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)
- 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.
- 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.
