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Recently, I read an article in which someone had interviewed both Christians and non Christians about a worship service.  In particular, they were asked what bothered them about the worship leader.  The results were formed into different categories that were similar answers and called, “top 10 pet peeves about worship leaders”.  

I thought I would know all the answers before reading since my ego lies to me and tells me how much better I am than everyone else in the world.  However, I learned how stupid I really am.  Sad to say, I’m pretty sure I have done every single one of the examples multiple times throughout my life as a worship leader.  The interesting thing is some of the things we think everyone actually enjoys and we get pretty adamant about making sure we do it - those are actually the things that people can’t stand.  This article pointed out more about myself than I want to admit.  You can be the judge if you consider them to be “bad” things.  These are just a few things from that article that specifically drives people crazy.  Keep in mind, these opinions are not just the people that regularly participate in a church worship service - but also the opinions of the people we should be focused on reaching - the lucky one’s who haven’t been ruined by an institutionalized church.

Top 10 Pet Peeves About Worship Leaders 

1. Asking the Congregation to do Something:

   Makes us shake hands with the people around us.

   When a worship leader tells you to lift up your hands

    Talks like they’re at a high school pep rally, “Let me hear ya!”

    Asks how everyone is doing. We’re not at a concert, so we’re not going to scream.

    Tells you what to do and how to worship… to the point where it makes you feel guilty if you don’t conform yourself to her/his       understanding of what worship is.

2.  Mini-Sermons & Talking:

  Talks between every song.

 I am distracted when worship leaders start talking about anything that is not directions on what we are about to do.

 When they repeat the same catch-phrases every week.

  Sermonettes are annoying if too long or common

 You can tell a mile away when a worship leader is “sharing” because he feels obligated to. It’s always a cheesy or over emotional blurb. When  God’s really laid something on a worship leader’s heart, it’s cool. But even then, say it in less than 45 seconds! Don’t meander on for 3 min. 

3.  Not Focusing on God:

    When they perform rather than worship themselves.

 Showing zero emotion, standing still, focusing too much on perfection.

 Worship leaders who seem really wrapped up in being “cool.”

 Sometimes you can tell they’re being fake and/or showy.

 I hate it when the music guy/gal asks the crowd to praise God but soaks it up like they are Bono and the crowd is really praising them.

 I hate it when worship leaders don’t lead people.

4.  Unprofessional:

 Starts service late.

 Typos on the screen.

 Talks to the praise band while leading worship instead of using hand signals to tell them what to do.

 When the leader changes the key of the song and does not tell the rest of the team.

  When the leader and/or band member turns away from the people to mess with their gear.

5.  Singing:

 Can’t sing very well.

 Doesn’t know the lyrics.

 Repeating the same line in a song 3.6 million times. There’s the Spirit’s leading and then there’s just plain losing people.

 Our old church’s leader would sing so high that no one could sing along. She provided no harmony for us to pick up. It was to showcase her own voice.

6.  Appearance:

 Sing with their eyes closed.

 When singers act like they are really bored up there.

 Wears crotch hugging jeans.

 Looks or sounds seductive.

7.  Prayer:

 Inauthentic prayer – too scripted or so random that it doesn’t make sense, or rushed/dragged out to make the prayer fit the interlude.

 Prays the words of the songs.

 When they can’t talk or pray appropriately between songs.

8.  Bad Transitions:

 Transitions between songs take long time.

 Allows uncomfortable dead time between songs.

 When they pray essentially the same prayer at a transition moment.

 Using the song name as an introduction/transition - “You know I was thinking about how much God has done for me…it really is ‘Amazing Grace’ isn’t it?”

9. Lifestyle:

 When he’s obviously ungodly during practice and throughout life, but turns into a saint on Sunday morning.

 I hate to see a person who is suppose to be leading worship acting like a jerk before service and then getting up on stage acting like nothing ever happened.

10. Catering to the Congregation:

 When they hold back because they are obviously conscious of what the congregation and/or pastor will think.

