Tag: Leading a worship team

Showing Grace to Your Worship Team When it Matters

Have you ever gotten a bit frustrated with members of your worship team? Maybe really frustrated? Of course you have.

Have you ever actually let this frustration show? Maybe been a bit of a jerk to them? No way. A worship leader wouldn’t do that.

Yeah right. Of course you have. We all have.

Maybe your worship team consists of one middle-aged man named Leroy who plays a mean acoustic guitar. Oh, and his guitar also happens to be named Leroy.

Or maybe your worship team is larger. Whatever the case, in the course of working with volunteers (most of whom have an artistic temperament) and working under the pressure of the congregation’s glare, you’re bound to get frustrated and tempted to show it.

Bad idea. Every time. Why? Because we’ve been shown more grace than we ever deserved.

If God’s grace really has been “lavished on us in Christ” (Ephesians 1:9) and is immeasurable in its riches (Ephesians 2:7), then we really have no excuse for not showing grace to our worship team. Really.

The people who serve on a worship team are real people. This means they’re sinful just like you. They run late, they don’t practice, they have annoying habits, they make mistakes, they get cranky, they have issues, and they aren’t perfect.

They also don’t get shown grace an awful lot during the week. The world is a grace-less place full of expectations, pressure, meanness, criticism, brokenness, speeding tickets, and lots of bills.

They need to know the good news of grace – of redemption and forgiveness – that has been shown to us all in the person of Jesus Christ.

But you can show them that grace too. And when it really matters – like when they mess up or show up late or are unkind to you – you showing them grace is not only good for their soul and yours, but it’s good for your worship team too.

This all sounds well and good in a blog post and we’d all agree in principle that it’s important to show grace. But when those moments of frustration come – a late rehearsal, a drummer who won’t stop playing when you’re trying to talk, a persistent squeal in the monitors that the sound engineer can’t fix, a vocalist who totally messes up the big Christmas Eve solo, or a pastor who asks you to cut that song you’ve rehearsed fourteen times just before the service starts – is when this will need to be put into practice.

This isn’t going to come from self-determination. It’s going to come from daily preaching the gospel to yourself. When we remember the punishment we deserved but the grace we received instead because of Jesus, then everything else comes into perspective.

Show grace to your worship team. It’s a good idea for worship leaders and it’s the good news of the gospel.

Feeding Your Worship Team (Literally)

A dozen bagels from Panera: $8-12.

A coffee traveler from Starbucks: $12.

One large, two-topping pizza from Papa John’s: $10-12.

A worship team that isn’t hungry: Priceless.

Sometimes taking care of your worship team isn’t so complicated or expensive. It’s as simple as picking up some bagels and coffee before a long morning of rehearsals and services or ordering a pizza for a late evening meeting when people are coming straight from work.

This shouldn’t come out of your pocket. If you oversee a budget of any kind at your church, designate some funds to be used for food for your worship team over the year. Make sure there’s enough for a nice meal for everyone who attends a worship conference, for a Christmas party and end-of-year cookout, and other things in between.

But if your church doesn’t have money for that, devote some time and energy to getting people in your congregation to cook meals and bake goodies and brew coffee for you and your volunteers on long mornings or late evenings.

You don’t always have to provide food for your worship team. Obviously, people can take care of themselves and remember to eat something before they come to church!

But I have been amazed over the last year or so at what a huge difference it makes to team morale and energy level when there is something to munch on and something to drink.

We’ve installed a little refrigerator in our back room and keep it stocked with mini-soda cans. We also have some bite-sized candy and breath mints in bowls on a counter-top. On Sunday mornings, we’ve contracted a local bakery to deliver a little tray of food on Sunday mornings at 8:30am. It changes a bit every week, but usually has an assortment of cheeses, crackers, fruit, pastries and bagels. The musicians and pastors who are serving on a Sunday morning now swarm the food tray and devour it in a matter of hours.

When we gather as a team for a mid-week meeting in the evening, I’ll do my best to make sure food (usually delivery pizza) is provided, since this will sweeten the deal for people coming straight from work.

You might be surprised by how much providing a little bit of food and drink seems to honor people and keep them fresh. Sometimes leading and feeding a worship team can be hard work. But other times it’s as easy as pie. Literally.

Encouraging Your Team to Be on Time

On Monday I shared Ten Ways to Make Rehearsals More Fruitful. One way is to not tolerate persistent tardiness. It’s normal for people to be late from time to time, since people have busy lives and traffic gets in the way. But when it’s persistent and not just a problem with one person, it can be helpful to gently remind your worship team that it’s important to be on time.

I recently sent an email to the worship team at my church with the subject “a little bit of gentle prodding…” I thought you might find it helpful to read how I communicated this to my team, so here is what I wrote:

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to send a quick note in the hopes of encouraging all of us to try to make more of an effort at starting our rehearsals and pre-service huddles on time.
I know two things apply to everyone on this list: First, your lives are incredibly full and your schedules are incredibly busy. You have jobs, families, other responsibilities, and unplanned events that spring up. Second, you are at the mercy of Northern Virginia traffic. I don’t need to say any more about that last one!
But I’ve also noticed a gradual trend over recent months that if a rehearsal is scheduled for 3:00pm, we’re not actually ready until 3:20 or later. Or if a pre-service huddle is scheduled for 10:15am, it never really happens. We end up missing out on valuable rehearsal time, prayer time, and preparation time.
Because I know how busy your lives are, I always schedule a rehearsal or pre-service huddle at the latest possible time I’m comfortable with. I’d probably prefer an earlier time, but I want to give you as much time at home as possible, so I pick the latest time I can see working.
I would be incredibly grateful if we could all make a renewed effort at being ready to start rehearsals and meetings on time. This means planning on arriving 10-15 minutes early for rehearsal to set up and tune, and arriving 5 – 10 minutes early for church to park and get to the vesting room in time for us all to be ready at the same time.
This note is just as much for me as it is for anyone else! And please know I understand there are just going to be times you’re running late. I want to be full of grace. But having said that, we can all do a better job of being on time and I hope this little note provides a little bit of gentle prodding for all of us.
Gratefully,
Jamie

 

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.