Letter to a young worship leader

hi Tim

Great having you today. i'm excited to see you have some freedom to grow in this area -- have fun, be yourself (be goofy), learn to interact w/your audience -- "read" what they need in order to engage in worship. this is our job as a worship leader - to know our audience, meet them where they are and then lead them even farther!

today you got to know the kids a bit better - we learned that actions or some other form of physical engagement is a 'must' or we lose them. in fact, even when i do a slow or a 'soaking' song i intentionally instruct them (for example - "put your hand on your heart, lay down, be still"). you really have to guide them. i think this is a great thing to learn to do that will help you with every group you lead in the future. and this particular group needs our leadership to be very obvious and directional :)

we also learned that even though you think a song is "upbeat" there is no guarantee that's enough in and of itself to engage them, yeah? it's good that the song you pick for tomorrow will have energy AND you are going to make sure it has action leaders. cool! repeating songs are also an excellent choice. sometimes we can even take a song that isn't a repeating song but make it into one. sing a line and then have them sing it. it helps them hear and know the words as well as participate. i generally DON'T project words b/c half of them can't read and i don't' want to leave half of them in the dark. i want them ALL to be able to engage ALL the time as much as possible.

it's actually more important that they are full-body / soul / spirit engaging than it is that they all sing all the words all the time. if we put the words up then there's an expectation at some level that they'll sing-along b/c they can read them. i don't' want this false belief. i want us all to learn the song together over the course of time. i want songs to get INTO us so the holy spirit can bring them OUT of us at the times we're walking down the street and we need to hear/sing them!! we're planting seeds, Timmy. it's highly important stuff - stuff that will shape and impact them for a lifetime!

:) jen