As a new worship pastor, it's good to know I'm doing something right! I fit the song to the vocalist on my tiny team. I encourage the gifts that God gave them. Besides, I'm not the greatest singer, so it's nice to have someone else sing. I have a great team, so I am blessed.
I think for this we should also consider the number of volunteers in the church for example here in my church in Uganda we are only 5 choir members and few turn up for Sunday so it is kinda of had to have many leaders
Guys, you just opened my eyes! I got two lead vocalist. But they take turns each sunday. One week, female, next week male. But now that you talked about this, I'm thinking of mixing them on the set. Thanks for the video!
Vocal "harmonies" is something else that make a band or a praise team,so having male & female vocalists that can do harmonies and working on them in rehearsals and having a good vocal mix helps a great deal
We have 6 vocals who switch off lead, but we also mix in guest vocalists from different churches too. This past week we had a missions group come down with 3 of their worship leaders and lead worship with some of our musicians. So movement and flexibility in our team is definitely what we aim for.
At the church I attend, the worship leader leads majority of songs per service, for instance he/she leads 2 of the 4, and the other 2 are lead by others, and we aim for different vocalists for those. I find that as well as empowering the other vocalists to grow and learn to lead, it also becomes a great tool for diversity of voices, so there’s less chance of the congregation getting ‘bored’ of that one voice.
In my church it's mostly my band director leading and 2 of the other adult female vocalists. This year we are working on getting the teens leading music. Since it's the teen band!
My God I want to thank you guys soooooo, much for this video there are sooooooo, many that need this information,,I'm currently at a church at this time that I can relate to this video,,I can't get them to understand that it's not good that the same person leads all the songs ,,I left 1 church that was doing that and and ended up at another church that's doing the same thing it's really frustrating,,, they won't listen,,,thats why I thank you soooo, much for this video,,,you guys be blessed!!!😊
This really just goes to a culture of encouraging the giftings in people who want to lead. It doesn’t have to be formulaic. I’ve never been fatigued by my favorite band. 🤔 All these videos can be summed up under the umbrella of developing a community & culture of worship. Sounds really simplistic but some of these topics can get so specific that it can be systematic or disconnected from the simple source
Our Worship Pastor leads nearly every week on vocal and keys. He always wants to have at least one female vocalist scheduled to cover the melody in a higher range. One female vocalist leads the service ( plays no instrument) a couple times a year when the WP is out of town.
Church of 200, every week a minimum 1 song lead by a volunteer usually 2. We have about 20 people volunteering, 7 - 8 different people leading throughout the month. :) so I agree ☝️
I'll help you with that. But don't get me wrong, I hear what they're saying and it's def. something I need to give some thought and prayer to. But... First, it signals to everyone in your congregation that this is their big chance! And many might not sing nearly as well as they think they do... maybe their singing is painful. And you'll have to navigate that mine field. Second, my boss the pastor holds me responsible for the quality of the worship time on Sunday morning. And I'm not sure he would be crazy about this concept. Next, isn't this a calling? Or not? To wrap up, and yes, it's more work. People can't make the rehearsal time, there will be sound checks, and sound checks on the live feed, which is a multi-step process. Those coaching sessions he talked about. Anyone NOT strapped for time? So, there's some reasons. I'd love to hear from you. For the record, in our band I try to evenly split the songs with the great Christian lady a few feet away. Yours, gb
At our church we have 3 worship leaders. 2 of us are volunteers and we take 1 week a month each. And the third is our paid associate pastor who takes the rest of the weeks. We have 5 vocalist all together. 2 have specifically asked to not lead any songs.
I auditioned for a Student band this week which had 2 instrumentalists and 4 vocalists, and of the people auditioning I think I was still the only non-vocalist. The 10 to 1 thing is very true.
Our worship leader was scared to death to let me lead a song, most unsecured singer ever met,, spot light and control just like you mentioned, sick stuff
So, in our small volunteer led church of 200 people, about 10% are involved in Worship, so that no one has to do all the work. It takes a lot of pressure from everyone because every position can be filled by a handful of people.
Good idea but as the lead guitarist, I have to be ready to play our catalog of songs in any key on any given Sunday. In another church in which I played, the same vocalist was always assigned to sing the same song. Conversely, I experienced the, "Why is she singing MY song this week???"
I totally get matching songs to vocalists, but do you find that having a different leader for each song is a distraction; that it reduces continuity of worship? It seems like maybe another way to be diverse in song leadership would be to maybe have two per service, (one male, one female) but alternate who those two are.
