Worship Together Blog

Team Building - Thoughts from Nehemiah

I was reading through the first couple chapters of Nehemiah today and realized how many great leadership lessons there are to learn from our Biblical contractor.

1. Nehemiah had a passion for people first, church second. It says in chapter 1 verse 2 that Nehemiah questioned Hanani about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. In ministry, we often get these two things reversed. We have a passion first for our ministry and second for the people. This often leads to "using" our flock to accomplish our ministry goals.

2. Nehemiah was courageous. He knew that allowing the king to see him unhappy might be a death sentence. Not to mention his bold request for time off, letters of permission, and resources. However, he was willing to take the risk in order to accomplish something great for his people. We need more courage from our church leaders (speaking to myself as well) to do and say the right things even when it hurts.

3. Nehemiah had a plan. In the second chapter, Nehemiah slips out of Jerusalem by night to get a firsthand look at the damaged walls. He knew he would probably get one shot to present his case to the people. He had to have a plan that was practical and inspirational. As creative people, sometimes planning isn't our strong suit. However, it is vital that we know where we are going as a team for everyone to feel safe to contribute.

4. Nehemiah was patient. Notice in chapter 2 verse 11 that he stayed in Jerusalem for 3 days before heading out to inspect the wall. Now 3 days isn't very long, but there's a principle here that is often violated in church leadership. John Maxwell calls it the Law of Buy-In. It simply means that people buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. Many church leaders have crashed and burned in their first year of ministry by violating this principle. People need time to get to know a leader and for the leader to build relationships with the people. Putting programs before people will result in hurt and inevitably broken relationships. 

Lead well! 

How To Start a Youth Band

If you are involved with youth worship or are starting a youth worship team, this podcast from Jeff Deyo will be really helpful.

Church Band - A New Blend

Have you ever took a look at your worship team members and said to yourself, "Only God could assemble such an interesting and diverse group of musicians!"

A few weeks ago, I was setting up my guitar rig on a Sunday morning. As I was positioning my amp to hit me right in the left ear, I realized that it was also going to blast several female singers. Now usually in a band, I wouldn't care who got blasted, but I felt bad. So bad that I felt the need to apologize, in advance, for the ear ringing that I was about to give them.

Church band dynamics are always interesting. It's blue jeans and Sunday dresses. Pink Flying V guitars and a tambourine. Double kick drum kits and a grandma pianist. It's U2 meets choral ensemble!

Tell us about your unique worship team dynamics.

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!

Worship Band Rotation

Have you ever had your pastor or a church leader approach you after a service asking why you have the same people up there every week? Little do they know, the reason everything has been flowing so well lately is because the band finally starting to gel. We all know that leading becomes a whole lot easier when your band knows what it means when you are stomping your foot for a build or throwing your guitar neck up to signal the end of a song.

I've led worship at a wide variety of churches over the years. At some it was consistently the same group, and at others there was an entirely different band and LEADER week-in and week-out. Most of the time though this was dictated by church size, how many players we had and if the pastor  wanted the same person on the platform each week.

We'd like to see how you're handling rotating your team, so here's a few questions for you...

• Are you flooded with talent or putting up audition fliers at the local coffee shop?
• How do to you handle rotating your team? Are there members you can't do without each week?
• How often do you get to step down and be in the congregation?

Worship Band Rehearsal - Part 2

Continued from prior post...

4. Make sure your rehearsal is at least 3 hours. Seriously people, unless your worship band is going on tour, this is ridiculous. The last thing your volunteer musicians want is to spend an entire evening away from their famliies for a worship rehearsal that should have ended after the first hour. If you are only introducing 1 new song (see point 2), then you should be able to run through that song 2 or 3 times, practice your known songs once, spend some time in prayer, and still be done within an hour!

5. Consistantly show up late and allow others to do the same. It's amazing how much this is just expected and tolerated among musicians. When people are consistantly late, it says to everyone else "my time is more important that yours". As the leader, if you refuse to deal with this, eventually everyone will begin showing up late. Then your rehearsals will run long (see point 4).

6. Give everyone only words with chords. It's amazing how many worship leaders bring only lyric chord charts to rehearsal. Playing a new song with a chord chart is like fumbling around for the light switch in a dark room. Companies like www.praisecharts.com or www.ccli.com/songselect/ can help you with charts. If you are committed to only using chord charts, at least allow your band to hear the song in advance.

These are not a sure fire formula for success, but if you follow these suggestions, you will navigate safely through the dangerous field and avoid many pitfalls that others (including myself) have painfully experienced!

Blessings on your ministry!

Worship Band Rehearsal - Part 1

One of the most asked questions I hear from worship leaders who are just starting to lead is how to organize and facilitate worship band rehearsals. This sounds fairly simple, but it is a pretty pasture filled with land mines!

I've been involved in worship, either leading or as a musician, for the last 12 years and I've had all different experiences with rehearsals, good and bad. If you want your band to run screaming from the building, vowing to never play their instrument again, here's my top list of surefire irritations.

1. Don't prepare anything in advance. Nothing is more frustrating to the band than for the leader to show up with a big stack of song sheets, plop them down on floor, and ask "so what do y'all think we should sing this week?". Part of the leadership role is to discern in advance which songs should be sung that week, pull appropriate charts (I'll talk more about this next), and show up at rehearsal with a thought out plan. This doesn't mean you can't make changes, but at least everyone has a starting point.

2. Introduce 5 new songs. When the new Passion album releases, you must resist the temptation to introduce half of the songs to your band the next week. I suggest not introducing more than 1 new song per rehearsal. Your church will thank you as well :).

3. Create unique arrangements for every song. There are some exceptions to this no no. If all your songs are charted specifically for each instrument, all your players read music, and the song is new to your church, then I say go for it. However, if your band plays mostly by ear and chord charts, you're going to have problems. Also, once people learn the standard way to play or sing a song, playing different arrangements is difficult for the band and for your church to follow.

More to come...