Performance isn’t a Bad Word

You’re “performing”? You must be a phony!

Many Worship Leaders reject the idea that what they do is a “performance.” The word seems to suck out all of the authenticity of worship. You might as well just say that the leader is a Phony!

Really, though, the word performance just means to carry-out, accomplish, or fulfill. So, to do something well in any role is a performance of sorts. However, I get it. The word sparks a comparison to an entertainer, or a broadway show.

Certainly, we’re not entertainers, but there is an element of “performance” that has to do with our leadership on stage.

Aren’t we there for an audience of One?

Doesn’t it seem shallow to evaluate how we appear to others on stage? A worship leader and worship team should spend a lot of time understanding both words: worship and leader. Those leading worship have an extra responsibility of leading in worship that the rest in the room don’t have. This idea of leadership has many facets to it – including choice of lyrics, choice of key, verbal transitions, and non verbal communication.

Stage presence is really just non verbal communication, and according to a few studies, 93% of daily communication is non-verbal.

Stage presence communicates something, whether you mean it to or not. So leading very much includes non-verbal communication such as stage presence. But before we jump into exploring the role of stage presence for a worship leader, let’s look at the non-verbal communication of a worshipper.

The Bible describes lots of bodily actions that are associated with worship: bowing, kneeling, raising hands, clapping, and even dancing. The are actions that help us express worship. So, even the worshipper should evaluate how non-verbal communication to God is important. Some of us are reluctant to raise our hands, and some of us can’t worship without raising our hands.

In corporate worship, we shouldn’t steal the attention by being a distraction, but we also shouldn’t be so concerned about others that we refuse to engage in Biblical bodily expressions of worship.

So, while we should all evaluate the importance of non-verbal actions in worship, the worship leader has an extra responsibility to think about how non-verbal communication plays into leadership during congregational worship.

One of the best ways to examine a concept is to throw it into a bizarre scenario. Imagine you saw a worship leader who looked unbelievably angry and sang a whole set of up-beat, energetic, happy praise songs. You’d probably be too distracted to worship since you would be getting different verbal and non verbal cues that didn’t line up with each other.

Humans are designed to evaluate even the most subtle facial expressions to interpret the meaning of what they hear. In fact, investigators use camera recordings of suspects to look for micro-expressions that will help determine if someone is lying. That means that you are communicating with your body language, whether you know it or not! You’re human; you can’t help it.

I’ll be the first to admit, that I’m uncomfortable with “too much stage presence.” I don’t think I’ve ever been accused of being a performer on stage! I’ve had to be really intentional to incorporate body language that helps my congregation engage well. That’s a big part of my job, after all!

Believe it or not, most worship leaders are introverts by nature. So “performance” is an area that needs work and is an area that can be misunderstood or just overlooked.

There are simple ways to have good stage presence without being obnoxious or fake. If you’re interested in how to encourage yourself and your team in great stage presence that’s not obnoxious, I’ve included a full video training in the WL 30 Day Challenge. Check it out if you haven’t yet.

-Stephen