This may seem out of the blue for some of you who follow me and read my content about speaking, but I have worked with singers, choirs and worship teams for over 20 years, and the topic of being an effective worship leader/team is near and dear to my heart and something I feel like I can speak about and add a bit of value to. After all, a vocalpreneur is not only someone who speaks for a living, but one who sings for a living as well.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to not only gain insight to worship teams through the lens of the congregation, but also from the perspective of fellow team member, and I have some thoughts I’d love to share. I suppose I haven’t shared these views openly over the years, because I was entrenched within a congregation and felt that they wouldn’t be received well or they would be taken as a personal attack. However, now I’m in the great disposition of having just moved and not a current member of a church congregation, but visiting various churches and witnessing the EXACT SAME issues I’ve been privy to over a long career of church attendance and music ministry — both professionally and as a lay church member.
Before I dig in, I want to state, first and foremost, that this comes from a place of love and a humble realization that I have not worn and lived in the shoes of a worship leader. I have a great deal of respect for what they do and how much pressure is put on them by 1. the congregation and 2. the leaders of the church to do their job well. Not only that, but many times, if not most of the time, worship leaders wear many hats and are also in charge of other responsibilities and roles within a church that prevent them from doing any one role to the fullest. This is definitely the case in newer churches and churches that are running on a lean staff where each person has many many responsibilites and roles within a role.
That said, I wanted to share some thoughts I have had throughout the years that might help worship leaders and their teams, but also work to perhaps even equip people within a congregation to spot issues that may not be working and have more of a leg to stand on when they go to speak to leadership about them. And notice I said “speak” and not complain. I believe we can productively address issues without being a Karen, and I want you, the reader of this post, to think very carefully about how you want to present your challenges with the current situation in a way that is humble and results-driven rather than making assumptions and portraying any thoughts you may have as simple and easy to resolve. Because none of them are.
Without further adieu, here is a condensed list of best practices for the worship leader/team I’ve had on my heart to share, and I hope and pray they are received as I mean them: in love and utmost respect.
- INCLUDE THE CONGREGATION: I can’t express this enough. Far too many times, as I go and visit different churches, I see the worship team up there on stage doing their thing and I see the congregation standing and observing like it’s a rock concert. They aren’t participants. They aren’t worshipping. They are merely observing others worship – or appear to. This drives me UP A WALL, not only as a Christian who wants to be an active participant in worship, but also as a fellow singer. When I’m not included in worship, I look at my family and we get up and leave. Period. There is no excuse for this. And it can be remedied fairly easily. (see below)
- HIRE A 3RD PARTY TO HEAR YOU: All too often, the sound man is a volunteer who knows nothing about balance or one of the team members goes out into the audience to give feedback. The problem with either of these methods of feedback is they are either uninformed or biased. The unpaid “sound guy” might think it’s great compared to live venue concerts he enjoys going to or the worship team member might think it sounds great because it’s what she’s used to hearing. However, a hired 3rd party can have tough conversations and address imbalances in instruments, out of tuned voices and room acoustics. They can also be an invaluable, unbiased resource to help mitigate potential issues before they spiral out of control. And they will if not addressed.
- STOP INTRODUCING SO MANY NEW SONGS!! Just because you might be tired of a song as a worship team doesn’t mean your audience is. And I’d be willing to bet that JUST when you start feeling like a song is overdone, the congregation is just starting to catch on and feel at ease with it. I’m not saying don’t ever introduce new songs, but sprinkle them in gradually, repetitively over a few weeks or months. Don’t just spring a whole new set on a congregation and expect them to love the new songs as much as you do! We (the congregation) need familiarity so we can worship without having to think about the words and the melody. If you have some great songs in your set, rotate them out, and allow for memorization and meditation on them.
- STOP WITH THE ONE MAN/ONE WOMAN SHOW: I’ve never understood this phenomenon of the “one man show” — especially with regard to church and worship. We are all worshipping together as a congregation. You are just leading us to do that in harmony and rhythm with one another. Your responsibility should consist of pointing us upward — not to you. The one man show is overdone and it not only causes the audience to focus on you instead of the Holy Spirit, but it’s also a lot of pressure and responsibility — especially when you’d like to step away for a week or two and may need someone else to fill your shoes. Trust me when I say you do not want to become indispensable or irreplaceable. Have the whole team be on stage or better, disperse yourselves throughout the congregation in vertical worship. And if you must be center stage, you have to do that much more to point people’s eyes and ears to Jesus — not to you and your talent.
- CHOOSE MUSIC WISELY AND FILTER IT THROUGH A FINE-TOOTHED COMB. I understand that there are so many new songs out that you’d love to sing. Maybe they fit so well in your vocal range or you like how they segue seamlessly into the pastor’s message. But I want to warn you not to choose music based solely on public appeal, but upon the lyrics speaking the Word of God and glorifying Him rather than our experience of Him. This is a tough one to explain in a short post, but if you want more information on this, I’m happy to have a conversation and point you to some incredible resources on the subject of lyric validity within the church.
