“I know only enough of God to want to worship him, by any means ready to hand.” Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm
Today I have music. And I have this body, this life. I have his broken body and shed blood, represented by wine and bread. Today I have a community of people to sing with, to pray with, to weep with, to dine with, to learn with - most of whom I have never met and may never see again. Today I have just enough knowledge of him to want to worship him, and it is my duty and delight to use every resource available to me to offer this sacrifice. I am broken and humbled, messy and distracted, guilty and redeemed. I am a worshiper and a follower of Jesus Christ. Today I have grace and I have knowledge and I have love and I have breath and I have daily bread, daily wine. I have hope. These are the “means ready to hand.” And with these hands I will worship. Today.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Thursday, October 28, 2010
momentum
Everyone wants momentum. It implies a moving forward, a sense of accomplishment or at least the hope of future accomplishment, the sense that you’re on the right track. For all these reasons momentum is a good thing.
But momentum can be a trap, especially for churches/ministries/ministry leaders. How do you reconcile your desire for momentum - perpetual forward motion in your ministry - with God’s mandate for rest, His plan and desire for the world He created to move in and out of seasons? Unfortunately, I don’t think a lot of us think about it. I know I haven’t, at least not often enough or until it has been too late.
I heard early on in my ministry career that if your ministry isn’t growing it’s dying. Dying. Death is bad. Death is anti-life, anti-growth, anti-ministry. I feel we spend the vast majority of our lives avoiding death, working hard to prolong life, and to attain the greatest of all goals: constant growth. As long as we keep the line moving up and to the right, we’ll be in good shape. This is how we know we’re healthy, how we know we’re alive. This is also how we know our ministry is effective.
But is “up-and-to-the-right” the best measure of success for our ministries? Is constant, unchecked growth and attaining the momentum we all crave the best litmus test for efficacy in the church or even in our personal lives? I believe that God wants our ministries to grow. I believe God wants us to become better followers of Jesus every day, to become the people He created us to be. But Jesus was very clear that the first step in that process is death - dying to ourselves, our own desires, our own agendas, and taking up a more important mission. We are called to die to ourselves so we can be more like Him.
In a similar way, I think that Jesus wants (on some level) for our ministries to die. I don’t know if the goal for His church was a state of perpetual momentum. You see, for all the good that momentum implies, there is also a lot that we can get hung up on. We’re human, and for many of us catching that momentum wave might imply that we’ve stumbled on to some formula, that we’ve found the magical combination that has unlocked the secret to successful and effective ministry. We did it and now God is blessing it. He looked at the graph, saw the line moving up and to the right, and said, “There you go, kid. You’ve really honed in on it. I will now bless you for your hard work and dedication to finding that momentum.”
And when we start to take credit for the success of our ministries, or even the success of our own lives, one thing needs to happen or another thing will happen. We either need to kill it or God will. I’m not saying that you need to completely dismantle your ministry, board up the windows to your church, and move to France to become a monk. What I am saying is that we need to take our ministries (and our lives) before God and sacrifice them to Him and let Him take control. We need to give Him credit for the momentum. But we also need to be willing to let go of what we’re doing when He decides to kill the momentum.
There may be things in your ministry, just as there are things in all of our lives, that need to be scaled back. Another trick that momentum plays on us is the idea that “more is better”, or even that “more is necessary”. So many times I looked at ministries that I was a part of and though to myself, “We’ve created a monster. But we have to keep feeding it because we don’t want to lose the momentum.” I also see it from the outside, especially with younger churches. It’s rare to hear a voice on the staff of a young and/or growing church say, “Maybe we need to scale back.” Maybe your sports ministry could self-govern for a while. Maybe there’s a church down the block that could carry MOPS for a year. Perhaps you give your music team the month off find some simpler expressions of worship for your congregation.
