"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24
This blog is meant to talk about a few worship essentials to help create and run a worship team in a church or event setting. These tips and practices are derived straight from personal experience and is meant to lead to doing things with with excellence. But first lets talk about what worship is...
What is worship?
I remember being 7 years old and being asked "What is worship?". As a 7 year old old, I responded with a typical answer: "singing to God". But as years have gone by that answer has more depth, meaning, and understanding to me. If I were asked the same question today I would say worship is more about who we know rather than what we know. Worship has less to do with knowledge and more to do with relationship. Worship is obedience. Worship is surrendering our life to God, connecting to His heart, and having an outwardly expression of our love and devotion to Him. Worship is not just a session rather it is a lifestyle. When our worship becomes a lifestyle it can be expressed in different forms such as through our workplace, through our services to others, through our conversations, and through our gifts.
Romans 12:6 (NLT) says, “In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.”
Now, when it comes to the practical part of worship in a church or event setting that can entail a lot more. Listed here are just a few worship essentials tips that can help in the process of having a solid worship team.
Auditions
First things first, you need people in order to have a team. So, holding auditions allows you to invite everyone to come and show what they know in their instrument or vocals.
When you have people come and audition there will be people of all levels. Some will be beginners with no experience and all while others may have decades of experience and expertise. This is where you decide the amount and type of people to accept dependent on your capacity to lead. From there you can decide how you want to place people on the team. For me, there are three groups I would classify people in: Group one are people who are beginners and cannot yet play with a team. For them I would encourage them to go back home and keep learning more. Group two are people who are able to play with a team but are still lacking in areas, are dependent and need help. For them I would bring them on the team in order to raise them up to be the next team by having them watch others to learn by being there with them step by step. And finally group three are people who are at a high level. For them I would have them start leading little by little so they can be an example to others.
Team Nights
Once you have a team, then you can move to creating team nights for your team. The purpose of these nights are for vision casting and team bonding.
These nights can be set up in many different ways. For example it can like coming together to eat, have worship, watch a movie, or even play a game. Any of these examples, or all, can be done before or after having a time to speak. There should be a time dedicated to sharing what the night is about, any new information the team should know, and simply letting the team know how much you appreciate them. Letting the team knowing you are thankful for them and that you appreciate their time is one of the most important things you can do. Most of your team members will typically be volunteers which means they don't get paid. That is why showing them appreciation is so crucial in this process. For members this is a way the serve and worship God, so as leaders we need to steward what the honor of having them on the team.