At times during worship when lyrics are up on the screen, do you ever feel inclined to look at the screen(s)?
I know I do. It’s like I’m watching and waiting for the next change…whether it be lyrics or imagery. It feels like in society today we are so drawn towards a screen with “stuff” on it and we can’t wait to see what comes next.
I think there is something to be said for NOT displaying lyrics at times during worship. You could call this a ‘performance piece’ or a time of reflection. Or perhaps during a well-known song (within your congregation) you fade the lyrics out during the last chorus. Whatever it’s called, there is something special and powerful about having no text displayed, (maybe showing imagery, maybe not) and creating space where people can respond how they need to, without feeling like they need to be watching the screens for the next thing to change.
Lyrics are displayed, in general, as an aid. But I feel like we’ve relied on them so much that now we don’t really know them, just sing along with them as they change. What are your thoughts? How does your church balance out when to display lyrics/text, and when not to?
I have often thought about doing this but I have mostly volunteers that run the slides for me and don’t totally have a feel for the song and where the leader is going with it. I guess mostly it is a gut feel for when the best time to do this and some have it and some don’t. I have started going without lyrics during a worship song where it is just the instrumental part.
The good thing about having your brother as the worship leader and me as the slide guy/presentation man or w.e you want to call me is that I usually have a feel for where he is going. Like last Wednesday (I run presentation stuff and sound for youth worship) I just faded out the lyrics as my brother kept singing. It was a song earlier in the set that he went back to I think it worked out well.
Our Choir is addicted to the words being on the screen.
They wont memorize the songs anymore, they just follow the words on the screen (our overhead and stage TV’s are the same feed). We work out the transitions for the song during practice with our temp praise and worship leader (we don’t have a full time one at the moment), and she also gives the choir hand signals (to signal Verse or Chorus or repeat or what not) if she feels like we need to break from the rehearsed flow. She’s a full time teacher and is doing the best she can leading the band and choir on a part time basis . . . unfortunately this addiction to the words is a byproduct of not having a full time worship leader.
We tried not showing the words at the end of one of our ‘special music’ segments (song sung during offering) and the choir had a melt down. We even practiced the song with no words during rehearsal, but in service . . . it was a train wreck. The choir does a fantastic job . . . as long as they have the words. It’s like they just forget the words if they aren’t on the screen.
Strange thing is, we did a song for the 4th of July called My Nation Healed and the choir director wanted to play a video in the background during the song. I made sure they knew that this meant that there would be no words on the screen for them . . . and they did an awesome job, I mean it was fantastic. They memorized the song, the video went along with it very well, and everything went fine. So I KNOW that the choir can memorize the songs . . . they just don’t WANT to.
Hopefully when we get a full time worship leader we’ll be able to deal with this issue, but until then it’s a somewhat small price to pay to keep things on track in the mean time. At least, that’s what I tell myself lol.
Haha, thank goodness for someone finally saying this!!
Back in the day, I would fade out during the last choruses (especially on songs that repeated the chorus a number of times) because, hello, the congregation should be tuned in enough to pay attention and give attention to the words and to worship, rather than to our screen. I could not have gotten more flack for that.
So thanks, Camron, I’ll print out a copy of your blog and post it near the video table from now on!
That’s great Aaron! Right on…that’s exactly my thinking. How interesting that you got flack for that…
It might just be the “english major” in me, but I like analyzing the way I worship between looking at the screens and not looking at all, with my eyes closed. Most of the time I need my eyes closed just because I’m kind of ADD and need to be focused on the Lord. But then sometimes I watch the screens, even if I know the words, just to take in the language and poetry of the song. It’s like when I’m singing with my eyes closed, I am personally talking to the Lord, and when I’m looking at the words, I can praise Him through silently agreeing with what the songwriter is/was saying to Him. Also, when I look at the screens, I can take into account how the words themselves are defined, and whether or not I am aligned with the same expression in my heart.
Does any of that make sense? lol…