Leading a congregation – Page 8

The Appeal of Invitational Worship Leading

Don’t you like a good invitation?

Someone has free tickets to sit behind home base at a baseball game and they want you to join them. Someone has a beach house they can’t use and they want you to have the week for free. Someone has a voucher for a free meal at the finest steak house in the area and they want to treat you.

Being invited by someone you trust to join them somewhere you’d like to go is one of life’s greatest gifts. We all love a good invitation. It’s hard to turn a good invitation down.

Worship leading, at its core, is an invitational role. We stand before our congregations with an invitation behind every song, every arrangement, and every service. The invitation is to look, to consider, to behold, to cherish, to savor, to sing about, to celebrate, and to respond to a God who has revealed himself to us, rescued us through his Son, and sealed us with his Spirit.

Our tone, our countenance, and our approach should be inviting. Not demanding, not rote, not passive, not preachy, not cutesy, and not flippantly. We want our congregations to get the feeling from us that we’re inviting them to join us as we worship God. This gives them freedom to respond in their own way, with their own personality, at their own pace, and from their own heart. But it also gives them a gentle nudge. Yes, people need nudging. But they need to know they’re loved and safe before you even try. Within the context of an invitational style of leadership, you can provide this safety and nudging at the same time.

An invitational style also gives people the freedom to say “no, I won’t lift my hands” or “no, I don’t want to clap” or “no, I don’t think I want to sing, thank you very much”. It’s important for the stragglers, the depressed, the bereaved, and the atheists to stand under your worship leading and not feel guilty for not meeting your expectations.

Leading worship with an invitational tone communicates a love for Jesus, a love for people, a longing for them to join you, a gentle nudging to go further than they’ve gone before, and a freedom for them to be who they are. We all love good invitations. But none of us like having no choice but to say yes.

So consider your own heart when you stand before people, or when you sit down to a piano or organ, and you lead people in worship. Start with yourself. Draw near to Jesus and worship him from your heart. Then invite others to join you with a confidence, winsomeness, clarity, and freedom that will be hard for people to resist.

When You’re Out of Ideas

What do you do as a worship leader when you’re all of ideas? Particularly when picking songs for yet another service seems to be next to impossible? Here are some suggestions:

Take a vacation
One sign of burn-out is mental fatigue. Take a break. Take one or two Sundays off in a row. Do whatever you have to do to get away. Visit a good church. Or (gasp) sleep in.

Buy a bunch of new worship CDs
Have you listened to Matt Redman’s “Your Grace Finds Me“, or The Gospel Coalition’s “Songs from the Book of Luke” or Keith and Kristyn Getty’s new live album, or Dustin Kensrue’s “The Water and the Blood“, or Sovereign Grace’s “Grace Has Come” or Indelible Grace’s “Joy Beyond the Sorrow” (from last year), or Paul Baloche’s “The Same Love“? Even if you listen to all of these and only take away 2 songs you could teach your congregation, you’ll still have a lot of new arrangement ideas, and melodies floating around in your head that help you feel more fresh.

Find time for personal worship
When I’m feeling all out of ideas, many times that means I need to sit down with my guitar or at a piano and just begin to play music and articulate praise to God. Your public ministry has to be an overflow from your private life or else you’ll be operating on fumes.

See/hear/ask what other churches are doing
If you know other worship leaders at different churches, send them a note and ask them what they’ve done recently (songs, or other ideas) that’s really clicked with their congregations. Maybe it’s a terrible idea. But maybe it’s a good one. And you should’t be ashamed to use it and adapt it in your setting.

Stretch your brain
Go to a conference, read a theological book, or take a seminary class (there are a bunch of options online if you don’t live near a good one). Ask if your church will pay for this out of their continuing education budget. They should! You being out of ideas is an invitation to fill your brain and your heart with a new supply of concepts, techniques, history, terminology, and bible.

Lean on your team
Invite your worship team over to your house for a half-day retreat on a Saturday. Feed them breakfast and then come together for a couple of hours before adjourning at lunch. Laugh, worship, and pray together, and then put some huge white paper up on the walls. Have a group conversation about where your worship ministry has been, where it is now, where it’s going, and what God is saying. You’ll get some tangents and some random comments, but you’ll also get a lot of good insight from people who are a bit more able to look at things from a 50,000 foot view than you.

