Practical worship leading tips to help you lead worship well! 👊
Thanks for checking out Leading Worship Well on RU-vid!
My name is Spencer Cormany. I'm a worship leader from Pennsylvania.
I help worship leaders lead worship well by providing practical tips - things you don't just think about but can actually do! No matter what size church you lead in.
On this channel, you'll find weekly training videos about worship leading on topics like how to lead your church in worship and how to lead a worship team.
So, are you ready to level up your worship leading? Hit subscribe and leave a comment on a video introducing yourself.
Can't wait to meet you! Keep leading worship well!
Absolutely! Corporate worship is just that, Corporate Worship. Be one of many and many of one. By closing your eyes you put a hole in the connection between yourself and the people of the Church. It makes it a little uncomfortable in some ways. It's like you have some following with their eyes closed and some looking around as if they were unsure of what to do? This has been my experience and what I felt. I am not saying it's wrong or anything like that. Just my opinion. God bless.
I know key choice will always be a point of disagreement amongst worship leaders, and you happen to fall on the opposite side of the argument than I do, in a couple ways. I lead with multiple vocalists and none of us sing in the same range. I sing in a tenor range and a lot of women sing well in my range and our main female lead sings songs about 2-2 1/2 steps higher in an alto which most men sing an octave down very well. We also have a low baritone vocalist and a few sopranos. There are rarely songs we all would sing in the same key comfortably without using harmony. I grew up playing in a worship band that always put songs in “congregational keys” and I grew up thinking I just couldn’t sing, I always had to sing the high parts low and the low parts high and felt awkward so I didn’t sing often. In that church, we had a lot of men that didn’t sing and often they stood stoically during worship (good ol’ conservative baptists). People like to blame it on the key, but we catered to them and still didn’t get much more from that group. I think most of the songs sounded bland and it removed a lot of the musicality from the songs. I think corporate worship through songs should create a whole person response to God, meaning it taps into the intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical parts of us and we are united as one body through words, rhythms and melody to worship together. I guess what I take issue with is that you keep making this argument about keys every 7-8 videos but my experiences have been quite different. If I were running my own worship support channel/business, I would not list this as a priority to improving congregation worship at all, I would neither advocate “singer choice” or “congregation based keys”. I think once you go down that road, you could pick out lots of things to make congregation participation better like what tone and timber of vocals can a congregation follow, what rhythms are easier for a congregation to follow, should lyrics that are complex theologically be allowed, too many words, too fast/slow tempos…. You could moderate all things to the lowest common denominator to make worship singing easy and accessible but I don’t think it is necessary (to be fair, all of those things are often a factor in worship song writing, as are the keys and range). I feel like you keep picking this one aspect of musicality to focus on - most of your content is not based on musicality and more on other aspects of improving worship - and it is weird that it is often mentioned.
0:08 1. Open your eyes 2:27 2. Read scripture in your service 5:09 3. Put your songs in a key the church can sing in 8:17 4. Think through the service in advance 11:31 5. Read a worship leading book Since Spencer is so loquacious (jk 😂) here’s the TLDR! But speaking of how much impact 15 minutes can have (great video), if someone doesn’t have but a couple then they can dive into one specific point you made and still walk away edified!
I appreciate this sensitive and thoughtful approach to this topic. I’ve been leading worship for almost 30 years at a few churches over the span of my ministry. I’ve never been paid,nor offered payment by any of those churches. I do work a fulltime job and am paid well so I personally would not ask for this but my church leadership never even inquired and afford sone small stipend at least. I’ve at times put in 15-20 hours/week planning, importing lyrics in software, organizing & recruiting teams, practicing etc. I guess my biggest pet peeve has been when a church leadership does not show or express gratitude and that happened in one church I served at long term. In those times, I have entrusted my feelings (and attitude) to the Lord, knowing the reason I’m doing this is for him and my reward is eternal and in heaven. I agree with your sentiments and think it should be determined on a case by case basis. A conversation with an honest and humble spirit is a great suggestion. I would encourage pastors and staff to ALWAYS show your WL -Director - coordinator, appreciation and thanks- maybe a handwritten note or small gift card at Christmas for those churches who cannot afford to pay is nice too! Thanks so much for the channel and the topic!
