Worship Band Rotation: A Tale of Two Teams

David G. posted a great blog on worship band rotation last week which received a lot of feedback. One comment on the blog from Paul J. sparked an idea to share some pros and cons of rotating musicians versus using a set band.

My church has two worship venues. Venue 1 uses one worship leader and a set band which never changes unless someone is out. Venue 2 uses one worship leader and multiple rotating singers and instrumentalists. I thought it would be helpful to contrast the two and point out positives and negatives of both.

First, let me start by saying my church has a lot of musicians. This makes a huge difference and is important to know up front. However, I've also led worship at a start up church where we started with a couple of guitars and grew from there. Both situations pose challenges.

Let me start with Venue 1. The style of music is contemporary with a large choir. Some of the songs are "4 chords and the truth", while others are very detailed choir arrangements that require the ability to read sheet music. This limits the type of musician that can participate. For example, I play by ear and from chord charts, so I would struggle playing in that band.

Using a set band has several benefits for them:
-The band has played together for years and are very tight
-There's a close bond in the group, not unlike a small group
-There's no confusion each week as to who is playing!

However, there are negatives as well:
-There are many highly skilled musicians setting in the congregation who have no opportunity to serve. Many are better players than are currently in the band. Often these folks leave for opportunities to serve at another church.
-Over the years, the band has become the identity of each player, "Hi, I'm the bass player in the band". This is not healthy.
-There is a tendency to become stale. Each player brings his/her own style and riffs. So every week you pretty much get the same sound.
-There's no easy way to deal with a bad attitude. To remove anyone from the band would be tantamount to impeachment!

Venue 2 uses a variety of musicians who rotate every other week. The style of worship is modern, using chord charts and improvising.

Using a rotating band has several benefits:
-There are many more opportunities for musicians to serve. I really appreciate this since I'm not currently leading. I can still play guitar with the band and use my gifts.
-No one person owns the position. It keeps everyone's attitude in check when they know they are not the only drummer. Playing in the band is not a right, it's a privilege.
-It's easier for players to move in and out based on circumstances without upsetting the chemistry.
-There's plenty of variety because every musicians brings his/her own flair and interpretation of the music.

But there are a few negatives:
-Maintaining a rotation of creative people can be like herding cats. It takes a good amount of time and patience. Be prepared for a "no show" every now and then. I would recommend a good worship planning software to manage your players.
-Rehearsals become very important because each team plays a little differently together.
-You must be careful to not get too many players involved. It's hard to develop any tightness if you are only playing once a month.

In the end, I lean toward rotating players. I think the benefits outweigh the risks. I also think the worship leader role should be rotated, but that's a different posting all together!

Comments

[Paul J.]

Glad that I sparked some discussion!
One other major negative I've found from rotating the musicians:
If someone isn't "up" that week, then there's little if any motivation to learn the song. We are constantly encouraging our musicians to go to our online planning software and look at the setlist EVEN if they're not playing. Learn a new song if you see it! Practice ANYWAY!
Otherwise, you have the learn-the-new-song-twice scenario you mentioned.

[Russell]

In my last church we had kind of a mixture. We had two set but rotating teams. They both met each week for rehearsal. If team A was playing then they would be in the sanctuary with the sound system rehearsing for that Sunday. Team B was in our rehearsal room working on songs for the next week. When we had someone new that was interested the could sit in with the band that was (off) that week.
It helped with learning music because each team had two weeks to work out stuff. It also helped because a team could repeat a song they had played previously but the congregation was getting a fresh group every Sunday morning.

[Kris]

I play electric guitar on a worship team that has a set leader (paid staff) who leads every week. We have one guy who plays bass, and only two who play drums, so the leader, bass and drums are pretty tight. This is good, and bad. Sometimes if the spirit leads, the leader will take-off on a new song (in the middle of the set, or in the middle of another song) that they each know well, but it hasn't even been discussed among the rest of us, much less rehearsed.
I wish we had another bass player to balance out the mix and do some different things. Because this man has been the only one for so long, he acts as if he owns the job, and takes inputs from no one (even the leader) about how much to play or how loud.
We rotate vocalists, keyboards, and electric guitars every week. We rehearse for two-hours on Thursday nights, whoever is scheduled for Sunday. I play about twice a month, which is enough of a commitment for me. We start at 730 Sunday morning, we pray, rehearse, play two services and I don’t get home until around 2 pm. There is not much left of my “day of rest” after that.
The four guys who play electric guitar all have different styles and it works very well for the type of worship we do. One guitarist can also play keyboards, and harmonica, he sings well and can lead if necessary. His guitar style is very advanced, a lot of jazz-type chords. I’m more of a metal-head, straight 4/4 and power chords kind of player. He and I are the only two who can successfully co-exist on the same stage and not sound like a ‘wall of guitars’. Some weeks they ask me to play even though it’s not my week because they want to do one song or another (My Glorious, Happy Day, or Broadcast are some examples). We usually tell a scheduler about a month out when we are available to play, and then if there are any holes, they try to find someone. Once the schedule is published, if you are supposed to play and can’t you are responsible to find someone else to play for you.
Two worship teams would be better, that would give time to rehearse, reflect, and just participate in the worship rather than lead it. Leading worship should never, ever be a job, a gig, or a show. If it is, you have lost your focus.

[Jon]

I'm actually curious about how the congregation responds to both bands. It's something i've been thinking about lately, if our goal is to help draw people into worship, is that easier to accomplish with a single leader for multiple weeks (then rotate) or with multiple leaders every week? It seems like there's so many unconscious clues and styles that vary with every leader (voice inflection, band musical queues, etc.) that "tip" people off as to where the song is going next that in a constantly changing scenario the worshipers will be more focused on where the song is going than to be able to settle down and focus more on worship. Has anyone else seen this or given it any thought?