Take a deep breath
An awful lot of worship leaders feel a pressure to perform, to be super creative, to be edgy, to be relevant, to be hipster, to be up on all the new stuff, to be musically inventive, and to get results on Sunday mornings. It’s not that being any of those is bad, or that hoping for fruitful worship leading is wrong, but when we allow the pursuit of creativity or ingenuity to have power over us, then we’ve gone too far. Focus on being faithful to Jesus, faithful to the proclamation of the Gospel, and faithful to your congregation. Sometimes when you think you’re out of ideas all you actually need to do is keep drawing from the same well again and again and again.

Not Guilty

intersection It was a normal day at my job at my church several years ago, and at the usual time I packed up my things to drive home. I got in my car parked along East Fairfax Street and proceeded to the stop sign at Lee Highway where, like I did 5 other days a week, I waited for traffic to clear before I turned left across traffic.

I got to the stop sign, which was set significantly set back from Lee Highway, where I stopped behind an SUV who was stopped in front of the stop sign. When traffic cleared, he turned left, and then I turned left. And that’s when I saw the flashing lights in my rear-view mirror.

I pulled over, curious as to what I had done wrong, and the police officer informed me that I had run the stop sign. I was shocked. I was sure I had stopped, and I told him so. He was not convinced, and proceeded to accuse me of lying to his face and misrepresenting the truth, and encouraged me to just admit I was guilty and pay the (substantial) fine.

So I sat there feeling guilty and accused and confused. Should I just pay the fine and admit my guilt? Or should I wait two months, with the accusations hanging over my head, and go to court to fight the charge? I chose the latter option.

So a couple of months later I went through the humbling ordeal of giving up an entire morning, sitting and waiting in court, surrendering my cell phone and keys (like a guilty person) at the door, and waiting for my chance to defend myself.

One by one, person after person approached the judge, pleaded their case, offered their defense, and were turned away with the pronouncement “guilty” declared over them. They turned and walked out, defeated, deflating the spectators hope of having any better luck.

Finally my name was called and I proceeded to the bench. My accuser (the police officer) went first, declaring my guilt for all the room to hear, describing my (alleged) offense, how I had insisted I hadn’t done anything wrong and how he was certain I had. He was convincing.

The judge turned to me and permitted me to speak.

“Your honor”, I said, “as you can see in this diagram”, (I had brought a diagram of the intersection in question), “the stop sign at East Fairfax Street and Lee Highway is significantly set back from Lee Highway. And as you can see from Google Street View”, (I had brought print outs from Google Street View), “there is substantial room in front of the stop sign before a car enters Lee Highway. Your honor, when I approached this stop sign, I obeyed the law and stopped. However, an SUV was stopped in front of the stop sign. When traffic cleared, the SUV made a left hand turn, and then so did I. I will remind you that I had indeed stopped at the sign. However, I didn’t stop after the stop sign”.

I proceeded to drive the point home: “Your honor, I am not aware of any law that demands that a car must stop after a stop sign if there is a car stopped after a stop sign. I believe the law states that you must stop at a stop sign not after. So, if I am guilty of any crime, I would be guilty of not stopping a second time after having stopped at a stop sign”.

The room was silent. The judge looked at my accuser and asked if he had anything to add. “No, your honor” he said.

I asked if I could add one more thing. (I was going to ask if the police officer had been moving or stationary when he observed my alleged crime). “No, you may not, Mr. Brown!” the judge roared. “Case dismissed. Not guilty!”

It took a few seconds for my brain to process what had just happened. Then I began to realize that the impossible had happened: I had been declared innocent. My shock gave way to deep relief and giddy joy. The silence in the court room turned to enthusiastic chatter as the onlookers were amazed at what had just transpired. It was possible to be found not guilty! Amazing! Their faces were hopeful and the mood in the room had changed as I turned and walked out a free man.

