If the congregation is not involved, it's music, not worship.

We've been there, right?

We pick the best of songs, practice and rehearse them like crazy, and then play them flawlessly on stage. Everything goes well, there are no musical shipwrecks, and we're feeling wonderful.

Then, we take a look at the people and... there's... nothing!  No one seems to be singing... and you're left wondering why the congregation is unable to get into the ‘brilliant’ set-list we are delivering.

As a worship leader, nothing used to deflate me faster than an unengaged congregation. Frustration, anger, misery, disappointment... I'd feel all of that and more... I'd also drive myself crazy later analyzing it all, trying to figure out what went wrong.

While this doesn't happen to me so much these days, I can still remember my rookie years when I went through it... often. Experience and time are good teachers, I guess!

Leading worship is more about “engaging” your congregation than it is about “amazing” them with your worship leading brilliance. - David Santistevan

Sometimes the microphone can be a barrier between the congregation and the worship leader. It's not too difficult for the band to get so caught up with the technical and the musical that the people begin to feel disconnected.

Leading worship is more about engaging with people than putting up a great Christian performance, right? It's more about connecting together with the Lord than belting out the latest musical chops.

But how do we get to that special place of going beyond the functional and grasping the relational? These tips will help you:

Essential tips to improve how you engage people in worship

Engaging your congregation before the session

1. Pray

Seriously, many of us pray and worship only when on stage—it’s the swiftest route to spiritual bankruptcy.

Worship leaders should be earnest and intense prayer warriors in private seeking the Lord’s voice every day—frequently and regularly. If we don’t spend time with the Lord, we are setting ourselves up for disaster.

And when we pray, we need to also take time to pray for our community—the congregation which we lead in worship.

Apart from praying individually, it’s also great to pray for our church as a team—during team rehearsals for instance.

The point is engaging your congregation begins when you are preparing for the session itselfs.

2. Tune in

There's a danger in trying to keep up with every new song churned out by the worship music industry every day.

Frankly, it's a losing proposition considering the sheer quantity of new material being made available every day!

We can easily get too busy looking for the next great usable song and lose the voice of the Holy Spirit. The natural next step is losing the congregation.

We need to be striving to keep up with the Holy Spirit instead, listening to His heart and finding out what He wants us to sing.

If we tune into the Holy Spirit, our congregations will tune into the worship.

Engaging your congregation is ultimately dependent on Him, not you and I.

3. Imagine

How about spending some time in some much needed reflection and (re)thinking?

I am talking about visualizing our people’s expectations and experiences by putting ourselves in their shoes.

We have to know the people we're leading. The more we become students of our audience the better we'll be able to lead them. - Worship Rocket

Sometimes, it's not a bad idea to just walk into the place where we lead worship and stand where they stand, sit where they sit and look at the stage from where they are.

Do this to get some fresh perspective on our worship sessions on engaging your church.

4. Listen

How about talking to the people on our worship teams?

Asking them what are potential causes of disengagement and discussing possible solutions to overcome them is a fantastic leadership practice—sadly ignored by many worship leaders.

Each member is different, bringing different skills, gifts and personality type into the mix. But when they work together, they produce something greater than the sum of the parts. - Jon Nicol

As much as we hate to admit it, we don’t have it all together—we need help—and there’s nothing wrong in taking help—especially from the very people we are ministering with.

I strongly believe, the people we are serving with can bring in fantastic ideas on engaging your church in congregational worship.

5. Consider the song mix

Do you also consider the needs of the people when you 're choosing songs for worship? Or is it simply, "I like the song, so I will use it"?

Traditional hymns, familiar classics, a new song, and so on... have a good mix of songs.

Let’s not become one trick ponies that can only pick and play one particular type of songs.

Good set-lists tend to have something for everyone.

Additionally, consider the following questions too:

• Look at the lyrics... are they making sense?
• Are the songs fitting into the overall theme of the day?
• Are the lyrics worth singing together? Worth singing to our Almighty God?
• Are the songs appealing to the culture and tradition of our Church?
• Are the lyrics able to teach Godly truths and explore the Gospel?
• Think about how people of different age groups would feel about the lyrics that we are singing; would they make sense to everyone?

