How can we use those 5-15 second moments starting a worship set, or in-between songs, to teach our congregation powerful ideas about worship? Bam! Of course! Worship Teaching Bombs are the answer.
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Bam! Worship Teaching Bombs – And How To Use Them
Dan Wilt
A little bit of time can go a long way. During a worship set, there are usually moments at the beginning of a set, in between songs, and during prayers that worship leaders spontaneously speak. In some cases, we use those unplanned moments well to nurture and encourage the worship life of our church. In other, weaker moments, we simply ramble aimlessly, pray “touchy-feely stuff,” repeat our hobby-horse thoughts about worship, or even communicate theologically sloppy ideas.
With just a little bit of forethought, we can powerfully use these moments to deepen our congregation in their awareness of what is happening as we worship, and what worship is truly all about.
What Is A Worship Teaching Bomb?
A few years ago, I began to drop what I call “Worship Teaching Bombs” into the midst of a set. Worship Teaching Bombs are two or three sentence “mini-teachings” about worship that are planned beforehand (at least until they become spontaneous).
Each is short and sweet (10-20 seconds max), and communicates one big idea about worship. These are now always in my arsenal as I head into a worship set – with a desire to make every moment count.
Samples Of Worship Teaching Bombs
Here are just a few of the bombs I drop. Drop these in sparingly, in your own words, using just one or two max per set. Then, stand back and watch the fires of worship grow in your community over time.
“As we enter into this next song, let’s remember that songs are a place we go to meet with God. Songs are more than melodies and words; they are places where we speak to God, and God speaks to us.” (Teaching: Songs are a place we go.)
“As we gather to worship, let’s remember that we don’t come to worship to ‘escape’ reality, but rather to enter into God’s greater reality – a reality that we are affirming in these songs.” (Teaching: Worship is the opposite of escape.)
“Music is a powerful gift from God, and a song can literally take us somewhere. As we enter into this time of worship today, allow the music to take you somewhere with God – to a place where He meets with you and you meet with Him.” (Teaching: Music has a role to play in enhancing your relationship with God.)
“As we sing this next song, we are remembering Who God is, and who we are in the light of His Love. God first loved us, 1 John 4:19 tells us, and our worship is simply our response. Let Love win your heart once again as we sing.” (Teaching: Gathered worship is a response to the Love of God, not primarily our initiative.)
“Music is just one of the many beautiful ways we can express our love, devotion and allegiance to Christ. Let these songs we use in musical worship strengthen you for the Life Worship that you will give to God this week.” (Teaching: Music is just one, beautiful way we express our Life Worship.)
“In these times of gathered worship, let’s remember that we all have a part to play. We as a band will lead these songs, but it takes all of us together to sing them from the heart, to elevate Jesus in our midst, and to offer together a response that pleases the heart of God. Let’s worship.” (Teaching: Gathered worship is a dynamic, collaborative effort – we all have something to contribute.)
“Worship is something that we do together, every time we gather. Let’s choose to get beyond just the melodies and lyrics, the sound and the instruments, as we welcome the Spirit of God to meet with us as a community.” (Teaching: We worship as a community, and each of us has a part to play.)
“As we begin worship, remember that who you are, and every detail of your life, matters to God. He is truly here, and because He is here, Hope has entered the room. Let’s sing, and as we sing, let’s remember that there is Hope for everyone – Hope for you – no matter your circumstance.” (Teaching: Musical worship helps us remember that Hope is present among us.)
“Sometimes we come to worship, analyzing what songs have been selected and seeing if our favorites, our preferences, are in the list. We all have songs that we love – and they’re often very different than one another. Let’s each lay down our preferences as we gather as one, and let’s take these songs – chosen specifically for this morning – and make them the foundation for our unified, corporate offering to God today.” (Teaching: Your preferences are important, but they are different from others and must be submitted to a higher goal.)
“When we come together to sing, we are expressing what is called ‘Gathered Worship.’ These are the things we do together to strengthen our Life Worship – which is our total life surrender to Christ. Allow these songs to become anthems, soundtracks, for your Life Worship, and to prepare you to enter into the week ahead.” (Teaching: Music is an expression of Gathered Worship, meant to fuel our Life Worship.)
“It is a privilege to sing our prayers, our thanks, our appreciation to God each week. These songs are the flower, the fragrance, of lives that are living in gratefulness to God in every moment. Let’s offer that fragrance of thanks now to God, and allow these songs to strengthen us to lead thankful lives.” (Teaching: Giving thanks is a choice, and participation in worship is important.)