 I hate it when worship leaders/pastors play to people who think the worship somehow revolves around what they like and what makes them feel good when it has absolutely nothing to do with our preferences or likes.

I’m going to make a lot of people mad with this statement but it’s the truth - the instrumentalists in your band are the most important element on your team.  Don’t tell your singers, but your band is actually more important than they are!  Listen, don't you think if Kurt Cobain can make it as a singer, anyone can?  Vocalists, now that you're good and offended, hang with me.  With a good band behind you, singers can hit a number of wrong notes and most people simply won’t notice.  I’ve been around long enough to figure out when your band is pitiful, people say “those singers just aren’t that good”.  However, if you have a kicking band with average singers, people compliment the entire team.  If you don’t believe me, ask your sound tech if he’s ever “solo-ed” a singer in the headphones. (By the way, if he's any good he has, but that's a different topic.)  In most cases it ain’t real pretty, but no one noticed during the live worship experience.  In worship, wrong notes are not just wrong - they are a distraction to worship!  We have to work extremely hard to eliminate every single distraction during our worship services.  (Including the many distractions not part of the music, again another blog for another time.)

 

Worship bands can either kill your worship or take you to another level.  In years past, the majority of church music was piano driven, usually printed in a hymnbook.  Musicians could just show up on Sunday and do it.  These days you have a full band that needs to rehearse... a lot.  A rock band that plays in a club has to learn about 20 or so songs.  When they rehearse they practice the same songs over and over.  Today a worship band has to play about 4 – 8 different songs, every style imaginable, every single week!  So, if you’re in a rock band and think that church musicians aren't "the same caliber as 'real' musicians" think again.  Times have changed.

 

Now, if you’re in a worship band, please allow me (as a worship leader) to tell you what your worship leader wishes he could say to you.  He won't, because he is afraid you will get mad and quit.  I however am bound by no such fear.

 

   1. Practice on your own time. When we come together, we don't practice, we rehearse.  When you show up and stink, you waste everyone's time.  If you don't have time to practice at home, you should step aside and let someone else play until your life's schedule allows you to give your all.
   2. Quit noodling on your instrument during rehearsal every single time we stop.  Often people think we worship leaders are mad because we’re always yelling.  We’re not mad... we’re trying to compete with the volume of immature band members who don’t have enough respect to shut up and let us work.
   3. Don’t mute everyone in your personal monitor system (if you use one).  A lot of musicians can fall into the "more of me" syndrome with their monitors. I can tell by listening to a player's monitor if they are a) trying to add to the overall sound of the band or b) just like to hear themselves play.
   4. Pre-service sound check is NOT rehearsal time!  I can't state this strongly enough.  If you show up on the day and aren't ready, all the engineers and tech folk are thrown off their groove because you aren't ready.  How rude.
   5. Someone has to be in charge, and if that someone isn't you, step off.  Opinions and creative ideas are wonderful. (We actually respect your ideas and think a lot of them are really great).  Just remember, in the end someone has to make a final decision and you have to support it.  Keep your ego in check and don’t allow yourself to become bitter just because you thought another chord or a different intro would be cooler.  We must remember that simplicity is critical to the distractionless worship experience. To be honest, I would love to be more musically complicated in worship, but the average person in the congregation doesn’t even know what a key change is!  Your job is to engage them in worship, not to impress them with every fancy musical lick you can do.  My job is to make sure you do that.
   6. Learn to read a simple chord chart instead of sheet music.  If you can only read charts, learn to read sheet music.  In other words – practice what you struggle with.  Rehearsals will go faster and smoother if you aren’t trying to figure out what key everyone is in.  Keep in mind, however, ultimately you'll want to work towards playing without music.  Playing worship music is an expression of the heart - reading sheet music is a technical exercise of the brain.  I don't need to tell you which one we need more.
   7. Less is more.  Most classically trained pianists play too much because they simply play what’s written.  The bigger your band, the less you have to play.  When too many people are playing, usually everyone is playing the same thing, and collectively it sounds horrible.  (Sadly, this then often gets blamed on the poor engineer who is expected to make a delicious dessert yet only has the ingredients for a mud pie.  And we wonder why our best engineers get overwhelmed and leave?)  The truth is, if you have a good bass player, a one armed piano player is all you need.  Pianists, put your left hand in the air and worship - you don’t need it on the keys!
   8. If you do read music or a chart, get your head out of the book.  One of the greatest compliments I have ever received is people telling me how much they enjoyed watching the BAND worship.  If there’s a drum break and you’re not the drummer – sing, clap your hands, do something visual.  Don’t just bury your head and count measures - YOU are leading worship!  Encourage the audience to participate every chance you get.  If you’ll worship instead of just play, it will be contagious throughout the congregation.
   9. If you can’t stay for the preachin', please just stay home.  Seriously, people really do notice when you walk off the stage whether you stay or leave. I purposely walk down the steps of the stage into the congregation so everyone will see that I'm staying.
  10. Play skillfully.  Learn what register each instrument is in and not to walk over each other.  For example, an acoustic guitar and piano often play in the same register.  Work it out with each other so you aren’t playing the same tones.  If a guitar solo is low – move the piano up an octave.  (And lighten up, it is a guitar solo. You'll have your time.)  If during that solo the guitar player goes higher, move back down.  If you're a brass player ask yourself - "Does this song really need a brass part?"  Most rocking guitar driven songs don't need any brass, so be sure to only play when it adds to the song, not the clutter.
  11. Even though the band is the backbone, your role is often in the background - to support the singers!  (See there singers?  I told you to hang with me.)  Much like the tech department "enables" the worship ministry, musically the band "enables" the singers.  It is the lyrics, not the music, that makes a song “Christian”.  Worshipful words being sung to Him are of the utmost importance.  Make sure you don’t cover up the lyrics by overplaying, or overperforming.  Anything that takes away from the message of the song is a distraction.


