The next year, I didn’t have to play right field anymore. I became the catcher. One year I couldn’t buy a ball sent my way. The next year, they were coming at me from every direction – pitched, bounced, fouled, popped, bunted. I went from a passive observer of the game, to the center of attention. By the end of each game I was dirty, tired and sore. But, I liked it that way. I slept well those nights.

Many people in our churches play right field. They passively sit by as a few people worship God for them. They daydream, and occasionally do something active. But most of the time, their minds and heart are disengaged. Before we put all the blame on them, let’s look at our own worship leadership. Last week I mentioned three ways to get worshipers to participate. I want to mention three more. These come from Constance Cherry’s book, The Worship Architect.

1. Recognize that congregations have been largely oriented toward an audience mentality in our culture. They think of going to church much the same as going to a movie. Worship activity happens on the platform. Someone else, often a professional, is getting dirty, sore and tired. We need to find ways to redistribute that activity. Do we as leaders do things that inhibit this: too performance oriented in our motions and songs, too passive in our leadership, not asking for physical responses from the crowd or using music as the only worship response?
2. Recognize that worship is work. That’s why we call it a “worship service”. We perform a sacred job by ministering to God. It should cost us something just as David pointed out in 2 Sam. 24:24. Think about ways to get the congregation involved in the leadership of the service. Prayers, scripture readings, live art, video production, ushering and testimonies are just a few.
3. Recognize that encountering God in worship results in powerful responses. Anytime we meet the glory of God, we will be changed. We should expect that to happen each week. Do we ask for a response from people? They may want to respond, but are never asked. Have we prayed about the type of response God desires for a given service? Are there practical ways that we can invite the people to express inward change? Are we prepared for any natural emotional response that may occur.

My baseball career was unremarkable. But I still remember the transformation a simple position change made in my life at age 11.The same can happen to your congregation.

We are seeing this transition happening in our worship services as well. If you plan on attracting people to your Sunday morning experience, it better be just that – an experience. Not an observation. Yes, it’s a lot easier to just do a performance. But if we insist on just letting people sit and passively watch, we will soon discover that they will do that at home on Sunday morning instead.

There are six principles for moving your congregation from passivity to participation. I’ve taken these from Constance Cherry’s wonderful book, The Worship Architect. Here are three of them.

1. Recognize that participation is the very thing that this generation desires. We need to design worship services that involve the whole person. Do we have service elements that use sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch? I recently participated in a communion service expecting the “blood” to be grape juice. Discovering the bitterness of red wine instead, was a shock to my system. But I found that the different taste changed the way I experienced the Lord’s Supper. His death was full of pain and ugliness – not sweetness. Look for ways to engage more than just the senses of sight and sound in your services.
2. Recognize that participation involves partnering with others. How can we connect people with one another? Yes, as an introvert, I prefer to avoid as much human interaction as possible. But, keeping that in mind, there are ways to gently encourage the worshipers to share with one another – prayer in small groups or that dreaded “greeting time” are options.
3. Recognize that most people will naturally tend to be shy. They will need to be encouraged to not be passive. That is part of the leadership ingredient in worship leading. It’s not just music leadership – it is people leadership. How often do we ask the congregation to do something? Are there groups of people in our church the we neglect in the worship service – handicapped, senior citizens, children? Stretch people a little each week.

Let me leave you with a quote from Contemporary Worship for the 21st Century: Worship or Evangelism?

“In the post modern culture, people will go to those churches that offer them an experience of God that lifts them beyond their everyday existence. In an [entertainment] world, filled with images and sound bites, everyday experience will be hard to match, except in one way: the live, hands-on experience of worshiping the living God in a community of faith.”

I recently talked with a young man, who was ready for his first full-time worship leading gig. He has a great heart and a load of musical talent. He actually had several churches that wanted him. His final choice wasn’t the most attractive of the offers. It would mean several years of hard work to bring the church to a point of embracing a truly contemporary style of worship.

This was a church where he was already a part-time worship leader. They were willing to bring him on full-time if he added student ministries to his responsibilities. This is what he said to me, “I feel like I’m not done with what God called me to do here. I would be betraying their trust if I left. This ministry is hard . . . if I have to do another ’90′s worship song. . .! But there are things that God wants me to learn here.”

