Worship Leader Chill Zone (Full Version)

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David_D -> Worship Leader Chill Zone (6/28/2008 10:07:46 AM)

I don't see a thread anywhere for those who lead worship to share ideas, troubles, and joys so ...

I'll get it started. What kind of time do you and your worship team spend outside of practice and services? Do you do Bible studies, prayer, just hanging out and catching up? How's it working out?

(Mods, if this should go elsewhere please move it [&:] )



slushie -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (6/28/2008 11:18:57 AM)

I'm not a worship leader but ours takes a half hour before worship just to share.

We do hang out - but since I'm the youngest member I don't get to do that a lot.



ChoirDJ -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (6/28/2008 1:44:20 PM)

It's been a chore just getting everyone to show up an hour before service so we could have time to hang out. Perhaps it's my perception but there doesn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for hanging out together as a worship team and I'm at a loss for how to deal with this. Lateness has been a huge problem in our congregation for a long time and I have been trying to not let it discourage me. Personally, I get to church on average 1.5 to 2 hours early just to have some alone time in worship, warming up my voice and to help set up the sound system and such. I schedule the songs so it gives me an opportunity to pray over the service and reflect on the lyrics prior to getting up there and singing.



slushie -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (6/28/2008 4:02:21 PM)

Our church can be like that at times. [8|] What time is your service, ChoirDJ?



David_D -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (6/28/2008 5:14:52 PM)

Yeah, depending what time service is, your people might just have trouble getting out of bed early. [;)] We've just started doing our "together" time after practice on Saturdays and that seems to work out pretty well for us so far. Everyone's already there anyway, so it's not a big deal for them to stay another 30-60 minutes. My team is pretty small though, only 6 of us.

Our congregation seems to run on Church Standard Time as well, and people often aren't in their seats until 5-10 minutes after worship starts. It bugged me more when I waited for them. Now I just start on time and those who are there are there, and the rest join in when they're done visiting or grabbing a donut or whatever. The order of worship generally goes that we start with a couple minutes for people to greet their neighbors, sing 1 song, then pray. By the time we're praying everyone has usually arrived, and after that we get into more worship.

I wish I could show up early to church and worship by myself beforehand, but there's usually a Bible study going on at that time. I do like to join in with that, but it would be nice to be able to spend some time alone with God before the service. Actually, I could probably find a quiet corner somewhere if I looked hard enough. I think I will tomorrow. Thanks. [:)]



slushie -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (6/28/2008 5:19:50 PM)

Haha, some of the people in my praise team even come to PRACTICE late... and it's not a good thing.

We have a prayer meeting at 9:30 but no one wants to get up early for that. Not even my dad.



ChoirDJ -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (6/28/2008 8:59:08 PM)

Our service starts at 10AM. I ask The Praise and Worship Team to be there by 9AM each Sunday. If the band is performing, the band gets there by (8AM) since it takes a while to set things up. If the choir is performing, I ask them to be there at 8:30AM to get warmed up properly. You have those that get there on time but the rehearsals are not too productive without everyone there since it's a relatively small ministry.



BibleL7 -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (6/29/2008 3:54:48 AM)

Never had a group to practice with, I did have a Friday night worship session to teach congregation new songs yet very few would show. I would always show up a few minutes early to make sure sound system was ready and just prayer. Sorry if those who dont have worship teams are not OK in this do let me know and I will withdraw.



David_D -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (6/29/2008 8:32:27 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: slushie

Haha, some of the people in my praise team even come to PRACTICE late... and it's not a good thing.

We have a prayer meeting at 9:30 but no one wants to get up early for that. Not even my dad.


I'm up early to get to Sunday school at 9:30 today! Woo!

quote:

ORIGINAL: ChoirDJ

Our service starts at 10AM. I ask The Praise and Worship Team to be there by 9AM each Sunday. If the band is performing, the band gets there by (8AM) since it takes a while to set things up. If the choir is performing, I ask them to be there at 8:30AM to get warmed up properly. You have those that get there on time but the rehearsals are not too productive without everyone there since it's a relatively small ministry.


Man, that's true. When you've only got a handful of people it's really not useful to practice until everybody gets there. You end up repeating everything anyway. It sure is a bummer when people are chronically late and it's really tempting to tell them practice is 20 minutes earlier than it actually is. Maybe they'd show up on time!

quote:

ORIGINAL: BibleL7

Never had a group to practice with, I did have a Friday night worship session to teach congregation new songs yet very few would show. I would always show up a few minutes early to make sure sound system was ready and just prayer. Sorry if those who dont have worship teams are not OK in this do let me know and I will withdraw.


