Sunday mornings – Page 4 – Worthily Magnify

Handling Awkward Moments: Leading Songs After a Lousy Teaching

word I am incredibly grateful to serve in a church where, week after week, God’s word is preached strongly by those who tremble at it, and where the teachings are consistently biblically sound, convicting, and Holy Spirit-empowered. In this environment, the songs I’m choosing and leading are helping people hear and respond to what God is saying through his Word and by His Spirit.

In contrast, many worship leaders serve in churches where the teaching is weak and ineffective, or worse, heretical and unbiblical.

What’s a worship leader to do in that environment?

I recall one occasion when I was asked to lead worship for an event held somewhere away from my church. I felt I knew enough about who was hosting the event to feel comfortable saying yes, so I did. I prayerfully chose the songs, prepared for the event as well as I could, prayed a lot, and rehearsed with the worship team. The event finally arrived, the opening time of singing went really well, and then the teaching came. It went on for over an hour, and, as my British father-in-law so kindly described it, it was “diffuse”. I might describe it as “lousy”.

Leading songs after a lousy teaching can be awkward. Here are some ideas on how a worship leader can handle it, particularly if it’s unexpected.

Pray
If you’re listening to the teaching and beginning to realize it’s going off-track, pray and ask God for wisdom about what to do. Especially if your songs come immediately after the “teaching”, how you respond will be critical.

Ask for advice
If you’re near anyone you know you can respect as someone who loves God and his Word, just ask them: “what do I do?” I did this at the event I mentioned above, and the advice I received was the way God chose to answer my prayer for wisdom.

Be prepared to call an audible
In American football, the quarterback will call “an audible” (a last-second switch to a new play) when he sees that the play he had originally chosen just won’t stand up against the defense’s formation.

If you’re leading songs after a lousy (i.e. weak or heretical) teaching, you’ll most likely need to call an audible. You’ll need to communicate this to your musicians, the lyrics operator (if you’re projecting them), and the congregation (more on that later).

Proclaim Truth
You have an opportunity to infuse the truth of God’s word into a service in which it’s lacking. You do not want to do this in an arrogant and preachy way, but in a humble and gentle way. I would gravitate towards songs that preach the Gospel. Some ideas are “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand”, “In Christ Alone”, or “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”. Anything that presents the Gospel clearly would be one of my first choices.

Hopefully, by responding to a lousy teaching with Christ-centered, God-glorifying songs, I can help people walk away from the service with at least some measure of truth being planted in their hearts.

Do it pastorally
When I stepped onto the platform after the “diffuse” teaching I mentioned, I looked out on a congregation that looked really confused. It would have been the worst idea in the world to say what I was thinking, which was: “how in the world did (so-and-so) let that just happen?” Instead, I said something like: “We’re going to spend some time now responding to God by singing to Him, and celebrating what he’s done for us in Christ. Our ‘hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness’, so let’s stand and proclaim that together.”

It’s easy to call this kind of audible when you’re projecting lyrics and you have musicians who are comfortable being spontaneous. If you don’t have either of those things, you can still infuse God’s truth into the service by turning to a different hymn in the hymnal (just call out the page number), singing a song of response all by yourself, encouraging them to a simple (but truth-filled) song sing from memory, reading from scripture, repeating a good song from earlier in the service, or just continuing on with what you’ve planned.

(If you serve in a church where this is a weekly occurrence – not just once in a blue moon like it is for me – plan ahead and choose music that will subtly yet clearly, correct error in the teaching. Also, check out this clip of John Piper answering a worship pastor’s question along these same lines.)

Ten Questions for My Worship Team – Pt. 2

growth2 Yesterday I shared the first five questions I asked the worship team at my church in order to challenge all of us to continue growing, stay focused on God’s glory, and not wind up an unhealthy and dry worship team one year from now.

Here are the last five questions I asked:

Am I a foot trying to be a hand?
“For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body” (1 Corinthians 12).

Paul is making the point that every member of the body is equally a part of the body. No part is more or less important than another. But, every member has a different role.

This worship team will get into trouble if we start wanting to play different roles than God has assigned. Play your role as healthily as possible and rejoice at how God has arranged the other members of the body. A healthy body rejoices in the varieties of gifts displayed, all empowered by the “same Spirit”.

