Most worship leaders I talk to are dissatisfied with their teams.
This is what I hear:
- They’re not the best musicians.
- They don’t worship.
- They don’t show up on time.
- They only attend church when they’re scheduled to play.
This isn’t necessarily a people problem. It’s a culture problem. For your team to rise to the next level, you need to take responsibility for the culture.
Consider Starbucks.
They have created a culture surrounding their product. Starbucks isn’t about coffee. It’s about atmosphere. It’s escapism at its finest.
What about your worship team? What culture are you creating?
Whether you like it or not, you are reproducing who you are. The people who work with you will become like you – value what you value, prioritize your priorities, and demonstrate your attitudes.
As worship leaders, we don’t just want to give marching orders and accomplish tasks. We want to grow people.
That’s what culture is all about.
3 Culture Creating Values
Your values may differ. Matter of fact, I hope you think long and hard about this and come up with your own. Take a minute and share your rough thoughts in the comments. Nothing like getting some real-time feedback from other worship leaders.
Here are 3 of my top values:
1. A Pursuit of His Presence – There is nothing more convicting than reading the Psalms. Consider David’s pursuit of the presence of God:
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4).
Or
“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).
Are you known for such a relentless pursuit? Or are you just known for pulling off services?
2. A Priority of Excellence – Excellence in worship is about being invisible – it’s about directing as much attention to Christ as possible.
Before you pick your setlist, before you rehearse with your team, before you lead worship, ask yourself the question: “How can I present the clearest picture of Christ? How can I magnify the cross and get out of the way?”
Your excellence and attention to detail makes a way for Christ to be seen.
3. A Passion to Serve the Church – A worship team is more like foot washing than it is performing. It’s more about the Kingdom than it is fulfilling your rockstar fantasies.
Think about your worship leading from the perspective of your church.
How can you come alongside 75 year old Sally and help her connect with Jesus? How can you help connect 15 year old, bored-out-of-my mind Billy to the God of the universe?
You can create a culture you are proud of – a culture that makes disciples, raises up leaders, and releases people to make a difference.
Question: What are the values you embrace for your worship team? What is your culture like? Let’s share in the comments!
Wow! I have so enjoyed reading your blog. Although, I am not the worship leader at my church, I am on the worship team. I must say that our Worship Leader exudes all you have written. I immensely agree that it begins with the leader and that we will imitate what we see being lived out in front of us.
We have to be constantly in communion with GOD through prayer, the word and our relationships with each other. Always dying to ourselves for the sake of our worship team family. Living it out is our greatest witness as we lead our church family in worship each week.
I love the nights that we meet for worship practice and we end up praying and communing with one another and are left with only about a few minutes to practice but I must admit that week is by far some of the best worship weeks because God was exalted and our hearts united through Him. Or, the weeks that practice turns into a break out worship session. Don’t get me wrong we believe in musical excellence but we also allow the Spirit drive our times together.
We have to be always praying for our united worship team because the enemy does not want to see us succeed and will try everything possible to divide us. Our Culture must be united in Love.
Thanks for letting me share my heart with you. Keep blogging because I am really enjoying them.
Blessings!
Thanks for sharing, Cindy! Sounds like you have a culture of worshipers!
Kudos for this post. Developing a healthy worship culture takes time and vision. Worship ministry is all about serving the Lord and others. On that bedrock value I’d like to add:
Treat People Right – show your volunteers you appreciate them, invest in them, encourage them, make it safe for them to be open and honest, make space to build personal relationships with them, help them connect with the senior leader(s), teach them that honor is a two-way street, respect the fact that they have busy lives, make it a joy for them to serve.
Nailed it, Rob. I think I want to do a whole post on this to get more feedback from some other worship leaders. How we treat our volunteers is such an essential topic!
Amazing post, each point is spot on!
If I may add one more: an attitude of humility and submission.
Bro, so sorry, I noticed your comment in my spam folder. I’m not sure why it keeps going there?
That’s strange, never happened before 🙂
David- thanks for this post. It’s very timely for me! My first 6 months at this church have been spent assessing and learning the culture that is already here. Thankfully it’s pretty solid! But now, I’d like to begin deepening it and your post offers some great ideas for that. Thanks, man!
Awesome. What church are you at, Joe?
Broomfield United Methodist Church in beautiful Broomfield, CO. 🙂