If I came to your church
tomorrow, I could put together two different worship services, and one
would have more participation than the other. If I knew a little
about your churches background, and had a songlist of the songs your people
do, I could plan the two services so that one would have people singing
out loud and the other, they would stand there frustrated and lost.
You know what the answer is. You know how I could do this, and yet
each week worship leaders around the country face this very problem.

Familiarity is the key to
good worship participation. If you don't believe me, try throwing
together songs that no one knows during a service. See how much singing
and participation there is. Then, try using songs that everyone knows
and you will see the difference. Simple, and yet I am guilty of it
on a weekly basis. Partly because I want to sing the new songs.
I get hooked on songs that I've listened to for months before anyone else
hears them. I know them and can worship with them. The problem
arises when I fail to put the people in the middle of my planning.
The worship team may get tired of doing the same songs over and over, but
keep in mind, they may sing a song for months before you use it in
worship. When it gets to the people, it may begin to get old with
the worship team. It's a hard balance to maintain. Also, there
may be someone who is new to your church and doesn't know the songs yet.
The influx of new people on a regular basis only adds to the frustration.

What
to do as a worship leader? So many to please. You don't want
to bore the worship team by beating a song into the ground, and yet, your
people aren't musicians. They need more time to learn the songs before
they can actually use it to worship. There is nothing more frustrating
for a worshiper then to go to a church where he doesn't know any of the
songs. The worship experience is shot as a participator. You
stand there trying to learn seven new songs, and the minute you start to
learn one, they are on to the next song. You may be able to worship,
but it will be less than great if the words and the tunes are foreign to
you.

Balance seems to be the key.
I try to not introduce more than one new song on a Sunday. When I
introduce a new song, I try to use it for four weeks straight. This
gives the twice a week church attendee a few times to here it and pick
up on it. I'll do it as often as I can in order to help the people
pick up on it as quick as possible. I try to first introduce it as
a special. I find that this helps the people to better become familiar
with it if they can hear it once through.

Extra consideration needs
to be given when a song is harder to learn. We need to remember that
the average person in our churches, have no musical training or background.
Besides that, we don't print the notes anymore for those who can read music.
They are learning purely by rote. It is unfair for us as worship
leaders to be selfish in our planning and use of certain songs in "worship".
Save the hard songs for specials and worship concerts. Be sensitive
to the masses in song selection and keys. If the song is too high,
your participation will lack. The average person cannot sing above
a "D" and yet the new worship songs are flooded with them.

If you want your people to
sing out in worship, and begin to grow in worship, the material needs to
be easy to learn, and done enough times for them to learn it. You
may think you are running a song into the ground when in fact, the people
are probably just now using it as part of their worship. The problem
with some hymns is that they are so wordy, it takes forever to learn them.
I grew up in the traditional church and I still need the words to most
of the hymns. My memory is not the best. It tends to hinder
my own worship when I have to refer to the hymnal every other line.

Be sensitive, make sure they
know the songs you have in your present repertoire before you go on to
the new stuff. Don't bombard the people with new songs each week.
Let them grow with you as you teach them. Help them become true worshipers
of the Living God. Sing to the Lord a new song. But remember,
you and your people have a different understand of what that means. What's
new to them may be old to you.

I challenge you to conduct an experiment in worship. Pick a service in the coming month and plan to do only songs that were written pre-1990. I know that sounds painful to a lot of us but give it a try. Remember to pick songs that are very familiar to most church goers. If I was a betting guy, I would bet that you would see an increase in the singing and in participation. Worship is not about you and I as worship leaders, it about helping people connect in worship. It's about giving them the opportunity to participate with all their hearts in true songs of worship.

Write me and let me know how it turns out. We would love to hear about your ideas and experience in helping your congregations better worship the Lord.