Types of Worship Leaders

What type are you?

I've been working on tomorrow's worship set for church for the better part of the week. It's been difficult. It usually is for different reasons. This time I can't seem to get straight what I want to say, how I want transitions to go, etc. It's all the stuff people don't really notice, but they don't notice because hours of prep go into it. You never notice when things go smoothly, but if I bumble through a few messy sentences you'll think, "He didn't really prepare this week, did he?"

As I was trying to figure out how to explain Advent, I thought, "Maybe I need to talk less and pray more." It seemed simple enough, and it gave me a sense of peace. I then started thinking about my leading style when it comes to worship, and I think there are several categories that leaders default to.

Teacher Leader - This type of leader likes to give small theological bits that help connect what they're doing with why they're doing it. Chances are you'll learn something new each time this person leads, whether you want to or not. Well, unless you already know what they're saying. But someone will likely learn something new.

Tour Guide Leader - This leader tells you how you're getting from point A to point F by mapping the way. "Today we're singing about God's grace, so we'll start with 'Your Grace is Enough,' because... and as our confession, 'Mercy and Grace' reminds us that even though we have God's grace, we still need it..." and so on. This type of worship leader seldom leaves the congregation feeling lost, but they may overdo the talking.

Praying Leader - This leader doesn't say much at all. They pray between songs, during songs, etc. Some are expert pray-ers, some stumble through but don't know what else to do. They're more comfortable talking with God than to the congregation, so they use that as their transitional medium.

Prophetic Leader - These at times seem more in heaven than on earth because of their heightened intuition of the Holy Spirit. They listen more than speak, and sometimes seem like they're off in the distance instead of on the platform; but when they come back, they normally have a powerful word to share.

Praising Leader - This leader is hyped up about God and wants you to be, too! They're excited about who God is and what God is doing, and their main goal is to bring you along.

Confessing/Weeping Leader - Every time this person leads, you wonder what horrible sin they committed before leading worship. They live in Psalm 51 crying out, "My sin is ever before me!" They argue with Paul that they are, in fact, the chief of sinners, not him. If you don't leave feeling guilty of something, you must've shown up right before the sermon.

Silent Leader - Most of these are untrained. I've experience mostly high schoolers in this realm. They stand in front, start a song, play it through (normally as written), finish the song, pause in awkward silence as they shuffle their music, start the next song, and repeat until the set is over. These leaders are usually willing to be coached, which is fantastic.

Overly-zealous Transitioning Leader - This leader makes transitions, but it's way too obvious to feel authentic. "I was talking to one of my buddies from work about religion, and he was like, 'What's different about your god?' and you know what I said? 'Our God / Is an awesome God! / He reigns...'" You know it when you hear it. Props for trying. The heart is there.

Narrative Leader - This leader will take one story or theme and work their way through it. For example, they may take a Psalm and attach songs to different verses, making it all the way through in a fresh way. Or perhaps they'll take a story like Jesus walking on water and convey different emotions and actions in the story as one set (fear, mystery, confidence, trust, etc.).

Which of these have you experienced?

Which types did I miss?

Do you find any are your favorite?

If you lead, what's your default? What could you try?

All other related thoughts are welcome.

Encountering Jesus in Worship

Growing up changes things.

Or maybe it's growing up American. I'm not sure, because I've never grown up anything else. Maybe if I grew up African, South American, Japanese or French I wouldn't have exchanged creativity for efficiency and process.

I used to breathe worship. My last couple years in high school and two in community college prepared the way for three years of undergrad as a Worship Arts major. I knew all the scriptures about worship, fear of the Lord, reverence and awe, music, obedience and so on. I read books about it. I played songs that did it. I was a passionate worshiper.

Growing up changes things.

After years of acquiring skill, I became incredibly proficient at crafting services, designing worship sets, and praying for maximum impact. My education was a great investment; it sharpened my skills in incredible ways. But as it is with many things, especially art, working on technique can sneakily slide you from art to science. Mastering "how" gives you a better "what." But somewhere along the line, you forget "why."

I picked up my first worship book in three years or so, The Worship Architect by Constance Cherry. Hearing her lecture this past Monday confirmed I'm not the only one asking questions about participation in worship. She laid out the typical Sunday service church model, where the leaders perform, the Holy Spirit prompts and the congregation is the audience, which makes worship a commodity subject to likes and dislikes, preferences and so on. The fundamental question became, How do we flip this paradigm?

Growing up changes things.

I wasn't looking at theories and cultural structures 10 years ago when I started all this. I was playing guitar and singing songs, not really sure what I was doing. I had energy and vigor for those tasks; they were new and fresh.

Today, I'm looking at the entire system. The whole thing is set up wrong, or at least not best. It's obviously "working," so I'm not saying let's trash what we have. However, if we think the stereotypical Sunday singing/sermon should be standard, we're missing out, because then "how" to make the best service becomes the focus, and "what" songs, themes and sermons will be explored flows from that.

Somewhere along the line you forget the "why." Why do we gather? What are we even doing here? Is this a pep rally, a support group, a club meeting? Paraphrasing Dr. Cherry, "The church tries to keep up with culture in respect to media and technology, but we'll never keep up. The only thing we have to offer the world is the presence of the risen Christ."

Suddenly, the task transforms. Instead of seeing how I can make the best service, I start with "Why are we gathering?" The answer, to encounter Jesus, directs my next question, "How will we do that?" In the context of Sunday, it's by gathering together. Finally, "What will we do when we're together?" That's a question asked best in each context, knowing the needs and gifts of the community. Can a sermon and music be a part of that? Absolutely. But if those are the focus, and not encountering the risen Jesus, we'll have a great adventure in missing the point.

Growing up changes things.

In a good way.

For more on the "Why, How, What" order, The Golden Circle.