It would be nice to have one lead vocalist, let alone more than one! I am not a lead vocalist - I play acosutic guitar - but leading the singing often falls to me because we haven't got anyone else who can do it.
There are several lead vocalists in my praise team BUT they are the same ones ALL the time... My worship pastor only picks those specific ones to lead. He has not given me the opportunity to lead yet and I would love to... How would you recommend approaching him to ask my worship pastor, to let him know I would like the opportunity? TIA
Just ask directly. However, don't make my mistake and try to change yourself in order to fit whatever they seem to want. I had to step back because it was emotionally draining to be unsuccessful over and over when I am well liked for my voice anywhere else. I am happier to sing in the congregation as I am than to stress out on the worship team because I am not pleasing. I was actually a worship leader myself at a small church. Best wishes.
It has always been implied to me by many pastors that the person to lead the congregation in singing worship to God has to be someone who truly understands what worship means and have a strong relationship with God, studying and knowing His word and possess a good rapport with the congregation and people in general, what would be your opinions on this? Thanks
I agree with you completely and no I am not the lead vocalist at my church. This group because of their size and some of their own ideas has lost touch with most of the rest of the Christian world if you want to hear a good one listen to their take on the Hiatus or whatever they call it for pastors sounds like Hollywood to me also it is the performer mentality of leadership that makes them think this way. In my humble opinion
@@MrVbobby Thanks, The performer mentality vs The Heart servant mentality is something that is quite debated these days. I grew up understanding that availability trumps ability, atleast in the very beginning, and because they made themselves available, available for practice, available to spend time in prayer and fellowship, ability comes to them over time because of their dedication. Your thoughts?
nate_bballer_musician _nate I agree with that completely I believe their is a spiritual aspect to worship that trumps ability in e my opinion I have been involved with worship for over 30 years I was on a worship team that according to these guys were doing everything wrong but when several churches would get together for a monthly worship night ours was the favorite team I was in a church that met in a Quonset hut and the pastor would sit in the middle of the seats with a warbling boom box and these 3 ladies would get up and sing their hearts out slightly to majorly off kee but that church worshipped like few I’ve ever seen I have been part of 3 traveling Christian bands We played churches Rescue missions juvenile hall church bar bq’s and many other places as well as being on worship teams in large and small churches I guess what bothers me most is the arrogance you see now on social media like “ my way is the right way. “ In the past it was mostly one person who led for one thing it brings continuity and the congregation knows who to follow and it is hard to find persons mature enough to fill the spot, notice I said mature enough not talented enough I could go on but I. Won’t I’ve said more than anyone wants to here already
I'm not a fan of the way it's done with my church. There isn't often a "lead" vocalist. It's more like 5 people with a mic and one may be ever so slightly louder. It's closer to a small choir than anything else.
Same. We just have everybody in the band sing and one person sort of lead the train, but they are by no means confident or quite frankly talented enough to lead effectively.
I am the worship leader and we only have 4 others on the team that can sign. I try to have at least 2 vocalists a Sunday. To be honest I do not want to lead vocally every song.
Is it important to establish yourself as being the worship leader? For instance, should the leader always open the worship set? Or always end it? Does this even matter?
We are a small church of under 50 people. I am the worship leader but I don't sing! We do not rotate out people. Not enough. We have four people that lead on our team of eight on the stage.
Newly a worship leader with my wife. I really want to start adding musicians and vocalist... but we are very small (40 - 50 people) and I’m scared to reach out and end up putting someone one the platform that’s well.. bad. Help.
devon Roberts The answer to that question is well beyond the scope of a comment thread:) fortunately, we have a few videos out there on auditioning folks and how to handle the results! I would highly suggest checking them out and watching them and looking through those comments as well. There’s a lot of ways to approach this and I think you’ll be enlightened by some of the conversations we’ve had in the past. Check those out and then let us know if you have any further questions!
This is an ongoing problem with no easy answer when I was talking to the worship leader at church I was new in he said it is easier to ask you to join than it is to ask you to leave but you need to realize that it could happen I will pray for you God Bless
You should only have one or two. Not more than 2. Its distracting and frankly looks ridiculous. Think about it like basketball. You have one or two people either shooting or making the decision on a play not everyone. Disagree wholeheartedly.
I don't care how many vocal leaders there are, but I will say, when you use sopranos or bass as lead, it is an utter fail. If the majority of the congregation can't participate, ypu have defeated the entire purpose of "leading worship". It becomes an audience, listening to someone have a performance.
