Last week I wrote about listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our preparation. That being attentive to the Holy Spirit and leading spontaneously and speaking, praying, and communicating extemporaneously does not necessarily equate to being led by the Holy Spirit - that we can in fact be led by the Spirit in our preparation. But what about the corporate gathering? What does it look like to be led by the Spirit there?
It still looks like prayer. Union with Christ, communication with the Holy Spirit. Asking Him, seeking Him, inviting Him to do what only He can do - lead people to Jesus, convict people of sin, comfort people in their affliction, transform hearts and lives. For me, I will often leave more space in between verses, or a chorus, or in between songs as I ask the Spirit to speak to me, and I press in to hear Him.
It looks like observation. It can be tempting when we are leading worship to simply close our eyes and get lost in our own private worship world. But we are there to serve people by leading them in song. As you listen to the voice of the Spirit, listen to the voice of the people - watch them, pray for them, let their response or lack thereof shape the way that you communicate and lead. Not so much in a ‘give the people what they want,’ kind of way - but as a shepherd, leading and guiding them to see and respond to the Holy Spirit.
It looks like communication with your team and the congregation. In rehearsal practice and communicate to your team the moments where you may do something different than planned. I heard Charlie Hall one time talk about how preparing for moments of spontaneity with his team was like opening a window - everyone knew where those window moments would be in the song or the setlist, and they would approach together, open the window, see if the Spirit was using that opportunity to lead them in a direction different than they had planned. I have often found it helpful to communicate to the team something along the lines of ‘when we get to this point of the song, I think we will either go here or here…’. Maybe that’s repeating something we have already sung, maybe that is tagging something from another song. But communicating prior to being in the moment so that your band can be aware, and know how you’d like them to respond is important. Likewise, we must communicate with the person running lyrics - having options ready, and preparing them for where things may change, and any kind of verbal cues you may give to help them lead with you rather than trying to catch you. And finally, we must communicate with the congregation. Leading them through, rather than running out ahead and asking them to try and keep up. Verbal cues, inviting them to sing with you, inviting them to lean into the voice of the Spirit together.
We can be Holy Spirit-led in our preparation and in our leadership. But we can be neither if we are not Holy Spirit-led in our daily lives.