrangements before our rehearsal. I then upload the worship set on line at praisevocals.com so my team can logon and

review their vocal parts. If we are introducing a new song, I make sure to let them know well inadvance and make sure that they have a recording of the song. Thursday is also the day I email

the final WSS to them so they can see more specifically what to expect. In addition to the WSS, Isend out a production schedule. This schedule is mainly to alert the personnel who will be

involved in the services, from the band, singers and tech team to those in addition to the senior pastor who will be speaking during the service.

FRIDAY: I play golf!SATURDAY: I make any final tweaks that are needed. However, at this stage it¶s very rare that

there are any significant changes to be made. I spend the morning going over the entire set asmany times as I need to be confident that I know the songs and transitions inside and out. It is

important that I do this for two reasons.First of all, I believe I am most effective as a worshipleader when I¶m not distracted by trying to remember chords, lyrics or song structure. Secondly,

if I¶m busy thinking about what I¶m doing during rehearsal, its difficult to be fully aware of whateveryone else is doing. Before every rehearsal I make sure that the distribution of lyric sheets,

lead sheets or chord sheets for my musicians and singers has been covered. I am also responsiblefor providing the sound and lighting cues. If you¶d like to see the outlines we use for our

rehearsals, contact me and I¶ll be happy to send you an example.We begin rehearsal at 5:00pm and end by 7:00 (You may be thinking that we¶re crazy for

rehearsing on Saturdays but I will attempt to make our case for Saturday evening rehearsals later on in one of the other 10 tips). The media person and sound tech that are scheduled arrive at

6:00pm as we begin the full the run-through of the entire set.SUNDAY: We have an opening prayer around 8:00am and begin a final run-through with the

worship and tech team that continues until 9:00am. We then have a meeting from 9:00 to 9:10with everyone who will be involved in the service including the senior pastor to make sure

everyone is on the same page and knows exactly what to expect. Our first service begins at 9:15.Here¶s something to consider. If you arrive unprepared to rehearsals why should your team come

prepared?Why should they spend time learning or reviewing their vocal parts prior to rehearsalwhen you haven¶t taken the time to make sure that you¶re ready to rehearse? It all starts with

you. You set the bar. I¶ve found that others will only rise up to the level to where the bar is setand not an inch higher. So be an example of someone who desires and requires excellence and

your team will adopt the same philosophy.

2) BE ENCOURAGING



In 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Paul makes it clear that we need to be encouragers when he writes,³Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up«.´. There are other times when we

need to practice the art of criticism by µspeaking the truth in love¶ (Eph 4:15). Rick Muchowfrom Saddleback church uses the principle ³3 strokes for every poke´. In other words, for every

critical comment that is uttered, 3 affirming or encouraging comments need to be communicated.

We try to not only affirm the abilities of our singers and musicians but also convey our appreciation for their special, individual contributions. For example, being on time, coming prepared, having a positive and cooperative attitude or pointing out their individual growth as

vocalists or instrumentalists. The more you get to know your team members the better you will be able to encourage them in specific ways that they best respond to. I am encouraged to be able

to report that in the 10 years I¶ve been a worship leader I¶ve never had anyone actually want toleave our ministry. I attribute this in a large part to creating an environment where people feel

accepted, cared for and encouraged. The thing to remember is that although we want our rehearsals to be productive, they should also be rewarding, educating, encouraging and inspiring.

When someone from our congregation tells me how our ministry has impacted their lives or their relationship with God I am quick to share their comments with my team. It both encourages them

and helps remind them that we are making a difference in the lives and hearts of those in our congregation.

3) SET ASIDE TIME FOR PRAYER AND DEVOTION We begin each rehearsal with prayer. I randomly ask different praise team members each week

to offer a prayer before we dig in and rehearse. We sometimes pray that we will sense God¶s presence even as we rehearse and that the noise we make will be pleasing to His ears. We often

pray that we can lay down our cares and troubles of the week at the foot of the cross so that weare undistracted and free to practice and worship. By the way, I believe that practice IS a form of

worship. When we practice we are honoring God with our commitment to give Him our best. Another prayer might be for us all to be of one heart and one voice.The point is, we want to

try and be on the same page spiritually so right off the bat we place the focus where it belongs,on God.

I try to leave 10 to 15 minutes at the end of rehearsal to have a short devotional with theemphasis on worship. We happen to have someone on our team with a real gift for this so lately

we¶ve been letting him use this gift to build us up and help us focus. There have been seasonswhen I have passed this responsibility around by cycling through our praise team members so

that everyone can have a chance. I found that this works best when I let the team member know afew days in advance so that they have time to prepare. I believe that it is equally important to

make sure that they are comfortable with delivering a devotional at all. Some people are either too nervous, too shy or don¶t want the added responsibility. I respect that and just let those who

can«do. As far as the content of these devotionals, sometimes we would draw from how Godworked through a life experience we recently had or we might simply read a devotional out of a

book and comment on it afterwards.After the devotional we have another time of prayer where we redirect the subject of the

devotional we just heard in the form of a prayer and that closes out our rehearsal time. I let people know that others and I will be available after we are officially dismissed to pray for any

individual prayer needs that anyone may have.