What if we...: Participation in Worship

Welcome to the interwebz version of the OB/GYN, where you get to see my thoughts on participative worship in utero.

(The thoughts are in utero, not the worship.)




Worship Leader surprised me this month! Their July/August issue, Return of the Folk, is actually really helpful, and talks about things I care about, namely participation in worship. The very first article mentioned the exact same things I was in conversation with about this past weekend, which could have significant implications in my ministry and the church as a whole. More about that later.

As I had mentioned a few months back, I lost my voice. That compounded an already-existing thought, that participation in worship needs to be wholistic, not just for singers, but for everyone. The congregation participates in Sunday worship by singing, and sometimes by taking communion. Then there are those litanies we do, and those are okay. I like them, most of the time.

But the truth is, worship is a spectator sport in most Sunday services. Why? Probably because leadership generally doesn't know how to do it another way. Certainly this isn't the way it has to be, it just takes energy and creativity to do things differently. It also takes courage and vulnerability. I'm better at the former than the latter. But even making time for the former is hard.

A man comes to a point, though, where discontent isn't an option. There needs to be a change. I've crossed that threshold. Now I'm wondering, what can be changed? How can we make our worship our worship, instead of the leaders imposing it on the congregation? (I could easily dive into a theoretical diatribe about whether we are actually imposing anything, the roles of pastors and leaders, expectations of the congregations, etc., but I'd rather not.)

Let me actually say something in this post. A lot of these were suggested by the magazine:

Texting during worship
What if people could text questions during the sermon, and either have them answered at the end of the service, or later on in the week on the blog? (This was the conversation from this past weekend.)

Also, texting prayer requests would totally work, and people could text them in all week, not just on Sunday. Save the number in your phone.

Responsive Dialogue
I'm a fan of dialogue as opposed to lecture, which makes me always reconsider whether or not the sermon is the best means of communication. At best, I find it incomplete. So, can people raise hands and ask questions?

Or, after the sermon, can there be a response time after the sermon somehow? Either with the whole congregation, or maybe circled up in groups?

As my professor said this past week, "The church is going through a wormhole, and we have absolutely no idea where it'll be in ten years. We used to have a guess, but now we've got nothing." If I've grown up in the church, and I'm tired of the music/sermon status quo, it makes me think there are tons of others. So, I'm praying, dreaming, scheming, imagining.

Thoughts?

Teaching Worship?

I've got a lot to offer.

The Inciting Incident

I met a student at Trinity last week, a friend of a friend. We'll call her MJ. (Mostly because I'm watching Spider-Man.)

MJ: "I'm going to lead worship for the youth group at my church, and I have no idea what I'm doing!"

DL: "Well, if you need any help or insight, that's kinda what I've done for the past 8 years or so. I was a worship arts major, and I've led worship for all sorts of different events. Find me on Facebook if you want."

The Development

So, she found me on Facebook via our mutual friend and sent a message. It asked if I would be willing to show her some things, or give some tips. I thought to myself, "Self, there is so much that could be shared! Where should I start?" Instead of guessing, I decided to give her the options.

"Well, that's a hugely broad subject. There are plenty of smaller areas:

- What is/Why do we worship?
- planning a liturgy/service
- selecting music for a service
- finding new music
- leading a rehearsal
- leading a service
- developing a team
- musicianship, instrumentation and arranging (instrumental and/or vocal)


It's an overwhelming list, I know. There's always room to be a better worship leader, and always ways to grow.

Any of those particularly interest you? "

She picked a few, so I guess we'll start there. But it really got me thinking.

The Thinking

Is there a way I can assist several people in worship leadership? Is one-on-one the best way to go? Should I think about developing a format? Should I keep these thoughts on a blog?

Because I can't directly lead worship due to my voice, this indirect leadership may be something really great. (I was encouraged in this teaching route by Matt, and then really encouraged about indirect leadership by Dr. Colwill, how it's one way God enlarges our sphere of influence.)

Basically, I'm excited to move forward. I'm just not sure how to.

Thoughts?

Fail #2 - A Lesson in Humility

When I'm not going to class or working at a restaurant, I work with Living Hope in Palos Heights, a 6-month old church plant.

I have two basic functions at LH, college pastor and assistant worship leader (not a real title, but a function). The latter role consists of consulting with the pastor, helping select songs, creating a service flow, leading the band, and leading all of this during service.* These are all things I did at Judson as a worship arts major, so I didn't think there would be any problem transferring these skills to LH.

I was wrong.

Over the past few days I was working on the order for this coming Sunday. This is the first time I've done this at LH, and the first time I've tried it alone in a while. Calling Elissa, the other assistant worship leader, I tried to tell her what I had so far. She helped me think through things, but I was still hitting walls. We decided it'd be fine.

At band practice that night, we, nay, I had no service order ready. Then when the band was there, we/I didn't really have a tight rein on the rehearsal. So by the end, it seemed like the whole experience just didn't go that well. I had tried to do it all, but really did nothing well.

*sigh* I thought the process would be much easier. I thought there would be no problem from beginning to end. And, I thought that if things got out of control, Pastor would jump in and bail us out. Well, it was difficult, there were problems, and he respectfully let us fall on our faces.

It was awesome.

I was talking to Elissa and Mary Beth afterwards and shared that it was a really humbling experience. I really couldn't do what I thought I could do, at least not on command. And it was even worse because I was allowed to fall.

But I did learn from it. I learned how much work Pastor does each week just on the service. I learned that it is a difficult process. I learned that I need to step up my game. I learned that I need to exhibit more confidence, and before that I may need to gain confidence. I learned a lot.

Anyone else have any fails lately? I would like to have guest bloggers for the fail series. It'll be healthy.


*Of course, this couldn't be done without Elissa's help. Had to put that out there.