Over the last several weeks and months I’ve had the privlege of “meeting” several folks who lead worship throughout the country. These people range from staffed positions like “director of worship” or “worship pastor” to volunteer worship leaders in local churches or church plants throughout the world. One thing I’ve yet to see though, is what inspired all of you to begin to lead worship in the first place. I (and probably others) would absoultely love to hear your story. Ultimately God is the one that puts the spark in us, but he uses people, places and experiences to do it.
So come out of the woodwork - don’t be shy, and share your story with us. Was it encouragement from a family member or friend? Were you surprised to end up leading worship somewhere but ended up loving it? Even if you are “just a piano player” or “just the screen operator (you lead worship too!!),” please let us know!
For me it was rather interesting. I was in my first year of Bible School at the Association Free Lutheran Bible School in Plymouth, MN. I was excited to possibly begin a career in youth ministry. One weekend, while counseling at a camp, there was no one to “lead music.” I had sort of done something like this before, but didn’t really know what it looked like. I was just getting introduced to “leading worship” at the time. Someone said, “Hey Ryan, you have your guitar here. Maybe you could lead.” So, I jumped in. Let me tell you, it was amazing. To be able to be a part of helping those teenagers engage with God through music was unreal. I never went back and have been pursuing leading worship ever since. Granted, it’s not my job at the moment (hopefully someday it will be again) but it is my passion.
So what ignited your passion?
This past Sunday at Living Word we had a bit of a minor technical difficulty where the wrong song was put into the schedule for the day and we didn’t have a backup of the correct one. Although it was humorous and everything else went well, there was a bit of an awkward moment and it would be good to know how to avoid any awkwardness when things like this happen. So, what do we do to avoid the awkwardness?
Plan Ahead
The first thing to do is to make sure that you’ve planned well enough ahead of time. Check and recheck things. Very often there are several worship songs (or even hymns) with the same title. Check with the data entry volunteer, the volunteer who proofs and/or runs projection and yourself that you have the right song entered in. Remind the volunteer who enters the songs that when they are in doubt which is the right song they should put in both (or all five) with the same title. That way, if the wrong song is on the screen the right song can be found quickly (with the use of decent projection software anyway). It is especially vital to triple or quadruple check things when you are working in a church plant and several different people in several different places are putting the elements of the service together.
Teach Everyone What To Do
It won’t really help much if you as the main worship leader know what to do when a situation like this happens but the rest of your team is clueless. Teach them some simple ways to keep a musical flow going while you lead the congregation through the distraction. Teach the team to:
- Keep playing through the verse of the song that isn’t up on the screen (or the chorus, if that’s where the team is currently playing)
- Be ready to keep playing through that song if the worship leader feels led to use it as a solo
- Be ready to find an ending point if the worship leader feels led to go to the next or a different song
Main worship leaders need to be able to do these things while the team is doing the above:
- Recognize that the song is not correct. If you can see the projection screen or if you have a confidence screen or monitor that will be an easy way to tell. If you can’t see the projection screen, watch people and see if they’ve stopped singing.
- Don’t focus on the problem. Quickly and gently inform the congregation that the correct song is not on the screen, then move on to what you feel the Holy Spirit is leading you to do. A short, “It looks like we have the incorrect song up at the moment” is sufficient.
- Use this as an opportunity to let the congregation pray and worship on their own. After you’ve informed them that the wrong song is up, you could say something like “While we see if we have the right song, take a few moments to pray and worship God silently or with your families.” Lead them through a couple minutes of corporate prayer or praise. This also gives the projection volunteer time to find the correct song and get it up if they can.
- If the projection volunteer can’t find the correct song, it’s obviously time to either move on or inform the congregation that just the worship team will be singing this song and the congregation should worship by listening to the words. Only do this if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the vocalists are always clearly understood through the sound system. If you sing with no words on the screen through a muddy, unclear system, no one will be able to worship without being distracted by the fact that they can’t understand the words.
- If you feel led by the Holy Spirit that having the congregation listen isn’t the right fit for the moment, decide to move on to the next song for the morning. Hopefully you’ve taught your team to keep playing the verse or chorus for a bit while you’re waiting to know what to do next. Give them a cue to end the music at an appropriate spot (not in the middle of a verse!) and then lead the congregation into the next song.
The absolute best thing to do would be to plan ahead well enough to avoid these situations but if they do arise these are some simple things you can do to help minimize the distraction and keep people’s hearts and minds focused on Jesus, not on the technical difficulty at hand.
