I started playing on worship teams in about 2000 at a small
church in So Cal. I really had no idea
what I was doing in the beginning other than just playing music as I always have.
Leading worship/playing on a worship team was a completely new thing for me as
I had grown up performing is clubs and bigger venues in hard rock bands, even
backing up famous performers such as Sammy Hagar. Now suddenly I found myself
surrounded by volunteers and most musicians were beginners. Looking back, I approached everything wrong. After
a while my wife Angela and I started leading worship or performing original
Christian music at various churches as special guest. Over the next 6 years we
played all over the place.
When we moved to Austin we started leading worship at
Northwest Fellowship, our home church ever since, even when we were out serving
at other churches and church plants. For 8 years, Angela and I lead worship on
Sundays and Wednesday nights at just about every denomination of Christian church.
Every church we served at seemed to
always have drama surrounding the worship team and crazy issues going on. These
served as wonderful learning experiences for me. Through much prayer, attending
worship leader conferences and of course following the Holy Spirit, I have
learned so, so much about leading worship.
While teaching at RBC Ministries a few years ago, they asked
me to share my experiences. After which they encourage me to share it with any
and all who would listen and my blog seems as good a place to share as
any.
So brace yourself and take a deep breath, as I am sure some
of this cause you to want to curse my name. But pray through it and really
remember that it’s all about worshiping Him, not feeding our own egos and flesh.
Enjoy!
Leading worship: (After point 1, there is no particular
order of importance)
1.
If you are on a Worship team or are a Worship
leader, you must be in God’s Word.
2.
You are leading worship, leading God’s people
into Worship of Him, you are not performing, you are leading God’s people into a
time of Worship of the living God! If
you want to perform, that’s perfectly fine, just not at church. It’s not about
you. If you want to perform, go book a gig and play a show. Do not play on a worship team because it’s
your only avenue to get to play in front of people.
3.
A worship leaders worships, and is in a state of
worship. When you are worshiping God, then those attending will see you
worshiping God and hopefully will start to worship Him too. If you are not
engaged, they will not be either.
4.
If you do not know the music, and are staring at
a music stand, you are not worshiping, so learn and memorize your parts. This will
free you to worship and be ready to follow the Spirit when He makes a move.
5.
Worship is the only part of a Sunday service
that is for God, and God Alone. He does
not need the announcements, tithes, teaching…
6.
Someone must be in charge and lead. Our God is
not a God of chaos. We must be rehearsed and be ready. The worship community needs
checks and balances riddled with mentoring and exchanging of Prayers for one
another.
7.
Congregational singing is where everyone sings
the melody, no harmonies. I truly believe that is how worship should be lead. When
you bring in harmonies, one of two things happens, they are done well and the
congregation starts to listen to the performance and stops worshiping, or they
are done badly and are a distraction. …And
together they sang with one voice “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty”.
8.
Everything you do leading worship, you will
stand accountable for before Jesus.
Distractions
Make sure you do not do anything
that distracts worshipers from their time with God. This includes ANYTHING that
attracts their attention away from their time with Him. Everything has the potential to be
distracting, so be on guard, the Devil loves to draw worshiper’s attention away
from worshiping.
(in random order)
1.
No guitar solos or vocal runs to show off your
“abilities”. I am not talking about nice melody parts, I am talking full blown "look at me" Eddie Van Halen guitar solo time. You know when the congregation stop worship and turns and watches the guitar player. We have all seen this happen. Do you really want to stand in front of Jesus and answer His
question “Why where you trying to steal my spotlight and the attention of those
worshiping me?”
2.
Talking and preaching. I have seen the Spirit
just leave the room because the leader wants to give a mini-sermon. Even a
short few words can completely stop the flow. And on that subject, do not start
the reflective song after the sermon by re-preaching, or worse, go another
direction and disrupt what the pastor has left the body to pray and reflect on.
3.
Make sure the lyrics are correct on the screen,
and available. Even some missing lyrics not showing up is a big distracting.
4.
Do not introduce 4 new songs in a service.
Unknown songs are distracting.
5.
Do not endlessly vamp. There seems to be a trend
right now to ad lib and vamp lyrics over and over again. This is lost on the
congregation and really is just a narcissistic and chaotic style of worship. Watch the congregation, they all stop worshiping
and the only person into it is the person doing it…
6.
Bad sound is a distraction. Have your sound system dialed in and your
staff trained. Do not use a rotation of
4 inexperienced people to run the sound as they never have enough time behind
the board to become fluent and stay fluent as they only serve once a month. Find one or two people that can take “ownership”
of this area.
Musicians and songs
1.
I say no harmonies at all, but if you insist for
your own ego to do them… then do not sing harmonies if you have no idea about
music theory. Example; the lead vocal sings the melody, a 2nd
vocalist singing a 3rd above; normal church harmony. But then I have
heard a 3rd vocalist putting a 3rd on top of the 3rd
harmony, making is an Aug 5th above the root. Not good. If you do
not understand what I just said, you should not be singing harmonies.
2.
Be conscious of the key of the song, make it so
both men and women can sing along in an easy range.
3.
If you are the lead vocalist, sing the melody
and do not stray. It’s amazing how many lead
vocalist worship leaders will jump up and sing the harmony part. When the lead
vocalist switches to the harmony, the music is no longer in key. The
congregation will also chase the vocals up to the harmony part too, but since
they are used to the way the song goes normally they will gets stuck, and they
stop singing and are distracted.
4.
Strive for excellence. so you are ready for a
move of the Spirit.
5.
“iSongs” That is what we call a song that has
the wrong perspective for Worship.
Example; “I will worship. I will do this, I will do that…” how is
talking about how awesome we are for worshiping God, worshiping God? …And together they sang with one voice “Holy
Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty”.
Praise Him, not boost about what we are doing for Him. Think of the song “Grace Like Rain”. Run through the lyrics of the chorus in your
head. Great song, but now a worship song.
How is singing those lyrics to God, worshiping Him?
6.
If you are an electric guitar player, stop
messing with your pedal board. You are supposed to be worshiping, not playing
with your toys.
7.
You can’t worship if you are trying to find your
way, starring at a music stand. The songs have 4 chords, just learn the
songs. And if you have to read the
lyrics, you did not practice the songs enough. Worship, don’t read.
I hope this helps you and motivates you and that you
seriously consider all of this and pray on it.
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