Posts Tagged Lead Worship
3 Ways To Lead Worship From Guitar
Posted by Jed in Uncategorized on May 13th, 2009
You have probably figured it out by now: Playing guitar isn’t enough. More is needed than just a guitar part. You are not there to just provide a backing track. You are there to lead your congregation into genuine worship of the Risen Savior.
We have a lot to think about when playing guitar and you might be afraid to add some more things to the plate. Don’t worry. These are small yet very effective things you can do to help lead your church into worship.
1. Smile. This is the biggest thing especially for us electric guitarists. We have a lot to think about when we play. We are always thinking about the settings on our pedals, which strings the pick should be hitting, what fret our hand is on, and, of course, what part is coming up next in the song and what tap-dance we will have to perform to get the right pedals turned on and the wrong pedals turned off. We have quite a job on our hands…and feet.
Because of this we can often look like zombies. Our faces look like we don’t care about what we are doing and why we are there. Of course, this isn’t true. We are concentrating. We have to. But if we learn to smile while managing everything, we keep ourselves from being just a manikin with a Fender. We become worship leaders. We enjoy what we are doing. We enjoy why we are doing it. By smiling we communicate that enjoyment and inspire it in others.
2. Look at the congregation. Don’t ignore them. A worship leader (that’s you) who ignores their church will end up with a church that ignores them. You are there to lead worship, not play a song and hope worship happens.
Engage them with your eyes. Let them know you haven’t forgotten they are there. Suck them in with your smile. Let them see you enjoying worship. You don’t have to make eye contact with an individual necessarily; you can look at them as a whole. But don’t be afraid to make eye contact with a stranger and give them a smile every once in a while. By engaging them in this small yet very effective way, you will inspire your church to also enjoy worship.
3. Think about your guitar parts like a worship leader. Sometimes we can think so much like a guitar player we forget to think like a musician. We can get so wrapped up in a new pedal that we use it all the time. Or we just love the way power chords sound so we use them during songs like “Here I Am To Worship.” What happens is we take away from the song instead of adding to it.
Design your guitar parts to complement or even enhance the song. When this is done well, your instrument begins to lead worship as well.
Jesus is alive; therefore, you be alive when you worship Him and others will follow.
-Jed
Why Your Worship Ministry Matters to Your Church
Posted by Jed in Uncategorized on April 21st, 2009
I remember when I first started serving my church’s worship ministry. I had been playing guitar for almost two years and had just gotten my hands on a brand new Carvin SC-90. Church needed an electric guitarist and I had a knack for putting in nice little touches in songs.
I also had a knack for putting huge horrible waste baskets in songs, but that’s another post.
Serving in the worship ministry brought me a lot of fulfillment. When Sunday morning came, I wouldn’t be hitting snooze button, like I did the rest of the week. I would often think of a famous John Piper quote: “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him.”
That’s the way I felt. I felt most satisfied in God when I was helping leading people in worshiping Him.
I would occasionally have the opportunity to play at other churches or other worship events outside of the Sunday morning service at my church. Every once in a while I would witness something I didn’t possess myself: a higher sense of urgency. This baffled me at first. I would see people operating as if there were more at stake.
All I knew was glorifying God and enjoying Him. What more was at stake?
You may have noticed this yourself. Now and then you come across a worship band, ministry or team that seems to be operating at a different level than you are. And it demands the question: WHY?
The key is motivation. When we answer the question of what is motivating that person we can answer why they are operating at another level than we are. When we have deeper motivation it can lead to deeper service and a greater sense of urgency.
There is a famous story in Acts that serves as a great illustration.
Acts 16:16 starts the story of Paul and Silas minding their own business on their way to a place of prayer. On the way they get heckled in the street by a demon-possessed woman shouting at them and mocking them.
Paul is at the end of his rope and casts the demon from her. He then realizes that this is not the best way to make friends. A mob forms and drags Paul and Silas to the local authorities. The authorities have them beaten and thrown in a damp prison cell.
And there they are–cold from the prison cell, humiliated from the public mocking, and probably still bleeding from their wounds. And around midnight they do what many of us do when we are up against a wall, alone, with nowhere to go.
They worship.
The two of them start singing hymns to God and will I bet you $10 right now that they were a little flat and a little pitchy. If Simon Cowell heard them he would not be impressed, but the other prisoners didn’t mind, they just listened.
An astounding thing happens. An earthquake rumbles through the place shaking the foundations of the prison, breaking the chains and opening the doors that held them captive.
I propose that where there is worship there is rescue.
We have all experienced it. We have been stretched too thin throughout the week and when we come to worship God we find divine comfort. We have experience renewed hope when we thought all hope was lost. We get convicted of sin and it becomes evident to us that we need to get rid of something in our lives.
This is all forms of God’s rescue during worship.
The reason we need a high sense of urgency when it comes to worship ministry is because there are people who will be walking through you church doors this Sunday who desperately need that rescue.
Serving a worship ministry is much deeper than just our own enjoyment, even though that needs to be there. It is about providing people an atmosphere where they can meet God, the One who rescues.
-Jed