Worship Leading

Worship Leading Essential Articles
Posted by Scot Longyear
Here is an overview of the Worship Leading Essential Series from Scot Longyear at resonate:
1. Setting the Base
2. Letting Go
3. Teamwork
4. Putting Together a Song List
5. Spiritual Leadership
6. Skill or Spiritual Maturity?
7. Selecting Musicians
8. Song Transitions
9. Band Conflict
10. Dealing with Criticism
11. Setting Monitors
12. Stage Presence
13. The Art of Invisibility
14. Leading Rehearsals
15. Band or Rotating Musicians?
16. Going from Band to Pool
17. Limit the Gear
18. Rest
19. Life Long Learner
20. It's Not About the Music

Setting the Base

“What are your top suggestions for an aspiring worship leader?” That started me thinking. In this series of articles I will share some of the things I have learned along the way, mostly by trial and error. Lot’s of trial, even more error. I have had the opportunity to lead worship for about 20 years and have made a fair share of discoveries. In this series, we will unearth some of those discoveries, and probably have some laughs along the way.
Life Journaling
Several years ago I was introduced to Life Journaling. I had been struggling for years in my daily devotions. It was producing some pretty mediocre results and while I really wanted to learn more about God and sense his direction, I always seemed to come up short. Some friends of mine from New Hope Christian Fellowship started hammering me on Life Journaling. After some persuasion, I caved. It changed the landscape of my spiritual life.
Life Journaling is pretty simple. It is a system of daily Bible reading followed by writing some thoughts. I Journal each morning. Sometimes it is dry and tough to pull some application out, sometimes the heavens seem to open and I get some incredible insights for the things I am struggling with. By Life Journaling I am allowing the Spirit of God to speak through the scriptures and bend my life to be in tune with what God is speaking. For a worship leader, daily time with God is a non-negotiable.
More important than your vocals, your chops, or your leadership ability, is your spiritual base. Worship leaders lead worship. We don’t lead music. You can fake it for awhile. You might even be a fantastic musician and can read a room like a book, but sooner or later you will burn out on worship. You will be frustrated and the people you are leading will be frustrated. You simply can’t take people where you have not been.
So where are you when it comes to your spirituality and worship leading? Here is a good test. Listen to the things that you say before a set or a song, or listen to the prayers that you pray during a set. Are they words that are coming from your quiet time? Are they the same old tired things that have been overused and are simply not authentic? This becomes a checkpoint for me. I hear myself saying things like “We love you God. We praise you. You are good.” Not bad things but they are more borrowed than original. When my devotions are at their best, I am praying to God with new insights from my journaling. It is both refreshing and authentic.
I believe so much in Life Journaling and daily devotions that we ask all of our worship musicians at exchange to Life Journal. As a matter of fact, we encourage everyone at exchange to Life Journal. There is simply no substitute for connecting with the one we have given our life to. You may be the most talented worship leader on the block, but if are leading from a place of low connection to God, I am not interested in your worship leading. Neither is God. Worship leaders have a responsibility to lead out of an overflow.
Stand as an authentic worshipper of God, connecting daily to the word, letting the Holy Spirit shape your life like Christ. Put down the guitar and the aspirations of being the next Crowder or Tomlin and connect to the one that we orient our lives around. You may never be the same.
Drop in next time as we explore getting past the details and giving yourself permission to worship.

