HOW TO DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE WORSHIP TEAM

HOW TO DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE WORSHIP TEAM

One of the biggest questions I am often asked is: how do you develop an effective worship team. While there are many factors that play into this equation, namely the will of God, there are 5 keys things that you can do as a lead worshiper to help build a solid foundation.

Purpose & Vision –

The purpose statement and vision of the ministry must be clearly laid out. This should go without saying, but the purpose of the team must be first and foremost about the glory of God. The purpose of the group must be to glorify God and God alone. If expressing the glory of God isn't the number one purpose of the ministry, it will fail. The second purpose of the group is to provide the church with a biblical avenue, for an outward expression, to the revelation, of the glory of God.

Prayer-

 Prayer is a major ingredient that must be built into the foundation in order to have a strong and effective worship team. Prayer must begin even before the group is being created. Pray that God would send you or lead you to the right people for each position. Once the team is assembled, praying for each other must become a priority. This is a key ingredient in order to create unity among the members. When you are interceding on behalf of someone else, bringing them before God, you can’t help but develop Gods heart for them.

Discipleship –

 Guiding the members of the group to grow spiritually, and helping them fall deeper in love with God, is another key ingredient to building an effective worship team. How can someone lead in the praise of a God they don’t know? So with that thought in mind, here are three things that I personally do, and highly recommend that will help your team to grow spiritually. Encourage them to daily have a time of personal prayer, personal praise and worship and bible study. Trust me if your whole team is applying these three disciplines on a daily basis, it will make your job as a worship leader much more enjoyable, and the team more effective.

Relationship–

 Building relationships with each member of your group is an extremely important part of building an effective worship team. How do you cultivate these close relationships? By spending chunks of unhurried time together. The time I am talking about is not the time spent rehearsing, but time away from the band setting. No don’t get me wrong rehearsals are a great time for building relationships, but getting together outside the band setting is very productive for relationship building. Try to make it a goal to spend time with each member of your group. Ask them over for dinner, or for a game night. You get the idea. The important thing to remember is that relationships are built by spending time together.

Creativity–

 This last topic is something that I have been doing from the beginning if my ministry.  God has given musicians and vocalist a wonderful gift. I strive to cultivate an environment that encourages the group members to grow creatively and artistically. What do I mean by that? Well, for example when we are learning a new song, we learn the basic feel of the song, but then I tell each member to make it their own. To use their gifting and go where the Spirit is leading them. One member of one of my worship teams said it is so to be a part of my teams because I don’t force them to follow the music exactly as it is written. He enjoys the fact that he can allow his creativity to show. Now they know that I do have the final say. If I don’t feel that what they are doing is a good fit then I will tell them so. But to be quite honest, I don’t have to do it very often.