Not only was I proud of him (He was a former student of mine), but he caused me to reflect on my journey. My first worship ministry was in a medium size church that was going through a difficult transition in leadership and worship styles. I stayed there for seven years, passing up at least three serious offers to leave. Although I couldn’t see the reasons for staying at the time, it is clear to me now.

Here are 3 reasons to stay where you are:

1. Be faithful in the little things. The ministry fruitfulness you enjoy in your 40′s and 50′s is a result of your faithfulness in the little things in your 20′s and 30′s. That’s just the way God works. We hear stories of people who jumped into a high pressure, visible ministry straight out of college, but those are the exceptions. I did a lot of stupid things early in my ministry. Fortunately, those mistakes didn’t affect thousands of people, because God was having me serve out of the spotlight. As restless as you may feel right now, learn what you can where you are. Fifteen years from now, you will be glad you were faithful where you are today.
2. Remember – bigger isn’t better. It’s just bigger! I’ve been there. Ministry is hard no matter where you are. But a bigger church tends to bring bigger headaches. In order to deal with the tougher problems, you must have solved smaller problems along the way. A fascinating and controversial book by Joel Gregory, former preacher at First Baptist Church in Dallas, titled Too Great a Temptation, is a great read. It definitely strips away the high-gloss of working in a large church. If God has a wider audience and greater influence in your future, he will prepare you for that by forging your character in your younger years. There are no shortcuts.
3. If God wants you to move, he will let you know. He’s not going to keep it a secret from you. I served in a church for a few years where I felt like I was on the edge of the world. I thought that God forgot about me. What if I stayed here the rest of my life? I didn’t think that I would survive. Well, God knew what my family and I needed. We burned out from our previous ministry and needed some time to heal. The church allowed us to do that.  After three years, God decided he wanted to move me again and he made it very obvious.

I’m not saying that God isn’t telling you to move on to another ministry. But in the midst of what may seem like a wasteland, God is doing an invisible work in you that will pay off in great fruitfulness later in your life. You can trust Him!

What about you? What lessons have you learned by staying where you are?

It’s not that you don’t want to have 2,3,4, or even 5 of them. It’s just that you think it’s impossible for you.

You’re just an average guitar player with a passable voice, and to do anything more than simple strumming while singing – well, don’t ask!

You’ve thought about taking some guitar or voice lessons, but you just don’t have the time. Besides, the church says you sing just fine. They never put any pressure on you to do anything more than just lead a 5 song set to get everyone ready for the preacher. The sermon is the most important part anyway.

You just want to be a one talent worship leader.

Speaking of your church, You wish you had a sound person that could do some simple EQ to improve your sound. He (you only have one) doesn’t have a musical ear and isn’t interested in getting any training. In fact, you can’t get him to show up more than 15 minutes before the service starts, so a sound check just isn’t something you ever do. But that’s okay, you make it work.

You’d like to be a two talent worship leader, but one is just fine.

You keep telling yourself every Monday that you will find time to train some new singers or band members. You know they are out there – they have talked to you. It’s just that when you finally get around to it, the week is over – so you put it off until next Monday.

You have these song ideas floating around in your head, but every time you start working on them, they don’t sound good anymore. You probably have 50 unfinished songs in your desk drawer.

You also have these crazy ideas that would make the worship services better. But, when you sit down to actually make them happen, you get scared. What if the congregation freaks out? What if the services look corny? What if things fall apart? What if. . .?

It would be awesome to be a 5 talent worship leader, but 1 is more realistic. 5 is reserved for those young guys with great hair in big churches. Besides, you’re a bass. Don’t you have to be a tenor to be a 5?

You think you’ll continue to be a one talent worship leader.

You wouldn’t mind being more, but it sounds like a lot of work.

You know the pet phrases that your preacher uses. These are words that have become meaningless clichés over the years. He may genuinely feel deeply about them; however, because of repetition, they no longer carry the weight they once did. When words and actions lose their meaning to our congregations, they go on autopilot. None of us want that.

The same is true about you and the worship greetings/ clichés you use.

What if you actually wrote down your opening comments for this Sunday’s worship service?

Take 15 minutes and memorize something that focused, fresh, meaningful and biblical.

