Tag Archives: singing

Stage Presence

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It’s comical isn’t it?  And painful at the same time.  But fast forward the clothing and hair styles 20 years and I’ve seen this same picture in every ministry context I’ve ever served in.      A few years ago I came across some excellent footage of me leading worship as a 17 year old at my youth group.  I looked like this picture, plus a little more awkward-teenage boy-ness.  10 years later I don’t look like that anymore.  That’s because over the last 10 years I have worked hard on something really important.  It’s a crucial skill that needs to become second nature for anyone who spends time on a stage in front of people:

It’s called stage presence

Stage presence is awesome!  You know why?  Because it helps you communicate to the people in front of you that you really care about being there.  It says that you really believe in what you are saying/singing/playing/miming.  It communicates to your audience that what you’re telling them or asking them to join in with is worth while.  In the context of leading worship it serves to support the words and the music and it helps your audience enter in to worship with you.

Here’s the other thing about stage presence.  Sometimes you might think to yourself that you look foolish.  Sometimes you might think to yourself that it’s pointless.  Sometimes (and I hear this a lot) you convince yourself, “that’s just not me.”

Let’s help you get rid of some of those excuses by getting you to ask yourself a few questions.  I’m convinced that anyone can learn stage presence if they’ve already taken the frightening step of getting up on stage in front of people.

1. Do I genuinely mean what I’m singing?

- This is not to say that lack of stage presence means you need to get right with God, but if you’re there to serve and point people to Jesus shouldn’t you try to convey some authentic joy about what He has done in your life?  If the song is joyful – be joyful.  If the song is reflective – be reflective.  If you’re singing “We stand and lift up our hands”…keep them in your pockets, of course.

2. What is my role and how can I perform my role to the best of my ability?

- I’d like to think heaven is full of all the instruments and tools that we love to use here on earth to worship God…everything except music stands.  I hate music stands!  Come prepared so that you’re not glued to your music stand for the whole 5 song set.  You know your music more than you realize, if you don’t you need to fix that because it means you’re not practicing which also communicates that you don’t care.  If you’re prepared you will be confident in your parts.  If you are confident in your parts you have more freedom to make eye contact with the congregation, move around on stage, pump your fists etc. :)

3. What do I look like on stage?  Is that how I want to look?  How can I take small steps to be a more engaging worship leader and serve the congregation better?

- If you are on stage playing worship music in front of people then you are automatically leading worship.  You might not think that (though you should) but the congregation is certainly thinking that.  Find out if there is any video footage of a recent time you’ve been on the worship team.  Most churches will be able to get that footage for you or at least be able to set it up for the next time around.  Watch it and evaluate yourself.  It might help to compare yourself with someone who you think has great stage presence.  Make a list of the things that you need to work on and start working on them.  You don’t have to jump way out of your comfort zone right away to attain better stage presence.  All you need to do is commit to practicing it and working on it and you’ll get better.

 

I hope you’ll challenge yourself with this.  I promise you this is important and I promise you that you can learn to have great stage presence.

 

Discipleship: The Chicken or The Egg?

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I’ve got some questions about discipleship and how it relates to worship.

Let’s start by saying that churches in North America are pretty weird for the most part.  Sometimes I wonder how we came to all look so similar.  I guess it was inevitable since we are influenced by pop culture.  I’m often stuck in this strange zone of loving how we “do church” and really not loving it sometimes.  Sometimes I think our efforts of doing church look something like a toddler trying to use power tools.  It can be hilarious, and it can also be really dangerous.

Whatever “church” looks like the mission is still the mission: we are called to make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28:19)

And here’s where it get’s confusing.  As a worship leader you are always hoping for the most engagement or singing possible.  You likely evaluate this engagement after a Sunday service at some point.  If you decide that engagement could be better or louder then you will probably try to choose more of the favourite songs, maybe a more exciting intro to the service, maybe turn up the volume 3 DBs, maybe buy 4 more LED lights (which is my personal favourite), or add more singers for the next Sunday and try it all again.

I think you could argue that our efforts; be it lights, music, creative elements, humour, free coffee and such actually help to get people to church.  That’s not a bad thing at all.  But what happens when we get them in their seats?  Do we want them to start learning the church-isms?  Singing, passing the plate, the sitting-standing dance, etc.  Actually it’s more important that we disciple them, that we teach them.

