The Temptation Every Worship Leader Faces On Sunday

We are all tempted to seek our own glory and fame.  Most of us enjoy the sound of applause in our honor.  But we Christians have been saved from our sinful selves and purchased by God. We are now trophies of His grace.

In our corporate worship services, this means we care about the overall shape of the service — a faithful witness and celebration of the gospel. We should always ask ourselves if our own desires are getting in the way:

• Vocal team members, do we care more about how many songs we’re leading?
• Musicians, do we care more about how many instrumental solos we get to play?

As we’re planning our set lists and lead vocal assignments, we should be seeking to serve our congregations well by structuring the entire service in a way that clearly conveys the gospel and stirs hearts to exalt the name of Christ.  Our goal is not to entertain or gain the applause of men.  It is to applaud the Lord and declare the wonders of His love and salvation in the presence of all who gather in His name.

No matter what your role is on your church’s worship team, you are a leader.  You are being followed as you play your instrument and sing before your congregations each week.  As a leader, do you care more about serving your congregation than you do about serving yourself?  Are you eager to be applauded or are you determined to lead the applause of our great God?  Are you willing to give up a vocal or instrumental solo if it would better serve the overall shape of the service?

These are questions we need to ask as we allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and convict us of any idolatry and apathy.

Jesus is a great Savior and as we confess our sins and shortcomings to Him we find unfathomable depths of mercy.  He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The Holy Spirit is a perfect Counselor and will readily stir our affections for Christ as we rely on His help.

And our Father accepts our worship based on the merits of Jesus, His unblemished Son who intercedes perfectly on our behalf before the Father’s throne of grace.  He deserves the applause! He deserves the glory and fame! He is our strength, our salvation and our song!  We have nothing to boast about in ourselves.  We must boast in Christ alone who has saved and robed us with His perfect righteousness.

Our lives should be lived in praise of the One who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.  Our goal as worship leaders should be to point everyone in our congregations (and lives) to Christ who alone deserves all praise, glory and honor.  God did not gift us with the ability to sing and play skillfully so that we might boast in ourselves.  We are HIS instruments for HIS praise and glory.

The Simple Trick To Writing Effective Song Melodies

Many songwriters compose melodies by strumming guitar chords, allowing chord changes to lead them to the notes that work with those chords. There is nothing wrong with this method, but people don’t sing chords. They sing melodies. If you play chord changes on guitar or keyboard, and then you impose melodies on top of the chord progressions, you may end up with a boring melody (or a melody that sounds like all your other melodies, if you tend to play the same chord progressions).

Chords are important, for sure. They “harmonize” with the melody, helping to evoke certain emotions. But melody is primary. So try this method of melody-writing:

• First, compose the catchiest, most delightful melody you can, a cappella (without instrumentation).
• Next, speak your lyrics aloud. This will help you hear the natural rhythm of the words, which may help you revise your melody as needed.
• Last, find chords that will best support your melody, and bring out the emotional tones you’re looking for.

If you’re not a musician, you may want to work with a musician to find the right chords. This can be a co-writer, or just a musician in your church or band. If this person isn’t a co-writer, consider paying the musician an upfront fee for their time.

Finally, make sure your song “works” with just one voice and one instrument. Vicky Beeching says,

“I believe that if a song is going to be useful to the global Church, it needs to work with one voice and one acoustic guitar (or one piano). Most churches are not huge and have a small handful of musicians. Often it’s just one person up front leading on one instrument. Make sure your song doesn’t hang on some big musical riff, or the drumbeat, or the fact that a huge choir is singing it. Does it work when it’s stripped right back to one guitar and one vocal? If not, I’d say the song is too reliant on instrumentation and probably isn’t ready yet. Keep working on it until it stands strong on just one instrument and one vocal. Try the song that way at a smaller meeting, or a home group. A great song will work just as well in that simple setting, as it does with a huge band.”

 

How To Prepare For Your Worship Team Rehearsals

As a member of your church’s worship ministry, you should make every effort to excellently serve the Lord and His Church by preparing well for worship team rehearsals.  Preparing for rehearsal is important.  Here are a few practical ways you can prepare for band rehearsal:

Review Familiar Tunes.  Whether you’re a musician or singer (or both), you need to know the songs that you are leading.  You may not think it’s necessary to spend as much time and energy rehearsing old, familiar songs.  Don’t give yourself too much credit here.  Refresh your mind, muscles and heart by playing and singing through the familiar tunes.