Am I more eager to play music than I am to lead the congregation?
In order for us to be a team of worship leaders, and not just musical back-up, we have to share the same passions and priorities when we gather together. I suggest this order:

(1)   God’s glory
(2)   The congregation
(3)   Our skill

When our skill helps the congregation encounter God’s glory, we are an effective worship team. It’s OK to be eager to play music – but make sure your priorities are straight.

Am I at a loss for words when I’m asked to pray before a service begins?
I long for our times of prayer before and after rehearsals and services to be characterized by specific and heartfelt participation by the whole team – not just one or two people. If we are not able to articulate prayer for God’s guidance and anointing, it may be an indicator that we are not aware we need it. These prayers don’t need to be eloquent or verbose. If you’re not comfortable praying out loud, ask God for boldness. No one is forced to pray. Not everyone has to pray. But this is area in which we can and need to grow.

Has my skill improved at all in the last six weeks?
This is an easy one to answer. If your skill as a worship leader and musician doesn’t improve, the worship team won’t improve. Be a good steward of the gifts God has given you and never settle for getting stuck.

Am I relying on my own talent or on the power of the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is passionate about revealing the glory of Jesus Christ. If we’re filled with and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit, this will become our passion too. A lack of passion about God’s glory reveals a lack of reliance on the Holy Spirit. Every day, every rehearsal, and every service, we need the Holy Spirit to help us point the congregation to the glory of God. Without the Holy Spirit, our natural and sinful inclination will be to point the congregation to our talent. Not only will we become arrogant, but the worship team will become proud, and our services will become dry. Friends, “…be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

It’s important for anyone in ministry to regularly step back for a period of honest and prayerful evaluation. These questions are not exhaustive, and may not be applicable to every worship team at every church. But there are some good questions here for our church and our worship team as we seek to be a healthy body that exists to serve the congregation by leading them in “worthily magnifying” our glorious God.

“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”
(Psalm 145:3)

Who’s In Control Here?

Some Sundays just really work. The songs you choose are just right, the band plays well, the sound system sounds really good, you can hear each other, the congregation is engaged and enthusiastic, there is a sense of the Holy Spirit being at work, people are encountering the glory of God, and you’re actually enjoying yourself.

awesome Some Sundays just don’t seem to work at all. The songs fall flat, it would be a stretch to call the musicians a “band”, the sound system feeds back every three minutes, you can’t hear yourself, the congregation resembles a room full of wax figures, it feels dry to you, people are distracted, and you’d rather be getting a root canal.

Most Sundays, though, are somewhere in between. They’re neither awesome nor awful, they just feel kind of average. Some songs work while some songs don’t, the band plays well enough to get by without any train wrecks, sound is coming out of the speakers, you can sort of hear yourself, some people in the congregation seem to be engaged while others look bored out of their minds, you’re trying to discern how the Holy Spirit is at work, and you’re not quite sure what to think when you get in your car to drive home. You get an email from someone who just loved it – and another email from someone who hated it. Lovely.

Worship leaders get into trouble when they expect every service to resemble the upper room at Pentecost. Three things end up happening. First, they try to do what worked last time. Second, if it doesn’t work, they force it to. And third, they get frustrated with the congregation for not responding like they think they should.

This worship leader is the boss, and when things don’t happen like he or she says they should happen, it’s someone’s fault. If only the band had played this way, if only this song had been sung, if only there were more people, if only the Pastor did this, if only people got their act together, and if only God would do what I want him to do.

And this worship leader ends up getting burned out after a couple of years (if not earlier), and either quits or goes to another church expecting it to be better there. It’s not.

It is disappointing to put a lot of work into a service, only to have it fall flat. We wonder what we could have done differently, what went wrong, and whether next week will be any better.

But the sooner we realize that we are not in control, the better off we’ll be.

Yes, our planning, preparation, and prayer are all critically important. But we’re delusional if we think that any of them qualify us to be the ones who decide how and when God is at work. We’ll either manufacture or quench a genuine move of the Holy Spirit, imposing our demand for an “awesome” service onto the congregation. It would be good for us to ask in these situations, “who do we think we are?”

