In this episode, Brian and Brian talk about some practical things we as worship leaders can do to raise the level of congregational engagement in our worship services. Here are the topics covered in this episode:
- What is engagement, and how do we define it in the context of our church? (starts at 2:25 in the video)
- What are we trying to get people to engage with? (starts at 9:15)
- Engagement starts with me (and my team) (starts at 13:37)
- Assess the environment (starts at 17:55)
- Sing songs people know (starts at 21:22)
- Be authentic (starts at 23:27)
- Stage/environment: Lighting (starts at 27:05)
- Stage/environment: Music stands (starts at 29:15)
The Worship Manual is a series of videos where we have honest conversations about what makes for an engaging and effective worship environment. If there are any topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes, please leave a comment below or send us a message through the contact form.
thank you for this!!! Many of the things that have crossed my mind and heart.
Thanks Dana! If there are any other topics you’d like us to discuss, please let us know.
Hi Brian! Your worship tutorials are a huge help to me. I’ve been toying with the idea of killing the iPad stand. I think this video might be the very motivation that I need. Thank you so much for all the work you put in for the WT site. I’ve used it for the guitar, your videos and worship pads. Your site is indispensable. I live about three miles from your church. When I get a Sunday off, I’m going to visit!
May God continue to richly bless the work that you are doing.
David
Thank you David – Small world! If you do stop by Newhope Garner please come find me :). We have a 1p service if that’s an option for you on a Sunday.
I enjoyed your comments greatly. However, as a bi-vocational pastor of a small church who has to lead worship, plus prepare to minister in the Word, and lead the congregation in worship, learning all the songs we sing by memory and singing them is more than a challenge. We have gone from live music with guitar only, to primarily canned music to enable us to prepare more quickly. Learning new songs and keeping pace with the new music coming out still doesn’t allow us to get them down like a professional band. Practicing twice a week for two hours each session still leaves us using lyric sheets, podiums, etc., which you don’t recommend using. Perhaps in the more perfect world of those whose primary responsibility is solely to lead in musical worship, this level of professionalism is possible. Probably not so for many of us who have neither the time, talent, nor treasure necessary to exact professional standards in many areas. We struggle upward, sometimes successfully. Again, I did listen to your comments with great benefit and interest. Will listen in the future.
Hi Darrell, thanks for your comments. One question I have after reading your comments is how many songs you have in your song library? If it’s a lot, I’d recommend thinking about narrowing your list down to about 20 or so that you use a lot. This will help engagement because your congregation will be familiar with those songs as well. Then you could shoot to add maybe 1-2 a month at most. In my opinion, most churches have way too many songs in the rotation (ours included, ha).
I think this would we another great subject for a Vlog, “how many songs do you rotate through”. Every year we have a Christmas dinner for the team and family members and one thing I do is make a chart of every song in our rotation (must be used in the last two years to be considered active) and how many of those we did in one year, and how many times we did each song in the last year. Currently we are just over a hundred in rotation, and of those hundred we did over 80 of them in the last year, and of those 80 we repeated each song on average 2-3 times only in one year. I do that because I always hear from the band “we always do the same songs” (which data shows is not true), and because I hear from the congregation that we never do their favorite songs enough. Our songs span 20 years worth of worship music, we try to keep old good ones and every month we learn 1-2 new ones and rotate out some more old ones. I wonder sometimes if we should do a much smaller set of songs and repeat them more, especially in a series. one reason I keep such a big set of songs is that I get the service notes and try and make every song match the theme that day, especially the response song after the message, which is another great subject, “do the songs have to match, and does anyone care if they do or don’t”. It takes a ton of time to dig through song lyrics and match them to the message.
Thanks! We talked about this one in the Vlog “How we pick songs”. I think we sort of settled on 30 as being more than enough songs in a current rotation. I’m not a fan of having a huge database of songs, personally. I think it’s best to spend seasons with fewer songs so the worship teams (and the congregation) can really get to know them well.
I concur with Darrell–sounds very similar to my own ‘boat.’ I think there is a wide split here between large, multi-church congregational worship leadership and the other 80% percent of churches in America with very small attendance; based on the current trends. And either you’re going to a mega-church these days or you’re attending the 100-year-old country church down the road. I personally don’t see much in between. So maybe the conversation for the small church would be different compared to a ‘worship leader’ scenario. As Darrell said, many of us wear multiple hats in the church and as many not only lead music but also present the sermon, clean the restrooms, and make the coffee in the morning. Naturally there is some of this that the small church can glean from, but I suspect most of us in that department are listening from the point of view of that ‘some day’ church we might attend / lead. Don’t misunderstand me thought–all being done here on this site is wonderful and I try to absorb it like a sponge when possible.
