Whether you are a worship leader, pastor, small group leader, board member, or elder in the church, it’s safe to say that you will be called upon to stand before a group of people and lead them in expressing worship to God.
You may or may not have a guitar around your neck or stand behind a keyboard, but effective worship leading doesn’t rely on those anyway.
So what do you say?
What do you do?
I’ve developed a simple 3 step process to help you. Each point contains the letter ‘E’ for easy remembering. You can thank me later 🙂
1. EMPATHIZE With Their Emotions
Before a room will worship with you, they need to trust you. You wouldn’t get into a car with a complete stranger, right? You need to connect with people on an emotional level. Here’s how I do this: I pray and ask God what this particular congregation needs. After I sense His leading, I’ll connect with people on that topic.
For example, if God wants to help people overcome their fear, I’ll say:
“I know many of you here today may be struggling with fear – fear over the economy, fear about your son or daughter’s salvation, fear that you might fail, or fear about something you’re afraid to admit. I feel this fear every day.”
In speaking this, you relate with where your audience is and you build trust.
2. ENGAGE Them With Scripture
But effective worship leaders don’t just empathize with people. They lead them to the truth. This is where worship is inspired.
Example:
“Though you may be struggling with this fear, remember the truth of Psalm 27: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ‘”
I love this moment. Depressed eyes begin to lift. Trembling voices begin to shout “Amen”. And it’s not because I’m hyping up the room into a frenzy. I’m gently delivering a promise from God that speaks to their situation.
No need to preach a sermon here. You want to get to point 3 as fast as possible.
3. Help Them EXPRESS Their Worship
This is where the power is. Worship is a choice; it’s a decision. After you empathize with their emotions and engage them with scripture, lead them to an action step. What do you want them to do? I’ve found a physical action is always best.
Example:
“What I want you to do for the next 30 seconds is lift your voice and cry out to God. Cry out to Him for His presence and power. I believe as we cry out to Him He will flood your life with His peace. Can we all do this together?”
See what happened here? You didn’t just blaze through a few songs. You didn’t just perform. You were a pastor. You shepherded your flock to encounter the truth of God.
Well done.
I challenge you to try it this Sunday. Let me know how it goes!
Question: What other ways can we engage people in worship beyond songs? Let us know in the comments!
Photo Credit: Flickr (creative commons)
I think sometimes you can and need to expand on no. 3. Sometimes we have to not only show them the way, but we have to help them step-by-step to get there. Sometimes it takes leading by example. One thing I have been focused on lately in all 3 ministry areas I work with is our dependence on God through prayer. So rather than just asking everyone to pray, showing them examples of being desperate in our prayers and encouraging them and leading them that way.
Chris, I agree. Especially when leading new Christians, they need to essentially be told what to do because they don’t know how to worship. Eventually, they develop the discipline.
Oh Wow! – there is so much to add to the list of E’s!
Edify, Emphasize, Empower, Encourage…
Excellent, Gert 😉
Sometimes we encourage people to publicly proclaim a praise prayer as a witness to what God is doing today.
The impact of a 2-3 line prayer coming from those in the congregation during the worship is tremendous.
This obviously works better with a small group.
Love it! We do this as well, though it’s a little weird for people who aren’t used to it. Have you noticed that?
My experience has been they get used to it pretty quickly…this also contributes to spontaneous worship.
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Nice. How does that lead people in worship? I think I know what you mean 🙂
LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!! thank you for sharing it!
No problem, Rebekah! Hope it is helpful to you.
Thanks for this one David! Have had a real shaking of confidence in leading…I will try out your suggestions, but over time, as the whole “leading” thing is new to our congregation, and it needs to be real for them and not, well, weird! Bless u 🙂
Awesome, Sheelagh. Hope this if helpful to you!
Love these 3 simple steps! I’m writing a post on 3 simple leadership rules right now.
Anyway here’s another idea for #3 Express based on “Thanksgiving”-
“What I want you to do for the next 30 seconds is lift your hearts and bless the Lord. Thank Him for His goodness and mercy. Offer Him gratitude for His many blessings. I believe as we bless Him, He will bless us with His presence… Let’s do this together …”
There is a serious lack for spontaneous praise and worship in many churches. Many people think that you can only praise God when you have music! Getting to a place where one can lift up your voice and heart and hands to the Living Christ without music, and in full surrender to Him, is the ultimate experience of worship. On saying that, I also need to add that worship is NOT what you get out of it (the feeling) but what HE gets from us!(apologies for the capitals – I am getting quite excited)
This is the challenge – how do you teach people to do it?
I oftentimes challenge people with simple statements like you mentioned. Even with what I described in this post, it’s important for people to physically engage – to make a choice in their worship. That shifts the focus away from what I’m getting to what I’m giving.
Great example, Rob. I may just use this verbatim this weekend 🙂
I was going to use yours verbatim this weekend 🙂
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Connecting with the congregation is my biggest fear I believe.
