Alright. It’s time. And remember, as always, ‘if you can’t have a sense of humour (British spelling…because I’m cool and indie and oh so Brit…just look at my jacket) about yourself, your life is going to seem a lot longer than you’d like it to be.’ I give you……you know you’re a worship leader when…
- when you schedule a bass player on the team each weekend because all the cool worship bands have a bass player; but you’re not entirely sure what it is a bass player does
- when you don’t wear shoes, because the stage is ‘holy ground’
- when you insist on having reverb in your monitor
- when you don’t know what type of guitar you play, because you just walked into Guitar Center and said, ‘I want the worship leader guitar’, and the sales guy handed you one. (And just so you know, you play a Taylor.)
- when you insist on being cranked in everyone’s monitor, and insist on playing your acoustic during the bass solo, and then can’t figure out why the drummer can’t follow the bass player over your acoustic ‘filling in the dead space’
- when your current style of hair is directly concurrent to Lincoln Brewster’s current style of hair
- and if you’re really on the edge, it’s Jon Foreman’s style of hair
- when you refuse to say Switchfoot, and must refer to their singer as Jon Foreman
- when you’ve already watched the youtube clips of the opening night of the U2 360 tour, and are seriously thinking about putting the worship team in the middle of the sanctuary this weekend
- when you don’t bring an mp3 of the new song you threw into the set that morning, but are insistent that the drummer will be able to tell from your words, ‘The intro goes like, da da DA, do da-da-da DA!’
- when you have an effects board because your lead guitarist has one and he looks really cool with it, but you’re not exactly sure what to do with it, and your electric guitarist ends up plugging it in for you each week
- when you bring sheet music in G, and then say, ‘We’re going to capo this on 3,4,5, or 6…I’m not sure yet’
- and when your bass player looks at you with the ‘there’s no way you seriously just said that’ look, you say, ‘What, you can’t transpose?’
- when you sing the lyrics to ‘With or Without You’ during the ‘Majesty’ chorus because you just heard the brand new and ultra-hip band Third Day do it
- when you sing the ‘With or Without You’ lyrics wrong
- when you get ticked off at the computer person for not being able to follow you on the slides and backgrounds when you sang said ‘With or Without You’ lyrics…wrongly
- when you can literally make an argument in your head for how ‘With or Without You’ can actually have a Christian meaning
- when you can’t literally make an argument in your head for how ‘With or Without You’ can actually have a Christian meaning, but you still want to sing it anyway, so you change the lyrics to, ‘I can live……with or wi-i-ith You’
- when you don’t run a tuner on stage for your guitar, but then always look at everyone else when something sounds out of tune
- when you ask the guitarist to play ‘that crunchy space-sounding thing that ‘Dave’ who played last weekend did on this song’
- when all your ‘gigs’ listed on your myspace music homepage are all curiously listed at 10 AM on Sunday, at the same location each week
- when you ask the keyboardist if he’s sure he’s in tune
- when you cycle through 27 background vocalists because no one ‘blends well’ with you, before thinking that maybe you’re the one off-key
- when the keyboardist asks if the F#m you wrote on the sheet music might actually be a D/F#, and you say, ‘Same thing.’
- when you raise the key on Phil Wickham songs
- when you insist on the drummer being on a click track, but don’t like one in your ears, but then still want to start every song yourself
- when you play the 17 minute epic rock-opera Mutemath song that no one’s ever heard, start it ambient and a-tempo, don’t play ‘exactly’ in tempo with the backing loop, repeat the ending chorus 33.5 times of accapella, and then when the congregation gives you the blank stare instead of singing, you say, ‘They just don’t understand worship.’
- when you choose your worship setlists in accordance with what will look the coolest on your blog
- when you’ve desperately searched everywhere for the last 10 years to try to find a definition of ‘post-modern’ because you’ve heard every worship leader in existence talk about it, but you’ve never really heard what it actually means and how to be it
- when you finally realize that all you have to do to be post-modern is to describe yourself as such……oh, and to think that Lifehouse is still edgy and relevant
Splendid.
Karl.