I’ve been involved in churches of under 150 or so for most of my life – I know the multiple-hat-wearing scenario all too well. For me it was always worship, youth, web, tech, etc. Basically anything that people thought a young person could do, ha. Although I’m not that young anymore (approaching 40).
Our vision here at Worship Tutorials is that every church in the world would have worship that is both excellent and authentic. Those two things can be done on any budget – huge or none at all, and with any level of resources available.
Thank you all so much. This video is packed with great info. Where I’m at right now is, “the guy with his guitar, barely in key.” I struggle with stage fright and have only sang for my close family and my pastor. Any help with stage fright?
Brian you are an awesome teacher,(probably 75% of the songs I learned came from http://www.worshiptutotials.com) keep up the great work.
Thanks again and God bless,
Adam
Thanks Adam!
Guys thank you very much for sharing the things you both have learned along your journey as worship leaders thus far. I really loved the part about going out after service to thank those who are “engaged” every week. That is something I definitely want to do and I plan to do that this Sunday after our services. Great words of encouragement and thanks again for giving of your time guys!
Thanks, BIlly! That one is HUGE – not only do you get to connect with people on a personal level, but it is such an encouragement.
Thanks for the video guys. There’s plenty to take away from this and try to improve on. I’m not sure where I stand on the music stand bit… I’d really like to be able to do it, but as a guy who works more than full time hours outside of the church and has many other commitments, I’m not sure that I can really get all the songs down and memorized in a given week. I’m willing to give it a go though.
Thanks, Nathan! I’ve found personally that memorizing the songs wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be – just a bit extra time in practice and I think you’ll get it down.
LOL you guys are funny and for that.. I will strongly disagree to both of you when it comes to the music stand. Although, I’d like to get there it just isn’t feasible for me at this moment.
Yes: I am full time here at FLCC and I have too much on my plate and not enough people on my team at the moment to help spread that love (help).
I have built and run the website.
I run the FB/Twitter feed
I am graphics designer
I am Order Of Service designer
I am Proclaim Presentation guy (sets up the Sunday presentation)
I record the sermon audio/process and send to web/Facebook
I set up and tear down for CR
I sweep and mop the floors
lol sounds like a pity party I know.. But it is my current reality. I know that in time I will have people who will have a passion to help in these areas. Believe me.. I don’t have to do it all and would prefer not to.
Hi Kevin,
I think many people are in your shoes especially in small churches. In the last church I served in, I did many of the things you’ve listed above (all of them, actually – and I was part time there). The music stand thing is definitely a point of tension for a lot of people, but I found it wasn’t has hard as I thought it would be. I would encourage you to find and equip volunteers to do a lot of the stuff you’ve mentioned. I’ll bet there are people around you with talent and willingness to take on some of these tasks. I’m speaking to myself here as well – I’m the kind of guy who likes to do everything myself, but there’s a lot of freedom and empowerment (to you and to volunteers) when you can equip others to take some of these responsibilities off your plate. Good luck, brother!
Enjoyed the video. It was very informative. I would like to respond to singing songs the people know. Everything you said I totally agree with but here is one thing I struggle with when people say “I don’t know any of the songs.” Nobody knew Amazing Grace until somebody brought it to the local church.
Thanks Mark – you make a good point :). I think Fuller and I might do a video soon on introducing new songs and the strategies we use.
Lots of very useful info, Thank you!
My only concern was about using music stands. We use the Onsong program on iPads for the players and run it thru a larger screen for the praise team.
Depending on who is leading worship we may change the chords to a song on the fly. Also one of our leaders uses hand written chords on printed song papers.
As far as being prepared we all have full time jobs so we are on our own as far as practice until one hour before service when we get the song list, and it can change on the spur of the moment too and some of the players may not be familier with a certain song.
Better communication on our part would be a plus. If only life would slow down.
Thanks again for all your helpful advice and look forward to more tutorials!
Thanks Troy – Great communication is key. I think a lot of churches get into a rhythm where they don’t distribute (or even plan) music until the last minute. In my opinion, this is very disrespectful to volunteers and other staff who wish to be as prepared as possible, and it sets teams up for failure. Ha – I’m being pretty blunt here :). I would encourage you to have a conversation with your worship leader – express to them how you’d like to be able to have time to prepare for Sunday, and ask if there’s any way the songs could be distributed a few weeks in advance.
