My first ‘role’ in leading worship was running the transparency slides on a projector as my parents led worship. The church we were attending at the time was small, and this was the first time they had used anything other than a hymnal to display song lyrics. I learned so much during those days about the important role that lyrics play in enabling the people of God to sing and respond together. Thankfully, technology has progressed and churches today have more options at their disposal than a projector and transparency.
That being said, as creative and artistic people, we can often fall into the trap of looking for the latest and greatest - the newest technology, the best font choice, the live video work, the motion graphics, and moving backgrounds, the ‘look’ that is being created by churches we admire. Although I do not think there is anything wrong with appreciating a particular style, the question I want to propose is: how are our lyrics slides and videos screens helping or hindering the people of God to see, read, meditate, sing and respond to God together?
Lyrics need to be visible from multiple areas in the room, for those with great eyesight, and those who may be partially sighted - so the point size of our font is important. Changing the lyrics in enough time for people to begin to read and prepare to sing the next line is crucial - best practice is changing to the next slide on the third-to-last word of the current slide. Keeping phrasing and ideas together in the way they are being sung also helps the congregation follow smooth transitions, rather than feeling like there are stops, starts, and breaks that do not naturally exist in the song. My personal preference is to include no more than four lines at a time on a slide - this is enough to contain a full thought or idea, but not so much that you can lose track of where you are on the slide as you are singing.
While listening to a Doxology and Theology breakout session with Michael Bleecker, I heard him encourage worship leaders to intentionally ‘clutter our slides’ for the sake of leading and teaching people. He went on to describe how he will often provide brief definitions of words or phrases that are unfamiliar to our people, or Scripture at the bottom of the slides for easy reference.
Over the last five years, I have included Scripture at the bottom of each slide when I lead worship. This is a time-intensive investment early on, but it is both a challenge to my own process of song selection - if I cannot find Scripture that speaks directly or indirectly to what we are singing, we should probably not be singing it in the first place - it has been the thing that people have commented to me time and again about being helpful, encouraging, and heart-focusing during sung worship. Here are a few examples of what that has looked like for me:
How might you use lyrics, and projection to further communicate the truth and beauty of the Gospel? How might you make the most of every opportunity to more deeply disciple the people God has brought to your church?