The right mix of songs has a lot to do with effectively engaging your congregation.

Engaging your congregation during the session

6. Smile

Sounds too simple? Maybe it is.

But a major turn-off for people is to see a stiff worship leader going through the motions.

You may possess fine technical / musical / vocal skill, but it’s of no use without a sense of connection.

Please smile, express happiness to be there worshiping with your people and ask them to smile at each other too—after all, we are supposed to be a community of brothers and sisters worshipping together.

And while you’re at it, please open your eyes and look at your people. The more you keep those eyes tightly closed, the more aloof you appear to be, preventing you from engaging your congregation well.

7. Focus on engaging

It's critical to work on connecting with our congregations over and above just musical excellence.

Our musical artistry and pastoring of people need to work together to create an environment that welcomes participation instead of causing disengagement.

So don't just stand there and go through your set-list like a robot. Do you have moments to pray, read scripture, be in silence during your worship session? Or it is just song after song after song?

It's darn easy to go through a set like a musician playing a paid gig. We on the other hand, need to be thinking more about drawing people into worship.

Learn to speak to your church, open your heart to them, tell them a scripture verse, your struggle, your aim for that session etc. Remember we are in this together; it's never 'us and them', but always 'we'.

Take a video of one of your sessions and watch it later with your team; you will easily figure out most of your areas of improvement—including how to better engage your church!

8. Use familiar songs

This is probably the no. 1 hurdle that comes in the way of congregational engagement: they don't know the song!

It’s no big secret that worship leaders and musicians learn songs faster than the average congregation, right. Unfortunately, we also tire of songs quicker, and so we keep choosing more new songs, thereby successfully compounding the problem!

Meet them where they are and then take them to newer songs. If your people are elderly, throw in a hymn too now and then. To repeat an earlier point—let there be something for everyone in your set-list.

If you must use new songs, take time to teach the new song, repeat each section many times when playing it for the first time.

Be patient with people and don't have more than one new song in a set-list. Maybe two at the most if the songs are simple enough.

As a rule of thumb, more familiar songs and the least number of new songs is the better way to go to improve how you engage your people.

9. Let them sing

Extend some sections of the songs—maybe the chorus or the bridge or a few key lines in the verse by repeating them one or two times more than usual—stop playing / singing and invite your people to sing instead, thereby creating what we can call congregational solo moments.

Not only does your congregation get to hear themselves, it can be nice to give everyone's ears a break from hearing your band's wall of sound... This puts a healthy sense of pressure on them to sing. - Tommy Walker

You'll enjoy this as much as them, trust me!

Another alternative is using responsorial songs where the worship leader sings a line, and the people sing something in response to it. Songs like "You are worthy of my praise", "Hallelujah glory", "He is the Lord (show Your power)" and so on.

10. Balance your sound

• Check your volume level, is it too high or too low?
• Are the vocals heard well above the musical instruments
• Is the drummer pounding away too much?
• Is the electric guitarist overplaying all over the song?

If people are unable to hear themselves, they won't feel like singing, it's as simple as that.

Work on setting a comfortable and balanced sound.

11. Infuse dynamics

Is everyone playing together at the same time from the start to the finish of every song? Is yes, then, there's a problem.

Stop thinking like a musician and put on the attitude of an arranger.

A good worship session needs to have some quiet intimate moments as much as those high anthemic moments. Too much of both is bad.

Figure out which instruments need to be playing in which sections.

More importantly, figure out when they don't need to be playing! If there are no valleys, there would be no mountains, right?

Engaging your congregation after the session

12. Invite feedback

Hang around after the gathering, walk around and get a feel of their experience during worship.

Being an introvert myself, this doesn't come naturally to me, but I've worked on it over the years and it's a lot easier today!

Talk to people in the hallways, in the seats, etc. Leave your green room and engage. Be a culture shaper. - Jeremy Armstrong

Listen dispassionately to their views whether you agree or disagree with them. You can always evaluate everything later with your team.

13. Thank

And most importantly, don’t forget to thank

• your people for being there and for their participation
• your worship team for serving with you
• the Lord

Worship as a ministry is highly pastoral though people see the musical side of it more. Connecting and engaging with people should be among our topmost priorities.

