Worship Leader Strategies: Talking Points

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This series on worship leader strategies gives systems and suggestions on how to better organize worship ministries as it pertains to planning, training, and practically leading congregations in musical worship. Like most strategy-oriented discussion in ministry, there are no fix-all solutions, but these strategies are suggestions that should help others organize their ministries to better serve their leaders, volunteers, and general congregations.
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I know I’ve been there dozens of times. The moment between songs when I’m trying to share a thought about worshiping God or tying in a song to the morning’s message or giving some biblical lead-in to a new song. The previous tune ends, the keyboard player underscores me, and I freeze for a second. Uh oh, uh oh, think think think, my mind completely locks up. This is probably the most frequent moment in services that feel awkward for many of us. I know that when I’m training a new worship leader, this is often the thing we need to work on most, and when I’m visiting a church or ministry where I’m not leading worship this is usually my biggest critique on a service. It is imperative that we navigate our talking points better as worship leaders and shepherds from the stage.

How do we do this? First, a story. This is a true story of my friend Ben, who told me this story ten years ago and I share it with literally everyone. Ben was leading worship at his church on a Sunday morning and they were doing a closing song to wrap up the service. The moment was powerful, and he felt like it would benefit from a spiritual sendoff. The song ended and Ben prayed, dismissed the congregation, and then in a moment of pure innocence Ben starts off “and don’t forget!” – he pauses. He had no idea what to say. But he had already started talking and had everyone’s attention. His eyes got big in the moment realizing his mistake. After a beat, Ben completes his sendoff: “…never… take a wooden nickel.”

Not only does this story make me burst out laughing whenever I’ve told it, it also gives us a great base to pull out some important questions we should ask ourselves whenever we are considering a talking point:

-Does a talking point need to exist here to best shepherd our people?
-What exactly are we trying to teach the congregation?
-Does the worship leader need to do it? Is there someone else who could do it?

In the story above, the talking point probably didn’t need to exist, but that’s a little up in the air considering that it was more spontaneous and less planned. That does bring me to the question: could it have been planned? As worship leaders we need to be aware of what the Holy Spirit might be doing in our congregation on any given Sunday, but we also can seek the Holy Spirit in our planning sessions to determine if He may want us to say something after a moment that could likely be powerful and worshipful. If we are prayerfully seeking God’s will for our gatherings and services then we need to be open to what God wants us to say before we get “caught up” in the moment. In Ben’s case, he probably could have planned some sort of short dismissal, even something that tied back to the main theme or chorus of the last song. But if he didn’t want to and decided it was better to let the song speak for itself, then he could simply say nothing, which would probably have been better than what he did say (except for the amazing story that it is).

The next question to ask: what are we trying to teach the congregation? Are we explaining the doctrine behind a controversial song lyric? Are we hoping to inspire our congregation to lift up our hands? Is there a story behind the writing of the song that helps us see God more clearly? There are so many potential reasons to share a thought, but if it doesn’t align with what God has placed on our hearts to teach the congregation then it’s essentially pointless. A follow up question to this one: does the song speak well enough for itself? How much more explaining do we need to do in order to get the point across? Maybe the talking point isn’t an explanation, but maybe just simply reading a passage of scripture to tie the song together with a simple “This is the Word of the Lord” or “Amen” to cap off the reading.

Sometimes I’ve noticed that giving away the opportunity is not only a great way to empower leaders but also incredibly helpful when that person is solely focused on leading that moment excellently. Who else could lead this moment instead of the worship leader? Sometimes it’s a great chance for a lead pastor to step up and guide their congregation for the moment (especially if it’s a week where they aren’t teaching the sermon), or an elder to care for the needs of the saints. Maybe it’s a youth pastor that you’re wanting to develop as a more present host on Sunday mornings or another pastor who rotates on the teaching schedule. I’ve even seen churches who use unpaid lay leaders that just have the gift of teaching and are excellent communicators. It’s valuable to find someone else to take care these moments when it makes more sense, and the why behind finding that person can be as logistical or as visionary as are the needs of the congregation. Sometimes it’s as simple as being a better transition to have someone else step up, it doesn’t always need to be layered in deep and spiritual reasoning to give someone else the platform!

Regardless of how you might answer the above questions, the content of what you say needs to be determined and the way you craft how to say it is crucial. After determining what needs to be said, one of the most important questions to ask yourself when planning how to communicate a talking point is how you are going to “land the plane”. Andy Stanley’s “Communicating for a Change” is a great resource for pastors and teachers to learn how to formulate a sermon, but it’s also filled with great guidance on how to communicate a short message for us worship leaders as well. The concept of “landing the plane” has rescued me out of tangents several times. I do my best to manuscript what I plan to say and then commit that to memory as best as I can, but sometimes time isn’t on my side and I just need to remember two things: honor the moment we’re coming out of and land the plane to move us into the next moment smoothly.

