Being real. We talk about it all the time. "The room has to feel authentic," "This speaker is so real," "You can tell this singer really believes what they're singing." Performance and authenticity can’t go together. Performance is a dirty word. Yet everyone in the congregation, without actually saying it, expects the pastor and band to perform well. Literally everyone in the building just assumes tech will perform; everybody knows, and gets mad, if they screw up. What I’ve discovered is this: performance and authenticity actually go together, and that’s a really good thing.
Let me take you on my journey of getting from there to here.
I’ve always been passionate about being real. That’s why, in high school, I listened to blink-182, they kept it real (I would say I don’t listen to them anymore, but you and I both know that’s a lie). So when I started playing music in front of people, I wanted to be authentic, and to be authentic on stage I just needed to be who I was. You shouldn’t have to work on an authentic stage presence; that’s an oxymoron, right? So I literally never thought about it, you shouldn’t have to if you’re being “real.” Then I made the mistake of watching a video of myself. I thought I was moving around almost to the point of overdoing it. WRONG. I was barely moving, if you could even call it that. I looked like I didn’t want to be there, I barely moved and worst of all I looked bored. Frankly, I didn’t know how anybody could look at me and see that God’s love had affected my life at all. That should be obvious in anyone that has a relationship with Christ.
So, being the good college student that I was, I researched! I began to look around at different churches and their worship leaders. When they weren’t engaging, the people weren’t engaged. When they were engaging, people were engaged! I saw people connect with God and what He was doing in their lives in powerful ways. In his book Deep & Wide, Andy Stanley says, “the reason more people aren't engaged with the local church is...we aren't all engaging!" Why is that? We should be the most engaging people in the world! Christ literally rose from the dead, and the best we can do is look sleepy on stage? Something isn’t connecting.
Did you know that many of the words we translate to either worship, thanks, or praise in the Old Testament were originally many different Hebrew words? Yadah in Psalm 61:8 literally means to extend our hands in worship/thanksgiving. In Psalm 21:13 Zamar means to touch the strings on an instrument or make music accompanied by the voice. These are two of the seven most frequently translated Hebrew words of praise. These are all praise to God! When someone is playing a guitar solo, that’s worship to God! When they’re singing (no matter how in tune they are), that’s worship! When people lift their hands in surrender to God, that’s worship! This opened my eyes to many different ways of Biblical, God honoring worship.
I came to this conclusion: as a worship leader, my job is to bring people closer to God. My stage presence is just an outward expression of what God is doing on the inside of me. Ten percent of people in the congregation will go all out every Sunday regardless of what the worship leaders are doing, the other ninety percent will only go where you take them. To do that authentically, we need to go to the places we want to bring people BEFORE we’re on stage. That means we need to be having at least daily conversations with God. That means we need to actually know the songs. That means we need to practice our stage presence and feel like an idiot every time we pass in front of a mirror while we’re dancing. We can’t just go on stage and expect to be good at being engaging. It’s the same as practicing an instrument, you can’t just go out and expect to play well, you need to practice for years before you can really be any good. If we’re engaging on stage, people can see that and they want to be a part of what God is doing. If we give our best, I believe we will see God’s best. And, oh yeah, God expects our best because He gives us His best.
But that’s the thing, my body is always fighting against what’s best for me, and in this case, that’s working on my stage presence. Thankfully, I’m not alone. Paul, the writer of the book of Romans, said, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” God doesn’t want us to be stagnant, He calls us to a greater life! He calls us to a life totally surrendered to Him. If we really want to honor God, we as worship leaders need to perform to the best of what God has given us (and everybody on stage, in leadership, or doing tech is a worship leader). That means working hard on everything we do, including stage presence.
I know, movements always feel maximized when you’re in front of people. When I watch video of myself on stage, places where, in the moment I thought I was moving a lot, I actually wasn’t moving very much. A good stage presence is gonna feel like you’re going way, way overboard. You’re not. David danced in the streets, that was honoring to God then and it still is today (maybe not the naked part).
If we truly want to reach people who don’t know God yet and bring people who do know Him into deeper relationship with Him, we need to create environments where people can press into Him and see people who really are going all out for Christ. If we are doing that on stage as worship leaders, people will respond. I know, it’s scary to put yourself out there. I hated it at first. But we’re not called to fear! We’re called to victory in Christ. God defeated death! Let’s show people what He’s done in our lives and that, no matter what, God is in control.