“As we continue in worship, let’s remember that God is the One pursuing us, rather than us being the ones primarily pursuing Him. It is His Love that is pursuing you, chasing you, moving toward each one of us – toward you – in this time of worship. Let’s respond to that Love by singing these songs from the heart together.” (Teaching: Gathered worship is primarily a response to the Love of God, not first an initiative on our part.)
“As we sing this next song, we want to get beyond the words to the very heart of what this song is all about. During one of the familiar choruses, we will turn off the lyrics so we can close our eyes and linger in the meaning of what we’re singing.” (Teaching: We can take our eyes off the screen, and get beyond reading lyrics to making them our prayer.)
“In the worship tradition of the Church, many times simple, biblical words and phrases would be repeated over and over to allow their meaning to sink in. This is why we sometimes repeat songs and choruses a few times; we are allowing the meaning of the words to sink in and become a part of conversation with God.” (Teaching: Repeating phrases and choruses is an important part of church history (esp. the monks), and an important part of meeting with God in worship.)
“God is always giving a New Song to His Church. In our worship set, we’re about to sing songs from the rich history of the Church, but also from our generation. Let each song, uniquely, give wings to your own prayers, thanks and adoration.” (Teaching: There is a place for both old and new songs in gathered worship.)
Make The Most Of The Moments
Use those teachable moments in a set to teach about worship every week. You’ll begin to see that you can teach, even without doing a big message or talking for a long time. Simple sentences or strings of sentences like these, lasting only 10-20 seconds and repeated a few times over the course of a year, can powerfully educate our community about what is happening when we gather to worship.
Create your own Worship Teaching Bombs, and call your community to a deeper life of worship.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dan Wilt is the founder of WorshipTraining.com, an ancient-future worship leader, writer and communicator who cares about seeing the worship life of the local church flourish. He lives in Franklin, TN with his beautiful wife Anita and his three crowing jewels, Anna, Abigail and Benjamin.
what would you do when the pastor or guest spk begins to sing a song that no one knows and no one can figure out the key.
That’s a tough one, Keith. I would let it stay acapella, then get as close to the key as I can and sing louder than anyone else to help get the congregation going on the song in a way that’s meaningful.
Or, if you’re at the keyboard, I’d choose a close key, and begin to play it.
How do you help your pastor transition from the music portion of the service into the preaching. Often times it seems to be segregated into that part is done, now it’s my turn.
Hey Scott, try talking with him/her about the importance of the service as a whole. When we plan our services we try to get songs that allow people to connect to God and start getting in their minds what our Pastor is talking about today. We would just finish a very meaningful song and our Pastor un-intentionally would walk up and say “Good Morning Church.” And with those 3 words he would disconnect the Singing/Giving & Testimonial time of worship before from the message. We started creating transitional phrases where he would write them into his message so that he could pick up right where the previous part of the service left off. He would say something that used words or themes of the previous song/skit/ or video and explain that that is what we are going to dive into today. We found that the congregation starting connecting even more and they actually had a greater whole worship experience. Sorry for the long reply
This was truly a confirmation for me. How do you differentiate between encouraging and cheerleading your congregation to enter into worship?
Sometimes it is helpful to use a video as an intro to the sermon. For example, we used the teen version of The Story when we were studying that series, for example. They were about 4 minutes long and gave an overview of the chapter the sermon was about. Another example, was a video we used when our Youth Pastor preached of kids answering questions like, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Thanks for creating such a useful tool! It’s philosophy meets practicality to the max!
Thanks for offering this as a “freebie”.
I love this idea of bringing new perspective to the worship experience for people in the congregation. We all come from different places and make worship work for us in whatever way we need. This is a great way to teach the congregation that it’s not just something we do before the preaching to “get in the mood,” but it’s a natural response to God’s love and goodness toward us. Thank you!
Worship Teaching Bombs! I struggle sometimes with excess verbosity between songs and have been called to task for it. Actually, I usually know when I’m saying to much and end up cutting it off without completing my thought. These, however, are brilliant! I actually felt “taught” just reading some of them. This is what I’ve been striving for. Thank you!
You should write a book with more of these or at least post more of them on a regular basis. They’re great!
This is just what I try to do with my congregation. I just cannot make in such a few words and still nail the message. Many thanks for such brilliant ideas and would be great if you can post more regularly.
Thanks for the Bombs Dan! This is an area that I struggle with! YOU DA BOMB!
I’ve been able to see how important this is. I see that sometimes the church is really ready to respond, and I myself have been in this position, of just not knowing how to respond and not being taught how to respond. As leaders in worship these are really important to learn for ourselves and teach to who we lead into worship. Thanks so much!
Dan, our worship leaders have dealt with the frustration of recognizing the need to teach our congregation but not having the opportunity to do so. These worship bombs are just what we needed. Thanks so much for these – and please shoot more our way when you can.