Tips for Songs Selection and Worship-leading
[ contact the author ]
[ view printable version ]
[ recommend this article to a friend ]
Successful worship-leading is an art as well as science. As art, it requires a great amount of practice and experience to lead skillfully; as science, it involves understanding the schemes of things and the laws of operation, group dynamics and principles of effective leadership. In leading the people to worship, we seek to invent a spiritual climate by creating an atmosphere conducive to the worship experience.
©2004 Rev. Julian Low
author@gsus.biz
http://www.gsus.biz
Songs are crucial to congregational worship experience. When choosing songs consider, first of all, what the spiritual emphasis is, the suitability of the songs to the occasion, the people (their vocal range, musical taste, and spiritual level, etc), the musicians' skills, and your own ability to carry out the songs effectively. Other elements are the song content, emotion intent and cohesive influence or the uniting factor of the song or music.
Before you worship lead, it's good to imagine or envision how your worship-leading is carried out or how it is going to turn out. It is important that you feel the impact of your performance before the actual event. Determine how you want the people to respond in worship and communicate to the musicians how and where you want free flow worship to take place. Learn also to be sensitive to the Spirit and what He wants to happen in your worship-leading.
In leading the people in worship, avoid:
• Talking too much and irrelevant matters that detract worship focus.
• Coercing the people to act in ways that are uncomfortable to them like total prostration on the floor or kneeling on their knees for 10 times and etc..
• Shouting at the people through the PA system can irritate the ears and frustrate those who try to focus and concentrate on the Lord.
• Singing too many or hurrying through the songs without pause that rob the people of reflective and contemplative worship. Worship is an experience. It takes time to develop one. Moments of worship intimacy with God cannot be hurried. Rather, it must be nurtured and handled with wisdom supplied by the Holy Spirit.
• Prolonged silence, which generates boredom, blandness and break in the worship flow. Understand how silence can be used to enhance worship and how to effectively say words or phrases that break down barriers to worship.
• Imitating another person's style and personality. Be genuine and true to yourself and others. Build on your strength. Genuinely concern for others and their enjoyment in the worship experience is crucial to a good worship session.
• Performing worship all by yourself without considering how the people are following you or keeping up with you. Don't be like a runaway train heading to a quick and impending doom. You are supposed to lead the people in worship and not just perform for them. The goal is to involve the people in actual worshipping of the Lord and not just as mere spectators. Your worship-leading style and selection of music must serve as accompaniment and guide to their journey in worship. Be people-friendly in your approach but focus on Christ always.
Let it be reiterated that congregation participation in worship is crucial to the success of worship-leading. In leading the people to worship the Lord, the song selection should contain elements of music flow, thematic development or progression, time for contemplation and soaking in the presence of God. All forms of distraction and music glitches should be minimized to enhance focused worship with ease of singing and enjoyment.
Should you include some oldies like hymns, give the music a new treatment to suit the contemporary musical taste and singing style. Also, take note of the kind of music and singing, which usually succeed in engaging the people in corporate worship. This includes the moods, feeling of joy and pleasure, raptures of spontaneous singing in tongues, and exuberant praising and shouting.
If you are not certain how things are going to work out in your worship-leading, seek for advice. Discuss your song list and plan with the Worship Pastor or the Music Director to determine how you can best create a flow in worship and sustained focus on the Lord.
© 2004 Julian Low
Email : author@gsus.biz
http://www.gsus.biz
[ return to top ]
All articles are copyright of their respective authors. Used with permission. |
