The first role I want to mention is the role of a worshiper. That may sound somewhat obvious but it is very important.

 A couple of years ago I was asked by a church to help them with their worship ministry. The pastor had somewhat filled the role of worship leader and at times had their guitar player lead worship. When I agreed that is was God’s will for me to take this position I implemented a rehearsal night. The pastor and I agreed that if you don’t practice you don’t play. I quickly learned that the guitar player could not make rehearsals so I asked that he not play.

Sunday after Sunday I watched him stare at the words of the songs and never open his mouth to sing. Not once was there any outward expression of a heart that was in love with Jesus. Here was a young man who was part of the worship ministry, and at times led the Sunday morning service, yet appeared to be void of the heart of a worshiper. He was a very talented musician and a great performer but not a worshiper.

Those who are called to lead worship must worship. It makes no difference if they are on stage or sitting in the congregation. If a person can’t worship without being “up front” they have no business being “up front.”

Worship obviously goes beyond outward expressions. A worship leader should live a life of worship. Character building is vital. Daily devotion and time spent in worship when no one is watching are important aspects in leading worship. There must be time spent in developing a personal relationship with the One we worship. I have always felt it is easier to take someone to a place where you have already been. If I do not know what God’s presence is like how will I know if I am taking someone else there?

The next role I want to mention is that of a servant. The role of a servant applies to every Christian, but especially to those who are called to lead a certain area of ministry.

Jesus put a high value on the role of a servant. He said,  . .. but whoever desire to become great among you, let him be your servant. (Matthew 20:26) Again he said, . . . but he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. (Matthew 23:11)

My thought is this; it is one thing for someone to stand in front of the church to sing or play an instrument, but will they take their turn in the nursery? Will they show up for work day at the church? Will they help set up the sound equipment or manage the overhead projector? Of course there is no way a person can do it all. The question is, “What kind of attitude and willingness do they display when asked to do the “menial” tasks of ministry?”

It is very important that the worship leader be a servant to the pastor and other leadership in the church. This is accomplished by knowing and implementing the vision of worship established by the leadership, being flexible to last minute requests and coordinating special events that the pastor feels is necessary for the spiritual growth of the church. A willingness to submit to spiritual authority is at the heart of every servant.

A worship leader should also be a servant to those who labor with him to lead worship. Those who labor in leading the congregation into the presence of God are very important. The goal of every worship leader should be to make their job as easy as possible. The worship leader should make it a priority to see that each team member has the tools they need to perform their ministry well. This may include having lyric sheets and music available for musicians and singers, making sure visual aids are available to the people who need them, having the proper sound equipment set up and tuned to individual preferences. All of this means being the first to arrive at practice or church on Sunday and the last one to leave.

Several years ago while leading worship in a local church I received a blessing that I believe depicts a servant’s heart. In those days I was playing an Applause guitar. After years of use it had become increasingly harder to play and would not hold a tune. It seemed like every other Sunday I was breaking a string. One Sunday morning I broke two strings during the worship service. My finances were not so great at the time so I could not afford to have the guitar fixed nor could I replace it. Just before Christmas a good friend of mine who played bass on our praise team, began to approach individuals in our church asking for donations to buy me a guitar. He made it his personal goal to see that I had an instrument that would enable me to lead worship more effectively. Plus the fact that he wanted to bless me. Needless to say he succeeded in both. I was able to buy a very nice guitar which I still use to lead worship.

Today my friend is the worship leader at his church. Is it any wonder that God would call a person to lead worship who has such a servant’s heart? Service is its own reward, but oh the rewards that await the servant.

For a worship leader to be an effective mentor he must not only be a worshiper but also encourage others to worship. This is accomplished by modeling and teaching worship in corporate and small group settings or whenever the occasion presents itself.

Whenever I think of mentoring I am reminded of the words of King David in Psalm 34:3, magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together. First David says, “I am going to magnify the Lord; I am going to be worshiper. Let me show you how it is done.” Then he invites others to join him by saying, “Let’s magnify the Lord together; do it with me.” The role of a worship leader is the same. In essence the worship leader should be saying to the congregation, “I am going to magnify the Lord, here is how you do it, come do it with me.” This is called modeling and is a vital aspect of mentoring.

One of my favorite things to do is to invite a group of people to my home for a time of fellowship, maybe on a Friday or Saturday evening, and at some point pull out the guitar and start worshiping. Some of the best worship services I have witnessed have happened at impromptu times. Doing this sends the message that, as a Christian and a worship leader, worship is a high priority in my life regardless of where or when I do it.

Teaching is also a vital aspect of mentoring. This can be accomplished in several different ways such as teaching a Sunday school class, a brief lesson before Sunday worship service, conferences, news letters and casual conversation.

Over the years it has been my pleasure to take members of the praise team to worship conferences. On many occasions I have either paid their conference fees or hotel room so they could afford to go. I have also bought guitar strings and other accessories for those I have mentored. It is important that a worship leader invest time and money to encourage others to be worshipers.