I was the king of the world for the rest of the day. I shared my innocence (and my brilliant legal prowess) with anyone who would listen. I was euphoric. The burden (and several hundred dollars and points on my license) had been removed. I felt free.

Is there any better pronouncement in the world than “not guilty“? Is there anything more freeing? In a world full of accusations and burdens and law, the sweet sound of grace, the relief of mercy, and the joy of pardon is unmatchable.

Our services should shout this good news of the gospel over people Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. In Christ you are not guilty, in Christ you’ve been lavished with unlimited grace, and in Christ you have been pardoned and declared innocent. This is the sweetest pronouncement our ears can ever hear.

If our worship services, if our worship leading, if our song selection, and if our music doesn’t point clearly and consistently to the final verdict of “not guilty” pronounced over us because of Jesus’ work on the cross in our place, then we should just close up shop. Not every song should say it the same way, not every service should emphasize it identically, and not every worship leader will communicate it like the other. But, for God’s sake, use your platform, use your microphones, use your fancy graphics, use your organ, use your choir anthems, use your bell choir, use your electric guitar solo to highlight, underscore, emphasize, proclaim, repeat, and declare the good news of the gospel: your accuser is a liar, you are not guilty, and you’re free to go.

Make it clear. Don’t make people have to search for it hidden in a vague reference or mumbo jumbo or small print. Let it be known clearly and powerfully and unmistakably what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

Leading Worship Without an Instrument: Tips from Kate Simmonds

Kate Simmonds is a worship leader and songwriter based in Sydney, Australia, where she and her husband Miles serve at Grace City Church. For many years, in the late 90’s and early 2000’s she was on the worship leading team along with Stuart Townend at the Church of Christ the King in Brighton, England, and also led worship at events throughout the UK, many of which became hallmark worship albums of that era.

A few months ago i asked Kate to share her wisdom/experience regarding leading worship without playing an instrument. What she offers below is some of the best, practical worship leading advice for those who don’t play instruments.

From Kate:

I’ve been leading worship for quite a few years now and have never led with an instrument on any of those occasions so it really doesn’t have to be a hindrance to you. It also doesn’t have to hinder you if you are playing with a different band each time, even though there are benefits to having a regular band and being able to develop a repertoire together.

Arranging

I will run an arrangement for a song with the band in rehearsal which I would call the ‘default arrangement’. This would probably be something like Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus. But the band understands that I may wish to deviate from that in response to the congregation and of course to what God is doing among us. That is easily done with hand signals and also just by speaking out, “let’s sing that verse again” and so on.

Signals

It’s important that you have a sight line to all the members of the band so they can see your signals (and also that they can hear you clearly in their monitors, so always check they can hear you in your soundcheck). The signals I use are a V shape with my fingers, pointing downward, for verse; a C shape for chorus, my hand held downward in a fist to signal the end of the song; a little mini C shape to signal a turnaround where you might repeat a line (e.g. “Nothing compares to the promise I have, nothing compares to the promise I have in you”). I have one odd signal for the bridge or Middle 8 which is that I discreetly point to my bellybutton (it’s my ‘middle’) but I’m really not sure how that one came about so feel free to make up your own one!

The important thing to develop in rehearsal is the band looking to you for a signal at the key moments when decisions need to be made, (e.g. are we repeating this chorus?) So you need to be clear and decisive with your signals (eg give them say a line before the section is going to end) and they need to look up and see them. This is a good thing to practise in rehearsal so you can all get used to it.

Call it out

If they’re not looking at you but you want to change from the default arrangement, then you just need to call it out clearly so both the congregation and the band know where you are going. I will often give spoken instructions as well as signal the band as I think it can be helpful for the congregation.

Leaving space for free singing/playing

The other thing you can practice in rehearsal is an ‘open section’ where you might want to leave room for the congregation to sing out freely to God. If I want to signal this I wiggle my fingers – again, feel free to make up your own signal! The thing I would do in my preparation is try and identify a key place in the worship where I think the congregation is most likely to respond in this way. Then, in rehearsal, I would tell the band that I might open the song up at this point and decide with the band a chord sequence so that everyone is playing the same thing. You might choose just to play between two chords, or you could have a longer sequence if you wish.

