Soundchecks

In many ways, sound check is the foundation of a good rehearsal. But in the scope of our preparation, the sound check can often receive the least amount of attention.

Like most things, the main work of a soundcheck begins before a soundcheck. Have you ever walked into a soundcheck where things are still being set up? It is a bit like being invited over to someone’s house for a meal, and they are just coming home from the grocery store. Whether it is a team, you as the worship leader, or the person running sound, you have to make sure that the right equipment is set up for serving.

Whatever the rhythm for your context, communicating that expectation to all involved is essential. Will they show up to plug and play because someone else has set up the sound? Are you a mobile church that requires all hands on deck to get the equipment set up and torn down each weekend? Whatever the situation, the instruments, inputs, layout, lyrics, any printing, and set lists need to be ready for the band to run with their primary responsibility - leading musical worship. Don’t waste valuable rehearsal time on set up.

Once the space is set up, finding consistent rhythms will help your team have a plan as to the way you move through soundcheck. I’ve worked with some sound people that like to dial in the EQ of each instrument before the band begins to play a note. I’ve worked with some sound people that like to do a line and level check, and EQ on the fly. Knowing the rhythms that work for you and your sound person will help you know how to plan, prepare, and communicate to your team about what they expect during a sound check.

For a team to be able to play well together, they need to be able to hear. This means part of your soundcheck needs to be spent making sure that everyone can hear in a balanced and clear way. Whether using in-ear monitors, or floor wedges, rehearsals will feel disjointed and discouraging if there are constant starts and stops to adjust levels of monitoring for the team.

One of the things that I have experienced slows every soundcheck to a stop is musicians playing or talking over the top of the sound person attempting to check, or communicate with a specific member of the team. There is a level of respect and care we provide for one another when we are aware that there can be time for conversation and playing around on our instruments - and the sound check is not that time.

Worship leaders need to help lead the team through a soundcheck so that they can ultimately lead a team through the rehearsal.

Team Devotions

There is so much that happens during a rehearsal - especially if that rehearsal is immediately before service. Set up, soundcheck, practicing parts, transitions, and working on harmonies just to name a few. Yes, rehearsal is in part for working through the practical details of the worship gathering, but shouldn’t it be more than that? My hope is that a rehearsal also gives us a chance to take a breath, to be present with God and with one another as we serve the people of God together. But do not be fooled, this does not happen by chance - your rehearsal must be intentional.

Ideally, every person serving comes practiced-up, and prayed-up. Fully prepared in skill and spirit to lead and serve. But even if that is the case, how can you as a leader use the rhythms of your rehearsal to prepare your team not just practically, but also to prepare their hearts to serve together? Prayer is never bad. Reading Scripture is never bad. I believe those two elements should be the baseline for leading our team in a time of devotion and personal preparation for our service.

Personally, I like to place a time of devotion following setup and sound check. More often than not, I like my devotional time to be reading through the passage of Scripture being preached, and then walking the team through the progression of the morning - why I chose these songs in this order with this particular text, what I hope will be the threads running through the morning. At that moment I want to encourage our team to lift their eyes to see the beauty of Jesus, the wonder of the Gospel, the glory of God, our dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and the joy and gift that we have to gather and to serve.

I have served in churches where the whole team has been reading through a book, or devotional together and will use this time to share what they are learning. Some teams like to rotate responsibility for leading the devotional time, focusing on a specific reading, a passage of Scripture, and a brief exhortation to live in light of God’s Word and to serve from that reality. Another consideration for a time of devotion is focusing on different aspects of a theology of worship. There are many ways that you can redeem your rehearsal time to train, encourage, and equip your team. If this is all new to you, start slow, and think through these questions:

What does my team need? Does this team need a deeper understanding of worship? More discipleship in how what we are doing connects to what is happening this morning? Do they need encouragement? Do they just need time to seek God’s face in the quiet of their own hearts, and collectively as a team?

Who is here? Are there other voices that can shape this team spiritually? Maybe another team member, or a pastor or elder would like to lead a short time of devotion, reflection, and preparation for the rehearsal.

How can I make the space? If this is new for your team, you will have to train them to expect this time. Maybe you need to move rehearsal back by 15 minutes to make sure that you are not rushing through this time.

Help your team prepare musically, practically, and spiritually. If you’d like another place to start, you can download my free worship leader devotional. A 52-week study with Scripture quotes, and questions to ponder as you prepare your hearts to live lives of worship, and lead in sung worship. Download it for free here.

Auditions

We hope and pray that our churches and areas of ministry grow. We desire for growth to not just be represented numerically, but in deep, life-long discipleship. One of the ways we can see evidence of growth and discipleship is when people begin to give their time and talents and invest in areas of ministry within the life of the church.

So when people express interest in serving musically on the worship team, how do we onboard and integrate people in a way that allows for discipleship? In a word, auditions.

