For those who aren’t worship pastors or leaders, but rather band members and vocalists, it’s important to realize the significance of your role on the team. Even if you’re not the person actually leading everyone, speaking over the congregation during worship, selecting music for next Sunday’s set, etc., you still play a part in leading people into the presence of God. Your participation is setting an example for the congregation to follow. You are leading too. Once you begin to realize how important your contribution is, it’s good to know how to steward that responsibility. I thought I’d share a few tips with you on how to best support your worship leader and fulfill your role as a member of the worship team…

I’ve played with bands since high school and have been in probably a thousand rehearsals. For most of us, band rehearsals feel like a sports practice. It’s something we have to endure to get to game time. However, rehearsals don’t have to be a dreaded event. In fact, rehearsals should be part of developing our worship community in addition to preparing for Sunday.

Here are five things I’ve learned about running a great rehearsal…

This is the beginning. All of last weeks hard work culminated in Sunday’s worship service and now it’s time to choose the songs for the upcoming Sunday’s service. If you’re like me choosing songs happens quickly and effortlessly or it becomes a few grueling hours of going through possible songs and trying to narrow down my options.

Sunday comes around with alarming regularity. As with any recurring task, it’s important to find a healthy workflow that prevents us from burnout and provides margin for creativity and spiritual preparation. I like to call it a rhythm.

My church work week begins on Tuesday and ends on Monday. Whether you are full-time, a volunteer, or anything in-between, it’s important to find productivity pockets to work within. Here’s how my week looks…

I’ve heard the average tenure of a worship leader is 18-24 months. If this is true, then you probably just started leading at your church or you’re about to move to another ministry. As sad as this is, I’m not going to get into all the reasons for this. Instead, I want to talk a minute about setting priorities when starting a new role at a church.

Unless you are helping with a new church start, you are probably stepping in for someone else who was the former worship leader. Perhaps they left for another ministry or perhaps they were asked to step down or leave the church. Either way, by default, you are inheriting their successes and failures. You will reap the benefits of all the good things they did. And you will have to repair the damage that they left behind.