communication

Developing Communication Skills for Leading Worship

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Three attitudes affect our communication with others: dignity, humility, and respect. Also important to our communication are five areas of confidence: in ourselves, in our relationship with the Lord, in our relationship with the people, in the importance of our ministry, and in the use of our tools.

A good worship leader must be a good communicator. Some people are born with a natural ability to communicate and lead, whereas others may have to work at it. This is an area that can be developed.

Foundational Attitudes

When considering the twofold relationship that has to be taking place when you are worship leading (i.e., communion with the Lord and with the people), the following three attitudes must become the foundation of all our thinking:

Dignity. The Oxford dictionary includes these definitions of dignity: “high or honorable office, rank, or title; high estimation; worth; proper stateliness; gravity.” We are children of the King of kings, so hold your head up and don’t apologize for your ministry. See yourself as a worthy minister and servant of your Lord.

Humility. We are children of the King of kings only because of what he has done for us, and we have no merit or right to this position in ourselves. Humility or meekness will ensure that dignity does not turn into pride.

Respect. To respect is to esteem and honor others. We must show great respect toward the Lord and his people when leading worship. It is possible that this respect is very much related to the attitudes of dignity and humility.

These three must become intertwined for there to be a solid foundation for good communication.

Confidence in Leadership

As the Lord develops the above three attitudes in our character, there then can come confidence to work as a worship leader. There are several areas of confidence that can be built up, and in so doing, our ability to communicate effectively will be improved:

Confidence in Yourself. Self-acceptance is a most important aspect of good communication with others.

Confidence in Your Relationship with the Lord. This may seem basic, but there are so many who do not know real assurance in their relationship with God. How can you lead others in a worship relationship with the Lord if you are lacking in this area? To do this, you must maintain a repentant and righteous walk with God; and know how to hear from God. You must have confidence in this, or you will never be able to lead and bring direction.

One of the biggest questions people have when moving in the supernatural is, “The thing I feel to do or say—is it really God or is it me—or possibly the devil?” Jesus said that His sheep would know his voice (John 10:27). This is a key in worship leading.

Confidence in Your Relationship with the People. This will never come about unless they know that you can be trusted and that you understand their needs and desires. It is not a matter of getting up in front with great confidence in yourself and God and then forgetting the people. Pray and intercede for God’s people. Develop a heart like a shepherd’s. Respect them and be quick to put things right with anyone whom you may have offended.

Confidence in the Job That Has to Be Done. Many people are nervous and timid in leading because they do not know where they are going, how long they have to get there, or the direction in which they should travel. When you are worship leading, find out how much time you have and if the pastor feels that the meeting should be going in a particular direction. There is a wonderful sense of release that comes when you are not proceeding “in the dark”—you have heard from God or the pastor or both. There is such security in that. Know what you can and cannot do.

Confidence in the Use of Your Tools

Overhead projector or songbooks or hymnals. Know how to turn on the projector and focus it. If you use songbooks or hymnals, know the number of each song.

Microphones. Don’t blow into the microphone, nervously poke it, or hide behind it. Learn how to operate this important piece of equipment. It really is one of your greatest friends because it gives your voice added strength and volume for leadership. Know how to adjust the microphone to your height.

Chorus/hymn list. Have these in one file and keep it with you. This is an important tool because you should be able to lead a service or pull just a few songs right out of the file if your songs are correctly listed thematically and alphabetically.

Music. The greater confidence you have in using and working with music and the musicians, the greater will be your ease in this area.

These may seem like simple points, but any lack in these areas will make you look like you do not know what you are doing and will, therefore, hinder your ability to communicate effectively. If you don’t know what you are doing, then the people will not be at ease following you. It is a reasonably simple matter to take time with these practical considerations.

Communication is a fairly complex matter, and it is not within the scope of this entry to go into great detail on the art of communication. It is, however, a very important aspect of worship leading. One of the greatest keys we have found is seeking to be transparent and real in our relationship with God and his people. Many times you may have to minister to yourself and lead yourself as much as you are leading others in worship. In ministering to yourself and encouraging yourself, you will probably be touching others as well. The songs you use and the things you say will have added strength and relevance.

Internal Life of the Worshiping New Testament Community

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A glimpse of the church’s life in the earliest stages is provided in Acts 2:42, which states that the Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” These categories in general continue to characterize the church’s activities throughout the New Testament period.