- SING IN VARIED KEYS (NOT JUST ONE). Far too often, I hear worship sets in one key. Maybe this is because of limited abilities of instrumentalists or perhaps and more often, it has to do with the vocal range of the lead. Whatever the case, let me just emphasize that neither of these issues should ever dictate the key, but rather, what is the comfortable range of the congregation. Remember, we are leading worship so that the congregation can be active participants — we are not showcasing our amazing talents. Within this same point, varying up keys within a set is more interesting audibly appealing to the listener.
- VARY UP THE STYLES. Ohhhhhh, this is a big pet peeve of mine!! We are all coming from different cultures, different backgrounds, different tastes in music, different generations (see guideline 10), so it should stand to reason that each and every piece of music sung should be selected with our differences in mind. Whether your congregation is made up of predominantly white families between the ages of 30-45 or your church is a melting pot of different cultures and generations, you need to be pulling songs in from all over the world and all periods of composition in order to speak to the awesomeness of God across borders and age groups. Suffice it to say, I am DONE with modern-day church “branding” and song selections taken from the same, overdone contemporary Christian bands. Take time out of your week or month to peruse what people are doing in other parts of the world or in other church services in your same church, and vary it up!
- TURN DOWN THE DARN VOLUME! I almost cussed here. Forgive me, Jesus. But OH MY HEAVENS, turn the volume down!!! This is especially necessary if you are meeting in a non-traditional church building or a school gymnasium. The acoustics in such places aren’t built for electric guitars and amped drums. They are built for basketball games. But even if you are in a traditional church, the volume can be almost deafening. Why????? I ask this question with the same amount of frustration as I ask why movie theaters have to be so cold. Why do we need the music to be so loud? I should write an addendum regarding how many times we’ve had to get up and leave because my kids couldn’t handle how loud the volume was. I can’t even imagine those wearing hearing aids. Playing and singing music loudly is NOT necessary, and again, you are supposed to be leading the congregation to worship upward — not look and listen to you! So, please, for the love of all that is holy, turn it down…a little further…not quite there yet…OK, now it’s better!
- REMEMBER THAT LESS IS MORE. When it comes to true, meaningful, heartfelt worship, less is more. I have attended anything and everything from small churches who meet in youth hostels in Europe to mega churches meeting in mega buildings in Texas, churches who meet at the YMCA and churches who have met in the same old building for over 60 years. What I have personally noticed and felt is this: less is always always always more. The ones that have challenged me and prompted me to a heart of worship the most are always, hands down, the simple, low budget teams that have nothing more than a few Kingdom-minded believers with sufficient talent, a feeble stage, a few instruments, some well-chosen songs and a heart to lead. All the other productions with laser lights, surfers on stage and smoke machines left me wanting for a more Christ-centered, meaningful moment, and I always felt like I needed to come home and have my own worship time thereafter.
- MAKE MULTIGENERATIONAL WORSHIP A PRIORITY. This goes without saying, however, the people who are choosing the music for worship are not in the two categories of people who need guided worship the most: the older generation and the children/youth. I know this is a tricky task, but it is not impossible to include all generations and be focused on making sure the 88 year old and the 18 year old can be worshipping simultaneously together in the same service and still come away from the service moved by the worship. We need not separate the older generation from the young to accommodate this. We need to, instead, be more focused on educating our congregation on historical worship and finding creative ways to integrate hymns of old with present-day, biblically-based modern hymns and leave the loud, hollowed out, sensational music that serves no one to the concert halls.
SIDENOTE:
In case you’re wondering, I do tend to get hot under the collar on these topics. ha ha! I have personally walked out of numerous churches, because there were too many obvious dysfunctional issues at play, and I have witnessed other God-fearing Christians walking away from the faith or unable to find a congregation to worship in because these issues weren’t addressed well or at all. If your leadership team isn’t addressing these issues, check yourself before you wreck yourself!
On the other hand, I have been so incredibly blessed to be amongst some truly anointed worship pastors who held high the grand responsibility of leading their congregation in spirit-led worship that points their congregation upward. Most recently, our church at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, TX, upheld this weighty task so well. I deeply miss our family’s church home, and still love attending their worship service from our living room on many a Sunday.
That stated, I will take this moment to reemphasize my deep respect for all worship leaders. But I would also love to encourage those reading to take great care to look at this more closely, really pull back from your current perspective and take a moment to address these common issues one step at a time.
As always…much much love to you if you are in this position. Please comment or like this post if it resonated with you!
xo,
Amy