Limiting Choices

As worship leaders, we make many decisions when it comes to choosing songs - what songs we will introduce, what songs will be a part of our set list, what songs will make it to our master song list, and what songs will roll out of rotation and frequency.

The church I serve belongs to a network of churches that has very clear convictions around the kind of songs - but more specifically, the kind of writers - whose songs many of the network churches are willing to use. As I understand it, the concern is essentially that using a song from a particular church or movement is viewed as an endorsement of its theology. Don’t get me wrong, songs matter, and so does theology. Songs often function as portable theology for our congregations. And so therefore we should be discerning about what we put in the minds, mouths, and hearts of our people. But our primary responsibility is not to be gatekeepers of songs, but disciple-makers. We need to teach, lead, and serve in such a way that our people become increasingly discerning of the diet of songs they listen to and love.

As I have developed my own philosophy of worship, and frankly, as worship songs have become an industry saturating our choices as local church worship leaders, it has become harder for me to listen to an album and want to introduce every song to my congregation. Because I am often considering the holes in my master song list, I become less convinced that just because this is an artist I love, and with whom I am theologically aligned, does not mean that every song they send into the world is one I will receive.

Let your convictions guide your choices. If you feel convinced that songs from churches you would not attend will be more harmful than helpful for your congregation, then do not use those songs. My conviction is that we need songs that are deep theologically, and emotive responsively - seldom do those two factors exist in a single song. So that shapes the songs I choose to introduce and the way I construct my set lists.

If this post was helpful, you may also be interested in:

• Why churches should write original songs

• Choosing new songs

• Songs of devotion, songs of corporate worship

• Songs for the season

• Songs and explanations

Corporate Readings

There is no part of the corporate gathering that is passive. When someone is praying, we pray with them. When someone is preaching we lean in actively listening. When we sing we sing out for the sake of the Lord and our brothers and sisters - even when we don’t like the songs, even when we don’t know the songs. We show up ready to serve, love, and give - not simply prepared to receive or take.

Corporate readings are an easy way to increase active participation in the corporate gathering. Simply reading a passage of Scripture aloud together, reading something as a call and response, reciting a prayer, or reading from the Book of Common Prayer, the Worship Sourcebook, The Valley of Vision, or simply reading lyrics to a hymn.

Because we have been made in the image of a God who speaks, the ability to speak is a divine gift. God spoke the universe into existence and sustains it by the word of His power. Scripture says that there is the power of life and death in the tongue. Our words matter and are significant in the formation of our minds, hearts, and souls - as well as in the formation of the family of God.

Familiarity Leads to Presence

The first time I led worship in an Anglican service, I was glued to the printed liturgy - I didn’t know the order and did not understand the rhythms and movement of the gathering. Anytime I have been asked to play or sing at a wedding, I stare at the program as if I am looking at a flight tracker in the airport - as though each element will be changed and updated in real time.

When I am unfamiliar or uncertain, I find it very difficult to be present to the Lord, present to His people, and present to what He might be doing in this moment.

I wonder if you might feel the same. When the order of our service and liturgy change weekly, when we add in something outside of the normal rhythms of our gathering, and when we are unfamiliar with the music, it becomes increasingly difficult to be present to anything other than simply executing whatever right before you.

But when we are familiar, we are freed to be present. When our minds know a melody, when our fingers find the chords without looking, our eyes can be lifted to the people, rather than the paper. Our hearts can be attentive because they are still rather than churning.

So why not find more regular rhythms in your gathering if it means you can listen and speak from a greater degree of presence to the Lord and His people? Why not spend a little bit more time learning and internalizing that song before introducing it to the congregation? Why not spend a little longer lingering - a little longer rehearsing, a little longer being present?

Intentional Silence

Within and without our world is full of noise. And our churches are no different. One of the things I see and hear increasingly is a complete lack of silence. Pads running the entire service, the band playing behind a call to worship or announcements, piano during the sermon, and on and on.

Our tolerance for silence is dwindling.

Truthfully, I do not mind a little musical cover for the elements of the service - our Good Friday service had wall-to-wall pads when we were not preaching or singing. I think that sometimes a little music helps people focus, and avoid being self-conscious. But as is true for many things, it can be taken to an extreme.

If our gatherings are forming our people, how is our perpetual space-filling forming our people? Where are the places where we are inviting our people to remember and practice the reality that “…the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” - Habakkuk 2:20

"I Can't Worship"

“I wasn’t able to worship because…” I have been on the receiving end of more than one post-service statement, or email beginning with this sentence in my life. I know that I have to settle some things about what I believe and how I will respond ahead of time, because in the moment - depending on the state of my own heart - these statements can make me angry, sad, self-pitying, dismissive, belittling, and unkind, or they can be an opportunity to further and clearly shepherd those I’ve been called to serve - including myself!