When people think of auditions, usually the first thing that comes to mind is American Idol. Don’t auditions make it seem too much about performance, and not very Christian? If your audition is focused exclusively, or primarily on someone’s musical ability, that could be an easy pitfall. But I believe there is a way to set up auditions that are kind, gracious, welcoming, and discipleship-oriented. I like to break my auditions into two parts - musical, and personal.

Musical.

A musical audition is not so much about finding the best musicians as it is gauging an individual’s musical ability and where they will best fit within the team. Helping provide the best opportunity for those new team members to thrive, grow, and offer their gifts to the team and the congregation. I think one of the best ways to gauge someone’s musical ability for a team is to have them prepare two or three songs that are already in use in your team. Some questions to considering during a musical audition:

• Can you sing harmony by ear?

• Can you transpose on the fly?

• Have you served in a team before?

• Where do you see your instrument/style fitting best among the team?

Personal.

Anytime someone stands on the platform, we are communicating trust in their abilities, and their lives. Serving on the worship team is not just about assembling the best musicians, but assembling the people who will model and shepherd the community of faith on and off the platform. So when you break an audition into two parts, it gives you the time to ask people about themselves, their relationship with the Lord, and their desire to serve on the team. Some questions to consider during this part of an audition:

• What does your relationship with the Lord look like these days?

• How would you define worship?

• Why do you desire to serve on the team?

• Are you a member of the church?

• Are you participating in other ways (small group, giving, regular attendance, other areas of ministry, etc)?

Finally, the last piece of auditions is clearly communicating expectations and next steps. Before moving immediately into scheduling a new team member, it is always a good idea to follow up with pastors, elders, or small group leaders - someone who has more awareness of the life and walk of the potential new team member - to see if the individuals involvement on the team gives them pause . If everyone feels confident, then let the new team member know what comes next. Do you want them to attend several rehearsals before serving during a weekend? When can they expect music in hand? Do they need to memorize music? Will you provide lyrics and chord charts for rehearsal, or do they need to bring them along? How frequently will they be scheduled? What is the dress code for a weekend? How can they expect communication to be handled?

Auditions do not have to be an ugly word, or a performance-based interaction. Auditions enable you as a worship leader to continue to shepherd your team well, and see an individual rather than a musical gift.

Choosing New Songs

Growing up, my mom had a subscription to a worship resource that regularly mailed physical CDs which included a variety of different worship songs. For many worship leaders, this was the primary way they learned of new songs for the corporate gathering. How things have changed over the past twenty years! Social media, radio, YouTube, conferences, and an industry consisting of writers, publishers, promoters and worship leaders who are seeking to put more and more songs into the hands of the local church - we are not lacking in resources.

But access and quantity does not always me quality. I am convinced with the many resources we have easily available, we should not settle for good songs but introduce only the best songs for our people. Best is relative, and I mean it as such. Introducing new songs to your local congregation has much less to do with the best songs rising to the top of CCLI or radio charts, but what needs to be on the hearts, minds and in the mouths of your people. These are the best songs of which I write.

A handful of questions I ask myself or others when considering new songs to introduce in the corporate gathering:

Does this align with our church theologically? Is this bringing clarity or confusion to who God is, what He has done, and who we are as His people? Can I trace the lyrics and concepts of the songs Scripturally?

Could I hear our people singing this? Each local church is made up a unique mix of people, will this particular song - in style, melody, and lyrical content - be the right fit for those I serve?

Is this what we need to be singing right now? Some songs need to be earmarked for future use, but maybe not in a particular season of the Church. Being aware of the larger story, and movement of the Spirit in your church will help you to be Spirit-led in discerning the right time to introduce a song to the congregation.

Is this song filling a gap in our inventory? Will this song provide a new facet to consider the heart and character of God? What other content and topics do we need to consider for whole life discipleship through our song choice?

Could I hear our team leading this song? No matter how talented the team, or high-end your production, if you are not the band on the recording, you will not sound like the band on the recording. Often, when you strip away the original production and the crowds of people singing in a stadium, many songs can struggle to stand on their own with just a voice and a single instrument.

Choose wisely, choose well, choose the best songs for your people.

Developing A Team: Without Musicians

After high school I served a worship leader as a part of a church plant. It was new and exciting, getting to choose the songs that would make up the catalogue of our services, think through our structure and liturgy, casting vision about who we were and what our gathering would look like. The only problem? My mother and I were the only two musicians committed to serving as a part of the launch team for the church. Often people have a hard time envisioning what you are going to do until they see it. So trying to gather people and musicians before the launch was often met with, ‘sounds great, let me know when you start…’ It was the first (but not the last) time I had struggled to find other musicians to serve as we led corporate sung worship.

It can feel overwhelming simply to accomplish a weekly service when you are struggling to find Godly, gifted, and consistent musicians for your worship team. Like everything, we must start where we are: who do you have? If you are the only musicians willing and available to serve, that is still a good place to start. Here are other things to consider as you try and develop a team:

Make it a hospitable place to serve. Early communication with set lists, keys, chord charts and lyrics, and rehearsal times are essential. You have to establish a healthy, stable culture even if you’re the only team member. Showing up early and prepared, being considerate of those serving, being gracious and appreciative are small things that can make your team a more hospitable environment - a place where people would delight to serve.

