Open Your Eyes

Raise your hand if (almost) every time you’re leading Build My Life, you sing, “Holy, there is no one like You, there is none beside You, open up my eyes in wonder,” and you remember to… open your eyes.

We worship leaders are notorious for closing our eyes, slipping away into another land. Like infants who have yet to learn object permanence (believing that if I can’t see it, it doesn’t exist), we shut out the congregation we’re leading by gazing at our eyelids.

But the eyes are the windows to the soul! Don’t we want those we’re leading to catch a glimpse of a worshiper’s heart? Don’t we want to invite them into vulnerability by sharing our own with them? Don’t we want our honesty to inspire theirs? Don’t we want to share the glory of community as we worship together?

Our closed eyes close ourselves off to the congregation. And we must model openness.

So here are four ways to open your eyes while you’re leading worship.

Toothpicks or Tape

Admittedly, this is painful and awkward and best only to do while driving late at night. So strike that. There are only three ways. :)

Use the W

A standard tip for public speaking is to move your gaze in the shape of a W across the room. You don’t lock eyes on anyone. Instead, you look from place to place. The idea is natural movement.

Learn the music

Staring at the confidence monitor is not opening your eyes. A deer-in-the-headlights expression isn’t a window into the soul; it’s a picture of a window on a TV. And locking eyes with your music stand is just as unhelpful.

Value Openness

In all seriousness, it starts here. You have to want people to really see you and want to be connected with those you’re leading. It can be a scary place. You may be at odds with someone. (Follow Matthew 5:23-24’s command and take care of this before you’re ever in front, offering your gift.) It can also be a beautiful place as you see a father holding his daughter, smile knowingly with a good friend, remember the struggles of a couple in your small group as you pray for them in song.

It is a gift to worship in a room together. (remember 2020?) Let’s fully connect with each other and model openness as we lead.

-Dave Helmuth

(purchase my book, “Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)” HERE)

Open Your Eyes (Nº 313)