Category: Leading a worship team

Ten Ways to Make Rehearsals Fruitful

Rehearsals are complicated things. No two are ever the same, you can never quite know what to expect, you’re dealing with real people with real personalities, you’re at the mercy of equipment and the operator(s) of that equipment, you’re working with volunteers who (perhaps like you) have other full-time jobs and responsibilities, and you’re trying to accomplish several different goals.

For me, those goals include: chemistry building, musical preparation, spiritual calibration, arrangement tightening, sound checking, monitor mixing, prayer, worship, creativity cultivation, transition smoothening, potential train-wreck spotting, and many more.

Some rehearsals go really well. Some don’t. This will always be the case. But if you’re not intentional, careful, prepared, relaxed and confident, you run the risk of having worship team rehearsals that are ineffective, counter-productive, and draining. They’re incredibly important to your worship team’s effectiveness in serving their congregation.

Here are some practical suggestions for fruitful rehearsals:

Get the songs to your team at least 48 hours ahead of time
Rehearsals are for rehearsals. Practice belongs at home. Get your team the song list, music, and recordings at least two days before rehearsal, or sooner if possible. The more time people have to listen and play through songs at home, the more fruitful your rehearsal will be. (For legal ways to get recordings of music to your worship team, see this post on Worship Matters.)

Pray before and after
J.S. Bach would write “J.J.” (Jesu Juva: “Jesus help!”) on top of each of his works. At the end he would write “S.D.G.” (Soli Deo Gloria: “To God be the glory”). This is a good model for what to pray before and after our rehearsals too.

Keep it moving
No one likes sitting in traffic. People would rather take a longer route if it means they’ll at least be moving. The same principle applies to rehearsals. No one likes a rehearsal that moves slowly or is stop-and-go. Keep it moving and your team will rise and call you blessed.

Know where you want to go
Staying with the car analogy for a moment: Have you ever followed someone in a car who keeps making u-turns and getting a bit lost? You’re willing to grant them a few u-turns, but if it keeps happening, you’d rather not follow them anymore and just follow your own directions. Same for your team.

Have the music ready
Few things will annoy your worship team and limit your rehearsals’ fruitfulness more than not having the music ready when rehearsal starts. If your team brings their music from home, then this burden lies more on them. But if you provide chord chart packets for your team, make sure they’re ready and in order for everyone. And pay attention to the details: are the words right, are the chords right, and are the chords in the right place? This will save you and your team a lot of time at rehearsal.

Make sure everyone can hear each other
If you rehearse in a living room, garage, or some other practice room, spend some time and/or money to ensure things aren’t just going to be loud and messy. Make sure everyone can hear themselves and each other. If you’re practicing in your actual worship space, always have a sound engineer present. If you can’t hear each other, you might as well not rehearse.

Foster a light-hearted atmosphere
People love to laugh. Make little jokes, poke fun at yourself, tease people, and leave space for people to be themselves. While you want to keep things moving, if you allow pressure and anxiety to build, you’ll be working against yourself.

Don’t tolerate persistent tardiness or bad attitudes
Two or three times a year, I send a gentle reminder to the worship team to be on time to rehearsals. This is usually because two or three times a year I notice the worship team is coming late. If, after these reminders, someone continues to come late, you need to talk to them personally. If, after this, nothing improves, you need to give them a break from the worship team and kindly ask them to tell you when they have some more space in their life to honor the time commitment to the worship team. If you choose to keep kicking this can down the road, you choose to limit your team’s effectiveness and growth.

 Relax
A year ago I wrote a post called “Loosing Your Cool Isn’t Cool”, and I compared the worship leader’s role to that of a flight attendant. If your flight attendant looks worried, then you should look worried. If they look relaxed, then you won’t mind the bursts of turbulence. Your team is watching you. Stay cool and relaxed even when there is turbulence.

