Jamie Brown

Worship Team Mechanics: Auditioning

I want to spend a few posts this week on issues that worship leaders face with growing, managing, and maintaining their worship teams. Whether you’re in a small church with only a handful of musicians or a large church with a bunch of them, it’s important that you have a clear and thought-through process for how to steward the gifts and people that God brings before you.

I am not the expert of any of this. I am still learning, still making mistakes, and still trying different approaches. But I hope that some of what I say will be helpful. Today we’ll look at how to audition people well.

Why audition?
God gives different people different gifts. No two people are the same. Every church is made up of different people with different gifts for different purposes. If you’re a worship leader in a church, one of your roles is to steward these gifts, and help people with musical gifts discern how and if they are called to serve the congregation.

Set dates
I used to say that if people were interested in exploring serving on the worship team, they should email me. I’d then set up a time to meet with them. The problem with this was that I might have 5 or 6 different people all wanting to meet on different days and at different times. It was unmanageable. Now I’ll pick one Saturday afternoon every 3 or 4 months and announce that auditions will be held on those dates. I’ll schedule auditions a half hour apart, assuming each one will take about 20 minutes. This way I’m only giving up 2 or 3 hours.

By the way, I would strongly encourage you to carefully word your audition invitations. I wrote a post on this a while ago and you can read it here.

Email questions
Once someone gets in touch with you and expresses an interest, the very first thing I would encourage you to do would be to (1) thank them, and (2) ask them a few important questions about themselves. This is not an exhaustive list, but generally I find these 4 questions helpful:
– (1) Tell me your story of how you came to trust in Jesus Christ.
– (2) Tell me your story as a musician.
– (3) In what ways have you served in worship leadership in the past (if at all)?
– (4) Why do you feel called to this particular ministry.

Asking these questions over email is a good idea. This way you have it in writing. People start to blend in after a while, and this way you can remember who said what. Further, it keeps your auditions brief, since you don’t need to spend a ton of time with each person asking them detailed questions about themselves. They also have time to think it through.

You’ll learn a lot from these questions, particularly if you see any red flags (I wrote a post on red flags to watch out for and you can read it here). Be on the look out for people who can’t really articulate a faith in Jesus Christ (they’ll need some discipling before joining the team), or people who just want to play music because it’s fun (they’ll need to catch a passion for worshipping God and leading others in engaging with him).

Schedule auditions
I’ve found it helpful to then schedule people about 30 minutes apart. This gives me time to (a) meet them, (b) chat with them to make them comfortable, (c) ask them a few questions to get to know them, (d) audition them, and (e) get a few minutes’ break before the next person.

Explain to the people over email that you’ll be singing or playing through a few familiar worship songs together. If they need the music in advance, get it to them. If not, pick really familiar songs.

Interview the person
You’ve already asked them a lot of questions over email. Their answers might have given you some things to ask them about. I’d encourage you to ask them what brought them to your church, and to make sure they’re a committed member of the congregation. If they’re not, you need to communicate why that’s important, if it’s not already a requirement.

If it’s a singer, ask them if they normally sing melody or harmony. Can they make up harmonies on the spot? Can they learn by ear? Do they always start singing on the first word of the song? Do they wait until the chorus? What’s going through their minds?

If it’s an instrumentalist, ask them what they’re thinking. Is the bass player listening for the kick drum? Is the drummer listening to the bass player? Is the pianist stuck playing in the middle?

Whether it’s a singer or instrumentalist, explain to them that while skill is important, what’s more important is their heart, and what’s most helpful to you and to the congregation is to have a worship team of people who are clearly engaged in worship. You’re not looking for backup singers and musicians. You’re looking for worship leaders.

Set up the audition
First, put them at ease. If it’s a singer, ask him/her if they want any water. If it’s an instrumentalist, let them set their stuff up and offer to help. Make a joke or two. Most importantly, let them know that this is just a chance for you to get a feel for their gifting, and that they can just be themselves and not worry.

Second, explain that you want to respect their time and help them by being honest with them about whether you think their gift would lend itself to being used on the worship team. Ask them if that’s OK. Hopefully they say yes.

Run the audition
I find it helpful to tell them something like “I’m going to start this song, and you just come in where you usually would if we were doing this in a service”. This way you can get a feel for whether or not they have really good instincts, or whether they just jump in without much thought. Play through a song or two, sometimes stopping and letting them play or sing on their own, and take enough time to hear them sing or play for several minutes.

What to say if they’re gifted
If they’re gifted, affirm them. Tell them you’d like to explore finding a place for them to serve.

What to say if they need work
If they need work, affirm them. Tell them what was good. Tell them what wasn’t so good. Then tell them what was good again. This is what we call an “affirmation sandwich”. Then tell them a number of things they need to work on, and that you’d like to keep in touch with them as they improve.

What to say if they’re not gifted
If they’re not gifted musically, affirm them. They have taken time of their day to come meet with you. They are seeking to be obedient to a prompting they feel to serve the church. Thank them for their heart to serve the church. But then kindly tell them that it’s your impression that this is not the right place for them to serve. Be specific, be kind, and keep smiling at them. Let them ask questions. Understand that this will probably be awkward and that’s just the way it goes. Affirm them again, offer to help them find other places to serve, and let them go.