Thanks Guys
Fantastic advice.
Thank you for preparing this video.
It’s great to be reminded that it’s about Jesus not us.
Amen David! We gotta keep the main thing, the “main thing”.. Jesus Saves!!!
This Fuller guy seems to really know what he’s talking about 🙂
Thanks David!
Thank you Brian & Brian that was awesome! So, very insightful. Great things to be taken away from this!
Look forward to seeing/hearing more in the future… Thanks again!
Thanks Walt! Much more coming!
Hi!! I enjoyed your video on “Congregational Engagement” and found it to be informative in alot of ways.As a Music Director and Worship Leader over twenty years. One thing I’ve learnt is one’s congregation is not going to be fully engaged every week.I’m in a church enviroment where we have a choir and neither is the choir going to be fully engaged week after week either.People have things going on in their lives,others are often bothered by world happenings they hear and see in the news,that bothers some people deeply.Just like the recent Military shooting bothers some deeply,others it don’t.I let people worship as they want to worship or not worship.Some hate to sing,some can’t sing,some don’t like music of the church.Just because people don’t sing doesn’t mean they don’t encounter Jesus in their own personal way.I know some when they find people are not worshipping start shouting at them to sing.Others if,they are using worship materials they as a Worship Leader hold the material up in the air and at times announce where the place in song that will be sung next or page number.I have personally found people engage better letting them alone.We can have low participation at the beginning but,later the whole church is filled with voices lifted in song.Also there are church situations in which music stands are a must and doesn’t at all mean worship leaders are unprepared or don’t know their materials in conducting a choir a music stand has to be there because the director’s hands has to be free to direct with hands for various sections to come in at certain places in the music.Those at the organ and piano sometimes electric keyboards has to have printed music in front of them.Because,the music we use in worship doesn’t have the same chords for every song.We use traditional hymns,contemporary songs and service music,and choral anthems all during one worship service.You’re not going to memorize all that and do it without music.One’s not unprepared,it’s just in worship in Catholic and some other Christian worship one is not going to do the music all without it in front of them.When one’s having to read music,play music and direct the music all at the same time,and recalling all the hand gestures needed to get the correct sound out of the choir through directing them because there are situations in which the worship leader has to do all of it.
Thanks, Bobby – your comment reminds me of a quote… “Be kind – everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle”. We don’t know what things people are facing and going through in life. All we can do is point them to Jesus and his saving grace.
So much good material here. Totally agree with points 5 and 6, especially regarding the ways we can be authentic and foster relationships with the congregation. This statement near the end of the video resonates with me the most:
“As worship leaders there is so much that we are doing in worship that is not music.” (35:45)
When Abraham told his servant that he and Isaac were going to climb the hill to worship (the first time the word appears in Scripture) I don’t think he had a guitar in hand. “Worship” isn’t a musical term in Scripture. When did we as church musicians decide to claim it? I believe we do harm as worship leaders when we do so. The same people referenced in this video who engage in non-musical forms of worship while we sing could take from our own use of the term that they aren’t even worshipers. I think it’s time we stop calling our music “worship” and start calling it “music.” Spirt and truth worship has nothing to do with a sound. It’s not about a feeling, or anything else experiential. It’s all about our hearts and the act of presenting ourselves to God as living sacrifices. Worshipful hearts certainly experience the greatest joys a person can feel, but music could go away forever and genuine, biblical worshipers might never even realize it. And on an even more convicting note for myself, if the only way I can lead people to worship God is through music, I might need to stop calling myself a “worship” leader.
Thanks for in the insight, Darrell!
Thanks for this video, great work! Great idea! Loved it!
Can’t wait for the next one…
Thanks Johann – we can’t wait to make more 🙂
Hey Brian and Fuller,
Thanks for all these ressources. You’re doing a great job!
Just one comment in answer to the point raised between 3:00 and 3:30 in the video.
Ephesian 5:19-20 makes me think that singing to the Lord is not a matter of “what I like doing” but rather obeidiance:
“speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,”
What do you think about that? If the Bible says so, shouldn’t we encourage people to experience it? Don’t want to hurt anyone but I want all worship leaders to be careful about what they might say and think about that topic.
Huge blessings and thank you for your great job!
