3 Ways to Grow Your Team

My father-in-law is a retired Snap-On salesman so every year I get some kind of tool for Christmas.

Sometimes it’s awesome (wow, cool drill!) and other times a little confusing (nice… a set of hooks with handles?). One year I got a tiny pry bar and thought, “Okay, I guess I can pry up little nails”. My mother-in-law gushed that it was the most useful tool she’d ever owned and within days I had used it to do everything from opening a stuck jar lid to fixing a shoe.

That little pry bar was useful for so much more than I had originally imagined. I just needed someone to point out how powerful it was.

An online worship resource like Worship Artistry is an incredibly powerful tool. Sure you can use it to learn your part for Sunday, but its real value is found when you look outside yourself.

Here are 3 ways to grow your whole team with Worship Artistry.

Aim for the Same Target

One of the hardest parts of playing on a worship team is getting everyone on the same page. By that I mean the style, level, and arrangement you're going to play. Half the time a worship team isn’t even reading the same chapter.

When my keyboardist has memorized a song note for note but my drummer’s changing their kick pattern every measure, there’s no sense of coherence. Nothing clicks and both the song and the team suffer for it.

Worship Artistry gives you a clear arrangement for every player in the band and when everyone that plays takes ownership of their piece, the song becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Even better, your group of individual players begins to sound like an actual band.

Go Beyond the Chord Chart

There are different levels of playing. Hand me a chord chart and I can find my way through it without embarrassing myself. Tell me what key a song is in and I won’t hit any “wrong” notes. Send me a track and I’ll give it a few listens before practice. Am I playing music? Sure. Is God pleased with my offering? Of course. Is it especially satisfying? Not really. 

True joy and freedom as a musician and worship leader is found at the next level. It's  where all your notes are under your fingers and you know and feel the song in your bones. Worship Artistry tutorials give the team a baseline of skill that doesn’t go away.

Transposable chord charts, tabs and sheet music aren’t there to follow in the worship set. They are there to help the whole team practice, memorize, and internalize the songs so everyone can lead with abandon. When you can leave the chord charts behind and play from your heart, everyone benefits.

Invest in the Future

If you only see your current team as your responsibility, you're missing opportunities for growth. Do you know that kid that walks up to you after church and asks you what kind of guitar you’re playing? That kid is your next go-to player. The congregation member whose voice rises above the group with the perfect harmony might be your next leader.

Identifying church members who can contribute to the team and investing in their ability might be the most important thing you do this year.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve lost some key musicians recently. I’ve had players move out of town, have kids, take less flexible jobs. As a worship pastor at a small church, I don’t have a pool of studio-level musicians to pull from. I’ve had to identify people in my community who I think have the basic talent to join me in leading our congregation, invite them in and help them grow into the role.

When you take this kind of organic approach, you rarely find musicians that are confident and ready. They need coaching and they need to grow outside of the team environment so they can thrive within it. That’s where Worship Artistry’s detailed tutorials come in. Add that future team member to your Worship Artistry team account, assign them some songs to learn, and watch them grow in knowledge, skill and confidence. That tiny investment can pay exponential dividends.

Conclusion

Every tool is what you make of it. See how your band can get on the same page, master their parts, and build the foundation for the future.