fits your local church ? Here ’ s an example . I was watching a livestream last week where the band was leading this particular song . The lyrics for the second verse read , “ And if You are for me / Who can be against me / For Jesus there ’ s nothing / Impossible for you / When all I see are the ashes / You see the beauty / When all I see is a cross / God You see the empty tomb .” In the livestream I was watching , the three vocalists in the front , all at the same time , sang “ Thank You God ” just like Phil Wickham does after the phrase “ You see the beauty .” That ’ s what Phil sings as an adlib . Do you see where I ’ m going with this ? It seems we may be getting to the point that we are going overboard when we begin copying the singer ’ s adlibs as if they are lyric . So , whether it ’ s tracks or lyrics , do you think we need to reign in how much we are copying the artist or the radio ?
There is most definitely a learning curve in leading worship with tracks and I do not want to criticize people serving . Are we trying to be “ Better by Sunday ?” I keep coming back to that .
How many singing competition shows have you watched where the contestant was praised for “ making the song your own .” You are the worship leader . You are free to be creative with the way you lead songs . It takes study , training , and practice ! For me , Paul Baloche has been the best example of how to extend a song and to create organic moments in worship . Flow is not how fast you fire the next track ; it ’ s reading and leading the people in the room .
Back to the tracks … It ’ s important to have an “ exit plan ” where you can cut the tracks and continue the song ( or get out of it ). For instance , there are plenty of songs that repeat a bridge section four times . What do you do when you feel that the room is not responding ? Do you make them keep standing awkwardly through four repeats of a bridge just because it ’ s locked in the tracks ? If you ’ re leaning heavily on the tracks , cutting them will be obvious and distracting . This is where using tracks only as enhancement helps . As the worship leader , I prefer to have a foot controller so I can fire and stop tracks on my own rather than trusting someone to do so exactly when I feel appropriate .
Am I the only one who has been leading a song that the room is not responding to ? I hope not ! No , I think we have all been there . That ’ s a big part of being a worship leader . We are leading people , not just playing songs . In the above situation , I would give a signal to the band , kill the tracks at a bridge repeat and either go into an interlude or straight into a chorus after making a verbal call to help the screens operator follow along .
All of this takes practice . Spend time going over subtle signals with your team and practice going off script during rehearsal . You never know , you might just create some organic worship moments on rehearsal night !
Mitch Bohannon Mitch developed the Short-Cut Capo for Kyser and is the Director of Live Production at Trinity Baptist Church in Lake Charles , Louisiana .
Photo by Jackie Alexander on Unsplash
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