If there’s someone in the worship world who feels alone and forgotten, it’s the worship leader who leads a small team. Because you’re not focused on being cool or different. You’re trying to make it through Sunday. You’re trying to give your church the best worship experience possible.
But sometimes your drummer doesn’t show up.
Your piano player doesn’t know how to keep it simple.
Your vocalists don’t have the greatest tone or pitch.
Maybe you don’t have a clue what you’re doing.
You feel stuck, confused, not sure where to go next.
Sound familiar?
Leading a small team can be the result of lazy leadership – you don’t recruit, you don’t take the time it takes to grow it. But I’m not talking about that. That’s for another blog post. Sometimes it has to do with where your church is located. Or the size of your church. Or some other dynamics we can’t even see.
And I want to encourage you today, small church worship leader, to lift your head high and rise up to the next level.
Here’s a few steps you can take:
1. Become the Excellence You Want to See – Just being real, sometimes we are the ones who stand in our own way. We can alienate people by our personality. We can frustrated others by our disorganization. Don’t be the reason your team lacks momentum. Step it up and worship, lead, organize, and be the excellence you’d love to see spread across your team.
2. Realize What Makes Worship Powerful – You could have the largest team in the world with the best musicians in the world playing the best songs in the world. And still, it could be dry, lifeless, fake. Powerful worship doesn’t consist in the size and quality of your band. It consists in the hunger of the worshipers. How hungry are you? How hungry is your team, no matter how small it is? How hungry is your church? Focus on stoking that flame of desire, no matter how small or inexperienced your team is.
3. Be OK with Simple – I get it – you’d love to provide your church with something more dynamic. They’ve heard the acoustic guitar and cajon long enough. I get it. But just realize that simple is the song of the people. Concert style worship has its place too, but in most local church settings, it doesn’t connect. People don’t believe it. They watch, they don’t engage. They’re not impressed because they didn’t come to be impressed. They’re looking to get close to Jesus. Use your simple setup to your advantage.
4. Take Baby Steps – If you want to try something new, take it one step at a time. Add one new instrument. Simplify your vocal line. Use pad loops or MultiTracks. Try software keys. Provide an online course for your team to go through. Whatever it is, try it one step at a time. Don’t feel the need to overhaul everything quickly.
5. Prioritize People – The reason you are in a local church is to disciple people. That’s also the best way to grow a church. Be present with your church, with your team. Pray for them, challenge them, call them to higher things. Don’t use people to move up in your ministry career. Ministry is and always will be about the people.
I’d love to hear from you.
What is the size of your church and what are the struggles you are having? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
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I lead worship for a congregation that really functions as an evangelistic team. We go out often to other areas to minister. Because of the nature of the group, it is small. Some nights we have 15; some nights we have 5. I mostly lead worship alone, and everyone is happy with this. Some folks in the group are hungry and passionate and with some you can’t ever tell what’s happening from the looks on their faces. I love them all and even in this small group I get a lot of feedback on what ministered to them. That is always encouraging. I used to play and lead for larger groups, so I miss the interaction with other musicians as well as the ways we learned from each other and “played off” of each other. So I’m starting a community worship night with musicians and friends from different congregations. We’re going to pull in worship leaders for other congregations as well. I’m excited to do something to unify musicians and congregations; especially in the Nashville area where worship leaders often get hung up on performance issues.
This is great, Danielle! Love how you’re stepping out and making things happen.
Thank you so much for this. I definitely needed this tonight. It helps knowing that I’m not the only worship leader trying to lead a small, beginner level group. Thank you for that comfort and encouragement. Life is really hard when you don’t have a reminder that you’re not the only one who doesn’t have it all together.
Be encouraged, Sydney! God is using you right where you are.
Our church is under 100 yet we have incredibly talented and dedicated team members. They have shown more grace, patience, and support than I’ve dared to hope for. I am currently in the process of recording a worship cd, including several original songs that we sing in worship services. These outstanding musician ministers have taught me so much about being a good ministry leader, sometimes painfully so, but our rapport is a treasure that I am blessed to enjoy every time we gather for rehearsals and worship services. ~ Blessings!
So great. Are you recording the songs with your team or outside musicians?
Thanks for the response, David! I would truly love nothing more than to record the songs with the team, even as a live album. Perhaps someday but this time around I’m going back to my roots, so to speak, with a producer/friend I’ve known and respected for almost 25 years. I’d love your take on whether to have the team learn the recorded parts when the cd comes out or to let their own creativity take over during worship services. ~ Blessings!
