Worship Leaders? part 1

 

           My earliest memories of going to church include standing with a hymnbook in my hands, singing vigorously while trying to see over the pew in front of me.  It never entered my mind that the day would come when the hymnbook would begin to disappear in the sanctuary.  It also never occurred to me that effective song leaders who are passionate music directors with obvious effective conducting skills would also ,little by little, begin to disappear.

          First, even more disappointing than the disappearance of the hymn book has been the vanishing of the effective song leader. By "effective song leader", I mean someone who is knowledgeable in conducting skills and expresses the essence of the worship music while utilizing these skills. I am fortunate, where I attend church to have a minister of music who understands conducting, but as I travel to a variety of churches, I experience fewer and fewer song leaders who use both arms in the process of conducting patterns and gestures, (remembering that there are worshipers on both sides of the conductor) .

       There seems to be a lack of understanding among directors that there are performance conducting techniques  that are a non-verbal method of  "drawing" the congregation into the experience of musical worship. Those who do not understand the function of conducting patterns seem to not understand how conducting gestures should visually express the essence of the text and the music part of the music they are trying to lead. Directors seem to forget that conducting is not merely a rehearsal function.