WHY DON’T THEY ENGAGE IN WORSHIP??

May

WHY DON’T THEY ENGAGE IN WORSHIP??

Posted on May 18th, 2010 in Church Life, Faith, Worship Leader Pitfalls, Worship Leadership by Fred McKinnon

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This is the big question I’ll be discussing at the “AllAboutWorship” retreat in Kansas City this weekend. My breakout session is about corporate participation – why our congregations do (and don’t) engage during our worship services.

What do we (as worship leaders) do that hinder it?
What do we (as worship leaders) to to encourage it?

Whether you are a worship leader, band member, or the worshiper who is in the congregation … your feedback is vital. Over the next 48 hours I’ll be finishing up my outline and I want your feedback.

My preference is for you to post your answer on TheWorshipCommunity.Com in this discussion thread. If you’re not a member of TWC, it only takes a second to sign up. You can also click the blue “Connect with Facebook” button in the top-right corner to join.

Otherwise, leave your remarks right here on the blog … or better yet, leave them in BOTH places!

Pass the word – send this to your praise team, to your church, to your twitter followers, to your facebook friends. And thanks!

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http://welcome2wcc.com Joel Sizemore

The church family must be unified, just like the core group. The worship team knows and cares for the congregation the same as the Pastor. The Holy Spirit always minisers in all aspects of schedule in our church. We do not move unless we are all on the same page. Music, teaching , preaching, fellowship and outreach to community. Visitors are always attached to a member as soon as they arrive and treated as family immediately. Engagement begins at the door.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1048505020 Gary Durbin

First, we have to remember that the majority of our crowd are not great singers. Their range can be limited, so be sensitive in the key of the song.
Next, do songs that are simple and easy to sing as much as possible. It’s good to stretch the crowd with new and fresh songs, but the best songs that last through time are mainly simple melodies.
As far as participation, lead them in expression. Teach them to shout, raise hands, clap, etc. and eventually they’ll do it on their own. Don’t just expect them to instinctively express themselves outwardly.
Most importantly, be led by the Spirit in everything. Prayfully pick the songs every week and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit on how to lead your people in the moment, as well as prior preparation. Find the balance of personal worship on the stage and staying connected to the crowd. It’s important to know where they are during the worship, so we don’t run to far ahead of them.

Sorry, that’s a lot, but I love this subject. Can’t wait to hear how this goes at the retreat.

http://www.fredmckinnon.com Fred McKinnon

Gary,
Amazing insights .. on a practical level, what would you say is a good “range” for congregational singing?

I also love the point you bring about the balance between our personal on-stage worship and leading …

http://www.facebook.com/mweger Michelle Weger

My rule on this is C-C (starting with middle C). Of course a song may have a few notes that drop above and below that range- but the basic melody, the hook, stays there.

http://www.SaintLewisMusic.com/ Shannon Lewis

Personally, I think it’s a multi-facetted issue:
For one, if I haven’t been consistently modeling and teaching on how to respond, as part of my “worship leading” (not just the congregation, but the rest of my team), I notice a decline in outward response. Secondly, using too many “new” songs – and by “new”, I mean “new” to the congregation, not “new” to me and the team. That usually means that if I, personally, am not entirely sick of the song, the average person in church is pretty much unfamiliar with it. It’s a tricky place to be, but true – we need to be convinced, and in love with the heart/message of the song, so we can still lead others to sing it, even when – especially when – we are likely tired of it.

http://www.fredmckinnon.com Fred McKinnon

Shannon, great insights!

http://mandythompson.com mandythompson

My theory is threefold:
1) They don’t want to.
2) They don’t understand why it’s important.
3) They don’t connect – either with the song or the worship leader.
http://jimmorrow.wordpress.com Jim Morrow

Good questions. For what it’s worth, here are some of my initial reactions. (Love me anyway ).

How do you define “engage”? Similarly, are we strictly defining music as worship?

If a person doesn’t regularly sing, are they disengaged?

How do different personality types and people with different areas of giftedness respond to the worship and the activity of the Holy Spirit? Some are very internal and contemplative, some are outward and expressive, some are analyzing and taking in the lyrics, some are moved by the rhythm.

I have found the best measure of involvement or engagement in worship to be the amount of people who are moving deeper into the local church’s process of discipleship (i.e. into profession, into small groups, into personal spiritual disicpline, into mission, whatever the case may be).
http://allglory.blogspot.com David Paul Regier

I have found it effective to step out of “worship mode” and actually teach songs to the congregation as I would teach it to a bunch of singers, or the band. If I have to spend energy and thought teaching a song to trained musicians, why would I think that people who are completely untrained could just “pick it up” based on my performance?

Not something I’d do every Sunday, but if it’s a song I really want them to take to heart and sing as a congregation, I’d definitely go that way.
http://www.journeyofworship.com Chris Gambill

fred,

Fascinating topic that no doubt every worship leader at times struggles with. One thing I’ve learned is that, as long as we know we aren’t doing distracting stuff, we have to be careful not to go down the “they don’t like me”, “why aren’t I doing a good job”, or “it’s my fault” road.

I think, in addition to some great stuff already mentioned by Gary and others, it sometimes has to do with local culture. If the church isn’t in a culture where music, especially Christian music, isn’t readily accessible, then singing isn’t going to be a natural response. I think, too, that the fact that many school systems don’t teach music/singing like they used to can be a factor.

Ultimately, I think it also has a lot to do with a person’s view and perception of God. If they have not really embraced the view of God that is great, magnificent, and awesome (ie How BIG is God?), then the fundamental response is not going to be one of worship.

Perhaps, when we realize that segments of the congregations we lead aren’t responding, instead of coming up with more “methods” to get them to sing, we should spend more time praying that the Holy Spirit would draw them to respond to the living God. (This is as much for me as the next person).

Thanks!
http://www.onevoiceworship.org Harold Forbis

Great comments!

It’s a difficult task we’ve been given as worship leaders, but one we’ve also been given the grace to accomplish by Him Who is in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

This may sound overly simplistic, but I think a real key is that our own purpose in what we’re doing is always first to engage God – to create an atmosphere that’s pleasing to Him, honoring to Him, welcoming to Him – intentionally drawing near to Him personally and with our worship teams, so that He will fulfill His promise and draw near to us.

If we engage Him ourselves, then we reach out to our friends to bring them to Him – with music, with exhortations, with teaching, with illustrations, etc. It’s a priestly, mediating role of reaching one hand to God, and one hand to those who we are seeking to see joined to Him.

Sometimes, if we’re not thinking about it, we get excited about engaging people in the new song we’ve just learned, or other aspects of our own ministry, and we forget that our assignment – our calling – is to point to Him and back out of the way as people begin to apprehend that for which they’ve been apprehended – Jesus!

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