I know - even as I write those suggestions, there’s a part of me that cringes a little bit. Our human nature and our current culture seems to teach us that scaling back means taking a step backward. Taking a step backward means a dip on the line graph. And when that line moves down, we’re that much closer to death. And, in a way, that’s true. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Solomon, in his God-given wisdom, taught us that there is a time for such things to happen. There are supposed to be seasons of life. There are also supposed to be seasons of death. Seasons to plant and seasons to harvest what has grown out of your planting. Seasons for things to be sought out and seasons for things to be lost.
There are appropriate times for your ministry to build up and build on momentum. But there will also be times when you may need to take a step back and tear down some of the structures you’ve built, especially if you begin to believe that you had anything to do with it’s success. In my experience, good leadership demands the recognition of and submission to these seasonal momentum killers. Because, as I mentioned before, we can either make the choice to die or God can kill it. It sounds bleak, but the hope in all of it is that God is in the business of bringing life out of death.
But momentum can be a trap, especially for churches/ministries/ministry leaders. How do you reconcile your desire for momentum - perpetual forward motion in your ministry - with God’s mandate for rest, His plan and desire for the world He created to move in and out of seasons? Unfortunately, I don’t think a lot of us think about it. I know I haven’t, at least not often enough or until it has been too late.
I heard early on in my ministry career that if your ministry isn’t growing it’s dying. Dying. Death is bad. Death is anti-life, anti-growth, anti-ministry. I feel we spend the vast majority of our lives avoiding death, working hard to prolong life, and to attain the greatest of all goals: constant growth. As long as we keep the line moving up and to the right, we’ll be in good shape. This is how we know we’re healthy, how we know we’re alive. This is also how we know our ministry is effective.
But is “up-and-to-the-right” the best measure of success for our ministries? Is constant, unchecked growth and attaining the momentum we all crave the best litmus test for efficacy in the church or even in our personal lives? I believe that God wants our ministries to grow. I believe God wants us to become better followers of Jesus every day, to become the people He created us to be. But Jesus was very clear that the first step in that process is death - dying to ourselves, our own desires, our own agendas, and taking up a more important mission. We are called to die to ourselves so we can be more like Him.
In a similar way, I think that Jesus wants (on some level) for our ministries to die. I don’t know if the goal for His church was a state of perpetual momentum. You see, for all the good that momentum implies, there is also a lot that we can get hung up on. We’re human, and for many of us catching that momentum wave might imply that we’ve stumbled on to some formula, that we’ve found the magical combination that has unlocked the secret to successful and effective ministry. We did it and now God is blessing it. He looked at the graph, saw the line moving up and to the right, and said, “There you go, kid. You’ve really honed in on it. I will now bless you for your hard work and dedication to finding that momentum.”
And when we start to take credit for the success of our ministries, or even the success of our own lives, one thing needs to happen or another thing will happen. We either need to kill it or God will. I’m not saying that you need to completely dismantle your ministry, board up the windows to your church, and move to France to become a monk. What I am saying is that we need to take our ministries (and our lives) before God and sacrifice them to Him and let Him take control. We need to give Him credit for the momentum. But we also need to be willing to let go of what we’re doing when He decides to kill the momentum.
There may be things in your ministry, just as there are things in all of our lives, that need to be scaled back. Another trick that momentum plays on us is the idea that “more is better”, or even that “more is necessary”. So many times I looked at ministries that I was a part of and though to myself, “We’ve created a monster. But we have to keep feeding it because we don’t want to lose the momentum.” I also see it from the outside, especially with younger churches. It’s rare to hear a voice on the staff of a young and/or growing church say, “Maybe we need to scale back.” Maybe your sports ministry could self-govern for a while. Maybe there’s a church down the block that could carry MOPS for a year. Perhaps you give your music team the month off find some simpler expressions of worship for your congregation.
I know - even as I write those suggestions, there’s a part of me that cringes a little bit. Our human nature and our current culture seems to teach us that scaling back means taking a step backward. Taking a step backward means a dip on the line graph. And when that line moves down, we’re that much closer to death. And, in a way, that’s true. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Solomon, in his God-given wisdom, taught us that there is a time for such things to happen. There are supposed to be seasons of life. There are also supposed to be seasons of death. Seasons to plant and seasons to harvest what has grown out of your planting. Seasons for things to be sought out and seasons for things to be lost.
