After getting the basics down and then adding some instructions for the musicians, now you’re ready to do a little “advanced” chord charting (at least that’s what I consider it!). Why call it “advanced”? Well, anyone can do a chart as I did in my basic setup, but you actually have to understand time signatures and measures to do this. You do not need a degree in music theory, but you do need to understand a few basics of it.

I tried my hand at mapping out an entire chord chart with measure/beat indicators. Here’s how it came out. It looks a little overwhelming, doesn’t it? Yeh, and I’m not too happy with how the rest of the chart came out. Overall, though, any player could take this chord chart and just about play along with the song, even if they had never heard it before. All they would need is the rhythm pattern. Oh, and note at the bottom where there was actually a more syncopated chord progression going. I had to go over that part separately with the band, because to try and notate it within the chart would have made things much more complicated than they already were and more confusing than they really needed to be.

Also note how in the chart shared above how I’ve marked each individual (quater) beat of the measure as with a backslash, like this:

|G  /  /  /  |D  /  /  /  |C  /  /  /  |

But if the changes are just on the first of each measure, then an instrumental section might be better marked this way:

|G         |D       |C      |

That looks much cleaner and is just as easily understood: the chord change obviously happens on the first beat of each measure.

While it might be effective to map/chart out an entire chord chart with these measure markers, I’ve since drifted more towards a minimalist approach to indicating measures in chord charts. Here are my basic guidelines:

1. Instrumental sections should always have measure markings.
2. If the chord changes (for singing sections) are simple and straightforward and can be easily understood without measure markings, then I do not use them.
3. However, if there is any measure(s) which has an atypical chord change for the song which would best be clarified through indicating measures

You could sum up my thoughts thusly: “If you don’t need ‘em, don’t use ‘em!” (or “less is more”)

Okay, we’re almost to the end of this series on chord charting. To finish up, I’m going to go over a few pointers on making chord charts as effective as possible.

“I don’t see why the praise team needs to practice during the week. Before you came they only practiced before the Sunday Morning service and it was okay. Do they really need to practice during the week?” It was my pastor (at the time) asking me this (well, an approximation thereof). My response? Well, to tell the truth, I was speechless. Flabergasted. This was an issue I had never even considered coming up. And when the question was asked, I sadly fumbled through an answer which should not have been hard at all.

So, should a praise team practice during the week? Absolutely. Point blank, end of story.

But why? Ah, there’s the rub, isn’t it? If your musicians are good enough to wing it, why can’t you just skip the mid-week practice and just have everyone show up early on Sunday morning? (note, in this latter argument, I find less fault in the argument and more in the motivation behind it)

First, though, let me delineate the difference between a small, growing church wherein the praise team is less a “team” and more a single leader with one or two (or even three) followers. Having a single leader who is accompanied by one person on drums and maybe a single vocalist is much different than a full team consisting of 4+ instrumentalists as well as vocalists. When you are a single leader who has a few “helpers” in the wings, all you have to do is make sure you have all your ducks in a row beforehand and you can usually “get away” without a midweek practice. Yet still, note that there is practice happening – it’s just you doing it by yourself, because you consist of a majority of the band (and also realize that when you do things this way you are relegating anyone who helps you to a secondary role which emphasizes unimportance and very minor involvement/ownership).

So practice happens in virtually every situation because wherever there is any level of preparation that preparation (at least in my mind, no matter how inconsequential) is practice. If you do not want your team to develop much beyond a single or dual instrument setup you can probably “get by” with this type of preparation. But if your motivation is to find some level of preparation you can “get by” with, then my response is that you shouldn’t be in the worship ministry in the first place, specifically in its leadership.

Here is why a mid-week practice is – in my mind, at least – an unarguable fact of reality: preparation to minister effectively, excellently and without distraction is an integral part of serving the local body. In a more commonsense approach, a musician must practice. Without practice there is stagnation. The same applies to a band or a team of players. They need time playing together to learn to play together.

(Warning: rabbit trail and soapbox to follow:)

Now, if you have the same team you’ve had for the last 10 years, and are playing the same 100 or so songs you’ve always played, then you might feel like you could cut that mid-week practice out and not lose much at all. Well, I would say you’ve already lost so much it probably wouldn’t matter. Why? If there has been no change in your team, then there has been no development of new talent and there has been no integration of new members and talent to the local body. Your team is closed. Is Christ closed? Is the Church closed?

