December 04 2008
Poll: When a worship leader speaks a lot during worship you are…
Tagged Under : church, leading, poll, worship
Let me layout the scene…
You walk into the sanctuary and the worship leader opens with a nice prayer and then the guitar player opens with a great riff and off we go into the first jam. But in the middle breakdown the worship leader starts preaching on making a joyful noise and encourages you to dance and shout. When the song is over he does a prayer segue into song 2, and then prays again during the breakdown.
Into song 3 the worship leader has a sermonette on the power of unity and how he wants everyone’s hands lifted, hey you in the back, get your hands up! In between the 10th and 11th repeat of the tag the worship leader reads 3 entire psalms cause God really laid it on his heart this morning. Now you’re repeating the tag 10 more times before a soft prayer is read on the intro to the ministry song.
Now there are tears as the worship leaders speaks over the congregation, prophecy pastor, prophecy! Worship leader goes off melody to speak all the verses so he can make it more intimate. So far it’s about 50/50 prayer and talk to actual singing. Jesus walks amongst the church and the worship leader doesn’t notice cause he’s flipping through scripture to find his closing prayer.
Aaaaaaaaaand scene!
So how does all that talking hit you in the congregation?
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nothing drives me more nuts actually. lol
Drive’s me nuts too. It’s not preaching time. It’s worship time. It’s “ushering in” time. Worship sets up our ability to receive God’s word. Let us focus on worshiping.
It’s almost as bad as vocalists “soul yodeling” over the instrumental solos!
Your post is skewed to answer negatively. This isn’t scientific, this is a sham. you should be ashamed of your self for passing this off as a real poll! Oh and I hate that when worship leaders do that.
Thomas: “soul yodeling” cracked me up
James: You’re right, I’m certainly no Zogby, I have no formal training in, well really anything but certainly not poll research
I did add a “None of the above” option now though. All I could think for positive answers was “encouraged” and “refocused”…just can’t think of any other reasonable positive reaction. Maybe “jubilant” ?
As a worship leader and preacher (many times both on the same nights), I am mindful to lead worship with very little speaking (it’s not the place for the sermon). If you are a worship leader, here is the deal:
1. You are to lead worship. Limit your words and don’t tell me what to do with my hands or heart or soul. You may tell me to stand up, but beyond that you are playing “Simon Says” and alienating people rather than helping them encounter God.
2. The preacha don’t sing in his sermon so don’t preach in your singin.’ There is one preacher and, unless your guy doesn’t show, you ain’t him.
In short – shut up and sing!!
Respectfully,
Hmm, now I know I do some “refocusing” during worship because plowing through the none worshiping congregation all of the time isn’t my style, but, an all out sermon/conch solo, what have you, has a place. That place is not during corporate worship, that place is, however, in a dark closet.
I vote confused. I have been apart of sets like this and in my early days It did nothing more then make me feel that I never quite made it into the presence of God. Now I am this type of worship leader. Can you lift your hands and seek Him right now… do it.
Seriously, This was annoying at The Call, everytime i felt like the spirit of worship was so thick that you could cut it, some other preacher or someone who felt lead to grab the mic would come and make their voice heard. I vote confusing. Chaotic. Shut up and crank that jam so I can praise Jesus to the fullest.
I have seen talking be done right and in balance… but when it gets to much it can be very annoying. I think in my early days of leading I was the one who liked to talk a lot. I know that the desire is to have everyone engaged but it misses the mark a lot of times when it is over done. Now I will bring another side… I do think that some instruction and encouragement from the worship leader can be a good thing to building a worshipping community. But all and all i think it is to much is annoying.
one thing I just want to point out (and I dont’ mean it as a shot, just a neutral observation from where I’m at) is the tone this scene description is written in… tone and attitude in your original question will influence the leanings of your poll.
Jess: As the person who wrote the question, I agree 100%. I made no attempt to hide my bias. This poll certainly isn’t very scientific, but I never found science to be fun. But I honestly couldn’t think of any other positive answer choices. I promise. Our Rising Sound does have a position open for professional pollster. If interested, send me an email and I’ll give you compensation details. I’ll give you a hint, take zero, double it, then cut it in half.
LOL… I will take the position. I am also willing to take less money if we can work on a raise in the future.
We shouldn’t mistake a worship leader for a band leader. A band leader leads songs and a worship leader leads worship. And we all know that worship isn’t only song, it has to do with so much more. So, if in directing people to God and creating an environment to worship calls for some talking, then talk. If it calls for some singing, then sing. If it calls for silence, then be quiet. But, the most important part of leading worship is being in constant communion with the Spirit and trying to discern where he is wanting to move the community. And if you are concerned about that, then talking, singing, silence, ect., whatever it may be, that will be the right thing to do.
I think that this post and the overwhelming negative reaction to talking during “worship” has been grown out of a talkative worship leader, who, needs to listen to the Spirit more and himself less.