This is a good subject and can be very sensitive, I have found people that get paid for worship, be it in the worship team or in the band, don't even believe in Jesus and live a worldly life.
If you are the principal worship leader in a large church, that is a huge job and should definitely be a paid full-time position. Not everyone who steps in on one Sunday necessarily needs to be paid.
Just asked your Father in heaven for more financial blessing, He will open doors beyond your imagination. He is Jehovah Jireh who provides for all our needs. just walk in trust and obedience to His wills and you will enjoyed the fruits of His blessings abundantly. "My cup runneth over" Hebrew Bible (Psalms:23:5) means "I have more than enough for my needs".
I think it’s great to hear a diversity of voices and perspectives from up front in our services. Our church has only a handful; I was on staff for years and never spoke in any real way before the congregation Sunday morning. My church and leadership never attempted to develop me, hence why I’m not even in ministry anymore 🤷♂️
Thank you for taking the time to do this. Also thank you to your church for having a livestream service! Question: I am unfamiliar with the verse of "Before the Throne of God Above" which began "If by the Spirit we are born". Just curious about that one as I know the other three.
@@TheFtm22 I think that was the Sunday our pastor preached from John 3 (you must be born again of the Spirit). I wrote that verse and added it to go along with that message.
This is a purely pragmatic answer to the first question. The theological/philosophical discussion is a whole different issue. Where I live it is hypothetically possible to make a living as a gigging musician who primarily plays in churches, but you wouldn’t be on staff. You would have to be a contract musician for multiple large churches that pay musicians on varying times/days. For instance there is a huge multi-site church in my city that pays musicians for three to five services on weekends at each location as well as Wednesdays for youth. There are also a few churches that run special “vesper style” worship services Saturday or Sunday evening. Additionally, there are other churches running young adult oriented gatherings on Thursday nights. You would need to be plugged into all of these and playing them every week to make an income comparable to a full-time salary… remember, this is contract, so your income has to cover taxes, insurance, retirement planning if desired, and all expenses. What’s more likely is that you’d get plugged into a few paying churches while also getting one or two decent cover band gigs and teach lessons a few days a week. TLDR: you would have to be a gigging musician who primarily works on church services. Possible in a large city but very difficult. Again, pragmatic answer irrespective of whether one “should” do this. Only pointing out that one “could” do this in a highly populated area.
Everything you said about the worship team is so foreign to me. I'm the bassist of a 5 or 6 member worship band and I learn what song we are doing when I hear the page number called out. I know pretty much every song in the hymnal so it never occurred to me that there could be problems like that on the worship team. Maybe every worship team should have a "hymnal" where it is agreed upon songs that all the musicians are expected to know and sheet music exists.
I'm a worship musician that gets paid. I won't have it any other way. This is not right to expect musicians to play for no pay. I'm not a pastor but I lead, put together songs, coordinate, etc. You don't have to be a pastor to lead. This has been at 3 churches now, and my guitar and drums got paid at the past two churches. Most people that I know that lead and play get paid. That's great you are a pastor, most of us are not. I get paid part time but nicely.
I am a worship director for a multi campus church, I get paid the equivalent of one day for this role, each campus runs their services autonomously so I look after the teams, rosters, song choices admin, service planning, compliance, special events etc. - The churches have Independent k-12 schools attached to each campus and I am employed with that for the remainder oft he week full-time (IT Support), so I can work both roles as I need flexibly like update PCO anytime. I'm so blessed. Even with 100+ Worship team members across it all, 1 day is more then enough
This second question is an important one. I think it is great to include your team in helping with things but i dont think this is an area to do that. Song suggestions, sure! Unless these people are leading the team and set, there is not a wholesome outlook to the service and they likely are not atuned with what the pastor is looking for as a theme or scripture. Now our church doesnt get a heads up typically on that but I believe when a worship pastor is prayerful and sensitive to the Spirit they will put together a set that edifies and prepares the church for the message and what the Spirit will do. As a for instance, my leader has me and one other previous worship leader leading a week every other month to lead the team at practice/pick the set/lead in service to continue growing us and give us opportunities to use our giftings. It isn't so often he is handing over his authority and position but builds up his team. I think it's great! He gets one week a month he will just help direct musically on the secret mic but hands everything else off. This past Sunday I led and I picked the set out a month prior. Whenever I feel the Lord put a song burning on my heart I put it in planning center for my week and build off of that song as they come to me and I have time since it's so far ahead. I introduced a new song Thunder in the Desert by Chris Davenport (its crazy good, check it out) which is what I based the entire set off of and it ended up being what my pastor called a "God song" because it fit so perfectly with what the Lord woke him up in the middle of the night that night to speak over our church and pray with us for and the other songs supported it. Our intentional selection of songs based on the move of God in our lives makes a huge difference in how we help our pastors!
