The hardest part of playing worship in church

Despite the length of a worship time in church (be it 20 minutes or a lot longer) there is always a couple of things in my opinion which are the hardest to bring together.

You may be surprised at this, but I think the biggest challenge in a worship time is not the actual playing of the songs.

Generally with the chosen songs we are given the words/chords/parts to play and usually an mp3 link to listen too and learn the song.  Playing the correct part does require skill, depending on the type and arrangement of the song but this often does not require a lot of creativity or thinking on the run.  

To me, the main challenge in leading the congregation into a powerful time of praise and worship is the transitions between the songs and the times that are often called 'free worship'.

First, the transition between songs is a time of great opportunity but also a time where things can 'go really wrong'.  Generally speaking, leading up to a transition we have displayed the words of the song on the screen for the length of the song (usually for between 4-5 minutes) and encouraged people to sing along.  In contrary to this, there is now a time where people can express their own individual personal words to God and listen for Him to respond back to them.  Keeping a flow where this takes place is not always an easy thing to do.  Our job is to help people keep their attention on Him by not creating a disjointed transition where it is possible for people to actually take their focus of God and even put it on the musicians themselves.

The other challenging time in my opinion is instrumentals in songs or 'free worship' moments.  Often we are playing songs that have been recorded with instrumentals and if we try and replicate that part of the song without the same instrumental part it can feel flat instead of 'lifting' at that time.  

Often an instrumental comes directly after a chorus where you have had most of the instruments/vocals in at a high intensity and then the vocals (particularly main melody) often pulls right out in the instrumental.  If there is no strong instrument at that time there is real potential for the dynamic of the song to drop right off.  

I think if we don't have the instruments or individual tone of instrument to replicate the instrumental in the original song, we should consider changing the arrangement or possibly even going straight into the bridge section and bypassing the instrumental altogether.  Our whole aim should be to not do anything half hearted but always look to help people stay focussed on God.

In closing, back to transitions, some thoughts I have to help these are:

1. Don't rush.  One of the worst things we can do is think we have to immediately get to the next song.  Especially if it is a reasonable tempo change take your time.
2. Try to avoid silence.  If the drummer is tapping in the next song try to always keep a pad or a similar instrument playing through.
3. Spend time practising transitions.  Often time is spent practising the song list however transitions can easily be overlooked.
4. Know your instrument.  Understanding the dynamics of your instrument is very important so you can play sensitively in these times.
5. Listen to the Holy Spirit.  He is God on this earth and will at times give us direction during these moments.

Be blessed, have a great week :) 

Dan