And if you are using the same songs you’ve used for for the last five or ten years, then there is theological stagnation at work as well. Why do worship leaders seek out new songs? To find a new way to manipulate the congregations emotions? Well, there may be some who do so – which is sad as well as disastrous for the body. But the real motivation is to find/discover new ways of articulating the Gospel in theologically sound ways, so the local body is challenged to contemplate, consider and apply the Gospel continually, sometimes in differing ways.

And to introduce new material, there must be practice.

Finally, for your team to effectively eliminate distractions during the service there must be practice.

In short, the mid-week practice is an integral part of the worship team’s service of the local church body.

The last post on perfecting your praise team practice focused more on general organization and planning. Basically how you approach the practices and what you hope to accomplish. Now we’re going to focus more on getting (almost) everything accomplished in the time you have available for practice.

2 Hour Perfection

So how long should a practice be? I have noticed that while experienced musicians are fine for a full two hours of practice, less experienced ones tend to start to drift and lose momentum around the 90 minute mark. Personally, I like to aim for the two hour mark, planning things out so that I have a chance (however slight) that I will finish early, but realistically aiming for no more than 120 minutes. The team I am on right now actually has practices which err on the other side of 120 minutes, usually hitting the 130-40 mark. But our team only plays every other week and and practices once for that service, so one 2.5 hour practice every other week is more tolerable in our situation.

I would argue that in a team that practices every week, the leader should strive to never exceed the two hour mark. You must guard your people against burnout!

Simple Trick for High Spirits

One of the hardest things to do is manage your practice so that it doesn’t feel ‘grinding’. Like you’re just plowing through material and doing the best you can (though, in effect, that is sometimes what you are doing…). A very simple way to help with keeping the attitude up and the ‘grinding’-mindset down is to use familiar songs to offset more difficult ones.

This can be done very easily, the only drawback is that to do this the team will have to practice stuff out of the order it will be done in the service (usually). Clear communication usually keeps that from being a major obstacle. Look over the list of material to be covered in practice and pick out the song the team should know the best, the one you should really spend the least amount of time on. Start with this song! This will give you the opportunity to set a positive attitude for the rest of the practice and encourage your team about how great they are.

A related trick is to save songs which use only one or two instruments (usually guitar or piano) or less vocalists until the end, so some of the team gets to go home ‘early’. If your time management is on task, then the people who are involved in the song should still be leaving about the time they expected, while everyone else gets a nice little surprise of being able to leave early.

Time Management – Figure out how much time you have for each song!

This is key to finishing within the time frame you want to. Unless your instrumentalists are disciplined  in getting to practice early, you need to set aside at least 15-20 minutes at the beginning of practice just for instrument setup, sound check, and prayer. As a side note, I would suggest leaving the prayer until you are ready to start (right before the sound check).

So if you are aiming for a 120 minute practice, and you have 7 songs to go over (in 105 minutes!) that leaves you roughly 15 minutes for each song. Keep an eye on the clock as you practice. Assuming practice starts at 7pm, then around 8pm you should be finishing your third song or starting your fourth one. If you’re still on your second song then you need to stop and move on. Period. If the song needs more work tell your team that they are going to have to work on the trouble spots on their own. If the song is still exceptionally horrible you can start with that song in the pre-service practice the day of the service to iron out any lingering problems.

What must be understood is that you cannot make every song perfect. You need to fix problems, but if its something someone can work out on their own, it is okay to tell them they need to do so for the sake of practice time management.

Bits and pieces do not a quick practice make

This sounds a little counter-intuitive to many musicians but you should run the songs all the way through unless something catastrophic happens. This was a hard lesson for me to swallow, because – being a classically trained pianist – I have spent 30 minutes working on a four or five measure phrase. But you can’t do that with your team (though you can suggest they do so on their own). Any decent musician realizes when they are doing things wrong. Going completely through the song once gives them a chance to figure out what they are doing wrong on their own. Give them a chance to ask questions. If the questions do not address all the issues you noted in the run-through, then quickly and efficiently go over what needs to happen in the trouble spots. Then play the song through again.

Most songs will take at least two or three runs to get right – which is fine. Most songs you can run through three times in about 15 minutes, if you don’t dally around in between runs. Sometimes there are specific spots which should be focused on separately (like the primary crescendo of a song, or the transition into the instrumental and then the instrumental section itself), and this is fine, just be very efficient.

