Dear Board,
Recently Sachi and I attended a three-day conference on leading corporate worship. This is a semi-annual event organized by Worship Together (www.worshiptogether.com) and this year they had it for the first time in the Chicagoland. It was a time of refreshing and learning, something we were in dire need of to keep ourselves from "running on empty." Since the Board graciously agreed to pick up the cost for registration and some resources, I thought I would write a brief report on the event and share some thoughts on worship at Calvary Church (C/C) to fulfill my accountability.
What was the conference all about? Worship Together is a nondenominational body whose mission is to equip and train worship leaders of local churches for effective ministry. In addition to making resources and materials available online, they offer training conferences 3-4 times a year changing locations all over the world. Each conference is three-day long and includes five services led by prominent leaders of worship along with Biblical teaching. The Chicago conference featured Chris Tomlin (Forever, Enough), Twila Paris (He Is Exalted, We Bow Down), Stuart Townend (In Christ Alone), and Johnny Parks (Glory) as worship leaders and David Nasser and Brian McLaren as main speakers.
Between these services, there were several tracks of seminars on all aspects of leading worship. The topics ranged from technical (e.g., how to run rehearsals, how to choose mics and monitors, how to maximize one's skills as a guitar player), relational (how to build a worship team with mixed talents and orientations, how to communicate with team members during worship, how to communicate with higher authority and congregation), to spiritual (how to balance pastoral and prophetic components of worship, how to break into spontaneous worship, what the Bible says about worship, worship as a life style).
Furthermore, there were resource booths (sheet music, books on worship, instructional DVD's, new releases by the featured worship leaders, etc.) and live, interactive sessions with the featured worship leaders.
What did we learn at the conference? First off, it was an absolutely fantastic experience to worship together and mingle with the 2000+ worshippers from all over the nation and across denominations. It was also very comforting to know that the challenges we face are not unique to us but shared by many. The conference not only affirmed some key principles that we had held dear, but it also inspired us with new ideas and strategies.
●The role of a worship leader and of the worship team goes much beyond singing in front of congregation. They are to serve the congregation by creating an atmosphere conducive to worship--one in which they can sense the manifest presence of the Lord. Everything that happens on the platform must be orchestrated toward this goal. It can include the relatively simple (yet often controversial) task of choosing an acceptable sound level or working at harmony in a song. But the role of worship leader(s) involves more than technicalities of music. We are to worship in spirit and truth, so the leader must be Spirit-led and capable of connecting with Biblical truths. In fact it calls for one's entire faculty to lead worship. Ultimately it is one's character and lifestyle that add substance to what he/she delivers. Or how about demonstrating spiritual unity within the worship team? These qualities are not acquired automatically when a person is appointed a worship leader or when a band is formed. Rather, one realizes the deeper need of, and is driven by a greater desire for, daily communion with God before being able to lead the congregation effectively.
The role of a worship leader/team is not to please the congregation in the sense of satisfying their feelings and tastes. In fact it is impossible to please everybody, and if the worship team allows this to be their goal, they will burn themselves out. Of course diversity in the congregation must be respected. For example, certain styles of music appeal more likely to certain age groups than others. Therefore in a mixed congregation the worship team needs to keep variety in what they deliver. Yet they should also teach the congregation to step out of their comfort zone when the song carries a message that transcends style (and most worship songs do!).
The flip side of the coin is that it is probably unwise for the platform team to gauge success by the express appearance of the congregation or by their comments. Although these things can be indicative, the Spirit touches people differently and the effect may not be visible immediately. Once the leader and his/her team prayed that the Spirit would touch souls during the next worship service and had peace about it, they should trust Him that He would do it and go on to minister to the best of their ability.
●Pastoral and prophetic aspects of worship. A congregation's expectation for worship may vary, but most worship services contain pastoral and prophetic elements. The pastoral element is when the congregation develops intimacy with God, receiving comfort, encouragement, healing, deliverance, etc., personally and as a corporate body. The prophetic element (which may not necessarily involve prophesy) is when they proclaim truth about God's sovereign nature and about His works. The two should go hand-in-hand to the extent that our relationship with Him is based on who He is. When the balance between the two is skewed, the health of corporate worship can be jeopardized. Emphasizing only the pastoral aspect, worship may be comfortable but runs a risk of being largely dependent on one's experiences and feelings instead of God's truth. Emphasizing only the prophetic aspect, worship may be incisive and overwhelming but may lack a personal touch with God. The worship leader should pay conscious attention to balance the two. This doesnﾕt mean that every single service must be divided into two compartments of different orientations--sometimes it may be difficult or senseless to draw such distinction and sometimes it may be necessary to focus on either one.