Let’s remember the opening line of this article: If the congregation is not involved, it's music, not worship.

How do you engage with your congregation during worship? Can you share your top tips in the comments?

When we do something over and over and over again, regularly, it becomes a routine, right?

The problem is that anything that we treat as routine usually becomes boring after a point.

So is the case with leading worship or any other ministry.

Boredom inevitably leads to burnout. How we handle burnout is important—handling it well strengthens us and moves us forward. Not handling it well can be frustrating—for us and for others.

It can damage our lives and/or ministries seriously and sometimes permanently.

So here are a few tips to manage burnout and turn things around quickly.

5 ways worship leaders can overcome burnout

1. (Re)discover the ‘why’ of ministry

Think about it for a second and search your heart—why are you leading worship?

Because you’re paid for it? Because there’s no one else around to get the job done?

Because you can play acoustic guitar and sing at the same time?

Because it makes you the happening person in your church?

Because it’s a step towards a Christian record deal? The point is when the reason for our ministering is not so good, burnout is predictably faster.

So pray about it and find a God-centered and church-centered mission for your ministry.

Sound reasons will help us to remember our purpose and revive us when we need to be revived.

2. Take a break, but don’t take a break!

If you’re leading worship every single week, trust me, you’re on the express highway to ministry burnout!

Give up that position every now and then—may be for 2 weeks in a month to someone else.

But don’t break off completely—stay on the team as a musician/backup vocalist/slides manager, and see how the other worship leaders are approaching the ministry.

Maybe they’ll take up songs that you may not usually consider and thereby help you to learn something fresh.

Doing something else breaks the routine to a great extent and provides us the opportunity to acquire new perspective.

3. Invest and equip

Identify potential people for the ministry and start investing your time in them—pastor them by teaching what you have learned through the years.

Believe me, training is a great joy in itself.

Just preparing the teaching material has been an internal shot in the arm for me and it should be the same for you too!

Sharing our knowledge and experience and mentoring others is a wonderful way of rebooting ourselves apart from raising up others for the Kingdom.

A focus on others more than self is a powerful remedy for burnout.

4. Reprioritize

If there is a need to re-prioritize people and things in your life, do it… now!

On a fundamental level, God must be first, then spouse, then child(ren), then parents, then ministry, career and so on.

Getting your order of priorities right is as good as winning half the battle.

5. Do something different

Increase your quiet time with God, go on a silent retreat alone, take a vacation with family, watch/play some sports, catch a movie, read a new book… you see, leading worship is not your whole life.

If you’ve made it so, go back to (4).

“It is striking that even some who clearly have solid doctrinal and spiritual convictions frequently fall into a lifestyle which leads to an attachment to financial security, or to a desire for power or human glory at all cost, rather than giving their lives to others in mission. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of missionary enthusiasm!” – Pope Francis

Have you ever gone through a burnout phase in your life? Why not share how you managed to come out of it by leaving a comment below?

Experience teaches us loads of stuff that can rarely be learnt from any other source. However, experience also brings with it the curse of going through the motions.

I mean, we've led worship so many times that now, we are able to do it with our eyes closed (pun intended!) now, right?

Have you been there? If you have, then you know the fallout of reaching this point: stale worship that bores us and the congregation!

In this post, let's look at 3 questions, which I believe could help refresh us and gain new focus in our worship.

3 questions for reflection that could transform how you lead worship

1. Are you self-indulgent?

Check the content of what you're speaking—is it full of 'I-me-myself' stuff? If it is, you're turning people off more than you realize!

Here's the thing about effecting pastoring: If we want people to be interested in us and our ministry, we need to be interested in the Lord and His people first.

Speak about the Lord and His works more and you will see people responding better.

Be a caring pastor who exalts the Lord and engages His people than a self-indulgent bore who punctuates every word and sentence with the "I" pronoun.

2. Are you a clone?

Don't get me wrong, imitation is a good thing—though it depends on who we are imitating!

