Pastoring A Worship Team
I’ve had the huge privilege and honor to be involved in leading the worship team over at LIFE Church in Bradford for the last 10 years. It’s been an amazing journey!
One of my greatest joys has been to see people in the team grow and flourish as they’ve joined. There have been people who joined the team barely saved (or barely able to play an instrument) who ended up being an integral part of our worship team over time - just amazing!
Looking back I realize clearer than ever that of all the things you can focus on when leading a worship team, pastoring should be every leaders’ top button. Yes, it’s really great when you can improve the vocal abilities and musicianship of a team, or that new song or recording project - but those things will simply create an impressive or skilled team, not necessarily a healthy one.
And an unhealthy team will not be able to keep bearing healthy fruit.
Over the years I’ve not always gotten ‘pastoring’ right (sometimes I got it terribly wrong)… but I do think I’ve learned things that help me see clearer now what to focus on. So I’ll leave these with you and hope that they will help you in your journey of pastoring your worship team!
The ultimate goal: People should feel safe with you (and with others in the team). If they feel safe it makes pastoring a natural next step.
DISCLAIMER: I do not feel qualified at all to be an authority in the topic of pastoring. But I do know from experience that the below things have created pathways in our team for people to be pastored! Use what seems helpful to you and discard what you don’t think would be helpful for your context!
In no particular order, here are some things I found helpful in pastoring my worship team:
1: BE YOURSELF
No matter what sort of leader you are, always remember to be yourself. Nothing is worse than feeling like someone is doing a job, or that you are a project or only important because of your gifting. Being a leader doesn’t mean you can’t also be relatable to those you serve with. If as a leader you are able and willing to be real and vulnerable with your team, it will most of the time open up the same response to you.
2: BE A LISTENER
Know how to create space and a safe environment for your team. Being present in a conversation is probably one of the hardest things to consistently do when you carry a lot of responsibility. Learn to ignore your phone at the right time, and know how to time your conversations well, so that you can actually be there 100% instead of having to rush off to sort something out. Try to ask more than you answer - it’s a hard thing to do!
3: RESPOND
What do you see? What do you think? Do you get nudges or thoughts? Do something with those things! It may well be the Holy Spirit nudging you. Make sure to listen and respond to those nudges!
4: ASSURE
Regardless of what comes up in conversations with your team members, never forget to (re)assure them with Biblical truth! The list is endless, but think of things like:
We are no longer a slave to sin (Romans 6:6)
We are forgiven (Ephesians 1:7)
Nothing affects God’s love for us (Romans 8:31-39)
No one is perfect! He who is without sin throws the first stone (John 8:7)
The hardest tension is that you will have to ride a line between loving someone but not necessarily condoning or agreeing with their actions. As a result, you will also need to know when to let go. Know when someone’s intentionally making a decision that perhaps may never be compatible with a healthy and integrous worship team.
5: INVEST
If you want to pastor your worship team, you will need to invest into the people. Build true friendships, not transactional relationships. Too many of us think we have good friends in the team because we see each other weekly at worship rehearsals, but friendships are simply not built like that. It takes time - and the best (or most honest) conversations will probably not happen when you are supposed to get ready for a service or rehearsal.
I’m fully aware it’s not realistic to build close friendships with a large worship team. But as leaders we have to model that we value the people over the task ahead of us.
6: BE TRUTHFUL
In your conversations always pursue the truth. The truth will set you free (John 8:31-32). Don’t be afraid that things go wrong if you stick with the truth. Too many times I’ve avoided certain conversations (or confrontations) because I knew that the repercussions of it could be that a team member may feel hurt or judged. Or it could even be the practical fear of not having that amazing guitarist. But over time I’ve seen that avoiding honest and truthful conversations would result in more damage and confusion for all parties involved. If you don’t confront the Biblical truth you can end up with a “grey” worship team where lots of unhealthy things are not addressed, yet we all know it’s probably not right.
2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness
Sometimes we forget that rebuking and correcting is Biblical. By no means is this a wild card to just bash people with scriptures - we need to be kind and compassionate! But for the sake of the integrity of our team, church and most importantly our gospel message, we need to be willing to confront behaviour and attitudes with Biblical truth.
Character is forged through these kinds of conversations!
Bill Johnson said in his book Spiritual Java “Gifts are free, but maturity is expensive”. I believe that truthful conversations will foster maturity in worship teams.
7: CREATE MARGIN
The worship team can be a pretty intense serving experience. It comes with a commitment to rehearsing, showing up early. As leaders we should make sure to create a space between our productivity and the limits of our capacity. But more than that we need to create margin for our team.
It’s far too easy to just rely on that amazing worship leader week in week out. But if that serving happens without margin over a long time it will often come at a cost. Creating margin means leaving space for God to sort things out, also in the practical sense.
Why is margin important?
A rested soul will have more capacity to be there for others.
So we need to learn to say ‘no’ at times, and help our teams to do the same.
John Mark Comer has written a great book on this called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry - worth a read!
8: BE SIMPLE
No one gets better from drama and complexities. So as a leader, be a straightforward person who is easy to interact with. Leave no space for favourites, weird behaviour or vague responses - it simply just doesn’t add anything beneficial to your leadership.
The US Navy use the ‘KISS principle’ - ‘Keep it simple stupid’. Our teams could sometimes do with a bit more KISS!
Matthew 11:28-30 in the AMP translation puts it well:
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me [following Me as My disciple], for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (renewal, blessed quiet) for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy [to bear] and My burden is light.”
We don’t want the equivalent of ‘religious rituals’ in our team. So if as leaders we can model that well, you’ll find it also creates a team that work like that.
9: BE REALISTIC
Make sure to manage your expectations of your team, and manage people’s expectations of you. It’s much better to underpromise and overdeliver than to not be able to live up to what you said you would take care of.
I also think it’s good to be realistic about the nature of pastoring: it’s not cool, flashy or Instagrammable - it’s often messy, complicated, and can be really draining. But the reward of seeing your team members grow in maturity and health is always more than worth it.
10: BE JESUS FOCUSED
Although the previous 9 points are hopefully helpful - ultimately we need to make sure we point our team members to Jesus. No matter how good our intentions are or how great our wisdom may be - if we don’t bring people closer to Jesus it may create an unhealthy dependency on ourselves. Jesus is the bread of life (John 6:35)!
Born in the Netherlands and now living in the UK, Sem Schaap is a keyboardist, producer and songwriter. Sem serves as the Music Director at LIFE Church UK and has a deep passion for building the local church and its worship teams. He is heavily involved in writing, arranging and production of LIFE Worship albums such as Dance Again, Wide Open Space and Speak To The Storm and continues to work on other musical projects too.