Blank Faces

If you have led worship more than one time you have encountered the expression. Apathetic, disengaged, perhaps a yawn, folded arms, a slight scowl, and maybe even in extreme cases - hands clasped over ears, certainly not singing along with the band or congregation. What is going on here? The truth is, we do not know. As worship leaders, we can be tempted to cajole a response from the congregation. And base the effectiveness of our leadership, songs, or service on the response - or lack thereof - from the congregation. But an outward expression is not always an accurate judge of what is happening internally in an individual, or corporately in the room.

Here are some things to consider when you find yourself frustrated or measuring your ability against the response of the people:

Heart preparation. As a worship leader you have (hopefully) spent your week preparing for this moment through prayer, planning, rehearsal, and studying Scripture. The average person in your congregation has not thought about the church gathering corporately until they are in their car on the way to church that morning. You have readied your heart, chances are, they have not readied theirs… People come with divided hearts and affections, how are we pointing them to the One who can unite their hearts to fear His name in those moments of the song?

Familiarity. Sometimes people do not seem engaged because they do not know the songs, the style in which you are playing, or the key is too difficult for them to sing, they would like to participate, but simply do not know how to engage.

Outward appearances are deceiving. Only God who can see the heart, weigh its motives and responses (1 Sam 16:7). Just because someone appears to not be responding outwardly does not mean they are not beholding the beauty of Christ, and responding to Him. Likewise, just because someone appears to be engaged and worshiping does not mean that is true of their heart posture. Only God can see when we honor Him with our lips but have hearts that are far from Him (Isaiah 29:13).

Some days just seem off. Serve with the same heart, and intention regardless of the response of the people. There are things happening in the hearts, minds, lives, and relationships of those gathering on a Sunday morning of which we are not aware. But God is still worthy of our complete worship. Model for people how to engage and respond.

You are not the Holy Spirit. There is something I find so freeing and liberating about this reality. My abilities as a worship leader are so limited as to only point people to the Truth. We cannot move people’s hearts with the right combination of words, melodies, production, or prompts. So we continue to point, continue to encourage, and exhort people to lift their eyes to the only One worthy of beholding. And trust the Holy Spirit to do the work that only He can do: to lead people in all Truth. And trust that the Holy Spirit will continue to lead people in all truth long after we have struck the final note of a setlist.

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.

Evaluating Services

Whether we recognize it or not, anything we do regularly becomes formative. This is also includes our weekly corporate worship gathering as the people of God. As we walk the long obedience in the same direction our desires are reshaped, our affections are aimed, our minds are renewed, our priorities realigned. This is why I believe it is imperative that we evaluate our gatherings weekly - because they are formative. That we ask questions that expose and reform the way our gatherings are forming the people. Anything that forms us without regular evaluation and intention will ultimately deform and malform our hearts, minds, and lives. But merely evaluating our services will be insufficient for correct formation. The metrics and measurements against which we evaluate are essential to helping us move in a direction of deep life and soul formation.

What Are The Measurements?

There are standards that the world would give us by which to evaluate the ‘success’ of a gathering such as, how many people were in the room? Did people sing, and seem engaged in corporate worship? Did the band execute musically what you had planned and practiced in rehearsal? Was the production (lights, sound, lyrics, and visuals) fluid and seamless throughout the gathering? Did people have a good experience? Were people uplifted?

Is there anything wrong with these kinds of questions? In and of themselves, no. But what I am suggesting is that we must aim higher and deeper than questions about how well a service was executed. And the truth is what we are attempting to measure is our faithfulness in sowing seeds that will bear fruit over six months, and sixty years, not six days. This means we need to ask questions that not only assess the practical details of how well we have executed a gathering, but ask questions that enable us to constantly be bringing ourselves back to the center of why we gather, and what we are seeking to accomplish as we build set lists and services.

Questions like:

How does our corporate gathering fit within the specific mission of our local Church? What about the Global Church?

Are we speaking to the breadth of the human experience in our gathering - joy and sorrow, apathy and zeal, abundance and poverty, hope and fear, faith and unbelief?

How is our gathering helping people make sense of their lives, their work, their relationships, and world outside these walls?

How are we helping people see that all of life is worship?

Are people growing in their understanding of the heart and character of Christ through our gathered time?

