How to be a worship leader without being a donkey.
My good old friend Mike Pilavachi wrote this a while back and I thought you might find it helpful as well. Some great practical advice on leading worship.
1. Before choosing a worship set, THINK! What has God being saying to the group recently? What are the group thinking, worrying, rejoicing about? How can I reflect this in the choice of songs? What is God wanting to say in the group? What do the other leaders think we should be focusing on?
2. Before choosing a worship set or band, THINK! Who is likely to be there? How many? (a six piece band for a cell group of seven may be considered over the top). If there is going to be either a few guys or girls and they cannot sing very well, then lots of songs with male/female repeats may not enhance a worshipful atmosphere.
3. THINK! What do the words of the songs I am choosing say? Do they flow one into another or have they been chosen because “we need a fast one here” or because “we didn’t do that one last week.”
4. THINK! Some songs may not work so well in a group of ten as they do with 3000 so….don’t use them in that setting. ‘Did you feel the mountains tremble’ is a fantastic anthemic song. It probably works a little better at a festival than at a cell group. The loud raucous cheers aren’t the same when there is only ten of you. Choose some songs that non-musicians can actually sing.
THINK! If you are repeating a chorus or phrase of a song, do you know why? Is there any reason other than “You’ve got to a song more than once, haven’t you?” or “I felt led”? There are certain verses which can be repeated and don’t ruin the worship or bore the worshippers to death.
If you want to repeat a song, have a reason in mind for doing so. Is
there something new that needs emphasizing second time around?
By varying the speed or the musical accompaniment to the song am
I wanting to move from praise to adoration or vice versa?
5. THINK! Probably as a general rule, don’t start songs to which you know neither the words or the tune. It just makes you look silly and distracts everyone else.
6. THINK! If you have felt led to go into a free and spontaneous time of prophetic singing / dancing / clapping / undressing, do open your eyes at some stage to check everyone else has not left / fallen asleep/ died / joined the moonies
Remember KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid!
