Tuesday, August 25, 2015

The New Normal

I promise you, I don’t mean to sound like I am complaining, but sometimes I wonder if I am a glutton for punishment or just a plain idiot.  As the church has grown, the worship ministry has grown with it.  So, where once it was just me, the pianist, and the choir, we now have multiple worship teams that I am in charge of.  We have 2 Sunday morning worship teams that alternate Sundays, plus the worship choir.  And what a blessing they are!  God has blessed our church with so much talent and with a group that really wants to lead in worship.
  
But it’s getting to be a lot of people.  I looked at next month’s Praise Team/Band schedule and there are 27 different names on it.  TWENTY-SEVEN!  And that doesn’t even include the choir.  So, in 10 years, we’ve gone from 2 to 27.  That is unbelievable!  And don't get me wrong, I am extremely grateful for each one of them.  And for the most part, I’ve gotten used to scheduling this many people each month.  They are broken up into 2 teams with Team 1 handling the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month and Team 2 handling the 2nd and 4th Sundays.  For months with a 5th Sunday and our 1st Wednesday services, I just mix and match from the 2 teams.   And the 2 team system seems to be working.  People aren’t getting burned out like they used to.  Plus, we are able to get some of our young people involved.  And they need as much experience as possible because some of us (me included) are getting older and won’t be around forever. 
 
But now that we are going to 3 Sunday morning services each week (in October), things are changing again.  We are now adding a full Wednesday night service each week.  And that means I get to create another team to handle Wednesday nights.  I already have a few people that will play each week, but the rest will be Sunday morning team members who have agreed to fill-in on a once-a-month basis for the Wednesday night service.  That means that every Wednesday night will feature a completely different group of singers/musicians.  YIKES!  

But here’s the thing.  We don’t have a choice.  Our church is growing and I have to have this new team to put people on to.  Right now, if a new acoustic guitar player or pianist or bass player were to join the church and want to get involved, I don’t have a place for them.  We’re kind of full.  And I don’t want us to ever be like that.  I know of churches where they have their worship team in place and there are no openings.  Like EVER.  I don’t want us to be like that.  If God brings talented singers/musicians to Mt. Pleasant who want to get involved, then I want to have a place for them. 

So, I’ll just keep doing my best to schedule everyone.  This is our new normal.  And in the end I believe it will work out very well.  But until we get to that point, just know that if I have a crazed look in my eyes, it’s probably because my brain is friedJ.

Worship Big!

Brad

No comments:

Post a Comment