Pretty sure most church leaders don't even think to so much as pay for the guitarist's replacement strings, or a drummer's replacement sticks and heads, let alone anything else... based on my observations over decades... It's a shame really. But God will repay the musicians later.
Spencer, maybe you should make a video on how to use the advice you give. Could seem really obvious: weigh the advice against what scripture says; pray to see if God is really leading you to make the change and not some other factor; maybe talk it through with other trusted leaders; finally internalize the advice and make the change with confidence. I was thinking it would be funny and strange for the worship pastor to address their team like this, “so guys we’re going to start doing *something* differently,” and if/when asked why, respond, “well, I heard about it on RU-vid…” If that’s all they’ve got then they’re not ready to make that change! I’ve been under a bad leader who rushed changes left and right and it was not good for ministry. I’d probably end up in the other ditch, picking one way to do things and then never change. Maybe broaden the video or make a series of general wisdom about how to go about change, when it’s needed, how to open up and receive suggestions, etc. Be blessed!
It’s a lot like working in an administration office…we all have specific “titles” of what we do,but the finance officer can do Quality Assurance, and the Rights officer can answer a phone or process the mail… and any one of us can take notes for the rest of us in any of the various meetings…that’s how a “bassist” justifies full time ministry at a church
I don’t have a problem with paying musicians, although I also don’t think it should be required. But a full time musician who isn’t the leader? What would they do? How many full-time musicians do you think your church can support, in terms of workload? If you are a freelance musician and that’s what you do, then that’s your full time job and playing in church can be part of that. But I don’t think it’s very realistic to expect a church to create multiple full time jobs for its musicians.
Strictly from an audio standpoint I would add some reverb to the whole mix. And have your keyboard player play some low notes. Usually tell the keyboard player to keep their left hand away from the bass but in your case it would fill things out.
IMO, most churches that pay non-WL musicians full time salaries are MDs. So if you’re a drummer, bassist, EG, keys and you want to be paid full-time or even part time- Expect to bring full-time/part time assets to the table: Can you serve as an MD while being very proficient in your instrument? Have you mastered Ableton? Can you develop volunteers using Playback, Loop Community, etc so the WP doesn’t have to worry about tracks? Are you developing musician volunteers? Are you helping the WP / WL coordinate rehearsals? Can you step in and run audio if your audio guy calls in sick? Things to consider.
Is MD a music director? WL/WP means worship leader or worship pastor? I’m not sure what the relationship between those would be, sometimes all those titles are interchanged. And I think I figured out EG is electric guitarist. You use a lot of jargon with no explanation. MD to most English speakers usually means Medical Doctor. I’m just trying to understand 😅
@@GlazedYeti Considering context clues that this video is about worship musicianship on a channel about worship leadership in the western church, I think it might be sufficient to say that MD does not mean Medical Doctor in this case, but Music Director :) Yes terms often used synonymously, although every worship pastor is a worship leader, in my opinion not every worship leader is a worship pastor per se.
Ok ok ok. Watched this video, was curious of other livestreams you had so I pulled you guys up on RU-vid. Went back about a year at about 10 random services. Few questions, hopefully you will answer it becasue I notice you don’t respond to many post. For about 30 min, there are 2 slides that explain how to give your offering… 30 minutes, can you explain why livestream doesn’t have events or something other than wanting peoples offering? In past videos you say you teach your team…. I only see you and the same guy playing piano, there was one service that had a lady singing, so what team do you teach? Do you not think that heavy scripture is the best way to open a service? Can’t remember exactly what you said, but for a first time guest hearing about the “drink blood” or something of that nature, is that not a little to deep? As the worship leader, your job is to not just lead Sunday, but build teams. What happens if you and the piano player get mauled by a shark driving a bus? A lot of videos you put out teaching about leading worship, just not sure about that. If you don’t want to comment, I give you permission to use this post to make a full video, just let me know when it drops so I can check it out.
