I love this article: David Santistevan hits it out of the park:

It started out with an email and ended in heartbreak.

You know what I’m talking about. A beautiful soul with total confidence wants to join your worship team as a vocalist. The only problem is, they can’t sing.

And it’s not always that they cannot sing. It may be that their vocal tone just isn’t of a pleasing quality. In this case, there was no sense of pitch.

I was really hoping they were amazing so I could smile, affirm them, and offer them a spot on our worship team.

But I couldn’t do that. I had to be honest. Right there at the audition.

And this person left mad. In their mind, they were the cat’s pajamas of church vocalists.

If you’re a worship leader, you’ve been in this situation. If you haven’t, expect to in the near future. How do you handle a conversation like this? What is the best way to speak the truth without breaking hearts?

The truth is, you will never avoid offending people but your kindness and up-front honesty will create the best possible situation.

It’s my opinion that I need to be honest with musicians and singers right away. And I can usually tell if a musician is

A) Ready to play

B) Not ready but could improve

C) Not ready and couldn’t improve

That’s the goal of an assessment. You probably already know the answer when you first hear them, so there’s no need to “get back to them” or “pray about it” or “let them know” this week. You just need to tell them. But “how” you do that makes all the difference.

6 Tips For Better Auditions: Here’s my best advice. It includes some action steps you should take pre-assessment and also some tips for how to handle the assessment on the spot.

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Matthew Sigler analyzes the two styles in today’s worship:

Michael Hawn, a professor of church music at Perkins School of Theology, uses two basic categories when speaking about music in the church: cyclical and sequential. Cyclical music is typically made up of short texts supported by a simple melody that is easy to pick up by ear, and lends itself to both repetition and innovation. A good example might be the song “Isn’t He?” Sequential music is inherently literary in its form, is teleological in its structure (the “payoff” is at the end), and is often more musically complex. An example is “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” While the songs of the church don’t always fall neatly into these two categories, they are a helpful way to think about what we sing in worship. More specifically, I find it interesting to use these two categories to consider how contemporary worship music has changed over the last several decades.

“I Love You, Lord” was number three on CCLI’s (Christian Copyright Licensing International) “Top 25” list of the most popular contemporary worship songs in 1997. It is another great example of a cyclical song. The lyrics and the melody are clearly very simple, making it very easy to pick up. The song is seldom sung only once through, but is repeated several times, often with subtle innovations. Unlike a hymn, such as “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” the few lines are complete in themselves. While some might be tempted to immediately label a song like “I Love You, Lord” as shallow, it’s important to appreciate that, in many congregations, the singing of cyclical songs is undergirded by a strong theology of the Spirit. For many, the repetition is a spiritual enactment of an encounter with God.

The song at the number twenty spot in the most recent “Top 25” list sounds quite a bit different from “I Love You, Lord.” Joel Houston’s (of Hillsong United) composition, “The Stand” is a much more complex song—musically and lyrically. The verses have a quality similar to sequential music. They build off of each other as they push the singer toward the end of the song. With the addition of the pre-chorus, “So what could I say, etc.,” the song becomes much more musically complex. At the same time, the ending is very similar to a cyclical song—in many ways functioning just like “I Love You, Lord.” The simple lines are sustained by a tune whose melody line hovers around the same note. This “tag” is repeated several times and is the climactic ending to the song.

This quick comparison should highlight what is intuitive to many of us—namely, that contemporary worship music sounds different (lyrically and musically) than it did just fifteen years ago. While the comparison between “I Love You, Lord” and “The Stand” might be an extreme example, it does highlight the fact that modern worship music has morphed into a form somewhere between cyclical and sequential. Without suggesting that there is any clear benefit or deficiency in this development, let me offer a few concluding thoughts about this trend.

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Craig Gilbert asks: As a worship leader, how much worship can I actually do while leading?