Worship Leading Essentials #2 - Letting Go
At last count, there was at least 25 things blasting through my mind as I led worship. Is my guitar in tune? How is the tempo? Is everyone participating? Is that guy picking his nose? Sounds like the keys missed a note. Are the vocals loud enough? What is the next song? I think I forgot the transition coming up . . . . The list never ends. Let your mind run away and you can fry yourself on the matrix of details, resulting in a less than adequate worship leading experience.
So the real question is: How do you deal with all the details and actually worship while you are leading?
Close your eyes. Sometimes I have to close my eyes just to shut the room out and focus my singing and playing toward God. My eyes can find way too many distractions, which gets my mind running (is that guy leaving or going to the bathroom). It allows me to hear and feel the music, concentrate on the words, focus my attention on God and it sets an example. People see that I am not focused on the music, but on God and the are visibly encouraged to do the same.
Open your eyes. It’s a delicate balance. Part of being a worship leader is loosing yourself in the worship. The flip side is not running so far ahead of people that you leave them in the dust. There have been times when I have not been paying attention and I miss the fact that there are people praying in groups around the room, or people standing, or crying. I occasionally grab a quick read of the room to make sure I am on track, then back to the focus of worship.
Define a successful worship gathering. I have come out of some worship gatherings and heard band members say “Man, that was terrible.” I would wonder why they thought it was so bad. “Man, the tempo was too quick on the opening song, we blew then ending on the second song, the 4th song was sloppy and I was a bit out of tune.” So then what is a successful worship gathering? According to my band-mates it was a gathering with good music. Not true. Music is a support to the worship experience, not an end in itself. We define a successful worship gathering by answering this question: Were people able to connect with Christ? Defining success allows us to worship. It puts it all in perspective. So, the kick drum is too loud in the monitors? Can I hear well enough to play and lead others? If so, it’s not a big deal and I get back to worship.
Worship from the overflow. There have been times when I have known that I shouldn’t be leading worship. My heart just was not in the right place. I had not spent daily time in devotions, and I was nearly playing songs.
Practice. The more familiar you are with your songs, the more relaxed you are. when playing the songs become second nature, It is just one less thing to worry about.
Relax. The truth of the matter is that you are not in control; God is. And he is bigger than anything that might happen. Do your absolute best and have fun. If you enjoy leading, tell your face.

Realize that this will all take time. The more you lead worship, the more comfortable you get. I’m a worrier by nature and most of what I have worried about happening during a worship set never came true. May you get so lost in worship that you naturally draw other along with you and God finds your worship so appealing that he can’t help but show his pleasure, and you can’t help but smile.
Drop in for the next post as we will explore teamwork and working with a band.

Worship Leading Essentials #3 - Teamwork
If you set your team up as being a one man show, it will eventually be a one man show! I have learned some hard and painful lessons on teamwork over the years. Tons of mistakes and tons of learning.
Currently we have a worship “pool” of musicians and vocalists. We pull from this pool to make our teams each week. Each week the band is made up of different musicians that have to come together as a team. Many have asked me if I like this approach better than having set bands that rotate. I love it. It functions well because our people serve as a team. So, how do you establish teamwork with your worship team?
Establish leadership.Flat out, there HAS to be a leader. I have been a musician in bands where there is no leader. It is uncomfortable. Band members need someone to take the lead, establish direction, and make decisions. It frees them up to do their role on the team. We tell all of our team members that we all throw creative ideas into the arrangements, etc, but someone has to be the one to make the final decision. That is the leaders job. Strong, compassionate leadership is an essential in teamwork.
Establish expectations. When we audition potential team members, we lay it all out. We expect each team member to be Life Journaling, we expect them to model their personal life after Christ, we expect them to be proficient at their instrument, to show up on time, and to be a team player. We try not to pretend that everyone knows the expectations. On occasion, I have had to have conversations with members of the team and gently say that some expectations are not being met and find out what is happening. Sometimes this goes well, other times, not so well. We use a huge amount of prayer, honesty, compassion, and love.
Establish the win. What does a successful worship gathering look like? This has to be answered early on. Because there are many different ways to define a win, the leader has to make it crystal clear. For more thoughts on this, check out Defining a Successful Worship Gathering in a previous post.
Care for your team. Last week we had a friend (Floyd) come in and observe our rehearsals. Floyd is on a hiring team for our EPIC community. EPIC is hiring a new worship leader and Floyd wanted to get a feel for how we do things. He was asking some questions of Jeff (our vocal director) and I after rehearsal. Floyd asked if I felt like people sometimes didn’t respect me or my leadership, or if we all got along. That’s when it dawned on me. As I looked around at our team that night (they were packing up), I was struck with how good of friends I am with the team. I have been in most of their houses, I know their families and their lives. We share experiences outside of worship leading and live life together. You have to see your team as more than musicians filling a slot. They are people with hurts, disappointments, and great untapped dreams. It may be the that the songs you play are less important than the people you play them with. Care for them.
Play. Best selling book FISH! is a great resource which, among other things, challenges us to play and have fun with our teams. Great team leaders play with their teams. It doesn’t take much time for our team to start verbally slamming each other, throwing jabs back on forth - all in fun. As a worship leader, you have one of the most enjoyable roles on the planet. Relax and enjoy it!
Teamwork can not only make or break a worship gathering, it can make or break a worship leader. If your elementary report card continually said “doesn’t play well with others,” you better get a grip. Healthy teamwork is critical to worship leading.
Drop in next time when we talk about how to put together a worship set. Until then, go have some fun with you team!

