Scott Jasmin

Leading worship: be intentional yet flexible

Posted by yourfriendjaz on June 10, 2011

Last Sunday I led worship with my house band.  And when I say ‘house band,’ I mean: a bass player I’ve played with less than ten times; a percussionist/background singer I’ve sung with for about a year; a drummer I’ve played with twice, and a teenage lead guitarist making his debut.  But I have to tell you… they rocked.  I received many positive comments after the service about how good my band sounded and how it was such a worshipful service.  I would like to address those two issues: (1) the band sounded good and (2) it was such a worshipful service.

1– The band sounded good:

I email my set list to my worship team some time mid week before the upcoming service.  This may fly in the face of some who likes to plan weeks or even months in advance.  “Beaver” types  prefer to plan ahead, even way ahead, which is probably a good thing.  It’s just not my style, probably because I am not on staff at a church, but am rather a freelance worship leader who never knows who his band will be from one week to the next.  It seems to be helpful to the band members to add the YouTube link to the video to help them learn their part.  YouTube allows me to pick a version of the song that will fit best with the band for that week.  Sometimes there is a video posted by a local church that works better than the commercial version.

Next, each band member receives a personal email with any special instructions, such as: “this song is ‘four on the floor’ (bass drum on the quarter notes) with no snare on the verse, snare on 2 and 4 in the chorus, ride the crash on the bridge” for the drummer, “keep it light, one or two notes here and there on the verse, no power chords, lots of delay” for the guitarist.  The bass player and I usually just confer during rehearsal about whether he should play quarter notes versus eighth notes, etc.  When there is more than one singer, I usually tell them to either sing only on the chorus or, if they do sing on the verse, to just sing melody and then break into harmony on the chorus.  If a singer likes to ‘riff,’ I usually tell them to keep it to a minimum, making their riff like a ray of sunshine peeking through the clouds.  All in all I remind them that less is more…

We rehearse on Sunday morning, starting somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m.  The service starts at 10:00, so we have to be efficient.  During rehearsal I take charge of the song and lead it strongly from acoustic guitar, playing definitively to set the tempo, rhythm and feel, then backing off  as the band joins in so that the acoustic guitar doesn’t step on everyone’s toes.  We rehearse the band’s entrance several times so that we all understand and will get it right during the service.  Plus, I usually turn around and give them a visual and/or audible cue.  My high school choir director taught us that if you nail the start and the ending of a song, the middle will usually take care of itself.  It seems to be good advice.

Other than that, we make sure everyone has their songs in order and a song list placed where it can be easily seen for easy reference.  We run through the songs and quickly work out any bugs.  For me, keeping it simple makes it easy.  After all, we’re not trying to impress anyone; we’re leading them before the throne of Almighty God.  And I don’t think He really minds if someone plays a stray note… rather, I think He just enjoys spending time with His children as they gather before Him in worship.

Lastly, but not least (in fact, foremost!) we pray.  It is so important to meet before the service to pray with the pastor, worship team, technicians, ushers, etc.  It sets the tone for the whole service.  I have had services where rehearsal went great, but the prayer time was a struggle, then the whole service was a struggle.  I’ve also had times when rehearsal was a struggle, but then prayer time was refreshing and then the service went great!  The prayer time is such an integral part of pulling the whole team together as a unit.  We bathe the service outline in prayer, lifting it up, asking God to bless it and to pour out His Holy Spirit.  Which brings me to my next point…

2– It was such a worshipful service.

Again, I want to stress that putting together a worshipful service is about 10% musical and 90% spiritual.  Perhaps I should say 1% and 99%, but you get my point.  It’s really not about the music.  It’s not about the singers.  It’s not about expensive instruments, sound systems, video projectors or staging.  It’s not about getting everything right.  don’t get me wrong: God is worthy of our best.  I’m not advocating throwing things together haphazardly.  I’m just trying to say let’s not forget the point of the worship service.  Keep the main thing the main thing.  And the main thing is meeting with God and glorifying Him.

When I lead worship, my main focus us not on the music.  Think of the worship leader as a bus driver–the worship bus driver.  The band and the music are the wheels and the engine.  The Holy Spirit is the fuel.  It is the worship leader’s job to load the people on the worship bus and take them to the throne room of God.  They may make some observations along the way (if you look out your window, on your left is a beautiful thought that has just come to mind… on your right is a short piece of scripture from my devotionals this week) but their main goal is to get the congregation on the bus and take them to their destination.

And when the worship leader leads worship, they must lead.  They must be seeking God themselves if they are going to take anyone else with them.

Try to keep distractions to a minimum.  Keep breaks between songs as short as possible.  Make sure you don’t become a worship DJ: “that was, ‘Come, now is the time to worship’… and now, let’s all sing, ‘You are holy.’  Try to progress from horizontal songs (songs about God, i.e. “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”)  to vertical songs (songs to God, i.e. “I love You Lord”).  You can also progress from plural songs (i.e. “We stand together”) to singular songs (i.e. “I need You more”).  The idea is to keep the congregation on the worship bus and focused on the destination.  If and when anything is said between songs, try to stay in the proper tense.  If it’s early in the set and you’re still singing Horizontal songs, you may make a comment directed at the congregation like, “God is so good, let’s lift our hearts in worship today!”  But that would be a distraction later, during the vertical section of the song list.  Then it would be more appropriate to say something like, “Father, we love You today, and we just so much want to meet with You.”  Or if the song is vertical/singular you might say, “Lord Jesus, I love you.  Blessed be Your Name.”  You see?  Keep the tense of the interaction in keeping with the song being sung or about to be sung.  In closing, take charge of the band and yield to the Spirit.  Be intentional, yet flexible.  Connect with people and help them connect with God.