I was asked this question: As a worship leader, how much worship can I actually do while leading? It seems like my mind is always on the band, or the flow, or the time, or something other than worship. Aren’t I supposed to be worshiping the Lord up there? What a great question. I thought and prayed for a long time before I decided it was time to tackle this one. Before I get going, just a heads up to those who may be new to these articles: I am a working worship leader of more than 20 years and I believe in speaking straight; no generalities couched in “spiritual lingo.” So if reading a straight, honest, from the heart point of view makes you nervous, you might want to skip this one. Sometimes I get kind of elaborate, almost academic in my answers. Not this time. The answer to this question is too important. So I will keep it honest and conversational.

I have heard many worship leaders speak on this issue and there are several points of view. It is so interesting that these points of view can be so contradictory. On the one hand we are supposed to lead by doing, so obviously all of our attention should be focused on our own relationship with God and Christ as expressed in our music and leadership. BUT, if we get too wrapped up in our worship that is bad because then no one can follow us. BUT, if we work really hard on making what is happening on our platforms accessible to our congregations and we don’t feel like we are worshiping, well then that is bad because now we are not leading by example. Now add to that all of the noise surrounding scriptures calling us to excellence and practice as was the Levites call, AND YET, we are supposed to be loving and accepting to all as Jesus said, so that could mean we have people on the platform who need to be nurtured and who might make mistakes that distract us. Now of course we can add the pressure of a pastor who is not the ideal partner to us, or a congregation who is not receptive to what we do no matter how well and inclusive it is done, and, well friend, you have a recipe for questioning yourself, not just the amount and quality of your worship on the platform, but in all aspects of your leadership responsibilities. So why does this hit us so hard?

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Taylor Blomquist offers staging tips for your worship ministry:

Intimacy, honesty, and transparency are keys to creating organic and authentic worship. Our organic worship blog series gives you the secrets of creating a heartfelt worship experience in a collective setting. The best part—we focus on DIY ideas, so it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Configure elegant stage designs, build homemade acoustics and percussion, write powerful songs, and optimize your presentation software.
Creating an intimate worship setting

Worship is not about performance, and my hope is that every worship team knows this. In worship, we bring glory to God for what he has done—we are only a sign post directing others to Christ. So in talking about stage design, remember this important concept: every object and design must also direct the worshiper to Christ. The goal of stage design is to create an atmosphere of intimate reflection without distraction. The question then becomes, “How do I create a stage design that does that?”
Keys to organic stage design

1. Illuminate your stage with layered and low lighting
Use layered lighting to target different sections of the stage. There are four layers to consider: a general layer to primarily light the room, another layer to light the front of the stage, one or more specific layers to light focal points of the stage, and an ambient layer to give a consistent low light across the stage. If you can add color with canned filter lights or LEDs, use sunny yellows and deep reds to saturate the stage with warmth. Make sure to include lights from the floor to the ceiling. Remember that the key isn’t to have an extremely bright stage, but to have a well-layered and low-lit stage.

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This Hillsong United musician may surprise you:

I’ve been thinking lots about our 10 campuses here in Australia, thinking about the musicians and singers that join our team, the variety of skill level we encounter, the variety of programs/opportunities we have on a regular basis, the 52 different services we do across one weekend alone – not to mention the tours, albums, Christmas Spectaculars etc. When you add that up, that’s lots of songs, lots of singing and playing and lots of learning!!

When it comes to “normal” church music, we often defer to the “we will just learn it by ear” mindset, and play the song until we’ve learned it by ear, or occasionally have a chart handy we can refer to. We sometimes scoff at the old school church organists that plays each note by lead sheets, thinking that in our myriad of synthesized keys sounds and arpeggiators and amazing layers upon layers upon layers of reverb and distortion, our need for musical competency has diminished. We tend to think that because we can sing higher or stronger than the other vocalists we have no need for musical knowledge.

Here are a couple of my thoughts for us to think about…

1. A musician/singer should never outgrow basic music theory.

If you have increased knowledge and understanding, your skill set improves. I don’t think anyone can ever fully master the art of music, and it should be a priority for every singer and musician to continue to upskill their knowledge and work on their craft. Even If you are an excellent church musician, learn another genre of music; take jazz lessons, or something else that stretches you musically.

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