Hello everyone,
This month, I am going to be talking about freedom in
worship – freedom to veer from the originally planned song set list, freedom to
stretch songs out longer than was planned in rehearsal, freedom to vamp on a
certain section of the song for an extended period of time, etc. One of the wonderful things about being a
worship leader is having the opportunity to change things up now and then,
especially when the spirit is leading you in that way.
Many times when we are leading worship, just going through
the planned set order as usual, there will be those moments when we sense a gentle
nudge from the Holy Spirit to change the song order or extend the song a bit
longer. This is one of those spontaneous
things that will happen with all of us now and then, and this is a good thing,
especially when the Spirit is the one prompting us.
It is important to be careful, when we sense the Spirit
moving us to go longer with a song, that we don’t get carried away to the point
we are in our own private little world of worship, not giving attention to
others in the band, the pastor, the congregation. Let’s face it, we’re musicians after all and
we do have a tendency to get carried away sometimes, right? If the pastor is glaring at you after you
finally open your eyes again, and giving you the “cut it” sign, chances are,
you probably got carried away, just a wee bit.
In order for things to go more smoothly during spontaneous
changes, there are many things we can do that will be helpful for us, such as,
regular, consistent, rehearsals. This
way, we begin to get to know one another, musically. When you’ve played with musicians for a long
period of time, even years, you can sometimes sense or anticipate what the
other players are going to do. This happens a lot in secular band settings
after they’ve played together a good while, so why shouldn’t it happen in a
worship setting?
One of the simplest things we can do is learn to listen and
keep eye contact with the other band members – and that the band members aren’t
also off in their little world playing their part and missing cues.
There are many different hand signals, nods and gestures we
can develop and use to make sure we are communicating with the band. One method
I’ve seen used is to borrow from the American Sign Language certain gestures
and make sure people understand what each ‘signal’ means. And you need to make
sure the whole band sees the direction signal you are giving. There are also
signals we can use to communicate with the pastor, to make sure they are in the
loop. Probably the best signal to use
with your pastor is to make eye contact with them every now and then. They will appreciate this.
I believe it is very important however, to be open to the
leading of the Holy Spirit, to be obedient to his direction when he is moving
you in that way. You probably already have figured out that some songs are
easier to extend than others. And you need to be careful that it isn’t just
your own emotional feelings that are doing the leading here. It’s easy for the
flesh to want to ‘step in’ and be involved.
Sometimes you may come up ‘short’ and need to fill more
time. It happens. Here you do have to sort through things and purposely extend
a song. One method here is to actually play through the song to the end and let
the guitar ring out on the final chord, then signal the singer (if it isn’t
you) to begin to build up the chorus from a quiet whisper with you cueing the
rest of the band to come in one instrument at a time until the full band is
playing again. Then signal one more round of the chorus to end the song, just
like it was all planned. And you’ve filled in the remaining time with a nice
impromptu ‘jam’ on a song.
Having good communication with your pastor is always so
important. You want to be sure they understand that it is important to you to
follow the leading of the Spirit when he prompts you to deviate from the
planned arrangement(s). It will help you in the long run to know you have the
freedom to go with it. When this communication
has been established, the pastor will usually be more open to it when you take
things in a different direction because, hopefully, they also sense the
prompting of the Spirit in your efforts to provide true spirit filled worship.
And it is just as important to have a good ‘off stage’
rapport with your pastor. The more you
get to know them, the more they get to know you, the more likely you are to be
given the freedom to stretch out and change things up now and then.
Some pastors are not as open as others to extending things
or changing things, especially when there are time constraints such as, a 2nd
service or during special festival celebrations where a lot is going to be
happening during the service.
Well, I hope you all have the opportunity real soon, to experience the awesome leading of the Holy Spirit, to go in a spontaneous direction during worship.
Until next time, keep on worshipping the king!
JB