Yup. Over the last decade I’ve played lead and or bass with each and everyone of those guys. The capo guy….the capo guy has had me asking for forgiveness of multiple sins on the ride home from church many a time. Nothing I like more than getting ready to walk out for worship and the leader says…you know what….lets do the song in ____ instead.
Or the pastor walks up on stage at the end of worship and say, “Lets sing how great thou art!”. and start singing in Eb.
I used to despise capo and all those people who capo on the 2nd fret playing A chord in the shape of G… The thought ‘cheater’ came to my mind.
I am now and have been guilty of those who ask ‘can we modulate up to a __’
Forgive me.
When you bring sheet music in G, and then say, ‘We’re going to capo this on 3,4,5, or 6…I’m not sure yet’
I spent two hours typing chord charts in different keys this week, thank you very much
when the keyboardist asks if the F#m you wrote on the sheet music might actually be a D/F#, and you say, ‘Same thing.’
Laughed out loud on this!
Karl- “when you insist on having reverb in your monitor”
The sound guys at my church just tell the leaders that we “can’t put reverb in the monitor.”
It’s so funny, some of the things sound techs say and do to deal with the band. If only the “suck” knob worked, so we could turn it down…
Mark- I can, sadly, relate to both of your posts. Good thing God has grace for those car rides home.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry on some of those!
I had to give me friend a hard time about playing “drum coach” with the younger players during practice. “No, open high hat, yes, that’s it, now ride, ride, ride, ride, now crash! go back to the verse, stop stop stop! Can you hear me in your monitor when I switch parts?”
other favorite lines:
“Okay, everybody tune!” which means he thinks everyone else is out of tune with him. Looking at me, says dude, are we in tune? My guitar is in tune, it’s just the tremolo effect that’s throwing you off. Oh, okay. (in my head) why do you have a $3K guitar but use a boss tuner.
“I’m using the Lincoln Brewster patches.” I dunno – it still sounds fizzy to me
The best is the new worship pastor who switched from POD XT Live back to his Tone King head + 2-12 cab + pedalboard the second time that we played together.
“Let’s change the key to B flat. I can sing it better in that key. Can you guys transpose the chords on your charts? Anyone want to run to the copier and make copies for everyone?” Can you say practice-killer?
I’ll never understand how a worship leader can send out a play list with the appropriate keys and then have to change them at practice. That would denote a lack of preparation.
I use this quite a bit to transpose: http://www.logue.net/xp/
It’s not perfect but beats typing in a new key from scratch. Read the FAQ and use a font like Lucinda Console. Choose output in Text lyrics/chords.
I always prepare charts for the keyboard/bass in their key if I’m using capo — and email it to them several days before the rehearsal.
Mark–haha Those car rides home…so much bitterness that I’ve never told anyone about. lol Good call!
And yes…at one of the churches I play at, the pastor literally comes up for the second set and goes, ‘What songs are you guys doing? Eh… Can you do…’ Actually it’s pretty awesome, ‘cuase he always chooses killer ones! lol hehe Pastors.
Jonathan–I used to hate capo’s, too! And then once I got over that being able to play bar chords really wasn’t that special, and that Bb to F sounds a lot smoother with a capo on 3 going from G to D, I finally got it. lol
James–your team loves you I’m sure, for bringing the proper keys! lol And ya…it’s funny that sometimes when people actually play the ’slash’ chords, the worship leader’s like, ‘Whoa! What was that? That was awesome!’ haha
Colty–haha Isn’t it funny how much we look down on sound guys sometimes, but in reality they have us wrapped around their fingers? lol
Dan–haha The drum coaching thing is awesome. And the tuning. hehe And he seriously heard your sound and then went back to an amp setup? Job well done, mate. Job well done.
Mark–definitely a lack of preparation. I’m so guilty of that sometimes. lol It’s either that, or just sing ‘em high and hope no one notices! hehe
Randy–sorry, we must’ve been typing at the same time!
Mucho props to you for sending the sheet music to the band in the proper keys if you’re using a capo. I do the exact same thing for my bassists, keyboardists, and lead guitarists (unless I insist on them using a capo on certain songs, hehe). I think it’s vital to do that…I’ve been on the other end too many times…having learned the four intricate riffs in a song recorded in C#, then transposing it down to B because the worship leader said that would be the key we do it in, and then showing up and getting sheet music in G, and being told we’re going to capo 3 and do it in Bb. Bad times. lol
And thanks for the site! I usually just use find and replace on whatever word program I’m using. But I’ll check that site out.
