So, as a worship leader, have you traveled down this road yet? To lead worship from the keyboard? Sure, it’s easier to have the full band and team behind you to support and fill in any gaps. But there are times where you might be called upon to provide this function in leading worship – possibly by yourself – just you and your keyboard. It does not diminish the effectiveness of worship at all if you keep a few things in mind.
For me, it changed my approach to playing a bit. I’m usually directing the band (I’m primarily an organist) and supporting a worship leader. But for this, I had to simplify my playing. It became more simple and rhythmic. (Speaking from the times that I didn’t have a drummer – that was hard to adjust to.) But the focus was to make sure that the lyric came across and in such a way that I could help engage the congregation in the worship experience. From the exhortation to helping the worshippers grasp the lyrics in such a short time, the approach was a major shift for me in the beginning.
In the singing, I did not focus on having the perfect and longest riffs and runs. The focus should fully be directed on bringing everyone in to corporate worship first by your simple example and by people sensing the passion that you have to make the connection to Christ and honoring Him. True, I’ve seen many people that seemingly go into the tricks and fancy gimmicks to move people into an emotional response, but the impression from that is you need great works to impress the Father. And this can cloud what the Father is expecting – worshipping in Spirit and in truth.
Continue to align the lyrics with the Scripture. Songs should be a pure reflection of Scripture so that people hear Him speaking the same message in a poetic form. And in this moment, you are charged with preparing the people for the Spoken word from the preacher. Pray for God’s direction so that you are in the flow with what God wants to say to His people.
Let me leave you with one Scripture that may speak to the fears of venturing into leading worship from the keyboard for the first time:
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord – 2 Timothy 1:7-8
