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Don’t Give Me That Look

Published March 8, 2012 Leading a congregation 3 Comments

I had a good conversation with a singer on the worship team at my church a few days ago when she asked me whether I want singers on the team to (a) close their eyes, (b) keep their eyes open, or (c) look people in the eye as they’re singing up front. She had heard different thoughts on this from different people and wanted to know what I thought.

If there’s one thing that really bugs me about most worship teams that I watch on the internet these days, it’s when they have a front line of 5 – 10 singers, and each one seems to be some sort of Disney robot. No offense, of course. I’m sure they’re nice people who love to sing. But they stand there and look straight out at people, smiling and pointing and nodding their heads, making direct eye contact (I’ve even seen some of these singers wink) and I can’t understand what this is supposed to accomplish.

My answer to the singer from my worship team was to (a) be engaged with God in heartfelt worship and (b) be aware of the people you’re standing before. This does NOT mean working the crowd, making direct eye contact, smiling at people and employing cheerleading tactics.

When I look out on the congregation when I’m leading worship, I’m looking out as if I’m looking through a periscope on a submarine. I’m scoping out what’s happening but I’m not staring directly at people. I am confidently cocooned inside of myself, worshipping God, aware of my surroundings and my fellow musicians, and I make sure to regularly scan the room with the goal of seeing what’s going on.

I’m trying to make this as uncomplicated as I can. So I’ll try to phrase it differently.

Worship leaders/singers/musicians should avoid the kind of eye contact that performers are taught to employ. This is what I mean when I describe a Disney robot. It’s an uber-happy, I-am-singing-right-at-you-right-now, are-you-feeling-good-too?, disingenuous, direct eye contact.

Instead, we (a) should definitely avoid squeezing our eyes closed the entire time, (b) open them regularly, and (c) when we do open them, scan the room broadly, continuing to engage with God, not the people, and adjust our leading if necessary.

It’s a subtle but important distinction. We are seeking to model engagement with God. If we model engagement with the congregation, it changes the whole dynamic and makes people feel like they’re an audience at a show. So definitely open your eyes, but don’t try so hard to engage with people directly. Hope this is helpful. 

Ten Ways to Make it Hard for People to Follow You

Published February 27, 2012 Leading a congregation 1 Comment
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This past Saturday morning we had a breakfast at my church for a bunch of volunteer worship leaders. After we shared about ourselves, I shared on how important it is as a worship leader to be easy for people to follow. I did this by modeling and talking about 10 ways to make it hard for people to follow you. I’ve listed them below.

1. Be timid
Timidity begets timidity. Confidence begets confidence. If you’re timid, unsure of yourself, and insecure, the people in the room are going to feel sorry for you, want to help you, think you were put up front too soon, and will pull back. As my old professor Steve Brown says, do some self-talk before you get up front and say to yourself, “I have been commissioned by the High King of Heaven…” and lead with boldness.

2. Play too much
If you overplay, you come across like you’re angry. If people in the room sense that you’re angry or intense, their defense mechanism is going to be to want to protect themselves and they won’t let themselves trust you. Don’t play too much. And back to the first point, don’t play too little. Find the right balance.

3. Sing the wrong melody
I once sat in a church full of people while the worship leader sang the wrong melody (on purpose) for every line of the chorus of “How Great is Our God”. This was ironic since the chorus says “…sing with me…”. They couldn’t sing with him because he wasn’t making it easy. We want to make it easy for people to sing along with us. Sing the melody, sing the right melody, and sing it consistently throughout the song. If you veer into harmony, you must (1) make sure someone else has taken clear leadership of the song from you, and (2) use a different “voice” (i.e. breathier, softer, back from the mic). (I wrote a post on this a while ago here.)

4. Sing/play impressively
Leading worship requires most of us to set aside most of what we are really capable of doing, for the sake of serving the congregation and serving the song. If every singer and instrumentalist on stage was demonstrating the full scope of their respective skill-sets, it would be a disaster. Your job is to insert yourself into people’s consciousness as seldom as possible during a time of singing. So stay simple.

5. Sing the wrong keys
C to shining C is a good rule of thumb. Guys are mostly comfortable from a low C to middle C. They can dip lower and pop up higher, but do best in that octave range. The same principle applies for women, but up an octave. If you want people to sing with you, you’ll need to think through keys carefully, often taking songs down from where they were recorded, into more singable keys. (I wrote a post on this a while ago here.)

6. Mumble
“What did he/she say?” is one sure way to distract people. Speak slowly and articulate well when you’re speaking. And don’t try to say 4 sentences in the space of 2 measures.

