What Does Your Audience Want To Hear?

You may not think of it this way but I’m pretty sure that most of us spend time in front of an audience every day. That audience could be your family, your friends, your co-workers, neighbours, a board or committee. Maybe the audience is a congregation for worship leaders or pastors. Maybe your audience is mostly online through your blog or twitter. Whoever you are, there are areas in your life where you have an audience.

Every Sunday I stand in front of an audience of hundreds of people who come from all over our region to gather together and worship. Each of those people come with different expectations and experiences from that past week, month, year. Each of those people are coming on that Sunday morning for different reasons – it might be because Sunday morning is a core piece of their spiritual growth, it might be because they are so wiped out on life that they just need some lifting up, it might be that this is the day that they’re giving God one more chance. Whatever their reason, something made them get out of bed and decide that instead of the countless other things they could be doing that morning, they were going to get in their car and make their way to church.

Why is it important to remember this? As a leader with an audience, you need to remember that part of your preparation must include this question – what do they want to hear? What is it that people are expecting to hear from the people who are getting “voice time” on Sunday morning? What are the kinds of things that they are waiting to hear from you?

As leaders, our role is certainly not all about telling people what they want to hear. There is enough of that – politicians, car salesmen and pastors are notorious for doing this and it’s not at all what I’m talking about. That person who walks through those doors on Sunday morning does not need you to simply blurt out what you think they need to hear.

What they do need, however, is to hear the things they are expecting in an unexpected way. If I was a preacher, I’d repeat that. People need to hear the things they are expecting in an unexpected way

Worship leaders – you have an incredible opportunity and responsibility to speak in to the lives of people who are gathering on Sunday morning. If you’ve spent considerable time thinking about and practicing the songs you are going to sing, why are you not spending considerable time thinking about and practicing the words you are going to say? Is your job on Sunday morning to simply sing the songs and get out of the way? No, it’s not. Your job is to lead worship – the songs are a tool to accomplish that. Your words are also part of leading worship, so use them well.

Want some specific things to help you begin to think about this?

• Think about how you’re going to open the service – and no “Good morning, let’s stand to worship – here we go!” is not enough. And don’t be the one who walks out and tries the “Good morning! .. .. .. Well.. let’s try that again – gooood morrrrrniiiinnngggg!” That just tells the congregation you are nervous and unprepared. Yes people are in the room and have gathered for worship but put some brain time into a couple of intelligent thoughts that will help remind them of what we are doing when we gather together.
• Realize that you shouldn’t speak between every song but if you ARE going to speak, make sure that what you say is relevant to the song before and the song after AND that the focus of your words is leading people in worship rather than pouring out your artist’s heart for 10 minutes all over a bunch of people who are getting tired of singing.
• Remember that you are leading worship not just leading songs. If it’s just about leading songs, why are you up there? There are much better singers and musicians who could be leading the songs on video. If all you’re doing is closing your eyes and singing the song, you are not leading worship.

This post is actually the prelude to a second post which will be coming soon but I thought it would be worthwhile to get some of these thoughts out first.

What are your thoughts? Worship leaders – do you spend time thinking about what you’re going to say? Do you talk too much? Not enough?

3 Responses to “What Does Your Audience Want To Hear?”

1. Brent says:

   May 29, 2009 at 10:19 am

   Chris, this is one of my biggest challenges as a worship leader! I’ve played guitar for 15 years, but I’ve only had a mic in front of me for about 10 months now. It’s already way out of my comfort zone but I’ve stepped up to the plate. My tendency is to just play the songs and sit down … but I know the congregation needs more than that. I’ve come to realize that leading worship is more than just singing the songs … and I’m still learning.

   Reply
2. Chris From Canada says:

   May 29, 2009 at 10:32 am

   @Brent:

   Don’t be discouraged. This is part of the learning curve. I’d suggest starting with scripture. When you’re choosing or preparing songs, see if you can find a verse or two that relates thematically to what you are singing and just read through those verses before, after or during the song.

   For example, if you’re leading “How Great Is Our God” you might want to go to Psalm 93 – “The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty, the Lord is robed, he has put on strength as his belt.” Using that verse and a little verbal direction like “Isn’t it awesome that we get to come together like this, knowing that whatever is happening in our lives – as good or as bad as it may be – is all under the care of God, our King. We know that the highs of life will fade and the low of life work to make us stronger but through ALL of those things, the strength of our King sustains us.”

   That’s a really simple example but you really don’t need more than that. Do that a couple of times in a service and you will really develop that ability as part of your worship leading.

   Reply
3. beth says:

   May 30, 2009 at 11:13 pm

   Chris, this was excellent and well-said. I passed it on to my worship leaders

   Looking forward to part two!

   Reply