Today’s show is all about the joys & challenges of leading multi-generational worship.
It’s impossible to be a worship leader without facing this tension – the tension of leading worship for young and old.
This has been the cause for many church fights and worship wars, but also when done right, can be a true source of joy to see the generations standing together under the banner of God’s glory and worshiping together.
Today’s podcast is designed to help you navigate that tension and give you some strategies for leading your church more effectively.
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What You’ll Learn in this Episode
The Challenges of Leading Multi Generational Worship
- Musical taste differences
- Media taste differences
- Service programming taste differences
5 Tips for Leading More Effective Multi Generational Worship
1. Love Jesus – I know, obvious, right? You would hope so – but this is a life calling that can never be taken for granted. Check out Psalm 119:37
“Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.”
Don’t forget this truth: They may not love your music, but they will connect with a heart after God.
2. Love people more than music – I have a choice every time I lead worship. You do too. Will I just hide in my creative bubble and make music or will I love the people God has called me to serve? A massive difference and it’s what makes worship leading so special.
It’s not just about the cool, anthemic, emotional music. It’s about loving people and caring deeply about their encounter with Jesus. So do this: have conversations with people off the stage. Listen to their stories. Make prayer for your congregation a part of your weekend todo list.
3. Share stories – Corporate worship leading is such a relational experience, isn’t it? It’s different than a concert where the audience is watching you perform. In a sense, a worship service is the entire room performing together. I like to encourage the congregation that we’re all a part of the worship team and the Holy Spirit is our leader. And a great way to build this connect is for you to share stories before you sing songs.
4. Choose a wide range of songs – If you’re leading for a multi generational church, you can’t just cater to one generation. You’ve got to consider everyone who is there. That doesn’t mean you need to be a style schizophrenic – moving from Gaither to Gungor to Hillsong to Gregorian Chants.
It’s about wanting to pastor the different people represented in your church. It’s about choosing songs that minister to them. If you’re curious as to what your congregation is like, ask your pastor. He knows and can give you some great insight into the songs you choose.
5. LEAD the Room – Lead with boldness and lead with compassion. Lead with humility and lead with passion. Lead with tenderness and lead with a burning heart. But for God’s sake, LEAD. Don’t just sing…don’t just perform…don’t just pull off a setlist. Be present in the moment. Step into your anointing. You have been appointed by God and given authority to to lead, shift the atmosphere, call people higher, and stir their affections for Christ.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode
- Blog Post: 5 Tips to Radically Improve Your Public Speaking as a Worship Leader
- Blog Post: How to be More Present in the Worship Services You Lead
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Question: What challenges are you facing as you lead multiple generations in worship? Let’s talk in the comments. It’s always better that way.
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
Thanks! And thanks for the blog on 5 tips Speaking! Very helpful! I’ll probably revisit that one again. Number 5 of this one is an excellent focus – well balanced. Really thanks for your post today, Vicki
Thanks, Vicki! Speaking is always an area of focus for me. Keep leading and serving!
Wow, nice podcast David. God’s timing must be all over this topic. I shared a devotional with my choir last night “One Generation To Another”. I’ll post it on my site later.
One idea I might add here is to help people connect with the historical roots of the Christian faith and your context. This can be by song, creed, or prayer.
Also, you can’t go wrong simply reading and declaring scripture together as a congregation.
Rob, would love to read your post. Head over here and post the link when you have it done! When it comes to “creeds” or “prayers”, do you have a resource where you find these? I think that might be helpful if you know. Thanks man!
Great advice and encouragement, David! Gotta be prepared for those “worship wars” and learn to handle them with grace if any worship leader desires to have longevity in the place God’s planted them. I’ve had the most wonderful, but incredibly challenging experience opening up a church to new music in our services. Several years ago, our church’s “songbook” contained mostly older music, and our church’s music needed some serious updating. I would have considered us on the lower end of being current and relevant to all generations. But more importantly, we were missing out on what the Holy Spirit wanted to bring through fresh lyrics and beautiful new worship songs. So for the past five years, our team has covered a lot of material and infused a great deal of new music into our church. That’s the short version of the story! For the long version, listen to “Never Once” by Matt Redman & co! LOL But for me, the struggle to modernize was beyond my personal preference of music styles. It’s about our church opening the door to the Holy Spirit and having our worship touch ALL generations! We haven’t forsaken the old, tried and true hymns and songs! Not for a moment! And it’s so rewarding when your congregation has that “lightbulb” moment during worship — when you’re team is weaving the powerful, new stuff with a touch of the old. It makes the older material even more meaningful, powerful and fresh! If a worship leader can endure and overcome the drama created by incorporating “new wine and new wine skins” into your church’s worship services, you can endure just about anything! It’s all part of the job though– helping to keep our times of worship sacred, fresh and powerful so God can take us by surprise and overwhelm us every time we gather.
Alice – this is beautiful. Have the new songs and styles been met with resistance? Or has the balanced repertoire helped to bridge the gap?
“Yes” AND “Yes”. Both! The result has been worth any resistance experienced. “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Eph. 3:21!
David,
Great post and read today. As usual you hit the nail on the head every time with your blogs. I thoroughly enjoy reading them – there seems to always be a common theme through them. Love Jesus, Love People and lead with passion.
I wanted to share with you something that recently happened with our worship team regarding a hymn. One of our favorite hymns recently has been It is Well with my Soul but trying to make the hymns relevant cross generational can be quite a challenge. However, by just putting our own worship style into it and then adding a small tag to the end it has come to be one of our churches favorite to sing and not just for the older crowd. We just needed to be confident and sold out to the song and our church engaged and we had an encounter. I love that the hymns are making a come back but with more an edge.
Again thank you for your reads every week. I thoroughly look forward to them.
Cindy
Ha, that’s true Cindy. I think I just need to constantly be reminded about those very things – love Jesus, love people, and lead others to do the same.
Great story. I’m convinced that even the younger generation isn’t just after “cool”. They want “real”. If a worship team can sing old songs with a current, heartfelt fire, it will connect the generations.