Just Relax

dropIt’s 10:15am and people are milling around before the service starts at 10:30. You’re the worship leader.

The songs are picked and rehearsed, the microphone and guitar amp are set up, the projector is connected to the laptop, the PowerPoint slides are ready to go, and you’re starting to feel really nervous. You have that feeling in your stomach like you’re on a roller coaster that has reached its peak and is about to drop you straight down 200 feet.

There’s an old man sitting in the third row with his arms folded and you’re afraid he’s going to hate all the songs you chose. There are 200 chairs set out, but only 25 people have showed up so far. No one is talking. It’s now 10:20 and your hands are starting to sweat. This whole leading worship thing sounded like a good idea a few hours ago, but now you’d rather be sitting on your couch at home.

On the worship CD the crowd screamed and cheered, but you’d be shocked if this crowd even sang along. At the worship concert the musicians rocked and rolled but you’d be grateful if your pianist even played the right notes (she’s 73 years old and prefers Bill Gaither music). Your “lighting system”? Fluorescents with a noisy hum. Your sound system? A couple of old microphones, a 2 channel mixer, and speakers built in to the ceiling. Your in-ear-monitor system? You wish. Your “ambience”? Cinder-block white walls and dark brown carpet.

Now it’s 10:29. Now there are 33 people in the room. Now you’re really really nervous.

Leading worship at your local church is not as glamorous as it looks at the worship conferences and concerts, and it doesn’t sound like the worship recordings by Tim Hughes or Matt Redman. When this reality hits you five minutes before the service starts, it’s easy to become nervous, fearful, and discouraged. You end up rushing through the songs, stumbling over prayers and transitions, shutting your eyes tightly, breathing a huge sigh of relief when it’s all over, and never wanting to do it again.

A few words of encouragement for those of us who lead worship in the real world.

First, relax. Your only job is to be faithful.
Hundreds of concerns, doubts, and questions can flood your head before you step up to lead worship, and when you get in your car to drive home. Some of them are valid, most of them are not. The one question that matters most is “was I faithful?”. Was I faithful in prayerfully trying my best to help these people encounter God in song? Was I faithful in making the Glory of God in Christ central? This focus on what matters will give you one of the most important qualities of an effective worship leader: a humble confidence.

Ignore the silly concerns that get you nervous and panicked like “will the old guy on the third row hate these songs?” or “this song sounds so much better on the CD” or “I’m not a very good guitar player” or “no one is lifting their hands” or “I wish I was at a different church”. Focus on being faithful. If you are, it won’t matter if you’re leading 33 people or 3,000, if everyone sings or if everyone stares at you, or if you “feel” good about the service or not.

Secondly, relax. Your only boast is in the cross.
Paul writes in Galatians 6:14 “…far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

If you don’t have things like expensive sound systems, professional musicians, lighting, staging, new instruments, totally engaged congregation members, packed-out rooms, video screens, in-ear monitors, tons of experience, and multiple services, be grateful. While none of those things are inherently sinful, they can become major distractions and sources of pride. And contrary to popular belief, you don’t “need” any of them in order to effectively lead people in worship.

If you’re nervous before you lead worship because you feel inadequate and small, you’re in a good position. You are inadequate and you are small! But don’t allow this realization to be a source of nervousness for you – let it become a constant reminder that your only boast is in the cross. Jesus has covered your inadequacies and sinfulness with his blood, making it possible for you to approach the throne of grace not with nervousness, but with confidence. Effective worship leaders are the ones who boast only in the cross.

And thirdly, relax. You’re only leading one service.
Think back to Sunday, July 27th, 1997. Did you go to church that day? If so, do you remember who preached? What was the song list? Did the guitarist play the right arpeggio on top of verse two? Did the drummer remember to play the open hi-hat instead of the ride cymbal on the last chorus? Did the worship leader fumble over his prayer after the opening song?

You can’t remember?

Exactly.