For some more of my thoughts on how to say “no” to people, you can read a post I wrote here.

Why you shouldn’t allow everyone who auditions onto the team
For some churches, the idea of auditioning musicians, much less turning some musicians down, is unheard of. A certain level of chaos reigns, where anyone and everyone who expresses an interest is allowed to come to rehearsals, allowed to stand on the platform, and allowed to play on Sunday mornings.

I know that the heart behind this is to give people a place to serve and to avoid a culture of perfectionism, but it completely rejects the commands in scripture to play skillfully (Psalm 33:3). It ignores the fact that not everyone has the same gifting and that the body of Christ is arranged with different parts and different members (1 Corinthians 12). The standard will differ depending on the church, but there must be a standard.

Be slow to add someone to the team
It’s much harder to ask someone to step down from the team than it is to ask them to join the team. If you think someone is called to serve on the team, try to find a small venue for them for a while and see how they respond. If they’re reluctant to serve in children’s ministry because they really want to be up front on Sunday morning, I would avoid using them.

No lifetime passes
Finally, communicate to all new and existing worship team members that no one has a lifetime pass to the worship team. Everyone serves for seasons. You might find it helpful to follow a school-year type approach. Each September you kick off a new year. Each June you have an end-of-year celebration. In the summer you keep using people, but you give people a chance to reevaluate whether or not they want to commit for another year. This also gives you a chance to reevaluate whether certain members should continue or not.

Striking the Rock When You Should Speak to It Instead

Imagine you’re Moses. You’ve just led the people of Israel through the Red Sea (Exodus 14), seen bitter water made sweet (Exodus 15), and seen bread fall from the sky (Exodus 16).

Then in Exodus 17, the people are thirsty, so God tells you to strike a rock and he’ll make water come out of it. You have seen firsthand the miraculous at work.

Many, many years later, things have changed. You’re wandering in circles, people are complaining, and in Numbers 20, they’re thirsty and demanding water. God tells you and your brother Aaron to speak to a rock and he’ll make water come out of it again.

And so you go up to the rock, you strike it, and out comes the water. Just like the first time.

Wait a second. God told you to speak to the rock this time. But you struck it instead. You got the result you wanted but you disobeyed God in the process. Instead of taking a risk and letting God display his glory afresh, you stuck with what you knew would work.

Now imagine you’re a worship leader. You’ve been leading your congregation in worship for a while. You’ve seen hard hearts melt, you’ve seen people experience God, and you’ve even made some progress with your team.

And every once in a while you get to see the miraculous at work. You take a risk, God blesses it, and out of a rock you see water gushing out.

And so you’ve learned a new trick. Like Moses, you know that if you do a certain thing, you’ll get a certain result. But at a high cost. Without even realizing it, you’ve entered into the dangerous territory of manipulation, and what you’re seeing happen might not be the result of God’s power at all.

God responds swiftly to Moses and Aaron after they disobey him by striking the rock instead of speaking to it, and begins by saying, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel…” and then says he won’t allow them to enter into the Promised Land.

“Because you did not believe in me…” Moses and Aaron’s sin was the sin of disbelief. They heard God say to speak to the rock. But the people would think they were idiots if they went up and spoke to the rock and nothing happened. They didn’t believe God was trustworthy.

As worship leaders we can be guilty of this same sin of disbelief. And when we stick with our safe formulas because we know they’ll work, and they’ll satisfy the complaining crowds, we say to God that (a) he isn’t trustworthy, and (b) we’ve got it covered.

God responds with mercy and grace to us in Jesus Christ and says, (a) trust in me, and (b) I’ve got it covered. Yes, striking the rock worked last time. And it was really cool. And maybe he’ll want you to strike it again. But maybe he won’t. Maybe he’ll want you to speak to it instead. Have you asked him? Are you listening? It’s a good idea to check with him and then do what he says.

You’re At Your Best When You’re At Your Neediest

Several Sunday mornings ago I sounded like a frog. My voice gradually went downhill during the service (and it was a communion service so there were a lot of songs) so that by the end of the service, our sound engineer had turned me down almost all the way in order to spare the congregation from having to hear it any longer.

I wish I had a good reason (like a cold or a cough). I wish I had a Godly reason (like I had been singing praise for so long that my voice was lost). I’d even settle for a natural reason (like I hadn’t warmed up properly or something). The truth is that I sounded like a frog because at 3:00am in the morning, after four hours of trying to get our 21-month-old to sleep after she woke up, I lost my temper. I yelled at her.

I felt horrible. I felt like the worst father in the world. I begged Megan to forgive me (and, by God’s grace, she did and didn’t even know what I was talking about when she woke up). I was confident that God had forgiven me. But, the damage had been done, and since I had yelled, I had hurt my voice so much that I lost it during the service. And I lost it good.

Why am I telling you how I sinned a few weeks ago in the middle of the night by getting angry with my precious little girl? First, because it’s good for my pride. And secondly, because I had a choice on Sunday morning what to tell my worship team.