Learn New Songs.  Listen to any new songs you’ll be introducing/leading.  Really listen.  You may not have a lot of time to play through the songs, but there’s probably plenty of time to listen to the songs.  Most of us have access to music all the time.  You may not want to listen to the Sunday worship set for days on end, but this sacrifice will tremendously help you lead any new songs well.  As you listen and play through the songs, make notes on your music charts of any transitions that aren’t written into the chart.  Don’t just give it a quick listen and run-through. Study the song.

Determine Key Changes and Transpose Music.  Lead singers, determine the key in which you’ll need to sing your songs and communicate this to the band and other singers.  Band members, if you know of a key change, transpose your music in advance of the rehearsal and service.  If you are a support singer, consider any other vocalists who’ll be serving and prepare well by determining which harmony parts you’ll sing on each song.

For All Songs: Make it easy to remember each song so you don’t have to expend all your mental energy concentrating on lyrics, chord changes and song structure as you’re leading the songs.  It’s also good to review any notes you made the last time you led a song.  Additionally, consider the members of the band you’ll be serving with and determine in advance how you will sing or play in order to leave room for each instrument and voice.  And if you rehearse on a different day from the service, continue to familiarize yourself with the songs after the rehearsal.

Be Ready to Improvise.  Even if the band nails a song arrangement in rehearsal, every member must be ready to improvise during the service.  The band leader may feel it appropriate to repeat a chorus or verse at the end of a song, depending on the responsiveness of the congregation.  Or it may be good to cut a double chorus that was rehearsed.  Or, the band may not end the song together as planned.  Or a singer may unexpectedly tag a line at the end of the song.  There are numerous scenarios that require flexibility.  Be prepared to improvise in order to best serve the Lord and the congregation.

Communicate Clearly and Early.  If you are a worship director and responsible for preparing and distributing the set list and music to your team, strive to have this information available to them several days in advance of the service time.  If you plan to lead a song in an arrangement different from the arrangement your team is learning, communicate this to them in advance of your rehearsal.  Cast as much clear vision as you can in advance of your rehearsal. This will conserve time and energy, two commodities typically in short supply.

God calls us to serve Him heartily and with excellence.  As co-laborers with Christ, God expects us to cooperate with His work in and through us.  He deserves our best efforts.  He gives us all the grace and strength we need to serve Him well and bring pleasure to His heart.  Preparing well for rehearsal and the worship service also includes fully relying on God’s never-failing grace and strength.

Top photo by Chuck Heeke, from Sojourn New Albany

Prosody: When Music And Lyrics Hold Hands

The term “prosody” has several meanings in the fields of literature, poetry and music. When we speak of prosody in songwriting, we’re talking about the marriage of lyrics to music. In simplest form, we achieve prosody when we match triumphant lyrics to triumphant music, and when we match sad lyrics to sad music.

So if you write a lament based on Psalm 13 (“How long, O Lord …”) your music should be consistent with the message of the lyrics, and the emotion those lyrics are intended to convey. Sojourn did this on “How Long,” based on Isaac Watts’s version of Psalm 13:

Some of the common tunes for classic hymns are lacking in prosody. This is especially true of the American “gospel hymns” of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. According to hymnologist Paul Westermeyer in With Tongues Of Fire:

“The Dwight Moody-Ira Sankey campaigns in the last quarter of the 19th century produced a body of hymnody that … contained cheery compound triple and dotted rhythms, enticing mild chromaticism, the almost exclusive use of major keys rather than minor ones, and a lack of dissonance or musical argument to create tension. It developed into the even lighter, semi-sacred, and more commercial music of the Billy Sunday era after the turn of the century, such as … “Brighten The Corner Where You Are,” … It often took over Sunday schools altogether and made inroads into mainstream Protestant services as well. Sometimes songs in this style replaced an entire hymnic heritage …”

Other classic hymns pair jubilant lyrics with somber music. Sovereign Grace’s Devon Kauflin wrote new music for the Phillip Bliss hymn “What A Savior” for this reason, as he told me in an interview here at My Song In The Night:

“I was never particularly excited about the traditional melody associated with it. In our context it didn’t seem to fit the declaration: ‘Hallelujah! What a Savior!’ I really wanted to be able to respond to the truth in the verses, and the line combined with the melody just seemed like a total downer to me.”

Prosody also means matching words like “rise,” “sky,” and “high” with notes that “rise high in the sky.” We hear this in Elevation Worship’s “Be Lifted High,” written by Chris Brown, Jane Williams, Jess Cates, Matt Brock and Wade Joye. The melody soars on “higher” when they sing:

“You be lifted high; You be lifted HIGHER”

To make sure you understand the basics of prosody, answer this question: Should the melody go up or down if you sing “the depths of hell”?

If you guessed “Down,” congratulations – you get it.

