I crave the real thing.
I don’t know about you, but I want the manifest presence of God in my home, life, and church – not just manufactured, emotional experiences with great songs.
Of course, I am not opposed to production. I love it. I love a creative, well-rehearsed band. I love the pursuit of ever-expanding creativity.
In the context of worship, I believe it’s important for creatives to explore how their art can help to inspire and serve and help people see more of God’s glory. I’m all about that.
But I’m also all about dialing back. I’ve had a few conversations with some leaders in the worship community who agree.
Sometimes we need to simplify to see where our heart is.
What is Your Approach to Leading Worship?
Worship leader, worship team, how you approach your worship leading is everything.
There’s a way you present yourself that lends to spectating. But there’s also a way you present yourself that leads to engagement, singing, and corporate worship. I’ve seen creative, upbeat, loud teams engage a room in worship. But I’ve also seen quiet, acoustic, simple teams cause people to watch.
What’s the missing ingredient? Remember the old song you sung as a kid?
Have patience…have patience…don’t be in such a hurry.
Your worship team doesn’t have to be the best – the most talented, the most creative, the most epic…as long as you can be present, be patient, and find your voice. Let’s unpack.
Be Present
When I say “be present”, I mean to be with your congregation. Not present with your music, but present with the living, breathing humans in the room. Identify with them.
Study them. Know them. When you do, you tend to serve them more naturally. You don’t have to guess what they need when you’re in touch with their needs.
As a worshiper, I’ve made a commitment to worship no matter who’s leading and how skilled I think the team is or what songs they do. But I love the worship leaders who are more in tune with the room of people than just their instruments – when what truly excites them is being with people rather than just playing music.
When I’m tempted to just run the reel of my worship set, I remember that never before has this group of people gathered in this specific place, for this special moment. God always wants to move in unique ways.
Be Patient
When I say “simplify”, I’m not saying massive production is wrong. I’m saying let’s dial it back often.
Within every worship set, no matter how intense, there should be moments where you dial it back, allow people to sing out, and do simple songs. Don’t just go from song to song. Be OK with a little quiet. Some awkwardness is good.
You know that urge you feel to avoid all silence and fill in the space with songs? In my experience that is often the moment where something real and powerful can happen. You can play it safe and just sing another song or you can step into the awkwardness and allow people the chance to bear their hearts before God.
Our aim as worship leaders is to get the room to a place where they don’t need us. A place where they are engaged, the Holy Spirit is moving, and Heaven is touching earth.
Stop Copying
This isn’t a fully tested assumption, but I’m starting to think that a lot of modern worship music isn’t relevant to my church. It may be great at a massive stadium event, but that’s hardly the world I live in on a weekly basis.
We have to remember this: Our people come to meet with Jesus.
Oftentimes, the reason your church may not be worshiping is because they don’t connect with your song & style choice.
I’m convinced that we need more worship leaders who are willing to be less cool if it serves their churches well. There’s more than copying Hillsong. There’s more than mimicking Jesus Culture.
You have a voice. Your team has a voice. Your community has a voice. It’s time to find what that is even if it means you sacrifice “cutting edge” on the altar.
But that’s enough from me. I’d love to hear from you.
How do you keep from going through the motions with your church?
How do you keep worship fresh for you personally and fresh for your congregation?
Let’s talk in the comments. It’s always better when you share. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
David, the sentence: “Our aim as worship leaders is to get the room to a place where they don’t need us.” is wonderfully said. it seems so often members of a worship team close their eyes almost continuously and by this, feel they set an example of worship, perhaps; or very possibly are engaging in a personal worship that excludes all others. what a difficult balance to worship personally and lead others in worship at the same time! i posed a few questions to a team i was part of some years ago: “what would it be like if we turned all the lights out or stood behind curtains or somehow were unseen during our worship set? how would our flock worship? would they engage more or feel lost and abandoned?” the overwhelming response was initially blank stares but finally summarized into “they need to see us”, at which time i began to realize more clearly how performance driven this team was and how focused they were on themselves. how refreshing it would be to have only voices in unity singing praises to Jesus; for a change from all the other stuff we do. might those worshipers then go out into the world continuing to sing and praise and reflect God’s glory a bit more clearly to others? thanks for recognizing the richness of simplicity. many blessings, <m
Hey Michael, this is definitely a tension. I don’t necessarily think the answer is for the worship team to disappear. More importantly, I think we need to model real, honest, genuine pursuit of Jesus. That helps to inspire others. Then, when we’ve led them well, they don’t need us to “lead” them as much anymore. As a congregation grows as worshipers, they’ll need less and less “leadership” to truly enter in.
