{"id":7752,"date":"2012-02-10T07:17:20","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T07:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=7752"},"modified":"2021-03-25T13:20:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T13:20:45","slug":"pastoring-a-worship-team-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/pastoring-a-worship-team-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastoring a worship team (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
I am part of a lively, evangelical church and my husband and I are responsible for the worship team. We were complete novices at this when the church started, and, while I can\u2019t claim to be an expert now, God has been very gracious to us and we have learned some helpful principles and ideas along the way. I know we haven\u2019t got all the answers, and that you are bound to have some interesting and useful tips yourselves (which I would love to hear), but I\u2019m going to share over a series of three posts what we have learned and where we are at as a team now. We have tried the very useful Must Haves Devotional (you can find it here on Musicademy for free downloading) and have just signed up to run the Holy Trinity Brompton Worship Central course with our team this year, so I\u2019ll keep you posted on how we find that too\u2026<\/div>\n
A bit of background<\/div>\n
When we first moved to help plant a church it suddenly became apparent that, as the lone musician, I was going to be thrown into the deep end. God was very merciful to me and, even though I was terrified, helped me to develop and grow into my role. I just want to pause here and say that if, like me, you are scared stiff of the new role you know God is calling you to remember that that is a great place to be at. He is obviously stretching you and, if you don\u2019t feel you can do it in your own strength, you will rely on Him. Perfect! \uf04a Anyway, as the church grew we were blessed with new musicians with a real heart for worship, and it has been my husband and I\u2019s privilege to head up the team. At times I\u2019ve felt unworthy and ill qualified \u2013 especially when highly talented musicians have appeared. My default is to start comparing myself, and I immediately shrink back, asking God why I am leading and not them. However, God has taught me that in His wisdom He calls particular people to leadership and it is up to me to stop comparing myself and help, encourage and lead the team to the best of my ability under His guidance.<\/div>\n
Do we really have a pastoral responsibility?<\/div>\n
You may be reading this thinking do I really have to look after my team pastorally? After all they are in small groups within the church \u2013 isn\u2019t that their small group leaders\u2019 responsibility? Well, in a nutshell, yes and yes! When it first dawned on us that we were pastorally responsible for our growing team it was somewhat overwhelming. Okay we have other tiers of discipleship in our church, but if one of our musicians is struggling, in sin or simply having a bad time, it is our responsibility to know about it. And obviously as a leader praying for each member is a given too \u2013 but something that, if we\u2019re honest, can be forgotten.<\/div>\n
I know that some churches make up their small groups with the people that serve in a particular area (so there is a small group filled with musicians). While we don\u2019t, we still believe that we are responsible for checking in with our musicians and singers regularly. We can do this in tandem with their small group leaders, or just keep it to a casual cuppa and chat every so often. The best way to start this off, however, is to cultivate a pastoral aspect to whole team meetings. This is what we have been trying to develop further in the last year or so.<\/div>\n
We are all busy people, so fitting in practises for the following Sunday, as well as other church commitments, makes finding the time to meet together as a whole team, rather than just individual bands when rota\u2019d on, really difficult. But it is so vital. As we have grown numerically we have created bands, so that people get used to the other musicians they play alongside, and understand the particular worship leader\u2019s approach more. We find this helps to raise people\u2019s standards and also cultivates friendships, so that the band members start looking after each other. And yet it is so important for the whole team to get together as this is the forum where we can encourage and instruct, where we can worship together, pray for one another and provide a safe environment for people to offer feedback and share where they are struggling. When we first started these meetings we kept them fairly open \u2013 sometimes we simply had a social, or just brainstormed how we wanted to grow and develop. This was all about building relationships between the members of the team who hardly ever play together. You can\u2019t ask for real honesty amongst a group of people that, to be frank, don\u2019t know each other well and are so busy serving that they may not have much time to cultivate a friendship themselves (or may not naturally do so \u2013 for example one young single guy and a middle-aged married mum may not have that much in common but are on the same overall worship team).<\/div>\n
In the next entry I shall tell you some of the ideas we have found helpful for our whole team meetings.<\/div>\n
Claire Musters is a freelance writer and editor. Two of her greatest passions are worship and seeing people reach their full potential. Claire is currently available for work \u2013 check out her website www.clairemusters.com for more information and details of how to contact her.<\/div>\n

I am part of a lively, evangelical church and my husband and I are responsible for the worship team (see pic below). We were complete novices at this when the church started, and, while I can\u2019t claim to be an expert now, God has been very gracious to us and we have learned some helpful principles and ideas along the way. I know we haven\u2019t got all the answers, and that you are bound to have some interesting and useful tips yourselves (which I would love to hear), but I\u2019m going to share over a series of three posts what we have learned and where we are at as a team now. We have tried the very useful Must Haves Devotional <\/a>(you can find it here on Musicademy for free downloading) and have just signed up to run the Holy Trinity Brompton Worship Central course with our team this year, so I\u2019ll keep you posted on how we find that too\u2026<\/p>\n

