Category: Leading

Having a Good Rehearsal… In Your Head

Did you know that you don’t need a room, a stage, equipment, a microphone, an instrument, or any other musicians to have a good rehearsal? Sometimes, all you need is your head.

Not that having an actual rehearsal in a physical space with real live human beings and some sort of instrumentation and equipment set up can’t be helpful. It’s a good idea to have that kind of rehearsal when you can.

But if you’re going to be leading worship for something, you should be running through the songs, and the transitions. You’ll be going over what you’ll play, what you’ll say, and what you’ll pray. You’ll hang out on the parts where you’re not quite sure what to do. You’ll run through different scenarios. You’ll fiddle with different arrangements. All within the confines of your brain.

This way, when you do have an actual rehearsal, and when it comes time for the actual service, your head will (literally and figuratively) be in the game. You’ll be able to lead your fellow musicians and fellow congregants with more ease. You’ll be freer to worship because you won’t be wondering what you’re going to do.

Find some quiet time to mentally prepare and rehearse for leading worship. You might find it helpful to do this while you exercise (for me, it makes running go by more quickly), sit in traffic, drive to church, stare out of a window, sit at a piano or with your guitar, or just lying in bed. Try to focus and run through things from the beginning. Make mental notes or actual notes if you think of anything that you need to remember. Otherwise, just walk through the songs and transitions and get comfortable with where you’re headed.

You’ll be glad you did when real rehearsal or real service starts. All the time you take in advance of leading worship or rehearsals will pay off. Even the time you spend in your head!

Leading Worship with a Heart of Love for the Congregation

Did you know that the microphone you sing into each week amplifies more than just your voice? It also amplifies your heart. You can lead the most well-rehearsed, polished, carefully-selected set of songs in the world, but if you’re leading from a place of frustration or irritation or pushiness, then that’s going to come across loud and strong. This should give all of us worship leaders cause for concern!

But this shouldn’t be a surprise to us. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul said that even if he could “speak in the tongues of men and angels” but didn’t “have love”, then all he would be is a “noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”. He went on to say that even if he was full of all sorts of prophetic powers, but didn’t have love, he would be “nothing”.

That’s some serious stuff. Think about that. Able to speak in tongues of men and angels? That’s pretty impressive. Full of prophetic powers and able to understand all mysteries? I would say that’s awfully impressive too. But Paul warns that all of this impressive stuff is canceled out if love isn’t present.

If a worship leader isn’t leading with a heart of love for the congregation, he runs the risk of coming across like a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. Do you enjoy listening to noisy gongs or clanging cymbals for an extended amount of time? No. And that’s the point.

How can we lead worship with a heart of love for the congregation?

Not by faking it, that’s for sure. Not by trying harder to smile more and be nicer to the cranky person who always finds time to complain to you five minutes before the service starts. And it’s certainly not by trying to muster up more love from within yourself.

The answer is, of course, that we need Jesus if we want to have a heart of love for the congregation. We know he loved the church so much that he “gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:2). His heart is a heart of love. And one of the amazing gifts of the Holy Spirit is that he “pours God’s love into our hearts” (Romans 5:5). We don’t have to muster anything up. We have to run to Jesus each Sunday and ask him to fill us with his Spirit.

Only then will our worship leadership be able to be characterized this way:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Those are the characteristics that will bless your congregation and make you a more effective worship leader. Jesus will put those qualities in you, and those qualities will be amplified by your microphone, not by your own trying harder, but by the power of his Spirit.

Don’t Treat Sunday Morning Like It’s Youth Group

I cut my teeth leading worship at youth group for my church. Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, retreats, and mission trips provided invaluable opportunities to grow. I got to gain experience, make mistakes, learn, receive input, run something resembling a rehearsal, learn how to operate a basic sound system, and enjoy some sweet times of worship.

I think every worship leader should start off this way. Even if they’re out of the youth group age bracket, starting off small, starting off in a casual setting, and starting off with lots of freedom is a great way to build confidence and competence.

But for those who grow up or start off leading worship in a youth group environment, an important shift has to take place at some point. When we begin leading worship on Sunday mornings we can’t treat it like it’s youth group anymore. We can’t be as loose, as cutesy, or as casual anymore. We have to grow up, the way we lead worship has to be more mature, and the way we present ourselves has to be different.

I recently saw a worship leader start off a service this way:

“Good mornin’ everybody! Get on up ya’ll. Hey Willy! Everybody say hey Willy! (Scattered hoots and hollers). If ya’ll don’t know who Willy is just clap anyway. Let me read you this Scripture now…”

Seriously? You’re going to start off a Sunday morning worship service that way?

Call me old-fashioned (and I’ll laugh at you) but I think a teeny bit more decorum is appropriate for the central worship gathering of a congregation. Having everybody clap for Willy is fine for youth group. But on a Sunday morning it smacks of flippancy, and I’m not sure that does a worship leader any favors, especially with the older generations in the room.

My guess is that a good majority of worship leaders who are serving churches right now and leading music of the more contemporary flavor started out doing so in youth group. Many of them serve under pastors or music directors who have helped them mature in how they present themselves. But others haven’t. Maybe they serve under a pastor who’s the same age as them and doesn’t really care if they treat Sunday morning like it’s youth group. Maybe no one has ever mentioned this to them.

