Worship Teams

How to Linger in Worship w/ Garett & Kate

Worship Pastors Garett and Kate Serban join Matt McCoy to talk about their worship sessions, how to linger in worship, and how to lead your congregation to worship. 

Creating Space

[Matt] I have loved these worship sessions that you’re doing. They’re perfect for setting the moment and getting you into a space where you can connect with God. In church it seems that we’re often more structured with setlists and playing songs in order in a specific amount of time. Are we missing out on this in this season of church life? 

[Garett] I would say yes. What we’ve done with these sessions is just created space. Many times, we’re so regimented on a Sunday and we’re worried if we go over a certain time people won’t want to come to church. But I think you can have “both / and”. You just need to create the space for it. 

[Kate] We’ve been local church worship pastors at multiple churches, and all of them have different expressions of worship. But one thing we’ve noticed is that there is a hunger for the presence of God. I don’t think a church with a 17-minute time of worship is wrong. I don’t think a church with a three-hour time of worship is wrong. I do think one thing remains the same in the church is that there is such a stirring and hunger for God. We as leaders need to learn how to discern that and learn how to lead people in the time we have. 

Teaching to Linger

[Matt] How do you think as worship leaders we can teach people to linger in worship? 

[Garett] In those flow moments, we try to teach our worship leaders to not just jump into something without explaining or giving context. You don’t know what kind of backgrounds people are coming in with, so if you’re just sitting there for five minutes not saying anything, people in the congregation may be confused. Give ideas like “Why don’t you just sing the name of Jesus?” or “Tell Jesus how much you love Him.” Little things like that can help cultivate that style of worship. 

[Kate] I feel like where we’re lacking in churches is a self-feeding mentality. I think a lot of people are used to the structure of a service. So when there is a moment where the Holy Spirit is leading, we as leaders are in tune of it because we self-feed on our own, but people in our congregations may not know what to do. I try to encourage people to sing out a new song and imagine yourself in the presence of God. We all have something to say and express to the Lord. 

[Garett] There’s ways to incorporate lingering into the Sunday morning church service, but a great place to start is opening up extra time: a night of worship, a prayer room, whatever it looks like for you. Those are great first steps of teaching a culture of worshiping for yourself and lingering in worship. 

Click here to watch the full interview with Garett and Kate, and be sure to check out their worship sessions!