Finally, please try your best to support the role of the worship leader.  Many times during worship, the band will get lost on their instrument and have no idea if the leader is even still on the stage.  The job of the worship leader is to get a “feel” of the flow of the spirit over the congregation.  He might want to take a song in a completely different direction than planned, so be ready.  We don’t do this to tick you off, or because we "messed up", or to scrap your guitar solo.  No, it is always so the congregation will enter in with us and truly worship.  My team knows OUR worship service is on Wednesday nights during rehearsal, and boy do we have church!  On Sunday we are there to LEAD other people to the place we have already been.

Here's a gratuitous plug - if you haven't watched any of the "Modern Worship Series" DVD's by Paul Baloche, do yourself a favor and watch them together as a band.

Even more gratuitous, hire me to come work with your band instead.   I'll tell you everything they say on those DVD's and more.  And of course... I'm even more fun in real life than I was in this blog.

We’ve all witnessed it. Most worship leaders, myself included, have planned it.  We plan a worship service and then let someone else ruin it.  There was a time when I used a rotation of soloists.  Some were incredible, but if I’m being honest, most of them just took a way from the over all theme of the service.  I got into the habit of scheduling different soloist to sing a song of THEIR choice to be included in the worship service.  Why? Probably because that’s what everyone else does, so I thought I should too.  I later realized that I was mistakenly communicating the wrong thing to God, the congregation and to the artist. 

Worship ministries do not exist to further the artistic development of our worship volunteers!  (Read that sentence again and let it sink in).  I would plan moments of worship, pray about it, change it, add something, take something out, practice it and realize something else would be better in order to flow better, change it again, all to create a “moment” for true worship.  Then I allowed someone else to come sing a song that THEY wanted to sing. It completely ruined the moment that I worked so hard to create! (don’t send me emails about manipulation and the holy spirit’s leading, I get it!)  If you’re like me, most of us just schedule people to sing a song – several weeks in advance.  We don’t even know what they are singing. We just know it’s time for them to sing a solo again, after all it’s been 4 – 6 weeks since they sang the last time.

I remember sending emails that said, “let me know what song you’re doing so I can put the words on the screen”.  Then I’d lead a worship set about kicking the devils butt and then they’d get up and sing a song about peace. I’m an idiot!  They just ruined the entire worship set – and it was MY FAULT!