I had a few options. First, I could lie. I had already sinned by getting angry with Megan, so why not continue the trend and make up something Godly sounding? I figured that wasn’t a good idea. Second, I could just not mention it. Sure, I sounded terrible and needed the other vocalist on the team to pick up the slack, but they didn’t need to know, right? Wrong. So my last option was the best option and I let them know that their esteemed worship leader had just, 5 hours earlier, been an idiot.

This was good on a number of levels: it was a chance to “be real” with my team, it gave them permission to “be real” back, it was an object lesson in how much we need God’s grace and how freely he gives it even to bad-tempered-Fathers, and gave me an acute sense that morning of how much I needed God’s Spirit to fill me and empower me. I certainly couldn’t fake it that morning.

We ended up having one of the sweeter times of worship during our communion set that I can recall ever having. We finished “Mighty to Save”, and then, froggy voice and all, I sang a spontaneous song before we went back into the chorus. I heard numerous comments from people who were really affected by that time.

If I could go back and do it all over again, I certainly wouldn’t yell at Megan. But in a way, I’m grateful for this lesson. It taught me a lot about Fatherhood, about worship leading, about being real with my team, and about how much better things go on a Sunday morning when I’m really needy.

And here’s how it sounded. Not pretty, but real.

Backgrounds That Make You Say “What?”

I tend to think that when and if churches project song lyrics during a worship service, they should take some time beforehand and pay attention to the little details in order to remove as many distractions as possible.

I wrote about ways churches can practice “projecting excellence” here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Some churches take the opposite approach and don’t pay much attention to the projection at all. In many of these churches, one hallmark of their use of backgrounds.

I’m all for using a background – if it works well and isn’t distracting – but usually have a hard time with different pictures popping up on different slides as if a picture of a man in a field of grain with his hands stretched to the sky is supposed to help me engage with God any better.

A friend of mine recently visited a church like this and it got me wondering. How tacky can you get?

Let’s explore.

Here we have the classic hymn “All Creatures of Our God and King” over an ice sculpture of two swans, creating a heart shape in the middle. Poignant.

Or how about the chorus of “How Great is Our God” with some cute kittens to help you worship?

And what could help us think about how everlasting our God is more than the space shuttle shooting into space!

This picture makes me feel peaceful. And Jesus returning will make me peaceful. This is a great combo!

All kidding aside, what on earth could make you want to worship Jesus more than chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven?

God walks with me even in hard times. Blessed be his name.

That reminds me. Dogs are a man’s best friend!

I think I will save this one for the opening song next Easter. People will go crazy!

And finally, this one is self-explanatory.

On second thought… maybe pictures are too distracting as backgrounds. I think I’ll stick with simple.

Are You a Chronological Snob?

In nearly every culture, for each generation, and in all areas of our lives, there is a temptation to think that whatever is newer, whatever is novel, and whatever is most recent is better than what is old. Sometimes this can be true. But not always.

C.S. Lewis felt this temptation in his time and in his culture. The intellectual community did then what it also does now, which is to embrace the new simply because it’s new. He noticed that he had this attitude and labeled it “chronological snobbery”. Here’s how he described it:

uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on the count discredited.

In short, a mindless embrace of the new and a discarding of the old. This is chronological snobbery.

We all feel this temptation every day of our lives. And while there are certainly cases where newer is better, most of the time if we stopped to think about it, we wouldn’t discard the old so quickly.

I feel this temptation as a worship leader, and I know that you do too. I feel it in all sorts of areas, but especially in the area of song selection. Sadly, way too many worship leaders unknowingly become chronological snobs and in the name of relevance discard hundreds and hundreds of years of rock solid hymns, not to mention hundreds of songs from the 1950s – 2000s that don’t have that new car smell anymore. This is a shame. And if we think this is just what happens as things “develop”, we’re mistaken.

Check out this quote from G.K. Chesterton:

Real development is not leaving things behind, as on a road, but drawing life from them, as a root.

I like that. You can either see yourself as driving down a road, where what’s behind you is not exciting as what’s ahead, or you can see yourself like a tree, drawing life from good roots that run deep.

If you’re a worship leader and you think more in terms of a tree and roots, odds are that you need a different sort of encouragement, and that would be to cut off some dead branches and do some pruning, because sometimes you’re trying to suck life out of something that’s just plain dead.

But if you have the opposite problem, and you never look back (but if you do look back it’s not very far) you might want to rethink how you view hundreds and hundreds and decades and decades of songs. If your repertoire doesn’t have a substantial number of time-tested songs and hymns, with deep truth and sound doctrine, you might be guilty of chronological snobbery.

This a big topic and every church and worship leader has their own view of what the proper approach is to balance new and old. Some only do new, some only do old, some try to do both, and some just haven’t thought about it that much.

Whatever your situation, we could all benefit from thinking about it a bit more. Is newness an idol for us? Should something that’s a bit outdated just be discarded? How deep are our roots?

Resist the temptation to mindlessly embrace the new and discard the old. (The converse is equally as true and important: resist the temptation to mindless discard the new and embrace the old.) We should be moving forward, we should be growing, and we should be developing as the Holy Spirit is at work in us and in the Church. But always with roots and never as snobs.