Worship Musician May 2019 | Page 60

WORSHIP TEAM THE 4 CRUCIAL ELEMENTS FOR PLATFORM PRESENCE | Jon Nicol Q: What has 14 arms, 7 noses, and never moves? the other is intentional and engaging platform A: Your worship team. action. Let me touch on each of these elements briefly: PREPARATION And unfortunately, the noses are all buried in music stands, and those arms just aren’t sure The first side is all the different expressions You can’t physically engage when you’re what to do. demonstrated throughout scripture: bowing, mentally preoccupied. Freedom of the heart standing, shouting, raising arms, clapping, comes when you have freedom from the chart. Maybe you and your team members are and so on. These are external expressions of If you want to be an expressive lead worshiper engaging and expressive on the platform. internal convictions. (vocalist or instrumentalist), you’ve got to put in the practice to know your music. Likely, though, you have some teammates who The other side of the platform presence coin is are more statue than lead worshiper. just knowing how to lead from a stage. It’s both We also need to put time into studying the Some people are just naturally inclined toward intentional action to engage the congregation different biblical expressions, so we fully expressiveness and others who are more stoic visually and also physical movement to match understand why we’re doing what we’re doing by nature. But you can develop an engaging the music and mood. on the platform. Start with the Psalms to see platform presence, even if you’re different physical expressions of worship. more subdued than other team-members. And those So let me give you the elements for great who are comfortable with physical expression platform presence expressed in an equation: If you internalize your songs, that will give on the platform still need to intentional grow and mature in this area. Preparation + Confidence + Experience x a you a mammoth dose of confidence. But Worshiping Heart = Platform Presence. there’s a confidence that transcends musical preparation. If you’re called on the worship First, let’s talk about what platform presence is. It’s two sides of the same coin: Or if you want to get math-y: WH(P+C+E) = PP team, you're called to be confident on the platform. One side is Biblical expressions of worship; 60 CONFIDENCE May 2019 Subscribe for Free...