If I’m being completely honest, I’ve heard some absolutely terrible singers in my life singing in churches.  I know, I know, I’ve heard it all before – “well yeah, they really don’t sing all that great, but they’ve got a great heart for the Lord”.  That might be the case, but I’m not listening to their heart, I’m listening to their voice and it’s terrible!  It’s distracting me from the message of the song cause I can’t get over how bad they are!  They have an incredible ministry because everyone is praying for them while they are singing! I could tell you story after story of when people have requested to sing a song and the reason they requested to sing.  In most cases, when you get down to it, it’s because they (the soloist) want to be noticed.  They really aren’t interested in adding to the service – other than being in the spotlight.  It's always been interesting to me that some people have never been to a rehearsal, never been involved at all in the worship ministry - but when it comes time for their own child's baby dedication, they suddenly have a song the Lord gave them to sing.  (accompanied by a host of pictures they want you to put together in a slide show!)  And more than once I've been told, "I just think it would be a really special moment for all the children being dedicated".  Funny how they never cared until it was their own kid!  (On a personal note, since this is my blog, I don't even believe in baby dedication.  My kids were dedicated to God the second they were born.  I don't need a formal event at a church or a piece of paper to suddenly feel like my baby belongs to God!)  My point is, us creative people fight for the need to be noticed.  As a leader I have to be very careful to not feed one's ego by letting them do what they want to do for the wrong motives.  8 times out of 10, when someone has suggested a song to be used in worship, they usually recommend their own self as the soloist.  VERY rarely do I ever hear someone recommend a song that someone else should sing.  I'm just sayin!!!

So, do I use soloist?  Yes, on occasion.  Most of the time I use them as A PART of the worship set.  I give them a verse or two of a worship song that we sing WITH the congregation.  There are times when I use just a soloist for a “special” song.  But I no longer let THEM tell me what they are singing!  As a worship leader in the church, my job is to create moments – not to develop artists!  If I find a song that will add to the service, or add to the point of the message – I’ll use it.  Yes, even a soloist – but I tell them what I want them to sing.  Not because I’m a control freak, (ok, I am but that’s not the point) but to add to the overall theme of the service or message. 

If you’re a soloist that needs a stage in order to be validated; please start a band, go sing somewhere else. Maybe the church platform is not where you belong.  My job is to lift Jesus up, not you, your ego, your talent, or to impress your grandmother that just happens to be in town this weekend.

So you’re bored with your church’s music and you want to change.

BEFORE YOU EVER CHANGE ANYTHING MUSICALLY IN YOUR CHURCH – YOU SHOULD ANSWER THIS QUESTION:

What is the purpose of corporate worship in your church?

I know that sounds like a very basic question.  But it’s extremely important.

Most people should answer this question one of two ways.  Depending on how you answer will determine what TYPE of change you should make.

Most churches either believe that the purpose of their corporate worship is either

  1) RESTORATION   or   2) TRANSFORMATION. ( I know those are really churchy words and I’m sorry, I don’t like them either!)

Restoration – is for churches that come together to worship so they can “prepare” to go out into the world and survive another week.  In other words, they need a weekly gathering to focus on Jesus so they can be refreshed, renewed and restored to be able to be a Christian in this cruel world yet another week of their lives.

Transformation – is for churches that believe that they exist so that the world can be transformed by what they learn and experience in our corporate worship services.

TWO EXTREMELY different philosophies of corporate worship, but most churches develop their worship services around these beliefs, whatever they may be.

If the purpose of your church is to restore the saints – in other words, they are for Christians only, you probably don’t need to change much as long as you are meeting the need for restoration in your congregation.

If however you believe your services should transform the lives of the people, we need to CONSTANTLY be changing and tweeking things in order to be the most affective.

So let’s talk about specifically about changing some things musically in our worship services.

