It takes time and careful thought and planning. Some worship leaders have spent years getting their team to the level they desire. But don’t worry with a few simple steps and planning you will be on your way to creating a vibrant ministry.

Developing your group begins with choosing the right people.

This can be accomplished by creating and implementing a list of qualification and guidelines for those who desire to be a part of the worship ministry. This should be your first step in creating your ministry. Now while at first you may have to be a bit more relaxed and flexible about those chosen, once your ministry is established you can be a little more stringent.

As you create your guidelines make certain you make clear what is to be expected of the team and what they can expect from you. Areas you might want to cover in your guidelines include: A commitment to growing spiritually, attendance and punctuality, frequency of their service, a commitment to being spiritually prepared to minister, support of family, and calling.

For some ideas on qualifications for the worship ministry you might include such topics as: knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, being a committed partner of the Church and to its leadership, and being committed to the Spiritual disciplines of prayer, praise and worship, and personal bible study. These are just a few basic ideas to get you started. And remember you should treat your guidelines and qualifications as a living document meaning that it should and will change and grow as the needs of the church and ministry changes and grows.

As the leader your team needs you to be consistent and organized.

I know that the word organized strikes fear in the minds of many but it is well worth your while to become disciplined in this area. Remember the best leaders lead by example.

First of all make being on time a priority. When you are on time for rehearsals and the services it conveys to the team the importance of time. Not being on time shows a lack of respect for others and a lack of respect for the ministry which God has provided.

It is very important to keep a well organized team schedule of who is playing and when. This schedule could and should also include sound and video techs. Believe me you will save yourself some moments of panic by keeping a schedule.

Keep the people informed.

This is an absolute must! Whether you do it through an email or hand out or newsletter, keep your people informed of what is going on. Communication is a must for effective leadership. Now you don’t have to give them all the details of everything that goes on, they do need to be clearly informed on anything that will affect them. Trust me though, now matter how well you keep them informed, there will be someone that will come to you and say I never knew about the special practice.

Create a safe caring atmosphere for your team.

Let them know that they are able to be transparent and not be judged amongst the group. Trust is a huge factor that leads to an effective worship ministry. Deep relationships are only built in a safe nonjudgmental trusting environment. As the leader it is your responsibility to create that atmosphere.

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Now I know that we’ve all been to services where it seems like the entire church is just involved in the worship. It seems like the spirit is moving and that the congregation is singing loudly, hands are raised high and it seems as if every person in the building is worshiping with all they’ve got.

If we were to be honest most of the time when we’ve experienced these wonderful times of worship, it has been in a room filled with worship leaders. Every time I’ve gone to a conference the worship has been fantastic and I think this is what I want to worship to be like in our church just people everywhere totally uninhibited in worship to God. When in reality we are in a room full of worship leaders who their passion is worshiping so what else can they do but worship!

Now back to the question. In the past my answer would have been that we as lead worshipers need to teach and model biblical worship for the congregation. You can read more about that in an article I wrote here at Ezinearticles. That answer is not wrong. However it’s also not the best answer. Being in a mentoring group with Pastor Peter Lord has opened my eyes to the best and only true solution. To be honest with you the answer to this question is so simple and in fact I think when it comes to leading worship we tend to complicate things way more than is then is necessary.

Our job as worship leaders is not to be concerned with the response of the congregation, our job is simply to present the truth of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done and then let the Holy Spirit speak to their hearts.  I’ve often spoken that worship is revelation in response and it is. However my job as a lead worshiper is to reveal who Christ is and what he’s done through the tools of lyric and music and then allow the Holy Spirit to speak to the congregation to speak to the hearts and they respond to the truth that is just been revealed to them.

As Pastor Peter Lord has taught me, a pastor’s job is to speak the word of truth from the scripture. It is not to convert people. It is not to use words to manipulate people into making a decision it is simply to the reveal the truth from the scripture of who Jesus is and what He has done. Then allow the Holy Spirit to do the job of speaking to their hearts and leading them how to respond to the revelation of the truth they’ve heard.  Anything else is manipulation. We have to leave the response totally to the working of the Holy Spirit.

My friend that is why we must choose lyrics that are scripturally and doctrinally sound. That is why we should be so selective about what we present to the church. Our responsibility is not in the response, our responsibility is in presenting the Truth of Jesus and leave the response to the Leading of the Holy Spirit.

As my friend Pastor Peter Lord would say “Hey, are you with me?”

It is a fantastic message for lead worshipers.

Click here to view the video “In Memory of Our Savior’s Love”

One of the biggest questions I am often asked is how do you develop an effective worship team. While there are many factors that play into this equation, namely the will of God, there are 5 keys things that you can do as a lead worshiper to help build a solid foundation.

• Purpose & Vision – The purpose statement and vision of the ministry must be clearly laid out. This should go without saying, but the purpose of the team must be first and foremost about the glory of God. The purpose of the groupmust be to glorify God and God alone. If expressing the glory of God isn’t the number one purpose of the ministry, it will fail. The second purpose of the group is to provide the church with a biblical avenue, for an outward expression, to the revelation, of the glory of God.

• Prayer- Prayer is a major ingredient that must be built into the foundation in order to have a strong and effective worship team. Prayer must begin even before the group is being created. Pray that God would send you or lead you to the right people for each position. Once the team is assembled, praying for each other must become a priority. This is a key ingredient in order to create unity among the members. When you are interceding on behalf of someone else, bringing them before God, you can’t help but develop Gods heart for them.

• Discipleship – Guiding the members of the group to grow spiritually, and helping them fall deeper in love with God, is another key ingredient to building an effective worship team. How can someone lead in the praise of a God they don’t know? So with that thought in mind, here are three things that I personally do, and highly recommend that will help your team to grow spiritually. Encourage them to daily have a time of personal prayer, personal praise and worship and bible study. Trust me if your whole team is applying these three disciplines on a daily basis, it will make your job as a worship leader much more enjoyable, and the team more effective.

• Relationship – Building relationships with each member of your group is an extremely important part of building an effective worship team. How do you cultivate these close relationships? By spending chunks of unhurried time together. The time I am talking about is not the time spent rehearsing, but time away from the band setting. No don’t get me wrong rehearsals are a great time for building relationships, but getting together outside the bandsetting is very productive for relationship building. Try to make it a goal to spend time with each member of your group. Ask them over for dinner, or for a game night. You get the idea. The important thing to remember is that relationships are built by spending time together.

• Creativity – This last topic is something that I have been doing from the beginning if my ministry.  God has given musicians and vocalist a wonderful gift. I strive to cultivate an environment that encourages the groupmembers to grow creatively and artistically. What do I mean by that? Well, for example when we are learning a new song, we learn the basic feel of the song, but then I tell each member to make it their own. To use their gifting and go where the Spirit is leading them. One member of one of my worship teams said it is so to be a part of my teams because I don’t force them to follow the music exactly as it is written. He enjoys the fact that he can allow his creativity to show. Now they know that I do have the final say. If I don’t feel that what they are doing is a good fit then I will tell them so. But to be quit honest, I don’t have to do it very often.