Dino
Hi Dino – I believe the Bible clearly instructs us to sing praise to God over and over. But I also think that there will still be people who just don’t like to sing, and it doesn’t mean they don’t like to worship. Our hope is that we create an environment that will remove any barriers that we have the power to remove, and over time all people in our worship services will feel comfortable and compelled to sing.
Hey Brian and Fuller,
Ii love your suggestion about lightening. Based on my own experience I think it might help a lot!
Talking about that topic, would it be possible to give advice about how to set up a working lightening environnement? In Europe (except the UK I guess), we’re not used to lightening systems. What kind of setup would you recommend? Please give 2-3 recommendations according to budgets (e.g. Eco, middle range and top quality).
Thank you in advance!
Dino
Hi Dino – Yeah that would be a great topic! We might bring in our production pastor to talk about that – actually there are tons of topics he could talk about.
I think we need to give an out for the pastors using music stands when leading worship is not their only job. I know for me I would love to devote more time to practicing and memorizing the music but if you plan the service and organize the music and then you have 1,000 other things to do and you can’t even get back to the music until rehearsal day, memorizing is really out of the question.
So to those Multi-Hat-Wearing-Pastors, do what you can and don’t burn out!
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for commenting! I totally understand when people have tons of things going on. At my last church, I was part-time (very part time), and yet I had way too many responsibilities, plus a job on the side. Lots of church staff are in this position, and I’ve been there (still am there, actually). I think it’s a slippery slope to start ‘giving outs’ for these reasons. The music stand thing is a personal choice, and it’s one you’ll have to make for yourself, but I would encourage you to define the importance of something like that, and if you decide that it is important for creating the best worship environment possible, try to prioritize time to make it happen.
Of course, music stands may not be a matter of that much importance in your church – those decisions are up to you. In the church world, there are so many tensions we have to manage – some things just have to be ‘cheated’ to make sure other things get done. The hard part is decided what gets our attention/time and what doesn’t. Thanks again!
Hi Guys,
Great info, I especially appreciate the talk about personally encouraging someone in the congregation and meeting people before and after services!
Great stuff, Thanks
Thanks Ken! That will go a long way for people!
Brian and Brian,
thank you so much, what a great resource! Glad you guys are focusing attention on Jesus, our true worship leader. I can’t wait to check out what else you guys got going on up in here.
I help with leading music at a parachurch ministry at my college, and one question I have wrestled with is this: is it better to involve many different volunteers in the band and schedule them so that everyone gets a chance to play, OR only schedule a few core members, and only switch them out when needed?
Thanks.
Ben
Hey Ben – we like to involve as many people as possible. For lots of reasons. It gives people a break (so many volunteers get burned out). It helps develop new talent and leadership in your church. But most of all – God calls his people to be involved in the local church. When we don’t do everything we can to involve literally everyone in church in some capacity, we hold them back from the fullness that God has for them. Ultimately, it’s not about us – it’s about them – and it’s about us helping people follow God’s calling in their lives (which we believe includes serving in the local church).
Loved the video guys… Great topics discussed and I agree with 99% of it. I have seen these things first hand with our clients and in my personal role as a Bass player in multiple worship bands.
I would like so suggest a topic for an upcoming video.
Can you speak to the need for technical proficiency of the band and vocals? Knowing the parts, knowing the song, preparing to play the same version of the song, using a click to set a tempo for songs so they are played at the proper speed..ie not rushed… not too slow.
The cost of leadership and the time commitment it takes to prepare a musical offering to the Lord of all creation.
Thank you so much for the time you take to sow into others. I recommend your site as a top resource to all the people I know in church worship leadership.
God Bless,
Mike Wallace
VSL Pro
http://www.vslpro.com
Thanks Mike! That’s a great topic – we’ll definitely consider it for a future video.
Wow.. That hits Deep… And your all right… I’m new at leading worship at First Baptist Church Greentown Indiana.
Ive been doing it for 8 months now it was tossed at me and it landed hard… So first thing first getting rid of the music stands..
Thankyou so much for the video…. Jesus Bless you guys….
Good luck, Jeremiah!
I totally see your point on the music stands. I just don’t think it is possible in our situation. Our church has a catalog of about 150 songs we sing and we probably only sing a song 4 or 5 times throughout the year. Rarely do we sing a song twice in a month. Our congregation really thrives on the variety. If you have any suggestions for our circumstance please let me know.
That is a lot of songs to rotate through! Yeah – memorizing all of them would be a daunting task for sure.
This is great Brian! I really like your WT site, it helps me to start leading worship. And this one is awesome, I actually want to share it to others.