* Don’t change overnight! Gradually STOP using the songs you don’t need to do anymore!  GRADUALLY!  If you are a new worship leader to a church and you followed another leader, you’ve got to pay attention to this!  I’ve seen it over and over.  A new sheriff comes to town and tells everybody “I don’t care how the other guy did it, this is how I do things”.  Leadership rule #1 – don’t freakin’ say that you idiot!  Even if the person before you was pitiful – you have GOT to do things that they did for a while!  I remember for the first 4 months or so of my church, I did stuff that made me want to throw up! It wasn’t terrible music, it just wasn’t my style at all. I couldn’t stand it. I almost fell asleep during the worship that I was leading!  But the truth is, that’s what the congregation and my worship team were used to.  So in order to bring the MOST people along with me, I had to meet them at their level! Gradually I stopped using some of those songs and hardly anyone even noticed because I did it slow enough.  The truth is, even if you do the same thing – everyone will think that it’s different because it’s a new leader.  It will have a different feel regardless, so go easy on the people that you are trying to lead.  If you look back and no one is following you, you’re not leading anymore you’re just taking a walk.

*Introducing new songs.  In worship training schools they teach you to sing the new song for about 4 weeks straight. I don’t do it this way. There’s really nothing wrong with the “press repeat approach”, but if someone hates the song – they have to hate it for four weeks straight!  And they also KNOW that you are going to do the song.  I’d rather them not know what we’re going to do and make EVERY single Sunday an experience that they don’t want to miss!  Unpredictable is much more fun anyway.

*Styles – do a variety of worship styles even if you hate it.  If it’s a new style of worship that your congregation hasn’t experienced yet, play that particular style on a cd before and after the service for a while. They’ll slowly get used to it before you ever introduce that style during worship.  Be sure and don’t get caught up in doing YOUR OWN PREFERENCE for style of worship!  We get mad at other people that want to push their own preferences on us, make sure you don’t do the same thing.  Do music that you can’t stand.  Someone will like it (even if they really are stupid!)

*Musical instruments. Work with what you have! In a previous church where I led worship, they had never had drums in the church.  It drove me insane, but I used a drum machine for about a year!  I couldn’t stand it!  No drum fills, no playing tastefully – just one freakin’ beat over and over and over.  Meanwhile I was praying for a real drummer to join the church.  What was driving me crazy actually helped.  The congregation got used to hearing drums as a part of worship.  By the time a drummer finally got involved, the congregation was ready.  I didn’t have to fight that war because they were already used to having drums in worship.

*Go unplugged.  One particular week, half of my team was on vacation.  I couldn’t even make an entire band from my pool of volunteers.  I did just a piano and a few vocals instead of what I normally do and called it “unplugged worship”.  People loved it.  We did the same songs, just had an acoustic feel to it.  If I did it that way every week, people would complain and be bored, but about 3 or 4 times a year is a nice change.  It gives your band a break and it will also push you to be creative on how to deliver a song in a different way.

* Choirs – throw your music away! Memorize the music. Don’t use books.  It doesn’t communicate anything except that you don’t know the song!!!  You can sing along with every single song on the radio without looking at a book.  Why can’t you do that in church?  Quit hiding behind a book.  All you need is the words and most churches have a screen in the back or a teleprompter these days.

*Dress Code.  Ok so this is not musical but if you have a choir -  no one wears robes in the real world.  For that matter, most people don’t wear suits and ties either through out the week.  Even though your grandmother cares what you look like, I’m pretty sure that Jesus just wants my attention.  He could care less if I wear a tie or a t-shirt.  Dress the way the congregation does.  However, if you want them to be dress more casually – they’ll dress the way the people on the stage dress.  Lead the way.

*Staging – move things around just to keep it fresh. Variety is exciting, they never know what’s going to happen. Even if they don’t like it, change creates momentum. I put our choir on the floor for about 4 weeks instead of on the stage.  The choir hated it, the congregation didn’t mind at all.  Was it good?  Not necessarily, but it was different and it was only for a month.

