Jamie Brown

Projecting Excellence Pt. III – Keep Things in Context

A month ago I began a series that I’ll pick up on every once in a while titled “projecting excellence”. If worship leaders want the congregation to be engaged in worship, with as few distractions as possible, making sure the words are projected with excellence will go a long way. You can practice for hours, but if one verse is left out, you’ll be singing a solo. You can prepare all week, but if there’s a glaring typo, the congregation might be too busy snickering or too confused to know what they’re supposed to sing. Worship leaders should care about the big details and the small details.

So far we’ve looked at line spacing and font size. Today I want to look at the importance of keeping the lines of a song in context with each other. We’ll use Stuart Townend’s “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us” as an example.

Here’s an example of how the first half of verse one is kept in context:

How Deep good

And now here’s an example of how the verse is unfortunately split up into two slides.

How Deep bad1

How Deep bad2

In the first example, a couple of things are happening. First, a complete thought is presented together – not split up halfway through. The congregation is given time to see, sing, and consider the truth the Father’s deep love is shown in him giving up his only son. Second, the congregation isn’t being bombarded with transitioning slides every 10 seconds. A slide with a complete thought is able to “sit” for a while.

In the second example, the two slides that split up the sentence, a couple of things are happening that I think are unfortunate. First, a complete thought is being spliced in half. While I’m not suggesting the average person in the congregation only has a four-second memory span, by the time the second slide pops up and we’re singing “that He should give His only Son”, we have forgotten that this is what shows us “how deep the Father’s love” is for us. Second, the slides are constantly being changed. This can become somewhat jolting for the congregation, not to mention the person advancing them!

When I’m leading a congregation in corporate worship, my hope is that they will be responding to the great truths we are singing. It helps people respond to great truths when they’re presented in a thought-out fashion. Try to make sure your slides keep sentences and thoughts in context. This is a small detail that can make a big difference.

Handling Awkward Moments – Clapping After a Song

Yesterday morning we began our service with the hymn “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven” (verse 1, 2, 3, and 5) as the first song of the opening set. The worship team played well on the song, and the congregation seemed to be engaged as we all sang. When the song ended, we had a brief “awkward moment” when a small number of people scattered around started clapping/applauding, without it catching on more widely in the congregation.

You’ve probably experienced this in your own setting, when a song ends and a few people start clapping, the rest of the congregation doesn’t know what to do, and it ends up just fizzling out. It’s hard to know quite what to do.

I think there are a few ways you can handle this.

Yesterday, I encouraged it and pointed it in the right direction. When I heard the clapping start and could tell it was sputtering, I went ahead and said “Let’s do that – let’s offer our applause to our everlasting King”. Then as we clapped I spoke over it saying things like “Lord, we do applaud your greatness” or “we praise you this morning, merciful God”. This (I hope) helped (1) encourage a biblical expression of praise, and (2) focus people on the fact that our clapping was directed to God, not just “filler”.

Other times, it’s more appropriate to just let it go. I’ve been in settings when we’ve finished up a song and a few people started clapping, but I didn’t feel it was necessary to encourage everyone to respond in that way. I suppose it might be awkward and/or a bit bumpy for a few moments, but there’s no need for me to rush in and try to smooth it over. Let it go and transition into whatever is next.

Now and then, with care, worship leaders might need to gently discourage it, particularly if it has become a mindless, perfunctory reflex after every song. I wouldn’t suggest you try to stop the clapping once it has already started, but instead try to discourage it preemptively. Perhaps you could say something like “we’re going to sing this verse once more, and then let’s be silent before God for a few moments”. Try to be sensitive to whether or not there are ways your congregation is responding on auto-pilot, and then gently wake them up. When we clap it should be intentional and God-focused. If it’s not, we’re better off not doing it.

The best way to handle the awkward moments when there’s a nervous sputtering of clapping is to make sure we’re helping the congregation think biblically about clapping. It’s not for the band, it’s not “filler” to give the guitarist time to move his or her capo, and it’s not something we have to do after every song. If you don’t clap we won’t look down on you. Your salvation doesn’t depend upon your clapping. We won’t excessively focus on it. But it is an expression of praise commanded in scripture (Psalm 47:1), and therefore it’s perfectly appropriate and should be encouraged.

“Let’s Stand Together and Worship”

Romans12 A few years ago, I realized I had developed a bad habit of saying “let’s stand together and worship” whenever I got up to lead some songs. It didn’t matter if it was the beginning, middle, or end of a service. It was what I said to get people to stand and sing after a time of prayer, the sermon, announcements, etc.

Someone finally pointed out to me that by saying “let’s stand together and worship” I was unintentionally sending two messages. First: worship is only singing. Second: what we have just been doing is not worship. Neither are true, of course, but you wouldn’t be able to tell I thought so if you listened to what I was saying.

I was also leaving off one important detail: who we are standing to worship. “Let’s stand together and worship” is not only inaccurate but it’s incomplete.