Is it ever okay to write sad music for happy lyrics, or vice versa? Of course. Rules are made to be broken. Songwriters most often invert the rule of prosody when they want to achieve an ironic effect, or to convey a sense of “Something isn’t quite right.”

For instance, a singer-songwriter may write lyrics about loss and heartbreak, then compose happy music to create an “I’m ignoring my pain” effect or a “Don’t cry for me – I’m actually better off” effect. But this kind of writing doesn’t work as well in congregational worship music.

When Worship Leaders Pray More On Stage Than Off Stage

Worship Leader Carlos Whitaker recently posted a short but telling list of eight characteristics of a lukewarm worship leader.  Let’s talk about the lukewarm worship leader characteristic “When you pray more on stage than off stage.” Since worship leaders are not on stage as often as they are off the stage (everyday life), this really means a lukewarm worship leader spends very little time in prayer outside of gathered worship services.

My Papaw used to wear a button bearing the phrase “7 days without prayer makes one weak.”  Although corny, there’s some important truth in this saying.  Remember when Jesus encouraged His disciples to be watchful in prayer so that they would not give in to temptation “for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38)?  Consider also how often Jesus Himself withdrew to solitary places to commune with His Father.  This prayerful rhythm of Christ’s life is our example to follow.  After all, we do call Him “Lord.”

Our Lord Jesus has commissioned us to feed His sheep, to lead His sheep and to love His sheep.  We cannot do this well without spending time with the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, communing in prayer as we give Him our thanks and praise, as we roll our burdens onto Him, as we make our requests known to Him, as we confess our sins and acknowledge our ongoing need for grace upon grace.  We need the help of the Holy Spirit to follow the way of Christ in doing the work our Father has called us to do every time we step on the stage to lead others in worship of His name.

Communing with the Father in prayer can be done anywhere, anytime.  Even when we don’t know how or what to pray, the Holy Spirit helps us to pray:

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for.  But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.  And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying because the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.  And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” (Romans 8:26-28)

This is a huge encouragement for us as we labor to pray and labor through prayer!  Whether you’re praying for yourself, your family, your worship team members, or whoever else God calls you to pray for, you can know that the Holy Spirit within you will pray perfectly according to God’s will, even when words fail you.

As you determine to pursue closer fellowship with our Lord in prayer, consider the helpful list of eight things to pray specifically as you prepare to love, lead and serve the people of your congregation each week, originally posted by Matt Boswell on The Gospel Coalition’s worship blog. Here are the first three:

1.    Lord, please help me to understand the meaning of the lyrics we sing and ensure they point to Christ.

2.    Lord, please increase my love for the people I will lead in worship.

3.    Lord, please give me wisdom to apply what I sing first to my own pursuit of truth, and call people to the same end.

 

How To Compose Melodic Hooks For Worship Songs

How do songwriters emphasize their song title or major lyrical “hook” of their song? Besides the obvious fact that the words themselves should be compelling, the musical section needs to stand out from the rest of the song as well. One common way is to make some of the notes that accompany your title higher or lower than the rest of the melody. Contemporary worship writers most often choose to go higher, but either can work.

You can also create a melodic hook by changing the rhythm. For instance, if the lines before and after your hook line are primarily composed of eighth notes and quarter notes, you can use long, fluid half notes and whole notes for your hook line. Glenn Packiam and Paul Baloche do this on “Your Name.”

You can go the opposite direction as well – compose the lines around your hook with long notes, then craft short notes for your hook. Jeremy Riddle does this on Bethel Music’s “Furious.” He stretches the notes of his pre-chorus, leading into a machine gun-like intensity of shorter notes throughout the chorus.

Finally, don’t make listeners wait too long before you introduce your major hook. Most songs will hit their big hook within about 30 seconds from the beginning of the first verse. This is often true of hymns, too. Whereas the big hook in contemporary worship songs usually comes in the chorus, it often comes midway through each verse in the V-V-V hymn format. You can hear it on lines 5-6 of each verse in these Stuart Townend/Keith Getty hymns (each of which contain 8 lines per verse):

• In Christ Alone
• Resurrection Hymn (See What A Morning)
• O Church Arise

Top photo by Derek Garvey, used via Creative Commons license

Strength To Worship In Every Season

For the last eight months since our son Parker was stillborn, Bobby and I have endured some very difficult situations.  There have been many “normal” life situations that could have been unbearable if not for the presence and grace of God.  He has been, is and will be our endless supply of strength and fortitude.  He has answered countless prayers for courage and for help rejoicing with those around us who are rejoicing to receive their babies alive and healthy.