Everytime I try I either, yell at them(which I don’t even know I’m doing it until I see the video)Or I talk way too much.
I will definitely try to do what you said and I’ll let you know how it went. But I’m feeling good about this.
You yell at them!? I’m assuming you’re exaggerating a bit 🙂 Yea, please let me know how this works for you. Be interested to know.
Not really a yell but I sound angry almost :/
I tried a few of your tips this week and my Pastor said it was good. It felt good.
Awesome! Way to go!
Hi David,
This is an excellent article which I’d love to share with my other friends. I believe (too) that one doesn’t need a guitar (or keyboard) to lead worship. Occasionally, I hear some people say they can’t lead worship in home groups because “there is no guitarist today” or “no keyboard”. This would definitely help.
Mei, please do share! When amazing readers like you share, that’s how this blog grows. That’s the best thing you could do for me when you read something you like.
I didn’t think about that, but this is a great small group exercise!
OH here’s another idea we’ve done … just have people read and declare a short scripture out loud “popcorn” style, one at a time. I’d have get in a line and read it front and center, on mic if you have one. Encourage them to go right after one another so there’s no awkward waiting. This works with or without background music.
There are so many ways in which we can get the people active in worship! But it unfortunately only works when they want to. Some people just don’t! I realize that it is usually because of their fears, but at other times it is because they do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and do not know him as Author and finisher of their faith. As leaders we need to guide them to that point where they can know him and find their peace and strength in Him. (without letting them fall into a comfort zone)
This means that we need to take a good look at ourselves quite often to see if we are setting the proper example!
David,
Good post with some very practical expressions of non-musical worship.
Your third example causes me some concern:
“What I want you to do for the next 30 seconds is lift your voice and cry out to God. Cry out to Him for His presence and power. I believe as we cry out to Him He will flood your life with His peace. Can we all do this together?”
This is very directive. Perhaps it is just an oppositional spirit within me, but when I heard this kind of language (what I want you to do) I often choose to opt out (my issue I know). I might reframe it like this way:
“Maybe you are hungry and desirous for more of God’s presence and power in your life. Maybe you wonder if God even knows your name or hears your voice. Maybe you are in a tight spot and need to cry out to God and ask God to flood your life with peace. If that’s true of you, let’s take a few moments right now and lift our voices to God.”
What do you think?
Stay connected,
Terry
OK, I like that better. I’m going to borrow that verbatim. 🙂
Awesome Terry!
Terry, I love your suggestion. I guess it depends on who your congregation is. What you suggested is great in a room of non-christians or new believers. In other contexts, I think it’s good to give a strong challenge to engage people. Thanks for your insight!
The three steps above feel formulated & effective. I skip the emotion/empathize part sometimes, thank you for sharing this. One new way I tried last week was make the bible lesson and impromptu story skit. We did the talents. It came across like a get rich quick scheme with the stupid guy sitting in the corner. The kids were banging their plates on their heads and everywhere else and a child’s spontaneous nosebleed was more fascination than the lesson. We made empty tins to take home with their hand colored insert “serve one another with humility” and a challenge to prepare and fill it with something for someone this week-one more tip, don’t hand these out before story skit and try out the skit a least once before doing it live. Children each week are considering the most fitting title for some short songs written and inspired from the recent bible story lessons.
David, thank you so much for your encouragement. I loved the 3 steps and have to agree with you and Terry on the 3rd step. I’ve lead in churches where there were seasoned believers & all you had to say was “lift your voices & cry out” and the place would errupt. Now I am at a small church with mostly new & nonbelievers and they know nothing about the worship experience. In short, step 1 was eye opening for me because I need to learn how to engage them and connect, trusting the Holy Spirit to lead me thru all 3 steps. Knowing your people, as a leader, is key…
The 3 steps are on the mark, and effective also when there is music. As a musician though, I consider myself a “specialist” who has been enlisted to assist the Worship leader. Even though we all may be called to lead at different times, a worship leader should have empathy for people, and the right combination
of spiritual gifts to be effective. Our praise band was in a Bible study and Prayer meeting when someone asked; “People that can’t or don’t sing, how do they worship”? I was stumped, I never thought of that. I have been thinking about it ever since. Then I was reminded of Romans 12:1(NIV) Present your bodies a living sacrifice,,,,, which is your true and proper WORSHIP. That verse says nothing about music. Music is very important, but not the only part of True Worship. It is so easy to let the music get in the way of worship.
Don Simpson
Well said, Don. Such great insight!
Wonderful Chris , For me i always depeants to the presents of Holy spirit .
Awesome sharing! will try that out tomo …haha its the first time im gonna lead praise and worship so im freakin out a bit…but this did help 🙂
thank you so much….God bless you 🙂
Worship..is..reverent..honor..and..homage..paid..to..God.
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