4) REHEARSE WITH PURPOSE ³Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for men«´

~ Colossians 4:23.



This is one of my worship leader µlife¶ verses. Constantly remind your team of why we do what we do. Remind them

that the ministry they¶re involved in has purpose and eternal impact. Let them know that they¶re not crazy for working

hard every week or committing themselves to your ministry. Remind them of the vision of your church in general and

the mission of your ministry specifically. If you don¶t have a music ministry mission statement I would encourage you

to write one. This keeps everyone focused on the goal that has been set before them. The following is ours : ³We

exist to EVANGELIZE seekers, EDIFY believers, and GLORIFY God´. We at Gold Coast believe that worship is the

authentic expression of our love for God in response to the love of God. As team members, our desire, goal and

responsibility is to communicate the reality of Jesus Christ, to usher the church into the presence of the Living God

and to skillfully assist in making a meaningful connection with Him through music.

Insist on excellence. This is not to be confused with perfection. I have adopted the Willow Creek

Church definition of what excellence is: Doing the best we can with what we have. Another worship leader life verse that encourages me is from Psalm 33:3 ± S ing t o H im a new song; play

sk illfully, and shout f or jo y´. Play sk illfully. For me this is not merely a suggestion so I try toincorporate this as part of the DNA of our ministry.

5) HAVE FUN! What a concept! All work and no play can make rehearsals seem more like a burden than a time

of joyful fellowship. Proverbs 17:22 says that µa cheerful heart is good medicine¶ so lighten

up! We don¶t have to work every minute. A humorous diversion or antic-dote is good for everyone. I want my team to look forward to coming to rehearsal. It helps if they know that agood time will be had. So don¶t forget to take time to enjoy each other¶s company and

uniqueness. Worship leaders, it all starts with you. Remember that, like it or not, you set thetone. Here¶s a thought, try cutting your rehearsal in half and surprise them by going out and

grabbing a burger and a Coke.

6) ENOUGH IS ENOUGH A two-hour rehearsal is plenty of time to achieve your goals. If it¶s not, maybe you need to takelook at your agenda to see where you may be wasting time and think about ways to

conserve. Maybe you¶re not as prepared as you need to be. Look at tip #1 for some ideas on howyou might improve on this.

In addition to be an excellent singer, my wife happens to be an excellent vocal director. Duringour first hour, I rehearse with the band and in a separate room my wife rehearses the singers. She

is not an instrumentalist, so the Rehearsal Tracks (R-TRAX) that we offer at praisevocals.comare very useful. Since the vocalists have already learned their harmony parts via our website

prior to rehearsal, the entire hour is spent working on technique, dynamics and generalinterpretation. The second hour we combine the band and singers and tweak anything that needs

to be fine-tuned. Maybe you already have someone on your vocal team who could take on therole of vocal director. Maybe your strength lies in this area and you can find a band director within your ranks to lead the band rehearsals. Or maybe there is someone waiting in the wings

that you can mentor and develop that would allow you to utilize this type of rehearsal plan.The bottom line: people get tired and fatigued especially if you have mid-week evening

rehearsals. Be conscious of this and respect the fact that there comes a point in a rehearsal whereyou will get as far as you¶re going to go and leave it at that. Have faith that God will take your

effort and use it for His purpose.Some of our most powerful worship services have come on theheels of a dreadful and seemingly hopeless rehearsal!

If you have services on Sunday¶s only, I also suggest moving your rehearsals to Saturdaynight. This ensures that everything you¶ve worked on remains fresh in the minds of your team. I

know most of you are probably thinking I¶m insane, so let me explain. We started Saturday nightrehearsals out of necessity back in the days when we were a set up and tear down church at the



local Boys and Girls club. We did this for 6 years and I¶m happy to note that those days arefinally over! We would arrive at the facility at 3:00pm, set up for an hour and a half and then

have our vocal rehearsal. Once we got into our 24/7 facility, I assumed that everyone would wantto go to a mid-week but to my amazement, almost everyone wanted to stay with Saturday nights

so that¶s what we continue to do to this day. We meet from 5:00 to 7:00pm.

7) SI

NG IT THE WAY Y

OU WA

NT IT SU

NG Sometimes we make things harder than they have to be by trying to explain what we¶re after in

the language of µWorship Leader-ese¶. You know, using cool music major terms like legato or

rubato or using word pictures that often leave your team thinking, ³huh?´. I¶m not saying that weshouldn¶t enlighten or teach our team using these methods and sometimes they are effective.

