Win at Clapping in Church

I am a participation kind of worship leader. 

I am a participation kind of worship leader. I can worship God anytime I want when I'm by myself, but I Iove it when our church community engages in song together.

Knowing this, you may find it surprising that there are few things I loathe more than being pushed to clap with a song.  It's not that I have a problem with the act of clapping itself, I just have rarely seen it done well.

FAIL

This is how it usually goes down.  The worship leader starts clapping as the band kicks into the intro.  About 75% of the congregation claps along but the leader abandons the clapping to sing or play an instrument leaving everyone to wonder "How long am I supposed to do this?"  About halfway through the first verse, everyone starts looking around at everyone else to know if they're supposed to keep clapping.  By the pre-chorus you're already down to 20% participation and about half way through the chorus the remaining clappers are slowing down and fading quietly in shame.

So what have we accomplished with this?  Rather than focusing our hearts and minds on Christ and engaging in communal worship, we have spent the first song navigating an awkward social situation.

WIN

It's so easy to fix this! You simply need to set a reasonable expectation.

Before you launch into a song, give a "what" and a "when".  A whole song is too long to clap.  There is just no way a room full of non-musicians will have the timing and energy required for such a task – it doesn't even sound good!  When was the last time you heard a song that had hand claps through the entire thing?

Instead, choose a part of the song that clapping really fits.  Maybe it's just the chorus or the bridge.  If there is an instrumental, having everyone clap on that section can keep them engaged rather than letting them fall into spectator mode as the lead guitarist shreds.

A simple "Hey everyone, the chorus on this song really needs some hand claps and it's going to be awesome if we all do it together" will get the job done.  When the moment arrives give a vocal cue and then a "nice job" when it's over.  You've now made everyone feel a part of making the music and it sounded great.  If that feels too technical for you, have one of your singers be the "clap leader".  In practice, make sure they have specific parts where they clap and usually the whole group will join in.

Singing music in groups isn't as culturally normal as it used to be.  Church is pretty much the only place we do it so teaching how to do it can make all the difference.  The less we are focused on what we are supposed to do, the more we can focus on what God wants to do.