Series: Tips for the Worship Band – Worship Team Member (In General)

Worship Team Member

You are the one who leads.  Yes, you may have one person such as a music minister who more pro-actively has a leadership position, but make no mistake about you as a leader.  The moment you decide to join the team… the moment you put yourself out there on the platform… the moment you speak words of praise to your Father in front of many, you have become a lead worshipper.  You bring attention to God, the Focal Point.  You lead the congregation in a lifestyle of worship.  You are talented and have been chosen to use that talent to bring glory to the One, and act as a vessel of Holy Spirit-movement to those you lead.  What an amazing responsibility He’s given to you!  And my, how amazingly we often mess it up.  It’s so easy to mess it up.  It’s so easy to misrepresent the call to worship Christ and the change He’s done in you.  I’m not talking about messing up a note, guitar solo, or singing off-key.  I’m talking about how you live your life off the platform.  It’s easy to show up on Sunday morning, to sing and to play well.  We love doing that anyway and it’s often easy for us.  But the problem comes when that worship doesn’t reflect in your everyday lives.  Oh what a horrible day in the life of your congregation when someone sees that you’re not reflecting the words you’re singing on Sunday morning.  It is such a burden to bear.  If you are not creating a reputation of worship… if you are not being beyond reproach (Colossians 1:22 )… if you’re praising the Lord with your lips on Sunday and exalt profanity in your normal life or behave in a way that is contrary to the standard that God has set forth in His Word when you’re not around church people (James 3:1-12 )… If you’re seen on the stage every Sunday but are nowhere to be found in any other part of church life (small group, Bible study, missing during the sermon, etc…), oh how devastating that can be when you’re found out to not be the person you’ve claimed to be.  If you’ve experienced this type of situation, you know what I’m talking about.  Let me say that no one… NO ONE… of sound Christian mind expects you to be perfect or sinless.  After all, that is why we are a part of church anyway, right?  We are all sinners, continue to sin, and rely on Christ’s blood and a repenting heart to be forgiven.  That is the exact reason why we worship.  The problem comes when it’s a lifestyle of sin being embraced.

There have been a couple of these types of situations within the worship team at my church in the recent past.  And perhaps, the worship team is the perfect place for living out a fallen lifestyle: there is plenty of opportunity to gain praise from those around you and those in the congregation, you’re seen as a leader and automatically of good repute, people are initially skeptical whenever some sort of rumor might pop up.  For those of you on the platform, you are leaders in the eyes of everyone in the church, young and old.  The responsibility to uphold a high standard in your daily life doesn’t come from them or your position, but from the Word of God:  1 Timothy 3 .  1 Timothy 3 talks about overseers and deacons of the church.  Indeed, we are ALL subject to this standard, in our ministries, and in our lives.  It just happens that EVERYONE knows about it when you’re a lead worshipper.  Are these unfair expectations?  Absolutely not.  After all, you are the one who made the choice to be a leader. In Numbers 32 , Moses warns the Israelites that if they fail to keep their promise to the Lord that they will be sinning against the Lord and that "you may be sure that your sin will find you out".  We have made a promise to the Lord when we accepted Him as our Savior and accepted the call to serve him in our churches as leaders.

Now the technical stuff… get to know your sound guy!  Hopefully, he’s probably not as hard to work with or as stubborn know-it-all as you might think (as long as he follows the advice from this blog J ).  He can be your best friend.  Just like musicians, sound guys can be at all different levels of skill.  Be mindful of that when offering criticism, advice, or suggestions.  But also be mindful that he has the possibility of getting his feelings hurt or to be offended if the criticism comes off un-lovingly.  In which case, he’ll probably trash your suggestion and the information will be useless at that point.  Know that his responsibility is unique from yours, in that he has a better picture of how the system works, what can actually be done, and what it sounds like in the house mix.  But also, if he’s not a musician and hasn’t been on stage, then he may not completely understand your viewpoint.  Try to make suggestions in a way that’s constructive and easy to understand.  In most cases, he’ll really want to help you have a better experience and will do everything he can to accommodate.  Sometimes, certain requests are not possible due to equipment limitations or even knowledge of the equipment limitations, so be understanding of that as well.  He’s probably only one or two guys, and he has to take care of the needs of every musician on the stage, the sound needs of the congregation, and often the sound needs of other “destinations” such as a recording mix, lobby/nursery audio feed, etc…  It’s not an easy job, and it takes years to get really good at it. One other thing to be mindful of when rehearsing, is the temptation to put down your mic or instrument, walk off the stage into the seating area, listen to the mix, and then giving mix advice to the sound guy.  I would suggest to any sound guy to NEVER consider the mix advice of someone who does this.  While it IS beneficial to have someone else listen to the mix and give suggestions on what they hear, it is NOT beneficial for someone who has been rehearsing on stage to be that critical house mix ear.  When you’re on that stage, you’re in a particular listening environment.  You have guitar amps, stage monitors, perhaps even in-ear monitors.  The mix is created for your stage listening environment and your ears have adjusted to that mix.  When you step off the stage and into the listening area, you have stepped into a completely different listening environment.  There are large walls that bounce certain frequencies around the room, there are usually different speakers, etc… It’s a completely different mix need than what you have on the stage.  You have taken your ears that are well adjusted to your stage mix, ripped them off, and placed them in a blender.  At this point, it is impossible to give accurate information on the house mix to the sound guy.  He should say “thank you for the suggestion” and then totally disregard it. 

That’s all for the general overviews for the sound guys and worship team members… now, with the coming entries, let’s get to the specific elements of the worship band!