Instruction

Teaching, as mentioned above, is not the same as the public proclamation of the lordship of Christ, but is instruction in the theological, historical, and practical foundations of Christian faith (Heb. 6:1–2). The apostles were teachers of the Word (Acts 5:42; 15:35; 1 Tim. 2:7) as well as preachers, and one of the qualities of an overseer was the ability to teach (1 Tim. 6:2; 2 Tim. 2:24). Pastors were teachers also, but teaching was a general activity open to any qualified member of the assembly (Rom. 12:7; Col. 3:16; James 3:1). Women were instructors of other women (Titus 2:3–4) but in deference to custom were not generally given a role in the instruction of men (1 Tim. 2:12).

An important function in the church was the creation of materials for instruction. Some have suggested that collections of Old Testament passages concerning the appearance of the Christ were circulated in the early church and that the apostolic preaching recorded in the New Testament draws on material from these manuals. The teachings of Jesus seem to have been gathered into collections, along with the narrative of his ministry and passion, in an oral stage. The passing of the first eyewitnesses and the linguistic transition from Aramaic to Greek necessitated the writing down of this material as an aid to instruction in the church; the Gospels of the New Testament were the result. In an age before printing, the publication of books required the services of professional copyists. Although most Jewish men could write, the ability to produce a readable scroll was a specialized skill. The church had its scribes, such as Tertius, who wrote down Paul’s letter to the Romans (Rom. 16:22); Paul’s own handwriting was not equal to this task (Gal. 6:11).

Communications

As it grew, the church developed an effective system of internal communication through the travels of the apostles and their coworkers and through an extensive correspondence of which the New Testament Epistles are doubtless but a small portion. Except for government business, there were few reliable public mail or courier services; therefore, a letter or any other personal shipment (such as Paul’s cloak and scrolls, which he asked Titus to bring to him, 2 Tim. 4:13) had to be carried by someone who could be trusted to see that it moved toward its destination. For such couriers, a network of accommodations existed in the various cities through the hospitality of members of the congregations (Rom. 12:13; 1 Tim. 3:2), public accommodations of the time being usable only as a last resort.

Worship

The assembly usually met in private homes for worship and instruction (Acts 2:46; 16:40; 18:7; Philem. 1:2). It appears that, in commemoration of the Resurrection, the congregation assembled on the “Lord’s Day,” the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). Christian worship focused on the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 10:16–17; 11:20–29) and included the singing of hymns (Eph. 5:19), prayer (1 Cor. 11:4–5), vocal thanksgiving (Eph. 5:20; Heb. 13:15), and instruction (1 Cor. 14:26; Col. 3:16). Worship in Corinth, and probably elsewhere, included both singing and thanksgiving in tongues, with interpretation, and prophecy (1 Cor. 11:4–5; 14:1–33). The New Testament does not specify who is to officiate in worship or to administer the Lord’s Supper, although prophets clearly had a role in corporate worship (1 Cor. 14:23–33).

Mutual Assistance

A notable feature of early church life was the way members of the community were expected to care for one another’s needs. The Epistles contain repeated exhortations to this end: to contribute to the needs of the “saints” (Rom. 12:13), to bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2), to do good especially to fellow believers (Gal. 6:10), to share, as a sacrifice pleasing to God (Heb. 13:16). Jesus had taught his followers the importance of serving his “brothers” (Matt. 25:40) or “little ones” (Matt. 10:42), meaning one’s fellow disciples, and had set the example of service in acts such as washing the disciples’ feet (John 13:1–15). In following his model, the New Testament church directed its benevolence toward two groups in particular: widows and orphans, who had meager resources of their own (Acts 6:1–6; 1 Tim. 5:3–11; James 1:27) and the congregation in Jerusalem, beset with persecution and famine (Acts 11:29–30; 1 Cor. 16:1–2; 2 Cor. 8:1–5).

COMMUNICATION WITH GOD

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Prayer is not a monologue (“Hello wall!”), it’s a dialogue, a conversation involving both talking and listening. God does speak to us if we’ll simply listen. Expect it! He’ll converse through…

  • His written Word, the Bible
  • Reading
  • Worship
  • Counsel of others
  • Unprompted thoughts/words/impressions

There are many instances of this in my journal. For instance:

  • While I was speaking in church, a parishioner (Steve Suitt) saw on my forehead the words “Youth Pastor.”  In less than a year’s time I became the youth pastor at that particular church (Vineyard Christian Fellowship, Temecula, CA).
  • During the long waiting period when I was being considered to come to Agape Bible Church (Willits, CA) as their pastor, we were becoming anxious for news one way or the other — things were literally getting down   to the wire for us and we really had to have an update. While I was working, not in prayer or even thinking about God, suddenly a sentence popped into my mind like toast popping up in a toaster: “Within one week you will hear from the church.” Sure enough: Within the week we got a reassuring call from Allen Owens, one of the Elders at ABC.

