Exhortations In Worship: How To Speak, Lead, and Train the Church

  Speaker 1 In the ongoing saga of me trying to get my non-expressive church to participate more during worship, I decided to pull out the big guns this weekend. I deployed the atomic bomb of exhortation. In this video, I’m going to share with you the actual clip of me leading that exhortation for the church, and you can be the judge as to whether or not it impacted the experience. Then I’m going to give you some practical tips that you can use to lead more effective exhortations at your church and train your people to be more expressive during worship. Let’s watch that clip right now, and then I’ll follow up with some tips for you.

Speaker 2 Who gave before we sing that again.

Speaker 3 Raising of hands is a biblical posture of worship. It means I’m surrender to you. It means I’m desperate for you. It means I’m needy and reliant upon you, Lord. And so the apostle Paul even says, I command all people everywhere to raise holy hands in surrender. And so if you’re comfortable this morning, raise your hands and surrender. And maybe even if you’re uncomfortable with this as a sacrifice of worship, laying aside your preferences, you choose to raise your hand and say, God, you say to do this, so I’m going to do this. So let’s We’re going to sing this again together and raise your hands.

Speaker 2 I’ll stand with arms high and heart abandon in all the one that you gave me I’ll stand, my soul, to you surrender. I am, he’s your Lord. I will stand. I’ll stand with arms high and heart abandoned. In heart to the one who gave it all for me. I’ll stand My soul, Lord, to you surrender all I am is yours, all I am, not all. I am is yours, all I am. God, all I am is yours, all I am. God, all I am is yours. So I is so free. Tell me. I is so free. You are worthy, God. I is so free. Oh, Lord, Sorry, I had to let that go on a few extra seconds because I love how we went into I exalt thee tag.

Speaker 1 If you’re ever looking to elevate the end of your worship set, tag I exalt thee at the end of that last song, and it’ll just take it to the next level. That’s a side tip. Okay, but exhortations, did you see a difference in the church after I exhorted them to participate? I think I saw most of the people raising their hands. Yes, there were those three stubborn people who refused regardless, but I really saw a change in their expressiveness, and that change is going to lead to a long-term change over time. I am training them slowly. In fact, I did a podcast interview with Andy Rozier from Vertical Worship, which I’ll link below, and Andy talks about the importance of playing the long game in training your church to worship. If you want to see a more expressive church, you have to think on a three to four month time span, and then you want to use your week strategically in that time span to push them towards that desired outcome of training. I’ll link that episode below. But exhortations are a super effective strategy for training your church in worship. Let me give you a few tips on how you can craft effective exhortations into your times of worship.

Speaker 1 Number one, pick the right spot. You want your exhortation to be immediately actionable. You don’t want to teach them a song about raising their hands and then not sing a song about that where they can apply it until way later in the set. You want it to be immediately actionable or else you’re going to miss the momentum. You want them to be able to immediately apply what you just taught them. That’s why I like to put my exhortations right in the middle of a song. I have my band, Vamp, on the previous section’s cords or in the upcoming section’s cords, it doesn’t matter, but they just amp those cords and then I give an exhortation, and then we immediately move into the application part of what I just taught so that the church can learn and then express. Sometimes I’ll also do an exhortation at the beginning of service during the call to worship. We’ll read a Psalm about clapping your hands, and I’ll say, Hey, guys, I know you’re super white and you have no rhythm Just kidding. Don’t say that. But I’ll say, Hey, guys, let’s try our best to obey this biblical command by clapping for this entire first song.

Speaker 1 Then make sure you jump right into a solid, fast first song. Don’t go into 6: 8, Reckless Love, slow. That would be so ironic and awkward. Don’t do that. But that’s the idea. Is you want to teach and then give them a chance to express. Pick the right spot. That’s your first tip. The second tip is to use the right tone. If you noticed in the clip that I showed you that I was kind and warm and inviting, but I was also firm and I eliminated any excuses. But what I didn’t do is I didn’t use guilt. Never guilt trip people into anything. Guilt is not an effective long term motivator. You might get an awkward response out of them because they feel guilty in the moment, but it’s not going to lead to that long term change and training that we’re talking about here. What you want to do is you want to inspire people. You want to help them aspire to something greater, to something better. You want them to see the value in doing this thing that you’re asking them to do and make them want to do it because they see that God is worthy of it.

Speaker 1 You want to inspire people into action, which is why my third tip is to root it in scripture. Show them that this is a biblical command, that this is something that God asks of them. Not you. God is asking them to do this. They might not like it, but they can’t argue with it. So make sure you’re using scripture to back up what you’re asking them to do. The next tip is to write it down and practise it. I had a few thoughts floating through my head that morning, and I wasn’t exactly sure how to say it best or what order to put it in. And so I sat down and wrote down what I was trying to say, and I figured out the best order. Writing down your thoughts helps you clarify and sharpen what you’re trying to say. And I’ll make a video soon about speaking from the stage as a worship leader, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss that. But write your exhortation down and make sure you practise it out loud so you don’t fumble it in the moment. Over time, you’ll need to do this less and less, but it’s a good practise, especially if you’re first starting out.

Speaker 1 Then the last tip for using exhortations to train your church is to take it slow. Know what your church can handle and then build upon it little by little. Like Andy Razier said, it’s a long game. If you play the long game and you’re strategic in your week-to-week training, you can make a lot more progress than you think is possible. I’m going to link that video with Andy down below, and I’m also going to link another video about five phrases that you can say to increase singing in your church during worship. If you really want to improve your church’s participation, then check out my increasing congregational engagement course, which you can try for just $1 in the Worship Ministry Training Academy. Plus, you get nine other courses designed specifically to help you as a worship leader build a healthy, organised, and excellent worship ministry. You can try that for just $1 by going to worshipministrytraining. Com. Be sure to subscribe to this channel so you can watch this ongoing saga of me versus my stoic congregation unfold, and you can see who wins in the end. But I’ll see you either in the next video or inside of the academy.

Speaker 1 God bless and have a great day.