There are appropriate times for your ministry to build up and build on momentum. But there will also be times when you may need to take a step back and tear down some of the structures you’ve built, especially if you begin to believe that you had anything to do with it’s success. In my experience, good leadership demands the recognition of and submission to these seasonal momentum killers. Because, as I mentioned before, we can either make the choice to die or God can kill it. It sounds bleak, but the hope in all of it is that God is in the business of bringing life out of death.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
what do you expect (part two)
In my last post I addressed what worship leaders should expect from their volunteer worship teams. Every person standing on the platform in your church is perceived as a leader and should be expected to act like one and take responsibility for leading people through the experience of worship we all share. This is first exemplified by the worship leader and “infects” the rest of the team in a way that should enhance the worship experience in our churches every weekend.
This time around, I’d like to address the responsibility of the volunteer worship team member. There is much that can be inferred from my previous post concerning the expectations of the band members. If you’re perceived as a leader, you should act like a leader. Don’t wait for your worship pastor to spur you on. There is nothing more refreshing for any pastor at any church than to see someone taking initiative in their spiritual walk and taking ownership of the worship experience in their church, regardless of the role you fill. Take the time necessary to prepare yourself for the weekend - not just musically but spiritually, as well.
As a worship pastor, I always wanted to walk on to the platform on Sunday feeling that I knew the music better than anyone on stage. But I also wanted to know that I spent the time needed in worship on my own during the week, getting myself outside of the words and chords and melodies in order to connect with the Holy Spirit through the song. My hope and prayer was that my band was doing the same. The more you’re attuned to the Spirit in your personal worship life, the easier it is to follow His leading in a corporate setting.
So, all those things your worship leader is expecting from you, you should expect the same, if not more, from yourself. But what should you expect from your worship leader? I mean, is that even okay to do? It’s a fact that there is no shortage of malcontents in our churches who are always eager to fire off an email on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning letting the leadership know which of their expectations were not met during the service on Sunday morning. Having worked in the local church for the past twelve years, take my word for it that the LAST thing your worship pastor needs is another voice in his or her ear shouting about what songs work, what songs don’t, how loud it was in the auditorium, or complaining about what “that girl” wore on the stage last weekend.
What I am encouraging is what I hope would be a spirit of collaboration. No man (or woman) is an island. All of us need people to come alongside us to encourage us, admonish us, and push us to be come better leaders, better ministers, better people. It has been my observation that lead pastors and worship pastors seem to isolate themselves the most, and I think that’s because of some of the examples I stated above. I know when I choose to isolate myself in ministry it is usually to insulate myself from the criticism and unsolicited advice that never seems to end. However, in doing so, I’ve also insulated myself from real community and amazing opportunities to grow as a leader and as a person. This is why I feel it is perfectly reasonable, as a worship team member, to expect your leader to allow you in to his or her life.
Now, I’m not asking you to go to your leaders and ask them to air all their dirty laundry in an hour over coffee. Hopefully, those who lead your church and your teams already have the support of a person or group of people who they can talk to about their deepest struggles. But there needs to be a level of openness, availability, and accountability among those of us who are in the trenches of worship week after week. Sure, I’ll follow someone I don’t know based simply on their credentials. But I’ll take a bullet for someone who has felt comfortable enough to share a part of their life with me. Just as volunteer worship team members accepting their role as leaders can enhance the worship experience, so can a leader’s transparency with his team.
Another expectation that I feel is fair for worship team members to place on their leaders is an expectation to grow - as musicians, as leaders, and as followers of Christ. The musical piece is usually pretty easy. Most of the worship pastors I know place this at the top of the list because it’s what we were trained to do. The passion for music was there before the passion to lead worship (at least in my case), and we want to feed that passion and become better musicians. The best way for you as a worship team member to make sure this expectation is met is to push yourself musically, as well. Like most musicians, we are pushed and challenged by the quality of the musicians we’re surrounded by.
