just encourage worship pastors and churches to consider moving to that Sunday morning rehearsal time if their service times allow for that . That ’ s not always the case if you have a super early service time , like 8:00 AM or something , or if you have a Saturday night service , because it forces everyone to step up in their preparedness .
And it also starts to just naturally highlight the people who are maybe not taking it that seriously . And it gives you then a chance pastorally to step in and be like , “ Hey , what ’ s going on ? Is this just practically not feasible for your life and your schedule ? Can you not do it ? Or is there something deeper going on that we can partner with you and walk through ?” And it ’ s just something for people to consider — not assume that you can only pull that off when you have great musicians . I think it ’ s more ; it ’ s a much bigger approach than just that .
[ WM ] Yes , in our own church , we rehearse on Saturday morning for an hour , and then we rehearse one hour before on Sunday morning , and we ’ ve got one service . But you ’ re right , you should practice at home and then rehearse with the band so you can arrange the music and band and then go on from there .
[ Hope ] Again . People are volunteers . So we ’ re trying our best to really honor people ’ s schedules . And you know how it is on Saturday mornings — they ’ re full of people driving kids to sports and things .
[ Andrew ] I mean honestly , too , with our team ; so many of them are touring musicians and artists . So it would be impossible to get one group of people midweek and then the same group of people on that Sunday morning . That would not happen . There ’ s one Sunday that Natalie Grant is literally getting off the tour bus and coming straight to church on a Sunday morning . I know Hope ’ s done that before . That ’ s just kind of the rhythm of our team . And so instead of trying to fight or push back against that , I think we ’ ve just been conscious of what Hope ’ s saying : “ Hey , come prepared , come ready .” And it helps , because logistically , it would be a nightmare if we did rehearsal anytime except Sunday morning . ( laughing )
[ Hope ] This is like a sidebar , but I love that our rehearsals are on Sunday mornings because it makes space for once a month we meet together as a worship team and department . Everyone that ’ s involved can actually break bread , laugh , cry , pray over each other , and worship together . And it ’ s there that we actually build relationships and community .
And one of the weaknesses that I can see a lot of times in worship teams — I know I was guilty of doing this years ago — was treating that Wednesday night rehearsal as , “ Well , we ’ re connecting . This is where we ’ re building relationships .” But you ’ re not ; you ’ re there rehearsing . And yes , there is some connection point , but it ’ s not the same as actually breaking bread and doing just real-life stuff with no agenda other than just to be together . And I think that ’ s so powerful . And I think because we don ’ t have that weekly rehearsal , it ’ s so much easier for our team to make those nights a priority . And I think when you ’ re doing a weekly rehearsal , a Sunday morning service and you ’ re trying to gather people for hangs , I think it can be too much and exhausting for people . And so it ’ s protected our ( I think ) community building in a really great way .
[ WM ] Gotcha . So , I just have two more
18 February 2024 Subscribe for Free ...