This is how starting with an easier song can help some as well. If you only spend 10 minutes on the first song, then you have 5 extra minutes for the second song or another song later on. Some songs need 20-25 minutes worth of work done on them – just pace yourself well with your other songs so the practice doesn’t ‘accidentally’ slip past the 2.5 hour mark (a definite ‘no-no’).

Realistic Standards and Expectations

In the end, it boils down to understanding that things will not be perfect. With time and experience every leader develops his own rhythm for practicing and “getting things done.” Some teams require different methods – these are just ones I have found to work in most every environment I’ve lead in.

That said, always remember the old adage, “Less is more”. In the end, if something is not working to the point that it most likely will be distracting in the service, consider cutting it out or simplifying it. You are not required to perfectly replicate a song, you are required to enable and empower your congregation to worship God.

Know that most songs will never be perfect, and some will be done much better than others. Just make sure that you push the team to an acceptable point in practice and then direct them on the portions to work out on their own before the service (if it’s exceptionally rough around the edges).

You can have an effective practice within the 120 minute time limit, you just have to be practical and disciplined.

Okay, I apologize. The “Perfect Praise Team Practice” title might be a little exaggerated - I’m not sure what I’m going to discuss in this and the next post will help your practice be perfect, but it should help it get much closer.

Goals

So what makes one practice better than another? I would suggest three elements: quality, efficiency and quantity. Let’s look at those in reverse order.

• Quantity – you want to cover everything that needs to be covered
• Efficiency – you want to use your time wisely so that in covering all your material your practices do not run much past the 2 hour mark
• Quality – in the time spent on what you need to go over you want to get the material to be as excellent as possible

Of course, there may be other things which are also important to accomplish in a practice, but these stick out to me as the most important. I am going to spend an entire post on streamlining your time management in practice, so I won’t really cover that in this post. But before we get to that point, there are some more general points of planning that need to be addressed.

Material to be covered

As I have experienced there are two types of practices. I would venture to call them “long-term” and “short-term”. As opposed to other types of musical practicing, in the Praise and Worship arena, both types are almost equally relevant and effective. Both also have their pros and cons. Which type you choose depends on the way you have your team(s) organized and how talented your people are.

Long-Term oriented practices

These practices spend at least the first 45-60 minutes on new material. The general concept treats your praise team members as a single band. This works if you have a very consistent team (you use the same people almost every week). With this type of practice session, team members are expected to be at every practice because this is where they will learn new material. The primary drawback to this type of practice is that it leaves a little over 10 minutes for each song that needs to be gone over for the upcoming service (figuring roughly 5-7 songs in that service).

But the positive of this type of practice (which I did for several years at my last church) is that less skilled musicians are given more time to learn and practice new material (I would start introducing them to new material a month before we played it, sometimes more).

Short-Term oriented practices

For these practices the entire time is spent on material for the upcoming service. The positive point is that you have more time to spend on each individual song. Another positive is that this type of practice is great for large teams where there are many different musicians (I consider vocalists musicians as well) rotating or multiple teams. If the Worship Leader/Pastor can plan several weeks ahead as far as his music is concerned he can get a songlist and even listening material to his teams a week or so before a particular service’s practice so they have plenty of time to prepare. With disciplined musicians and a bit of planning on the Worship Leader/Pastor’s part this is an excellent way to structure practices because you can introduce and do much more new material.

The primary drawback is that the musicians need to have a decent level of personal motivation (to prepare at least some on their own). And it seems to work much more smoothly if there is a higher level of musicianship on the team (talent+training+discipline). Though there is time for a bit of tweaking, this scenario does not give you a chance to teach each musician their part individually – they have to prepare it beforehand (to some extent, or be able to generate it on the spot!).

So, while it is called “short-term” it takes a bit of long-term planning on the part of the Worship Leader/Pastor so he can get the materials in the hands of his people a decent amount of time beforehand. I would suggest using a blog or even (if your budget can afford it) a subscription-based service such as The Planning Center Online to help with this.