Kinda a bit old, but you know you are a “post-modern” worship leader when you can take any 3 chorded Tomlin song into the ending of a Lifehouse song:
“YOURE ALL I Waaaaant… YOURE ALL I Neeee-eeed, YAR EVRA THANG… EVRA THANG!!!”
Yeah. We did that to 3 different songs in a month. Then we officially killed the Spirit. Yup. Good thing He’s Omnipotent and can’t really die.
I used to use search and replace for transposing, but imagine a song that’s all G C and D and I’m going to the key of C
I replace all G’s with C, then replace all C’s with F — no wait, oops.
http://www.logue.net/xp/
My worship pastor in big boy church (as opposed to the youth group) once told be that the three most important members of any band are, in order, the sound tech, the drummer, and the bassist. I’ve found this to be true, because if any one of those isn’t competent, things suffer greatly.
I’m lucky enough to have a great worship pastor that doesn’t attempt much of this stuff. He will, however, pull out a song we haven’t practiced (and in my case, sometimes not even heard) and do it for the second set. That’s never fun. Luckily, now, he got everyone in the band their own personal folder of chord sheets. One time he pulled that on me, I wasn’t full-time, just filling in at that point and I had no clue what we were doing. That was a good day.
this is funny…. ?I can live with or wi-i-ith you…..
# when you sing the ‘With or Without You’ lyrics wrong
# when you get ticked off at the computer person for not being able to follow you on the slides and backgrounds when you sang said ‘With or Without You’ lyrics…wrongly
# when you can literally make an argument in your head for how ‘With or Without You’ can actually have a Christian meaning
# when you can’t literally make an argument in your head for how ‘With or Without You’ can actually have a Christian meaning, but you still want to sing it anyway, so you change the lyrics to, ‘I can live……with or wi-i-ith You’
Larry–quite simply, the best comment you have ever made. Perfect.
And I refuse to say whether or not I have done that in the past…or…last month.
Randy–haha Ya, I do have to figure out which ones need to be changed first, depending on what key we’re changing to. That’s a really good point, brother.
Colty–oh, I totally hear you. That’ll happen sometimes when I’m kinda guesting for some other band. And the worship leader will turn around and go, ‘Oh, we gotta do _____’ and everyone nods like it’s no big thing. Meanwhile, I’m like, ‘Uh, guys?’ So I just fake it. hehe
Great point on the most important members of the band!! I totally agree. The base members make what all the color players do, sound good.
Anonymous–I’m not quite sure I understand your comment. hehe
You ask, ‘This is funny….?’ and then quote the With or Without You portion of the blog. I do apologize if it wasn’t funny…I kind of thought it was, but I could be totally wrong! hehe 
Cheers, and have a fantastic day! And if I read your post wrong, I’m sorry, too! Wow, I’m just all confused right now. 
-The Taylor bit is hilarious. So true.
-I pity the worship leader with the Brewster hair cut.
That was great Karl. So good.
So bottom line:
You know you’re a worship leader when you suck.
Dude, nothing personal but have you ever lead or been involved with worship in a church? If so, did you do it in a bubble or with actual sinful human beings? I believe God granted us with a sense of humor and has no problem with us using it in a constructive and nonhurtful way. My belief is strengthened by looking in the mirror every morning.
Well since I’m a worship leader I should rate myself using Karl’s bullet points. I think I’m doing pretty well on the preparation/knowledge side — others would have to judge how I’m doing on the Spiritual side.
Let’s see, too old for Lincoln Brewster hair, but then so is he
No bare feet on stage, but sandals are great (don’t like hot feet ). And as much as I tap ( stomp) my foot I need to keep them cool. It’s funny how some think I’m a little country or “hick” because I tap the rhythm — I just tell them to watch any band, secular or Christian — all the best musicians do that — the others are probably the ones who wander all over the place tempo wise.
A good drummer might reduce the need for the tappiing. Anyway, I know who Switchfoot is, but never herd of Jon Foreman. I have one of the older Boss tuners on my board, works just fine even if it isn’t Boutique.
