It is simplicity itself. It makes such perfect sense people often forget about it, and when they do things get awkward so very quickly.

What is it?

Inviting people to stand.

Why is this so important? Unless your church has a very established liturgy where the people know they are to stand or sit at specific times during the service, they are always unsure – unless they are told outright. It may seem like an awkward thing, but inviting people to stand is a very clear way of leading them into the worship time.

Upon being invited to stand, they know they are no longer spectators but are participants.

There are many different ways it can be said, different ways it can be phrased. “Please stand to your feet,” may feel like a command. So make it a suggestion: “Lets all stand as we enter into worship this morning…” It can be used to lead into a scripture reading: “As you stand to your feet let us consider what the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians…”

There are almost an unlimited amount of different ways to do this, but it must be done. People can confidently follow where they are clearly led. Inviting people to stand insures they know that standing is appropriate for that specific portion of the service, just as telling them they are free to take a seat at the end of the musical portion of the worship service.

Lead your people well with simple clarity. Maturity as a leader is not necessarily shown with awe-inspiring acts and revelations. Leading well and clearly in even such a simple thing contributes to your people being able to focus more thoroughly on glorifying God and less on other distracting matters.

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edit: Please note the comments below – there are some excellent points!

As much as I hate apologizing for not having posted in awhile, since it’s been over six months since I last posted I feel I owe you, my readers, at least a little apology. So, I’m sorry I haven’t been able to really dig in and post something solid in awhile. My wife and I recently had our third child and from the end of the pregnancy through our first six months of new baby have really thrown my schedule more than I expected.

Priorities are priorities, and right now family and school are at the top of the list. So blogging had to take a back seat for awhile…

That being said, I’ve had several posts bopping around in my head for awhile now and I feel it’s time I tried to get some of them out, as sparse as their coming might be.

I’m not sure if you have heard of Bob Kauflin, but he is an amazing worship leader. He leads the worship for Sovereign Grace Church – and they have a bunch of awesome worship albums I highly recommend. He does have a worship blog called Worship Matters. He’s also written a great book of the same title. The book is a solid read on worship, and it touches on several different aspects of worship leading….I’m hoping to do a review of it here sooner or later (but I have a few book reviews and papers I need to write for class before I dive into that .

So check out his blog if you have the time and if you get a chance, snag a copy of his book and interact with what he talks about therein – it’s not perfect, but everything he discusses are things every worship leader needs to work through at some point.