The last role of a worship leader, and maybe the most important, that I want to mention is therole of a shepherd. The role of a shepherd includes all of the things that I have suggested in these two articles plus one important factor; the personal touch.

A worship leader must love people. His desire to see others worship should never come from selfish motives. People should never be viewed as projects. When people are viewed as projects there is the tendency for a leader to become a pusher. A shepherd leads, he doesn’t push. Have you ever tried to push a string? When you push a string it just wads up. People are the same way. They will respond positively to a leader, but they will respond negatively to a pusher. For the most part they will discern when a leader is plagued with selfish ambition or if he has their best interest in mind.

One way to discern a leader from a pusher is whether or not the person is willing to get his hands dirty. By this I mean that the leader is willing to get involved in the personal lives of those he leads. The worship leader may be enthusiastic about teaching someone to worship but is he concerned if they don’t have the money to buy groceries or pay the power bill or that they have a rebellious teen that is causing them grief. A good shepherd cares about the total person. When a worship leader/shepherd shows genuine concern about the welfare of others and is willing to get involved however possible, it builds trust. It is impossible to lead without trust.

Jesus said, shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Laying down his life for those in his trust is a characteristic of every good shepherd. A worship leader may be a great singer or musician but if he is not willing to lay down his life for the sheep he doesn’t need to be placed in such a vital ministry. The ministry of worship leading is a very visible ministry, as visible as that of a pastor. It is imperative to fill that ministry with someone who has the heart of a pastor; a heart for people.

New praise and worship songs are great – the Bible clearly exhorts us to sing a new song to God! But sometimes I find there are those ‘golden oldies’ that always hit the mark!  For instance, I have yet to see our Church not sing more exuberantly and not raise their hands in worship anytime we hit the chorus of ‘Shout to Lord’.

I am a fan of ‘reworking’ the ‘oldies but the goodies’.  That might mean adjusting the chord changes or maybe writing an additional bridge or adding a chorus. I have found that doing this breathes new life into older songs helping to connect  generations as well.

One way to breathe new life into the older songs is by adjusting the chord changes.  Note that you want to be very careful when doing this; you don’t want to change every chord of the song and you want to be sure to choose the right chords.  But simply replacing one or two chords with different ones could be that little something will be added to breathe new life into the song.

Relatives

I highly recommend getting at least some basic music theory under your belt.  You’ll be surprised how useful a tool it can be for you. In music every Major chord has a relative minor (a minor third below)…and likewise, every minor chord has a relative Major (a minor 3^rd above).  These are very useful for this purpose of breathing new life into songs. 

Three semi-tones (or half-steps) below C is A, which means they are relatives. So therefore, a C Major chord has a relative minor of A minor (and vice versa). Try out a song and replace the C Major chords with A minor chords. Your ear (and the ears of people whose musical opinion you trust) will play a vital role as well.  Sometimes it just doesn’t sound good, but if it does sound good in certain places, try it out next time you sing the song at church.

Substitutions and Extensions

Again, a music theory course will open your eyes to new and another tool is chord substitutions.  One example of an easy chord substitution I’ve learned is using your bVII chord to replace your V (dominant) chord.

The dominant chord (the V chord) in C Major is G major (the fifth note of the major scale), and the flat 7 chord is Bb major (which is not typically used in western harmonies in typical praise & worship songs).  But in the key of C, if we try replacing a G major chord with a Bb major chord, it opens up new possibilities.

Chord extensions (adding 7ths 9ths, 11ths, 13ths… on top of your triad) are another great way to add rich flavours to your chords. 

Here’s an example of a song with some new chord changes. (We’ll stay in the key of C Major for the sake of example.) Just remember, sometimes it works great, other times…not so much.  Just use your ear and your theory knowledge to add new sounds and breathe new life into songs.

 Angels We Have Heard On High

Edward Shippen Barnes | James Chadwick © Public Domain CCLI Song #27721

A Traditional Version

C                          G            C

Angels we have heard on high

C                            G              C

Sweetly singing o’er the plains

C                               G     C

And the mountains in reply

C                           G               C

Echo back their joyous strains

C      Am       F      G        C      F      G    

Glo——————————————–ria

C                C/G   G

In excelsis    De – o

C      Am       F      G        C      F      G    

Glo——————————————–ria

C                C/G  G     C

In excelsis  De    —    o

A New Arrangement using relative minors and chord substitutions (…played in a rock feel perhaps

C                          Bb          Am

Angels we have heard on high

Am                         Bb            C

Sweetly singing o’er the plains

C                               Bb    Am

And the mountains in reply

Am                       Bb              C

Echo back their joyous strains

C      Am       F      G       Am     Dm    G    

Glo———————————————-ria

Am               Bb  

In excelsis    De – o

C      Am       F      G        Am     Dm    G    

Glo———————————————-ria

Am             Bb           C

In excelsis  De    —    o

Consider this scenario:

It’s Sunday morning (or whichever day and time you corporately gather with your church) and you arrive at church and it’s time for service to start. Perhaps the Pastor gives a word of greeting and then…

…everyone turns on their iPod (or perhaps a Walkman with an audio cassette if you’re a Boomer!) and for the next 25-30 minutes everyone has their head phones in and enjoys their most preferred praise & worship songs in the perfect style, at the perfect volume level, using the most appropriate and professional instrumentation. And absolutely everyone enjoys the musical worship time!

