Worship Leading is a far more complex role than most worship leaders realize! They start off thinking that all they have to do is sing and the rest will follow, but over the years I have learned many things about worship leading and handling my musicians and singers. In creating and working with different worship teams I have also made hundreds of mistakes, most if which I do not want you to make when you are Worship Leading . I would like to share with you a couple of things I’ve been taught, in the hope that you’ll be able to duck these little bumps along your own journey.

Worship leading needs to be a passion for the worship leader, but for most of your band and singers, you may be dispirited to find that they are not as passionate as you when it comes to your worship leading!

We must not forget the members of the worship groups are volunteers. I know there are some churches that have paid musicians and singers but ninety percent of us have volunteers. In that we must recollect that while we must have a group of basic rules of our teams, we mustn’t be hard set in our worship leading policies. Here is what I mean by that. If your rules are too strict and or they are too controlling you will have trouble keeping volunteers. This is a mistake that I made early on and soon found out very quickly that a volunteers heart is to serve not be proscribed by a handful of rules. As I recall scripture has something to say about rules that are too stern. Are we going to act like Pharisees, or are we going to stand up and act like true worship leaders!

The best leaders lead by motivation, not by orders and rules. If you want the very best from your team, become a worship leader of the highest order, and inspire the adulation and devotion of those you lead in your Worship Leading ministry.

Another point to recollect is that we have got to be open to changing to the requirements of the team. Remember this is a worship leading ministry. For instance, say your drummer just got a new job. And part of that job needs him to take some night classes. He still wants to be on the team but his classes happen to be on the booked walk through nights. He knows that he must rehearse to be on the team. What do you do? Simply ask the remainder of the team if there is another night or time that they could meet. Almost all of the time you will be ready to work something out. I have done this for many different situations. Whether it be childcare or job related or what ever. The point is this is a Worship Leading ministry. Adapt to the requirements of the people as long as it will not hinder or affect the team in a negative way.

Another common mistake many worship leaders is making rehearsals too structured. Yes you want the band to be musically tight. And you have new songs you want to work on. But make sure you have fun too. Infrequently the team just wants to fellowship awhile with one another before you rehearse. Often you only need to jam together on a good chord progression. As an important point I suspect these jam sessions make the musicians tighter.

Again this is first and most important a Worship Leading ministry. We must never forget that. People must come before music. Get together for at least just rehearsals and the service. Do not simply rehearse and serve together, play together. Have parties. Go on barbecues. Have a game night or go out together. Simply put, have fun together away from the band setting. Fellowship together. This is a superb way to get to know one another and to build friendships and trust.

Remember, all work and no play will make the singers and musicians stay away.