With my recent posts on worship leading blunders, it’s easy to laugh at the mistakes when you’re in hindsight. You can look back, learn, laugh, and grow to become more humble.

But in the moment it’s not so funny. Sometimes when we miss the mark, we get discouraged.

You’re asked to lead a song and you botch the lyrics…again. You’re excited for this rehearsal only to feel like no one on your team respects you. And that comment from a church member about how you don’t flow in the Spirit doesn’t help either.

Sometimes it’s easy to laugh at mistakes but sometimes it hits too close to home.

How can we be better prepared for this? Here’s 3 Ways:

1. Draw confidence from God’s love

Musicians and worship leaders need this. We have a tendency to base our self worth on how well we do. While we should place a priority on excellence, that has nothing to do with our self worth. Before we are musicians and singers and worship leaders, we are loved by Jesus. Period. You’ll also be a more effective worship leader with this truth at your core.

2. Surround yourself with those who believe in you

I have a great relationship with my Senior Pastor. I know he believes in me 100%. That also doesn’t mean he’s not afraid to point out what needs improvement. Surround yourself with great leaders who believe in you and take to heart what they say. Don’t allow the criticizers to discourage you. Be polite, but listen to those who love you.

3. Plan Well

You see, a lot of mistakes can be avoided if you prepare well. Look ahead and put out necessary fires before they happen. Things may still go wrong, but at least you’ve done all you can to avoid them. Spend time in personal worship, put front end work into your rehearsals, plan your setlist.

What about you? What has helped you deal with discouragement? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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Vicky Beeching recently wrote an excellent, thorough blog post on dealing with disasters in a worship set. If you’ve been a worship leader for any length of time, you know encountering a disaster is a “when” not an “if”. Vicky gave some great advice for a variety of situations and I suggest you read it.

Whereas my last post was on worship leading blunders you should avoid, I wanted to expand on Vicky’s post to include a few more ‘blunders’ that just seem to happen…and how to recover. Here goes:

When You Say “Crap” instead of “Clap”

This may never happen to you. I mean, it hasn’t happened to me once. It actually happened twice. Let’s face it: sometimes you just say the wrong word. The best thing to do is move on, but if it was so obvious to the rest of the room that people are laughing at you, go ahead and laugh with them. Embarrassing as it is, it is a healthy reminder that you’re not an indestructible rock star for everyone to stand in awe of. Be human. Lead with humility. Laugh. Now, go. Lift up a ‘crap’ of ‘plaise’. 🙂

When that song didn’t ‘take off’ as you expected

Not every song you do needs to be done over and over. Some songs resound with certain congregations, others don’t. In my experience, there are three types of songs: songs that are instant hits, songs that take 2-3 weeks before they’re hits, and songs that need to retire. It’s not that they’re bad songs, necessarily, it’s just that your congregation isn’t engaging with it. So test a song out a few times and if it’s just not “working”, let it rest in peace.

The off-beat tambourine lady is on the front row

Actually, I don’t really need to specify that she’s on the front row. She’s ALWAYS on the front row. That’s what off-beat tambourine lady’s do. It must be in their contract. The best thing you can do is try and ignore it (I know, it’s tough) but also show the congregation how you want them to clap (check out what Jon Acuff has to say about clapping). The off-beat tambourine lady has good intentions, but she will threaten to bring the entire room into a code red state of chaos. As the leader, keep referencing the proper clap. And pray the tambourine breaks.

What about you? What are some blunders you’ve encountered?

 

 

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Besides the ever so subtle shouting of “crap” instead of “clap” from the stage (who has ever done this?) 🙂 there are some common things that worship leaders do that I’d advise against (and I think your senior pastor would appreciate it too).

Also, are you wondering what a picture of Jack Black has to do with anything? Well, imagine leading worship like he sings. Just sayin’.

Keeping your eyes closed the whole time

While this may be great for your personal worship, I think a worship leader needs to keep his eyes open more often than not in order to connect and draw in those who are there. It won’t matter quite as much once the faith of the room rises up and people are lost in worship. I always say the goal of a worship leader is to lead people to a place where they don’t need you anymore. Open thine eyes till then.

Singing every song

If you are a worship leader who has the best voice, it’s OK if you lead every song or if there’s no good singers on your team. But if you have some great vocal talent on your team, defer the lead vocal to someone else occasionally. It’s actually a great rest for your voice and you can focus on actually leading in worship. Not to mention it empowers those who serve with you.