You don't have to have a team to be a worship leader! Jump on in. [:D]
It gets real discouraging when you spend a lot of time in preparation and nobody shows. When that happens I try to remember that it's about being faithful. Even if I don't see a single other person there, I know at least God is listening.



slushie -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (6/29/2008 7:15:25 PM)

Yeah... that sure is frustrating. But I have to remember it's not JUST to get a big audience.



LifeisGalatians220 -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (7/2/2008 11:24:33 AM)

Glad to see this. I hope this thread keeps going. I started in the choir, was brought on to the Praise team, and have occaisionally led praise at small churches my husband and I have spoken at, so I'll be stopping by here to see how it's going.

One of the best disciplines I ever learned from my first Praise and Worship pastor was to spend quiet time in prayer before our mid-week and Sunday practice time and between Sunday practice and the service. That was the time to take all my concerns & frustrations over glitches or timing, or my own personal technical mistakes to the Lord. I learned that it's best to pray my way through my time up front because so many things were vieing for my attention. Will I get the timing right? Am I going to hit that note that scared me? Will anyone think I'm foolish because those tears just won't stop popping up?

Sometimes I've had to deal with my own self-righteous thoughts jumping in while I'm singing praises about God's forgiveness toward me. Ick!!!

Most of all, I want to keep my eyes on Jesus whether I'm in front of the congregation, singing with them, or singing praises to Him in my home.

I hope that there might eventually be a folder just for Praise/Worship Ministry. Threads could cover music style, spiritual preparation, burnout...



David_D -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (7/2/2008 12:05:49 PM)

There's a ton of beautiful honesty in that post, LIG220. That's actually one of the things I've learned lately is that no matter what else you might be, as a leader of worship you must be honest. 100% authentic, as far as you can manage. It's a struggle because so many of us are good and practiced performers, and it's nothing for someone like that to project any kind of image they need "on-stage". The same techniques we can use to honestly express emotion can be used dishonestly to mask what's really going on and make us into big, stinky hypocrites. I've done my share of that, sadly.

There's also been times when whatever was going on was just way too big to fake it through and it's at those times I've felt the presence of God most clearly. When my engagement ended and I couldn't do anything to lead but let the rest of my team take care of the congregational part and sing my pain out for offertory. When one of the founding members of our church was taken home suddenly and unexpectedly and I couldn't keep the tears out of my eyes and the quiver out of my voice. Or even when there's been great victory and I'm just so full of joy I'm grinning like a doofus the whole time!

God giving us more than we can hide is a tremendous blessing, even if it doesn't feel like that.



David_D -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (7/7/2008 12:29:47 PM)

I hate to bump my own thread but I'm doing it anyway. [8D]

This Sunday was awesome! I felt energized, I was hitting all the right notes and it seemed like the worship team were all playing and singing together as one person. We were rocking, and it felt like the Holy Spirit was really moving in us! A totally powerful experience. And the congregation! They ... well, mostly just yawned.

I have to laugh because this isn't anything new. The same folks I see every Sunday lifting their hands and worshipping with smiles on their faces were doing it again this week, and the ones who stand there looking like they're sucking lemons continued to do that. It's a very great reminder that I can't make people worship no matter how hard I try or how good we get. What I can do is perform my duties faithfully and pray for them, every day.



Zhi -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (7/7/2008 12:47:12 PM)

Maybe it's more that you can't necessarily know if people are worshipping.

I have never been one to lift my hands... I'm just self-conscious about it. Probably has to do with how I was raised. But, that doesn't mean I'm not worshipping.

That's probably why I much prefer to be behind the keyboards/piano. Then I totally know what to do with my hands. ;)

At our worship practice it's just a given that you're going to have prayer time before you start practice... if you're not there for the prayer you're late. As for hanging out together... I'm not sure why that would be a necessity? I mean, I hang out with some of the people on the worship team, I know all of them, but I would feel a little weird if I were being proscribed "worship team hang out time". Granted we tend to spend time "hanging out" during practices...



RevMT -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (7/8/2008 5:03:23 PM)

David_D,

Thanks for the comment on the same-olds. I am the worship leader for the ministry of two -- Jesus and me. We have a very small congregation and the buck stops with me.