7. Inconsistent tempo
The average person in the room can’t identify specific things/instruments/notes that are “off” during a time of worship. But they can identify that something is off. Tempo is one of those somethings that, if not consistent, and if unpredictable, can make people feel like something is wrong. Set the right tempo for a song either by using a metronome or by singing a quick section of the song in your head before you start to establish the tempo of the song. Once you’ve established it, stick with it.

8. All over the map themes
Songs should connect with each other. Don’t try to pick a song list in 5 minutes. Give yourself time, chew over it, pray over it, consider the scripture passages and sermon theme, and come back to it a few times during the week if you have to. You want your songs to go somewhere – not just all say the same thing, and not all be randomly placed.

9. The worship leader voice
Seriously. Just use your normal voice. Don’t contort your vowels, get growly, get breathy, raise or lower your pitch, or talk differently than you’d talk if you were greeting someone at your door. You might not realize you do this, so ask people who know you. Or record yourself leading and listen back. You might be surprised. People can spot fake-ness from a mile away. (I wrote a post on this a while ago here.)

10. No clear leadership
In the absence of leadership, people don’t feel safe. With too much leadership, people want to shut down. It’s a tricky balance, but it’s really a simple biblical principle. We want to say to people, in the words of David, “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!”. That’s what our role is: to call people and to help people magnify and exalt the name of the Lord together.

The Power of Worship in the Midst of Trials

Published January 30, 2012 Leading a congregation , Ministry 1 Comment
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A few weeks ago my church got word that we will most likely lose our building. This means we’ll give up our Historic Church (“the” Falls Church, after which the city was named), our offices, classrooms, meeting space, fellowship space, and Main Sanctuary (built in 1992, holds 900 people, 3 services per weekend) and all property acquired prior to January 30th, 2007, to the Episcopal Church (from whom we separated five years ago).

You would think that on Sunday mornings the congregation would be fearful, anxious, discouraged, or downcast. Not so. Since the ruling, our times of worship have been vibrant, heartfelt, and Christ-exalting. I haven’t seen this much freedom in worship in my 7 ½ years here.

We know we have difficult days ahead. The prospect of losing our campus and our property, relocating to temporary worship and office space, and perhaps building a new building is exciting but also daunting. I’m sure the excitement might wane after a few months (years) of not having a permanent space. Many of you reading this blog deal with this every week and I now have a new appreciation for you.

But this time of uncertainty (and others that our congregation has weathered over the years) has reminded me of the power of worship in the midst of trials. The words on the screen now become the cries of our hearts. The Jesus about whom we’re singing is now our very present help in time of trouble. The Gospel that we’re declaring is now our common assurance and defense. The Holy Spirit in whom we believe is now actively pointing us to Jesus and giving us peace.

Rahm Emmanuel, a former congressman from Illinois, White House Chief of Staff, now the mayor of Chicago, and an infamously shrewd politician is notorious for his statement, “never let a good crisis go to waste”. This is the unspoken creed of most politicians.

Overlooking the sneakiness of that statement, I see a morsel of truth and a lesson for worship leaders who serve churches experiencing crises or trials. Don’t let a time of trial go to waste. It is an opportunity for your congregation to experience so much more of the power of worship to point us to the glory of God in Jesus Christ. This can be taught, but it takes a while. In the midst of trials it can be caught, and this doesn’t take as long.

I’m not suggesting that you pray for a crisis for your church so that they can grow in worship. It’s also probably not a good idea to covertly create one.

But when trials come to your congregation (and they will), don’t pick phony triumphalistic songs, or pull back and treat Sunday mornings like they’re funerals, or ignore the elephant in the room. Follow Rahm Emmanuel’s advice to “never let a good crisis go to waste”. The power of worship in the midst of trials to point individuals and a congregation to Jesus can transform your church’s time of singing.

And whether we stay in this building or worship in a barn, we’ll keep exalting Jesus higher and higher. The power is in his name, not in our trappings.

When Your Congregation Isn’t Into it

Published January 20, 2012 Leading a congregation 6 Comments
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Few things are more discouraging, disheartening, and demoralizing for a worship leader than leading a congregation in half-hearted, disengaged, bored singing week after week after week. This will do strange things to a worship leader’s heart, head, and leadership. He might experience temporary times of lift-off, maybe his first Sunday back from a worship conference, or a Sunday when for no reason at all everything feels awesome, only to return to the frozen tundra the next week with a thud.

