We’ve all been there.
You’ve rehearsed the new songs for weeks. The bass line is killer. Harmonies tight.
The loop you you labored over for 49 days makes you prouder than a Dad at his son’s first baseball game.
You’re ready.
You lead worship and the congregation cheers wildly at your incredible performance.
Except for the fact that they don’t. At all.
They’re actually staring at you like you’re an alien from Mars. Only they’re less intrigued by your appearance.
Sometimes our plans don’t go as planned.
Your band sounds worse than an ensemble of 7 year old violinists.
Your voice cracks more than the fourth of July.
Nobody is worshiping.
Now, it’s common in this moment to want to shout, “Beam me up, Scotty!” into the PA system but I’ve found that honestly doesn’t make much sense.
You can always reevaluate afterwards, but what do you do in the moment? How can you discern what your congregation needs when your plans miss the mark?
Do you simply plow through your setlist? Do you shut it down? Do you head back to Mars?
Here’s a few tips I would suggest:
1. Simplify
Sometimes our massive arrangements don’t connect with people. That’s OK.
You just need to simplify and go to something familiar.
At times, I feel we’re just making too much noise as a band and no one is “getting it”. The simple act of ending the song and going to a familiar chorus with just a piano or an acoustic guitar can really open up the room.
Some people just don’t respond well to “new” songs. They need to be engaged with what they know. Then there are other crowds that thrive on new and innovative. Discern who you are leading.
Have the courage to change directions. It’s not worth it to plow through your setlist if no one is with you.
2. Break The Ice
Never scold your congregation for not worshiping. But you know this, right? Still, sometimes we find ourselves leading out of frustration rather than compassion.
People need to be drawn into the experience. They want to know you’re real. They need to feel comfortable with your leadership.
Share a Scripture or a quick story. Be honest. Make them laugh. Don’t just be a blaring, self absorbed performer. Invite.
3. Worship Spontaneously
I like to remind people that worship requires action. And sometimes that means moving beyond a song into declaring the truth of God for yourself.
This can be awkward but it can also be freeing for people. Rather than racing through your setlist like you have to pee, encourage people to just lift their voice and worship God.
Lead the way in spontaneous, declarative worship.
4. Declare
There is power in the Word of God. When in doubt, declare the truth. It’s a beautiful sight to see hearts awakened as they declare God’s Word.
Try a responsive reading. Place a Scripture on the screen and declare it together.
I would recommend having this loaded in the computer beforehand so it’s there if you need it.
5. Plan For It
Not exactly something you do “in the moment”, but you should plan for the worst. I’m not trying to depress you.
I think it’s simply good leadership and skilled planning to be ready. What would you do if no one worships? How will you respond if your drummer passes out?
Make a list and be ready.
Train wrecks happen. Plans miss the mark. But good leadership learns to discern what the room needs.
Question: What do you do when your worship set misses the mark? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Let the Word of God speak, and the felt needs of the room.
Those two thoughts resonate with me. It happens in communicating too, especially with students. Countless times I feel like I have a killer message prepared. But there are times when you are in the moment and you know, this is just not working tonight.
You have a choice: I’ve seen people crash and burn because they allow Satan to get the best of them and they scold their audience. You’ve seen it before, they don’t yell at them, but a worship starts talking more than leading worship; you know what I’m talking about. Or a communicator starts “calling people out” and laying down hellfire and brimstone challenges rather engaging with what people need.
When I am teaching, I have to allow myself to put down my iPad, stray from the amazing personal story that will make people go ooh and ah and start letting the Holy Spirit work and God’s Word to speak.
Good tips, Chris. It’s also worth saying that just because we don’t “feel” it doesn’t mean that God isn’t moving. I’ve come to the realization that my feelings are so fickle. I suppose there’s a difference between how we “feel” and actually discerning what the Spirit is doing, right?
Well said, Chris! Allowing the Holy Spirit to lead is the key. While I agree that connecting with the congregation is really important, sometimes, they aren’t going to respond. Our job is to simply be led and be obedient, no matter the response.
I partly agree with you, Scott. We need to be led and be obedient but I also don’t think we should just plow through if the people aren’t with us. It almost seems like a cop out to me from doing the hard work of “pastoring” your people. Know what I mean?
Totally agree with you – allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us IS pastoring the correct way. If we (and the worship team) are in tune with the Holy Spirit, He won’t allow us to just plow through a worship set.
I love it when God steps in and “messes up” the worship set. It reminds us that He’s in charge and He’s dynamic and He’ll minister to the people however they need it. What I was saying was that sometimes it doesn’t matter what we do, people are just not going to worship – they are being disobedient to what God is trying to do in their lives.
I hope this sounds right – its so hard to write exactly what we mean to say….
Yea, I hear you. For those who aren’t right with God, worship has to be the most uncomfortable experience. My prayer is that God would always soften their hearts in the midst of worship!
You know, I think that a lot of the time, it’s not so much that people are being disobedient but that they have to get through so much stuff to get to that place of total abandonment where it ‘looks’ like they’re worshipping. Sure, complacency plays a part in that but it’s also the case that Sunday mornings are a massive challenge for many. People carry their troubles into church and we expect them to express worship externally from the get go. Sometimes, it just doesn’t happen. Sometimes, it may take a good couple of songs before the congregation gets anywhere near where we want them to be, and sometimes, even four/five songs are not enough. It’s not like we have a lot of time for people to enter into God’s presence (unlike more liturgical churches). If the band is out of step with the congregation tonally, it’s the job of the worship leader to respond to where they’re at and scale down. It’s especially true in the Evangelical Church with its love of extroverted expression. Sometimes it’s just not what the people need; they may be looking for a place of rest and we want them to jump up and down.
