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Small-Group Worship - Having the Right Expectations
If you want to lead worship effectively at a small group meeting,
and to keep it up for the long run without burning out your musicians
or yourself, you need to get your expectations right. Many small group
worship leaders try to reproduce what they hear on Sunday services or
on the ‘worship’ albums available at the Christian bookshop, because
they think this is what worship is supposed to be like. And it is this
wrong idea that has frustrated many small group worship leaders and
caused them to miss the joy and blessing of praising God in a small
group setting.
These are the expectations you should embrace in order to consistently lead worship effectively in a small group setting.
1. It takes time for good things to happen
Allocate enough time for the people to let their hearts settle down
into praising God. You may have heard stories about gifted worship
leaders who bring about God’s manifested presence with the very first
words they sing and the first chord on the piano or guitar. What you
may not have heard is that often times there were months and months of
groundwork laid, either by the worship leader personally or by other
worship leaders who came before.
So be prepared to allocate time for good things to happen. If you
give 4-5 minutes for each song, you can expect to unify the praises of
the people in about 12-15 minutes, 20-25 minutes is even better. And
persevere in this for 4 to 8 meetings. This, of course, assumes that
you are doing other things right as well.
2. The people need clear direction and guidance
Many worship albums do not have the worship leaders giving clear
direction to the congregation. Two reasons: it does not make for a
slick performance; and it is not necessary for the people singing in
that recording because they’ve heard the same song the same way umpteen
times. And if your church worship leaders emulate such worship albums,
you’ll not see them giving clear directions to the congregation either.
This is really ineffective, but in a larger church there are usually
more musicians and back-up vocalists to cover it up. You are not going
to get away with this in a small group.
So give the people clear directions. Prompt them with verbal or
vocal cues so they will know if you want them to sing the verse again
or to repeat the chorus next.
3. You do not have to entertain the people with new material
There is this unspoken assumption in charismatic circles that any
leading of the Holy Spirit must be something new, fresh and exciting.
If you just reinforce the same themes and songs you heard used in your
church Sunday services, there may be people who think you are counting
on formulae, routines or rituals instead of depending on the leading of
the Spirit.
“But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.” (1 Tim 4:7 NKJV)
This is one aspect of godliness that many do not address: it is
something we exercise through constant use and repetition. We do not
grasp something with our hearts when we read or hear something once.
Often we need to be exposed to something (a theme or a song) many times
before it really sinks into our hearts and changes the way we think and
live.
So do not be surprised if after seriously seeking the guidance and
leading of the Holy Spirit about the worship theme or songs for your
small group meeting you do not get any radical ideas but believe you
are to repeat either the songs or theme of your church’s most recent
Sunday service. Remember that, in the Bible account of the calling of
the prophet Samuel given in 1 Samuel 3, we learn that the voice of God
often sounds so similar to the voice of our spiritual leadership.
Sometimes what the Holy Spirit wants us to do is just to walk along the
direction our church leaders have taken.
Conclusion:
These three expectations are not glamorous or very exciting. But
they are the expectations that enable us to serve effectively in a
small group worship ministry in the long run, and without burning out.
Embrace them and see how much simpler worship ministry becomes for you!
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Web site and all contents © Copyright Junjie Huang 2008, All rights reserved.
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