Preparing the Material for Practice

Once you have figured out how the general structure of your practice is going to be, you need to prepare all your materials and get your brain in gear so you know what’s going on in each song. For new songs, I’ve blogged about how to go about learning them and then teaching them to your team (Learning a New Song Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3). For other material which the team should know already, make sure the day of the practice you go over the entire service, planning how each song fits into it and the transitions between each. The more you figure out ahead of time the less you have to make up on the spot (and admit it – you do it, I do it, we all fly by the seat of our pants when we don’t plan well…). If you can, check over your chord charts to make sure the chords and keys are. The best way to do this is play through the songs according to the chord charts on guitar or piano.

Coming up next!

Next time I’ll go over these points as well as a few others:

• Time Management – how to get through those songs effectively in 90-120 minutes…hopefully…
• Why 90-120 minutes is the perfect practice length (at least in my mind)
• The simplest trick/technique to keeping your team’s spirits up while you work them hard

So you’ve found a group of really talented musicians for your praise team. Or maybe they are just solid and dependable. Or, as is often the case, you have a few really talented individuals, a few that are barely holding their own, and then a few others who you really have to work with so they keep up. Whatever the case may be, in many churches there is a pressure to present a “professional” front to the congregation on Sunday morning. Is this necessary? Is it Biblical?

Well, first, Biblically speaking, in the Old Testament the priests had many, many regulations concerning their dress and appearance in offering sacrifices. Fortunately for us, under the new covenant we are no longer under the Law. Our acceptance before God is conditioned on Christ’s sacrifice – our dress or appearance has nothing to do with the acceptability of our worship. Even in Revelation, while there is description of the beings worshiping around the throne, the description of them is a vehicle for the Apostle John to describe the worthiness of God for worship, the emphasis being that even creatures this magnificent worship God with all their being.

Paul talks about church services being conducted “decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40, NASB). And when Paul speaks about appearance, the driving force behind his arguments about specific types of dress is that those in the church should not dress in ways that identify them with people (or types of people) who are rebelling against God (idolaters and prostitutes, specifically).

But where does that leave you and your team? Should they be required to wear a solid colored shirt, black slacks, and (for the guys) a solid colored tie? Or should they just dress as they please? But won’t that look sloppy?

First, let me ask you where the pressure to look very professional is coming from. Is your pastor displeased with the way the team is looking on Sunday mornings? Or are there individuals in the congregation who are continually griping about the way things look on the stage? Or, rather, is it just that you wished the praise team looked more like a band and less like a bunch of “joes” off the street?

Regarding the first two pressures (Pastor or congregation), or even some variation thereof, I would challenge you to consider two things. First, make sure you and your Pastor are on the same page when it comes to the dress code for the team. Your Pastor is the primary safeguard for the mission and vision of your church, and if the two of you are not together on this issue, then it will always be a point of conflict (hint: even if you don’t agree with him, pray about it and I’m sure God will lead you in the direction of submitting to your Pastor’s direction).

Second, there will always be gripers in the congregation. Especially if you’re moving from a more traditional type of setup to a more contemporary, band-style worship service. That doesn’t mean you ignore them, it just means that you take their complaints critiques with a grain of salt. If it is just a few people who are complaining, but who also complain about a lot of other things, the issue might be more than just the appearance of the team, and I would highly doubt that you color coordinating the team would all of a sudden make them perfectly happy.

If you are just wishing the team looked better on stage, let me ask you why. Why does the praise team need to look like a professional group of musicians (whether they are or not)? Personally, I think God, within the revelation of scripture, has given us a lot of “wiggle room” in regards to this issue. Here is how I approach this issue:

My team members are first and foremost brothers (and sisters) in Christ. They are gifted individuals who serve the church through leading worship instrumentally and vocally. But the strength of their leadership in worship lies less in their individual talents and/or abilities musically and primarily in their personal relationship with Christ. In the end, there is nothing “special” about them that sets them apart from any other individual of the congregation – we are all sinners saved by grace. Our function on stage is to enable the congregation to worship God (and not really to notice us).

So, my first reaction to this clothing issue is to teach and encourage the praise team in their role as “distraction eliminators”. They should minimize distractions musically – that is why we practice. But we should also minimize distractions visually as well. Women should attempt to avoid clothes that would overly distract men (so I would encourage against short skirts, low-cut blouses – basically any overly revealing clothes), and men should be as conscious of their dress as well (I would avoid clothing with distracting slogans or artwork, wife-beaters, etc.).

