Look what @Corey sent us! These are the tips he shared with us at last week’s Coffee on Friday hangout. Thanks Corey. These are spot-on! We’ll be adding this as an article on our worship wiki here on Streams.

• Music is secondary to being a disciple. We praise God because we know God. To know about God we have to be growing in Him, which in turns gives us a reason to sing and reason to play.
• We are lead worshippers not performers. Our goal should never be to impress the ears or the eyes, but to impact the heart. When we impact the heart, we are helping connect it to the One the heart is to adore.
• Minimize distractions. We strive to minimize distractions (not playing together, singing off key, wrong lyrics on the screen, blinking lights, etc) so that people have no excuse not to focus on God.
• When in doubt, get simple. One of the biggest hindrances to leading in worship is when we get too caught up in the head about the details. For example: we are leading a song and we come to a spot where we always struggle with the harmony, then the harmony becomes our dominate thought. When it becomes our dominate thought, our focus is then shifted off of leading. This can become a hindrance to what we are called to do: lead people in worship. When it becomes a hindrance, get simple (sing the melody for that section) so that you can stay focused on what you are called to do, lead. Now work on that part in practice so that you can hit it comfortably and with ease the next time you come to it.
• Our worship on stage is directly reflective of our of worship offstage . If you are not worshipping when you are off the platform, your heart is not prepared to lead when you are on it. We can’t be encouraging others to do something that we are not already doing ourselves.
• Everything is tentative, be flexible

Ministry Verse (it reminds me of my identity and my purpose) – 1 Peter 2:9 – but you are a royal race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the praise of him who call you out of darkness into his marvelous light.