The Stonetable

The role of the worship leader is a mixture of musical, spiritual and practical responsibilities. Here’s my top-ten tips that I presented to our team at Horndean Baptist. I’m sure you can add to the list. Many of these ideas were originally inspired by other articles on the web – apologies if I’ve failed to give credit where it’s due.

1. Be a worshipper

Above all else, to lead others in worship, you must first be a worshipper.

• Don’t neglect your personal worship: our worship on Sunday should flow out of a life lived for God Monday to Saturday.
• Prepare your heart before leading – what is your mood? Are you ready?

2. Be a facilitator

Your role as a worship leader is to facilitate – to help people worship, to enable people to engage and participate in the service.

• Give encouragement – don’t antagonise the congregation.
• Remove barriers.
• ‘Meet people where they’re at’.
• Be aware of social taboos.

3. Be prepared

Success on Sunday morning starts with good preparation.

• Prepare in enough detail for you. Practice. Pray.
• Send songs to the band before Saturday night!
• Lead the practice – show people how you want the service to flow.
• Find out what else is happening: what will the preacher speak about? What will the children be learning about? Is there a special event in the calendar?
• Make sure everyone involved has a copy of the order of service.

4. Be creative

Worship shouldn’t be the same every week – our creator God has made us all creative people.

• If you’re a musician – think about style, tempo, dynamics, structure and harmony.
• If you’re not a musician – talk with the band about how to use the music creatively.

5. Be a leader

People will feel more comfortable and relaxed if it is clear what is going on and that someone is ‘in control’.

• Take people with you: a leader without any followers is just someone taking a walk.

• Give people instructions – explain what’s going on at each point (think about how visitors will feel).
• Communicate with the worship team.
• Keep your eyes open – stay alert to what’s going on in the meeting.
• Use the microphone to make sure you are heard at all times.

6. Keep an eye on practicalities

The worship leader has practical responsibilities as well as spiritual ones.

• Start the meeting on time.
• Does it sound right?
• Is the projection operator ready?
• Keep an eye on the time: be prepared to adapt your plan if things are running on too long.

7. Give the service a structure

It helps to have a framework that holds the service together. Much of the structure comes from the common elements that we use every week. The elements that should be included every week will depend on your church tradition, but at Horndean we have:

• Welcome
• All-age talk
• Sermon
• Notices

…and these elements are scheduled for certain weeks in the calendar:

• Communion
• Prayer ministry
• These elements are optional:
• Sharing time
• Prayer for others

8. Give the service flow

The service is not just a list of things to get through. Think about how the parts of the service will flow together – how will you link each item?

• Don’t preach a sermon between each song!
• Avoid DJ links – you’re not on Radio 2!
• Sometimes a theme is a useful way of creating a flow between parts of the service.
• Aim to strike a balance:
  • Old and new songs
  • Quiet times and noisy times
  • Attitudes in songs (call to worship, proclamation, praise, thanksgiving, adoration, prayer, commitment, confession, outward facing songs)
  • Musical styles

9. Make the service accessible

Consider the needs of the whole congregation – young and old, new christians and old christians, those with special needs.

• Think of ways to engage all parts of the congregation, but especially the children.
• Consider how accessible the service will be for those with special needs, such as physical disability, partial hearing or partial sight.
• Consider how accessible the service will be for those who are not used to church services.
• How will visitors find the service?

10. Use non-musical worship

There’s more to worship than singing – God has given us a rich world of expression that we can use to worship him.

• Worship is not just about singing and worship leading is not just about picking your favourite songs.
• Think about using other forms of worship: liturgical readings, Bible readings, quotes, poetry, pictures, activities, prayer, silence, symbols.