It took me a long time to get over the discouragement of people appearing not to participate. We have people who haven't been in church before or in many years. We have people who won't sing no matter what the song is, and we have others who would prefer to listen rather than be active participants.

I have decided that this is an "occupational hazard" and have left it to Him. I try my best to choose songs that are familiar enough that people will be encouraged by them whether they sing or not. No matter how much we may want to, we can't force them to join us.

What keeps me doing what I'm doing is the knowledge that it is He who is my worship.

Thank you for starting this discussion. It is very encouraging and uplifting to hear others voice their victories and concerns.

Remain blessed,
revmt



Tomok -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (7/9/2008 9:57:47 AM)

Thanks David for starting this thread.

My thoughts..................

I'm one of the worship leaders in a very small church of 20, maybe up to 30 on a good day!

As a worship band we practice only once a month for one hour only starting at 6.30pm. This is a huge problem for me and others who have to work for our living and don't always get home on time! I've tried suggesting we change both the time (to allow all of us to get there) and the fact we need more than 1 practice a month - heh! none of us are session musicians.
The reason given for not changing the time is that it saves people coming more than they need to in the week - sorry I should have added that the band practice is before the weekly prayer meeting. I feel and have said, we need to meet more regularly and to practice for longer. Practice time is not half an hour before the Sunday service starts! You cannot learn anything in this time - in fact apart from warming up and ensuring mics, instruments etc are all ok - pre-Sunday service practice is not on. As a band we do pray before each service and sometimes before we practice monthly.

In contrast to this at a previous church I belonged to, we had weekly band practices (couple of hours) and a good hour practice - well early of the Sunday service. What we found was - over a period of time was that the weekly ''practice'' became a wonderful time of praise and worship and lead us into a time of sharing His Word and praying for the various needs of the church, the world and ourselves. Did our services then suffer as a result of this? Absolutely NOT - in fact they were far better than we expected as a direct result of it.

As worship musicians we are at the very head of God's army and as such should expect to be attacked by satan first- BUT we need to be prepared for this - it goes with the territory - and therefore I would encourage all of you to spend quality time together as musicians in prayer - why? because you're going to need it as you face the enemy on the frontline.

God has called each one of us who are musicians to a very special place in His army of warriors - this is a huge privilege to serve Him in this position. Let's not forget this.

Thanks again David - great idea!



David_D -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (7/11/2008 12:28:55 PM)

Hi Zhi,

Tomok explained the need for fellowship time better than I could:
quote:

ORIGINAL: Tomok

As worship musicians we are at the very head of God's army and as such should expect to be attacked by satan first- BUT we need to be prepared for this - it goes with the territory - and therefore I would encourage all of you to spend quality time together as musicians in prayer - why? because you're going to need it as you face the enemy on the frontline.

God has called each one of us who are musicians to a very special place in His army of warriors - this is a huge privilege to serve Him in this position. Let's not forget this.


This is the reason for it. In the past year I have seen members of my team run into severe trouble that I knew nothing about until it was too late. I'm not trying to be nosy or force people to be friends. I want us all to pull together so that if any of us happens upon difficulties we can all help him or her through it.

Tomok, when we first started up this team we practiced twice weekly for about an hour and a half each. We were starting from essentially zero, though, and felt like we needed the extra time to ramp up. Now we're doing one practice weekly from 3:00-4:30 on Saturdays, which is sufficient to practice the songs for that week, learn a new one, and spend some time in prayer and study. It would be ... quite difficult to practice only once a month. Do you guys drive an extraordinary distance to get to church?

Thanks, RevMT! False feelings of isolation seems to be one of the favorite weapons of the enemy. When we share we realize that we are not alone and can lean on our brothers and sisters for help.



Zhi -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (7/11/2008 1:09:30 PM)

Ah. I guess I didn't equate "hang out time" with "prayer time". Of course prayer time is necessary, but I wouldn't call prayer time hanging out.



Tomok -> RE: Worship Leader Chill Zone (7/14/2008 12:05:33 PM)

Quite the opposite! The church for me backs onto my garden! - 2mins walk around the corner. With the exception of 2 people (both from the same family) we all live within 15 mins commuting time from the church. This is the frustrating part about it. I'll have to keep ploughing away until we manage to get weekly sessions.

By the way at my old church most people were 30-45 minutes from the church - and it was never a problem!

old adage - if you want to do something - you'll find the time to do it!



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