How A Full-Time Worship Leader Spends His Week

I was recently asked the question how a full-time worship leader could spend his week. I put the following breakdown together based on how I spend an average 40-45 hour work week. Of course this is unique to my context, and if my church was different (i.e. offered more services, or had its own building so we could rehearse during the week) this would look different. Recently my “worship recording” responsibilities have swelled to 20-25 hours a week. So, this is an average week for me, when things are normal, and I share it in the event that it’s helpful to you:

Sunday mornings
7:30am – 1:30pm
Set-up, rehearsal, worship leading
6 HOURS

Meetings
1. Music staff meeting (1.5 hours) (this is the meeting of all the worship staff)
2. All staff meeting (1.5 hours)
3. Services meeting (.5 hours) (this is the meeting with all the worship staff and pastors)
4. Misc. meetings (~3.5 hours) (musicians, volunteers, other staff, interruptions, etc.)
7 HOURS

Worship recording responsibilities
1. Overseeing orders and managing finances/marketing/promotion/social media/web presence (2 hours)
2 HOURS

Misc. duties
1. Finances (1 hour) (receipts, reimbursements, check requests, budget, etc.)
2. Email (10 hours)
3. Song research (1 hour) (looking for, listening to, and evaluating new songs and music for congregational use)
4. Professional development (1 hour) (reading a book, magazine, listening to a sermon/lecture/workshop)
5. Maintaining worship leader blog (worthilymagnify.com) (3 hours)
6. Miscellaneous/unplanned needs (2 hours)
18 HOURS

Sunday preparation
1. Song selection (5 hours)
2. Music arranging (1 hour)
3. Rehearsal preparation (1 hour)
4. Rehearsal (1 hour)
8 HOURS

Team management
1. Scheduling (2 hours)
2. Communication/contact/meetings/emails/cultivating (2 hours)
4 HOURS

TOTAL HOURS WORKED, ON AVERAGE:      45 hours