I’ve led worship at conferences as well as pastor’s and church leader’s retreats. Those are always the times when the engagement and singing is loudest.  Aside from this group knowing the songs well there’s an important factor here: they are disciples and they showed up ready to encounter God.

I’m not interested in tricking someone into engaging in worship.  I am, however, very interested in discipling someone into engaging in worship.  So do I do that by creating a more exciting atmosphere?  I honestly don’t know.  But I think it has more to do with showing them Jesus and his truth than it has to do with anything else.

How do you know when it’s time to make things more exciting to engage people?

How do you know when you’re trying too hard to be exciting and you just need to open the Bible and let God speak?

…this is all coming from a young man who really loves lighting, guitar solos, 4 minute instrumentals, and experimenting with dubstep beats in Logic Pro 9.

What? Why? How?

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This post is going to be a quick collection of some of the things we talked about in an interactive class I recently taught on worship.

Worship:  The What? Why? and How? 

Just to clarify, I’m talking about worshipping through music.  A small portion of a lifestyle of worship but one that I think is foundational and necessary to understand and appreciate.

Watch this first because it really supports the content of the class.

The Power of a Song

We talked about the power of a song.  The emotion, the memorability, the repetition of key phrases and ideas, the power it has to communicate truth both in beauty that reflects God and words that stem from scripture.

Do you need to re-evaluate how you participate in worship on Sundays?  Do you just say the words?  Let them pass you by?  Wish for it to be over?

Some Good Discussion Starters

“Quit Giving The Devil My Music” via ragamuffinsoul.com

“What are some of your worship pet peeves?” – some funny stuff came out of this one :)

Do you come in to church as an observer/consumer or do you come in ready to actually participate and even lead in worship?  Are you helping to edify or could you care less?

Why Should We Sing?  What’s There To Sing About?

scripture

  • Deuteronomy 6:4-9
  • Psalm 13:6
  • Acts 17: 24-28
  • Hebrews 1:1-4
  • Romans 5:6-8

 

That’s a brief overview.  It was a great class.  We had people that love to sing and love music, and we had a few that didn’t like to sing.  But at the end of our two weeks together I feel like everyone had a greater appreciation for WHY we sing.  And that is what matters.  I hope you take the time to check out the link and dig in to these scripture verses.  Maybe you take take one verse a day this week and spend some time meditating on each one.

What question, scripture verse, or idea leaves you pondering a bit more about worship?

Choosing New Songs

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Fall is an exciting time for me.

Hockey season is almost here.

iPhone 5, a new Sigur Ros album, and a new Coldplay album are all coming out in October.

AAAAAND…It’s the beginning of a new “ministry” year which means I’m looking for new songs for our congregation to sing.

New songs can help keep things feeling fresh, they can help support new sermon series, and they can become anthems for your congregation that propel the vision of the church forward.

Because what we sing can have such a big impact on us I feel it’s really important to be intentional about picking the best songs for your congregation that you possibly can.  Don’t just choose from the worshiptogether.com “top 10 of the month” list.

This fall I enlisted the help of my “leadership core” team.  This team is made up of eight of our volunteers who are part of our worship teams.  Here’s how we approached it, and it’s still a work in progress.

I sent the team a list of songs and asked them to answer these questions.

  1. Is it singable/catchy?  Can you picture our church singing it?
  2. Are you comfortable with the wording?  (theology)
  3. Any other thoughts?

Here are the front runners from the list I sent them with some of their comments.

God Is Able – Hillsong Live

  • easy to sing
  • good words and message
  • “I like it!”

Lord, I Need You – Chris Tomlin 

  • “our church would love it”
  • cross generational appeal
  • familiar and beautiful

Some interesting takeaways from this exercise

As the Worship Pastor it’s still ultimately up to me to choose the right songs for our church.  Not all of the suggestions I got back from the team will be songs I consider.  Some of them could be special music numbers.  In the end I was really glad to have their help and it gave me some good perspective.  I think I’m much closer now to having a few new songs to introduce over the next few months.

What process do you use to choose new songs for your church?  I’d love to hear from others out there.