But, maybe you're attending way too many conferences and trying to implement everyone else's methods but yours... maybe you're spending disproportionate amount of time with your guitar than with the Lord... maybe you hero-worship Redman, Baloche, Tomlin, Brewster, Houghton and want to be like them so much that you've become a clone of them and lost yourself in the process.

The Lord wants you leading worship the way you lead worship just as much as he prefers Redman leading worship like Redman.

So, if you've been over-influenced by someone else, turn around now and be your unique self—even while implementing the good things we learn from others.

3. How deep are you?

• Do you pray daily?
• Read/study the Bible, spiritual books regularly?
• Invest in training yourself and your team?
• Or are you one of those mediocre worship leaders happily swimming in shallow waters?
• Do you pick songs that have solid meat to feed your congregation or are you satisfied with any catchy tune out there?

In the long run, people always respect and connect better with depth—not superficiality.

Do you agree? How else do you think we can maintain a God-focused worship ministry? Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts!

The best worship teams don’t need to have the best musical or vocal talent.

But they undoubtedly need to have the best of relationships within.

Anointed worship teams are more often than not made up of people who genuinely like each other, regard each other positively, encourage each other, and treat each other fairly.

When the people in the worship team are bonding well with each other, engaging your congregation in worship will also become greatly easier!

It’s not too difficult to understand that it’s probably because in God’s eyes, it’s wonderful and beautiful “when brothers and sisters get along!” (Psalm 133:1, MSG).

In fact, God loves it so much when His people get along that He “commands the blessing” (Psalm 133:3 MSG) when we manage to!

One of the best things we can do as a worship team, when there are struggles to get along with each other is to check our attitudes—most of the time, that’s where the challenge lies!

So let’s look at some attitudes that we need to be avoiding to build, and maintain excellent worship teams

4 harmful attitudes that spoil relationships in a team

I am the best

Musically, maybe that’s true—in any team, some musicians will of course possess greater skills than others. But, that’s no reason to rub it in all the time sporting an I-am-better-than-you attitude.

And, it need not be confined to musical skills alone. We can also express things like “I pray longer, so I am more spiritual”, “I can quote more scripture, so I am holier”, “I am a full-time worship leader, you’re not, so I am more anointed”, and so on.

Remember the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14? At times, we can tend to be like that Pharisee putting others down, and raising ourselves up. God didn’t like it then and hasn’t changed His opinion since.

You need to change, not me

Remember those times when we listened to a sermon thinking, “I hope _______ (insert team member name) is listening to this point and understands it’s for him/her!”

We love to see others change, but we just cannot see it as easily when we need to. “It applies to others, not me” is not an attitude that helps the team in any way!

Many a time, we need to be the change to bring about transformation in our ministry.

I am never wrong

It’s impossible for anyone to be right… all of the time! Though we know that no one is perfect, we find it so hard to acknowledge to others when we are wrong, right?

But guess what, the people in any team who command more respect, are those who are willing to admit it when they are in the wrong.

I don’t need you

“For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you "? Or, Head telling Foot," You're fired; your job has been phased out "?” (1 Corinthians 12:21-24 MSG)

Need I say more? This is a brilliant Bible verse to apply to our worship teams!

Let’s remember that none of us have the right to say to a person in our team that he/she is not needed—it’s probably one of the worst attitudes that we can carry!

So let’s stop grousing that our guitarist is not like Lincoln Brewster; or our drummer is not like Carl Albrecht.

Instead, let’s aspire for contentment with those that we have been blessed with, and joyfully look forward to growing together in unity and harmony.

When there is mutual respect and bonding within the team, the payoff for everyone including our church is multi-dimensional—we will be well able to tune into the heart of our God; our rehearsals will be pleasant, and productive; our ministering will be blessed; our congregations will better connect through our authenticity; our relationships will be deeper than just a “ministry colleagues” level; and more!

Mother Teresa once said that a family that prays together stays together—it’s no different for a worship team! Let’s worship together, stay together, and edify the Body of Christ.

While some of these are picked up from personal experience, I’ve learnt more by listening to others—so i am keen on hearing from you.

Do you agree that better relationships lead to better ministry among other things?

From your experiences, can you share what else can negatively affect relationships in a worship band?