GROWING THE TEAM

One of the hot topics I hear a lot in my worship circles is this idea of who can serve on your team, how do you train them and how do you decide who’s a “yay” or a “nay”. It seems like the answers are as diverse as the churches they come from. I’ve certainly heard a lot of them, and probably not all, as I’m sure you have as well. For this post, I decided to share a bit about the process we take at this point at my church, LBC. It’s not the “right” answer, but it is one. The hope is that maybe it will contribute to the greater conversation about this stuff. I hope to hear lots of other stories about how others tackle the same stuff.

The first thing we’ve committed to is that our worship ministry team is going to be made up strictly of “believers” (that is to say folks who’ve made a commitment to Christ). We’ve decided that since our model involves the entire team as worship leaders that we need to assume a certain level of understanding about what’s going on when we gather to worship from the folks doing the leading. That said, I know churches who use their worship band as a bit of an outreach tool and an entry point for some folks exploring Christianity, and it seems to work in their context. I don’t necessarily think there’s a clear right or wrong on this one, but I do think it’s a question you need to ask yourself and settle one way or another in your scenario.

Secondly, we have a doorway by which anyone who has a desire to serve in worship ministries must enter. (That sounded grandiose, didn’t it? I pictured a rickety old bridge with a white-bearded wizard guarding the entrance…and maybe some kind of troll hiding underneath.) All that means is we have a process everyone has to follow. The first step is an “application”, for want of a better word. This is basically just an information form I ask everyone to complete that gives me an idea of who they are, what their musical experience is, some info about their testimony and relationship with Christ and so on. It’s available to be filled out online, and you can check it out here if you like. (Editor’s note: While much of this form has been generated internally, we have unabashedly pillaged from some others who do something similar for some great questions to include, like Harvest Bible Chapel among others.)

The next step after this form is an orientation/training night. We hold one of these a few times a year and they’re a requirement for anyone interested in hopping on board the worship team (musician, tech or otherwise). The idea behind this is that first of all it requires something of the interested party. I want to see if they’ll show up, if they show up on time and so on. Secondly, it gives us a chance to give everyone a clear understanding of what worship means to us at LBC and to be clear about what they’d be committing to should they pursue involvement in worship with us. It always starts with a brief talk about our theology of worship done by our Senior Pastor. This is on purpose too. On one hand, he’s a great teacher when it comes to this stuff, but more importantly it models the idea that worship is a church-wide thing and not just a little island unto itself. I like folks to hear the heart behind our worship values straight from the proverbial top. Following that, I walk through our philosophy of worship and work my way down to the practicalities involved. You can have a look at the booklet we hand out for folks to follow along with here (or the teacher’s guide here), just keep in mind it’s a point form hand out and may be a bit out of context without the accompanying talk. Also keep in mind that it’s designed to be printed as a booklet and will therefore appear out of order.

After attending this little workshop, it’s up to the individual. If they decide they want to continue to pursue things it becomes their responsibility to contact me as the worship director to set up a meeting. This meeting just gives me a chance to ask a few more questions about their heart based on what they’ve shared in the application process. We also require a small audition process. I wish their was a better word, but my vocabulary is too stunted by quotes from The Office and hockey statistics to come up with a better one. We don’t require a professional level of musical prowess across the board. We do require a base level of competence. It’s not about perfection, but there is a quick pace involving new songs often week to week and a steep learning curve. One of our goals as a worship ministry is to manage distraction, and unfortunately constant wrong notes can be a pretty serious distraction for the worshiper. Those are just the facts, ma’am. If the person “isn’t quite there yet”, I don’t like to just leave it at a “no”. I try to make some suggestions like, “Try this DVD with some exercises and lessons and work with that for 3 months and we’ll meet again”.

The last thing is what we call a “Covenant Commitment”. It’s not a contract or anything like that, strictly speaking. It is, however, a clearly stated and exhaustive document outlining what’s expected and required of each team member. Our goal here is to make everyone aware of what they’re signing up for, and it gives us all a level playing field for holding each other accountable. No surprises for anybody that way. There’s a spot to sign it if you so choose, but that’s not the point for me. If folks want to fold it up and keep it in their Bible or wallet, that’s fine with me. All I ask is that they let me know if there’s any part of it they can’t commit to if they plan to move forward with it. If you want to take a look at that, you can check it out here.

What about you and your team? How do you grow and enfold new people? Do you have a set process? Love to hear how other churches are doing this stuff!

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