Tag: Leading

These last couple of weeks have been really weird for people living in the Washington D.C. area.

First, we got hit with 30 inches of snow on Friday, February 5^th. Everything shut down that day and the weekend immediately after. Most churches in the area canceled their Sunday services (we had one service with about 175 people), and then on Monday, all local schools, county governments, and the Federal government stayed closed.

After beginning to dig out on Tuesday, we got hit with another blizzard on Wednesday that resulted in schools being closed the entire week, local and federal government closing for two more days, awful road conditions, horrible traffic, bored kids, exhausted parents, and everyone’s schedules being thrown completely off track.

So this past Sunday morning as we began singing “Praise the Lord” by Doug Plank and Bob Kauflin, I was aware that many people were coming in from an exhausting and crazy week and a half, and all of us were feeling like it had been a long time since we had felt like things were back to normal.

It seemed like I needed to help people wake up and “shake off” all the weirdness that had come from two back-to-back snow storms. If I just plowed through the songs without addressing in some way the fact that our lives had all been significantly disrupted over the last ten days, I’d be ignoring a giant elephant in the room.

The first thing we did was start the opening song off in a way designed to help people join in. Instead of hitting them with a wall of sound, we took the first verse and chorus with just a few instruments and voices and then gradually ramped up.

Secondly, I tried to model an enthusiasm and eagerness in my singing and expressiveness. If I had come across as blizzard-beaten or feeling weird, that would have spread into the room.

Thirdly, I took a minute in the middle of the song to welcome people, explain why we were starting off in an upbeat way, invite them to clap with us, and encourage them to “shake off” the snow, the cold, the horrible traffic, and the historically bad commute from the previous Friday morning. It wasn’t the most eloquent thing I’ve ever said, but it seemed to help people relax.

You can listen to how it sounded here:

A few caveats:
– I don’t do this kind of thing every Sunday. If I did, it would get old. Quickly.
– I try to be gentle and confident. I don’t want to boss people around, but I also don’t want to come across as timid.
– I don’t want to be a comedian, but I want to have a tone of good humor in my voice
– My goal isn’t to whip people up into a frenzy, but to break the ice, and help people feel comfortable.
– No one likes waking up with cold water on their face.

If you’re leading worship and you get the feeling that people are a bit sleepy, I’m not suggesting that interrupting the song and telling people to “shake” it off is how you should always handle it. Besides, what does it mean to “shake” something off?

Usually, the best thing to do is just be patient, keep faithfully pointing people to the glory of God, and learn what you can from that experience to show you if there’s something different you can do. It’s not always all that complicated.

But every once in a while, if you do it sparingly and lovingly, just a simple and friendly encouragement can help.

I’m always a bit confused when, having just been talking to a worship leader with a normal voice and normal word pronunciation, he proceeds to lead worship and sing with a completely different voice and with strange pronunciation. What just happened? Is that the same person I was just talking to? Is he trying to be cool? Does he have a speech impediment that you can only hear when he sings or prays?

Where we might say “open the eyes of my heart, Lord”, he says: “ohhhpin de ahs of my hearrrt, Lird” (with lots of vibrato for special effect).

Or instead of “better is one day in Your courts” it becomes “bedda is a one deh in yir kirts”.

In some cases when he prays he might alternate between a ultra-breathy and halting whisper or a Shakespearean/Charlton Heston-esque bravado.

I’m not talking about when people with different accents pronounce words differently than my American english (i.e. Kristyn Getty pronouncing “power” as “par” in her Irish accent). I’m talking about when someone takes on a completely different and unnatural voice when a microphone is placed in front of their face.

Some worship leaders don’t realize they’ve developed a “worship leader voice”. It’s just a bad habit they’ve picked up over time and no one has had the boldness to break it to them. Maybe you’re this kind of worship leader. Or maybe you need to break the news to someone who is!

Other worship leaders do it on purpose – thinking that it’s how a lead singer is supposed to sound, it makes them come across as more emotional, or that different pronunciation rules apply when you sing versus when you talk. If you’re this kind of worship leader, may I plead with you to consider leading worship with your normal voice?

When you take on a different identity when you lead worship (which is what I would argue is going on when you change how you talk or pronounce words when you’ve got a microphone in front of you), you are making yourself a much larger presence in the room than you need to be. Some people might not notice what you’re doing – but a lot of people will. And to those people, they will spend half (at least) of the service trying to figure out what’s bothering them, realizing it’s you, and then trying to get past it.

You’re also sending the signal, whether you intend to or not, that you’re up front to perform. Why else would you be pretending that you talk or sing a certain way when in reality you don’t? It gives the impression that there is an aspect of your singing or praying which is artificial or contrived.

Worship leaders should be seeking to be as minimal a “presence” in the room as possible. Not distracting people with a sudden linguistic transformation is one way to do that.

Just be yourself when you lead worship. Don’t take on a different persona or change how you talk or pronounce words with mangled vowels or drawn-out “r’s”. Be the same person and use the same voice when you’re on stage and off. And watch the vibrato.

Last night I had the joy of leading the music for our men’s ministry meeting. This happens once a month in our church’s fellowship hall, and includes some good food (Italian subs!), some announcements, a time of singing, teaching, prayer ministry, and fellowship.

Last night we sang “Blessed Be Your Name”, “It is Well with My Soul”, read Psalm 130:1-6 together, and then sang “Everlasting God” and “Be Thou My Vision”. I led from guitar and had a piano player from the worship team lead with me. There was a tangible sense of the Holy Spirit being at work as we sang, and after the last song we just spent several minutes being still before the Lord together.

Before we went into those few minutes of stillness, a few moments after “Be Thou My Vision” ended, I just said something very simple like “what we’re doing right now is just leaving some space for God to speak to each one of us individually. This is a chance for us either to listen to him speaking to us, or to articulate our own words of prayer or praise to God. Let’s wait on the Lord together and commune with him.”

It took about 15 seconds to say all of that. It wasn’t the most articulate explanation in the world, and for some men there, it might not have been totally necessary. But once in a while it can be helpful to simply explain what’s going on.

Try to be aware, as you lead worship, of points during corporate worship that might need some explanation. Pick one area every once in a while, and explain “here’s what is happening right now”.

Worship leaders can wrongly assume that, because they know what’s happening, everyone else does too. While we don’t need to go overboard and explain every little thing every single time we lead  – (and oftentimes the best thing we can do is just be quiet!)  – if we are to be effective worship “leaders”, we need to make it as easy as possible for people to follow along.