Obviously, the more anchored a worship leader is, the less susceptible he will be to the normal ebb and flow and ups and downs of leading a congregation. But even the most seasoned, refined, smooth, mature, seen-it-all worship leader will experience thoughts along these lines when looking out at a congregation with the enthusiasm level of people waiting in line at the DMV:

“Would anyone care if I just stopped this song right now?”
“Why in the world did I pick this song?”
“I must stink as a worship leader.”
“Where is the reset button?”
“What is wrong with these people?”
“Is God even here right now?”
“I need to juice this service up somehow.”
“These people will never get it.”

And some (all?) worship leaders who experience these thoughts start to respond by doing impulsive things:

Pick really intense songs the next week in hopes that those really get people going.
Interrupt the time of singing to give a mini, unplanned, spontaneous, unhelpful
sermonette.
Shout out things like “come on!” or “here we go!” or “let me hear you” or “are you not
impressed?” (OK, maybe not the last one, although I have been tempted on many
occasions to use it.)
Revert to safe, tried and true oldie goldies.
Do what worked at the conference/concert/stadium.
Close your eyes and just go for it on your own, whether or not people are with you.
Tell people what to do.

And when none of your quick fixes seem to make any long lasting change you start to get discouraged. You lower your expectations. You get stuck on the spin cycle of worship leading. You’re not really motivated to try very hard anymore. You’re not particularly excited to lead worship but you do it. And once in a while there’s a bit of take-off, but mostly you’re on the tundra, but the prospect of taking off keeps you coming back.

(Some worship leaders don’t have to do deal with this. Their congregations are ready to blast off every Sunday. These worship leaders are like the kids in school who were really good at math and could also play sports and had nice clothes and were tall and got elected class president. They have it easy now, but just wait until they grow up and lose all their hair!)

Seriously, though, I think most worship leaders on planet earth experience what I’m describing. I’m not talking about one Sunday or one song when the congregation seems out it. I’m talking about weeks, months, and years in a row of seeing very little, if any at all, outward/apparent/obvious growth and enthusiasm in corporate worship. It can suck the energy out of you, little by little, Sunday by Sunday, and before you know it you’ve given up hope.

I think there are a few things worship leaders forget.

God is working his purpose out. You might not be able to see it. Actually, you probably can’t. You have no idea what’s bubbling underneath. Your faithfulness and your perseverance as a worship leader is water to the seeds buried deep underground. You can’t see the roots that are being laid.

You can’t base everything on what you see. Yes, what you see is important. But it’s not everything. You could have months and months of services that appear, outwardly, to be stale. But God may very well be working under the surface in ways invisible to you.

Outward physical expressiveness in worship is gratifying to a worship leader, but if it’s not an outgrowth of genuine worship, it’s not honoring to God. The foundation of a house is the most important thing. But you never see it. If the foundation is solid, then you can add things on top of it that will be secure. The same principle applies to worship. Physical expressiveness and outward engagement is important but it’s not the foundation. If all you focus on from week to week is getting the congregation “into it” to your satisfaction, then you’re veering close to emotionalism and manipulation.

I’ve used this before, but I love the analogy of a worship leader acting like a tour guide at the grand canyon. Your job isn’t to dictate how people respond to the beauty they’re beholding (i.e. “open your mouth and gasp now!” or “be amazed! Turn to your children and say ‘the grand canyon is amazing!’”). Your job is to point people to the beauty they’re beholding and then get out the way.

Worship leaders will become discouraged, disheartened and demoralized when their congregation regularly looks like they’d rather watch “Cars 2” on the tour bus then look at the awesome Grand Canyon. Especially when you’ve been leading the same group around for a few years.

Take a step back. It’s not all up to you, but is there anything you can do differently? Probably. Lower your demands for how people should respond. Instead of looking for an immediate response, aim to take people deeper and farther in to the beauty of Jesus. Don’t rely on a little sermonette to do the trick. Rely on Scripture – the sword of the Spirit – to wield its power. Don’t compare your congregation to other congregations. God has placed you where he’s placed you for a reason. For his glory. And his glory will keep us motivated through all the ups and downs.

Seminar on Thinking Surgically While Leading Liturgically

Published January 9, 2012 Leading a congregation , Liturgy Leave a Comment
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About a year ago I shared some thoughts in several posts (part one, two, three, four, and five) on the topic of how to use music as a tool, in the context of a more formal liturgical service, to lead vibrant worship. Liturgy doesn’t have to be a force of lethargy.

I was honored to be asked by Bob Kauflin to teach a seminar on this topic at the 2011 WorshipGod conference this past August in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I had been attending those conferences since 2002, and had been profoundly shaped and molded as a worship leader by them, so it was a real privilege to be able to give something back.

If you’d like to listen to or download the audio of this seminar (for free!) click here. And if you’d like the outline for this seminar, you can get that here.

And all the other seminar and main session messages are downloadable (again, for free) here.

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