There is a three-fold metric the church were I serve uses as a plumb line during our weekly service evaluation meetings that we lifted from Bryan Chapell’s book ‘Christ-Centered Worship,’

‘Church leaders designed their order of worship to communicate the truths of Scripture, touch the hearts of worshipers with the implications of those truths, and then equip believers to live faithfully in the world as witnesses to those truths.’

These are the truths we hope will mark our corporate gathering weekly and over time.

A Warning

Pride will seek to tip the scales in either direction as you seek to evaluate services. Pride will say: ‘Wow, we are doing an amazing job at accomplishing all of the things in our weekly gathering we have set out to accomplish. We are so thoughtful, intentional, and skilled in executing these goals.’ And on the other side pride will say: ‘Wow, we are terrible at this. We do not have a larger vision for our gathering, and do not have the skills to execute all of the beautiful things God may want to do in our unique context. We are awful, why even bother?’

When I feel myself slipping down the slope of pride on either side, I try to remind myself - these are God’s people, not mine. This is Christ’s Church, not mine. I am not nearly as powerful as I think, nor am I as insignificant as I feel. It is the Holy Spirit who does the work of transformation. It is the Father who does the work of conforming people to the image of His Son. God does not need our feeble efforts to accomplish His purpose, but He invites us into His story, and His work in the lives of His people in His world.

Evaluating services will require humility and intention. This is hard work, but work that is worth the effort.

Recommended Reading [Part 2]

So many books, not enough time… at least it can seem that way to me. With innumerable resources when it comes to leading worship, it can be hard to know where to start. This is a continuation of some of my favorite resources.

Beyond Smells and Bells - Mark Galli

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I always want to learn from those who have gone before us - the Church global, and historic, and primarily, the Church biblically. What I appreciate about Mark’s book is that it helps frame our story within the larger story of the Church historically. How have these ancient practices formed who we are and why we are. One of my favorite quotes:

“For people who find themselves storyless, or with a story that has no larger meaning than the self, the liturgy is a salvation. It shows that we do not have to abandon hope; we don’t have to fabricate a new myth to force meaning onto the world. We can participate in the very story of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who has created and redeemed us, who has gathered us to himself already in a Great Feast, and who promises, in the last act, to gather all things on heaven and earth to himself, so that we may feast together for eternity.”  pg 18-19 

True Worshipers - Bob Kauflin

Bob is a consistent voice in the world of corporate sung worship. His book ‘Worship Matters’ is always one of the first books I recommend to people. This book ‘True Worshipers’ is less about the mechanics of leading sung worship, and more about worship in general. It is also incredibly accessible, for people brand new to thinking or participating in the world of sung corporate worship, and would be a great resource to read with an entire team - sound, tech, musicians, vocalists, etc. One of my favorite quotes:

‘Every church or individual Christian who claims to be Spirit-led must be Word-fed.  If we want to know more of the Spirit’s power in our lives, we would be wise to fill ourselves with riches of His word.’ pg 45

In Jesus Name - Henri Nouwen

One of my favorite worship leaders called this book a ‘must-read.’ There are helpful things that we can learn from mainstream leadership books, and now it seems many mega-church pastors are releasing leadership books and podcasts at every turn. There can be helpful things to learn, but perhaps most discouraging to me - particularly when it comes to leadership resources written by followers of Jesus - is how little dependence upon the Holy Spirit they require. As followers of Jesus, our leadership looks like our Servant Leader more than it looks like any of the high-capacity models of our day. This is why I love Nouwen’s book - it shows what serving in the Name of Jesus could, and should look like. One of my favorite quotes:

“It is not enough for the priests and ministers of the future to be moral people, well trained, eager to help their fellow humans, and able to respond creatively to the burning issues of their time.  All of that is very valuable and important, but it is not the heart of Christian leadership.  The central question is, Are the leaders of the future truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God’s presence, to listen to God’s voice, to look at God’s beauty, to touch God’s incarnate Word, and to taste fully God’s infinite goodness?” pg 43

Christ Centered Worship - Bryan Chapell

This book has been quoted in almost every book on worship I have read. It has both informed the way I understand the corporate gathering, the historical gathering of God’s people, and what we are trying to accomplish weekly and longterm for followers of Jesus who gather to worship. A few people on staff where I serve meet weekly to ‘evaluate’ the previous weekend service. The criteria we use to evaluate our weekend service I learned from this book. One of my favorite quotes (and the guideposts we use as we reflect on our gatherings) is:

“Church leaders designed their order of worship to communicate the truths of Scripture, touch the hearts of worshipers with the implications of those truths, and then equip believers to live faithfully in the world as witnesses to those truths.” pg 21

Growing As A Communicator

Public speaking consistently tops lists of things people most fear. It is not often I meet a worship leader who feels comfortable or confident when it comes to speaking and communicating non-musically from the platform. Give us an instrument and a room of any size and we are fine, ask us to speak? No thank you.