I usually do all I can to pump up my vocalists. Occasionally I remind them to listen to each other and sing like a group, not a collection of soloists.
I know what slash/polychords are but usually let the keyboard ( or bass when we have one ) cover the low note. I’ve got enough on my mind remembering the order of several songs, which ones repeat the bridge or chorus twice, where the modulation comes, which song I pray after, when to call the ushers up for the offering, etc etc. If you haven’t led worship you may not realize how much you have to keep it together — I know when I back up our other worship leader on electric I’m much more relaxed.
As far as keys, I’m a baritone as are most men so I always put the key where it’s comfortable for me. This usually works for the female vocalists just fine. Not sure what tenors do in the congregation since most probably don’t do harmony.
I choose my setlists pretty carefully, blending newer/older songs and some probably think I bring in too many new ones. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t let the congregation and they’re typical lack of interest in contemporary Christian music force me to play old songs over and over and over. I don’t want to sound critical, but I guess my goal is to lead them in this area ( ie buy some CDs, listen to the radio, get your heart and soul into worship as it’s done at your church), or don’t complain that you never heard the song before. If you as a leader have a vision of worship at your church, I don’t think you can let that be throttled by lukewarm folks — that’s as gentle as I can put it.
I’ve heard the term post-modern but haven’t researched it. All I can say is I would guess our very conservative Pastor wouldn’t like it. Guess I should google it.
Jed–thanks for the kind words! And ya…Brewster has an incredible talent, but that hair! lol
Anonymous–hehe Not necessarily. And you’ll forgive me, as I’m having a hard time reading if you’re joking or not.
But, even though I’m more of a worship guitarist, I also am the worship leader at my home church. So I have done most, if not all, of the things I listed. So this is moreso about me having a sense of humour about myself, and asking some worship leaders to have a bit of a sense of humour about themselves as well. None of us are perfect, me least of all; but yet God still chooses to use us. And I think the more we can laugh at ourselves and take ourselves a bit less seriously, the more we realize how amazing it truly is that God still allows us to be used by Him. It’s all about increasing our view of Him, and decreasing our view of ourselves, while still taking seriously our responsibility as we’re leading worship. Hopefully that makes a bit of sense. 
And I do apologize if the post came of as anything besides tongue-in-cheek humour at my own expense as a worship leader. hehe
Mark–I do agree. We’re all just little idiots running around doing our best for God. And if we take ourselves too seriously, and then look at it from God’s perspective, I’m sure it looks pretty silly. lol
I think you said it best in one of your comments on a previous post. Something to the effect of, ‘Isn’t it amazing that God still chooses to use us?’ And I am so on board with that statement! Thanks, brother.
Randy–haha Nice. I, on the other hand, have done at least most of these (probably all) at some point or another, so I’d say I’m doing pretty bad! lol And yes, I am ashamed that I know who Jon Foreman is.
I think you make a great point in that as worship leaders, we are to at some points lead our congregation. We just have to be careful that we’re leading them to new Christian worship songs and music because we feel that that is where God is leading the church as a whole. There is definitely a point to ’singing a new song’ to the Lord. But at the same time, if we’re trying to lead them to new Christian music because we’re tired of the old stuff, or because we feel the old stuff is dated, or for any other reason besides God’s leading, we might need to take a step back and look at why we’re up there in the first place.
We’re there to help lead people in worshiping God through music. Sometimes, a new song will accomplish that purpose! And sometimes, the old faithful songs will, just like you said…a balance between old and new. We just have to ‘test everything’ like it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, and make sure we’re doing things for the right reasons. I don’t mean to start an argument or be rude, but I know that I might be just slightly resentful to being called ‘lukewarm’, just because some of the songs that I can worship the Lord to the most and that touch me personally the most, we’re considered ‘outdated’ by the worship team.
Again, I don’t mean to be a jerk, I just think ‘lukewarm’ is a very strong term to use for people that think a song is too new. You can absolutely passionately have a ‘vision of worship’ and stand and praise Him with everything you have to older songs, and even hymns.
