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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The Church has always been a people who gather, and in most cases they are a people who gather physically. But what about people who are bedridden, quarantined, or maybe just out of town on a Sunday? Live streaming is the modern solution, though there are certainly some potential drawbacks to live streaming. We could get into those issues in another post, but right now I just want to walk you through some common challenges and their simple solutions as they relate to leading corporate worship.
video basics
Before we can even get into general worship leading, we do need to address the basics of live streaming. Luckily, Churchfront already has a wonderful walkthrough blog (with a YouTube video as well) to help you get started from the technology end of live streaming, focused on smaller churches. Additionally, there are legal roadblocks as well that keep you from playing music over YouTube and Facebook Live, even if it is a song written by your own church. You’ll want to take a read through Haivision’s blog post about copyrights and likely download their guide to online ministry. Additionally, there are a lot of concerns about streaming lyric copy onto the livestream. I can confidently tell you that getting a streaming license from CCLI should handle that concern directly as long as you are only streaming CCLI-licensed songs. If you are planning to cover an Imagine Dragons song, that will require other licenses.
One element to video basics that is often forgotten is lighting. Once again, I’m going to defer elsewhere to teach you this basic. I love this YouTube video from Primal Video to explain the best practices for lighting so that your video can look clean and professional (and the lead pastor doesn’t look like he’s running on 3 hours of sleep). Make sure your lighting is decent for your livestream!
Preparing services for video
Now that we’ve addressed a few issues with the quality of your stream, the real reason why you didn’t just bow out and go find more practical steps on making your video quality itself better is for these specific practices on leading worship to an online audience. I have a handful of pre-service notes to consider before you officially start your corporate worship gatherings:
- Watch out for the back shots of camera angles // It is surprisingly distracting to see the neck of a bass guitar sticking out the side of a vocalists head, or so it seems. Additionally, balancing camera shots with other musicians looks right in some cases, but those musicians should know that they could be on camera at any given time.
- Music stands are eye sores // This is true no matter what, and even if you are not live streaming I always recommend to push your team to grow out of needing music stands. However, most of our ministries are volunteer-driven so there must be room for imperfection. Outside of encouraging your team to memorize, be aware of the angles of music stands so they don’t cover up someone’s entire body or, worse, their face. Try to minimize the visual footprint of the music stand. TIP: when I’m in a tight spot where I need one, I try to keep it as flat and tabletop-like as possible. My opinion on iPad stands is that they are not any better than music stands. My two cents.
- A foot in person is a mile on camera // Obviously when leading worship in a live room, there is a balance to this. Shoving everybody together for the sake of video ends up translating the opposite goal in the live room. However, in instances of interviews or two-person worship teams you’ll want to keep your shot fairly tight and your subjects (e.g.: your lead pastor and the missionary he is interviewing) somewhat close together. Find the right balance between what is comfortable and what looks best on camera, especially if chairs or stools are involved.
worship leading on video
Now we want to step into the live situation of leading musical worship online. A few valuable practices come to mind for the room that you do not want to forsake: keeping your head up, eyes open, scanning the room (with emphasis on the back of the room), smiling (at appropriate times), and authentic outward expression. Remember those take precedence over anything that is specific to video and would negatively affect how you lead the room in those practices.
The biggest issue (other than music stands) that I see worship leaders routinely struggle with on video is the reliance on the confidence screen. It is very easy to tell that you are reading lyrics on the back wall- staring, even– over the live stream. RESIST THE URGE! The confidence screen is exactly that: for confidence. If you are relying on that screen to tell you the lyrics you didn’t actually learn then you don’t actually have the song memorized. Work hard to train your eyes to scan the room and not to rely on the confidence screen (or music stand) as a crutch. Another list of important worship leading skills to consider when on video:
- Look up, but not too far up // If you have a balcony, then you have somewhere to look, and don’t allow your head to swing much more vertical than that angle for the balcony. This is primarily so that your mouth can still be seen on video and those watching online can follow your lips and know when to sing.
- Keep your microphone right below your mouth // This is similar to the last note because of its purpose: it allows those tuning in online to follow along easier. Full disclosure, I am awful at this and have to work on it regularly.
- Don’t stare into the camera too much // This isn’t American Idol, you don’t have to stare directly into the souls of the viewers every time the camera sweeps by you (assuming you use a jib). However, quick moments of eye contact is not banned either. Consider it this way: how often would you look directly at a parent or a friend in the congregation on Sunday morning? Maybe one to three times? The camera is similar, and if you have multiple camera angles just choose one camera to “connect” with a few times a service. Just like your loved one, who might not make direct eye contact at the same time, the camera might not be feeding into the stream right at that moment and that is OK. Too much staring into the screen is just a liiiiitle creepy. BONUS: make occasional eye contact with your other worship team members. Especially during instrumentals, those moments are great for the congregation to witness connection in our corporate worship with one another as well as with the Lord.
- Keep your front side toward the front of the room/camera 1 // There’s not much to explain on this one, and there are occasional moments of breaking this rule, but it’s one of the primary rules of theater. Engage the room by not turning your back on them. As long as your torso is facing forward in all instances where you don’t need to turn your back, you’ll be fine.
- Everything is more obvious on the live stream // Pitchy vocals, out of tune guitars, a bad mix, circles under your eyes, etc. are all more obvious on the stream. It’s a great serving of humble pie to watch the playback of your livestream and realize how much worse you are than you really thought. So, with that dose of humility, work hard to tighten up your skills as a musician and vocalist, as well as your stage presence.
trust the feedback
As I’ve already said, live streaming will humble you (and sometimes embarrass you) when you go watch the playback. You’re probably more awkward on camera than you realize. You look grumpy the whole time or your microphone stand looks strange or those gosh darn music stands are such eyesores (have I made my point yet?). All of these things are normal to start noticing when you start critiquing and receiving feedback on your live stream. Make adjustments between services or, if that makes you nervous, from week to week. A great practice for those using multiple camera angles for worship is to set up a separate camera (doesn’t need to be anything special, an iPhone will do) with just a wide shot of the whole stage to see how the team’s collective and individual stage presence translates both live in the room and online.
I am convinced that it is more difficult to lead well to an online audience than to a live room. The room is more forgiving in every way other than considering sight lines (which you can adjust your room with that in mind and then literally never have to think about it again) and the online experience has less natural attention because, obviously, those people aren’t physically there. Allow this to be an experience that grows your non-verbal leadership, your clearer articulation of thoughts between songs, and your confidence in front of people and you will be a better overall worship leader because of it, and your congregation will be led more clearly thanks to your willingness to grow.
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 organizes your songs! 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 (9) and Eliska (3). His favorite food is coffee (lifesource), loves bonfires, and is convinced that Jesus is a Chicago Cubs fan.
Kevin McClure 