Vocally Lead Worship

Posted by Ben Cantelon on 26 October 2010 | 2 Comments

I did something on Sunday night that I would not usually do at church. During an up tempo song, I encouraged people to put their hands together and clap along. Why did I do that? I’m not sure, but I did feel like we needed to unite together and feel like we were corporately participating in worship. When this happened, I really felt like something broke in the room that night and it gave people permission to participate and feel a part of what was happening. It was a simple thing but it felt like it was needed to set the tone for the rest of the night. It made me think about how we involve our congregations when we come to worship together corporately. Is it wrong to vocally lead people? I’m not talking about giving a 5 minute sermon during the worship, I’m talking about encouraging people to join in by clapping hands, lifting hands, dancing, singing out etc.

I was at the Hillsong London Conference last weekend and went away really inspired by the way they lead worship. They would constantly encourage people to clap, dance and lift up their hands. When all 12,000 people’s hands were in the air and we were singing ‘I’ll stand with arms high and heart abandoned’ there was real sense of unity and of togetherness. We were all agreeing by the act of corporately lifting our hands and singing that song as a response. I was really struck by how much they would give a vocal lead and instruct people to engage with worship. After a 20 minute set of worship, it felt like we went on an amazing journey and we didn’t need 45 minutes of worship to ‘get there’ because everyone was engaged and participating right from the beginning.

Now the danger of leading more vocally is that it can easily become about ourselves and wanting people to respond in the way that we think they should. Also some people won’t want to be told what to do when they worship and that is completely valid. Finally, it should not be used as a formula to hype things up. But I don’t think this should hinder us as worship leaders if we are being prompted by the spirit to take more of a lead and to encourage people to participate.

Anyways, this has been going around my head over the last few days and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Do you take more of a vocal lead when you lead worship? How has that effected your times of worship? Are people more engaged?

Do you think it is wrong to take more of a vocal lead? Does it get in the way?

How can we encourage our congregations to be a participator and not a spectator?

At the end of the day, I just want to see our churches vibrant and passionate when we come to worship our Saviour and not just read some words on a screen.