Band, Leaders, Ministry Leadership, Players, Worship Leading, Worship Planning
Don’t Rehearse Mistakes (Show #6)
#DontRehearseMistakes (Video Below)
We all make mistakes, and none of us play or sing perfectly every single time. Psalm 37.24 says “though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.”
Stumbling over notes, even after you have run them several times in your private practice, happens. Remember you are a worship team, leading people in worship.
Strive to bring your best, improve your craft, play skillfully and joyfully before the Lord!
Mistakes will happen, but how do you handle them? If you allow the little sparks of mistakes to go unnoticed, they will irrupt into bigger flames with the music. Remember these three simple rules, learned from those old fire drills we did in school:
Stop, drop, and roll. Stop:
Guitar horribly out of tune? Stop. Did the drummer start playing in 3/4 instead of 4/4? Stop. Are the singers singing a different song than the band is playing?
Stop. Too often, our performance mentality dictates that we’re supposed to pretend that nothing is going wrong so the audience won’t notice. When I first began leading worship, my keyboard accidentally got transposed, I didn’t realize it right away.
Unfortunately, the singer started to sing and couldn’t find the notes. I should have stopped and fixed it, but my inexperience told me to keep going and pretend nothing was wrong. This utterly was my first huge mistake. Fortunately, I think the singer has recovered from his head explosion. I broke this musician 101 rule that I learned in my early school band/choir days.
This taught me a huge lesson in not letting this happen to a worship team. The rules still apply. Stop and fix it; don’t ignore it. Most bands keep going, but you need to stop. If you do not stop and fix the problems, you are only rehearsing the mistakes. [ctt template=”10″ link=”QaY89″ via=”no” ]It is more about the people than playing every note on the page perfectly.[/ctt] Take time in practice to fix the mistakes, but don’t dwell on perfection. The Holy Spirit can still work through an occasional mistake if you are keeping your focus on Him. Bring your best to Him, and let God do the rest!
Drop:
the bad habits. When you correct that habits, you are also serving a model and influencing others to make corrections as well. In order to keep growing spiritually and musically, we have to replace our old habits with new ones. Move beyond the old note mistakes into a new practice of corrected notes!
Roll:
on through rehearsal starting from top to bottom. Learn to roll through your corrections of the mistakes without fear. The better you can go through rehearsal as you correct mistakes, the smoother worship leading will be at service. When you do face a problem during service, you’re better equipped at handling the mistakes. The key is you never stop the music. Just as God directs our lives, He also directs our music.
Our finger move across the fret-board; our vocal cords lengthen for pitch; the sticks hold onto the drum sticks….all for His glory during worship. It’s not a matter of IF we make mistakes, it’s WHEN we make mistakes, we need to stop and remember WHO we are doing music for. Don’t get caught up in the mistake, roll with the changes and roll into the music. Don’t dwell on what you did in the past rehearsals, but keep going forward with the music and worship service.
Paul in the Bible could’ve gotten caught up in what he had done to the Christians in the early church. But he knew that God had changed his life for a new mission and for a new purpose. His past was in his past. It was all behind him. But Paul’s future was secure in Christ.
He wrote in his letter to the Philippians about the ONE thing he has to do: “forget what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” -Phil.3.13 Work hard for God, and bring Him everything you’ve got to worship. [ctt template=”10″ link=”seyqa” via=”no” ]Allow Him to work through your mistakes to bring glory to His kingdom.[/ctt] Forget the embarrassment of the missed notes in rehearsal, but remember how to correct them for the service.
Conclusion: It’s a given, we will always make mistakes. The better we handle this mistakes and correcting the problems, the more confident you will be in your leadership.
This will also encourage the confidence of your team. Plus, your focus will be more on God, and less about the mistakes. @BranonDempsey @worshiptt
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