Leadership and spiritual growth are a little more difficult to quantify. No one really wants to judge someone’s level of spiritual growth (nor should we). But spiritual growth should produce spiritual fruit. What kind of spiritual fruit are you seeing from you leaders? If they insist that it’s there but you’re not able to see it, perhaps you need to go back to the expectation of openness and start from there. If your worship pastor has been serving for 10 years and seems to be caught in a rut, it may be time to step in and say something to her. Hopefully, through your openness with each other, you’ll have the relational equity you need to breech such a subject. If you don’t feel you have that relational equity, you might need to start reevaluating your position on the team.
Whatever you do, don’t get caught in the trap of writing it off as “just they way she is.” It is certainly more comfortable to live and let live. But I believe that God is recreating us every day. When we enter in to His presence in worship, God’s Spirit changes us. To allow your leaders the latitude to maintain the status quo by not expecting them to change and grow spiritually because that’s just the way they are short-changes them, it short-changes your spiritual growth, and it can do tremendous damage to the Church in the long run. Once, a friend of mine (and member of my worship team) was complaining that he wished he had more time to spend studying scripture. He then joked, “I’m not like you - I don’t get paid to spend time reading my bible.” He was joking, but I took it seriously. Up to that point I don’t think I had seen spiritual growth as part of my “job”. But that comment spurred me on to re-prioritize my weekly schedule and to spend at least as much time in scripture, prayer, and personal worship as I did worrying about set lists and returning emails. I don’t think that is too much for you to expect from your worship leaders.
In my mind, one of the fruits of spiritual growth you will see is in the area of leadership growth. Anyone in church leadership knows that as culture changes (including church culture), your style of leadership much adapt to those changes. Good, adaptive leadership includes a lot of the elements I’ve already addressed - it expects growth from your followers and from yourself. Why do you think so many church leaders spend hundreds of thousands of dollars (perhaps millions?) attending conferences around the country? They’re looking for something fresh, something different, a new perspective on leadership. Unfortunately, many of them end up running back to the same old tricks they’ve always used. It’s easy. It’s comfortable. It’s potentially deadly. Again, all I can do is point to my own experience as an example. When I first started in ministry, I had a small team that played every Sunday. Relating to and leading them was relatively simple. As I grew into different positions, eventually leading a team of over 40 volunteer musicians and vocalists, my leadership had to adapt. The same techniques I used to lead a team of five would never work while trying to lead a team of fifty.
One must also expect their leaders to adapt for different seasons on ministry, not just the size of the team. The way your leaders lead through seasons of joy and growth must change and adapt during periods of tragedy and loss. The same “everything is awesome - steady on” attitude will come across as entirely inauthentic when your team is stuck in a rut or plodding through a season of criticism or necessary/difficult change. Without wanting to over-simplify, it really all boils down to the first expectation of authenticity. If you’re expecting and encouraging openness from your leaders, they’ll have their finger on the pulse of the team and know when and how to adapt their leadership style to the needs of those they’re leading.
So, I’ll ask you some closing questions. Is your worship leader challenging you to grow musically, spiritually, and as a leader? Is your leadership promoting an atmosphere of collaboration where they can be open with you? Are you seeing the fruit of growth in your leaders in the areas of musicianship, spirituality and leadership? Are you comfortable and have you developed the relational equity required to call your leaders out when you aren’t seeing the fruit of quality leadership, when your expectations aren’t met? Again, I believe the answers to these questions are vital to the health of our churches and the overall culture of worship throughout the Church.
