Choir, Singers, Vocal Team
Three Things Your Singers Should Know (Show #26)
#LetTheChurchSing (Video Below)
How do your singers engage the church in worship? Are they singing words of life, or just words of a page? You’ll never know the power and positive impact God can make, until you allow Him to freely work through your team. Connecting your church to sing to God begins with you and I connecting to His heart and His song. Here are three things your singers should know:
1. Have a Servant Spirit and a Lowly Heart More than what you realize, people watch. The see the stares, glares and frowns. What does it say to them? Really? All it takes is one dark cloud to produce rainfall. When divas, attitudes and chips-on-the-shoulders increase, it weighs down the whole team.
Do the Matthew 18 and go to your brother and sister. Deal with the issue in love and speak in love. Be a light and speak encouragement. Before you bring your gift to the altar, make it right. “Leave there your gift before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother,” Matt 5.24 Pray with your people.
Remove the hidden agendas and self promotions. Prov. 26.20 “Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down.” Do not take down one another, build one another up. Fire is not to take place in the heart of resentment, but we are to be a reconciled people of One Spirit.
“Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be! Can both fresh water and bitter water flow from the same spring?” – James 3.10-11 May the same praise we sing to God, be of the same humility we speak to people. Colossians 3.14-15 says: “And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, for to this you were called as members of one body. And be thankful.”
2. Make Every Effort to Improve Your Skill Psalm 33:1-3 says: “Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.
Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.” God gave you a gift not to be hidden, but to be put on a lamp stand (Matt 5.15). Your skill is to shine for His purposes and to grow that gift to minister to others. Make every effort to practice. Break out your music during the week. Call it up on your phone, send yourself an email, make a reminder in your calendar and look at the lyrics.
Read your songs like prayers, and sing your prayers to God. Live with the song. Make a playlist, keep it on your car, at your work and in your home. Sing the melody through out the day. Allow God to sing you into those worshipful moments. Make dedicated practice time, don’t over think it, feeling like you got to stop the world. Just set aside 10m each day.
You really can find 10m each day, you just need to make it happen. Mark out the words, go over the syllables, understand the rhythms and outline the phrasings. Practice with a metronome and learn to sing in time. Speak the text first in rhythm, then sing the same line in tempo. Highlight your entrances and exits with a pencil, or annotate them on your device. Don’t guess them, know them. Lastly, listen forward to the leader, listen back to the vocal team. Singing is 60%, while the remaining 40% is listening.
Find where the melody is moving and hear where the lyrics are going. Match the moment and make it sound like a compliment, don’t make it complicated. God wants to hear a joyful sound, so let Him hear it.
3. Look Up and Engage the Congregation The most detracting and distracting things a vocal team can do is to not look up. Nothing disconnects the church more in worship, besides having a bad sound, than disengagement. Open up your faces, smile, be authentic, look out and connect with the church.
This is God’s music we are singing right? About life, power, forgiveness, salvation, mercy, favor and prayer – aren’t we? It’s not a funeral, it’s a celebration. Get the music and microphone stands (including wires) out of the way. These items can serve as barriers and can break the moment instead of building one.
Make way the singing of God! Keep visual distractions out of the view of the congregation. Use a back wall, tv monitor or iPad on a stand to keep your eyes up and hands free. Be a blended team – not a team of soloists. The church will engage more, when they see your singers become one unit. Facilitate the one-ness of your team by modeling a team spirit. Think of your church services as people gathered around the living room. In fact, we are the living ones in the room as we worship our King who has given us life.
So let us praise these truths together and declare His great name. Isn’t this something worth getting excited about? Even in the tough and dark times, God gives us a melody to sing. That melody is one that encourages the heart.
You never know the impact of your soul and skill on others, when you allow God to work freely within you. For some, this may mean a deeper sense of heart-work; for others, it may mean prayer, encouragement and love to show those in need. All in all, your church desires to be led in worship, so lead them.
Don’t make it complicated, keep it simple. Your church wants to worship, so let them sing it. God wants to hear a joyful sound, so let Him hear it.
@BranonDempsey @worshiptt 
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