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I know you’ve been there.
You’re the worship pastor, the worship leader, the music minister, the architect of spiritual atmospherics, and you have some people on your team that can’t cut it.
Their attitudes drain the life out of rehearsals, their musicality is poor, they show up unprepared, late, and with a Big Mac, super-sized extra value meal that they proceed to eat during rehearsal.
And they just don’t seem to take instruction or work with a team very well.
How did you get here?
I think we’ve all been in this place where we either inherited a worship team mess or we created one ourselves.
I’d like to help you with some tips on how to go about auditioning new worship team members.
5 Tips For Auditioning New Team Members
1. Set High Standards
It is better for your worship team to consist of you and an acoustic guitar than with a harmonica enthusiast, drunk percussionist, horn section, rain stick amateur, 7 year old drummer, pot-smoking dulcimer player, and someone who likes to sing.
OK, that was a bit ridiculous.
But it’s better to have a smaller team that is tight than a massive team that doesn’t know what they’re doing. Build your team slowly over time. You don’t need 40 acoustic guitar players like Hillsong. Start small. Create quality environments with less.
2. Develop An Audition Strategy
Many churches hold mass auditions. Others, completely avoid them. Either way, my philosophy here is that you develop a strategy that suits your culture. If you avoid mass auditions, make sure you engage with your congregation and find the musicians. When you encounter them, invite them to hang out at your next rehearsal.
Don’t say, “Hey! come join our worship team. Wanna play next Sunday?” Keep it casual until you know for sure this person is a good fit.
If you want to hold auditions, communicate up front that not everyone will make the team. Be very clear on what you want people to prepare for their audition. Here’s what I would recommend:
- Play whatever they want
- Play the part to a popular worship song at your church (with a click track, preferably)
- Talk with them and gauge where their heart and attitude is.
3. Be Honest Up Front
If you assess someone who wants to be on the worship team, be up front immediately about what you’re going to do. Don’t beat around the bush and say you’ll get back to them. You won’t. It’s confrontation we all like to procrastinate on. Just tell them.
Trust me, they’ll appreciate your honesty up front. Suggest ways they can improve. Tell them you’ll listen to them again after a few months of hard work. It’s not that you enjoy turning people away, it’s that you want a skillful team that knows how to minister worship music. You need a certain degree of musical skill.
4. Have A Plan B
People are very self-conscious and emotionally attached to their musical skills. You will quite possibly offend some people when you turn them away. Maybe they were the “main drummer” at their last church and feel they should fulfill the same role on your team.
Don’t just turn them away but suggest other areas in the church where they could serve. We always suggest the choir for those who want to be on the worship team but don’t have the skills to be that front-and-center.
Here’s the bottom line: pastor these people. If you approach a difficult conversation with the heart of a pastor, you’ll avoid much pain. You still won’t please everyone, but it goes a long way to encourage and pray for people.
5. Look For More Than Skill
You need people who are fun. You need people who have a heart for God and for music. You need people who are humble and can take instruction without ‘knowing it all’. As I mentioned before, look for that in your audition.
I’ve worked with musicians who had minimal skill but because they had personality, heart, and humility, I was able to train them to be better. If someone already knows it all, you probably want to suggest another area of ministry.
Here’s the deal: before you even audition anyone, you should have a process for those who you accept and those you turn away.
Take Action
What is your audition plan? Take some time this week and map it out.
Put yourself in the shoes of a new musician. What is the process of:
- The initial connection
- To audition process
- Communicating your vision & expectations
- Scheduling them to serve
I’d love to hear about your audition process. Feel free to shoot me an email to talk further.
P.S.
Get here from Twitter or a link from a friend? This is a 20-part course called “Next Level Worship Leading”. You can sign up for yourself here. Go ahead, you won’t regret it.