WORSHIP TEAM
6 MISTAKES THAT KEEP YOUR CHURCH FROM SINGING | Jon Nicol
Do you ever wonder if you’re leading worship 3. HOW DOES THAT GO AGAIN? worship service lasts for thirty, forty, or even fifty
for department store mannequins? As an experienced and trained vocalist, you're minutes. For most churches, that’s too long.
capable of singing songs that are far more But unfortunately, too many worship leaders
I call them screen gazers. Too many in the complicated than the average person can assume that an extended singing time is the
congregation just lethargically stare at the handle. If you rotate in tunes with syncopated only way that the church can fully express
projection screen. Sometimes you’ll see lips or unintuitive rhythms, awkward intervals, corporate worship.
moving—if you’re lucky. or other musically complex elements, your
congregation will have a hard time catching on.
As worship leaders and team members, we
The pace and length of your sets matter.
When it drags on, people shut down and stop
can’t make someone sing out and worship. You need to be careful with Christian radio singing. Our weekend services aren’t meant to
We're merely trying to create an environment songs. Many have a worship-oriented lyrics, supply a full week’s worth of worship for our
that encourages people to participate in but they aren’t ‘congregational.’ They’re too congregation. Leave them wanting more. They
musical worship. complicated for the average person to learn have the next six days to continue worshiping.
and internalize quickly.
6. TOO LOUD/TOO SOFT
But here’s the problem: since we’re able
to encourage participation, we can also 4. SINGING FROM THE SCREEN Volume matters. Too much and the person
discourage it. Here are six mistakes that we I used to get frustrated that my church would in the congregation can’t hear themselves
make that keep our church from singing. See sing out so loudly on certain hymns but mumble sing—or anyone else. Too little, and they’ll feel
if you or your team make any of these snafus their way through the 'amazing new songs’ that like they’re singing a solo. Either way, it can
that give rise to the unengaged congregation. I introduced to them. discourage singing for the average person.
1. STAND GAZERS What was going on there? For my congregation, As a worship leader, you need to help your
If you’ve got screen gazers in the seats, you certain hymns were part of the fabric of the sound tech know what the ideal volume is
probably have stand gazers on the stage. church. People sang those from the heart and for your congregation. While a dB meter can
Enthusiasm for singing is contagious, but so not the screen. get you in a ballpark, it’s better for the audio
is apathy. When the platform team buries their
engineer to trust her eyes and ears.
heads in music stands or glues their eyes on And new songs? You guessed it. They’re singing the stage display monitor, it doesn’t encourage from the screen. There’s hesitancy because WITH and TO
the congregation to sing. they’re not as confident. When you stack a Do you want the unvarnished truth? In many
set with newer songs, you’re asking people churches, it’s far easier to sing for and at the
2. TH;DS (TOO HIGH; DIDN’T SING) not to sing. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do congregation than it is to get them to sing with
I once received a note from someone in the new songs. But it does mean we work to make you to the Lord. But we no longer need the
congregation: “You’re making my throat burn. them ‘stick’ with the congregation. Getting a "priestly go-between" to do our worship for us.
The songs are too high!” Yeah, seriously. new song to stick requires introducing fewer
The worship leader has a tension to manage
new songs and rotating them more often until Our role is not to be musical mediators. It’s to
your church catches on. be lead worshipers who love the congregation
between choosing a comfortable key for the
and create the best possible environment that
average church attendee and the key that fits And by the way, it’s probably good to say this encourages them to sing to the Lord from
his/her voice. You need to be able to sing the often to your worship team, “When we start their hearts.
song. But so does the congregation. There getting sick of a song, the congregation is are no easy answers or magic keys that fit probably just now catching on.”
everyone. So, if we err too high, we probably
won’t cause church-wide pharyngitis. But it will 5. CAN I PLEASE SIT DOWN NOW?
discourage people from singing—especially the There’s a culture and expectation in some
men in your church. churches that the musical portion of the
44
January 2019
Jon Nicol
Jon’s the founder of WorshipWorkshop.com and
WorshipTeamCoach.com, two sites that help
worship leaders build strong teams and lead
engaging worship. He lives and serves in Lexington,
Ohio with his wife Shannon and their four kids.
WorshipTeamCoach.com
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