There is a big difference between a song leader and a worship leader. A song leader will see communication as merely information transfer - a quick welcome, verbal cues for lyrics, prayers to transition from one aspect of the gathering to the next. Worship leaders see communication as a way to continually shepherd people during the gathering. To direct people’s attention and affection to specific aspects of the heart and character of Christ, the beauty of the gospel, the truths being sung, and invite people to respond with their whole lives.

Whether you are comfortable with public speaking, or it makes your skin crawl, we can all grow in our ability to communicate clearly and effectively as worship leaders. I believe what will have the biggest impact on our ability as worship leaders to communicate well is intentionality. This means putting thought and purpose behind when you will speak and what you will say. Where are the holes in the flow of the gathering? How can you help connect the dots for people between what has happened in the week, what is happening in their lives, what they have just heard preached, and the reality of the Gospel?

Whether you are comfortable leading verbally or not, my encouragement is always the same: write it down. This doesn’t mean that you must read something verbatim. But writing down what you will say helps you to formulate more clearly what you are wanting to communicate. It can also ensure that you won’t start down a half-thought-out rabbit trail to nowhere. Once you write it down, practice speaking out loud. You have to get used to the sound of your voice as you speak something that is not off the cuff but planned and purposeful. Practicing it out loud also allows you to fine-tune the rhythm, timing, and clarity of what you are trying to articulate in the first place.

Okay, so maybe you are slowly easing into growing as a verbal communicator. Another form of communication often overlooked as worship leaders is our body language. Making eye contact when leading up front, smiling, having a posture of openness, being available and engaging off the platform, presence without swagger, working to avoid the appearance of frenetic pace which can often accompany before and after service.

Like all skills, the more you practice the more proficient you become. If it feels overwhelming, or scary, take small, intentional steps each time you serve. Honestly evaluate, elicit feedback from people who are strong in this area. Practice, practice, practice. Our people are worth the growing pains.

Holy Week

Do you ever have that sense, you blink and a month has gone by?

You blink and it’s the Summer.

You blink and it’s Christmas.

When our lives are filled with responsibilities, relationships, work, goals, dreams, and projects, we can turn around and realize how we have blown through six months of our year. Throw in something as unpredictable as a global pandemic, and our days can creep by as easily as the fly.

This is what I love about the Church calendar - it is a way of marking our time, not by our roles, responsibilities, national holidays, or a school calendar but by the life of Jesus. Easter is the pinnacle of our celebrations as followers of Christ. The resurrection split time in two. The resurrection changed the day that followers of Christ gathered to remember, respond, and worship Him. The resurrection meant that the perfect sacrifice of Christ was sufficient, and we can now be in right relationship with God. But we don’t get to the celebration of Resurrection Sunday without the betrayal of Maundy Thursday, the suffering of Good Friday, and the silence of Holy Saturday. When we lean into the bitterness of these days, Resurrection Sunday is that much sweeter as we celebrate the life of Christ.

If you are serving in a church that is not particularly liturgical or following the rhythms of the church calendar, how can you build in those moments of remembrance for you, your team, and those you serve?

Take your team through a devotional, or daily readings in line with the Holy Week story. Spending time in God’s Word, with God’s Spirit, and God’s people will never be wasted. Allow your heart’s affection, and your mind’s attention to be captivated as you meditate on the truth of the Gospel story, the height, depth, width, and length of the love of God. If you’re looking for a devotional that you could use with your team, you can download my 2021 Lent Devotional for free, here.

Make plans for next year. Spend some time with your pastors, elders, creative team, planning ways that you can help set apart Holy Week, or the Lenten season next year to prepare people’s hearts for the celebration of Easter Sunday. Plan a Maundy Thursday Service, or a Passover Seder Meal, a Good Friday service, a Stations of the Cross, or Guided Prayer Meditations, or even a church-wide devotional for families.

