This past week, our feared and revered worship leader, Matt Baker, was absent from church.
Fortunately, our church has the luxury of flexibility and versatility in the worship band context, and that is something needed now more than ever before.
So what that does look like, and how can you achieve it?
First of all, the worship leader needs to be a team builder.
Matt understands the value of putting together a good team of musicians, and it pays off each and every week.
In his absence, our cohort, Jason, was tasked with leading the worship.
Like myself, Jason plays a variety of different instruments. We can each hold our own across bass, guitar, and percussion. And, we each have keyboard/piano experience as well.
Jason and his family are wonderful singers, so it worked really well. Jason stepped up and, really, things went off without a hitch.
But it STARTS with the worship leader. It didn’t go that way because Jason has talent, or because I have a talent or whatever.
NONE of that would matter without a solid, team-building leader.
Second, the worship musicians need to be team players.
It was about 8:45 this past Sunday morning. Church starts at 9.
We had finished practicing the hymns we were going to be singing that morning, church started at 9, and we had not yet gotten to practice the choir opener.
Why? Well, the piano player who usually plays for choir openers had not quite made it there yet.
I can play piano by ear a bit, and I knew how to play the song.
So I jumped up to the piano, and started to make sure I could play it. We were just about to start running through it, when, lo and behold, she was there! Just in time!
The only unfortunate part of this scenario is now folks know that I know just enough about a piano to be dangerous…lol.
The point is—I would have been TERRIFIED to actually do it. But, I’m a team player.
The options were:
- Play it.
- Find a new song.
- Pray she showed up without a backup plan.
Given the time constraints, option 1 was best for the worship experience, putting aside my own fears and insecurities.
Here is the moral of today’s story: If you’re a team building worship leader who can find team players for worship musicians, you will dramatically cut down potential for Sunday morning woes and worries.
Steve Schramm
P.S. Our worship education program, Worship By Numbers, will not teach you how be a “good” worship leader, whatever that even means—however, it will show you how to unify your band with a system that will change EVERYTHING about the way you play music. (You can even use this method to CREATE versatility in your band if you don’t have it yet.) Here’s how to get started for free: www.WorshipByNumbers.com.