That’s how we’ve been able to keep showing up, keep smiling, keep singing, keep writing, keep hoping, and keep welcoming more and more babies of our growing church and Smith/Gilles families.  All of these gestures are genuine because God goes before us, follows us, and remains constantly with us as He makes our way perfect and bears our sorrows on His own back.

We know that God is acutely aware of our sorrow and the challenges of being separated from our son, but it is encouraging to know that others are aware too.  This thoughtfulness is not at all lost on us. Thank you, dear brothers and sisters, for your continued thoughtfulness and prayers.

We know that many of you are suffering greatly and enduring hardships of many kinds.  It is an honor to be joined with you in Christ and we trust Him to intercede perfectly on your behalf through all who are called to pray and stand with you.  We can say with confidence based on God’s perfect promises that He will not fail, period.  He will certainly continue to prove all of His words true.  He will show you the wonders of His love and the riches of His sufficient grace.  We’re thankful that you will be given sharper visions of Christ through your suffering.  You will get to behold Him like many long to — but don’t get to — this side of Heaven.

Bobby and I regularly read Charles Spurgeon’s devotional book Beside Still Waters.  This week we read the following text and it stirred our hearts to persevere in praising God and encouraging others to do the same in their own suffering.  As much as we want to see you spared from pain and suffering, we praise God for giving you the grace to keep on singing and praising God.  We praise him for giving us that same grace to lift high His name in the midst of our own heartache.  He is faithful to help us sing when our physical and emotional strength fails.

FROM THIS TIME FORTH (Ps. 115:18)

“‘We will bless The Lord from this time forth and forevermore’ (Ps. 115:18). Our praise will never end. ‘From this time forth and forevermore’ includes eternity. We praise Him not in our strength but in the strength of grace. That strength will never be exhausted; it will be renewed day by day.

“If God takes you to the sick bed, if every limb becomes a mass of pain, if every nerve is a highway for crowds of pain to travel, keep on praising Him.  Continue to bless, praise and magnify His name.

“Even death cannot stop us from blessing God; it will only increase the heavenly choir and sweeten the harmony. We shall love The Lord more and praise Him better when our souls can speak without being hindered by our lips. Then we shall speak in a nobler and sweeter language before the throne of God:

 

My God, I’ll praise Thee while I live,

And praise Thee when I die,

And praise Thee when I rise again,

And to eternity.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song,

I’ll sing thy power to save,

When this poor lisping, stammering tongue,

Lies silent in the grave.”

This text made me think of our son Parker, and how his soul has never been hindered by his own lips in singing God’s praises.  He’s never been backward about it and never stammered in speaking the truth about our Lord.  Even death could not stop him from blessing our Lord.  It only increased the heavenly choir and sweetened the harmony.  Oh how I long to hear our precious Parker sing God’s praises!  Until then, I’ll join my voice with yours and Bobby’s and all the saints singing on this side of glory, and I’ll look forward to singing that greater song “When from my dying bed my ransomed soul shall rise” and “Jesus died my soul to save!” rends the vaulted skies!!

 

How Low Can You Go, How High Can You Fly In Worship Song Melodies?

Most people in your congregation have a vocal range somewhere between one octave to one-and-a-third. Paul Baloche, Jimmy Owens and Carol Owens write,

“Congregational songs must be written in the common range. That’s the range of the average person, generally from low Bb up to D. You can stretch that a half step on either end if necessary, but preferably not if the notes are to be held out very long. It’s demoralizing not to be able to reach the long high or low notes.”

For this reason, a 1 1/3-octave range should be in the upper limits of our songwriting toolkit. Most worship songs should stick closer to an octave. A full octave is plenty of space for a tune.

Some tunes – particularly quiet, contemplative songs – may only need a few notes. “Here I Am To Worship” has a five-note range, and “The Heart Of Worship” has a range of a sixth. But these are exceptions. For most worship songs, feel free to use a full octave. This will give you something to build toward in your verses, and will make your chorus and/or bridge interesting or fun for your congregation.

So use a whole octave in composing your melody, moving up the scale as your song progresses. As you move up the scale in your verse and pre-chorus, the tension will increase, leading to a big hook in your chorus. Otherwise, if your verse is higher than your chorus, the melody will seem to deflate, and people will lose interest.

As with any songwriting “rule,” this need not always be the case. Some songs seem to promise a melodic jump at the start of the chorus, only to tease us by dipping to a lower note than the final pre-chorus note. As the chorus progresses, we do finally hit the higher melodic notes. Jason Ingram, Matt Maher, Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman do this on “White Flag.” It works because the chorus is short and the high “payoff” lines are worth it.

Next week I’ll write more about “melodic hooks,” the part of a song that people hum and sing over and over.