So, why don’t we do that? Everyone would be happy – no complaints!

Sounds like a great idea to me! In fact, I wholeheartedly believe the church should do just that!!

…just NOT at our corporate worship gatherings!

I indeed believe every Christian (the Church) should be spending time personally worshipping God, which may or may not include your iPod or Walkman.  But I believe a vital aspect of the musical worship portion of our church gatherings is that it is just that…a gathering of worshippers – the main concept being that we are together; It’s not about me, it’s about you! Please note, that’s not a capital-Y ‘You’, it’s a lowercase-y ‘you’ as in you and me! 

I’m certain we all agree that worship, fundamentally at its core is about glorifying our most worthy God and expressing our praise and worship to Him; that being understood, a secondary aspect of our corporate worship times is that my praise & worship is for you, and yours is for me.

Worship is not about me, it’s about you when I can say,  “I’ll sing that song which I don’t necessarily connect with and I will choose to worship because <insert name(s)> truly appear(s) to connect to God through it.”

Worship is not about me, it’s about you when I can say, “I don’t like the music that loud but the youth of my church are choosing to praise God through it. So I will clap along and worship with them!”

Worship is not about me, it’s about you when I can say, “Even though hymns aren’t musically or lyrically my preference, I understand they have a rich heritage and worshipping God through hymns will honour my elders.”

Worship is not about me, it’s about you when I can say, “Even though the musicians don’t sound like professionals, I will smile and encourage them, and worship God along with them as they offer their best to Him.”

I’m certain we are all challenged in one way or other on Sundays when we meet for corporate worship. So here’s one more challenge for you; have a purposeful, close look around the room next Sunday during the musical worship time and ask yourself, “Who is my worship about today?”

Choose to worship and remind yourself, “It’s not about me, it about <insert name(s)>…and together our worship is all about You!”

*Sunday morning represents the time and day of any regular worship service.

I recently attended a large youth convention with 3000+ plus participants. There were 2 large video screens with unique content and 2 with the same content, usually the lyrics to whatever song was being performed. To the casual viewer, the images on the screen were an important element in assisting the viewer to enter into a state of worship. 

My experience at this youth conference, as a Graphic Designer, was significant to me. I found that the graphics used during the worship time to be nice and simple, but lacking in originality and creativity. In contrast, I was at a similar youth conference a few years ago where the motion graphics were very unique and creative. Rather than relying on simple shapes, colour tones and contrast, the graphics focused on specific themes that related to the lyrics, people, faces, figures, and recognizable icons that related to the theme. This greatly enhanced the worship experience.

Use your motion graphics as a medium to assist your audience to enter into worship. Don’t let the graphics be an after-thought, but use them as part of the message!

One thing that I have discovered and incorporated into our services has been variety, not just in the songs, but the teams themselves.  As the worship ministry leader at my church I have found it helpful to construct teams that have their own style.  We have piano led, acoustic, rock and contemporary.  Each team has its own flavor and style, thus allowing more freedom.  The teams rotate each week, one for each Sunday of the month.  For the odd Month that has a fifth sunday, we use our Youth worship team. 

You might be wondering, with all the teams how does one keep on top of the new songs?  How do you ensure that the church doesn’t get overwhelmed with a new song each week, and how do you unify the teams with eachother?  Well after much contemplation, the solution dawned on me.  By breaking the year into quarters.  In each quarter there is a full rehearsal with all the teams.  At that time, a list of songs for the quarter is introduced.  We limit the new songs to six per quarter, two per month.  This way each team can put its own spin on the songs, and the congregation doesn’t get lost with new songs.  (For points on what to look for in a song refer to the article on “Suitable for Worship”.)

Following these steps has allowed our church to overcome the common stumbling blocks of complacency and lack of variety in worship styles.   It has enabled us to use many musicians that the Lord has blessed our congregation with and has allowed leaders to develop in their own style.

 A great way to creat visual impact and added emphasis is through long Playing backgrounds. These backgrounds are usually 3 minutes or more in length and can be used to emphasize the message of the song.  Have a short meeting with the music minister to find out what the song is about; if it is an instrumental piece you can discuss what a good theme visually would be to enhance the music.   Once you have decided on a theme you can then find a long play that visually enhances the music.  By adding this medium to the music your congregation will get a visual picture and will then use more of their senses, which enables them to remeber theme or message of the music and helps to generate longer interest.

http://www.imagevine.com/motions/longplaysvolumes.aspx