4 Mistakes that are KILLING your worship sets

  Speaker 2 Here are four common mistakes that worship leaders make when building worship sets. These four mistakes might be the silent killers of your church’s worship experience. I want to tell you what they are and tell you how to fix them. The one skill set that I think every worship leader must master is learning to build epic worship sets. Because if you can elevate your worship set, whether you’re in a tiny country church or a massive mega church in the city, it will elevate your church’s worship experience. It doesn’t matter if you have no band or a huge band, a worship set stands or falls on its own. If you can elevate your worship set, you’re immediately going to improve the quality of your church’s worship experience every single week. Listen to these four mistakes, see if you’re making any of them. I’m going to start with the most obvious, and I’m going to end with the least obvious. The first mistake I see worship leaders make a lot is they don’t use related keys. I’m actually quite shocked because this is such an easy way to build seamless, cohesive, beautiful sets. You want your worship sets to flow from start to finish without any interruptions or breaks. Speaker 2 You want it to feel like one unbroken conversation with the Lord, one uninterrupted time of praise and worship. And you do that by weaving your songs together through relative keys. Now, if relative keys sound complicated, I have a cheat sheet for you. You can download it below. It’s in the description. Just click the link and enter your email and I’ll send it to you. But relative keys, usually you want to use the one, the four, or the five cord of the current key as your starting cord for your next song. So let me just show you three quick examples of how you would go from let’s say, the key of G to the key of C or the key of D, because that’s the one cord to the four cord or the five cord. The one to the one is obviously the easiest. It’s staying in the same key. Speaker 3 If you were like, Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour I need you. My one defence, my righteousness, oh God, how I need. Mighty to save, right? Speaker 2 You’re staying in the same key. That’s super easy. The second one is the one to the four cord. That would be lion and the lamb, key of G, going into the stand in the key of C. We’re going to land on the C cord, not the root note. It would be like this. Now we’re landing on the C instead of the G, and now we’re in the key of C. Speaker 3 You stood before creation. Speaker 2 People didn’t even notice that you changed keys. The final one would be to land on the five cord and use that as your new root note. That would be like this. Speaker 3 Your love never faill. Speaker 1 Oh, bless the Lord, oh my Now I’m in the key of D, and you didn’t even know I changed keys. Speaker 2 I went from G to D. Again, grab that cheat sheet below if you want help with related keys. The second mistake worship leaders make with their set building is they play the songs exactly like the album. This happens, especially if you’re playing with tracks. But let me tell you, you are not supposed to drag and drop songs into your set. You are supposed to create a seamless, unbroken time of praise. Sometimes that means cutting outros, cutting intros, starting with the chorus or going straight into the verse from the previous song, because what you want to do is you want to bridge your songs thematically, and sometimes you need to cut things out in order to bridge certain ideas. Like, What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus. Speaker 3 Your name is like honey on my lips. Speaker 2 If I would have started the intro and then the verse and then got to the chorus, I would have not been able to bridge the name of Jesus between these two songs. You really want to look at your set holistically. Besides just themes, you also want the energy to flow between songs. Sometimes I see worship leaders a banger first song and then go right into this super quiet ballad that starts just with the piano. Why not have the band also come in on the intro of the quiet second song to bridge the energy gap between the two songs? For example, if you’re landing a huge song like Glories Day, and then you’re going into Thank You Jesus for the Blood that starts on the piano, why not have the band play the intro of Thank You Jesus for the Blood? Add some ride and some toms and some kick. The bass is in, the piano is in, the acoustics, drumming, the shaker is in, and Then drop down for verse two. You don’t have to play the song just like the album. That’s your second mistake and the way to fix it. I also have a free ebook below this video that will teach you how to build these seamless worship sets. Speaker 2 It’s a full, complete, comprehensive guide to set building. You can grab it below. Just click the link and enter your email. The third set building mistake that I often see is not ending with vertical songs. Vertical songs are songs that are completely focused on the Lord, where he is the centre of attention, where our eyes are on him. When sets fall flat, it’s often because we are singing eye-centered songs. It’s okay to put an eye-centered song in your set, maybe towards the beginning or an eye-centered song in the offering slot. But when you’re ending your main set, you want to end vertical, all eyes on Jesus, where he becomes bigger and greater in our eyes and all of our problems fade away into the background. That is when you see people weeping and crying and lifting their hands, is when the songs are singing directly to the Lord, ascribed to the Lord, the glory, do his name. Songs like, How Great is Our God? What a Beautiful Name, Revelation Song, King of Kings, Oh, Praise the Name. We want our sets to end vertical. Now, the fourth mistake is the least obvious, but probably the most important. Speaker 2 Before I tell you, I just want to say, if you’re liking these tips, My set building course is currently on sale for half off. This week only, the offer ends Friday, but for just $74, you can get my six-step process to building epic worship sets every week. I’m talking about those sets that get all eyes on Jesus, that help your church engage and end in that moment of passionate and raptured praise. If you want to build those sets every week, grab the set building course while it’s on sale this week only. Okay, the fourth mistake that worship leaders make in their set building is they’re only singing songs. You are not called to sing songs. You are called to lead the room. You are called to pastor the room, to shepherd the people. That is your call. So when you think about your set block of 15 minutes or 20 minutes and you think, how many songs can I stuff in there? How many songs can I cram in there? That is the absolute a wrong way to think about that set. What you want to think about is, How can I help people see, savour, and sing to Jesus? Speaker 2 Songs are just one tool of many that you should be using in your arsenal. You should be using scripture, scripture on the screens behind you while you have your intro. You should use scripture as a call to worship at the top of service. You should intermingle prayers or silent times of reflection or corporate confession or corporate reading or communion. How can you use other elements besides songs to get people’s eyes on Jesus. That is the number one mistake I see worship leaders make. It is sad because your time of worship will be so much more rich if you think about it pastorially like a shepherd, and try to weave together something meaningful and beautiful and multifaceted. Please don’t just sing songs. Please use all these other tools that you have available to you. And again, if you need help with this, grab those links below the freebies or the course while it’s on sale. I would love to help you make better worship sets because when your sets are stronger, your church’s response in worship will be stronger. I promise you that. Thanks for letting me encourage you in this video. Hit subscribe and like, and I’ll see you in the next one, or I will see you in the course. Speaker 2 God bless.