Worship Music Blog What makes great song leading?
One of the singers at church asked the question last week, “what makes great song leading in church?” It’s a great question. Many churches are blessed with great singers, but my hunch is that far fewer have truly great songleaders… people who are able to lead the crowd (both musically and spiritually) in a genuine engagement with God.
Here are a few clips from some of the leading song leaders of our day. I figure we can learn much from all of them!
But what particularly do you think is great about what they’re doing? Is there some stuff which might work well in an arena but less well in a suburban church?
Brooke Fraser - Hosanna
Matt Redman - Blessed Be The Name
Tim Hughes - Here I Am To Worship
Keith and Kristyn Getty - In Christ Alone
Reuben Morgan - Mighty To Save
they are all, in their different ways, engaging with God themselves.
lifted hands, open hands, closed eyes, eyes fixed upwards, expression…
here’s a question. an informal ‘pew poll’ was done at my church recently, and apparently ‘the word from the pew’ was that people like the songleaders making eye-contact with them.
i don’t make a lot of eye-contact with individuals when i’m singing, only every now and then in a song, and sometimes not at all - i find it distracts me from worshiping.
i tend to close my eyes or look up, because that’s part of my authentic posture of engagement with God when singing.
here’s what i’ve been thinking about: when you are leading people in a genuine engagement with God, do you have a responsibility to put your preferences aside, and do what helps them engage better?
Steph, I think the answer is “yes” - servant leadership means going beyond our preferences. But on the other hand, if the outcome of this ends up being us not engaging with God at all ourselves, we’ve lost the game.
I tend to let the words show me where to look - if they’re addressing God I’ll look above the congregation’s heads; if they’re addressing my brothers and sisters (and speaking of God in the third person) I’ll look at the congregation.
Now I gotta find time to watch those clips…
Brooke - engaged facials. She’s focussed on what she’s doing, not self-conscious.
Matt - a spoken exhortation before the song - really valuable. We need to be not scared to speak. He also has real vocal presence and power - there’s hardly any accompaniment and he’s confidently leading with just his voice. We need to be able to do that.
Tim H - gestures that make sense (eg open arms on “here I am”). Not scared of slow tempos.
Kristyn Getty - biblical exhortation beforehand. Even in this conservative context she moves around quite a bit, not rooted to the one spot. Looks around the crowd a bit which is good for this kind of song.
Reuben M - not much to notice here… he seems a bit tired!
I think you raise a good question about arenas vs local churches. I think there’s something about the ratio of gesture size to venue size - if I waved my hands up high in the superdome hardly anyone would notice; but in a 25-member congregation…
I think that this is a helpful discussion. I would totally agree with the fact that there are so many great singers, but not song leaders. And that the skills rarely go together.
I would want to say that singing ability is far second in importance to song leading. Although ability to lead a congregation in pitch is still important.
A song leaders primary purpose is to lead the congregation, which includes linking worship before and after the song. Making the experience meaningful for the congregation and riding waves that the congregation is feeling.
I would agree with Tom in saying that it needs to be sacrificial, you are song leading for the congregation, not for you. So you are there to lead them actively, not just to sing in front of them.
Would love an extended discussion about this with anyone!