Thanks for the questions, Ricky! 1. We have other slides than just offering slides (we have 2 of those - one for online giving and one for in-person giving). Then we have other slides such as "interested in joining the worship team?," info about Sunday School classes, other events, etc... Maybe you just saw services that happened during the summer when there weren't as many events going on? 2. I think I've been consistently clear on my channel that I currently serve in a small church (less than 100 people). When I speak of "my team," I mean either the people who are currently on my team (depending on when I used that statement that may have been only 1-4 people but I still consider that "my team"). Or I was referencing back to ministries I've led in the past. These ministries have ranged from 2 to 15 worship team members. I've only been at my current church for a little over 3 years and have led 3 other worship ministries since I've started leading teams. 3. Yes. I think Scripture is the best way to open a service. I do not plan my services primarily for "first time guests." I plan my services for the believers in my church. They are capable of hearing about "drink offerings of blood" and not freaking out when the Bible talks about it. I also prefer to read the Scripture in it's full context instead of cutting out parts that may make some people uncomfortable. We can allow the Word of God to speak for itself and we don't need to explain every little piece of Scripture to our church when we read it.
@@LeadingWorshipWell hey the slides were on multiple services over the year, maybe my opinion, find a welcome slide or something. As I have never been to your church my first impression online is that you guys just want money. You also said you plan services for the believers in your church. What about the great commission? Services don’t have to be of the world, but new people have no idea what your saying and if comes of weird and even though you don’t think it is, it’s still boring. Bible talks about entering with thanksgiving, now I know it doesn’t have to be bubbly and rainbow lollipops, but your service starts off dry and uninviting. Again these are just my thoughts. Last thought, your videos seem that you have a current team, so maybe communicate that your talking past tense in that, when people like myself, do their research, you come off as not being so truthful. Thanks for the response also.
Thanks so much for sharing this! I've been eager to see one of your services since I started watching your channel and this did not disappoint! Now would you mind listing your worship set and scripture used so we can shamelessly rip it off for our own services?! (I remember "Come Thou Fount" and "Holy Holy Holy," both of which I love and plan to play often at my church.) 😄 Thanks as always for all your advice!
CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 16:1-11 Come Thou Fount - C Holy, Holy, Holy - C CONFESSION: Psalm 24:1-4; Psalm 71:1-3 Rock of Ages - G Before The Throne Of God Above - C
I am actually the person who asked the first question and have since changed my stance on that question for exactly the reasons you gave. Thank you for graciously answering the question.
Vocational bassist might need to be bi-vocational, like a lot of other people in ministry. My day job pays the bills for my ministry job. I have learned that this is the way that God provides for my family and my ministry in a way that being paid by the church never could, and I am grateful for that provision.
Even if you walk the singers through picking the types of songs for service, then you have to think about tempo, flow, keys/transitions. I feel like trying to introduce that whole thought process at once is a big push for an interim leader. Yes, those are things that a worship leader should eventually be teaching the team. But I think the route that might make the most sense for this interim leader is, like you said, to say "in this season we're going to X". It allows for a clean break from the old way of doing it, and it makes sense for the new (or interim) leader to introduce the change. (Frankly, with 200 possible songs, maybe it isn't even viable for you to lead "any" song they choose.) If you want to throw them a bone, you could give each 2-3 songs to choose from, or even give them 2-3 potential sets to vote on as a group. That at least gives you the agency to choose songs that you can lead well and that fit together well and that take the congregation on a journey - rather than random songs.
It's not wrong to want to be paid as a musician, but it's usually not the first place a church should focus their limited resources on. If you get a big enough church they should absolutely financially support the people who make the service possible, but imagine a regular size church paying each member of your team $500 a week. That's only $26,000 a year which probably isn't enough money to live off of in most of the United States, but it's a start. Assuming you pay that to a team of 5 people who all sing and play instruments (acoustic guitarist, electric guitarist, bassist, pianist, and drummer) it would cost $130,000 a year. That's higher than the entire yearly budget of some churches I've been to. I'm going to guess most churches would love to pay you for your service, but most just know they can't afford it.
