Objectives for a worship team are good. One of our objectives should be to eliminate distractions in our worship experience. Distractions are defined differently based on your age or preferences. I might like a rock band style of worship and get distracted by a lady on a piano playing to a hymnal and someone else might be the exact opposite. Someone might be distracted by the amount of creative lighting that we are using and someone may be distracted by a lack of lighting. Leading our teams can?t be based on the whims and opinions of those who don?t have authority over our ministries. But we can do things that help us engage with a higher percentage of the church through strategy and intentionality in what we do.
Is everything we do ? team members, production, set list, etc. ? accomplishing the goal or distracting from the goal?
Define the goals that you want your team to reach and analyze their performance routinely.[quote]Define the goals that you want your team to reach and analyze their performance routinely.[/quote]
One of the analytical tools that I want to highlight is reviewing video. A great way to know whether or not you or another team member looks awkward on stage is to watch a video of when they were on stage.
Have you ever seen a worship leader on stage with an annoying habit? Maybe his hair is too long and he does a ?head-flip? to get his hair out of his eyes. You are standing there wondering if anyone has ever told him that he needs to cut down the amount of times he flips his head around.
I heard it said recently: ?We all want movement on our stage, but some people just look awkward when they move.? So in that case, until they can watch video of themselves and work on not looking awkward, maybe less is more for that person.
Would you leave the house without checking to see what you look like in the mirror?? Why would you lead worship without considering what you look like on stage? A video of platform presence is the perfect ?mirror? for how to know what you look like on stage.
Are you wanting to be more engaging with the congregation? Maybe what you are trying isn?t coming across the way you think it is. Reviewing a video of the moment will help you see from the church?s perspective how the moment is translating from the stage.
Professional sports teams review game tape to learn about themselves and their rival teams. The coach will watch plays that are run by the rival team to know how to have the best strategy to beat that team. Players will analyze the opponent that they are going to be matched with to learn the player?s tendencies and habits on the court. A coach will use footage to help his team improve their game, to show routes that worked and didn?t work, to show how the execution of a play can get better. The only way to learn and improve, whether it is skill or style, is to first critically analyze yourself.
Give your video team the opportunity to serve the worship team.
Don?t take for granted that the technology that we use every week in our worship services can benefit us in multiple ways. Upload the footage of worship and send it out to your team members. Give your band/vocalists and worship leaders every opportunity to review their performance and improve.
Teach the vision and the ?why? behind wanting each team member to look their best on stage. Maybe some of the frustration you have with a team member will be self-corrected once they see just what they look like on camera.
It?s amazing what we learn about ourselves and our leadership when we self-examine.[quote]It?s amazing what we learn about ourselves and our leadership when we self-examine.[/quote]
Our primary goal as worship leaders is to lead people in worship to the Lord. If we are the distraction because of a weird habit that we have on stage or an insecurity that we are unaware of, we become the aspect of the service that distracts people from the very thing that we are trying to lead them toward. What better way for us to ultimately fulfill our role as worship leaders than to make sure that we are at our best and that we aren?t defeating our purpose.