First I need to settle that this statement from a theological perspective is untrue. No one is ever not worshiping. Worship does not turn on and off like a light switch, worship is either rightly aimed at God, or it is bent in on self. And unless God reveals himself, we are all incapable of right worship. But as worship leaders, we know that people can easily shorthand ‘worship,’ for the sung worship portion of a Sunday gathering. And so often what people mean when they say they ‘can’t worship,’ is that something in the gathering was not to their preference.

Preference plays a role for everyone in our congregation - even for those of us who are leading worship, building the liturgy, and executing the service. Sung worship is participatory in a way that other aspects of our gathering are not. And I have noticed throughout the years, this seems to give people the freedom to speak to what they like and do not like more than other elements of a church or service. Music engages our minds, our hearts, our emotions, and our experiences - so we can quickly make preference a gospel issue when certain songs, styles, and aesthetic choices have been so deeply a part of our faith journey.

I consider the source. I have said regularly when it comes to feedback of any variety, the seriousness of which I receive, weigh, and implement feedback is: first, the staff and elders, second, anyone who serves on the worship team, third, the congregation. This is not to say that anyone is more valuable or important than any other - but staff, elders, and people who serve on the team are often more aware of what we are trying to accomplish. We are all on the same team and pulling in the same direction. Their feedback is most helpful if/when they sense we are drifting from the stated direction.

Do not take it personally. This is incredibly difficult for me. I deeply care about the work that I do, and it is hard to untangle my identity, my calling, and my vocation with enough distance to not feel like these kinds of statements are not a value judgment of me as a person. Everyone has an opinion, some people feel compelled to share theirs…

Because there is only one mediator between God and men - the man Christ Jesus - there is no song, style, or preference that can thwart true worship. True and right worship is only accomplished as God reveals himself and we respond - yes, in song - but also in all of life.

Hidden Visibility

In one of the churches of my youth, our Worship Pastor was classically trained. He could lead a band, conduct an orchestra, and direct a choir. He did not lead from an instrument, and truthfully, very rarely did he lead vocally. If you asked him, he likely would not have thought he was a brilliant vocalist. Most Sundays there was a small choir, a piano-driven band, and a handful of vocalists leading at the edge of the platform - and Steve off to the side, with a largely unoccupied microphone on a stand.

One of the things I have come to appreciate about Steve’s leadership as I have grown older is that when he led, he carried enough presence for the congregation to follow, without dominating the songs and setlist. He would give visual cues with his hands, raise his eyes, and turn toward the congregation when it was time to sing. But much of his leadership enabled the people of God to address ‘…one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord…’ (Ephesians 5:19).

When I began leading worship at our church in the United Kingdom, it took me - and them - months to learn the ebb and flow following one another. They would sing with such volume and confidence, and many times I would start to lead a song, but by the end of the song, they were leading me.

As production quality continues to increase across churches, as churches across denominational and cultural borders begin to look more alike, as backing tracks and strict time limits become more common, as congregations anticipate (or expect) their church worship teams and worship leaders look, sound, and lead like what they see online - some of the questions I am asking myself:

How can I lead with hidden visibility? Especially as someone who does lead from an instrument, who does lead vocally. I do not want the people I lead to observe my leadership as spectators but participate as worshipers. I want to lead with enough conviction, competence, and presence that people do not just think I am in my own ‘worship world.’ Nor do I want to lead as a performer or showman.

How am I encouraging increased ‘one-anothering’ in the corporate gathering? I do want to have so little margin, so little capacity for in-the-moment response that our services feel rigid. I do not want to be so visible - or so loud - that our congregation cannot hear the voices of the people of God as we sing to God or to one another.

As I think, pray, and plan for 2024 - Hidden Visibility is one of my goals.

Trust In Worship

There is a tremendous amount of trust required in leading people in sung worship. Most people are only singing aloud during a commute to work or their morning shower. Apart from singing ‘Happy Birthday,’ when are the vast majority of people singing corporately?

But sung worship is not just a physical act - it is spiritual as well. We are putting words in the mouths of our people for them to know, understand, and respond to the person and work of Christ.

When God’s people are gathered in sung worship they are following our lead - are we trustworthy? Have we invested in the secret place before coming to this public platform? Have we spent time with these songs to be able to lead them with as few distractions as we can manage? Will we provide the people with enough direction that they can relax and follow, or will they feel consistently unsettled because we seem to be unaware of anyone besides ourselves?

As it does in any relationship, trust is built over time. Time and familiarity will either serve to strengthen or undermine the trust you have with the people you lead. So be consistent in your serving on and off the platform. Be gracious with and toward your people knowing that there is a significant amount of trust required in their relationship with and toward you.

Engaging the Holidays

where I serve, is how we appropriately engage, and speak to cultural holidays… or not.

Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, the 4th of July, Memorial Day, the list is endless…

From my observation, many churches fall into one of two categories - all in, or completely ignore. The churches that are all, adapt and orient their service around acknowledging and celebrating these particular holidays. They change their songs to fit, tailor a sermon to match, and have decor and announcements that are designed to highlight the holiday. Those in the completely ignore category don’t acknowledge anything - and apart from the cultural reminders - endcaps at every store, and themed emails from every online retailer, no one would even realize it was a holiday.

Personally, I lean more toward the latter than the former. But I believe there are at least two significant reasons why our people can benefit from acknowledging holidays in our corporate gatherings:

First, when we acknowledge current events or cultural holidays, it is a chance to reframe people’s identity and understanding around the person and work of Christ. To shape their minds, hearts, and affections Scripturally, rather than culturally. To rightly situate the values of the world inside the values of the Kingdom of God.

Second, Scripture tells us to remember. And we are people prone to forget. We should celebrate, but we should also lament. We should rejoice but also grieve. Let’s use cultural holidays to acknowledge not just the joys, but also the sorrows of living in a broken world, as we point our people toward the deeper, truer, eternal hope of Christ.

Keeping Things Fresh

The world we live in shapes who we are. Our world is absorbed in entertainment. In subtle and significant ways, our people arrive at church in a world that has trained them for novelty, change, quick cuts, and the regular expectation of dopamine. So how do we combat this reality, while also maintaining an intentional and focused philosophy of worship as we plan our Sunday gatherings?

Maybe even for you as a worship leader, or person planning and executing weekly services things feel stale or tired. It can be easy to play the same number of songs, in the same order, pray the same prayers, and say the same words, thoughtlessly, mindlessly, and endlessly.

First, recognize that there is a difference between things feeling familiar and things feeling stale. At some level, you want a level of consistency in your gathering, so that people know and understand the general shape of your gathering. Especially if you are trying to tell the whole gospel story in the shape of your gathering. C.S. Lewis said:

“Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best – if you like it, it “works” best – when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.” [C.S. Lewis, The Joyful Christian]

What are some simple ways that you can freshen your weekly service rhythms?

Change the structure of a song. I like to think of each element of the song (Verse, Chorus, Bridge, etc) as building blocks. These are the raw materials I can assemble, and move around to create and build something unique to a service. Start with a chorus, create a medley, repeat a certain line for emphasis, etc.

Change the dynamics of a song. Let the voices carry a chorus, drive the verses. Build and drop in different places than normal. How can you use the music to shape the way a song speaks?

Allow others to lead musically, or verbally. A new voice always offers a fresh perspective - whether that is literally in the tone and texture of a song or the way that someone besides yourself can articulate the what and why of the gathering. Allowing others to speak will require training and development from you. It will also force you to be able to verbalize things that too often live exclusively in our minds as leaders. It will also help loosen your grip on something we can easily be possessive, rather than open-handed about.

Shepherd people through different aspects of worship. When I feel like my leading, or liturgy has become tired, I spend time teaching or speaking about different aspects of our gathering - why do we sing? Why do we gather? Why do we raise our hands? How can you use extra space and time to help build meaning and understanding for those you lead?

Ultimately, your liturgy in all its familiarity and repetition should not be confining, but instead, it should be freeing. And if you are going to make changes, it is important to communicate those thoughtfully and use a rubric that will serve your people.

“O Beauty, ever ancient, ever new…” - Augustine

What Makes A Good Song

“A good song is a good song is a good song.”

I heard Steve say that countless times. Steve is one of the best musicians with whom I have ever served, a professional musician who had toured and been a roadie. When Steve spoke about music, I listened.

When it came to what made a good song, he would repeat, “A good song is a good song is a good song.” He would explain that no matter what you took away from a song if it was truly a good song, the melody and lyrics could stand on their own. A good song should be able to communicate and move you with just a vocal, or just a guitar, or just a piano. A good song was only enhanced by adding all of the other flourishes of production and instrumentation.

On the other hand, a bad song was a song that only made sense with all of the flourishes of production and instrumentation.

I think about this concept often when I am choosing new music, and trying to determine if a particular song will work in my specific context. Is this song great because of the professional musicians who have recorded these parts? Is this a good song because of the emotion of being recorded in a stadium? Is this a good song because the production is creative, artistic, and compelling?

Or is this a good song because it is theologically rich, poetically written, and able to be sung acapella around a hospital bed as easily as with a full band, and full congregation?

There are many things to consider when choosing new songs for your local congregation. But a good song is a good song is a good song, and should always be able to stand on it’s own.

Leading From The Congregation

One of the things I say most frequently to my team: we lead more off of the platform than on the platform.