This time around, I’d like to address the responsibility of the volunteer worship team member. There is much that can be inferred from my previous post concerning the expectations of the band members. If you’re perceived as a leader, you should act like a leader. Don’t wait for your worship pastor to spur you on. There is nothing more refreshing for any pastor at any church than to see someone taking initiative in their spiritual walk and taking ownership of the worship experience in their church, regardless of the role you fill. Take the time necessary to prepare yourself for the weekend - not just musically but spiritually, as well.
As a worship pastor, I always wanted to walk on to the platform on Sunday feeling that I knew the music better than anyone on stage. But I also wanted to know that I spent the time needed in worship on my own during the week, getting myself outside of the words and chords and melodies in order to connect with the Holy Spirit through the song. My hope and prayer was that my band was doing the same. The more you’re attuned to the Spirit in your personal worship life, the easier it is to follow His leading in a corporate setting.
So, all those things your worship leader is expecting from you, you should expect the same, if not more, from yourself. But what should you expect from your worship leader? I mean, is that even okay to do? It’s a fact that there is no shortage of malcontents in our churches who are always eager to fire off an email on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning letting the leadership know which of their expectations were not met during the service on Sunday morning. Having worked in the local church for the past twelve years, take my word for it that the LAST thing your worship pastor needs is another voice in his or her ear shouting about what songs work, what songs don’t, how loud it was in the auditorium, or complaining about what “that girl” wore on the stage last weekend.
What I am encouraging is what I hope would be a spirit of collaboration. No man (or woman) is an island. All of us need people to come alongside us to encourage us, admonish us, and push us to be come better leaders, better ministers, better people. It has been my observation that lead pastors and worship pastors seem to isolate themselves the most, and I think that’s because of some of the examples I stated above. I know when I choose to isolate myself in ministry it is usually to insulate myself from the criticism and unsolicited advice that never seems to end. However, in doing so, I’ve also insulated myself from real community and amazing opportunities to grow as a leader and as a person. This is why I feel it is perfectly reasonable, as a worship team member, to expect your leader to allow you in to his or her life.
Now, I’m not asking you to go to your leaders and ask them to air all their dirty laundry in an hour over coffee. Hopefully, those who lead your church and your teams already have the support of a person or group of people who they can talk to about their deepest struggles. But there needs to be a level of openness, availability, and accountability among those of us who are in the trenches of worship week after week. Sure, I’ll follow someone I don’t know based simply on their credentials. But I’ll take a bullet for someone who has felt comfortable enough to share a part of their life with me. Just as volunteer worship team members accepting their role as leaders can enhance the worship experience, so can a leader’s transparency with his team.
Another expectation that I feel is fair for worship team members to place on their leaders is an expectation to grow - as musicians, as leaders, and as followers of Christ. The musical piece is usually pretty easy. Most of the worship pastors I know place this at the top of the list because it’s what we were trained to do. The passion for music was there before the passion to lead worship (at least in my case), and we want to feed that passion and become better musicians. The best way for you as a worship team member to make sure this expectation is met is to push yourself musically, as well. Like most musicians, we are pushed and challenged by the quality of the musicians we’re surrounded by.
Leadership and spiritual growth are a little more difficult to quantify. No one really wants to judge someone’s level of spiritual growth (nor should we). But spiritual growth should produce spiritual fruit. What kind of spiritual fruit are you seeing from you leaders? If they insist that it’s there but you’re not able to see it, perhaps you need to go back to the expectation of openness and start from there. If your worship pastor has been serving for 10 years and seems to be caught in a rut, it may be time to step in and say something to her. Hopefully, through your openness with each other, you’ll have the relational equity you need to breech such a subject. If you don’t feel you have that relational equity, you might need to start reevaluating your position on the team.
