On a scale of 1-10, how engaged is your church?

Do you look forward to worshiping on Sunday or are you worried that everyone in the room hates you?

It’s frustrating, isn’t it? To put so much time and effort into preparing for Sunday…to be met only by staring (sometimes glaring) faces. Why don’t people engage?

While you’d like to blame it on their lack of spiritual depth, it’s most likely something you can work on. Of course, that’s a general statement. There are other factors at work. But this is something I’ve observed in my own leadership for 18 years as well as coaching many other worship leaders and teams.

How should we approach engagement? Should be obsess over it, counting the number of hands that are raised? Is that worship leader success?

Or should we forget about it and just pursue Jesus? I’ve seen both. The right answer is somewhere in the middle. We can’t ignore engagement, because we’re called to lead the church. It’s our responsibility to help them discover their voice in this midst of their victory and trial.

But we also can’t obsess over it because that’s just an adventure in missing the point.

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We all love momentum. It just feels right. Things are happening, the team is growing, productivity is flowing. But what do you do when it’s not there? When you’re stuck in a rut?

Let’s first of all talk about the purpose of momentum. Momentum is movement. Motion. The science of picking up speed.

I remember when I had some momentum on my skateboard as a child, sliding down the largest hill in my neighborhood. I had incredible momentum, but it was stupid. Because I fell. And rolled. And rolled some more. And cried. And it hurt. I made a decision that day to avoid such momentum for the rest of my life.

Of course, you don’t want that kind of momentum in your team. Momentum that hurts, damages, hinders the purposes of God.

Just because you’re busy doesn’t mean you have momentum. Busyness does not equal progress.

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