For me, there are at least three things that I am trying to help my team understand with this language, first, that each member is a worship leader. Whether they are a musician, vocalist, sound person, running lyrics or lights, or the person who has assembled the set list and is leading the congregation verbally - each person is a worship leader. Second, it matters what we do, where we are, and how we are responding after we step off a platform, out from behind our instruments, and the way we engage in the rest of the gathering. And third, that each team member carries the responsibility of worship leader even on weekends where we are not serving on the platform.


Here are some considerations when it comes to leading worship from the congregation:

Presence.

This means after we serve on the platform, we go and sit through the sermon as a member of the congregation. That our presence is visible not just during ‘our part,’ but that we are identifying ourselves, and being identified, as sheep - not just as shepherds. Our presence in the gathering matters not only on the weekends where we serve up front, but also during those weeks where we are not. My personal conviction is that our team should be primarily made up of people who call this specific congregation their home church, and therefore would be attending this home church even if they were not serving on the team. If team members are only present at church on weekends that they are serving, it would beg the question, why?

Posture

As a follower of Jesus, and as a worship leader I want to be fully integrated. I do not want to have a ‘stage-self’ and an ‘off-stage-self.’ If I see myself as a worship leader, as someone who is carrying the culture of the team in a visible role, or among the people, there should be no division in the way that I posture myself, and respond leading up front or in the congregation. If you raise your hands on the platform, raise your hands in the congregation.

Engagement

What we do in subtle and significant ways communicates what we value. If musicians ‘do their job,’ walk off the stage to back stage, a backroom, or a coffee shop - what does that communicate to the congregation? If we are to be leaders - servant leaders specifically - we must model what is important and valuable for our people, by being engaged in the life of the church outside of our role, responsibility, and jobs. Sit in the sermon, pursue new people, be connected to community, listen, learn, grow, and then pour out from a place of being deeply rooted as a member - not just of the worship team - but of your church.

Another way that you as a leader can encourage your team to lead from the congregation, is providing new music that you will be introducing to the entire team - perhaps even elders, and ministry leaders, so that when you introduce a new song, it is not just the musicians serving that particular week that will know the music, but those people who can also lead from the congregation. We have a responsibility to equip and lift the eyes of our team to the significance of their role - not just in it’s forward facing nature, but in ways they can lead and shape the culture from the congregation as well.

Leading: Yourself, The Team, The Congregation

Search ‘leadership’ on Google - almost three billion hits.

On Amazon? Over 60,000 titles.

Leadership is complex, multi-faceted, and nothing that I will seek to maneuver in great depth in a 500-word blog post. We can learn from experts and books, but the first movement of leadership is internal - we are called to lead ourselves first. And if we are not seeking to lead our serves well, we have no hope of leading God’s people in corporate sung worship as we gather. Because leading worship moves in concentric circles from leading yourself, to leading the team, finally, to leading the congregation.

Lead yourself first.

As a follower of Christ, you lead yourself by being led by the Holy Spirit. Are you dependent on His leading as you live, move, and have your being? Are you being led in your preparation for the gathering as you turn your mind’s attention on the beauty of Christ? Are you feasting on the Word of God? Are you investing in the Body of Christ throughout the week? Do you make time to enjoy God’s creation? Are you allowing the good gifts to lead you back to the Giver of every good and perfect gift in gratitude, wonder, and worship? We must fill our minds, hearts, and lives with the beauty and worth of Christ, so as we gather the team, and gather the congregation, what spills from us is a continuation of a life of worship already in progress.

Lead the team second.

Most people understand that worship leaders need to have some ability to lead a team musically and practically - through a rehearsal, through a service. Sadly, I think many of us stop short: leading the team practically, but not spiritually. You cannot love Jesus for your team, but are you living the kind of life that your presence makes them want to know and love Jesus more? Are you shepherding their hearts, not just their skills to delight and respond to Christ? Are you equipping them in their theological understanding of Christ, and encouraging them to worship throughout the week? Are you articulating the vision, this beautiful, sacred responsibility to lead God’s people in sung corporate worship? When we become more concerned about what people are bringing to the team, then who they are becoming as followers of Jesus, our priorities are misaligned in leading our team.

Lead the congregation third.

The natural overflow of leading yourself in worship will be leading your team in worship, when you lead your team in worship, the natural overflow will be leading the congregation in worship. Is the team going first when it comes to treasuring Christ? Are you connecting the worship gathering to all of life? Is God’s glory on display or your musical abilities? Are you connecting the songs to the sermon? Does the congregation walk away from the corporate gathering enamored by the music, or beholding Christ in sung worship?

You will be a better leader to your congregation, and your team when you are first led. Led by the Holy Spirit in a life of personal worship and devotion. When you are leading yourself, you are better able to lead your team, pointing them to the Giver rather than their gifts. When you lead your team, you are better able to lead the congregation, pointing them to behold the beauty of Christ, rather than all of the noise of the world.