Worship Teams and The Quietness of Skillfulness

I saw two videos the other day that I wanted to respond to about performancism in worship ministry.

Before I begin, I just want to say that the band in a gathering should want to remove distractions for both the group who is meeting, as well as the members of the band. It is not a stage separated off from the seats, it is everyone singing as a group to God and about God. It is not everyone watching a worship leader have their only private worship time while their band mates watch on in confusion and are pulled out of their own space of worship, as well.

The main thing I wanted to do here was to make a couple points about the thoughts I had while watching the videos without actually talking about the videos.

So, to start, 1) my experience with “professional” musicians who can come and “play” the songs without preparation is this: in many cases, they have learned the songs exactly as the album that they have listened to because they want to be that worship leader/musician. They have been told that the epitome of coolness is to lead/play like that. BUT the problem with this is that it becomes a karaoke version of the song. They may sound like they are a professional musician but they don’t understand the song. They can’t play it in different settings, they can’t play it with different numbers of instruments or musicians, they can’t song arrange it, they don’t understand the story the song is telling to be able to tell it in different musical circumstances.

2) We should be looking at whether the team member understands why they are doing what they are doing rather than their external appearance fitting a particular “cool” factor model. I have heard people say about there being the “presenter” types that should be on the stage while the “creatives” are in the background. I have heard comments about how the takeaways from conferences was how bedazzled they were by the people up on the stage. I have heard messages that have commented on how, for the people above the age of 30, you kind of lose your involvement in these “cool”-motivated “presenter” groups. What a shame! The biggest deal is that the people understand why they are playing, desire to have the focus not be on themselves, and want to be developed as a team that play with one voice (and not multiple soloists). Regardless of their adult age. It’s not a performance, a spectacle, a marketable commercial. The focus shouldn’t even be on the band in the first place.

And 3) the “spontaneity” that is being referred to is putting a “spiritual” spin on not wanting to practice. It makes it sound more religious - “I just want to be in the moment.” But no substance will come “spontaneously” out of nothingness. Jazz musicians who they say are “spontaneous” spend hours of time in practice, deeply entrenched in theory and musical knowledge to the point that they become so attuned to the notes that they can hear them played in their minds. To be able to speak “spontaneously” (as they reference Paul and so on) - do you know how much time he spent contemplating and thinking about God’s truth? It doesn’t spring out of nothingness.

Hear me out. Practice is important for a band with many parts. Either in individual preparation, as well as prep with the team. It is important to remove distractions so that EVERYONE is focused on God and not man. We are a band that is enabling the gathering to be able to sing these songs together (on tempo and on key), but we are part of that gathering, not separate from it. Not special musical guests. Not a concert that people are watching.

I once heard it said (and I paraphrase) that confidence is quiet and insecurity is loud. But I think if I were to place that quote on a worship team setting, I would say this: true intentional skillfulness is quiet, development is quiet, working as a team is quiet, and insecurity and showmanship are loud. Because, in my experience, the worship team musicians who understand the core focus of the team will often go unnoticed (though not by those who truly get it, too). Why? Because they will quietly blend their voices to highlight the lyrics, they will work with the team, they will develop other musicians quietly, they will understand the heart of what is happening, they will work to bring together the instrument’s voices to sing as one to point to Him. Like a giant musical finger that says, “Look at Him and what these words are saying about His truth.” They do not have to boast in their skills or highlight their skills - and they do have skills - but they hone those skills to highlight the main thing and make the whole (the sum of the parts) shine in its' storytelling undistractedness. Theatrical scores do this wonderfully, don’t they? Highlight the main attraction without bringing attention to themselves. And it’s interesting because these skillful musicians will do very “boring” things but they will see the importance of it. Like a bassist who just keeps time to enable the gathering to sing the songs without musical disruptions. Or a piano player who doesn’t play with eleven fingers and toes but accentuates what needs to be accentuated to tell the story of the song. Or an electric guitarist who plays four notes at particular points to highlight the dynamics of the song’s lyrics. Or selected harmonies that people go “Wow, I felt that in the song, that made that lyric stand out, but I don’t know when it happened.” Complicated stuff that, once worked on, sounds so simple. They don’t just copy and regurgitate, they understand the song and how to play it with two musicians or five, they understand how to adjust the song arrangement to fit the space and the number of instruments, they understand how it flows into another song, they understand that it’s not just noise - monotonous, every-limb-playing-your-instrument sound, where everyone does their own thing because apparently that means it’s lively and just like the album. It’s playing as a team with a single, beautiful focus being at the heart of it all - God and His truth. That’s why that preparation of the heart and the team is such a big deal beforehand. It’s not a personality trait to want to contemplate who God is and what His word says about Himself as we play these songs in response to these truths. A true team member knows it’s about the heart, about the focus, about the foundation, and not just about playing instruments for the experiential highs of man’s own glory and to put on a show to gain performance-watching numbers.