Dear Worship Leader(s),
Don't take this as an attack, but there are many things that you might be doing that throw off/put off people when they come to worship God. Here are a few notes, which may or may not apply to you:
1. Your mic does not need to be that loud. When you belt out the high notes you are drowning out everything else and (if you are female) you are killing my eardrums. Yahweh no longer requires blood sacrifices, especially trickling from human orifices.
2. WE are singing. WE. ALL OF US. You are privileged and given the awesome honor to lead all of us in praising God. We are not here to see your concert.
3. When you have a giant projection with the lyrics of the song on the wall it is totally unnecessary to quickly, verbally announce the upcoming verse before singing it while in song. Example: A-ma-zing grace, how-sweet-the-sound, how-swee-t the sound, that-saved-a-wretch, that say-ved a wretch, etc. We know how to read and it disrupts the flow.
4. It is unnecessary to stretch a four minute song to ten minutes. It's not just a time thing, but after repeating the same chorus over and over it turns from an intentional thought of praise to God into a mindless mantra we chant while wondering where to go out to eat after the service.
5. Stop playing U2 songs. I do like some of them, but they were never meant to be praise music. Either that or give equal time to other mainstream bands with spiritual material. I have a couple of metal/hard rock songs in mind if you want suggestions. Otherwise, lose them.
6. Does the male worship leader have to sing tenor? And play an acoustic guitar? Nothing against those guys personally, but it'd be less homogenized to see the baritone drummer or harmonica player take the lead sometime. I'd like to match notes with the guy, not feel like I'm trying to mimic Jack Johnson.
7. Don't be afraid of silence. Maybe tell the band that prayer time doesn't always need a soundtrack behind it.
Thank you for your consideration and correction. Or thank you for praying for my, probably according to some of you, "bitter and unenlightened soul."
Peace.
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4 comments:
Word.
Ouch. I will now cry myself to sleep.
Okay, so I was kidding. But, a few comments from a worship leader:
1. That's the sound guys fault.
2. Indeed.
3. Sometimes this is a cue for the band and the projector dude, if the worship leader is changing things on the fly. Sometime, as you said, it is overdone.
4. Indeed.
5. Do you really want a praise band to attempt a metal song. Trust me, you don't. I agree on U2, though. Their one praise song, 40, isn't really that good.
6. As a guy who has recruited/trained worship leaders, I can say that this is a complicated question, but the simple answer is who will step up and lead. The reason that there aren't many dummer worship leaders is that most drummers refuse to sing. Harmonica is a tough instrument to lead on. I've done it, but the thing is, you are either singing or playing, but generally not both.
While at FOCUS, I had a somewhat wide variety of worship leaders at one point. We had a bass player who was a bass vocalist. We had an alto who didn't play an instrument. But, generally, it's the acoustic guitar players who tend to be the most willing and comfortable in the lead role. Part of that is that acoustic guitar is the easiest to lead on. The worship leader doesn't just lead the congregation, he or she also leads the band. And, rythm guitar is just a natural place to do that, for a variety of reason. Along those lines, tenors tend to be the most confident vocalists, so they are the ones most confident in that role. It's not that others can't lead, it's just that typically they won't lead.
Still, I agree that even as the tenor leads, he should be aware of how high the music goes and be aware of how that affects the congregation. The problem is that most get their songs from the latest Passion/Vineyard/Hillsongs album. And, in one of my pet peeves in a lot of ways, they tend to do them exactly as recorded. I have to tell my band here (led by an alto on acoustic guitar, and occasionally by a tenor on electric guitar) that we can indeed stray from whats on the recording and create a bit.
7. Indeed.
And I would add:
8. You are in charge of the music. You are not the preacher. While it is appropriate for you to speak during the song set on occasion, you don't need to do it so much.
Thanks for the quick feedback from my worship leader blog. It gave me good perspective. For the record, I wasn’t referencing you from UCC. I have no complaints from the musical stylings of the Colonel. I’ve just been church-hunting and these seem to be the continual themes. I was mostly joking about using mainstream songs outside of U2 songs, but I thought it made the point of what constitutes a secular band’s music being worship-to-able. I also agree with your addition of #8. I was thinking of something along the lines of what you wrote, but didn’t write it because I was unable to word it in a way that wasn’t either too “mean” or “picky.” Thanks for wording it for me.
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