I do recall one time when I led and it felt like I was treading through treacle. There was no engagement from people and it was so much hard work, I kept asking the Holy Spirit what I was missing and nothing was working. At the end of the service, I hid away feeling exhausted and tearful and one of the leaders came to me and said that despite the fact that I didn’t think like the worship had gone anywhere at all, it felt like there had been a spiritual battle going on that created a barrier between me and the congregation, and that the act of worship despite it all had been very significant and that I shouldn’t judge ‘success’ based on whether it was a visibly uplifting time. It helped me to readjust my thoughts on what was really going on, and also to a degree whether my idea of what worship is and should look like is the correct one.
Oh, and David, I am really enjoying reading your blog every day. So glad I found it!
Really appreciate it, Scott. Thanks for reading!
As a pastor of a re-start church I really appreciate this post. Actually I appreciate all of your stuff and have been Evernoting it like crazy so that when we eventually have a worship pastor I can pass this info on them. Currently our worship team consists of my wife as our worship leader and we have a guitarist. (Praying we can recruit some college kids for drums and bass)
Because we are a re-start we are in the process of changing a lot of our music. We have been going through the process of going from hymns to modern worship songs. It has been tough, but I believe you did a great job of explaining. I really liked your emphasis on declaring His glory. That right there is what it’s all about anyways.
Thanks so much, Michael. Glad to help. How long have you been pastoring this church?
Simplifying (as you mention in your list) is how I generally refocus myself, the team, and congregation – I remember one service that we just stopped, and sang a song acapella. It was one of the richest times of connecting with God and each other; I believe it shows the congregation that even though people on stage are ‘leading’ it doesn’t mean that they have it figured out.
—
And WOW about: “we find ourselves leading out of frustration rather than compassion.” – Jesus leads out of compassion. He looked at the crowd who was hungry and feeds them. He didn’t get ticked off because they didn’t prepare / plan for enough food to follow him for X amount of days… he had compassion… good stuff (just sharing where my mind went with that phrase)… hope you don’t mind!
I find myself simplifying almost every service. In one way or another, it’s nice to strip it down and just worship. I don’t mind your comments! Thanks.
great article. I have had this experience on more than one occasion, I have found, sometimes you just need to press through. The people from your church do not always come in ready to encounter the Lord, and you need a bit of worship to draw them in and help them focus on him.
Good point. Most people don’t come ready to worship. They need warmed up. I love the challenge that brings. Although, it is nice every now and then to lead worship for a pastor’s conference. No need to warm them up! š
How do you handle an absolute blunder, mistake, something so wrong a song cannot go on? We’ve had the occasional technology breakdown where you just push through as best you can, but, what do you do when a song crashes and burns? Had one once where the guitarist plays the wrong song, the singer sings the right song, its about 15 seconds in before they realize the mistake, theres no way to reconcile the songs, and rest of us are standing there thinking “now what?”.
I’ve done two things. Either I’ll end the song and just simplify, like I mentioned. Or I’ve cut the band and restarted. Particularly if it’s early in the worship set. Sometimes you just need to laugh at yourself and try again. People laugh and appreciate the honesty. What have you guys done?
It would have been good to just stop, laugh, and start over. In this venue I think though that we approach it too much like a performance – don’t dare make a mistake or admit a mistake.
We have to remember that there is a difference between excellence and perfection. Too often we think we are pursuing perfection. If we remember that only Christ was perfect we can breath easier knowing that we can pursue excellence instead.
Good word. I think being able to laugh at yourself is a good litmus test to know if you’re pursuing excellence or perfection. If you’re pursuing perfection, you’ll be crushed.
I’m sure we’ve all had times where the worship leader forget to take his capo off (or put it on), which has led to some real worship disasters. A few years ago, David and I were helping lead worship at a camp and the worship leader started “Holy Is the Lord” about 30 bpm too fast. We got about 10 seconds in, realized it wasn’t gonna work, and came to a crashing halt. We all laughed it off and started over at the right tempo.
Sometimes you just have to acknowledge the error and start over. In fact, I think congregations really appreciate our transparency in those situations .Our humility is sometimes an ice-breaking invitation for people to step out of their circumstances and come to Jesus, broken and messy.
Not one of our finest moments š Remember when we did “He Leaves A Way” at Minnesota camp and couldn’t hear the loop? We definitely had to start that over as well.
Haha, if I remember correctly, we had decided moments beforehand to take the song at 94 bpm instead of 92 bpm… that was a fail. But once the embarrassment passed over, we all laughed about it š
In my earlier days of worship leading, I would just try to get through things, but as I’ve grown some, I’ve realized the easiest thing to do is simplify what’s going on and bring people into the familiar.
Some choruses that I know really resonate with my congregation (like Our God or an oldie like I Exalt Thee) can be done in several keys. Switching things up and doing them with just piano or a guitar can transition us from something awkward and borderline-disastrous to a real intimate worship experience.
“sometimes we find ourselves leading out of frustration rather than compassion” – guilty as charged. It’s so easy to get frustrated and wanna yell at people. At times I’ve wanted to shout “I guess I’m the only one here that really believes our God is greater” or “I guess I’m the only one that really wants to surrender my all to Jesus” but of course, you can’t really do that.
Don’t beat the sheep. Love them, lead them, and remember that Jesus died for them.
Haha! Your honesty here is awesome. Don’t beat the sheep. Love it.
Tonight Hope Fellowship from Frisco texas came to lead worship. nothing was on stage. no click tracks…no mics…no monitors…no drums…no platforms…we spent 2 hours getting everything. had 30 mins to pactice…we prayed for tranquility, and peace…god did great things tonight through us.
Wow, that is a nightmare! Glad to hear God moved through you. Moments like that can be a healthy reminder of our dependence on God.