Concerning a topic for you to cover, I’m wondering about “interceding” while worshipping, and it’s kinda deep for me. I’m hoping to understand it through your next episodes. Thanks a lot!
Good video guys, I agree concerning the music stands, I am not there yet but I have gotten to an iPad which is much smaller and I only look down 1-2 times per songs. I keep it there for emergencies only in case I have a brain fart. Another question might be would it be more or less distracting to take it away and occasionally mess up or have it in front of you and always get it right? However I found it highly ironic watching you guys talk on the topic while looking down at whatever notes you had 🙂
Touché!
Thanks David! Ha – well it would have been hard to memorize all that content :). If I were in your shoes I’d lose the iPad stand during rehearsals until you feel confident enough to do it during a service.
Great info. Thanks!
Great info guys, I appreciate you taking the time to put it together and share with us. I really get your point about ‘you already know the songs’. I realized recently that the chord sheets were a crutch when I transitioned back to Numeric chords (Nashville Number System). It had been years since I used numerals, but because I fluctuate keys often, I thought I would go back to using that. Once I started using music with numerals, I found that I wasn’t glued to the sheet music because I began to see the pattern of the music more clearly.
I have been wanting to do away with music stands for a while and am working towards that transition. My plan was to use the Stage Display feature from Pro Presenter on the rear wall of the sanctuary. What are your thoughts and experience on using confidence monitors?
Thanks David! We use the stage display as a confidence monitor at all our campuses. I believe that too can be a crutch, but it’s nice to be able to see what the congregation is seeing, and to use it as a reminder if you forget a line or something.
I like your video, many things to consider for a congregation of 75+ people. We use Praise Worship twice a month in an attempt to promote a more intimate Worship experience. Generally it is one lady (early 50’s) and one of her children (High School or College age) who picks what she enjoys and, with very limited self taught guitar experience, plays. which brings me to the music stand scandal. At what point does a church like ours try to eliminate the use of music stands? This lady has tried to introduce other musicians into the mix, but time appears to be a factor for rehearsals.
Thanks for the videos, have a lot of information in it to help smooth out the early bumps in this project.
Hi Dennis,
I’ve led worship in churches of 75 or less for many years – I totally know what it’s like :). Are you the worship leader or in leadership at the church? If so, I’d recommend gathering everybody together who is interested in the worship/production teams at the church and mapping out a plan – talk about potential rehearsal times, songs lists, etc. Come up with a plan and stick with it. If time during the week is a factor for rehearsals, meet early on Sunday mornings and rehearse before the service. If you have a 9a service, meet at 6:30a or so, which would give you almost 2 hours to rehearse. I should also note that if 6:30a is too early for your potential volunteers, then they aren’t bought in/committed enough, but that’s a topic for another video 🙂
We have 50 or less! We’re a small community but that doesn’t mean we’re not praying that our church attendance doesn’t improve. So, we want to begin to do those things that place us into ‘potential’ for greater things. On the other hand I’d like to point out that my ‘team’ consists of myself (vocal and acoustic guitar) and sometimes even a piano player (but most times not). Sometimes the pastor will ask a member of the congregation to consider singing a special tune (and sometimes they will respond; but most times not). So, realistically, the only times where rehearsal is even thought about is when there might be a special worship service (such as Easter or Christmas). Many folks, as long as we have been singing hymns all our lives, haven’t even yet mastered getting our noses out of the hymnal long enough to notice that there’s a church service happening! So, for the moment, I’m afraid we’re going to accept hymnals and sheet music and yes, even music stands. Interesting subject and wonderful dialog. It’s interesting to find out what the other side of town is doing!
Thanks Russell! I grew up going to a church that used a hymnal regularly. In fact, I used to have different songs’ page numbers memorized. I always tried to sing along to the notes on the staff for my vocal part (which back then was the bass). My voice has actually gained range over the years – probably due to just how much I sing. I sing a lot, ha.
Nice
Hi Brian,
Thanks for all the great resources! I’m not a workshop leader but would love to help lead worship some day. I have learned your voicing for many chords as well as the traditional voicings. Here’s my question, if I’m playing with other musicians who are playing traditional voicings, can I still play your voicings since they are easier to play and transition from? I’ve wondered this but have not run into the situation yet. I’m still only playing for myself. Just trying to prepare for playing with others.
Thanks for all you do!!
Peace,
Kevin T
Hey Kevin – yeah you can do that. You can also use a capo and play using chords from a different key (assuming your capo is in a position that makes all the guitars in the same key).