4. Being Swept Away in Personal Worship Ecstasy
It is good and appropriate for us to abandon ourselves completely to the Lord in worship. This is not about that. This worship leading mistake is about being swept away in our own personal worship experience while we’re supposed to be presently leading our congregation. Instead of leading them, we leave our congregation in our heavenly dust with mouths agape in wonderment at what just happened to the worship leader.
It’s OK to encourage your congregation to openly and extemporaneously express their worship to the Lord. Just try not to check out of the room while you’re leading.
RELATED: What Ruined Worship?
5. Making a Bad Transition Between Songs or Liturgy
Sometimes we worship leaders feel it’s necessary to segue between songs and/or liturgical readings and prayers in order to avoid any potentially awkward silence. But we shouldn’t be afraid of or avoid the silence. Although most of our congregants will be somewhat uncomfortable in this silence, it’s good for us to practice times of silent reflection. Intentionally leaving room for this between songs and liturgy can be very helpful to our congregations.
On the flipside, if we awkwardly force an extemporaneous prayer or fumble through a hasty reflection in order to transition between songs and liturgy and avoid “awkward” silence, we might actually distract our congregants and leave them scratching their heads wondering what we just uttered and how it was relevant to our worship service.
If we prepare thoughtful and relevant transitional prayers and reflections (whether scripted liturgy is used in your services or not), we can help our fellow worshipers to ponder more deeply the gospel we’re singing and declaring together. The bottom line is to be thoughtful and prayerful as we prepare for our worship services, including transitions and moments of silent reflection. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you in this.
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- What other worship leading mistakes can hurt congregations and hinder true worship?
- Can you think of exceptions or additional reflections on the five mentioned above?
This article on worship leading mistakes originally appeared here.
