The one thing that annoys me about many church based music groups is the group members’ reliance on their music – especially the singers. How many services have you been to where the music is really good, but you don’t feel very engaged because the group members have their faces practically buried in their music? As far as my own group is concerned, that is the one thing that I’ve been trying to break of both our musicians and singers.
Really now, how can you expect to do effective music ministry when you don’t even make eye contact with your assembly? How can you facilitate their participation when you’re more focused on your sheet music and not them? The difference between a singer, and a SINGer is that the SINGer establishes a relationship with their assembly. A singer just transposes words and notes into music. Boring, to say the least.
It rankles me to no end when I see this in my group because I established the band not as music group, but as a Liturgical Music Ministry. There’s a huge difference between being a musician and being a music minister. Being a minister implies having a certain responsibility to minister the Word of God through song. It implies consciously reaching out to and placing yourself within your assembly to compel them to participate. You can’t do that when your face is buried in your music. When you do that, you lose any chance of enhancing the worship experience. You might as well just play a recording through the room’s PA.
Engaging your assembly doesn’t mean that you jump around on stage and be a showboat. I’ve seen this as well, and it can come off as foolish. That’s not to say that it’s bad to do this. But as a minister you have to be sensitive to the overall energy of the assembly. You really have to gauge when you can and can’t do that.
But despite that, the easiest way to engage your assembly is to simply make eye contact and sweep your eyes across the pews – regularly. No problem glancing down at your music now and then; even I do that to make sure I’m in the right place (and singing the right verse 
). But your focus has to always be on the assembly. Period.
Now, all that said, this isn’t an easy habit to break, and it requires time and patience to develop. It’s especially hard for musicians because it’s not always easy to remember chord progressions. But practice makes perfect, and eventually, you’ll get it.