But if my drummer wants to wear a t-shirt and my electric guitarist likes sandals, that’s cool with me. Maybe one of my female vocalists prefers to wear jeans while another always wears a dress to church – that’s fine as well. I like the thought of not being able to tell who’s a musician in the congregation until they pick up their instrument (or mike to sing into).

However you decide to play it (loose or tightly regimented) I would suggest talking it over with your Pastor and make sure you both are on the same page. And at least work through the motivations I touched on above – at least engaging with them will challenge you to think through why you are doing what you’re doing in regards to dress for your praise team.

A New Song for Your Team

Now that you’ve learned the song for yourself, you’ve gotta teach the team. Hopefully you’ve done all the really tough legwork of figuring the ins and outs of the song out for yourself. The first essential step in teaching your praise team a new song is to create a chord chart for your team. If you have managed to get your hands on someone else’s chord chart (or downloaded it from a website) I still recommend making your own. The reason is so that you can have a pretty standard format for your chord sheets that your team is familiar with, as well as formatting it specifically for how you want the song to be done (in case you’re chaning the structure from the recording) and having specific notes you want on there for your team.

Something I strongly encourage is to have measure markings for any sections of a song where chord progressions are less clear (rhythmically). I have played with doing a full-on rhythm chart for an entire song. This is incredibly helpful for your instrumentalists, but a little tedious to make. You at least want to write out instrumental sections with measure markings so they can know when they are needing to change chords.

Here’s a simple style:

| G   D | C  Em | D    | G  Bm | Am       G/B  C | D

What I’ve called the “simple style” might take a little explaining, but it’s a very effective ‘reminder’ of what they’re supposed to be doing. More of what I think is called a Nashville style chord chart goes something like this:

| G   \   D   \ | C  \  E   \ | D  \  \  \

The big difference is the beat markers in the ‘Nashville style’. I think I’m going to do a separate post later about making chord charts…so that’s all I’ll say here. Mainly, make sure the chord chart you are giving the team is as simple and clear as possible – hopefully they could play their part for the song along with the CD without ever hearing the song before (maybe not well, but at least get their entrances and exits right…).

Another very helpful thing to do for your team, if you’re going to be playing the recorded version of a song, is to try and (legally) get a copy of the song into their hands. Websites such as grooveshark allow you to upload songs and then let people listen to what you’ve uploaded – that’s always an option.

Now, in teaching them the song, I would suggest having them listen to the song during practice, without playing – just to make notes on what they’re supposed to be doing in the song (entrances, exits, rhythmic breaks, etc.). This is also where you can point out specific things you want them to note. Next, play the recording again and have them try and play along. This is always a little weird, but it gives everyone a chance to try it out. Then, finally, dive in and attempt to play through the song without the recording. Sometimes (most of the time!) you’ll have to stop along the way to discuss problem areas, but as best you can, attempt to just ‘force’ your way through the song. It really allows the team to realize what they need to work on in their own time.

Our church is fortunate enough to actually have two teams that rotate from Sunday to Sunday, so each team is able to spend two entire practices only working on the music for their next Sunday. If you do not have that luxury, which I know most churches do not, you will want to plan when you will introduce songs very much in advance, so you can spread the team’s time spent on a particular song over several practices, introducing the song and letting them get comfortable with it.

Here’s the key I have found: clarity. It is essential for each member of the praise team to know specifically what they should be doing at any given moment in a song. Many times they decide this for themselves, usually based on what they are hearing in a recording that they are attempting to duplicate with their instrument. Your job is to make sure that there is no confusion. There are always parts or layers in a recording which cannot practically be reproduced in a live setting. And other times elements left out will be dictated by the instruments you are working with. Always have an idea where you want to go with a song and what you want everyone doing. That way you can be open to all their suggestions, but if they need direction, you can give it to them.

In learning the song beforehand you should be ready to address any questions or concerns any team members might have about different sections. And you can break down the song into its most simplest elements so that they understand it clearly.

Next we’ll discuss introducing the new song to the congregation.

A New Song for You

Okay, first things first. When you’ve got a new song burning in your music library that you’ve been wanting to introduce to the church, and the chance finally comes for you to use it – what do you do? This is a three-part series where we dig a little into the process. This first part focuses on suggestions for assisting you to learn the song properly. The second will focus on teaching it to your team, and the third will focus on introducing it to the congregation/church at large.

