HELP :) New Worship Leader Needs Your Advice!!

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Permalink Reply by Marty Abbott on August 24, 2009 at 2:25am

Debbi, I might not be able to give you much advice but I can tell you the following. Our worship leader, Kristen, does an awesome job! She has never had training in this area but like you, she has a passion for the Lord, is a good singer and leads our praise team very well. Our praise team is a family affair for the most part. Kristen's father plays drums, her mother plays piano, her husband plays guitar, my wife plays bass guitar and I play second guitar, congas and harmonica.
Kristen will pray between songs if Barry needs to change from electric to acoustic guitar which is usually just once during the service. We usually start with one or two upbeat songs and then gradually slow the tempos from one song to the next until we are at a more reverant place immediately before communion. Our music is mostly comtemporary but sometimes we'll do "How Great is our God" with music and without stopping go directly into "How Great Thou Art" but do this one accapella. We play the music until we hit the word soul in the first line, "Then sings my soul" then finish accapella. This site gives anyone the set lists that many other churches have already done, this might help.
I think you'll be just fine, you're already on the right track and have plenty of time with your current people. God Bless!

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Hannah on August 24, 2009 at 2:30am

WOW Debbie, that is a huge undertaking. Your 30 year walk with the Lord gives you a lot of experience. The pastor would not have asked you if he did not have confidence in your abilities.

Tell me more about your ministry dynamics? You only have a piano player, and a guitar player? Is your church a traditional church? Or somewhat contemporary? What is the general age group of your church dynamics? There is a lot that goes into how to plan a service and picking your music, but your years of experience will help you.

Just because you do not read music, does not mean that you can not be a good worship leader, but, it is imperative that you learn to understand and gain all of the knowledge that you can about how music works. We are not talking about you learning how to read music, but we are talking about you learning how to make musical decisions.

You can get into a lot of trouble as a worship leader if you do not understand some things. You will need to work with your piano player and find the best keys for you to sing in, and it will not work for every song, and if you have a guitar player, you will need to know some things to help them also. Piano player generally play in what we all call piano keys, and guitar players in guitar keys. It is easier for a piano player to adjust then it is a guitar player especially if they are not fluent or beginners. I am a keyboard player, but also a guitar player, and I do both. I have 10 musicians on my team every week and we rotate. But I always have in the back of my mind to try and make it easier on everyone, and it is usually only about a step or a half of step difference. But for a guitar player it can make all of the difference in the world.

As for picking songs. I can send you many different ideas, and get as many CD's as you can that are current or Hillsong, or Hillsong United, etc. They are one the best ways to start only because you can get of their music easier. Pick songs at first having a theme until you learn what goes good together. Make yourself about 5 sets of worship, and do them over and over, then those will become your cover sets. Then as you grow with the team and then you add different songs in as you learn them.

As you grow with your musicians, you will grow in your spontaneous worship.

Let me know how it goes! Have a wonderful evening. Brenda Hannah www.silentkryministries.org We do a lot of workshops with churches in your same position, let us know how you are doing and how we can help you.

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Permalink Reply by Debbi Reeves on August 27, 2009 at 6:08am

Thanks for writing back to me Brenda. I do read music so that is a plus. When I hear the melody I can usually pick it up pretty fast and can read the notes along with it. Most of the time all we have is the piano player. He is the one who plays by ear. He plays chords and the worship leader fills in with the melody. We are a pretty contemporary church and try to learn new songs whenever possible. I have been on the side mic for 3 or 4 years and have done some free praise during those years. I did have quite a chat with the piano player and we are going to meet during the week to practice and then we will practice on Sunday morning also. It's just going to take time for us to learn about each other. I need to learn my hand signal better, I need to learn where to go with each song. He told me I will have to stop praising and do the leading. I tend to want to praise and then don't lead and then he doesn't know where I am going. Sometimes it is just he and I for the whole worship team. I need to learn to stop conparing myself to the fantactic worship leader who moved away and know that the Lord is in control and know what he is doing. I'm not a quitter so I will just have to keep on keeping on. Please keep me in your prayers!! Blessings to you!!