Honoring the moment is harder than it seems. Sometimes we prepare for a talking point and don’t know how the previous element will end or what the environment will be like. I believe that we can typically plan fairly well, but there’s a nuance to that transition from one moment to another that is unique to the instance that you can’t necessarily plan for. A common way to honor the previous moment is simply to reference it. Something as simple as “It is so true, as we just sang in that song, that [insert theme or lyrics of song here]! What a powerful truth we’ve just sung together!” More experienced communicators could potentially use the theme from the song as a segue into their talking point, but sometimes a “hard left” needs to be made. Regardless, honor the moment as best as you can and don’t move on from it too quickly, especially if it was significantly powerful or supports the message well.

The visual of landing a plane has been a great tool for me over the years. You don’t want to land it too quickly, but you don’t want to draw it out too long. It needs to be smooth, but you can “tap the wheels” a few times to ensure a safe landing. I’ve always considered the announcements portion of worship services as a “pimple” in the service, because rarely do they fit in anywhere that feels like it truly honors the moment prior and leads us well into the moment following. As an example, however, let’s consider an announcements slot in a typical Sunday morning gathering. Often this happens after an opening song or set of musical worship. Hopefully we’ve crafted our talking point to honor the moment we just came out of well, shared a few announcements of upcoming events, and maybe taken an offering. As we land the plane we need to consider what is coming up next. Are we going into another song of worship? Are we passing offering plates or communion elements? Maybe we’re kicking it over to a video or the message. Whatever is coming next, prime your congregation for it and invite them to remember the reasons why we are doing what we are about to do. Some examples:

-Going into passing communion // “No matter what is on your schedule, God desires that you would pursue after Him. We are going to take communion together this morning. Communion is [explain communion]. As we pass the elements (or, as you come up to receive the elements) may you reflect on why we take communion together on Sundays and what God may be wanting to say to you this morning.”

-Going into taking offering // “Right now we’re going to collect this mornings tithes and offerings, but if you’re new or this is your first time I want to let you know that it’s OK to let that pass by you. We give as an act of worship to God, not out of obligation. We don’t collect an offering so that we can perform programs or keep the lights on, but so that we can trust God and honor Him to do what He desires to do through our Church. It’s all His anyway, so while we pass the plate may we give out of a heart of worship to God more than anything else.”

-Going to message // “Now I want to invite you to take a breath after those announcements and prepare your heart along with me as we hear a message from [insert name of teacher/preacher here] about [insert theme of message or series or book being taught].”

There are more examples I could give, but these are a few that I think will help get you started, The hardest part about landing the plane for me has always been the finality of the moment. I don’t know how many times I’ve wanted to say “so here’s our pastor!” or “so turn your attention to the screens for this video!” or the Bob the Tomato classic “roll film!”. These exclamations (other than that last one) can seem helpful to the tech team or the person coming up next, but they really aren’t helpful. What’s better than saying “turn your attention to the screens”? Just rolling the video! What’s better than saying “here’s our pastor to teach the message”? Planning that the pastor would make their way up as your are wrapping up your segment and then walking off as they begin speaking. This may require some better communication than you may be used to, but if we’re wanting to land the plane with excellence then we should also desire to help the next segment honor the previous moment just as well.

Some additional sub-points to bring up that I don’t think I need to expound upon for you:

-Beware rambling, stay on subject and focused
-Don’t talk too fast
-Try to keep your talking point to 90 seconds or less, if possible (we don’t need a second sermon!)
-Tie in scripture to help support what you’re saying, even short references (“like it says in Isaiah 58…”, “Luke reminds us of these words from Christ…”, etc.)
-Less really is more, don’t feel like you need to explain every detail of the subject

I hope this helps you focus in what you are trying to say. Be it between songs, leading into a service element, or what have you I know that we can always be refining and growing in how we communicate even mundane topics (yay, church potlucks!) because ultimately we can communicate them all in a way that better frames and elevates the Gospel as our most important subject and news that we desperately need to deliver.

Did this help you as a worship leader? I’d love your feedback! Feel free to comment below with your thoughts or how you and your church plans talking points! Have a question you’d like me to tackle for “Worship Leader Strategies”? Comment with those below as well, or shoot me an email!

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Kevin McClure has been leading worship in the local church for over 10 years in different capacities of student and adult ministries. As a songwriter, musical artist, and worship leader he has had the honor of touring the United States both as a performer and worship leader over the better part of the last decade. With a heart to see believers learn how to take the act of worship beyond the setting of a group gathering, Kevin is incredibly intentional with his time on and offstage to help teach the practice of worship as a lifestyle. Kevin lives in Omaha, Nebraska with his bride Hailey and his two daughters, Everleigh (8) and Eliska (2). His favorite food is coffee (lifesource), loves bonfires, and is convinced that Jesus is a Chicago Cubs fan.