Bring the best out of your band

The final thing I would add is that you don’t have to be a star musician on an instrument yourself to bring the best out of your band. I usually have an idea in mind of the dynamics of the song, so even if I can’t execute it on an instrument myself, I know that others can, so I give them some clear guidelines of what I have in mind. I’ll give them clues such as “I’d like this to be majestic” or “let’s have a strong introduction then drop down a little in verse one, building to the chorus” or I might invite them to add some interest in verse 2.

You are the worship leader but that doesn’t mean that you have to have all the musical ideas. I always encourage the band I’m playing with that (while you’re the one making the decisions) as lead worshippers you’re all leading the people in worship together, it’s a team effort and their musical gifts are making a huge contribution to that.

Thanks, Kate, for the great advice!

Selah (Oh No. I Just Broke a String!)

Here’s a story (and audio clip) about how I broke a string in front of 1,400 people while recording a live CD and used a joke I stole from a worship leader’s Facebook group to salvage what could have been a really awkward moment.

First, the background:

About a year ago I joined a Facebook group called “Liturgy Fellowship“. It’s a group where a bunch of worship leaders who lead in contexts where some sort of liturgical structure is employed and/or valued share ideas, ask questions, and stay in touch. I’m not terribly active in the group, but I do check in from time to time since I’m curious about what other worship leaders are up to and dealing with.

A few weeks ago, a worship leader in the group shared that he had broken a string and used a joke Reggie Kidd had shared that the word “Selah” in the Psalms actually meant “ah shucks, I broke another string”. Reggie Kidd commented that the joke actually came from Eugene Peterson in his book Answering God where he wonders if “Selah” was actually a cuss word David used when he broke a string.

I thought this was really funny. So I made a mental note to tuck this little joke away in case I ever needed it in the future.

So, finally, back to the live recording in front of 1,400 people when I broke a string used the joke.

Last weekend we devoted our worship services to an extended time of worship and celebration of God’s faithfulness and goodness to us, after a year of considerable upheaval and change for our church. We recorded a live album last year before leaving our campus of over 275 years, and this year we wanted to capture our congregation continuing to proclaim God’s faithfulness and the power of the Gospel. (This is why this blog has been so quiet for a while, by the way).

On Thursday, the first day of our rehearsals, I put new strings on my guitar. I used those strings during all-day rehearsals on Friday and Saturday, and a recording on Saturday evening. That’s a lot of play.

So, on Sunday morning before our big combined service with everyone in one room, I wondered whether I should put new strings on. Nah, I thought, I’ll be OK.

Not so much.

We opened with three songs. A call to worship, Matt Redman’s “How Great is Your Faithfulness”, and “Crown Him with Many Crowns”. During the last few measures of “Crown Him…” I felt the dreaded pop. This wasn’t good. We still had about 12 more songs to get through. Oh. No.

Thankfully, after “Crown Him”, our pastor, John Yates, was supposed to come up and welcome people, pray, and lead us the prayer for purity. I thought that if I moved at lightening speed, I could replace the E string in that time. I wish.

So I rushed over to my case. No strings. I rushed back to where I thought they could be. Not there. Asked one of the electric guitarists if he had any. He said no. I run back to my case. I find them. I get back to my guitar just as the prayer for purity is ending and my pastor is walking back to his seat.

Then I remember. The Facebook group. The Selah joke. I can’t quite remember how it’s supposed to go. But I use it. I try to tell it as well as I can. Please work. Help me Lord.

And it works. They laugh. So I ask John to come back up and “share something from his heart” for 2 minutes. He plays along. People laugh. And I change my string faster than I’ve ever changed a string in my entire life.

Then we keep on going and record 12 more songs.

So, thanks to my friends on the Facebook group for sharing that excellent joke. Thank you, Lord, for in your providence pointing me to that joke weeks before I’d need it because you knew I’d need it. And thanks to my congregation for laughing.

I will likely use this joke again. And you should too. It’s a good one.

Here’s how it sounded, from the last sentence or so of the prayer for purity, during which I was running around on stage like a mad man.