Week 9 • Season 3 • Worship Team Devotionals
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?
Matthew 5:46-47 (NIV)
What’s actually going on
Every worship team has one. Sometimes more than one.
The drummer who pushes back on every chart change. The vocalist who can’t take a note. The guitar player who shows up late and takes his time and somehow it’s always your fault. The volunteer who quietly undermines you to other volunteers. The team member who agrees in the room and complains in the parking lot.
Most worship leaders we talk to spend a disproportionate amount of emotional energy on this one person. The texts you re-read. The conversations you rehearse before they happen. The Sunday morning where you can sense their mood from across the room and your shoulders tighten.
It’s not just frustrating. It’s exhausting. And underneath the exhaustion is sometimes a quieter feeling we don’t say out loud: I’d love this job a lot more if it weren’t for them.
And then we read Matthew 5 and Jesus seems to say, exactly. That’s the point.
What’s true
Jesus is direct here. Loving people who love you is easy. Anyone can do it. He’s not impressed by it. The mark of His disciples is loving the difficult one. The unreasonable one. The one who didn’t earn your patience.
That’s not because the difficult one is right. They’re often not right. It’s because love isn’t a response to behavior. It’s a posture rooted in how Jesus loved us. When we were difficult. When we were unreasonable. When we hadn’t earned anything.
This doesn’t mean you don’t have hard conversations. You do. Loving someone well sometimes means telling them the truth, drawing a boundary, having the awkward meeting after rehearsal. But the love is the foundation, not the conversation.
Pray for the difficult one this week. Not to change them. To soften you. The shift in your own heart is often the first miracle the Lord does in a hard team relationship. Sometimes it’s the only miracle. And it’s enough.
For your team
Three discussion questions for your pre-rehearsal team huddle.
- Who’s the difficult one on our team for you right now?
- What’s the story you’ve been telling yourself about that person? What might be true that you’re not seeing?
- What’s one act of love (a prayer, a check-in text, a question, a moment of curiosity) that you can practice toward them this week?
Pray this
Jesus, You loved me when I was difficult. Soften my heart toward the people I find hardest. Give me Your eyes for them. Let me lead like a person who has been forgiven much. Amen.
This Sunday
On Sunday, find the difficult one before the service starts and tell them you’re glad they’re there. Mean it.
Go deeper
In the network: Search “Battling Toxic Culture” in the TCC community for the live training on leading well when team relationships get hard. Free at thechurchcollective.mn.co.
This is Week 9 of 52 Weekly Worship Team Devotionals from The Church Collective. The first 12 (including this one) are available now — grab them as a free PDF. New devotionals drop every Monday morning. Free, denominationally diverse, 501(c)(3). Made possible by our Supporters: become a Supporter or give one-time.
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