Whatever you do, don’t get caught in the trap of writing it off as “just they way she is.” It is certainly more comfortable to live and let live. But I believe that God is recreating us every day. When we enter in to His presence in worship, God’s Spirit changes us. To allow your leaders the latitude to maintain the status quo by not expecting them to change and grow spiritually because that’s just the way they are short-changes them, it short-changes your spiritual growth, and it can do tremendous damage to the Church in the long run. Once, a friend of mine (and member of my worship team) was complaining that he wished he had more time to spend studying scripture. He then joked, “I’m not like you - I don’t get paid to spend time reading my bible.” He was joking, but I took it seriously. Up to that point I don’t think I had seen spiritual growth as part of my “job”. But that comment spurred me on to re-prioritize my weekly schedule and to spend at least as much time in scripture, prayer, and personal worship as I did worrying about set lists and returning emails. I don’t think that is too much for you to expect from your worship leaders.
In my mind, one of the fruits of spiritual growth you will see is in the area of leadership growth. Anyone in church leadership knows that as culture changes (including church culture), your style of leadership much adapt to those changes. Good, adaptive leadership includes a lot of the elements I’ve already addressed - it expects growth from your followers and from yourself. Why do you think so many church leaders spend hundreds of thousands of dollars (perhaps millions?) attending conferences around the country? They’re looking for something fresh, something different, a new perspective on leadership. Unfortunately, many of them end up running back to the same old tricks they’ve always used. It’s easy. It’s comfortable. It’s potentially deadly. Again, all I can do is point to my own experience as an example. When I first started in ministry, I had a small team that played every Sunday. Relating to and leading them was relatively simple. As I grew into different positions, eventually leading a team of over 40 volunteer musicians and vocalists, my leadership had to adapt. The same techniques I used to lead a team of five would never work while trying to lead a team of fifty.
One must also expect their leaders to adapt for different seasons on ministry, not just the size of the team. The way your leaders lead through seasons of joy and growth must change and adapt during periods of tragedy and loss. The same “everything is awesome - steady on” attitude will come across as entirely inauthentic when your team is stuck in a rut or plodding through a season of criticism or necessary/difficult change. Without wanting to over-simplify, it really all boils down to the first expectation of authenticity. If you’re expecting and encouraging openness from your leaders, they’ll have their finger on the pulse of the team and know when and how to adapt their leadership style to the needs of those they’re leading.
So, I’ll ask you some closing questions. Is your worship leader challenging you to grow musically, spiritually, and as a leader? Is your leadership promoting an atmosphere of collaboration where they can be open with you? Are you seeing the fruit of growth in your leaders in the areas of musicianship, spirituality and leadership? Are you comfortable and have you developed the relational equity required to call your leaders out when you aren’t seeing the fruit of quality leadership, when your expectations aren’t met? Again, I believe the answers to these questions are vital to the health of our churches and the overall culture of worship throughout the Church.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
what do you expect (part one)
So much of what is written on worship blogs and in books about worship is focussed on the worship leader (or lead worshiper, if you want to get caught up in that semantic debate). I think this has caused a major problem on most worship teams. Most of the volunteers that serve on music teams in many churches view themselves as passive participants, weekend warriors looking for an opportunity to stretch their musical muscles. Many have real jobs as engineers, stay-at-home moms, accountants, bakers - the music they play in our churches is more of a hobby.
Now, let me be clear, I’m a HUGE proponent of utilizing volunteer musicians. Even if I was working in a church with unlimited resources, I would ask my band and vocalists to participate strictly on a volunteer basis. I think it does wonders for the worship environment, putting on display the idea that worship is more than music as they sing and play and serve. Where I think most worship leaders fall short is in not expecting their team members to be more than hobbyists. Unfortunately, many team members are also guilty of not expecting more from their leaders. In order to address this issue properly, I’d like to parse it out into two parts. This week, I’d like to talk specifically to worship leaders. Next week, we’ll touch on the responsibilities of the volunteer worship team.
Leaders
Having worked in the local church as a worship pastor for the last 12 years, I’ve been honored to work with a wide range of volunteer musicians and vocalists on my worship team. Some have been semi-professional or even full-blown gigging musicians, but most have been strictly amateur (in that they’ve never been paid to share their talent with the world). When I first started out, I operated with the mindset that these people are volunteers serving out of the goodness of their heart. They have full- or part-time jobs, families, and other interests and hobbies that may preclude them from putting in rehearsal time on their own at home. Often, this meant longer rehearsals and more prep time on my part in order to achieve the level of excellence that I felt we were called to on Sunday morning. And that was fine - after all, I was the one being paid to be there. It was easy for me to expect that from myself. I was also fairly tolerant of mistakes, relying on my musical training and ability to “carry” the team.