Before you try and teach a song to your team, you need to know what’s going on in it yourself. My personal preference is, if possible, to be able to play it either on piano or guitar (or both, if possible). That way I have a solid grasp of the chord progressions, the rhythms, the structure, and the dynamics. In fact, those four points should almost be a checklist in learning the song.

For simplicity’s sake I will assume you are trying to learn a song on the guitar…

1) Chords

The easiest way to learn a song is to have a recording to play along with. So get one (if you don’t have a recording I hope you have a great memory and/or can read music really well!). Secondly, acquire the chords to the song. This is a must. You can purchase chord charts or sheet music (online or in/through a store), or you can probably find it online for free (some publishers like Vertical Music offer their chord charts online for free!). If you can’t find or get the chords, then you’ve gotta figure ‘em out by ear. Good luck! (there is not enough space in this post to cover how to do that…)

Now just play the recording of the song, over and over, first time just listening to the chord changes and following the chord sheet. When you’re comfortable with the chord changes, start trying to do one strum  where each chord is first played or changed to. Be especially tuned to walking bass lines or progressions that walk through the scale – recognising these can be very helpful to your team in learning the song.

When you’re confident and comfortable with these chord changes you are ready to move onto the structure and rhythm of the song.

2) Structure

Now, stop the recording. Take a moment and analyze the chord sheet and how the song fits together. Somewhere on the chord sheet (top, side, bottom…) write down the structure of the song. Is it the classic verse-chorus-verse-chorus(2x?)-bridge-chorus(2x?). Many songs are a variation thereof. Many hymns are only “verses” with a latter section that feels like a chorus, though some actually are just a series of verses followed by a repeated chorus. Primarily here you need to understand how the song is put together so that you can articulate that in a simple way to your team.

After you’ve figured out how the song is put together, notice all the chord progressions in each section. Are they the same? How are they different? Usually a song will have one chord progression for verses and another progression for the chorus. Sometimes a completely new progression will be used for a bridge or tag – though sometimes that can be the same progression, just with a different dynamic. Where is the intro to the song derived from? Is the instrumental section’s progression the same as the intro, or is it from the chorus or verse?

Also note repetition and variation. Is the verse four chords repeated four times? Or are they repeated three times, the fourth being a variation on the original pattern? Or is the third time the variation?

Basically, in understanding the chord progressions, you want to try and figure out as many of the connections throughout the song as you can. That way you can break it down more easily for your team when you have to teach them.

3) Rhythms

After getting comfortable with the chords and the structure, take a look at the rhythms utilized in the song. Does the song have a straight rhythm or is it syncopated? Is it the same rhythm throughout? At this point you need to attempt as good an imitation of the rhythm of the song on your guitar as you can.

At this point, as well, make some notations on your chord sheet about what the drummer is doing where (as best you can figure). Having these will help you better direct your drummer.

4) Dynamics

Here is the real heart of a song. Make sure you know when the song is soft, when it is loud, when it builds, how long it builds, and where the climax of the build is. A majority of the music coming out of Hillsongs is incredibly easy as far as the chords and progressions go – and most of the rhythms are pretty simple as well. But they are masters of the dynamic. Every one of their songs is unique because of its own dynamics, and their “powerhouse” songs are such because the dynamics of how they build the song to its climax have been perfected. You cannot play a Hillsongs song correctly without paying a lot of attention to the dynamics.

So there ya go. These are some basics of learning a song, at least in my mind. As you learn more and more songs, you’ll develop your own system which will work best for you.

Also, this just addresses learning a song as it was recorded. If you want to develop your own version of a song, do these first. Learning a song how it was originally written is always essential to creating a new version of it which retains the same ‘heart’ as the original (at least that’s my opinion).

Next I will profer up some suggestions about teaching a new song to your team.

Here’s a quick thought for Friday:

The goal of a worship team is to be distraction eliminators

This goes for everyone from the drummer to the singer to the sound technician to the lyric display technician. The instrumentalists are not there to jam out (though they might get a chance…), and the singers aren’t there to show off their vocal range. No, the response your congregation should have to the music portion of a service is, “How great is our God?!” not “What an awesome guitarist!”

This should be stated up front to all new praise team members as they are trying out, and it should be continually emphasized and reinforced from week to week and practice to practice.

Therefore the joy in our service is not in praise for what we have done, but in the glory that God recieves from our doing it.