I so identify your very first statement. I too crave authentic worship. I’ve been involved in church music my whole life. I’m 58 now and in my experience church music seems less performance based now than it did in the 70’s and 80’s. The attitude of worshipers today seems to focus more on giving praise back to God as opposed to previous generations’ tendency to sing about God and would rather be entertained by a rousing solo performance. I have been guilty of copying song performance and trying to recreate what I’ve seen or heard but in time I learned to arrange the songs to the abilities of my band and what would be appropriate for our congregation. Thanks for blogs. You’ve been very helpful since I’ve joined.
Hey Troy, thanks for the encouragement! Very cool to hear your perspective as someone who’s been involved in worship over the years. I find it interesting that you think worship today is less performance based than it was the 70’s and 80’s. It seems that people are always looking back to the “good old days” but in reality, each decade has its own challenge, right?
On point! (again)! Great words of advice and encouragement.
Thanks Alice! Hope things are well at your church! Miss you guys 🙂
Great post.
The complication for us in the ministry is often this:
There is a difference between the Industry of worship and the actual Practice of worship.
And More is all any industry has to sell. Specifically, More Production.
The worahip Industry isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s important to remember that there are lots and lots of corporate entities that have an urgent, vested financial interest in shaping your definition of worship/worship ministry. Not all of them are evil, but all of them are spending a lot of marketing dollars to persuade thousands of people to agree with their definition of worship.
You will hear more concern for how often Worship Industry can jump the rails from the people most acquainted with this industry. Those of us with record deals can speak to the legitimately terrifying A&R meetings: “hey, worship is big right now…”
Countless bands with, or seeking national distribution have made the calculated choice to become CCLI top 50 cover bands, and it’s not because they had a change of heart toward worship. Being in too many of those pitch meetings led to me questioning not just my career, but my belief in God. This isn’t a “burn the village!” text- there are tools, resources and artists within the worship industry that have been tremendous blessings to me and by extension my church body. You, David, are one of them, and the fact that you are nicely compensated for your efforts doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I make my living writing songs and leading worship for my local church, and I have no ethical dilemma regarding the fact that helping people do music skillfully at church helps my children eat regularly, and I give my best toward serving my congregation well and building up my team in spiritual maturity and musical excellence. But man is it a challenge enough to maintain focus on the Who and Why in the practice of worship, without the constant barrage of voices clamoring to sell us their version of the How.
Thanks for your posts- may God bless you as you continue to seek Him.
I couldn’t agree more! And I am more than just a little excited to see more than just this one post discussing this issue. I believe everyone, past and present, in the worship leading ministry, have at the heart of their ministry..”Ministry”. Nobody goes out trying to be a copy of somebody or a star…but it is nice to see the pendulum swing back to a more authentic and sincere presentation of worship to the Lord Jesus we all love so much. We just keep learning and re-calibrating. Lord guide us!
I too love the line “Our aim as worship leaders is to get the room to a place where they don’t need us. A place where they are engaged, the Holy Spirit is moving, and Heaven is touching earth.”
We must learn that people didn’t come worship us but God. Sometimes it’s difficult to be quiet. You feel like it’s my job is to lead them into the presence of a God. Exactly! When you done so stay there but allow them to embrace His presence. Honestly, we don’t posses the ability to satisfy their craving. In Gods presence is the fullness of joy! Will definitely be sharing this with the team