My recommendation is to have your team learn the recorded parts. It teaches discipline and is a great way to ensure quality. I allow a musician’s creativity to “take over”, but only when they’ve proven they can play someone else’s part, have learned simplicity, work hard on their craft, and have the right attitude.
Thank-You! It was encouraging to have something directed towards the small team. I lead worship at a small church in a small town. I have experienced all of the things you mentioned in the article. It’s just refreshing to have it mentioned as most things are about the bigger churches with the multiple musicians. Writing music is not my strong point nor is it a priority. I am just wanting to create the worship atmosphere for my team and congregation on Sunday without too many distractions. I am blessed to have great people on my team who are learning to be more flexible and give it their all every week. Only by the Holy Spirit can anything come to fruition. Thanks again for the encouragement
For sure, Amy! I applaud you for what you do. Our “worship culture” tends to spotlight (maybe not intentionally) the high profile, massively gifted, songwriting types. But that’s not what defines success in a local context. Creating an atmosphere of undistracting excellence (as John Piper calls it) is what matters.
Thank you for remembering the worship leaders from the tiny church’s. I usually roll my eyes at the blog posts I read concerning “small churches”. They are usually directed to a church of 100-250 people and are not even useful information in my setting. I lead/pastor at a tiny church of 10-25 people including children. When I arrived we had a piano player and then myself on guitar/drums. So I started training people who were interested in learning how to play instruments. For the last 10 months I now have a team of 4-5 playing drums, guitar, bass and piano. It has not been easy but it has been fun mentoring individuals in their instrument. A couple months ago I have changed focus to encourage them to start worshipping while playing their instrument. This has completely changed the dynamic of the group. But now I am recruiting others and would like to form a second worship team. I am not just focusing on training our youth but on all ages. One of my bass players is turning 65 this weekend!
I appreciate this article because it’s confirming my path for the past couple of years. Thank you for your ministry and may God continue to bless you and this ministry
This is awesome, Steve. Way to go man! You’re doing a better job developing musicians than some large churches are doing. Keep killing it.
This article really resonated with me. At my smaller church (<100 people), I am fortunate to have a core group of four people – myself on keyboard, guitar, drums, and vocalist. Other people come and go, but they've been with me for the nine years I've been in this ministry.
My personal worship preferences lean a lot more contemporary than the congregation at my church, and there are times that I wonder if I would be more effective in a more modern worship setting. However, every time I think that, I realize that God has placed me at my church for a reason. It's a lot more challenging than I'd like sometimes, but as long as I'm supposed to be here, I will serve to the best of my ability.
We also look for ways to expand our worship team's ministry outside of the church. Like Glory, I was fortunate enough to record a CD this past year, blending both my worship team with some occasional outside musicians. I'm thankful that I've been called to where I'm supposed to be, and I just hope and pray that my efforts have been fruitful for Him.
Love your attitude, Ryan. I’m challenged by leaders who don’t think their entitled to something “bigger & better”. Keep up the good work!
Trust me, there are times I’m ready to scream because the sound guy went to Europe for a summer abroad without telling me (true story), but it all averages out. Where do I send my petition to the universe to change the length of the day to 28 hours?
Thank you so much. My wife and I were voluntold 1 1/2 yrs ago to lead worship in a small church in Blackburn OK. Our church, including the youth, numbers around 40 people mostly over 60. I was a guitar strummer, beginner level, and my wife reads, transposes music. She plays piano and flute and is learning bass guitar. My 11 yr old has been taking drum lessons for 5 months and has played in church a little bit. The people really encourage him to play with us and love it. My oldest is 16 and sings with 5 other youth group girls. My 14 yr old is learning how to run our small sound board. I have greatly improved, mid intermediate, not just guitar but also how to work with my wife in this. We just started two smaller teams but are greatly limited in musicians, just me and my wife and part time son. I a challenged and encouraged in this article, niether my wife nor myself have done this before. Lots of other blogs deal with professional worship groups and technical stuff, I really appreciate your focus on simplicity. Thank you again.
I,Enjoy the article and I will like to learn more.
Over the summer our worship team will be doing more of a stripped down acoustic set each week. What are some of your ideas to best facilitate a creative space for people to encounter Jesus. Worship team ideas and congregational involvement ideas.