Worship Leading 101: Teaching the Chorus
My Pastor taught me from the very beginning: Teach the Chorus. Every time. No matter where you play, teach the chorus.
I've learned and witnessed the effect of doing this over the years. I've had the privilege to test this practice out with many different audiences ranging from men's homeless shelters to different churches I have visited to the children's church.
Firstly let's talk about, HOW do you teach the chorus?
- You play through the song (music only) a few times (about a minute before you teach the chorus). This allows people to get a feel for the song that you are introducing.
- I then like to speak the words of the chorus if I am teaching it to my church for the very first time. For example, I will strum quietly and explain (speaking, not singing),
"These are the words to the chorus that we are going to sing together: I bow at Your feet to worship You. I lift my hands to give You praise. I sing to You for You are Worthy. Jesus You are Worthy. Here's how it sounds."
I will then proceed to sing the chorus once through.
- After this I will ask the church to join me as we sing it all together.
- You do this a few times until it sounds like people are starting to pick up on the words. When you feel like they have it you can instruct people to try singing the chorus on their own as you back off the mic. I like to back off just enough to hear their voices over the music, but so that my voice can be slightly heard in the speakers.
- Once you feel they have a good grip on the chorus, you tell them "Great job!" or "You got it!" or "That sounds great!". Although this may seem cheesy and uncomfortable at first, you'll notice it gives people a sense of accomplishment and they're more likely to join in the next time you sing through the chorus. (See my future post on being an invisible worship leader)
**Now here is something important: You ONLY teach the chorus or give instruction while you are teaching the chorus in the beginning. Once you tell them that they got the chorus, you don't speak out any more words to them. Why?!?
Have you ever heard those worship leaders that say things like "Now sing this to Jesus with all your heart!"
Have you ever thought about that?
Weren't you already singing to Jesus?
Why is that comment even necessary?
Also, my thoughts and focus just shifted from being in a place of worshipping my Jesus and I had to shift to listen to your instruction in the middle of the song...
People's thoughts are already being distracted IMMENSELY during worship (this is something you can be praying for as you lead worship - see future post on Interceding for the Church's Worship). The MORE we can do to do/say LESS, the better.
So we now know how to teach the chorus, so let's talk about why we teach the chorus.
The chorus of a song is the part that is the MOST worshipful. It's the part that we can repeat over and over as we lift our hands, fall on our faces, or quietly sing in our hearts. It's an intimate place we go to with intimate words that can flow past our lips right to the ear of our Almighty God (see my future post on writing a worship song 101: the chorus).
This is the part of the song that we rest in (see future post on mingling in a song). The part that people need to know the words and the melody to in order to be able to sing majority of the time we are in worship. IF we can successfully teach this part of the song, then the verses of the song can minister to the church until they pick up on the words and are able to join in on them. They can agree with what the verses are saying and then they can join in during the chorus as their spirit's jump and their hearts must cry out.
Cool Examples:
**I used to lead worship at the men's homeless shelter here in Saint Paul back before I started leading worship at my church. Rarely did anyone sing along. And I sung songs that were right off the radio. However, since I've been teaching the chorus before we start a worship song, I sang at the homeless shelter and I would say 1/3 of the men on the room of about 40-50 were singing! AND these were songs that I wrote that they had never heard before!
**My little sister was leading worship in children's ministry a few months back. I was excited to see the Lord work in her. I waited to give her any counsel for a month or two because I wanted to see what she did with no prior experience whatsoever. After that time, she shared with me that she was struggling getting the kids engaged and to stay engaged. They wouldn't really sing along and they often would just start playing with the kid next to them during worship. I shared with her the importance of teaching the chorus every. single. time and how to do it. I told her to give it a shot for the next month and let me know what she noticed. She came to me and couldn't believe how the kids ALL sang the songs and sat more still then they ever had! She got them engaged right away, and she taught them a part they knew they could sing and when that part came, they were ready and sang with all that their little voices could handle! Praise the Lord!
So... why do we teach the chours every. single. time?
Well, let me ask you.
Are you inviting people to church?
I sure hope so!
So could a new person slip in one week and stand in the back corner where you don't notice them?
Do they know the words to the song you're singing?
What about the uncomfortable worshipper?
How to you get them engaged?
What if you invited them to sing with you a specific part of each song?
What if after them hearing you walk them through the chorus of that song every single week, they finally have the confidence to sing out loud?
I can't even tell you the amount of people that have come and have told me, "I didn't know any of those songs you were singing, but I sure knew them after the song was finished and I was able to sing along!" Praise the Lord!
So teach the chorus. Every single time. No matter where you play, teach the chorus.
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