And forgive me if I’m way off here. I don’t know your congregation, and have no personal experience with them. You could totally be in the right, and maybe they do not ‘get’ worship through music and do need to be led. I’m just calling it as I see it from a complete outsiders perspective and I look forward to going deeper in the conversation and perhaps even being able to admit that I am wrong.
No offense, no worries. I probably can’t convey here what I mean to say. By and large our congregation loves to worship and we have nothing I would consider a major issue. You’re right, it can be hard to distinguish between “am I, the leader, bored with the older songs” and ” the congregation needs to learn new songs for sound Spiritual reasons.”
I think I mistake lack of singing for lack of interest sometimes, but not always. Most in the congregation are just not into music the way we are. We eat, sleep and breathe it. Some listen to other styles ( non-Christian ) during the week — nothing wrong there, generally speaking. So do I ( including U2
)
So we try to find that balance. My Pastor’s example may illustrate what I’m getting at. He has gradually increased his outside speaking/ministry schedule to where he is now speaking around the world ( mostly in California ) 3-4 times per month. The vast majority of these speaking engagements are Biblical Dinners that do not interfere with his duties on Sundays. http://www.coolcalvary.com/outreach_missions/bd_index.shtml
Naturally, some probably feel that he’s gone too much. He obviously believes there is a need and he has a vision for this outreach. And I’m pretty sure he’s not going to let any minor grumblings interfere with this vision. ( some of this has to do with church government styles and how some churches steer clear of running things based on local opinion polls )
So I guess if I feel that some would have me never do a song written after 1990, I resist that. Some churches define a target audience and are large enough ( or bold enough ) to actually recommend other churches to those who don’t share the vision ( in this case, don’t like the music direction ). I say large enough because small churches usually avoid telling someone they’d be better of elsewhere ( e.g. someone who wants all hymns ) — the small church needs every “body” they’ve got.
Gotcha. Thanks for that. It does give me a little better understanding of the picture over there.
My whole point was that I do think it’s possible to have a vision for your worship ministry, as well as have passionate worship music, while still playing old songs. However, it totally feel you if you feel your being able to choose a proper setlist with flow, the right lyrics, the right lyrics for the message, and the right spiritual context for the weekend, is stifled because of not being able to choose any songs written after 1990, as you said, then I can totally resonate with that. It would be a very difficult situation.
I’m probably just in a passionate mood about the whole issue, as I totally screwed up last weekend at church and just chose a very poorly planned setlist. We did two newer, Hillsong-type concert songs, complete with extended guitar solos, interspersed with some older ones…Amazing Love and Here I am to Worship. And people kind of shifted and stared during the new ones, but immediately started worshiping on Amazing Love and Here I am to Worship. So I can’t say they don’t get worship, because they do! It’s just hard for people to worship to songs they don’t know; and they were probably a little self-indulgent, too. I felt sick afterwards, and literally had nightmares this week about playing too many guitar solos in church and being unable to stop. lol I’m a psycho, I know, but it really hit me hard. If the people are worshiping to certain songs, then we’re doing our job by doing those songs.
Now, does that mean never introducing new songs? Not at all! It just means that when I introduce those new songs, I’m no going to sock them in the face with them like I did last week. And I’m going to rely much more heavily on the ones they do worship to, and then use those as springboard for new songs…some of the themes, melodies, musical feels, etc.
And that might be one way to introduce new songs to your congregation. Take a chorus of a new song and tack it onto the end of an old song, for like a month. Then do a whole medley of the two songs intertwined with each other for like a month. Then do the whole new song. In this way, you’ll ease people into it, and once the new song is finally played, they totally know the whole thing!
Karl,
And you thought this was going to be a light, funny post. Didn’t you. Ha!
I’ve been there, in a way. We just don’t do guitar solos ( yet ) so that isn’t an issue but I have seen the “deer in the headlights” look on new songs.
I think we’ve gradually stepped up the threshold now so songs a little more on the rock side and a little less on the folk music side are appreciated — so it took time and the Pastors reported favorable feedback as I gradually brought in slightly more aggressive and newer songs. It’s sure not an exact science.
