Worship as a Team

One of the best things that I’ve ever done as a Worship Pastor is to make the change from me leading every song to having members of our worship team leading different songs.  So, on any given Sunday, we might do 6 songs and I am likely to only lead 1 or 2 of them.  That’s a big change from when I led all of them!  There were 2 main reasons for making this change.  1) our worship had become stagnant and felt the same week after week and 2) my responsibility as a Pastor is to equip our members for the work of the ministry as found in Ephesians 4:12 and by leading every song, I wasn’t doing that.  

So, about 5 ½ years ago we made the change.  I’ll be honest.  It wasn’t easy.  Our worship team was extremely nervous about stepping out front and leading.  They had become very comfortable standing in the background.  But it was good for them!  Eventually they got over their nervousness and started to embrace leading.  As they gained confidence they wanted to lead more and more.  Now, when we are learning a new song, I have team members asking me if they can lead it.  When we first started this, I had to beg and even force them to do it.  What a change!  

 
But not only has it instilled confidence in our team and made us stronger, I believe it has transformed our worship.  With different people leading each song, our worship never gets boring or stale.  People never know who will be leading what and it definitely keeps it interesting.  We also keep gaining new church members who want to get involved with our worship ministry.  They see the fact that being a part of our worship team means having the opportunity to be out front leading, not just swaying in the background.  People want that!  They want to use the talents that God has given them.  Because of this, I believe that we’ll just keep attracting people who want to get involved.  

 
Finally, one of the benefits of making this move that I didn’t foresee was the freedom it would give me.  I now have the freedom to listen more to what is going on around me.  When I’m singing and playing guitar at the same time, the vast majority of my concentration is going to my singing and playing.  But when I’m just doing one or the other, I can really listen to what others are doing around me.  I can correct little things that I was missing before.  It also gives me the freedom to think ahead about what’s coming next.  As a worship pastor, that is a HUGE advantage!  We can be finishing one song and I’m already thinking about the transition to the next one.  What a blessing!

 
We have a wonderful team here at MPBC and over the last few years God has really taken our worship and our worship team to another level.  And I believe a lot of it has to do with that decision that I made 5 ½ years ago.

Worship Big!

Brad