Constance Cherry in her excellent book, “The Worship Architect,” says,
“God is calling us out of the world, saying, ‘It’s time! I’m here!’ God is gathering us from our homes and our busy schedules to come and experience the divine-human encounter. That God is seeking us is the crux of the gathering. Jesus made it clear that it is the Father who is seeking worshiper (John 4:23).”

Reminding worshipers about that foundational truth may change the spirit of the entire worship service. We just need to think of new ways of telling them what the service is all about.

Here is what I said this past weekend at the beginning of the worship service: “Good morning everyone! God says that He inhabits the praises of His people. So, I picture God pulling up a chair and sitting in this room with us and listening to our praise with a big smile on his face. With that picture in mind, and realizing that we are the choir and he is the audience, let’s get on our feet and pour out our hearts in praise.”

It took less than 30 seconds, but it planted a word picture in the minds of the congregation that may have affected the way they worshiped God.

I’m challenging myself to do this for the next month – hopefully it will become a habit. Why don’t you try it and let me know how it went?

Let’s keep each other accountable.

1. Start a choir – monthly or at least seasonally. Sadly, it’s becoming harder to find worship leaders who have the ability to lead a choir.
2. Mix adults with kids on your children’s worship teams.
3. Form worship teams for your women’s & men’s ministry events.
4. Have occasional artist nights, where singers and other artists can share their songs and art with others in a non-threatening environment.
5. Do more A Cappella music.  With the popularity of Glee and Sing-off, we have seen a resurgence in unaccompanied music.  It doesn’t have to be difficult.  It could be as simple as closing out a song by singing the last chorus without the band.

We have had two planning meetings for our Christmas services.  Today I met with a smaller group over lunch to start bringing some order to the ideas.  I’m very excited to see where this all goes.

The theme will be, “When God comes close.” Based on a couple of scenes from Luke 2, what does it look like when we let God come close and invade our lives, instead of keeping Him at a safe distance?  We are planning on using sounds and visuals that will bring the story “close” to the congregation.  We only need 4 more projectors!

Be more than just a worship leader!

1. Pastor your worship team members.  Make sure you deal with most of the issues that come up in your ministry.  Don’t make your senior pastor have to deal with situations that you should handle.

2. Multiply your leaders.  Set a goal to let someone else lead worship at least once-a-month.  This may take a while, but it is what each of us should be doing.  Eph. 4:11-13.  As pastors we are “to prepare God’s people for acts of service.” But, don’t just focus on your current worship team members, pour into the lives of the younger musicians in your church as well.

3. Develop your secondary gifts.  You are more than your worship leading gift.  Do you like to teach? Lead a small group or preach on occasion.  Do you like spending time with hurting people?  Volunteer to visit your church members in the hospital. Do you have administrative gifts?  Organize the church picnic next year.

4. Expand the breadth of your ministry.  Gradually start adding more areas of ministry that will increase the level of participation: drama, visual arts, ushering, children’s choir, and stage decor to name a few.

5. Diversify your musical style.  We all have a musical style that we are most comfortable playing.  But if all you can do is modern rock, you will limit the kind of churches that will hire you as well as the kind of musicians who will join your ministry.  I see expanding opportunities for worship leaders who can jump into multi-generational, multi-ethnic church settings.  However, you can’t do that if you aren’t comfortable with other styles such as gospel, r & b, country, jazz and even traditional styles.

“For great is your love, higher than the heavens;

your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,

and let your glory be over all the earth”

“O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me…

May his days be few… may his children be wandering beggars…

may a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor,” and so on and so on!

1. David didn’t hide his emotions.  Many times it got him in trouble – but we can identify with him.  We love him for that.
2. I think many people expect lyrics and poetry in the church to reflect correct views of God.  The reality is that poetry often reflects imperfect people trying to work through messy issues in their lives in very public ways.  We don’t always get it right.
3. We need more songs that identify with the raw emotions that most of our church attenders are experiencing. As long as we sing songs with surface, trite lyrics those feelings stay hidden. But do we want them hidden?  My friend, Stan Endicott, says that we are too quick to celebrate and too slow to lament.  He recently challenged worship leaders to start their worship service with a slow song.