I understand the concept of what you’re describing here. But I’ve been a part of countless worship services (both as a leader and part of the congregation) where this just isn’t true. Songs are sung in a high male range, high female range, etc. People - many people - engage in worship. Often when a song is sung in a higher female range, I find it very comfortable to sing (I would describe myself as a baritone). So, while I do believe there is merit to trying to find a range that is comfortable for most everyone, calling it an ‘utter fail’ when a song is pitched high or low, and claiming that the motive behind it is entirely selfish is pretty harsh.
Let's remind ourselves what leading worship actually means. It's not a concert, it's not listening to the leaders sing, it's bringing the congregation into a place of communal, corporate worship to the one worthy of all worship by inviting the Holy Spirit to dwell in the room with all. It's bringing the congregation to a place of outpouring of their hearts in songs, spiritual praise and honor to the Lord. I acknowledge that my first comment may seem harsh. I suppose I could have phrased it better, but too often in services of late, the music is literally at deafening sound levels, in pitch black rooms, with strobe lights and the individuals on the stage are the only ones singing (songs that nobody knows) to the rest of the congregation. Nothing about that cries, "corporate worship" and when the pitch is physically difficult for the majority of the participants to try and replicate, what will they do instead? They will stand there and wait for the show to be over, because they literally were not invited to participate. @@worshiptutorials
As a new worship pastor, it's good to know I'm doing something right! I fit the song to the vocalist on my tiny team. I encourage the gifts that God gave them. Besides, I'm not the greatest singer, so it's nice to have someone else sing. I have a great team, so I am blessed.
I think for this we should also consider the number of volunteers in the church for example here in my church in Uganda we are only 5 choir members and few turn up for Sunday so it is kinda of had to have many leaders
Guys, you just opened my eyes! I got two lead vocalist. But they take turns each sunday. One week, female, next week male. But now that you talked about this, I'm thinking of mixing them on the set. Thanks for the video!
Vocal "harmonies" is something else that make a band or a praise team,so having male & female vocalists that can do harmonies and working on them in rehearsals and having a good vocal mix helps a great deal
We have 6 vocals who switch off lead, but we also mix in guest vocalists from different churches too. This past week we had a missions group come down with 3 of their worship leaders and lead worship with some of our musicians. So movement and flexibility in our team is definitely what we aim for.
I was just thinking of reaching out to more vocalist and this video is so timely. Thanks!!
At the church I attend, the worship leader leads majority of songs per service, for instance he/she leads 2 of the 4, and the other 2 are lead by others, and we aim for different vocalists for those. I find that as well as empowering the other vocalists to grow and learn to lead, it also becomes a great tool for diversity of voices, so there’s less chance of the congregation getting ‘bored’ of that one voice.
In my church it's mostly my band director leading and 2 of the other adult female vocalists. This year we are working on getting the teens leading music. Since it's the teen band!
My God I want to thank you guys soooooo, much for this video there are sooooooo, many that need this information,,I'm currently at a church at this time that I can relate to this video,,I can't get them to understand that it's not good that the same person leads all the songs ,,I left 1 church that was doing that and and ended up at another church that's doing the same thing it's really frustrating,,, they won't listen,,,thats why I thank you soooo, much for this video,,,you guys be blessed!!!😊
This really just goes to a culture of encouraging the giftings in people who want to lead. It doesn’t have to be formulaic.
I’ve never been fatigued by my favorite band. 🤔
All these videos can be summed up under the umbrella of developing a community & culture of worship. Sounds really simplistic but some of these topics can get so specific that it can be systematic or disconnected from the simple source
"Some people are tired of you singing."
Our Worship Pastor leads nearly every week on vocal and keys. He always wants to have at least one female vocalist scheduled to cover the melody in a higher range. One female vocalist leads the service ( plays no instrument) a couple times a year when the WP is out of town.
Church of 200, every week a minimum 1 song lead by a volunteer usually 2. We have about 20 people volunteering, 7 - 8 different people leading throughout the month. :) so I agree ☝️
Without even watching the video, my answer is, why would you NOT have multiple lead vocalists?
I'll help you with that. But don't get me wrong, I hear what they're saying and it's def. something I need to give some thought and prayer to. But...
First, it signals to everyone in your congregation that this is their big chance! And many might not sing nearly as well as they think they do... maybe their singing is painful. And you'll have to navigate that mine field.
Second, my boss the pastor holds me responsible for the quality of the worship time on Sunday morning. And I'm not sure he would be crazy about this concept.
Next, isn't this a calling? Or not?
