This blog entry will be large-scoped and far-reaching - more philosophical, big picture stuff. Many of you know that my main gifts are in administration and the creation of systems in the area of worship has been a great part of the success of the worship transitions I've been a part of. Worship transitions often fail because people have no idea what they are working toward. You may not like everything on this list - but I'm fairly certain that, if you do each of the things, they'll cause your worship ministry to flourish. I think that if you do some of them, it might help - but I recommend all.Hopefully this list helps.
- Permanent Teams: There was a time in my life in ministry where I thought the creation of permanent worship teams was just a nice thing, but the longer I do this, the more I feel it is essential - the most essential piece of transitioning a worship ministry, in fact. Perhaps the best reason for this is the chaos that not doing it creates. I talk to so many worship people who are drowning in their positions because they have to recruit new teams of people every week, teach them new songs, create on the fly and have no sort of debriefing or evaluative mechanism. The critics will say, of course, that creating permanent teams is exclusionary and doesn't allow for maximum participation in worship. But, last I checked not everyone is gifted for participation in worship - probably not even 40% of people. Why put people on stage just to put them on stage? Additionally, creation of permanent teams is almost always accompanied by the creation of a system for team entrance, be it auditions or whatever. The pros to permanent teams are immense. First of all, creating permanent teams creates community - a small group atmosphere - where people can live in purposeful relationship with eachother. This has a spiritual benefit, but also a musical one. Most live bands practice for hours upon hours before ever playing a song in public - they need to know the other musicians, know the songs inside and out and understand the direction of the band. Why would we think worship teams are any different? Every church that I've seen build a team structure has benefited in the long run through cohesiveness, quality elevation and overall experience of the musicians. Rotating your teams also creates weeks off for band members - an essential to stopping the all-too-common problem of musician burnout in churches. I always set as a goal that NO ONE plays every week. The end result of this is two or three or more solid bands that grow together and support eachother - if you do no other thing on my list, please consider this one.
- Identify Permanent Team Leaders: The next step after creating your teams is identifying team leaders for each team. Some people are opposed to having a "worship leader", but let me tell you that the benefits are immense. At my church, my worship leaders conduct the entire service, other than specified announcements and the message. Worship leaders are primarily concerned with flow. Flow is the key to quality worship in the modern environment and without someone directing the show, flow won't happen, I promise you - make awkwardness your enemy because it will chase away any guests that venture into your worship service. So where do I look for leaders? Sometimes its obvious and sometimes its not. And, in the interest of full disclosure, sometimes those who seem obvious for the job are the worst ones. Never hire anyone who is self-interested. Look at sports - selfish players ruin teams. I would sacrifice musical quality for selflessness any day of the week. If you have a piano player who wants control, do not give it to them. The best leaders are often those who don't want control, but are willing to lead. Once you have your leaders, make it obvious on stage - have them stand in front of the backup singers. Let them take the entrances so the congregation knows when to sing. Let them pick the songs. Let them develop the program. Support them, because they will feel like absolute crap on Sunday afternoons - we all do. Elevate them as leaders in the church. Make sure that when the band practices, the worship leaders ALONE are in charge of the sound, the order of verses/choruses/etc., prayer and every other aspect of practice. Worship leaders must be in the band - I've been in churches where someone on the worship committee, etc. picks the songs, directs practice but isn't actually on the team - its a recipe for disaster, folks. Your worship will only be as good as your worship leaders, trust me.
- Midweek Practice: If you're trying to do worship transition and aren't willing to make your band practice midweek - give up now. If musicians won't commit to midweek practice, let them find another place in the church to serve. Any time a change occurs anywhere in the church, if you want that change to stick, it needs quality. If you need another reason, we're doing it for God - its our firstfruits - so why give him our half-best? Please promise me right now you won't try to do modern worship in your church without a minimum of two one-hour practices for each service (we do Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings and both are longer than 1 hour). Your midweek service is the time to try stuff out - to fail. Your Sunday morning practice is strictly a dress rehearsal.
- Fill Your Band: Here is a revelation some of you need: 15 singers is not a band, its a choir. Choirs do not sing modern worship songs, bands do. Modern worship is written for modern worship bands, which consist, at the minimum, of a rhythm guitar, a lead guitar, a drummer, a bass guitar and vocalists. Keyboards are nice, but are optional. Some of you just got a queasy feeling. If you're wondering why your worship doesn't sound good, start with the band. If all you have is a keyboard and singers, please don't try to sing Hillsong. Please? - it just makes all of us look bad. Making sub-par music in a transitioning church is the #1 sure way to ensure people will fight you. Making quality music in a transitioning environment is the #1 to ensure your transition will happen. But I don't have musicians! (I heard you whining that just now). You can find them and there's advice in my previous posts about what rocks to look under. Stop whining - whiners seldom make good worship leaders.
- Debrief: One of the number one ways to improve your worship is to use some form of debriefing - and some way of evaluating. The best way I've found is to do a simple recording of the worship service and make everyone in the band watch the video, through YouTube and at practice - and then identify ways we can improve. But, if you lack that technology, you can have one team evaluate the other - honestly. The best way, however, is to make people watch themselves, listen to themselves and critique themselves. Unless they're people of low integrity (who shouldn't be on your team in the first place), they'll be horrified the first time. Being horrified is okay, if it puts you on a trajectory for improvement. Some people might quit after hearing themselves and, they might need to. Improvement always involves front-end quality checks and back-end quality checks. Make sure you pay attention to both.