However, somewhere along the line my thinking shifted. I was certainly still sensitive to the fact that my volunteers had lives of their own. But I also became aware of two other things. One, these people were signing up for this position. This wasn’t something they were being forced to do - they submitted themselves to the audition process and understood that there was a level of ability that needed to be achieved and maintained in order to participate on this team. They were participating because they wanted to be better. There was a desire to grow musically that I had ignored early on in my career, instead keeping my expectations low so as not to offend or push away a volunteer who wanted so badly to serve. These were not just weekend warriors. These were followers of Christ who wanted what all of us want - to be a little bit better today than we were yesterday. Also, I was not only shortchanging my volunteers by not expecting more of them musically, I was ignoring one of my primary responsibilities as a leader - to push people to want to be better and to help people succeed, no matter what their level of skill or involvement.
The second thing I became more acutely aware of the longer I was in paid professional ministry was the gravity of what was going on within the church walls on Sunday mornings. We weren’t just a handful of musicians and vocalists coming together to sing five or six songs, grab some lunch afterward, and then head home for a nap and some yard work. We - every one of us standing on that platform - were perceived as leaders. Even though I was the only one getting paid to be there, all of us had a responsibility to lead the congregation in worship of our King through song. This was an expectation that was a little more difficult to convey to my team. For some reason, it was easier to expect musical excellence out of my team than it was to expect a deeper level of spiritual growth and leadership. It was also difficult for the members of my team to accept. It was one thing to ask them to grow musically. But asking them to take up the mantle of “leader”? Suddenly they were a group of hobbyists again. Somehow I had just crossed the line between active participation and unrealistic expectation. Early on, it was like pulling teeth to get the majority of my worship team to take on the role and responsibility of leadership. So, instead of expecting the same level of spiritual maturity and leadership from every member of the team, I would spread it out to certain individuals who showed a desire to be more than a great player or singer. Over time, their attitude became infectious and more and more people started stepping up until, eventually, it became part of the DNA of our team. From then on, anyone who auditioned knew from the outset that they were signing up for more than just a chance to get their musical “jollies” on the weekend. They were being called to lead people in to the presence of God, and the fruit of that expectation was evident in the richness of our worship services.
Had that shift not occurred in my thinking, would those worship experiences still have been as rich and fulfilling? Perhaps for a time. Had my only expectation been to have the best sounding church band in town, we could have met and exceeded that expectation weekend after weekend. But there is something happening above and underneath the music that I believe is tapped in to more fully when everyone on the platform is engaged in leading the congregation in worship.
So leaders, what do you expect from your teams (be they volunteer or paid)? Do you view them as simple hobbyists, finding a musical oasis in the midst of their workaday worlds? Are they simply excellent musicians that you’ve brought on to ensure that the quality of music remains at a high level? Or are you asking more of them? Are you asking them to lead people into something more than just an excellent musical event? I think the answers to these questions are key for all worship leaders and all churches, regardless of style or size.
In part two of this little excursion, we’ll look at the role of the worship team member under this paradigm of leadership. Thanks for reading...
Now, let me be clear, I’m a HUGE proponent of utilizing volunteer musicians. Even if I was working in a church with unlimited resources, I would ask my band and vocalists to participate strictly on a volunteer basis. I think it does wonders for the worship environment, putting on display the idea that worship is more than music as they sing and play and serve. Where I think most worship leaders fall short is in not expecting their team members to be more than hobbyists. Unfortunately, many team members are also guilty of not expecting more from their leaders. In order to address this issue properly, I’d like to parse it out into two parts. This week, I’d like to talk specifically to worship leaders. Next week, we’ll touch on the responsibilities of the volunteer worship team.
