Just in the same way that Thanksgiving dinner involves a scheduled time set-up and sequence, teaching new songs to the church involves those same three steps. These three steps are critical in helping the church digest something new that their bodies are not yet used to as part of their worship diet.
Worship leaders must develop their own filters to determine and discern what music is appropriate for their worship diet and worship culture at their church. Choosing songs merely based on preference alone, what’s “hot” on the radio or what stimulated a meaningful worship experience in your car aren’t necessarily great metrics for determining what truth to put into the mouths of worshippers on the weekend.
I’ve never met a worship leader who doesn’t desire a deep bench of skilled musicians and vocalists to serve on their team. Building any type of ministry takes a lot of hard work and is not for the faint of heart. Over the past 20 years I’ve had the great privilege of being involved with four church plants. Having built worship ministries from scratch, I learned many of these principles through much trial and error.
One of my favorite things to do with creatives is brainstorm. Creative brainstorms are a great way to uncover fresh ideas, promote team ownership and give your broader team(s) a voice into service design.
Part of shepherding a worship team is time management. Unless you work with pro musicians every week, you probably want to rehearse and even if you have a stellar band, there’s great value in simply being together in community.
It would not be an overstatement to suggest that Integrity Music, specifically their Hosanna! Music series of live worship recordings, influenced and changed the way North America worships.
Just as flags mark ownership and territory, songs often reflect the desires we have for the Lord to take deeper ownership and territory of our hearts.
One of the most daunting things both a worship leader and pastor face every Monday morning is a blank sheet of paper.
A worship leader’s job is done when the church sings aloud in spirit and truth.
Critical to the effectiveness of any worship ministry is determining what songs you will use to lead your people in worship.
Travis Doucette • Worship Blog 