I’ve Killed My Worship Rehearsal, Now What?

Over the past couple weeks we’ve looked at the things we’re doing to sabotage our rehearsal times.  You can read the posts here and here.  You may feel like your worship practice time is stagnant and are struggling to bring change.  I want to challenge you to look over some of these steps and prayerfully consider taking a small step every week.  We have the opportunity to poor into the creatives of our church and we need to make the most of it.  Here’s what I’ve been seeing in my own rehearsal times as I constantly strive for better:

Invite feedback from your team // Admitting you don’t know everything there is about worship ministry can be humbling.  I struggle with showing vulnerability and know that God’s not done working with me.  Before we start our practice time, I bring the team together and we do a devotional and prayer time.  We then move in to a time of feedback over the past weekend.  I’m always amazed at what everyone sees and know that I would miss most of the issues they bring up.  We talk through what we could have done better but also celebrate the victories of the past worship service.  Even if it was the worst set ever, we’re always encouraged to do better for the next week.  A word of caution, you may need to really help your team see this time as a time for growth.  It can easily turn in to a time of accusing others of mistakes.  Don’t let it!  You’re the leader, help your worship team keep positive.  Be an encouragement.

Challenge your team // What are you doing this week to become better at your instrument?  Are you getting better at your instrument?  I think it’s easy for a worship leader or pastor to quote from Psalm 33:3 and tell their team to “play skillfully” but I wonder how many leaders are really doing this themselves.  Investing in your musicianship will grow your whole worship team.  Your worship rehearsals will become all that more efficient as you’re all becoming better.  Have you taken the time to learn the Nashville Number system?  We’ve got a great resource right here, maybe that’s the place to start!  They’ll only rise to the standard that you set.  Are you connecting with each musician and singer to see how they’re growing?

Gracefully handle the woodshed times // What’s a woodshed time you say?  It’s that heavily musical time where you just have to keep working on that one break over and over until everyone hits it.  I don’t know about your team but it seems like I always have that one player who just can’t get the rhythm.  We’ve played it 10 times and they’re still playing through the break!  It can be really easy to get upset about it.

A quick way to get a musician to quit is to point them out and get frustrated with them in front of your team.  Assess the situation gracefully.  If you know they can get it keep working, if they can’t then come up with an alternative for your whole team.  Your musicians will dig in during these times if they know you’re on their side.  Meet with them afterward and see what you can do to help them.

We’ll keep looking at what we can do to make our services better in the coming weeks.  I’d love to hear from you, what are you doing at your church?  What successes are you seeing?  Lead well my friends and get in touch with us, we want to connect with you!