God asked Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements – surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7) He goes on. And on. Job answers in chapter 42: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know…”

As I walk away from a service that felt average, or really bad, wondering why it didn’t seem to go as well as a previous week, I hear God whisper in my ear: “where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”

To say that I cannot contend with the sovereignty of God is the understatement of the century. But it’s true. Who do I think I am – that I would be so powerful as to control when and how God moves, or when and how people encounter Him?

Have you ever wondered why, on the Sundays when you’re the most prepared, things seem to fall flat, while oftentimes on the Sundays you’re the least prepared things seem to go really well? Perhaps it’s because our preparation can lead to an arrogance which has us believe that we’re the ones in control.

If I’m in control of a service – then step back – it’s going to be really bad.

If God’s in control of a service – then whether or not we can see it with our eyes – it’s going to be awesome.

We cannot see or even comprehend how God is at work when we gather together. All we can do is be faithful – in our preparation and leadership – and beg him to use us for his purposes. Then, and only then, will we know the joy of leading people in worshipping God in song, in the freedom that “(God) can do all things, and no purpose of (his) can be thwarted”.

Top Ten Ways to Make Your Congregation Stop Singing

confusion Do you think the Psalmist was trying to make a point when he said “sing praises to our God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!”? Psalm 47:1

That’s just one of over 500 references in scripture to singing. Throughout the bible and throughout history, God’s people have been a singing people. God created us, even commanded us, to sing to him. We’ll sing to him forever in heaven. What a joy and humbling honor it is to sing to him here on earth, and even more so to lead people in magnifying his greatness through song.

Worship leaders, whether full or part-time, volunteer or paid, experienced or inexperienced, should place as one their top goals, the full and whole-hearted engagement of the whole congregation in singing. If people aren’t singing, there’s a problem. They’re missing out on one of the greatest joys of being a Christian, and I could do a better job of leading them.

Here are some ways you might cause your congregation to stop singing.

Sing melodies that are impossible to learn
People will just give up and wait for the next song to start, hoping that maybe they’ll know that one. While we don’t want to sing songs that are boring and predictable, we also don’t want to sing songs that are overly complicated, intentionally difficult, and just plain hard to sing.

Sing notes that are impossible to hit
I try to follow the “C to shining C” rule. I can dip down to an A from time to time, but not hang out that low. I can hit a D or an E, but not hang out up there either. If the song is too low and everyone is mumbling, move it up a few steps. If the song is too high, transpose it down.

Singing notes that are too high, and especially “hanging out” on those notes, can cause physical discomfort, be unreachable for most people, and make people just want to take a break and not sing.

Sing words that are impossible to understand
If people are confused by what they’re singing, they might be tempted to just drop out. If I’m in a service and the worship leader uses a song in which the meaning of the lyrics is unclear, I’ll have a hard time singing them. Watch out for lyrics that are wide open to interpretation, in other languages, are “churchy”, or no longer part of people’s vocabulary.

Sing the same thing over and over and over and over
Repeating a chorus eighteen times will not do any of the following things: (1) make people worship, (2) make God’s presence more tangible, (3) make people sing more intentionally, or (4) win you any fans. Over-repeating a line or a section of a song could do just the opposite: (1) wear people out, (2) move the focus onto the song, (3) cause people to sing mindlessly, and (4) annoy them.

Sing only your own songs
You might have a passion for writing congregational worship songs, and maybe even a gifting for it, but that doesn’t mean you should introduce every single one of them to your church, and only sing other people’s songs when you’ve run out of yours. This will alienate visitors and newcomers, ignore a vast body of good, vetted, and known songs, and keep people from singing along.

Sing too quietly
If they can’t hear you, if they don’t know what they’re supposed to sing, if all they can hear are the instruments, and if the band is so loud is that they can’t hear themselves, they’ll probably stop singing.

Sing too loudly
If they get the impression that they’re at a concert and you’re the performer, and that they’re there to listen to you and you’re there to put on a show, they’ll usually sit back and let you have the stage.

Sing melody and harmony and everything in between
If you’re the worship leader – sing the melody. The congregation is following you and looking to you to provide clear and easy-to-follow leadership. If you jump back-and-forth between melody, harmony, and your own embellishments, you’ll confuse the congregation and leave them just listening to you.

