Worship Instructions (to the worship leader)

Instruction in worship is a vital part of the worship service. When you do anything corporately (in a group), you must have instruction. This week's topic is written from two different perspectives. It is written to the worship leaders, and then it is written to the worshippers. For this reason, I will make two posts today. This one will be to the worship leaders. The next post (the one above) takes this topic to the actual worshipper who is standing in the congregation.

There are some that say, "if I worship, they will". I beg to differ. If that were the case, the same could be true about salvation, serving God, tithing, and any other thing. You will have some people that will just worship because they see you worship, however there are also some that will not, regardless of how much you worship. We have to understand that in any given service, there are people from various mindsets, backgrounds, and knowledge levels. There will be people who are trained in worship who will just go with you as you escort them. There will be people who will be uncomfortable with the people around them who are clapping, shouting and lifting their hands, and there will be people who will watch you and think, "hey that was a cool guitar lick" as they enjoy their concert experience and get no deeper. We recognize this in our preaching of sermons, but we have somehow neglected this train of thought when it comes to worship. People need instruction.

So, how can you as a worship leader instruct the people in worship? The first is by your action. Some people will follow you in what you do. You can step this up to another level by actually making your actions bigger. You can engage the people in your action. For example, you have seen people start to clap over their heads. That is the universal sign for people to clap with them.

The second is by your words. Have you ever heard a worship leader say something like, "come on clap your hands". That is vocal instruction. I want to encourage you if you are on a worship team and you have a mic in front of you (if you are permitted) to instruct the encourage the people if you find an empty spot in the vocal part of a song. One place is during solos. Other places are during transitions from song to song, intros, outros, instrumental tags, instrumental transitions into bridges or prechoruses. There are many places. When people other than the Worship Pastor do this, it breaks the monotony of the same person instructing, and it also engages the rest of the team on stage and gives a united front so to speak.

The third way is just in your conversation. You have all had people say, "you did a good job today in worship". Use that opportunity to spill on that person the heart of worship rather than just saying thanks and letting it go.

I believe that if we step out and instruct our people on purpose, it will make a difference in the long run in our services and in their hearts and experiences in worship.

Now, for the worshipper