To wrap up, and yes, it's more work. People can't make the rehearsal time, there will be sound checks, and sound checks on the live feed, which is a multi-step process. Those coaching sessions he talked about. Anyone NOT strapped for time?
So, there's some reasons. I'd love to hear from you. For the record, in our band I try to evenly split the songs with the great Christian lady a few feet away.
Yours,
gb
@@fbcpraise I found that I could sing in higher register than our praise leader, that was a threat to his ego,
I’m am the worship leader. Every song is lead by a different person at my church
At our church we have 3 worship leaders. 2 of us are volunteers and we take 1 week a month each. And the third is our paid associate pastor who takes the rest of the weeks. We have 5 vocalist all together. 2 have specifically asked to not lead any songs.
I auditioned for a Student band this week which had 2 instrumentalists and 4 vocalists, and of the people auditioning I think I was still the only non-vocalist. The 10 to 1 thing is very true.
Like the production of this video with the zoom ins and the adds.
And...
It’s true
Our worship leader was scared to death to let me lead a song, most unsecured singer ever met,, spot light and control just like you mentioned, sick stuff
At my main church, we have 5 at the moment. 2 women and 3 men. We try to mix it up so that at least 3 people lead every week.
This was SUPER helpful... thank you! Really took away a lot and definitely things can relate to.
So, in our small volunteer led church of 200 people, about 10% are involved in Worship, so that no one has to do all the work. It takes a lot of pressure from everyone because every position can be filled by a handful of people.
I find the stat of 10 vocalists to 1 drummer to be scarily accurate 😂
Landed at a church where the last worship pastor led every single song... for 30 years. 😱. We are now on the multiple singer route.
Additionally, the last few months have been using multiple vocalists to lead and the congregation is massively receptive. 👍🏼
Good idea but as the lead guitarist, I have to be ready to play our catalog of songs in any key on any given Sunday. In another church in which I played, the same vocalist was always assigned to sing the same song. Conversely, I experienced the, "Why is she singing MY song this week???"
Yes, multiple vocal leaders as often as possible.
I totally get matching songs to vocalists, but do you find that having a different leader for each song is a distraction; that it reduces continuity of worship? It seems like maybe another way to be diverse in song leadership would be to maybe have two per service, (one male, one female) but alternate who those two are.
Deep-thank you
It would be nice to have one lead vocalist, let alone more than one! I am not a lead vocalist - I play acosutic guitar - but leading the singing often falls to me because we haven't got anyone else who can do it.
There are several lead vocalists in my praise team BUT they are the same ones ALL the time... My worship pastor only picks those specific ones to lead. He has not given me the opportunity to lead yet and I would love to... How would you recommend approaching him to ask my worship pastor, to let him know I would like the opportunity? TIA
Just ask directly. However, don't make my mistake and try to change yourself in order to fit whatever they seem to want. I had to step back because it was emotionally draining to be unsuccessful over and over when I am well liked for my voice anywhere else. I am happier to sing in the congregation as I am than to stress out on the worship team because I am not pleasing. I was actually a worship leader myself at a small church. Best wishes.
It has always been implied to me by many pastors that the person to lead the congregation in singing worship to God has to be someone who truly understands what worship means and have a strong relationship with God, studying and knowing His word and possess a good rapport with the congregation and people in general, what would be your opinions on this? Thanks
I agree with you completely and no I am not the lead vocalist at my church. This group because of their size and some of their own ideas has lost touch with most of the rest of the Christian world if you want to hear a good one listen to their take on the Hiatus or whatever they call it for pastors sounds like Hollywood to me also it is the performer mentality of leadership that makes them think this way. In my humble opinion
@@MrVbobby Thanks, The performer mentality vs The Heart servant mentality is something that is quite debated these days. I grew up understanding that availability trumps ability, atleast in the very beginning, and because they made themselves available, available for practice, available to spend time in prayer and fellowship, ability comes to them over time because of their dedication. Your thoughts?
nate_bballer_musician _nate I agree with that completely I believe their is a spiritual aspect to worship that trumps ability in e my opinion I have been involved with worship for over 30 years I was on a worship team that according to these guys were doing everything wrong but when several churches would get together for a monthly worship night ours was the favorite team I was in a church that met in a Quonset hut and the pastor would sit in the middle of the seats with a warbling boom box and these 3 ladies would get up and sing their hearts out slightly to majorly off kee but that church worshipped like few I’ve ever seen I have been part of 3 traveling Christian bands We played churches Rescue missions juvenile hall church bar bq’s and many other places as well as being on worship teams in large and small churches I guess what bothers me most is the arrogance you see now on social media like “ my way is the right way. “ In the past it was mostly one person who led for one thing it brings continuity and the congregation knows who to follow and it is hard to find persons mature enough to fill the spot, notice I said mature enough not talented enough I could go on but I. Won’t I’ve said more than anyone wants to here already
@@MrVbobby I agree with you brother, also, what do you guys do for inter team building ?
