The Must-Haves for the Worship Musician – Available

Worship musicians need to be available

Available. Leaders in churches often like to spiritually dress-up a basic requirement like this by calling it “committed” or “faithful.” But before someone can be faithful or committed, they just plain need to be there when they need to be there. Available as a “must-have” characteristic sounds like that only-partially joking phrase we leaders use: “as long as they have a pulse…” Most of us have been there (or are there still): he can keep a beat and will show up Sunday. Voilà, we’ve got a new drummer.

If we’re in a “needs-based” situation [lacking musicians to fill the holes] versus a wants-based [we’d like a killer bass player, but the three we have in rotation get the job done], availability creates a two-fold problem: 1) Availability tends to be the predominant characteristic we use to validate someone’s involvement on the team. 2) We allow people to be unavailable for rehearsals, yet still play or sing on Sunday because we are “need” them. Healthy? No. Necessary at times? Unfortunately.

Like all these “must haves”, availability doesn’t stand alone. Availability needs to intermingle with calling, passion, talent, etc. Then you get faithful and committed people on your team–who actually show up.

Read: Matthew 21:28-31

The Parable of the Two Sons

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

Discuss

1. What does this parable in Matthew have to do with availability?
2. Forget words like committed or faithful – why does this team need people to be there when they need to be there.
   What happens when they aren’t?
3. Is this team “needs-based” or “wants-based” when it comes to musicians?
   In what ways does that affect the way we bring people on the team?
4. Do we allow people to be unavailable for rehearsals?
   In what ways does that affect the team?

Get the Must-Haves Worship Team Devotional

We’ll be running this series over the coming weeks but if you liked it and would like to download the whole 10-week devotional ebook for free you can do so using the link below. It not only includes the ebook, but a printable version so you can take a hard copy to rehearsals. Also the download includes a separate pdf for each week so you can email it to your whole team. This way, you can foster an email discussion with those who aren’t scheduled that week.

Get “The Must Haves” Devotional

Thanks to Jon for his generosity in making this resource available to us.

Here are the Must-Haves we have published so far:

Must Haves Devotional – Introduction session

Must Haves – Teachable (part 1)

Must Haves – Teachable (part 2)

Must Haves – Passion