You’ve heard them before. Hands raised, heart centred – you’re in worship, and the worship leader drops an exhortation along these lines:

“Y’all feeling good?!”

“Y’know God is just sooo good.”

“If you feel comfortable…”

Or some poorly concocted coffee-mug-level exegesis…

Your hands drop slightly, your eyes open. You think to yourself, “Wait, WHAT!?”

Worship-isms are common pseudo-spiritual phrases used by worship leaders, to fill the space in place of a meaningful exhortation, when the silence becomes overwhelming or to bridge the gap before the next track is triggered.

And that’s the problem: filling the space.

As a culture, we’re inundated with noise. We turn on podcasts, the news or background music to not have to work in silence.

Are we doing a disservice to our churches by continually trying to fill the space, instead of leaving room for the Lord to work in the hearts of the congregation?

Worship leaders, is your methodology based on something you saw in a Bethel video that one time, your notes from Inside Elevation or a clip from the hip church down the road on Instagram? While these are valuable resources, parroting other worship leaders is disingenuous to God’s call on your life, and it certainly doesn’t help your congregation.

Think about it from the perspective of a congregant. They’re being ministered to in a moment of worship. But they’re being distracted by the excessive adlibs, empty exhortations and general nonsense phrases – simply because you as a worship leader are uncomfortable with the quiet around you.

Silence has always been a place where God works. I can imagine David, writing some of the world’s greatest poetry in the silence of a dark, cold cave. 1 Kings 19:11-12 paints an incredible picture of God’s voice, coming after the noise of winds, earthquakes and fire in the silence. In Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus retreats to the wilderness before He begins his ministry. He does this again in Matthew 14:23.

Worship leaders, you don’t have to fill every space. Plan your moments, and speak when the Lord is prompting you to do so. Be mindful of the silence or space, and get comfortable with it yourself first – then lead your congregation confidently through it.

I often step back in the silence, trusting that the Spirit of God is at work in the congregations I get to lead, speaking more powerful truth than I ever could. God is so faithful to do so. I don’t want to get in the way.

I had the chance to talk about this with some friends on The Worship Project Podcast back in the Summer. You can find that episode below.