Read and learn about the Church Calendar. Okay, maybe you or your people are not ready to step into every rhythm of the Church calendar, but perhaps there are things that you can take from the Church calendar that will work in your context, and help amplify the celebration and remembrance of the life of Christ. Here are some of my favorite resources in learning about liturgical rhythms:

The Liturgical Year - Joan Chittister

The Worship Sourcebook - Emily Brink, John Witvliet

He/She Reads Truth

Sacred Ordinary Days - Planners, podcasts, and resources for liturgical rhythms

For this week. Easter is typically a time where the local church sees lots of visitors, and there can seem to be pressure to get it right - for every aspect of the gathering to be flawlessly executed and impressive. Do not let the pressure take precedence. The reality is that every Sunday is a mini-Resurrection Sunday - a reminder that Jesus is alive, ruling, and reigning, and seated at the right hand of God. Pray and plan your service well. Communicate the Gospel in the songs you sing, in the Scripture you read, in the prayers you utter. Do it all with excellence, but excellence that points people to the beauty and wonder of Jesus, not amazement at the dust holding His breath and bearing His image.

He is worthy, and He is risen! Let’s remember and respond with joyful hearts and excellent skill.

Connecting Songs and Sermons

There is a critical 90 seconds every Sunday morning. That sliver of time between the end of the sermon, and the song. Part of our role as worship leaders is to connect what happens on a Sunday morning with all of life. To make sense of what we have heard in the Word preached, to fuel our worship in song and response. But many worship leaders struggle to feel competent and capable when it comes to speaking and communicating verbally to the congregation. If you struggle with knowing how to take advantage of those moments to hit home with the pieces of the sermon, and connect them to the songs of response, here are some suggestions:

Listen to the sermon. Be present and engaged, even taking notes of things you want to remember personally, and want to communicate to the congregation following the sermon. Don’t use the sermon as a time to check out mentally, or physically.

Read the text beforehand. Spend time in the particular Scripture passage being taught in your own time of preparation for Sunday morning. What do you see? What do you notice about who God is, what He has done, and how He has called us to live?

Speak with the preacher. Find out where the preacher is headed for the weekend. What are some of the main points? Any additional passages they will be using? How are they wanting to land the sermon? What is the one thing they hope people remember and take away from the weekend?

Connect everything to Jesus. Read the Jesus Storybook Bible. Sally Lloyd Jones does an amazing job of connecting every story to Jesus. How does the sermon/text and the morning point our lives, and lift our eyes to Christ?

Plan beforehand. After speaking with the preacher, and spending time in the text, and considering your final song(s), write down some thoughts about how you could connect the songs and sermon verbally. Practice speaking out loud to get used to hearing yourself connect and communicate in that way.

Write it down. As you continue to grow as a verbal communicator, write everything down. You can manuscript what you want to communicate so that you don’t miss any part of what you intended to say. Reading something that is written, will help to build confidence and familiarity, rather than trying to hold everything in your mind, and stumbling over your words.

Remember there is grace as we grow. Let’s not miss the opportunity to take those critical 90 seconds and point people to Jesus.

Weary Worship Leaders

Have you ever felt weary as you have approached the Sunday gathering? Tired to your bones, apathetic and indifferent toward God and His people? In many ways COVID has turned all of us into endurance athletes, unsure of the course we run, and the direction toward the finish line. For our teams, for ourselves, for those attending - or streaming - this has been a season of soul tiring. And yet, Sunday is coming whether we feel ready, or rested.

Even before COVID seeing people respond in ways different than we had hoped during our preparation, or feeling like the execution of a Sunday service did not accomplish all you had intended, can we discouraging, and disorienting.

So we do we do with our hearts, and minds as we encounter these weekly challenges? First, I believe we need to name the reality. That this is different than we thought, expected, and desired. We must acknowledge and confess how our own sin, pride, and ego are wrapped up in our unmet expectations. We trust that external response is not always an accurate representation of what has happening internally for those we serve. We believe that the Holy Spirit can work regardless of how well we have ‘performed.’ And we rest in the reality that Jesus perfects all of our broken offerings before the Father.

One of my youth pastors growing up told a story that whenever he felt disconnected or dry in his worship, he would hold a specific picture in his mind that would throw kindling on the embers of his heart: he would envision his father, who was not a follower of Christ, falling on his face in worship.

