Under resourced, under staffed and playing songs that looked dated fifteen years ago… small church worship?

Jamie, thank you for this insightful and encouraging post. I have enjoyed leading in a church of a couple of thousand and less than 100. I LOVE the freedom that comes in a smaller group. You hit the nail on the head as far as a place to train younger leaders with freedom to make mistakes. I learned to lead worship in a Monday night “Recovery” group of about a dozen folks who tolerated my inability to change chords on time for “Lord, I Lift Your Name”!
One of the other benefits of leading in a small church is the opportunity for interaction w/ the congregation. e.g., we recently had an open space for members to shout out words of thanksgiving as part of the call to worship. It’s great to turn the attention from the platform to the congregation from time to time. I don’t know if that would work in a room of 4,000, but certainly does for a smaller gathering.
It can be tempting to think that if our church isn’t huge, somehow we are not as successful, but I think that is not God’s economy.
Thanks for the encouragement, and I would just add my encouragement to all serving in “small” churches, as well. Frankly, in a small church, you really can get to know most of the people in the congregation, at least by face, and many in a more personal way. This changes how we lead, when the seats are full of people we really KNOW, not just faces among a crowd. What a blessing and great honor!

I’m currently serving in a smaller church as the Staff Minister (music & youth are my main responsibilities). It’s been cool to see the recent published information about smaller churches, especially since they are the majority. Though we’re the majority, it is rare that we are given or hear a public voice to represent us. (if you work with youth in the smaller church please read “Thriving Youth Ministry in Smaller Churches”… shameless plug)

There are many positives to leading worship music in a smaller church. You’ve mentioned some, but I would like to add something. Good music attracts good musicians. Even if you are the only one leading the music in your smaller church, strive to make every sound as high quality as possible.

The musicians in our worship band are all volunteers, except for me. To have such a small church, and yet have several quality musicians is a huge blessing. I believe this is first a gift from GOD, but I also believe it is in some way related to our attempt to maintain quality. I am not saying to disregard using new talent… just a reminder to not throw them up there too early. They aren’t all as brave as some of you and an initial bad experience could lead to quitting prematurely.

As in most things in smaller churches, this requires balance. I desire to be willing to give new talent a chance, but I also desire to guard the standard of what we do. This requires much wisdom from GOD (of which I ask for more), loving others mare than yourself & grace given freely.

Thank you for the article, and blessings to all you other smaller church worship leaders!

Alabama USA

I am the newest worship leader of 3 in our church of about 100 here in Canada. I have been feeling quite discouraged at the lack of flow in our services and the lack of consistency. We have three worship teams, and we each work pretty independantly from each other, picking from different song lists, with very different song styles and each in charge of planning everything about the service we are leading, except the message. Each one of us has unique music ability and love for God and love for the congregation and our team members. But we are definately working as individuals, since we don’t have a “worship pastor”. The responsibility I feel to be “pastorish” to the congregation is quite heavy since no one else says a “special welcome” at the beginning if we don’t come up with something, we are expected introduce the offering and perhaps pray over it too, if we don’t say some special blessing over the congregation at the end, no one else does that either. Add to it that each of our teams has around 5 people on it, some experienced and some not as much. Thankfully everyone is doing their best and have beautiful intentions and alot of love and respect for eachother. I just know our services as a whole aren’t very polished, although I think the individual songs are done well, the flow and consistency needs more work to allow the spirit of God to be felt, I believe we interupt people’s focus on God sometimes. I see the problem but I don’t see the solution.

I am encouraged that other people have listed the benefits of being in a smaller congregation, I myself would not have been involved as a worship leader in larger congregation with my skill level. I do know and love everyone in the congregation and it is definately not just an anonymous crowd of people. If anyone has any suggestions to the things I have listed above, I would love to hear them.