As I’ve grown in experience as a worship leader one of the growing joys of the role is helping to bring others into not just the worship team, but leading worship too.
The way we do that at King’s Church is initially through a process of co-leading with them. Planning together, and then sharing the leading too, taking point on different songs, sharing the talkback mic to the rest of the band (we use in ear monitors) and coordinating with the meeting leader and speaker.
One of the biggest learning points in that process is just how much practical work is involved in actually preparing for a meeting. ‘I had no idea!’ is the usual response, even from band members.
To aid that I’ve put together a list of the stages I go through when preparing to lead a meeting and specifically putting the song list together. The reality is I don’t stick to this rigidly. Meetings vary, leaders vary, sometimes it’s quite last minute. But starting with an ideal scenario, getting comfortable with that, and then reducing it from there isn’t a bad way to develop your skills.
Personally I think it’s very powerful to try and tie the theme of the worship with the word being brought. A lot of worship leaders are less focused on that, although most of us agree on trying to make a response time (if you have one) pick up on where the speaker left the congregation.
Our pattern at King’s Church is most often to have four or five songs at the beginning of a meeting and one or two at the end, so the notes below reflect that framework.
Thanks to our fabulous church and worship administrator (and leader), Jen Swallow, who typed up and added to my original notes on this.
Gather the following information from the following people:
Narrow them down:
Theme related songs:
New song? (second slot is often a good place)
What else in that key? (search folder)
Others:
My band has a rehearsal during the week to go over the nuts and bolts of the songs, and work out arrangements, especially if we are bringing a new one. We review beginnings, ends and transitions on the Sunday morning playthrough too.
In an ideal world I like to be gathering information and thinking about songs the end of the preceding week, so I’m ready for our rehearsal (the Monday before). In reality many speakers aren’t ready by then, so what often happens is I’ll work off the scripture and theme, get most of a proposed set list together to work at with the band, and then confirm it later in the week once I hear more. But we live in hope!
The Musicademy Practical Worship Leading Skills course covers all the above and a lot more. You can download or stream the whole course. Watch the info video about it here.
Simon Patrick is a worship leader at King’s Church, High Wycombe, and has led at a variety of churches and organisations for 25 years. A long-time friend of the Musicademy team, he helped get the original site set up. He runs a home education tuition business with his wife, Clare – www.echo.education as well as working in marketing and copywriting.