However, often the best way to get what you want is to simply give an example by singing ityourself. Have them µparrot¶ back to you what you¶ve just sung exactly the way you sang it. I

can¶t tell you how many times I¶ve seen the ³ah-ha´ expression come over the faces of my teamthrough this simple technique. This works well with phrasing or when trying to explain the way

you may want a specific word to sound. It also is helpful with stylistic nuances. Just sing it theway you want them to sing it and you¶ll be amazed at how quickly they get it.

USE HAR MON

Y TO

ADD IM

PAC

T I had a singer once tell me that they didn¶t want to sing the melody because it was boring. This person doesn¶t sing on the vocal team anymore. Maybe you can relate to their statement because

your have singers who feel the same way. Maybe you even feel that way. Let me remind you thatthe melody is the heart and soul of the song, the primary vehicle to communicate the lyrics in a

way that transcends the spoken word.OK, maybe I¶m over doing it a bit but you get my point.The melody is the foundation on which the songwriter wrote the song. Without it, your

congregation would be completely lost, no one would be edified and God would not beglorified. I¶m here to tell you that a strong, confident unison melody is a beautiful thing,

a very beautiful thing. Along with the lyric, it¶s the most important thing. In my humble opinionharmonies should be used to add color, nuance and dynamics to a song. If every line of every

verse and chorus is harmonized the song never goes anywhere. On the other hand, if you utilizeharmonies sparingly to punctuate and enhance a section of the song, the song will take flight and

become a journey instead of just a destination.

9) A SMILE IS WORTH A THOUSAND NOTES I¶ve visited a lot of churches over the years and it still amazes me how many worship teams seemto wear an expression of constipation rather than exaltation. My senior pastor once put it this

way; ³if the joy of the Lord is in your heart then notify your face!´ I¶m not talking about a plastic, phony smile that seems contrived; a µperformance¶ can be spotted a mile away. I¶m

talking about simply allowing what we feel deep within us to be expressed by having thatµunspeakable¶ joy show up on our faces, naturally. Rehearsal is a great time to remind your team

of this or even encourage them to practice smiling as they sing during rehearsal where there isn¶tthe added pressure of the actual worship service. It will also help to encourage them to focus

onwhat they¶re sing and not just on how they¶re singing it.Being as prepared as possible by knowing your harmony parts, knowing the song arrangementsand memorizing the lyrics helps a great deal because you will become freer to express yourself

when you aren¶t constantly thinking about what¶s coming next. One last point here, when wesmile we brighten up our vocal tone so let those pearly teeth show people! It will improve your

tone and, as an added bonus, will communicate to your congregation that the joy we have in theLord is worth singing about!



10) MEMORIZE THE LYRICS Things aren¶t the way they used to be. When traditional hymns were the staple of church music

there were lots and lots of songs with lots and lots and lots of verses! As we all know,contemporary praise and worship music for the most part is much simpler than many of the old

hymns and easier to memorize. But why memorize when I can put the lyrics on the music stand

in front of me or we can project the words on a screen in the back of the auditorium? I alluded tothe answer in the previous tip. First of all, when we have memorized the lyric we free ourselvesto be more expressive with the interpretation of the song. Secondly, and most importantly, our

praise team singers are worship leaders too. I hope your team knows that. They may not be theones out front but they are certainly instrumental in leading people into God¶s presence.When

you encourage them to memorize the lyrics you are encouraging them to be better worshipleaders.Unfortunately, once we have become dependant on the written note or word, we tend to

stay that way no matter how many times we¶ve sung a particular song. For example, I used to play in casual bands where we used ³Fake´ books. For those who don¶t know, a Fake book is a

collection of sometimes hundreds of songs encompassing many different styles of music. It isdesigned for musicians and singers who play in a variety of venues for quick reference to popular

songs. I found that no matter how many times we had played a particular song, I never seemed to be able to memorize it. Why not? Because without my knowing it, I had trained myself to

become µdependent on the page¶. To get your team used to singing without the lyric, try startingout by excluding from the music stand each week one or two of the simpler songs that your team

has been singing for awhile. Eventually you should be able to have the majority of your repertoire free from the crutch of the lyric sheet.

Consider this. Singing praise and worship songs are all about giving God our best and mostheartfelt worship. As worship leaders, helping to bring people into His presence is both an

indescribable joy and responsibility that we shouldn¶t take lightly. If we are constantly glancingat lyric sheets or lead sheets, can we be fully engaged in worship? Only when we have

memorized and absorbed the lyrics and our vocal parts, when they have become second natureand when they are our tools instead of our focus are we able to authentically express and

communicate the song to God and the congregation.P at rick DeRemer has been the Wor ship Leader for 10 year s at Gold Coast Chri st ian Churc h, a reg i onal c hurc h i n

V ent ura Count y , CA. H e i s al so the creator of a new websi t e; www . prai sev ocal s.c om. The si t e was

devel o ped pri marily for Wor ship Leader s. It off er s d ow nl oadable audi o f iles of v ocal har mony par t s of po pular prai se

and w or ship song s.