Here’s why this matters.

If you treat Sunday morning like it’s youth group, the young and young-at-heart won’t really notice, but the older and old-at-heart will. This will turn them off.

If you treat Sunday morning with a bit more maturity and preparation, no one will complain.

If I were you, I would choose the second option.

Yes, be yourself. Yes, relax. And yes, help people feel comfortable. But don’t take that too far. Don’t be flippant. Don’t be cutesy. Don’t draw attention to your relaxed-ness by being so relaxed that people can’t help but notice how relaxed you are.

You should lead differently depending on a wide range of factors: the venue, the time of day, the average age in the room, the average (can this be measured?) spiritual maturity in the room, the repertoire they’re used to, time constraints, etc. The list is endless.

But the point is that part of growing as a worship leader is growing up and learning to adapt how you lead and how you present yourself in order to serve God’s people more effectively. No two services are the same. No two sessions at a retreat are the same. You need to adapt.

Don’t treat Sunday morning like it’s youth group. Treat it like it’s Sunday morning. Treat youth group like it’s youth group. The two are very different, and so should your approach to them be.

A Song of Trust in God

A few Sundays ago, June 17th, at our 11:00am service I got the sense that as we were singing familiar songs we were at risk of, yet again, doing what congregations can so often do, and that’s rush through, hurry along, and miss opportunities for heart-felt engagement with the living God.

We had a choir of men from our congregation that morning since it was Father’s day. I had chosen several familiar songs since we didn’t have much time to rehearse. But as we got to the end of “Shout to the Lord” I had a strong impression that God wanted us to put the brakes on, to come to a halt, to slow down, and to simply rest.

As a worship leader you can’t always bring things to a place of rest when you want to. We often want more time than we get, and we have to honor the Lord by honoring our pastor and keep things in the confines he’s given us. And we also have to be conscious of the fact that just because we’re a little frustrated with a disengaged congregation it doesn’t mean we should say so!

But on this particular Sunday I felt strongly enough about it to discern it was the Holy Spirit’s leading, so instead of rushing on to the next song, I sang a simple, spontaneous, song of trust in God. Several people mentioned after the service that it was helpful, so for them and for you, I’m posting it below.

So we run to you, O Lord
We hide ourselves in You
We come to you, O Lord
We trust in You

We cast our burdens at your feet
We lay our worries in your hands
We bring our lives to you, our Lord
We give our hearts to you, our King

You are our shelter, You are our help
You are our comfort and our defender
You are our Savior, You are our shield
And you never fail, You never fail

Time after time, day after day
Morning after morning your mercies are new
Lord, we love You. God, we trust You

You are our shelter and our comfort
And our shield

You’ll notice pretty quickly that these aren’t the most impressive words in the world. They didn’t need to be. They served a simple purpose that morning which was to help people settle in to a place of trust in God, instead of rushing through the songs and getting on to whatever was next.

Be sensitive, as you lead worship, to the moments when God wants you to put the brakes on. It’s in those moments that you might end up taking risks — some of which might not work at all — and God reveals himself afresh.

Where is Your Confidence?

Do you feel panicky when you’re not as rehearsed as you’d like to be? Do you feel anxious when you see a really full room looking back at you (or empty chairs)? Does your heart start racing before the service is about to start? If you make a mistake (say something dumb, forgot to take your capo off, mess up a song) do your agonize over it for days and replay it in your head?

If you’ve never experienced these sensations while serving as a worship leader, you’re not normal. But if scenarios above describe a regular experience for you as a worship leader, you’re missing the point. God very kindly allows us to feel all of these things – panicky, anxious, nervous, obsessive and embarrassed – so that we cease to seek our confidence in ourselves.

God is all about revealing the idols of our hearts and mercifully taking them away from us. For worship leaders, a common idol is self-sufficiency and self-centeredness. Feelings of anxiety are good for us because they serve a purpose: they remind us of our utter need for God.

The temptation is to think that if you’re panicky, you should have rehearsed more. Or if you’re anxious, then you’re not a good enough worship leader. Or if your heart is racing, you’re not ready for the big leagues. Or if you made a mistake (by the way, every worship leader in the world makes mistakes every single Sunday) that you ruined the service. None of these are true.

Maybe you should have rehearsed less, not more. Maybe you’re a great worship leader and you just need to relax. Maybe God has prepared you for this exact moment and you need to trust in him. Maybe your mistakes are helpful reminders to you (and your team and your congregation) that you’re a real person.

In all cases, and for all worship leaders, God is consistently reminding us that our confidence can’t be in rehearsals, polish, skill, or experience. All of those things are good things and you should pursue them. But none of them should be where we find our confidence. Our confidence is in God.

This might sound trite to you. It’s not. It’s the first building block of worship leading and if this one gets shaky, then everything else does too.

Allow God to humble you. Allow God to remind you that you need Him. Relax on Sunday morning and don’t stress over all the details and transitions and notes and chords and people and pressures. Fix your eyes on Jesus and you won’t sink. Look away from him and you will. He is our confidence!