LEADERSHIP
BUILDING HEALTHY TEAM ROTATIONS - YOU CAN DO IT (PART 1 OF 3) | Brian Fuller
What if I told you that I had the solution to all of
your ministry problems? What if I told you that
the majority of your team and volunteer issues
are stemming from one very common problem
that you could probably fix within the next 6 to
12 months? What if I told you that you could
raise team morale, create a more fun and more
engaging musical environment, have your team
show up on time, including your drummer,
already knowing the music and begging you to
schedule them more? Sound too good to be
true? Well Ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but I can
guarantee that if you implement the practices
that I am about to lay out, you will see a lot
of the problems that you face weekly get fixed
naturally. If you are interested, read on.
Ask yourself this one simple question. Is your
worship team the same people every Sunday?
If you are like most worship leaders I talk to,
the common and unfortunate answer is, “Yes”.
In a startling amount of churches across the
country, the same exact people lead worship
every single Sunday. Same band, same singers,
same tech crew and same worship pastor. And
what’s crazier than that, is that most of them
have been serving for years! This is a recipe for
burnout and bitterness.
You may not have given much thought to this,
or you may think it is totally fine, but I would
like to challenge your thinking. I would like to
present to you, over the course of the next
few articles, why this is not the most effective
way to do ministry and give you the tools and
resources to do something about it.
Let me distill this down into one simple thought.
There are basically two ways to lead your
worship ministry. One, you get enough people
to form a band and then you schedule them
every week until someone quits, leading to
you finding a new person to fill their spot. In
the other approach, you spend your time and
energy building a healthy culture of weekly
team rotations and incorporating new people
onto your teams constantly. Seems like a nobrainer
to me. Not convinced yet? Read on.
Allow me to list the pros and cons of each
scenario.
SCENARIO 1 – SAME TEAM EVERY WEEK
Pros:
• You have a loyal and reliable team every
Sunday
• Everybody knows everybody
• You know exactly what to expect from each
person
• You don’t have to worry about recruiting
Cons:
• Your people basically work for you, but they
don’t get paid
• If someone gets sick, you have no back-up
• They won’t tell you, but they would love
some time off
• Your corporate worship experience becomes
predictable and complacent
• Team members often gain unhealthy
entitlement to their roles
• People get burned out and instead of talking
about it they just leave
SCENARIO 2 – MULTIPLE TEAMS ROTATING ON A
WEEKLY BASIS
Pros:
• You are fulfilling God’s call on your life to
mobilize more people for His work
• New and fresh diverse sounds from different
musicians every week
• Volunteers have healthy time off to spend
attending church with their families
• Musicians are more likely to come prepared
and on-time
• Team members see serving as an opportunity
not an obligation
• If someone gets sick, you have back-ups to
call
• You are forced to become a better leader
Cons:
• It’s more work for you at the beginning
• You need to recruit, recruit, recruit
• You need to be well organized and more
administrative
• Transitioning to this scenario requires great
vision
While this list is not all inclusive, these are some
of the most consistent patterns I’ve seen play
out over and over again as I mentor and coach
people through leading their worship ministry.
Let me encourage you with this thought.
God does not use people to complete a
task, He uses the task to complete people.
Serving in ministry is how we grow to be more
like Jesus. It’s not just a gig. As such, it is our
responsibility to find great spots to serve for as
many folks that God sends our way. We have
a duty to provide serving opportunities. It goes
way beyond just making sure we have a guitar
player every Sunday.
Stay tuned for Part 2. When we discuss the
practical approaches to form your teams
including details on scheduling, managing
expectations and organizing your planning
software.
Brian Michael Fuller
Brian is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and
worship musician who currently serves as the
worship leader at several churches in North Carolina.
You can hear some of his original production music
at www.fullertime.com.
www.FullerTime.com
44 July 2020
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