Have conversations. Do you know other musicians and worship leaders in the area? Ask if anyone would be willing to help you out on a consistent basis, maybe once a month, or for a few months at a time. What seems like an obstacle to overcome could actually birth opportunity for co-laboring, partnership, and seeing the Kingdom continue to advance in your context.

Hidden musicians. I have often been surprised how many people sing or play instruments that do not put themselves forward to serve on the worship team. Maybe it is their season of life, they are already committed to a specific area of ministry within the Church, or simply because they have not been asked. Raise the question, be specific: ‘We are looking for guitar players, piano players, vocalists who can help us not only sing, but worship God through song, are there those a part of our community already that have the gifts and the desire to serve in this way?’

Pray. In one church where I served, as our team grew, one of our pastors asked me, ‘what does the team need, what do we need to pray for?’ For many months we prayed for more worship leaders, to my surprise, what God brought was not more people like myself (young guys playing guitar/piano who sang), but many gifted female leaders who could lead the band through rehearsal, and the congregation through the service, but did not play instruments.

Be creative. Pray specifically, but be attentive and aware of the ways God may be answering your prayer in a different way than you had anticipated. God answered my prayer for more worship leaders, but what a blessing to the team and the congregation I would have missed had my specific pray request required my specific answer.

If you are struggling to find Godly, consistent, and gifted musicians, take heart. I am often comforted by the reality that God does not need us to accomplish what He desires, but He chooses to use us. The worship of God does not start or stop based on our team - or lack thereof. Because of Christ, all of our broken offerings are perfected before the Father.

Running A Rehearsal

Last week I wrote about four categories of preparation: our hearts, the music, the team, and the rehearsal. In my experience, I believe teams and leaders - at least conceptually - understand the importance of the first three categories. But teams and leaders do not invest as much time and energy into preparing for rehearsals. I think this is because we see rehearsals as a necessary evil - the purpose and point of rehearsals being exclusively musical. When we view rehearsals as only preparation for the musical aspect of our team, we miss the opportunity to disciple, grow a sense of community, cast vision, encourage and equip our team to lead and serve as worship leaders on and off the platform.

As a worship leader, I believe there are a number of ways we can prepare personally, practically, and spiritually to create a rehearsal that is more than a necessary evil:

Prepare during the week. Play through the songs, familiarize yourself with the songs, structure, and transitions. Consider the team that will be playing and leading together, think through potential dynamics, parts, and opportunities to allow others to bring their skill, creativity, and heart to the setlist.

Communicate expectations. What time does rehearsal start? Do you want musicians to memorize music? Will music be provided, or do musicians need to come prepared with their chord charts and lyrics? Are there specific parts you’d like musicians to learn? As Brene Brown says, ‘Clear is kind.’ When we communicate expectations to the team, it avoids unnecessary frustration or unmet expectations during the rehearsal and helps solidify the culture of the team and rehearsal.

Be the first to arrive. As worship leaders part of our responsibility is to host the team. Arriving before the team gives us the opportunity to ready ourselves and the space, so we are present and able to greet and engage the team as they arrive. Get yourself warmed up, set up your instrument, finalize any small details, and quiet and prepare your own heart to host the team, and lead the rehearsal.

Lead the team spiritually, not just musically. Spend time praying together, reading Scripture, talking through the song choices, and how they are connected to the sermon and the series. Lead the team through a devotional. I put together a 52-week devotional for worship leaders and teams that you can download for free, here.

Walk the team through the setlist. Talk through not only the order of the setlist but the order of the songs. Communicate your ideas for the dynamics of each song and the setlist overall. As you start each song, go over the song structure and dynamics again. Once you’ve finished, make sure that everyone feels comfortable and is clear on parts and transitions.

Save new songs for the end of the rehearsal. This gives you the opportunity to get through songs that are more familiar, without consuming all of your rehearsal time working on a new song. You can always drop a new song that needs more preparation. But if you spend your whole rehearsal trying to ready one song without getting through the entire setlist, it can leave the team and the morning feeling a bit shaky.

Musicians hold instruments. Musicians love to play, put an instrument in their hand and it takes a great deal of self-control not to play constantly. But when someone is giving direction or vocalists are trying to work through parts, or musicians are trying to confirm chord changes, everyone needs to hold their instrument and/or tongue. This is both a show of respect to the team, but also cuts down on noise and confusion, helping the rehearsal to move efficiently.

Someone needs to make the final call. Whether the structure of a song, parts, and dynamics, or decisions about what to add or cut, someone needs to make the final call. Often this is the person responsible for leading worship that morning, but it does not have to be. But it is important that the team that morning understands who has the final say, and know-how to respectfully voice opinions, and humbly defer when a final decision has been made.

Rehearsals are necessary, but they do not have to be evil. We can steward them wisely to host our team, prepare the music, ready our hearts, and worship through song - even in our preparation.