I can help the congregation see the whole service as a time of corporate worship and be reminded to whom we’re directing our praise by choosing my words carefully even when I’m just asking them to stand up. Here are just four examples:

“Let’s stand together and continue worshiping our great God.”
“Let’s stand and sing together to declare what Jesus has done for us.”
“I’d like to invite you to stand as we respond to God’s word by singing this song of thankfulness.”
“As we continue in worship by hearing God’s word read, you can be seated.”

Notice I use the word “continue” a couple of times. This is a gentle reminder to the congregation that “worship” doesn’t stop when the songs stop.

I also try to keep the fact that God is the object of our worship from being assumed. We can very easily just say things like “we’re going to worship” or “you all are really worshipping!” without realizing that we’re subtly teaching that God is a spectator of our worship rather than the receiver.

While the sermon topic may vary from week to week, the worship leader is teaching the congregation how to think biblically about worshipping in song every Sunday. Even the seemingly innocuous wording used when asking the congregation to stand conveys a message and shapes the congregation’s thinking.

Even the title “worship leader” misses the mark. I use it because, like it or not, it’s now a part of the lexicon and is generally understood to refer to the person who leads the singing. But while the title may be inaccurate and a tad misleading, our words don’t have to be!

Video Clip – The Ineffectiveness of Some Tunes

I’m really looking forward to the Worship God conference that starts one week from today at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I’m bringing 11 worship team members to the entire conference, and several others are coming to the evening sessions after they got off of work.

There is so much good teaching, meaningful times of corporate worship, practical instruction, time with the worship team, and opportunities to enjoy being in the congregation and not up-front.

I always look forward to hearing from Bob Kauflin. He’s a humble, gifted, wise, and Godly man – and I learn something from him whenever he leads worship or teaches. Here is a short clip of him from last year’s Desiring God conference (hosted by John Piper) that gives one example.

Hand Signals

signals It’s not always possible to nail down in rehearsal exactly how you’re going to do a song in a service. We might realize as we’re singing a song that we need to cut it short, extend it, go back to a previous verse, or repeat a section. We might sense that God is prompting us to do something we hadn’t planned at all. The worship leader needs to be able to clearly communicate these changes in direction with the worship team. Without using words.

Here are a few hand signals I’ve found helpful for communicating with the worship team non-verbally.

Raised clenched fist
We’re ending. Be sure you give the team a measure or two of notice – you can’t throw up your first on beat three and expect them to stop on four. Think ahead a few bars so you can come to a nice smooth landing.

Pointer finger swirling in the air in a circle
We’re going to repeat this section again. You don’t need to make this very dramatic. Subtle enough that the congregation doesn’t think you’re doing arm exercises but clearly enough that your team can see it.

Raise one finger
Go to verse one. Raise two fingers for verse two, and so on.

Hand curled in a “C” shape
Go to the chorus. Looks like you’re holding an invisible baseball.

Point at one musician
Everyone stop playing except this person. I’ll use this if we’re going into a chorus and I only want the drummer to play, or if I’m going to say something to the congregation and I only want the pianist to play. Don’t point at them like you’re accusing them of something – but so they get the point that you want them to keep playing. Accompany this with a slight nodding of your head so they get the point. Make sure you have eye contact with them.

Outstretched hand in a “hold it” position
Stop playing. If you’re playing guitar or the keyboard, lower your hand like you’re petting an imaginary dog slightly behind/to the side of you. If you’re sitting down at the piano, stretch the palm of your hand out to them. Again, not too dramatically.

A repeated downward pat
Quiet down. Don’t accompany with a scowl. Accompany with a smile to lessen the impact.

Upward fanning motion
Don’t hold back. Accompanied with an encouraging look on your face, this will help a shy musician know they have your permission to be a bit more bold.

Pat your heart with a closed fist
Thank you. Mouth the words “thank you” as you do this. Helpful for communicating your gratefulness to your volunteers if they’re all spread out on the platform and it’s noisy.

Point at an instrument and then point up or down
I need to hear more/less of them in my monitor. For communicating with your sound engineer. Try to do this sparingly as it can be distracting to the congregation. Make sure your sound engineer is looking at you.

There are many more hand signals that are effective, I’m sure. These are just a few examples. In your specific context, just take some time to talk with your team about what your hand signals mean so that they don’t have to guess. They might even have some good ideas and suggestions for how you can clearly communicate with them. I’ve been told on numerous occasions that my hand signals were confusing, so I’ve tried to make them clearer.

If you’re leading from the guitar and your hands and taken up, you can use the neck of the guitar to communicate basic signals such as: the song is ending, everyone drop out, and everyone come in. Point the guitar back and they’ll know something is up. Odds are they’ll be able to guess what you’re trying to communicate if you’re at least trying. Better to give a poor signal than no signal at all.

Feel free to share any other hand signals you’ve found helpful!