Katie Eckeberger advises on being confident, while still honoring God with humility:

You might think it odd that I’m addressing stage presence in a worship leading context, but all too often I see worship leaders struggling to maintain a leading presence for their congregations. It might be a confidence issue, or they worry about getting in the way of God and “humble” themselves too much, trying to become invisible. Unfortunately, this can actually become a distraction. Our congregations need us to fulfill our role with authority and confidence so they can worship effortlessly.

So how can we be confident, while still honoring God with humility? Here’s some things I have learned:

EYE CONTACT:

There are certainly moments when closed eyes are appropriate. But excessively closed eyes can create an invisible barrier between us and the congregation. A friend told me once, “Our worship can still be personal without being private.” That’s the key: communal worship is not a time for us to close off from the people we are leading. We are there to worship together! Incredible personal connections are made when we make eye contact – it engages people, helps them feel known and loved, and communicates a shared feeling. It helps us draw closer to God together.

STANCE/POSTURE:

Have you ever been led in worship by a person who seems afraid or uncomfortable on the platform? It’s uncomfortable for everybody and can create tension in the air. Open yourself up to your congregation: stand up straight, facing front and sometimes tilting left or right to physically address every person in the room. This stance is engaging and conveys confidence. Don’t deny the authority God and your community have given you. In addition, people need to see our visual cues for where the song is going. Most people in our congregations are not musical and don’t feel things like musicians do. We need to guide them well with our body language.

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Fred McKinnon encourages worship leaders to take a Sunday off.

Have you ever thought about what would happen if you didn’t show up to lead on a Sunday?

Would worship still occur?
Would your leadership team be able to adjust?
Would your congregation adapt?

I’d like to suggest five reasons why you should not lead worship this Sunday. OK, maybe not THIS Sunday in a literal sense. But let’s entertain some valid reasons why you should be prepared to not lead and remove yourself from the platform every now and then.

1. Regain the Congregant’s Perspective

When was the last time that you participated in a worship service as a congregant? This perspective can be very enlightening to a worship leader. By joining in with the congregation you can get a first hand feel for what your sound is like, how your team’s stage presence is represented, how transitions flow, and what may be helping or hurting the overall environment that is being created. Can you hear one another sing? Is the lighting sufficient? Are people around you engaged in corporate singing or are they just watching the performance? All of these can be more easily discerned from the vantage point of a worshiper in the congregation.

2. Empower Other Leaders

One of the biggest reasons that you need to get off the stage every now and then is for the empowerment of other leaders. Any worship leader should be intentionally mentoring and raising up additional worship leaders. You may have to start from scratch or you may share in the huge blessing that I have where you’re already surrounded with a plethora of strong worship leaders. Either way, stepping aside and giving them the opportunity to minister will build depth in your team, empower others, and bring a fresh approach to worship for your congregation.

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Len Wilson is Creative Director at Peachtree in Atlanta, GA.

When I started as Creative and Communication Director at Peachtree, the church was producing super lengthy bulletins for weekly worship, up to 24 pages long. They were the size of a university syllabus, or maybe a small town phonebook.

Peachtree was in desperate need of innovation in general, and with the bulletin in particular.

I had come to create “a storytelling culture,” which is a cool way of saying that I was hired to bring creativity and innovation to worship and communications, using more narrative and less information-based approaches. One of the most obvious needs was the 24-page bulletin and the church’s absurd dependency on print.

Why Peachtree was so dependent on print isn’t hard to understand. Peachtree is a stately church, part of a “high cotton” tradition with a great reputation as one of Atlanta’s finest institutions. Innovation in communication systems tend to work their way up the socio-economic ladder, with the laggards at the highest rungs, because they have the most invested in the old systems. There’s a high correlation between socio-economic status and resistance to innovation. Peachtree is no exception.

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Kevin West shares some things he’s learned about teaching and leading kids in worship.

In explaining that worship is not just singing, I don’t want to understate the value of our singing to God. It is a great way to help kids learn about God — his character and love — as well as how to surrender their hearts to Him. Here are a few things I’ve learn from leading kids in worship that may help you:

• Have them give a testimony. Testimonies help tie together the things God has done in our lives to why we worship Him. Having the kids give testimonies and helping to connect the dots with them can help them see why we worship God.
• Find some fun, current songs.
• Find songs that talk about Might, Power, Love. Songs like This Is Amazing Grace (Wickham), Your Love Never Fails (Jesus Culture), Our God (Tomlin), and Whom Shall I Fear (Tomlin) all have subject matter that kids can relate to.
• As a leader, you will probably have to teach kids the difference between being silly and being serious in our expression. This can be a great teaching moment for the kids.

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Stephen Brewster offers some interesting insight.

If you have not had someone come up to you and ask you to turn down the PA system at your church at least once you are either running it at 45DB or have only been on the job for 2 Sundays. We all hear it and often times wonder what in the world people are talking about. This might provide some insight!

I love that our music guys (Matt Warren) (Jarrod Morris) work hard to develop worship culture at Cross Point.

Over break Matt was reading an article about a study that was done about volumes in venues. A band played a bunch of popular songs. Then they turned around and played a bunch of new songs that no one had heard. The audio team did not change ANYTHING. Not a decibel. Those being studied felt the music that was original and new to them was louder than the stuff they were familiar with. This is SO fascinating to me.

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