Worship leading essentials #4 - putting together a song list
One of the most rewarding and most difficult tasks of leading worship is putting together a song list. Do it well and it comes off seamless. Don’t do the prep work and it becomes a train wreck. It takes some work, but with some simple planning, you can put together a solid worship set.
First a look at a typical exchange gathering.
We begin the gathering with an opening song. I would like to think this is a highly spiritual time where people are swept into a realization of the presence of God and that they are transformed from the distractions of the day to becoming keenly aware of what God is saying. Truth is (for us anyway) that it serves as a trigger for people to finish their conversations and coffee in the atrium and come into the sanctuary.
Following the opening song is a welcome, some announcements, prayer, and teaching. We follow up the teaching with a 30 minute worship set. During the set, people are active. They come to the front to take communion, give their offering, pray at the altars, pray with friends, or spend time at some of our designated worship spaces.
Now that you know where we are coming from, on with the nuts and bolts.
Putting the worship set together is like dumping all your worship songs in a funnel. The ones that make them to the bottom become your set. There are some factors which will shape your funnel and determine which songs get passed through. Here is what I do in selecting the songs:
Pray. I have to remind myself that I am leading worship, not songs. It is a serious position that shouldn’t be taken lightly. If my last Life Journal entry was 3 weeks ago, I shouldn’t go to step #2 until I get my grounding. If I throw up a quick prayer and hope for the best, I’m on shaky ground.
Look at the master song list. I have a list of all of my song titles, in no certain order (note to self: get a grip on this list and organize it).
Take a look at the theme/direction of the gathering. The theme could be anything from forgiveness to sex to serving. Every evening has a theme. I look at what we are trying to accomplish. This is deeper than the theme, this is the direction. Good teaching should answer these two questions: 1. What do you want them to know? 2. What do you want them to do? If I can answer these questions, I can get a feel for the direction of the music.
From the master list, write down all the songs that fit the theme or direction. I write down every song that fits. Sometimes the list is short, sometimes very long. Don’t worry about tempo, key, or anything with this list. If it touches the theme/direction, I write it down.
Make the final list. After I have narrowed the big list to say 15-20 songs, now the real work begins. Sometimes this step takes me 10 minutes. Sometimes it takes me an hour. In this step I have to look at a ton of factors. My lists are typically 8 songs. Here is where I start to number 1-8. I look at the following funnel factors to get to the final list:
Theme. Are there songs in this list of 15-20 that have a stronger theme than others? Choose the ones with the closest ties to theme/direction.
Band. Who are my musicians for the gathering (we rotate different musicians)? Sometimes the band members determine what songs we can pull off.
Tempo Flow. Typically I try to start with some slower songs and build the set into intensity, sometimes into a frenzy at the end. Songs 1 and 2 are slower, 4 and 5 build a bit, 6 even more aggressive, and 7 and 8 are usually flat out rockin’. I favor lists that flow like a loose medley of songs.
Key flow. Making a change from the key of D to the key of Bb can be like taking a sharp left when your passengers think you are turning right. Key changes between songs are necessary, but I try to keep them smooth. When I do change keys, I try to make it flow from one to the next.
Rehearsal. Sometimes what looked good on paper in my office in step 4 sounds like trash in rehearsal. We adjust. Many times I will switch the order of songs or throw a song out after rehearsal.
In short, it’s about taking a big list and making it smaller, keeping in mind all the parts that make up the funnel.
Other stuff:
I typically choose 2-3 songs as extras. Sometimes the night goes a different direction than I anticipated. I may go to these songs as a backup. Sometimes the Spirit moves differently in the middle of a gathering than it did in the middle of your office. Don’t let this throw you, just adapt and go with it.
Follow these steps and you will have a flawless worship set. Nice wish. Every week I find things that I should have done different. A look at my weekly evaluations will prove that. Live and learn. Don’t fear making mistakes. Fear making mistakes and not learning from them.
Stop in next time when we will explore being the spiritual leader of your worship musicians. Until then, may your next worship set serve to point people to the Creator.