Don’t allow yourself to feel overwhelmed before you lead worship. Take a deep breath and remember that it’s just one service. There will be more. Many more. You might make mistakes, there might not be very many people there, and you might be inexperienced. But there will be a service next week, and the week after that. The weeks will turn to months, and the months to years. You’ll get more experience. You’ll get more comfortable with being in front. No one particular service, in the grand scheme of eternity, is critical enough to the souls of whoever will attend, for you to feel sick over. Effective worship leaders have long-term perspective and patience.

So, just relax the next time you get ready to lead worship. Pray and prepare as much as you can, show up early, and then when it’s time to start, be faithful and trust that the Holy Spirit will do his work. He will!

Top Ten Ways to Make Your Congregation Stop Singing

confusionDo 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.

Projecting Excellence: STOP SCREAMING!

I recently read a story about a woman in New Zealand who was fired from her job as accountant with no warning. Her offense? Sending confrontational emails. Confrontational in what way? “…Words in red, in bold, and in capital letters.”

Capital letters? CAPITAL LETTERS?

You may not be aware that capital letters, or “all caps”, is the universal way to scream and shout at people in print, over email, or on the internet. Want to get a point across? USE ALL CAPS! Want to be courteous and professional? Don’t use all caps.

Needless to say, it’s probably not a good idea to scream at your congregation when projecting lyrics. Check out this sample of an all-caps first verse of “How Great is Our God.”

How Great is Our God UPPER case

A few things stand out to me:

  • Yes, it does seem like someone is screaming
  • The words take up a lot of space on the screen
  • Reading the lines seems like hard work

Now check out the same verse in the standard mixed-case (upper and lower).

How Great is Our God lower case

  • It doesn’t seem like anyone is screaming at me
  • The words don’t take up as much space
  • It feels more natural to read the lines

You might think all caps looks kind of cool and different. Unfortunately, most people find it really annoying and distracting. Mind your manners on this one and remove that potential distraction while you’re at it.

What Would I Say If This Guy Auditioned For The Worship Team?

I recently came across this video of a guy who claims to be able to sing “five octaves on the piano”. See for yourself.

I’ve auditioned some people who are clearly musically gifted and called to serve the church on the worship team, some whose giftedness and calling to serve is less clear, and from time to time people (like the guy in the video) who are clearly not gifted, not called to serve on a worship team, and completely oblivious. Those auditions are always a challenge.

What would I say if this guy auditioned for the worship team?

First, I’d lay a foundation before I ever heard him sing a note (or something resembling a note). It’s important that before anyone sings or plays an instrument in an audition that they understand they’re not “trying out” for a band – they’re entering into a discernment process regarding the gifts that God has given them. I do this by pointing people to Paul’s picture of “one body with many members” in 1 Corinthians 12. Every “member” of the body has a specific role and function. God arranges the parts of the body and decides who gets certain varieties of gifts. When someone auditions for the worship team, my job is to help them discern where their specific gift might be best employed.

After that foundation had been laid – the last thing I would say before hearing them sing or play would be something like: “Now, because of that, I want you to know that I’m going to be honest with you. I’m here to help you discern what gifts God has given you to serve the church. Do I have your permission to be honest with you?”

If this guy had agreed to all of the above, here is how I would handle it:

– Thank him
I need to recognize and express my thankfulness for this guy giving up part of his day, being vulnerable enough to do this, and for sharing his “gift” with me.

– Prepare him
Before giving my honest assessment of his giftedness, I’d briefly remind him that (a) this isn’t about his worth as a person, (b) this is about whether or not God has gifted him musically to serve the body of Christ on the worship team, and (c) I owe it to him to be honest with him.

– Be honest with him
I would follow the K.I.S.S. rule here (keep it simple, stupid). There is no need for me to go on and on and pile on my honest assessment of his gifting. Briefly, gently, and simply, I would say something like: “My impression is that your strongest gifting is not in the area of singing. You had a difficult time matching pitch, and you struggled to stay in key. I know this might be a bit difficult to hear, but I need to be honest with you and tell you that, in my view, serving on the worship team isn’t the best match for your gifts.” That’s enough of that.