\"worship-team\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A bit of background<\/h2>\n

When we first moved to help plant a church it suddenly became apparent that, as the lone musician, I was going to be thrown into the deep end. God was very merciful to me and, even though I was terrified, helped me to develop and grow into my role. I just want to pause here and say that if, like me, you are scared stiff of the new role you know God is calling you to remember that that is a great place to be at. He is obviously stretching you and, if you don\u2019t feel you can do it in your own strength, you will rely on Him. Perfect! Anyway, as the church grew we were blessed with new musicians with a real heart for worship, and it has been my husband and I\u2019s privilege to head up the team. At times I\u2019ve felt unworthy and ill qualified \u2013 especially when highly talented musicians have appeared. My default is to start comparing myself, and I immediately shrink back, asking God why I am leading and not them. However, God has taught me that in His wisdom He calls particular people to leadership and it is up to me to stop comparing myself and help, encourage and lead the team to the best of my ability under His guidance.<\/p>\n

Do we really have a pastoral responsibility?<\/h2>\n

You may be reading this thinking do I really have to look after my team pastorally? After all they are in small groups within the church \u2013 isn\u2019t that their small group leaders\u2019 responsibility? Well, in a nutshell, yes and yes! When it first dawned on us that we were pastorally responsible for our growing team it was somewhat overwhelming. Okay we have other tiers of discipleship in our church, but if one of our musicians is struggling, in sin or simply having a bad time, it is our responsibility to know about it. And obviously as a leader praying for each member is a given too \u2013 but something that, if we\u2019re honest, can be forgotten.<\/p>\n

I know that some churches make up their small groups with the people that serve in a particular area (so there is a small group filled with musicians). While we don\u2019t, we still believe that we are responsible for checking in with our musicians and singers regularly. We can do this in tandem with their small group leaders, or just keep it to a casual cuppa and chat every so often. The best way to start this off, however, is to cultivate a pastoral aspect to whole team meetings. This is what we have been trying to develop further in the last year or so.<\/p>\n

We are all busy people, so fitting in practises for the following Sunday, as well as other church commitments, makes finding the time to meet together as a whole team, rather than just individual bands when rota\u2019d on, really difficult. But it is so vital. As we have grown numerically we have created bands, so that people get used to the other musicians they play alongside, and understand the particular worship leader\u2019s approach more. We find this helps to raise people\u2019s standards and also cultivates friendships, so that the band members start looking after each other. And yet it is so important for the whole team to get together as this is the forum where we can encourage and instruct, where we can worship together, pray for one another and provide a safe environment for people to offer feedback and share where they are struggling. When we first started these meetings we kept them fairly open \u2013 sometimes we simply had a social, or just brainstormed how we wanted to grow and develop. This was all about building relationships between the members of the team who hardly ever play together. You can\u2019t ask for real honesty amongst a group of people that, to be frank, don\u2019t know each other well and are so busy serving that they may not have much time to cultivate a friendship themselves (or may not naturally do so \u2013 for example one young single guy and a middle-aged married mum may not have that much in common but are on the same overall worship team).<\/p>\n

In the next entry I shall tell you some of the ideas we have found helpful for our whole team meetings.<\/p>\n

\"Cmusters\"<\/a>Claire Musters is a freelance writer and editor. Two of her greatest passions are worship and seeing people reach their full potential. Claire is currently available for work \u2013 check out her website clairemusters.com<\/a> for more information and details of how to contact her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other posts you might like:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Practical help for band rehearsals \u2013 <\/span>part 1 <\/a>and <\/span>part 2<\/a> and <\/span>part 3<\/a> and <\/span>part 4<\/a> and <\/span>part 5<\/a> and\u00a0part 6<\/a><\/p>\n

Tongue tied worship leaders<\/a><\/p>\n

Building and pastoring our worship team \u2013 notes from seminar with Aaron Keyes<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe your own hype<\/p>\n

Dealing with the challenges of leading worship in small churches<\/a><\/p>\n

Under resourced, under staffed and playing songs that looked dated 15 years ago \u2013 small church worship<\/p>\n

Are you expected to hit 52 \u201chome runs\u201d a year? – Video interview for worship leaders<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am part of a lively, evangelical church and my husband and I are responsible for the worship team. We were complete novices at this when the church started, and, while I can\u2019t claim to be an expert now, God has been very gracious to us and we have learned some helpful principles and ideas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5303,"featured_media":7819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[98],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPastoring a worship team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do worship team leaders really have pastoral responsibility for their team? 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