Worship Essentials #5 - Spiritual leadership
As a worship leader, you have a big responsibility. Beyond the song prep, scheduling, rehearsing, creating, and executing, your primary role is to be a spiritual leader. It may be the most important thing you do. If you can spiritually influence your musicians, you can influence others through them. How can you be a solid spiritual leader?
Lead yourself. You have to take responsibility for yourself. Your daily devotions are not optional. I was once sitting in on a college class taught by one of my long- distance mentors, Dr Wayne Cordeiro. There was a quiz that morning. Lucky me, I was exempt because I was just dropping in. First question: The number of times you did your daily devotions (life journaling) in the past seven days. As they were grading their tests (I think they traded and graded the tests), a young lady asked “What if we had 4 or 5 for the number of days we did devotions?” Cordeiro responded, “Mark it wrong if it is anything but seven. You are in leadership. Daily devotions are not a choice.”
Recharge. With the pace that most worship leaders try to maintain, it is essential that you get away and recharge. You need to build in time to recharge spiritually and personally. Give yourself permission to take a day (yes, a whole day) to be quiet. Go hike in the woods or swing in a hammock. The staff at Maryland Community Church (where I pastor) is supposed to take one sabbatical day a month to recharge. I stink at this.
Pastor your team. You spend a large amount of time playing music with your team. If you are not getting involved in their lives, you are not leading them. Like we have said before, the people you lead with may be more important than the songs themselves. Wade into the lives of these people. Be their friends. If they are hard to be friends with, suck it up and do it anyway. You are probably not the easiest person to get along with either.
Live what you believe. Listen, if you are just in a worship leader position because you love music and the rush of being on stage, do us a favor and quit. At least for a little while. If you don’t, it won’t take long until you are found out. You will build a team of creative musicians who love to play but are not on mission with Christ. You may get an A+ as the leader of a great band, but fail as a spiritual leader.
Pastoring your team comes with the territory. The better you care for your team, the better followers of Christ they will be. They will bring to the platform a level of spirituality in direct proportion to the level of your spiritual leadership. Lead well my friends.
Come back soon as we will explore the question of skill versus spiritual maturity. Which is more important?