Leaders
Having worked in the local church as a worship pastor for the last 12 years, I’ve been honored to work with a wide range of volunteer musicians and vocalists on my worship team. Some have been semi-professional or even full-blown gigging musicians, but most have been strictly amateur (in that they’ve never been paid to share their talent with the world). When I first started out, I operated with the mindset that these people are volunteers serving out of the goodness of their heart. They have full- or part-time jobs, families, and other interests and hobbies that may preclude them from putting in rehearsal time on their own at home. Often, this meant longer rehearsals and more prep time on my part in order to achieve the level of excellence that I felt we were called to on Sunday morning. And that was fine - after all, I was the one being paid to be there. It was easy for me to expect that from myself. I was also fairly tolerant of mistakes, relying on my musical training and ability to “carry” the team.
However, somewhere along the line my thinking shifted. I was certainly still sensitive to the fact that my volunteers had lives of their own. But I also became aware of two other things. One, these people were signing up for this position. This wasn’t something they were being forced to do - they submitted themselves to the audition process and understood that there was a level of ability that needed to be achieved and maintained in order to participate on this team. They were participating because they wanted to be better. There was a desire to grow musically that I had ignored early on in my career, instead keeping my expectations low so as not to offend or push away a volunteer who wanted so badly to serve. These were not just weekend warriors. These were followers of Christ who wanted what all of us want - to be a little bit better today than we were yesterday. Also, I was not only shortchanging my volunteers by not expecting more of them musically, I was ignoring one of my primary responsibilities as a leader - to push people to want to be better and to help people succeed, no matter what their level of skill or involvement.
The second thing I became more acutely aware of the longer I was in paid professional ministry was the gravity of what was going on within the church walls on Sunday mornings. We weren’t just a handful of musicians and vocalists coming together to sing five or six songs, grab some lunch afterward, and then head home for a nap and some yard work. We - every one of us standing on that platform - were perceived as leaders. Even though I was the only one getting paid to be there, all of us had a responsibility to lead the congregation in worship of our King through song. This was an expectation that was a little more difficult to convey to my team. For some reason, it was easier to expect musical excellence out of my team than it was to expect a deeper level of spiritual growth and leadership. It was also difficult for the members of my team to accept. It was one thing to ask them to grow musically. But asking them to take up the mantle of “leader”? Suddenly they were a group of hobbyists again. Somehow I had just crossed the line between active participation and unrealistic expectation. Early on, it was like pulling teeth to get the majority of my worship team to take on the role and responsibility of leadership. So, instead of expecting the same level of spiritual maturity and leadership from every member of the team, I would spread it out to certain individuals who showed a desire to be more than a great player or singer. Over time, their attitude became infectious and more and more people started stepping up until, eventually, it became part of the DNA of our team. From then on, anyone who auditioned knew from the outset that they were signing up for more than just a chance to get their musical “jollies” on the weekend. They were being called to lead people in to the presence of God, and the fruit of that expectation was evident in the richness of our worship services.
Had that shift not occurred in my thinking, would those worship experiences still have been as rich and fulfilling? Perhaps for a time. Had my only expectation been to have the best sounding church band in town, we could have met and exceeded that expectation weekend after weekend. But there is something happening above and underneath the music that I believe is tapped in to more fully when everyone on the platform is engaged in leading the congregation in worship.
So leaders, what do you expect from your teams (be they volunteer or paid)? Do you view them as simple hobbyists, finding a musical oasis in the midst of their workaday worlds? Are they simply excellent musicians that you’ve brought on to ensure that the quality of music remains at a high level? Or are you asking more of them? Are you asking them to lead people into something more than just an excellent musical event? I think the answers to these questions are key for all worship leaders and all churches, regardless of style or size.
In part two of this little excursion, we’ll look at the role of the worship team member under this paradigm of leadership. Thanks for reading...
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