So here’s this Sunday’s attempt to blend older and newer:
Walk-in song: Love the Lord Your God ( Brewster version), 1) old gospel song called If that don’t make you want to go to heaven — our version has that nice minor feel but not bluegrass style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpaJNVkEfbE
2) Desert Song – brand new to our church, 3) Let your Kingdom come by Bob Kauflin ( introduced last year ), 4) I will Rise from Tomlin’s latest album, introduced earlier this year 5) Revelation Song, introduced earlier this year and 6) Blessed be Your Name, Tree63 introduced over a year ago
You know you’re a worship leader when you can’t participate in the congregation without critiquing the daylights out of the service you are meant to be a congregant of! Arrrrrgh… this annoys me no end!!
Thank you sooooo much for assuring me that I am not a post modern emergent trendy worship leader. Because I am none of those things you listed.
Let me try my hand at a few
You know you’re a worship leader when those “Holy Spirit-inspired” “la la la’s” are you forgetting the lyrics. (Guilty)
You know you’re a worship leader when your congregation responded so well to the drum, bass and vocal breakdown that you do it four times in a five song set. (My worship pastor, God love his soul.)
You know you’re a worship leader when you go poking around, asking opinions of how well the service went and “thanking Jesus for making it possible” when people liked it. (I’m terribly guilty of this)
Randy- Dude, Revelation song is such an awesome song, it always puts a smile on my face or at the very least lifts my mood no matter how crappy I feel. It’s especially fun to play.
Just as a note, I love my worship pastor and he’s helped me so much with leading. I’ve done much sillier things I’m not willing to admit, but that popped to mind first.
Did I mention I love him? I LOVE YOU AARON JONES!
(I feel really bad because I linked him to this page, not thinking about the comment and I accidentally linked him straight to my comment…:( I win the Douchebag of the Week award.)
Mark–lol I totally did! Thought it’d be a nice fun read going into the holiday weekend. hehe But, I dig the conversations, too. Hopefully it’s an ‘iron sharpening iron’ thing, and not a ‘it’s my blog so I’ll say whatever I want’ thing. hehe I am thankful that’s it’s been able to stay civil as long as it has.
Randy–that’s a great set! That’s got more newer songs than some of the sets we do on some weekends, and we’re a fairly decent-sized church. I don’t see the problem, unless that’s the same set you do every single week. hehe
Looks like you’re doing a great job over there!!
Cam–oh, good call! I’m so guilty of that as well. It’s hard to shut off that part of your brain sometimes.
Kevin–welcome to the blog, and great to have you here!
And if you’re none of the things mentioned, than right on! I, unfortunately, have done probably all of those things at one time or another. lol So you’re doing better than I am, my friend! 
Cool blog, too! I’ll add it to my blogroll if you don’t mind. Hope to chat with ya again soon!
Colty–all I can say is that that is the most hilarious string of comments I’ve read in a long time. lol That’s just amazing. Do you want me to edit that first one for you? hehe I could, but it’s hilarious, and I think your worship pastor’ll love it, too.
Karl- Nah, it’s fine. It’s good to learn some humility. Haha, gosh…I’m still laughing over it.
Here’s another one: You know you’re a worship leader if you fret over it and post overly long rants on other people’s blogs.
The hair comment is funny, Lincoln is rockin’ about 6″ of the Fauxhawk right now, he went from being 5′7″ to 6′1″. And clicks and most and I say most worship leaders should just avoid it.
Colty–that was the best thing ever.
Randy–lol Okay, maybe that was the best thing ever!! hehe
Mike–haha Is it really 5 inches?! That’s amazing. It sure looks like it. Ya……if works for Lincoln, but I’m thinking I’m gonna take your advice and avoid it. hehe
You are seriously warped!
Robin–;) just asking worship leaders to have a sense of humour about themselves. What’s so wrong with that? hehe It’s proving to be a little more dangerous than I had thought! lol
this is awesome!!!! don’t delete! Thank you for this! I’m sharing it with my friends…
Ben Cantelon just wrote about it in his blog on worshipcentral.org
http://www.worshipcentral.org/blog/ben-cantelon/fearfully-and-wonderfully-made
Nichole, thanks for the kind words, and welcome to the blog!
I just checked worship central, and that’s a really cool site. Thanks for the info! Once again, welcome, and have a wonderful day!