Worship leading essentials #6: Skill or Spiritual maturity?
“I get excited when I some of our worship team start becoming Christians.” What? My friend Greg Telle and I were standing in the middle of a Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. The comment came from the worship pastor. I remember looking at him and saying “Huh?” He went on to say that they used musicians from all walks of life. Many of them were in other bands, touring the local scene. He did make the comment that he rarely had a problem with musicians who normally played the bars. They wouldn’t complain about monitors and other things, they were just happy to play. They were in a good atmosphere and some were becoming followers of Christ. No doubt they were highly skilled. Skill outranks spirituality.
On the other side of the coin is Matt Redman. In a small gathering with Matt, he said that you should always use totally devoted Christians. He contended that worship is sacred and should be led by those who have given their life to Christ. Spirituality outranks skill.
So which is it? Is it a requirement that your worship team be followers of Jesus? Does it matter? Do you base your requirements on spiritual maturity or skill?
This question has to be wrestled with. What do you think?
We have had to wrestle with this over the years. I am pretty happy where we have landed.
At exchange, we have a group of musicians (about 25) which we call the “musician’s pool.” Each week we pick from the pool and make a band. Most of the people we use are people who have committed their life to Christ and are part of exchange. In our audition process, we explain that when you are on stage, people look at you and assume that you are sold out to the cause of Christ. Like it or not, that is the way it is.
Do we use people who are not followers of Christ? Yes. I know that sounds hypocritical, but let me explain. There are occasions when we invite people to come and be part of the band for a gathering or two. The only reason they initially come is to play. If we can get them hooked to the kingdom by an invitation to play occasionally, I can totally justify that. We are honest and up front with people on this. If, after a while, they drop out of exchange, or only show up when they play, we have another conversation. As a matter of fact, I got a call from a guy who had not played or been to exchange for a long time. “Let me know if you need me to play, I would love to play.” I told him I would love for him to play but first step was to get back and get settled in exchange. He has yet to come back.
I do think that we have a responsibility to lead with integrity. I also believe that Christ is passionate about those who have yet to know him. If that means that we risk putting up someone who is less that sold out in hopes that they come to know Christ, I’ll take the risk.
So, what has been your experience with skill and spiritual maturity?

Worship Leading Essentials #12 - Stage Presence
Stage presence is critical to worship leading. Like it or not, the people you lead will be looking at you. It’s just the way it works, you are leading them, they are following you. What will you be telling them through your actions? Here are some things I have “heard” people say through their stage presence:
“Check out my new flashy guitar.”
“I’m in awe of God.”
“I should be in awe of God right now, but I’m not so I am going to fake it.”
“I’m so scared to be here I think I just wet my pants.”
“Oh, are you there, sorry, I was lost in worship.”
“I don’t really care if I am here or not.”
“Pay attention kids, I’m rippin’ a killer solo here (thank you, thank you very much).”
“This song is just part of my life of following Christ.”
“I am very, very, cool.”
“Once again I am astounded by the extent of my sin and the depth of my forgiveness.”
Chicago. Steph (my wonderful wife) and I were in a dirty High School auditorium in a worship gathering with one of my favorite worship leaders, Matt Redman. In that one experience I saw stage presence done wrong, and done right.
Right: Redman is not flashy, but the guy is solid as a rock with stage presence. He has an ability to make you feel like you are in a living room with him leading on guitar. He steps up to the mic and starts singing. He wasn’t jumping around or shouting instructions. He was singing his heart to God and inviting us to join in. He was aware that we were there, but he wasn’t playing for us, but with us.
Wrong: In Redman’s band that night was a young lady on BGV’s. She had a killer voice. Amazing. Here stage presence though, was over the top. I totally think her worship expression was legit, but it was also distracting. She was jerking around in some kind of dance, working it hard. I am all about undignified worship, but when it starts drawing attention to ourselves and not God, I think we are on shaky ground.
Here are some ideas for stage presence. I think we need to convey the following:
Presence. When you are leading, there is probably no other place you would rather be at that moment. I tell our teams “If you enjoy worship leading, tell your face.” Smile.
Calm Confidence. Your nervousness will make them nervous. Know your instrument well and know the songs well.
Worship. Do you believe the songs you are singing? It’s one thing to sing “Mission’s Flame” and think that it is a groovy little tune. It is quite another to think of it and think of friends who don’t know Christ. “Find Me in the River” takes on a new dimension in the context of getting beat up because of your allegiance to Christ. These are not just songs, they are anthems of our lifestyle.
Authenticity. Be who you are - and make sure who you are is a lover of Jesus.
Invisibility. More on this in our next article.
There are tons more thoughts on the issue of stage presence. What are yours?