As a slight continuation of the thought from my last post, I wanted to touch specifically on building a praise team from scratch, something I have done several times in my varied career as a worship leader. Everyone in the position of having to do this feels the same level of helplessness and has the echoing cry of, “How?”. Well, here’s my two-cents worth. I hope it can encourage and challenge anyone who finds themselves in such a situation.

First, there are a couple of standards or commitments that must be set forth before you even begin to actively seek people on your praise team. You should discuss these with your pastor(s) to get their input as well as blessing, and you should also pray over these as well.

(please note that when I use the word “musician” I am also referring to singers/vocalists)

1. Spiritual Excellence: You should commit build your team around mature christians who’s primary motive in playing is service – utilizing their gifts for the glory of God.
2. Musical Excellence: There must be a standard of excellence among those who are brought onto the praise team – you are not looking for perfect  or professional musicians, but ones who have an adequate amount of talent, skill, discipline and motivation to not be a distraction during a service.

I’ve already touched on the first some in my last post, so I’m going to mention a few things about the second commitment here. The primary reason for this standard of excellence is a simple principle: “Excellence attracts excellence.” And this principle is double-edged, it cuts both in the direction of musicianship as well as spirituality. Just realize that if you are going to accept a “fresh” (read: untrained/unlearned) talent onto the team, it will be your responsibility to train and equip them. Sometimes to get a program “off the ground” you will have to literally invest time training and teaching people about their instruments. In that you must teach them excellence, so that when more talented individuals come on the team they won’t be left too far in the dust.

In setting these commitments to spiritual and musical excellence before you now you can take your first active step in acquiring the praise team members you need: pray. That’s the key ingredient. Pray every day, multiple times each day for each specific instrumentalist you desire God to draw to the music ministry. I’d suggest first praying for a few vocalists and an acoustic guitarist (or three – they come in handy!), a keyboardist (with a decent keyboard you can synthesize most missing instruments), and a percussionist (until you get a full band, you may want to limit percussion to a djembe or cajon for a more intimate acoustic feel). Next on your list will probably be a bassist and an electric guitarist – and a drum set!

Once you have a set of vocalists (3-4 plus you), two guitarists (one acoustic, one electric), a basist, a drummer (percusionist), and a keyboardist you can play most any of the praise music out there. You will want to seek to double and triple your resources on each instrument, for backups as well as the possibility of splitting into multiple teams assigned specific Sundays/services. Always be on the alert for God to bring you different instruments. In my last church I had barely gotten our praise team off the ground when I was blessed with a young lady who played the Cello as well as a saxophone player – that definitely made arranging our songs a blast!

Always pray for God to shape your vision for your team. The goal is not for you to have a band, but for your church to be able to worship God without distraction. Therefore sometimes you will end up with quite interesting combinations of instruments along the way. And don’t be discouraged by meager beginnings. It is better for you to lead worship with yourself on guitar (or piano) with a drum machine and maybe a vocalist or two than for you to have a full band of questionable spiritual maturity. Stay the path and wait for God to provide – he always does, and he always throws in a few surprises along the way to keep you on your toes!

If you will uphold these dual goals of excellence in spirituality as well as musicianship from the very beginning of the development of your praise team, then that excellence will be in the very DNA of your team. Trust God and then set out to do what he’s called you to do in leading worship, having faith that where he has called you he will provide all you need to accomplish his will.

Here is a simple concept, but one which is overlooked in many churches: that all those who are on stage, in front of the congregation, are worship leaders to some degree. This is especially true of your praise team. Your drummer is a worship leader. Your guitarist is a worship leader.

This is something which must be continually reinforced in their minds. Though you (as the Worship Leader) lead them as a team, as a team each of them lead the congregation. If they are not entering and worshipping then the congregation will find it difficult to do so as well.

Having this understanding in mind as you build your team is also essential. This is why the praise team is not a “missionary endeavor”, so to speak. How can someone who doesn’t know Christ help lead a congregation in his praise? And if the only reason someone is coming to church is to play their instrument or sing (or serve on the technical staff…), then they may not be at a spiritual place where they should be leading others in worship. Therefore the first qualifier of whether or not someone can be on the team should not be in their level of talent or skill but in their spiritual maturity.

Having a team of individuals who are focused on bringing God glory and encouraging/challenging others to do the same is essential for every body of believers. And that team can be made of one, two, three or forty people. But their focus is on worshipping and glorifying God – and helping others do the same!