●Planning for spontaneous worship. One may have a concept of "spontaneous worship" as something completely unplanned, "taken over" by the Holy Spirit with little or no control on the part of the worship team. That is not what I mean by spontaneous worship here. During worship service the leader may be guided by the Holy Spirit into a direction different from the original plan, but the leader still has to make a conscious choice to steer the course of worship, so he/she does not relinquish control. Rather, a spontaneous worship is a demonstrated response of the worship leader/team or of the congregation to the Spirit"s inspiration. This is of course something that cannot be conjured, but it can be "planned" in a number of ways. For example, the worship leader might choose songs thematically, envisioning the response of the congregation. Then he/she might keep the number of songs relatively small so as to allow ample time for the congregation to respond between the songs. Then there are times when unplanned things do develop, so it is important to establish an efficient communication method within the worship team. It would also be helpful to expand the repertoire of the vocalists/band so there are at least a handful of songs they can pull off without the music in front of them.
●It takes a LOT of work to put together corporate worship. Ever since I took responsibility of leading the evening worship service on every other Sunday, I have been overwhelmed by the amount of work involved. I thought this was due largely to my inexperience, but after observing several presentations at the conference it became clear that putting together corporate worship does place a big demand for concerted effort. Song selection, dissemination of the music, and running rehearsals, in addition to the actual leading of worship, are a big part of this. The major lesson I learned at the conference is that to improve worship one needs to (a) maximize rehearsal time and (b) make engineers and the worship team cooperate. Regarding the second point, ideally a team of two engineers (one in the booth and the other on the platform) arrives ahead of the musicians to adjust the microphones and monitors, so that when the musicians arrive they are ready to go. To me this makes perfect sense and is happening to some extent on Sunday mornings at C/C, but at other times it is often the musicians who are scratching their heads at the booth.
Reaching for excellence requires labor, and leading worship is no exception. The hard part for the leader is to be on the same footing as the team members in terms of passion and commitment. Not everybody on the worship team can operate with the same intensity as the leader, and when there is a gap between the leader's aspiration and that of team members, tension can arise. Much as it is important to have a drive for excellence, it is equally important to work out the relationships and communications within the team by building acceptance, trust, and confidence with each other. In addition, the worship leader should be communicating his/her vision to the church leaders and to the congregation at large. These all demand continuous attention, and more importantly, a lot of prayers!
What does this all mean to worship at C/C (the part led by us)? There are a number of things that can be (and should be) improved in our worship. However, after a conference like this, it is easy to let new ideas walk ahead of the reality, so I should make a conscious effort not to rush changes in what I do. (A case in point: the corporate worship at the conference was great, but if I delivered songs at C/C the same way as Chris Tomlin did at the conference it would not work, for the conference setting was not a model for a local church like ours.) Perhaps a proper starting point would be to acknowledge and thank God for what we already have. We can crave for what we donﾕt have, but the fact is we are already blessed so much with many dedicated leaders, talents, and resources at C/C. I'd like to start by expressing thanks to the Board and Pastor Alan for trusting and supporting us by giving us complete freedom in what we do. This is something I don't take lightly. Then I hold my highest respect and admiration for our leaders Jon and Becky. They are always my inspiration: whenever I'm struck by my own inexperience as a worship leader, their love and acceptance somehow drive me to try a little harder. Of course I cannot do much without the talents and dedication of our musicians and singers: they are the ones who patiently take on the (often) unreasonable demand of the leader who is musically less experienced than themselves, to which I am truly humbled and grateful. I also appreciate the support and respect I receive from the audiovisual staff: they are often the "unsung heroes" but their work is so critically important and indeed an integral part of what we do. Finally I owe a great deal to Tim G. and the Youth Band. They really filled in for us by gladly accepting the huge responsibility for their age, which fell on them out of nothing that they had control over. There were times when Sachi and I literally needed to fall back on them, and I cannot thank more for their willingness to help us. I wish I could have given them more explicit encouragement and sound support in the last three months or so, but the fact is that I have been struggling myself to put things together and had little breathing room. My apology to them.
In the coming months, we hope to improve what we've been striving for: cultivate vertical as well as horizontal relationships during worship. The vertical relationship is one between God and us, and the horizontal relationship is among ourselves. Both are important, but we view the former as prerequisite to the latter. Therefore we strive to deepen our corporate worship in relationship to Him, with a keen eye toward building a sense of unity among us. I try not to be too programmatic, for the Holy Spirit's guidance varies from one occasion to another. However, I do have ideas: one of them is to emphasize the message over musical style. For example, hymns contain a lot of Biblical truth but we often "sing them away" too quickly to appreciate the weight of the lyrics. We can do a better job by introducing a song in a Biblical context, perhaps with a short devotion or scripture reading, for example. I am also looking forward to working closely with the Youth. Currently on Sunday evenings we are slim in musical talents and I can definitely use their help. Maybe I can in turn help them "package" and "deliver" their songs in a way more acceptable to the older folks in the congregation. Through all this my desire is to please and glorify God in our worship, much more so than to be slick in what we deliver.
Sincerely,
Noboru N