The last article I posted, called “Releasing the Potential of Your Worship Team,” seemed to get a great response. If that is any indication of where there is a needed resource, then I want to continue the conversation and give as much help as I can. Below are four more key ways to really dig into and release your teams potential.
1. An Atmosphere of Freedom: No one on your team should ever feel fearful or ashamed of messing up. That goes for either their musical performance or their Christian walk. It is true that standards need to be set and adhered to, but an atmosphere of perfectionism is a joy-killer. Don’t stifle someone’s creativity or performance potential under the guise of perfectionism parading as excellence. We all mess up, even veteran musicians and leaders. Excellence is being the best that you can be in that moment … and that is a noble pursuit. The most important thing to relay is that stepping out and missing is worth way more than holding back and never growing. Keep an atmosphere of freedom in your rehearsals, services and relationships by giving opportunities for people to step out where they may not be the first choice, and you will see a spark of joy and enthusiasm as well as an acceleration of growth flow through your team.
2. Delegating Leadership Tasks: As a leader, your ceiling should be their floor, and sometimes the only way to show them that is to give them leadership responsibility. At some point, the torch will be handed to someone else and the last thing you want is to hand it to someone who is unprepared. Most leaders are so busy leading they never stop to think about the necessity of duplicating themselves. This is the very essence of discipleship. Take time to build solid relationships with those you feel fit a leadership role and invest in them. This will take some stress off of you trying to handle too much, and it sets the church up for success when you are no longer there or your area of service shifts.
3. Practical Skills Teaching: A majority of worship team musicians are self-taught and have had little-to-no formal training. Worship music isn’t the most technical of genres, so it’s pretty easy to catch on with limited skill. The question is, do you want this to be an acceptable standard, and if not, what are you going to do about it as a leader? Once-a-month mandatory class sessions on things like “Arranging A Song,” “The Nashville Number System,” “How to Communicate With a Band” and “How to Improvise” will take your musicianship and team unity to the next level. Rehearsals will get shorter and more productive, and there will be the ability to test out new things within the songs and sets.
4. Support From Your Senior Pastor: The worship pastor and senior pastor of a church always seem to have an odd relationship. It’s an unspoken thing that happens between a father/teacher personality and an artistic/free-spirit one. The pastor I was under for six years always made it a point to drop in on rehearsals for encouragement, thank us for the countless hours of preparation, and above all be present and passionate during the worship part of the service. If this isn’t happening already, then you may want to approach that subject with your pastor and see if they are up for it. Of course, it’s a two-way street as well. Be sure that your team is not holding their involvement in the band in higher regard than service elsewhere in the church or community.
If you have any questions at all or would like further guidance with any of these points, don’t hesitate to contact us at songsmithcreative@gmail.com. We also offer training workshops and webinars for your church; find out more by clicking HERE.