Leave them wanting more
Rehearse only what you need to. New songs, new arrangements, transitions, dynamics, etc. Whatever you and your team feel unsure about. But when you rehearse what you are all comfortable with (i.e. playing through entire songs instead of just a chorus), or rehearse too long (i.e. past 9:30pm) you’re spending energy you’d be better off saving for later. I’ve recently begun giving my team a break after an hour or so. Taking ten minutes to use the restroom, check voicemails, get some water or something small to eat, or just take our instruments off, has been a big positive for our rehearsals.

Never stop evaluating your rehearsals and how you lead them. Look at how other worship teams rehearse and take their good ideas. Ask for input from your team. Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of thinking rehearsal is just a time to get together and play through some songs. It’s not. That’s what a campfire is for. Rehearsals are for the congregation. So make them as efficient and effective as possible, for the sake of your congregation, the health of your team, and all for the glory of God.

Watch Your Tone

Whether you realize it or not, when you address an instrumentalist or vocalist on your worship team, they’re listening much more to your tone than what you’re actually saying.

You have every right to point out when your drummer is playing too loudly, or your vocalist is singing the wrong melody, or your violinist is playing too much. But you have to do it carefully and lovingly. Your tone has a lot to do with this.

When I’m upset, my tone gets harsher. I might not even realize it, but it’s there. I speak more quickly and firmly. Example: “stop playing for a minute!”

When I’m impatient, my tone takes on a more bewildered quality. I speak to whomever I’m impatient with like they’re beneath me. Example: “are you ready to start yet?”

And when I’m frustrated, my tone becomes mean. Example: “I need more of myself in my monitor!”

The problem is that when you speak to members of the worship team with a less-than-gracious tone, you treat them like they work for you, not like they’re serving with you. Most people don’t take kindly to being bossed around. They’re more interested in knowing how to serve more effectively. You contribute to a boss-employee mindset or a servant-servant relationship depending on your tone.

Fundamentally, what’s important is that you display a Gospel-fueled and Spirit-enabled love for your worship team. You can try to mask frustration and impatience all you want, but it won’t work. First things first.

But even if you do love your team – from time to time you’ll need to address different members for different reasons. And in those moments, be aware that you need to watch your tone.

If you’re in a hurry and the sound engineer is struggling to get the board to cooperate, don’t add to his stress by being impatient. If your high school-aged drummer keeps speeding up, don’t add to his anxiety by declaring in front of everyone: “you’re speeding up!” Maybe take a five-minute break and talk to him one-on-one instead.

And while it’s true that they’re listening much more to your tone than what you’re actually saying – it doesn’t mean that it’s not important how you say it.

I’ve found that phrasing things more like a question can oftentimes take the hard edge off. Instead of “you’re not singing that line right”, try “could we make sure we’re singing the same thing on the chorus?” Or instead of “I don’t like how that sounds” try “can we work on that section for a minute? Here’s what I’m thinking…”

By watching your tone and addressing your team in a humble way, you will help cultivate an atmosphere of openness and creativity and joy. 

The Miserable Life of the If-Only Worship Leader

It’s hard to be happy in church ministry when you keep a never-ending, never-satisfied list of “if-onlys”. This applies to people in all sorts of roles, but particularly to worship leaders.

If only I was at a bigger church with more money and more musicians.

If only I got to lead ALL the songs at a service – not just a measly four.

If only we had better equipment.

If only my pastor was more with-it.

If only people would let me do it the way I want to do it.

If only my congregation worshipped better.

If only my drummers were good.

If only I got paid a better salary and had a more impressive-sounding title.

THEN I’d be happy.

THEN my ministry would explode!

THEN my church would finally see my giftedness they’ve been missing all along!

THEN I would be satisfied.

No you wouldn’t.

The problem with jealousy is that it’s dangerous. It can’t be satisfied. It always wants more. Even if your list of if-onlys gets completely checked-off, you’ll find fifteen more things you “need”. You end up spinning your wheels in ministry – always waiting for that one missing thing – that one missing musician – that one missing pay raise – that one great worship set – and never really thrive.