The beautiful reality is that Scripture tells us one day that will be true of everyone, everywhere: ‘…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ (Phil 2:10-11)

As you lead worship to a camera, or look out on folded arms, and furrowed brows, or feel the team limping toward the end of a set list, remember the reality of Philippians 2. You are looking out on those who one day will in fact be facedown in confession and worship. He is so worthy.

What pictures of the beauty and worth of Christ, can fuel your worship when your heart feels wearied, burdened, or half-hearted?

All Of Life Worship

Although the word ‘worship,’ has been turned into shorthand for describing the music accompanying a service, or a church gathering, I believe many people within our congregations conceptually grasp that ‘worship is more than a song.’ If we pressed the issue, perhaps our people would even agree that ‘all of life is worship.’ Author, Harold Best, moves us even deeper when he says,

‘We were created continuously outpouring. Note that I did not say we were created to be continuous outpourers. Nor can I dare imply that we were created to worship. This would suggest that God is an incomplete person whose need for something outside Himself (worship) completes His sense of Himself. It might not even be safe to say that we were created for worship, because the inference can be drawn that worship is a capacity that can be separated out and eventually relegated to one of several categories of being. I believe it is strategically important, therefore, to say that we were created continuously outpouring.’ (Unceasing Worship)

Worship cannot be compartmentalized to our songs, or our services, it knows no boundary or borderline of our time, or our lives. This continuous outpouring of worship is happening all the time, always, and forever. It includes the most mundane, ordinary, unseen, monotonous, seemingly insignificant moments of our lives.

If we are called to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice and do everything to the glory of God (Rom 12:1, 1 Cor 10:31), how do we do that on our commute, or dressing our children, paying our bills, making dinner, watching television, and brushing our teeth? We must begin by recognizing that we are constantly worshiping. There is no on and off switch. That worship is not the exclusive right of song or Sunday service.

Then we focus our attention and intention. When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:37-40).” Worship is the right response to who God is and what He has done. He is the One who loved us first, and we love in response. When we live as people experiencing, and responding to the love of God by loving God, and loving our neighbors, our lives are marked with attentive intentionality true of those who recognize all of life is worship.

It is important we understand this reality as worship leaders because we have a responsibility to connect corporate sung worship and the corporate worship gathering to all of life. To help people understand why what we do, and sing in our churches matters to all of life. Because the worship that happens in the gathering should be the culmination of lives lived in worship throughout the week.

Creating a Culture of Feedback

In any role, feedback is essential for growth.  If we desire for ourselves and our team members to grow, we must create a consistent, and safe space to give and receive feedback.  Here are some things to consider when trying to establish a consistent and safe feedback environment:

Creating new rhythms.  If your team currently has no opportunity or rhythm to give and receive feedback, recognize that you will have to create new rhythms and patterns.  Creating a new culture, setting a new direction usually takes much longer than you would like or expect.  Don’t get discouraged, stay the course, it will pay off in the long run.

Give the why.  One of the best pieces of feedback I was ever given was ‘you have a reason and intention behind all that you’re doing with the team, but they don’t understand those reasons - walk them through the decisions you make and help them see why.’  People are often more willing to support an idea when they understand the larger purpose and intention driving the decisions.

Remove sarcasm.  Sarcasm is a cowardly way, to tell the truth.  It sets up a dynamic where people don’t understand what is honest and what is joking.  Laugh and enjoy one another, but removing sarcasm from the way you relate and interact will allow times of feedback to not be clouded by misunderstanding.

Set the time and space.  Whether it is immediately following a service, or between services, find the time, place, and time where everyone knows that feedback will occur.  This allows people to expect, and anticipate what is coming.  And avoids situations where feedback is only given when something goes catastrophically wrong.

Go first.  Invite feedback from your leaders, pastors, and the team.  Point out things you wish you would have done better, or changes you’re planning to make for the next time.  As leaders, we need to model what we want to see.

Celebrate.  Part of creating healthy rhythms of feedback is celebrating and honoring the good, not only pointing out the opportunities for improvement.  What can you celebrate in the team as a whole and the individual members?  Not just in their playing but the way they are serving, the heart behind their participation, and what God is doing in them and through them.