Sing bad theology
Singing songs with weak and/or bad theology will cause two things to happen at once: First, you will no longer be feeding people with the truth of God’s word, but misleading them with wrong doctrine that happens to rhyme. Those in the room who are not discerning enough to know this will keep singing and be subtly deceived. Secondly, those in the room who are discerning enough to know that what’s being sung is not truth will stop singing and might not come back the following week. I can’t blame them.

Sing too many songs
This is an oversimplification, but I’ll share it because I keep it in the back of my mind: It’s better to leave people wanting more than leave them wanting you to stop.

It’s good to leave people longing to keep singing, excited to sing the songs when they get home, and expectant for the time of singing next week. It’s not good to sing so many songs that people are ready to stop, ready to go to lunch, and dreading how long the time of singing will go the following week.

There are times to stretch people and have extended times of corporate worship. Pray that God would give you wisdom to discern when to keep going, and when to stop.

Psalm 147 begins “Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.”

Let’s do all we can do, and remove whatever distractions we can, so that the whole congregation can sing praises to our worthy God.

What They See is What You’ll Get

Congregation They just stand there looking disinterested, disengaged, and unaffected by what they’re singing. Their bodies are stiff and their faces are stoic, betraying no emotion, no joy, and no life. Their eyes are glued to the lyrics in front of them as if they’re in a trance. The men don’t even sing. They all look uncomfortable. They look like they would rather be somewhere else. To call them “reserved” would be an understatement. They suck the energy out of the room.

And they call themselves the worship team!

It’s an interesting phenomenon for worship leaders to grab hold of: what they see is what you get.

Disinterested worship team = disinterested congregation.

Male instrumentalists not singing = men in the congregation not singing.

Zero expressiveness on the platform = zero expressiveness in the pews.

Worship leaders shouldn’t be surprised to look out and see a disinterested congregation if that’s what’s being modeled for them.

I am increasingly persuaded that this is the case: a congregation will not go beyond what they see modeled from up front.

A few months ago, I led worship for an evening session of the Anglican Church in North America’s inaugural assembly. To say that it was a challenging setting in which to lead would be an incredible understatement. We were in a crowded tent with low ceilings in the middle of summer in Texas. Five industrial-sized air conditioners lined the entire back wall going at full-blast (imagine the noise). The screens which were there to project the lyrics could hardly be seen. For many of the attendees this would be the first time they had ever heard a worship team or sung anything outside of a hymnal. The sight of drums on the platform could cause some to go into convulsions. The sight of an electric guitar could cause them to fall into a coma. During our sound-check people were plugging the ears and telling the sound engineers to “turn it down!” We had zero rehearsal. I had never played with half of the worship team before.

This was going to be interesting.

7:00pm rolled around and I welcomed the people – trying to read their faces and gauge whether or not they would even sing a single word once the songs started. We stood to sing and started off with Chris Tomlin’s “Holy is the Lord” – hoping that it would be a “new” song that most people would know.

The song began “We stand and lift our hands for the joy of the Lord is our strength.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw my electric guitarist and bass guitarist with their hands lifted in worship, singing to the Lord. Then I looked out at this group of Anglicans, who, five minutes earlier had been plugging their ears and looking a bit uncomfortable. I saw them, hundreds of them, with their hands lifted in worship, singing at the top of their lungs.

What they saw on the platform – I saw replicated in the congregation.

You can stand in the back of a room during a worship service and see this phenomenon displayed. Look at the worship team and then look at the congregation. They match!

A lot of instrumentalists and singers on worship teams don’t consider themselves “worship leaders”. They see that as the job of one person, and their job is to provide musical back-up to that person as he or she “leads worship”. That mindset leads to worship teams who just stand on a platform, with their faces buried in their music, offering no real leadership to the congregation. My goal is to cultivate members of the worship team who see their role as being a worship leader alongside me. Their musical responsibility is secondary to their primary responsibility of leading the congregation in encountering the greatness of God. When this priority is made clear, the dynamic on your worship team and in your services will change.

Look in the mirror the next time you lead worship. What do you see?