– Affirm him
Immediately after this honest assessment of his gifting, I would attempt to honestly and genuinely affirm what gifts I might have seen on display. Even if, in our short time together, I had only noticed one thing I could possibly affirm, I would point out that one thing. This isn’t a sneaky trick intended to make him forget what I had just said, but a heartfelt attempt at reminding him that just because he’s not gifted in one way doesn’t mean he’s not gifted in others.

– Talk with him
The last thing I would do is ask him what other ways he could imagine serving the church. Get him thinking and talking about what other gifts he might have and try to connect him with other opportunities for him to serve the body.

– Pray for him
I would ask “before you go home, do you mind if I pray for you?” I’d seek to thank God for giving me these 10 minutes with this guy, ask God to show us both some ways the guy could serve, and ask God to bless him. It’s important that this guy leaves the audition with a fresh reminder that God has indeed given him certain gifts.

No worship leader enjoys having to tell someone that they aren’t gifted musically. It can be awkward, a bit tense, and unpleasant if the person responds immaturely. But through your faithful and loving care for your congregation – even those who think they can sing five octaves on a piano – God will use you for his glory.  

Lord, What Songs Do Want Us To Sing To You This Weekend?

BlankPaperIt’s Monday afternoon. Two weekend services are completed, rehearsals done, chord charts recycled, PowerPoint presentations moved into the archive folder, song list a thing of the past, and the clock ticking until the time when the next service starts this Saturday. I’ve got to do it all over again.

What songs, what key, what order, what theme, how to transition, what to say, what to repeat, what song to introduce, what new song to reinforce, what arrangement to use, how to begin the service, how to respond to the sermon, is the band able to play these songs well, is there a hymn that I’m forgetting about that could work, have we done this song too many times, does anyone besides me find this song helpful, are these songs doctrinally sound, how might the Holy Spirit want to move through the singing of these songs? So many questions. Every week.

Early on in our marriage, I asked Catherine: “what goes through your mind at night when you’re trying to fall asleep?” She said something like: “probably our marriage and how we’re doing with each other. How about you?” I said, sheepishly: “the song list”.

Every week I feel a burden to choose songs wisely, carefully, and sensitively. I’m learning how to relax and not think about it all the time, but it’s certainly one of the responsibilities I take most seriously. The songs I choose this week will be sung by about 1,000 people this weekend, will shape their theology, will stick with them long after they’ve gone home, and will consume about half of the meeting.

So every Monday, with a blank screen in front of me, I pray: “Lord, what songs do you want us to sing to you this weekend?” I’ll spend a few hours each day from now until this Thursday (when I finalize the list) asking him to help me discern his leading as I look through a list of a couple hundred songs. This question, a simple prayer, is a good way to start.

There are a few other questions I find helpful to ask the Lord each week as I seek to choose the songs we’ll be singing corporately.

What will you be saying through your Word?
This weekend, October 17th and 18th, the assigned readings are Ephesians 3:1-13, and John 5:1-9, with the Ephesians reading being the sermon text. The sermon title is “Grace and Power” and John Yates is preaching. Now that I know this information, it’s my responsibility to read through these passages carefully, talk with John either in person or via email, and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help, so that I have an idea of what God might say through his Word preached and read. Once I have that – it will help me know what direction the songs should go, particularly following the sermon.

What have you been saying these last few weeks?
Since September 13th, our weekend sermons have been walking through the book of Ephesians. Last week (yesterday), we looked at Ephesians 2:11-22, and remembered how God, through Christ, has made us his own and sealed us with his Spirit. I might seek to reemphasize that amazing truth this coming Sunday as we gather to sing.

What songs do I seem to be gravitating towards?
When I’m gravitating towards certain songs, it may be because I just happen to like those songs, but it may also be because God is directing me towards them. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to put the right songs on your heart.

How can I best serve the congregation?
I want to choose specific songs for each specific group of people at each specific service. To help me do that, it’s a good idea to take into account as much information as I possibly can that will help me choose wisely.

There is no such thing as a perfect song list. There will always a song that might have worked better in a particular slot. But spending time prayerfully seeking God’s guidance will make the difference between a random batch of songs and a Holy Spirit-inspired song list.