The team and the individual.  Some feedback needs to be given in front of the whole team, some feedback needs to be given face-to-face with the individual.  If there is a larger, deeper issue that needs to be addressed, it will always be better to cool your own emotions, and set a time with the individual outside of the regular rhythm of feedback.

Feedback is essential for growth.  Let’s serve our teams well by giving timely, honoring, consistent feedback, and inviting the same from our leaders and team.

Recovering From Chaos

Sound, lighting, volunteers, set-up, rehearsal, technology, relationships are just a few of the elements that go into a weekly gathering. Any one of those things going sideways seems to quickly send the whole of a morning careening into chaos. What do you do when you have that feeling where time is speeding up, and any or all of those elements begin to spin faster and faster?

Assess the situation. Is there something that can be fixed right now? A sound issue, or a conversation with a band member that can be addressed and corrected now? Or is this something that needs to be dealt with later?

Make a decision and communicate. If you are the person responsible for running a rehearsal, leading worship, or executing the production of the morning, the team will be looking to you to decide and direct them about a response. Do you want to pause for five minutes to see if things can be resolved? Do you want to cut a song, or just go acoustic? Do you need to delegate responsibility for another team member, volunteer, or staff member to try and take ownership and try to troubleshoot any potential problem? Like showing your work in math class, communicating your decision making will help build and grow trust among your team.

Watch the clock. How much time do you have left in rehearsal, how much time before service? You have to be aware of the time, and the morale of the team. Don’t allow issues to derail the momentum of the team.

Remain calm. As leaders, we carry and influence culture among our team. The faster things begin to spin, the slower we must move. The more chaotic things seem the more deeply we must be a person of peace. We need to be self-aware enough to recognize how our presence influences the temperature in the room, and when we are increasing or decreasing it for those we serve alongside.

Pray. Pray in your heart, but also stop and pray aloud with and for the team. Let prayer be the stake in the ground, recounting your heart and mind, that regardless of circumstance, you desire the attention and affection of your heart and mind to be on Christ. Pray for things to be resolved quickly. Pray that God would remove distractions for His people to see and respond to Him clearly.

If the wheels come off before or during the service, we can still rest, because Christ perfects our broken offering. And God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. Yes, we want to serve God and His people with excellence, but the pressure is off of us to be the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of people. God doesn’t need us to accomplish His purpose and plan, and yet in His kindness, He chooses to use us. And maybe this weekend He has seen fit to use us in spite of the chaos in us and around us. Praise the Lord!

Choosing New Songs

Growing up, my mom had a subscription to a worship resource that regularly mailed physical CDs which included a variety of different worship songs. For many worship leaders, this was the primary way they learned of new songs for the corporate gathering. How things have changed over the past twenty years! Social media, radio, YouTube, conferences, and an industry consisting of writers, publishers, promoters and worship leaders who are seeking to put more and more songs into the hands of the local church - we are not lacking in resources.

But access and quantity does not always me quality. I am convinced with the many resources we have easily available, we should not settle for good songs but introduce only the best songs for our people. Best is relative, and I mean it as such. Introducing new songs to your local congregation has much less to do with the best songs rising to the top of CCLI or radio charts, but what needs to be on the hearts, minds and in the mouths of your people. These are the best songs of which I write.

A handful of questions I ask myself or others when considering new songs to introduce in the corporate gathering:

Does this align with our church theologically? Is this bringing clarity or confusion to who God is, what He has done, and who we are as His people? Can I trace the lyrics and concepts of the songs Scripturally?

Could I hear our people singing this? Each local church is made up a unique mix of people, will this particular song - in style, melody, and lyrical content - be the right fit for those I serve?

Is this what we need to be singing right now? Some songs need to be earmarked for future use, but maybe not in a particular season of the Church. Being aware of the larger story, and movement of the Spirit in your church will help you to be Spirit-led in discerning the right time to introduce a song to the congregation.

Is this song filling a gap in our inventory? Will this song provide a new facet to consider the heart and character of God? What other content and topics do we need to consider for whole life discipleship through our song choice?

Could I hear our team leading this song? No matter how talented the team, or high-end your production, if you are not the band on the recording, you will not sound like the band on the recording. Often, when you strip away the original production and the crowds of people singing in a stadium, many songs can struggle to stand on their own with just a voice and a single instrument.

Choose wisely, choose well, choose the best songs for your people.