Some thoughts on the leading of worship in the churches and some tips for leadership:

1. Worship leaders, ask yourself while choosing songs and arranging a set list (and even choosingmusicians), "What is the purpose of this?" You may say it is to bring people into worship of God, but

everyone says that. Look at your songs, look at your arrangements, look at the people assisting you. Are

they all on board with that purpose?

2. The vast majority of your congregation is not musically savvy. They need to be able to follow where

you're leading. So don't get fancy. If you change keys, take long pauses, run words together, change

tempos, go too high or too low, or don't provide a way for those who don't know the words to know what

they're singing, you may lose them. It may make for a great performance, highlighting the great skill and



talent of you and your musicians, but worship is not a concert.

3. On that note, keep it simple. This does not mean si m pli st ic . Contrary to popular belief, repetition is not

bad. It is helpful, actually. Droning or mindless repetition is bad. But the repetition of a chorus or melody is

helpful for congregants who shouldn't have to focus on keeping up with you.

4. Remove yourself from the presentation as much as possible. Are you a rock star? Cut it out.

5. Beware of banter. Good worship leaders develop sensitive and strategic ways to shepherd their people

into the worship experience. This may include explaining songs or reflecting on their meanings. Maybe it

means quoting or reading Scripture. It should include interspersed prayer. It could mean a lot of things,

but refrain from speechifying, from lapsing into some extended pontification between songs. Save the

preaching for the preacher.

6. When you banter, be mindful of what you say. Is "Are you guys ready to have fun tonight?!" a good way

to begin a worship set? It is not wrong or bad for worshipers to enjoy themselves in worship; indeed, they

should. But is "fun" what you really want to call their attention to when you begin?

7. Words matter. And they matter beyond their poetic quality. What do the lyrics of the songs you're

singing say about God and about the Christian life? They do not have to be systematic theology set to

music -- and they probably shouldn't be -- but neither should they be vapid or borderline meaningless. It

may sound pretty, but does it reflect sound doctrine?

8. Songs that highlight the gospel (sin, grace) should be treasured.

9. Music matters. Your lyrics can be straight from Scripture, but if the music is kitschy, you are

condescending to your congregation. You're not a Carnival Cruise Line, you're in the community of Christ-

followers. Your lyrics may be easy to follow and substantive, but coupled with complex, "artistic" music,

and you may be singing a song best suited for performance, not corporate worship.

12. Be mindful that you are leading a congregation in worship, which typically and ideally means a cross-

section of men and women, youth and old folks, etc. Some, if not most, men may be uncomfortable

singing about "going into the King's chamber" and kissing on Jesus. Some women may be uncomfortable

singing about God smiting his enemies with furious vengeance. I think, actually, there are places in

worship for both sorts of songs (just as Scripture contains all sorts of portraits of our God), but be

sensitive to your congregation's needs, not necessarily to your own wants. Frequently certain types of

songs resonate more with leaders and they can obsess on them; this is great if the "type" is a general

theo-centric worship song, but it is bad if the type is a "making out with Jesus at Inspiration Point" worship

song.

13. If you lead in a majority white congregation, telling people to "put your hands together" during a song

can go terribly wrong. :-)

18. Not all songs are created equal. Some songs may be incredibly worshipful but are not conducive to

corporate worship. I love U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name;" I find it very worshipful. But it is not a

good song for corporate worship. You want worship songs that can be sung al ong to, not just songs that

can be sung.



19. When possible, choose songs for your set list that connect to or reflect the theme or message points

of the sermon. This may not always be possible, but it does enhance the perception of the worship time

as part of a whole service of worship, rather than as a stand-alone element in a program.

20. Talk and work with whoever you have to to get creative with the worship service format. If you always

do worship first, talk about placing the message first and worship last. And vice versa. If you have a set

routine that works for your church, great. But when done in sensitive and strategic ways -- as opposed to

abrupt and chaotic ways -- the rearranging of worship elements can provoke congregants to really focus

on the worship service.

22. Some people will say don't sing about us. I would tell them to read the Psalms. The key is not to not

sings about "us," it is to sing songs that tell the truth about us. Instead of singing about how God makes

us feel, why not sing songs about our dependence on Him? Instead of singing songs celebrating the great

things we have done and will do for God (which is just self-worship, actually), how about singing songs

about the depth of our need and the falling short of our efforts that celebrate the great things God has

done? It's not the pronouns "I" and "we" that should be avoided; it's certain verbs that follow them.

23. Trust the Spirit, not yourself.

24. Exalt Christ.

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