[georgeo]

I listen to passion Cd's, and most any other live worship CD, and get kinda sick of hearing the worship leader start yelling things at the end of every song. sometimes the stuff doesn't even make sense.

I listen to that, and I think that its a bad thing.

Then I lead worship, and I will pray at the end of a song, or in the middle, or do something maybe similar to what they are doing. I would say what I do is generally more restrained than what they do on Passion CDs...

What do you think of such shout outs or prayers? What is appropriate? What is inappropriate?

I feel that the line is when the lead worshiper(or worship leader) is doing something for an extended time that the rest of the worshiping group cannot join in easily, or it is something that is distracting.

I ask this realizing my worship leading technique(if that is the right word) may be incorrect, that there are things I could do better to direct attention to God and not to anything else, I hope this conversation will do the same for everyone.

[nix]

Well, I listen to their CDs too... I do think it is a personal preferance. I personally don't mind it, but when they are praying things that are not applicable to those who listen to the album now, it can make little point.

I do do it though when I worship lead for the prayer meetings. I think it's ok when it s spur of the moment thing, but sometimes doesn't make sense when you listen to the album, especially the 5 or so more times that you do

[regulon]

I generally agree with the line you set, that if it gets to the point that the congregation can't follow and it becomes a distraction, then it's no good, although that would change with each person...

Even moreso than prayers or those little filler speeches, though, I think it could be just as distracting when the dude launches into an ad-lib singing frenzy and nobody, not even the fellow praise team members, has no idea what's going on...

[Chris]

I'm not so familiar with the passion CD's but here's my take on the situation at hand.

I think that prayer between songs is very appropriate. When it's in a song (say in a musical interlude) ok but if it's interrupting the song itself then no. Then again my biggest pet peeve is when the leader starts spouting off the lyrics before every line making it sound like the congregation is stupid or something. It's the one thing out there that really bugs me. I'm not sure why exactly though.

[smhatahy]

i try not to say much, i mean tha songs lyrics are up there on the overhead so i dont see whats to talk about.. however if the lyrics are dubious, or its some special day like Easter or, Christmas,i say somethin.... ooo i quote scripture sometimes too, something that relates to the song.. praying is a good idea, but our worship is already rushed as it is.. might incorporate it later..

[Dave H]

My wife and I were talking about this the other day because we find ourselves often chuckling at the "shout outs" and ad libbing that you hear on so many worship cds. I thought about it for a minute and asked her, you know, a lot of the time, they're just shouting out the name of Jesus, or something (not counting the times where they make no sense) so why do we laugh? Especially when we lead worship, we often do the same things?? The only answer I could come up with is that it's becasue we're not there in that particular moment of worship. I think praying and saying Jesus' or God's name spontaneously is a great thing in worship, it just comes across as funny sometimes in recordings...

[Nate]

I try to let songs speak for themselves, but I occasionally make comments (both planned and unplanned) between the songs that we sing. I find that the best thing to do if you want to have any kind of "filler" (not in any sort of negative sense, as you shall see in about five words) is simply to read Scripture. I'm a terrible public speaker, and things usually either don't make sense or don't come out right when I say something after/before reading the Scripture... so I am consistently trying not to add anything to the reading of Scripture.

My two cents.

In His love,
Nate

[Tony]

I talk very little while leading. Sometimes a line from the song, or a thematic scripture. For the most part however, I let the message of the song speak (sing) for itself. And if it can't do that, then I have to question why I selected it in the first place.

[smhatahy]

Originally Posted by KeyboardFreak

I try to let songs speak for themselves, but I occasionally make comments (both planned and unplanned) between the songs that we sing. I find that the best thing to do if you want to have any kind of "filler" (not in any sort of negative sense, as you shall see in about five words) is simply to read Scripture. I'm a terrible public speaker, and things usually either don't make sense or don't come out right when I say something after/before reading the Scripture... so I am consistently trying not to add anything to the reading of Scripture.

My two cents.

In His love,
Nate

haha im like the same way!

[nix]

I do like it that the Passion albums are live though, it almost feels like you are there with it and in the excitment... like you could see yourself as the worship leader with the big crowd... that I can imagine and thats what I think is cool!

[Saxophone]

Yeah, you can really set the mood for the next song... make people feel at home in the house of the Lord.

[Jay Tea]

Originally Posted by georgeo

I listen to passion Cd's, and most any other live worship CD, and get kinda sick of hearing the worship leader start yelling things at the end of every song. sometimes the stuff doesn't even make sense.

I think the "not making sense" is one of the more problematic aspects. I don't particularly care for the repetition of Jesus' name over and over...that falls in the category of "doesn't make sense" in my mind.

I usually write out everything that gets said between songs, be it prayer, Scripture, or some commentary. To the best of my knowledge, I'm the only worship leader at our church who's even remotely comfortable making stuff up on the fly, and I really prefer not to, simply because I want to make sure I'm making sense.

Generally, I'm with Nate. I'd rather use Scripture as much as possible (or the Heidelberg Catechism, since we're studying that now), and me as little as possible. When I write my own words, it's usually either directions to the congregation ("Let's stand and sing verses 1, 3, and 4") or to draw out a phrase from the Scripture or song that is particularly relevant to the current direction of the service.

[Nate]

Originally Posted by Jay Tea

I usually write out everything that gets said between songs, be it prayer, Scripture, or some commentary.

Maybe I need to start doing that whenever I think I might say something between songs.

Oh... I almost forgot... I often yell out instructions to the guy who runs the Powerpoint 'cause things sometimes get messed up or out of order. I try to keep this to a minimum as well, 'cause I think it's probably distractive (though no more distractive than the wrong words appearing on the screen, I suppose).

In His love,
Nate

[Jay Tea]

Originally Posted by KeyboardFreak

Oh... I almost forgot... I often yell out instructions to the guy who runs the Powerpoint 'cause things sometimes get messed up or out of order. I try to keep this to a minimum as well, 'cause I think it's probably distractive (though no more distractive than the wrong words appearing on the screen, I suppose).

Haha...we have some people really pushing for PowerPoint in our church right now, and that's one of the reasons I'm really not that excited about it!

[smhatahy]

I do like it that the Passion albums are live though, it almost feels like you are there with it and in the excitment... like you could see yourself as the worship leader with the big crowd... that I can imagine and thats what I think is cool!

yeah just turn up the volume really loud.. and close your eyes and its almost like the real thing..