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Permalink Reply by Stefanie Preda on January 28, 2010 at 1:57am

I think you've gotten a lot of good advice from this (I especially liked Brenda's comments... I think I will by contacting her :p ) and would just like to add a little more... I don't know if this is as much of an issue for you as it was for me, but I always stressed about what songs to do, then didn't focus very much on how they would be played (I think having the 5 "cover sets" is a great idea). While the what is significant, I believe the how is even more so. Any song can be anointed if it is organized (everybody is on the same page, transitions are fluid, no flub ups to cause distraction, etc... you're obviously working on this) and the "lead worshipers", i.e., worship team is actually worshiping. You seem to have a great partner with a fantastic attitude in your keyboard player.... that is PRICELESS!!! It will take practice, but after a little while the leading while worshiping will become like walking and chewing gum.
Another word of caution from my experience: Be very thoughtful in who you add to your team... Unless you are a good leader/manager (which you might be), it will be difficult to deal with your lesser experience in music at the same time as dealing with, to put it bluntly, an attitude problem. Your keyboard player can be a great support for this as well.

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Permalink Reply by Lee Gunter on August 24, 2009 at 4:30am

A few quick thoughts about how to move forward succesfully from where you are:

1) Be in constant contact with your pastor. do everything you can to actively and verbally support his vision. Ask him what he wants of you specifically. Pray together. Love one another.

2) repertoire: in the beginning try to stay as much as possible with what the congregation and the team already know. Begin with a list of songs you know you can handle, and that the piano player is comfortable with.

3) piano player: seems to be your best assett right now, team wise. Take as much advise from them as you can. When possible, defer to the key the piano player likes. the exception is when it just isn't singable.

4) limited vocal range: as crazy as it sounds, this can be an advantage for you. If you can sing the song, you can figure most of the congregation can sing it to. you have an easy to use "is this song singable" test.

5) guitar player: don't worry about making the key guitar friendly. INSTEAD, when the key is not guitar friendly, have a version of the song (chord chart or lead sheet, preferably no more than two oages long) in a transposed key that will allow the guitar player to use a capo. One or two frets is fine, three okay, four or more is getting ugly.

6) your background: remember, you are a worship leader, not a song leader. If you put that first, and don't lose focus on what, why and for whom you do what you do - it's gonna be a great adventure.

Worshiping Him always,
Lee Gunter
Kenmore Community Church
Kenmore, WA

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Permalink Reply by Rick Hicks on December 17, 2009 at 4:42am

Hi Debbi, I'm new here too. I have been leading worship in small churches for approx 20 yrs. Let me ask you these questions which I ask myself. 1) Am I leading because God has called me to this ministry, or because there seems to be a hole? If I am not called to this by God, I need to get out and let the hole be seen by the one God will provide to fill it. Many times I have seen called people pushed away by talent that wasn't called but filling the hole. 2) Why am I doing the song I am doing? And why am I doing it this way? If it's because I like it, or because I can do it, I'm probably leaning too much on me. Seek God's face. What does He want? If the Pastor isn't prayed up, and doesn't bring God's message, will you as the worship leader see to it that God's message is heard? Worship is NOT the warm-up band for the Pastor. I ask our preachers to NOT tell me what their message is. That way, any link between the worship and the message is all God driven, without a hint of manipulation. And I will say, far more often than not, God weaves His message thru both. 3) Am I praying? Are my hands clean? Am I accountable to others? Is my service an overflow of an overflowing heart? These are probably the toughest questions for me. I am forgiven much. I strive for the "chapping of two nail scarred hands". And when I have been obedient, I get my socks blessed off:)

Rick
Cornerstone Church
Ottawa KS.

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