Proverbs 27:4 says: “Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?” Jealously is uniquely destructive and paralyzing, and a never-ending list of if-onlys is a symptom of that paralysis.

It’s one thing to have God-birthed dreams and hopes and longings for your ministry and the church you serve. These are good and important and helpful. I know that I have clung to these – and prayed fervently for these dreams to finally come true. I still have dreams and still pray for needs to be met and struggle with growing in wisdom regarding how and how long to wait.

But it’s another thing altogether to either wait until every single thing is in place to finally be able to minister effectively – or to stoke prideful jealousy by always wanting more – or to mask symptoms of your real need for growth by blaming them on something you need that you don’t have.

To each and every worship leader reading this post: let me encourage you and challenge you.

You have been placed exactly where you are by God. He is faithful. He knows your needs. He knows your desires. His timing is perfect. Trust in and wait on him.

So get your eyes off of other churches and other worship leaders and what cool gear they have and how much farther along they are and how much more their congregation really gets it. Stop waiting for that one elusive missing thing that will make you happy.

Churches need worship leaders who will love them, stick around for the long haul, have a high tolerance for drudgery, and faithfully serve them through easy and difficult seasons. We do our congregations a disservice if we’re always waiting for one last thing to fall into place or looking for a better gig.

“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)

If only we would do that more! Then we’d be happy. Then we’d be satisfied.

Giving Your Worship Team Options

I don’t like having to decide before a service exactly how I’m going to lead a song, how we should start it, how we should end it, or what (if anything) we’ll repeat. Until I’m actually leading the song, seeing and hearing how people are responding, and sensing where God is leading, I never quite know what will work best. Having the freedom to make last-minute (or second) decisions is helpful.

There are exceptions of course, like when a song is accompanied by a dance or a video, or when we’re following a specific arrangement, or when a lot of moving pieces are involved like choirs, organ, orchestra, etc. In those cases it can make a lot of sense to decide ahead of time the exact roadmap for a song.

But the worship team at my church has gotten used to me saying to them during rehearsal something along the lines of: “we’ll see what happens. We might do this, or we might do that.”

I’ve found it helpful to let my worship team know what the options are on a particular song. Take this past weekend for example:

  • We started with Sovereign Grace Music’s “Greater Than We Can Imagine”. On the recording, the band comes in together at the beginning at full volume. I told my team that we’d either do that, or I’d just come into verse one quietly, we’d slowly build, and then be in full by verse two. It depended on how it felt in the room. We ended up coming in slowly.
  • We sang Matt Redman’s “This is How We Know” which we had taught the week earlier. On Saturday night I made a last minute decision to skip the bridge, since I felt like people were just barely getting the feel of the verse and chorus. On Sunday morning I told them that we might do the bridge or we might not. We ended up not doing it.

Sometimes I’ll tell the worship team: “when we get to the end of verse three, we’ll do one of two things. Either we’ll play the intro and go back to verse one, or play the ending and sing the last line over it a few times. Just follow me at the end of verse three and I’ll let you know.”

On our chord charts sometimes I’ll even include “option A” after a chorus or bridge, or “option B”. During rehearsal I’ll tell the team to watch me for a cue. Usually option A is the default so my “cue” is doing nothing. Option B is something we might do – or only do once – and so my cue is looking back at them and nodding “like something is about to happen”. It sounds silly but after a few years the worship team knows what I mean when I say that.

It can be frustrating to be locked into a predetermined way of doing every song before the service starts. But it can be equally (or more) frustrating to have no idea what you’re going to do and expect it all to come together on the fly and your musicians to read your mind. As much as you can, let your worship team know what the different options are within a certain song, rehearse those parts, and make sure they’re comfortable. The more you do this the more natural it will become for everyone.