Leading Worship 2

Familiarise Yourself With The Songs

By that, I mean that you should do your best to learn the lyrics to the songs and not just rely on having a secondary screen at the back of your auditorium. Knowing the lyrics enables you to focus on worshiping and leading, the two main components of being a worship leader. Otherwise, you'll be glued to your lyric sheets.

Not only that, but it's best if you have an idea of what keys and timings your songs are in. Worship leaders often have great ideas for running one song into the next without any giving any real thought as to the musical implications for the band.

For instance, are the songs you want to run together in the same key? If not, how will you modulate from one into the next. In my observation, it's even more difficult for inexperienced musicians to change from one timing to another, for instance, from 4/4 to 6/8. So give some thought to what sorts of song you want to run together.

Use Signals

This really depends on the level of experience of the band as well as how rigid the preplanning is for the service. If you decide beforehand that the first song will be sung through three times from start to finish, the second song will go verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, etc., then signals are unnecessary. Everyone knows what's happening and when. Except maybe the data projectionists who often don't include themselves in worship rehersals.

If you have an experienced band of good musicians, you also probably don't need to use hand signals.

But if you have a team of not so experienced musicians, they may not be so quick on identifying aural cues as to what's happening next. They'll need something more visual. If this sounds like your situation, you'll need hand signals for stop, slow down, faster, back to the top, verse, chorus, bridge, prechorus, key change and next song. These will all make sure that everyone knows what's happening next. But make sure your whole team can see your signals. No use sneaking them in at the last second down where no one can see them and then wonding why nobody is following your lead.