Worshipping God is not about you and it's not about the people.. Period.
If it were, it would not be worship. It would be idolatry. Too many people leading worship are caught up in making worship appealing to those being led rather than appealing to God to whom we direct our worship. This is not to say that we bring in a leader who has no skill leading and see what happens. There should be skill, planning, and effort put into worship, but not at the expense of the reduction of giving God glory He rightly deserves. This is very repetitious in my blogs, but very essential. Here are a few ways to keep the eyes of the people off of you and on God, not to mention your eyes off of yourself..
Worship
You yourself should be worshipping too. If you have so much going on on the stage that you can't focus on worshipping, how can you expect to lead the people into worship? Cut back on a few things that will make it easier for you to worship. Put the team on rotations so they have a chance to engage in worship apart from being on stage (believe me when I say that this is more essential than we could ever understand). Even put yourself on a rotation if there is someone else like-minded in worship theology that can rotate leading with you. All this to say that it so so important for you to be engaged in worship on and off the stage.
Simplicity
This one goes out to both the band, sound guy, and A/V team. Reduce excessive physical stimuli on the stage and around the room. We all have seen the Hillsong videos where countless adults and teens are raising their hands to God worshipping, and we think to ourselves "Wow! If only we do that song and have lights like that, we could make our congregation have the set response!", but in the end we learn we have failed miserably. Our focus was on ourselves leading people to a response, our atmosphere was too cluttered with laser lights and fog, our drums were too loud, the synth was going crazy, there was only supposed to be one person with a guitar solo, the singers were trying to sing parts they were never predestined to sing (little Calvinist joke there, haha!), and the congregation is doing one of three things: worshipping, entertained, distracted, or thinking "What in the world was that?" Make worship simple, or at least sound simple. If you're going to have lights and fog, make it flow together without being distracting. Also, don't make the music so loud people cant focus or hear themselves sing. Remember that this a concert and you aren't Hillsong.
Musical Prayer, Supplication, Thanksgiving, Praise, and Adoration
Leading the people in song is a time of prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, praise, and adoration. It's not a time for you to show off your skills. It's not the time for you to be a distraction. Let the people respond to their God, not the band. David poured his heart out to God through song so let the people pour their hearts out to God. Respect that time for them.
It's not your job to make the people respond but to give them the opportunity to respond in a controlled atmosphere free from as much distraction as possible. It is your job to humble yourself before the Lord and present yourself and the time given to you in leading worship to be a sacrifice, laying down your pride and self-satisfying eagerness, and be a worshipper yourself so you can lead the people of God into adoration of their most wonderful God.
Blessings,
Nick