Fill in all dead space with the ‘vocal moan’

You know what I’m talking about. Some worship leaders feel that if they don’t sing a song, or moan, or talk, that God is packing up His bags. I understand the pressure. You don’t want there to be awkward silence. You want people to enter in. But it can also be incredibly distracting to have you moaning for 5 minutes while I’m trying to worship. It just doesn’t sound good. Especially if you’re a background singer. Moan and sing all you want in the dead space. Just pull your mic down.

Forgetting to pray until 3 minutes before service starts

You’ve been there. I know it. You’ve had a crappity crapface rehearsal and then it strikes you… we forgot to pray. So you woop out the desperation, “God rescue us from this crappity crapface rehearsal and make us sound good” prayer. I have a better idea. Sprinkle all your rehearsals with prayer. You don’t have to pray for 45 minutes before every song, but pray short, faith-filled prayers throughout. Prayer has an incredible way of calming down dominant musician personalities and focusing everyone on what matters.

I could go on. Expect a part 2 on this one.

What are some habits that we should avoid as worship leaders? How can we improve?

Recently I talked about how to engage non-Christians in a worship service But what about how to more effectively engage those who are believers? You may be wondering why I’m writing about this so much. I guess you could say it’s important and I’m working hard on it.

Many worship leaders are content to crank through a list of songs. As a musician and perfectionist, I have this tendency. But remember, there is nothing more important in your role as a worship leader than engaging the congregation. Success is determined by how many people are with you, not how flawless your performance was. What good is it if you have perfect execution but zero participation?

This is not easy. My goal with this post is to offer you 3 tips to help you engage Christians more effectively:

1. Mix new songs with simple, familiar songs

When introducing a new song, don’t sandwich it in between two other new songs. People engage with songs they know – songs that are simple and singable. That doesn’t mean you have to do Here I Am to Worship every weekend; however, if you do too many new songs at once, people are frustrated watching instead of worshiping. Do new songs but do them with songs people already know.

2. Speak Honestly

I can’t tell you how huge this is. Don’t allow yourself to be a cheerleader spouting off Christiany phrases. You don’t want to be a ‘wet blanket’ either. Find the middle ground. Be yourself. Speak to people’s situations. Worship with all you’ve got. Every generation of Christian will find common ground with someone who loves Jesus. They may dislike your music, but they’ll enter in if they respect your heart for God. Learning to speak simply and clearly can really unify a room.

3. Build Momentum

This comes with skill and experience. But you can start now. Momentum in a worship service somes when you begin to medley songs that echo what the Holy Spirit is doing in a room. This is not a concert. Don’t just blaze through your setlist song to song to song to song. Slow down, discern what God is doing, encourage people to sing spontaneously, highlight the theme of what God is doing with songs that people know.

I want to learn from you. What else would you add, worship leaders? Do you think engaging your congregation is important or can we just let the music do its job?

Monday

3 Ways to Engage Non-Christians in a Worship Service

Do you ever feel a little weird leading worship when there are unbelievers in the room? Imagine how they feel. It’s more than a little weird to step into a room of jubilant people singing weird songs, clapping their hands, maybe dancing, and maybe, just maybe waving the dreaded streamer. I remember the first time I raised my hand in worship (notice I said ‘hand’. Singular. Gotta start somewhere). It was a big deal for me. I also remember the first time I encountered a streamer waving dancing lady. No comment.

Read the full post here.

Tuesday

The Best Worship Songs…Ever

I always wonder who comes up with this stuff. The best worship songs ever? Who decides? Is this God’s top 50?

Read the full post here.

And…

Recommended Books for Worship Leaders

Wednesday

How to Practice Better – Worship Leading

In a previous post I talked about how important practice is. But not just practice…deliberate practice – practicing those things that will make you more effective at what you do. When we think practicing we typically think of pianists and football players. But what about something like worship leading? How do we practice that? Yea, I could try to lead worship more often but what about those times when I’m by myself?

Read the full post here.

Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving

Friday

Do You Contribute Or Merely Consume?

Something that I’ve noticed about this generation of young adults is that we are very good at consuming and criticizing. We consume media, teaching, church, and information. And then we spend time venting our opinions on it all. Contrary to what you think I might say, this can be a good thing. We are looking for what is real. We want honesty on display and we want to join with those who are making a difference.

But…

Read the full post here.

Interesting Links:

Vicky Beeching talks about “10 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started Leading Worship”

Seth Godin on “Where Do Ideas Come From?”

Steven Furtick on “A Ministry Momentum Killer” & “3 Things This Generation Demands”

Brad Lomenick on “5 Tips for Communicating Well”