Best excuse: "We've always done it this way."
Right??!
So much good advice!
I'm not a fan of the way it's done with my church. There isn't often a "lead" vocalist. It's more like 5 people with a mic and one may be ever so slightly louder. It's closer to a small choir than anything else.
That's how much church is mainly as well. My wife will lead some songs but not the entire service
Same. We just have everybody in the band sing and one person sort of lead the train, but they are by no means confident or quite frankly talented enough to lead effectively.
We only have 1 main and then the other one might sing 1 song leaving 4 for our main singing.
I am the worship leader and we only have 4 others on the team that can sign. I try to have at least 2 vocalists a Sunday. To be honest I do not want to lead vocally every song.
Is it important to establish yourself as being the worship leader? For instance, should the leader always open the worship set? Or always end it? Does this even matter?
We are a small church of under 50 people. I am the worship leader but I don't sing! We do not rotate out people. Not enough. We have four people that lead on our team of eight on the stage.
Would you let me sing on your team?
Do you guys go live for your services?
💯
8-10 killer vocalists across all campuses or just his campus?
Newly a worship leader with my wife.
I really want to start adding musicians and vocalist... but we are very small (40 - 50 people) and I’m scared to reach out and end up putting someone one the platform that’s well.. bad.
Help.
devon Roberts audition them!!
Brian Michael Fuller how do I politely say no If they aren’t good enough?
devon Roberts The answer to that question is well beyond the scope of a comment thread:) fortunately, we have a few videos out there on auditioning folks and how to handle the results! I would highly suggest checking them out and watching them and looking through those comments as well. There’s a lot of ways to approach this and I think you’ll be enlightened by some of the conversations we’ve had in the past. Check those out and then let us know if you have any further questions!
This is an ongoing problem with no easy answer when I was talking to the worship leader at church I was new in he said it is easier to ask you to join than it is to ask you to leave but you need to realize that it could happen I will pray for you God Bless
devon Roberts how much do you really need them to be “great”? In a 40-50 person church, could they not sing backup/ harmony?
The bait and switch is real! Lol!!
All the songs should be corporate, not just one lead person singing,
Leading a song at a church is different than singing the song on the radio in your car.
Why two alone bad? SINNEEEEEEEEEERS!!!
You should only have one or two. Not more than 2. Its distracting and frankly looks ridiculous. Think about it like basketball. You have one or two people either shooting or making the decision on a play not everyone. Disagree wholeheartedly.
I don't care how many vocal leaders there are, but I will say, when you use sopranos or bass as lead, it is an utter fail. If the majority of the congregation can't participate, ypu have defeated the entire purpose of "leading worship". It becomes an audience, listening to someone have a performance.
I understand the concept of what you’re describing here. But I’ve been a part of countless worship services (both as a leader and part of the congregation) where this just isn’t true. Songs are sung in a high male range, high female range, etc. People - many people - engage in worship.
Often when a song is sung in a higher female range, I find it very comfortable to sing (I would describe myself as a baritone).
So, while I do believe there is merit to trying to find a range that is comfortable for most everyone, calling it an ‘utter fail’ when a song is pitched high or low, and claiming that the motive behind it is entirely selfish is pretty harsh.
Let's remind ourselves what leading worship actually means. It's not a concert, it's not listening to the leaders sing, it's bringing the congregation into a place of communal, corporate worship to the one worthy of all worship by inviting the Holy Spirit to dwell in the room with all. It's bringing the congregation to a place of outpouring of their hearts in songs, spiritual praise and honor to the Lord.
I acknowledge that my first comment may seem harsh. I suppose I could have phrased it better, but too often in services of late, the music is literally at deafening sound levels, in pitch black rooms, with strobe lights and the individuals on the stage are the only ones singing (songs that nobody knows) to the rest of the congregation. Nothing about that cries, "corporate worship" and when the pitch is physically difficult for the majority of the participants to try and replicate, what will they do instead? They will stand there and wait for the show to be over, because they literally were not invited to participate. @@worshiptutorials
Camels!!! Lol.
How dare you?? Was that a climate change joke? ...Sorry couldn't help myself