Leaving space for free singing/playing
The other thing you can practice in rehearsal is an ‘open section’ where you might want to leave room for the congregation to sing out freely to God. If I want to signal this, I wiggle my fingers—again, feel free to make up your own signal! The thing I would do in my preparation is try to identify a key place in the worship where I think the congregation is most likely to respond in this way. Then, in rehearsal, I would tell the band that I might open the song up at this point and decide with the band a chord sequence so that everyone is playing the same thing. You might choose just to play between two chords, or you could have a longer sequence if you wish.
Bring the best out of your band
The final thing I would add is that you don’t have to be a star musician on an instrument yourself to bring the best out of your band. I usually have an idea in mind of the dynamics of the song, so even if I can’t execute it on an instrument myself, I know that others can, so I give them some clear guidelines of what I have in mind. I’ll give them clues such as, “I’d like this to be majestic,” or “Let’s have a strong introduction then drop down a little in verse one, building to the chorus,” or I might invite them to add some interest in verse 2.