My point? God knows we need guidance and encouragement — which He gives in the ways we need it when we need it. We just need to be in a place to receive from Him.

Clothing the Gospel — The Arts in Missions

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Worship and evangelism are central to the Christian faith, but worshiping God is much more than attending church on Sunday, just as evangelism is much more than saying religious words to an unbeliever. As artists, our missionary strategy needs to employ every available means of communication—speaking, listening, playing music, storytelling, using parables and proverbs, dancing, drama, visual arts—as we seek to make men, women, and children worshipers of God.

When we plan effective evangelistic strategies, we often talk about homogenous groups, unreached peoples, and church growth. But in all this, mission agencies and churches must analyze regional and national cultures in the search for missing keys that will open communities to Christ. One vital key rarely considered is the role of artistic communication in reaching a culture and helping the church grow and reproduce itself within that culture.

Culturally Appropriate Worship

When believers worship God and express their faith in a familiar and culturally appropriate way, the unchurched take notice. Previously unreached people become more receptive to God’s Word and the worship of the true Creator when they see and hear and experience worship, not only in their own language, but also in their own music and story forms and artistic patterns.

Western missions have generally assumed that, to adequately understand the Bible, you must know how to read it. Translation efforts, combined with literacy training, have been valuable in many cultures. But experts estimate that up to 75 percent of the world’s people don’t know how to read. That means the literary approach to evangelism cannot do the whole job. We must in­tegrate artistic communication methods into our normal ministry thinking.

We need Christians with special sensitivity in the arts to find their way onto the mission field and into the development of mission strategy. We need to help missionaries and churches clothe the gospel in culturally appropriate forms and avoid the unconscious mistake of promoting only Western forms of communication and styles of worship. Maybe in this way we can break through cultural barriers that have been difficult to penetrate with traditional methods.

We must stimulate the use a wide range of indigenous communication forms such as music, drama, storytelling, painting, architecture, mime, pup­petry, crafts, festival, chant, movement, ritual, the arrangement of space, and body language, among others. In all these ways, the arts convey an important understanding of life, its problems, pos­sibilities, truths, fears, and mysteries.

Practical Implementation for Artists and Musicians:

  • Make yourself available, no strings attached, to church leadership so that they will be able to use your artistic gifts as they need them.
    • Be a servant, not a star.
    • Do a short-term mission assignment as soon as possible.
    • In conjunction with your local church, pursue some kind of street work, campus ministry, etc., as soon as possible.

Practical Implementation for Mission Agencies:

  • Focus on developing indigenous worship, encouraging churches to use forms of worship that are culturally appropriate.
  • Assign missionaries to take lessons in some craft or art form from a national.
    • Promote the development of new ethnic-Christian celebrations, honoring God and highlighting the gospel in the context of such important events as birth, parent-child dedication, conversion, baptism and marriage.

Jews for Jesus has done this by creating a new Jewish-Christian wedding ceremony, as well as a circumcision ceremony. These ceremonies have elements of both Jewish and Christian traditions, with an emphasis on biblical truth framed in familiar cultural forms. By doing this, the gospel is proclaimed quite strongly in the context of joyous celebration, and without denying—or in any way pulling one away from—neutral cultural norms.

Practical Implementation for Local Churches:

  • Artistic communication is not just for the mission field. Are your forms of worship and evangelism culturally appropriate to your community?
    • Spend as much time planning the worship service as the pastor spends preparing the sermon. Develop a worship team for better planning.
    • Make a point to develop methods of non-literary, non-academic communication for your worship times. This will create an environment where unchurched people will feel more comfortable. Direct the service to the believer, but don’t make it so “in-house” that you exclude visitors.
    • Emphasize the participation of the worshipers more than the performance of the choir, soloists, and preachers.

Practical Implementation for Colleges and Seminaries:

  • Develop interdisciplinary degree programs for train­ing specialists in artistic communication.
    • Arrange for faculty and students to be placed in domestic cross-cultural short-term ministry situations.

It’s time we let God use us in more creative ways to evangelize the world. When we do, many more will see and fear and trust in him (Psalm 40:2–3).