Leadership Points for your Worship Team

Leadership Points for your worship team

One of my favorite things about my job is I get to recruit, love and send out worship leaders. There are many ways we all try to measure the success or failure of our ministries. We all want to bear fruit. For me it is a blessing to count the young men and women who came through Foundation Red or the Believe tour and left as worship leaders. It is always fun for our staff to frustrate them just a little bit in the beginning. We get such a great opportunity to pick really good players and they come in chomping at the bit to make music for Jesus. We spend the first talks and meetings talking about leadership, relationship and if I was a preacher I would find something else that rhymes with ship . . . I’m not! Austin is an intern right now with us and we have not had a conversation yet about music or gear. We have already had countless of talks about leadership in specific situations. I love that; because so many times our giftedness is capped by our willingness to lead . . . which most times is really translated “serve”. Today’s article is on Leadership Points for your worship team. I venture to say that if you are actively incorporating these things in your worship ministry that your ministry cup is overflowing. Most of this comes from the worship conference we have done in local churches. I pray that it blesses you and you comment with some more stuff for me to add to it! Click on the silver link to see the article and download or just read it below!




Plan some “just kicking it time”
I was a young leader in the local church. Most of the people on my worship teams were highly educated professionals in their field. I was afraid to say the wrong thing the wrong way and the mistake I made was to say nothing. I robbed my fellow team members with the best gift I had to give them. (It was not my musical talent or my wisdom from the scriptures.) I robbed them of relationship. And because I was the leader I set the pace for the team. I set the culture for the team. Nobody else formed meaningful relationships either. We marched in, had our chit chat around the water cooler and then did our business because after all we had other places to go. The culture of any group of people can be tested by ending whatever function it is and timing how long it takes members to file out. My file out time was about 5 seconds. Spend time with your team and set a culture of relationship. Chances are it would make you sound better than another practice session. I would start with some Brian Reagan. Trust me!

Get out of Jail Free cards
I have a problem with churches trying to emulate what they see at some conferences for worship in their local churches. Our services should not look like a Matchbox 20 concert because we have so much more to offer – that is more people! The best way I have ever found to attract new members is to open up the prison doors and set the captives free. That’s right. You most likely have some people who have been serving in the worship ministry in your church for so long that children in the church think those people live in the choir room! There are people in your ministry that need to take a break for multiple reasons. One reason is because there are others who never volunteer because you have “so and so”. Some of these people that need a Sabbath enjoy being the victim and turn others off to the ministry. People who need a break may not be serving out of joy but rather out of guilt. When this happens, creativity in your community is killed. Also, there are people who would be more than willing to volunteer if you didn’t suck the blood out of every volunteer you get. Do you want to have more people involved in your ministry? Then set up a culture where it is okay to take a break every now and then.
Don’t stink
Do you remember the cute kid in that movie I’m sure none of you saw who said, “Do you know dogs and bees can smell fear?”. Well, along those same lines, Church people can smell dissention. Watch your tongue. You are a bigger influence than you probably realize. Your team will sniff out how you really feel about the church, and its leadership. More dangerous than that they may adopt those opinions.
Model growth
• Musically – If God is creative and the giver of gifts then why do we not pray and ask him to bless us more! We have an advantage over the musicians who are practicing for other things. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and that should make it’s mark musically as well as spiritually.
• Professionally- I’m proud of my kids’ backstage behavior. Of coarse there are times when we are fellowshipping and laughing way to loud at inappropriate times backstage; but more than that they have their noses buried in books. It is awesome. I try to set the pace for a culture that values growth. That means I hand books out. That means we expect creativity. We , talk about history, art and other big people things. It is contagious! You would be blown away at how my history books and Jon’s physics books play into our conversations having an effect on our craft.
Bear Fruit or die!
A mother bird kicks it’s baby’s out of the nest and they have to learn to fly or they die. I have never seen one not succeed. I imagine if the little bird before me hit the ground and didn’t move I would be more motivated to flap my wings. This was not adapted from a children’s story. Be a mother bird and allow the people around you to lead. If you are a gifted worship leader I am congratulate you. If you are not training up leaders around you then I rebuke you. Leaders kill their ego daily and allow those they lead to spread their wings and fly. It can be scary; but not as scary as not bearing fruit! Always be on the lookout for future worship leaders!
Evaluate where the ideas come from
When was the last time you had a random idea from a volunteer and acted upon it? If you can’t think of anything recent I would guess you have a culture where it isn’t safe to dream, participate and create. Most people on our teams have different perspectives on all the aspects of our ministries. The professional term for this is a consultant agency. You usually have to pay for that type of thing. Build an atmosphere where people feel comfortable in sharing ideas and you can get some good ones for free! What a bargain. An additional benefit is that your ministry won’t be a one man show. The best way to change your culture would be to ASK people what they think.
Open your office door
I am a busy guy by nature. I don’t know why (other than I need counseling); but I am a fidgety busy guy. Teams that communicate produce results. It is hard to communicate with ministers who are always plugging in and copying (fill in the blank). If you get your work done before other team members arrive then you can have a cup of tea in your hand when they arrive. I started walking around and visiting with a cup of tea in my hand (find what works for you). This subtlety communicated that I was approachable to my team.
Turn off your preacher voice
People know authenticity. They can smell this too. Being transparent with your team will set a tone of sincerity in your group. We come to church initially because we want community. We desire interaction with people. We ultimately find Jesus and he satisfies all our needs . . . sometimes he uses other people. So listen and lead.