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1. If I replaced my guitar strings, I’d blow my budget. For the year.
2. The congregation follows the loudest singer in the room. Unfortunately, she’s not on the team. Nor a great singer.
3. I entered a three-month depression after attending a national worship leader’s conference.
4. The senior pastor is also the worship leader. And youth pastor. And custodian….
5. The room is too small to handle acoustic drums. The budget’s too small for electronic drums. But this only matters when we have a drummer 5 times a year.
6. My most knowledgeable sound tech’s only training was DJ’ing weddings when he was in college.
7. During worship, the average time between songs is proportionate to the number of music pages the pianist has to shuffle before she gives me the “should I go ahead and start the intro now?” look.
8. My musician schedule contains only three words: PLEASE SHOW UP.
9. When a new musician to begins attending our church, the average time it takes for him/her to be invited, auditioned and assimilated onto the team is about 4.7 minutes.
10. Worship Team? I am the team.

If more than one of those hits too close to home, you might be a small church worship leader. But don’t worry – we’ll commiserate together. I’ll be writing a series of posts called Small Church/Big Worship that focus on the challenges and opportunities (yes, there are some) for the small church worship leader.

If you’d like to dig deeper into Small Church/Big Worship, I’m starting a coaching group later this summer. It’s designed (and priced) with the smaller church worship leader in mind. You can learn more at WorshipTeamCoach.com.

Jon Nicol is a worship leader and teacher who loves helping people use their gifts and abilities to worship Jesus. Having served in both smaller and larger churches, including a few years at a multi-campus ministry, he has a heart for leaders with less-than-ample resources and volunteers. He lives in Lexington, Ohio with his wife, Shannon, and their three kids. You can connect with him at WorshipTeamCoach.com or at Twitter – @jonnicol.