Many churches are dying today but no one is willing to do anything about it.  We’ve become too comfortable in what is safe and familiar to us in our own churches that we hold on to beliefs, programs and traditions that satisfy US.  Meanwhile the world is going to hell and we sit back and watch and just hope and pray that somehow they’ll come into our worship services and be changed for eternity.  We’ve become nothing more than a country club for Christians that look and act just like us.  In fact if you’re comfortable with everything you’re doing at your church – you probably aren’t doing anything that will reach people that aren’t like you!

The number of Christians is declining in America and the numbers for every single denomination is dying.  If Jesus is still the same as he was – then the only reason we are losing is because of US.  Don’t blame others, let’s blame ourselves.  It’s our fault! Every church I know holds on to something that used to work for them but no longer does. About every 5 years you have to ask yourself – what are you willing to kill that used to work really good?

The problem is, everyone can look at another church and immediately notice what they need to change.  However most of the time we can’t see what we need to change in our own church in order to be effective.

Almost every senior adult I know would be willing to give their life in order for their grandchildren to come to know Christ. Most of those same senior adults are not willing to give up their own preference for style of music in order for that to happen.

Churches HAVE to relate to their culture! Most churches have found something that worked and just stayed with it and never tweaked it again.  They’ve lost touch with society and culture and are no longer relevant to anyone except Christians inside their own church walls who know all the rules of what to do.

How many of us went and bought an organ CD this week?  None of us –but churches torture the congregation by making them listen to an organ prelude or offertory.  No one wants to hear it except the person playing! BE RELEVANT!

I’ve been privileged and trusted enough to try some absolutely crazy things in ministry.  Our worship team will do secular songs all the time to tie into the message.  We’ve done Nickelback, Chris Daughtry, Beatles, Aerosmith, even Ozzy Osbourne. The list goes on and on.  We don’t do it to be cute, but to tie into the message. If the pastor has done a good job at communicating the point, the next time people hear that song on the radio, they will be reminded of the lesson they learned from that sermon.

If we can tie a secular song INTO a worship song just to relate on a different level and bring out another point of a worship song – we’ll do it.  The first time we did this song, I remember an African American family sitting on the front row.  Completely disengaged and quite bored during worship.  When we got to the Destiny’s Child portion of this song – from then on out they were completely involved for the rest of the service!  Let it be known, I don’t even like Destiny’s Child!  I don’t even know what songs they sing.  I change the channel when they come on.  But it’s worth it to try to relate to people!

If that’s too much for your church – try putting the chorus of James Taylor’s, “You’ve Got a Friend” right after or right in the middle of the hymn, “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”.

Do we have people that are offended – absolutely!  I’ve noticed something in the church world, AFTER a service, - all the normal people go home!  The weirdo’s are the ones that stay and want to criticize everything you do.  They always start with – “now don’t take this personally”, or “now I’m not saying this for me but for some people that I’ve heard talking”…

If you do what God has told you to do and you work at becoming relevant to an unchurched society, people WILL LEAVE your church!  We have to be big enough to let them LEAVE.  It’s a strange thing in churches, we add people by subtracting a few.  Some people NEED to leave in order for your church to grow! 

I’ve watched several people get involved in church because we were willing to do something different.  We did a secular song and “reached” them in a way they could relate to.  Often times, those very same people that we reached become the ones that are resistant to change.  In other words, we changed in order to reach them, but they weren’t willing to change in order to reach the people that were once just like them.

May you always look at every aspect of your church service from a visitor’s stand point.  Do stuff that they will want to come back.  Be relevant, be daring, go where no man has ever gone.  Quit trying to make everyone happy.  If they bring up how long they’ve been going to church or start talking about how much they give – buy them a tank of gas so they can drive far, far away from the church that they are holding back from it’s potential.  They listen to secular radio during the week – even if they won’t admit it.  Why not do something that will be relevant their every day life.  Am I knocking hymns – no, I made a CD of nothing but hymns that are hundreds of years old!  But the truth is, the non – church world is not listening to that, so why try to make them like it just because they come into “our” church building.  Jesus went after the people that didn’t believe and tried every way to win them over.  We should do the same thing.  No, this is not the only way, but it’s just one of the ways to try to be relevant.