platform who gets after it . You like that they ' re worshiping expressively , but it ' s so far from where everyone on the other team is . It looks out of place .
And we can ' t forget about your congregation . Your platform team is really just a microcosm of your gathered church on Sunday . You have a few pockets of expressive worshipers . But most are screen-gawkers just mouthing the words .
It ' s a little overwhelming when you think about it all . With your limited time , your less-than-ready leaders , your mediocre team , and your screenstaring congregation …
… you feel stuck .
WHAT ' S ( REALLY ) WRONG ? When you just focus on the positive , you ' ve got a ton going right . You know that ? You really do ! But there ' s still that nagging laundry list of everything that ' s wrong . So here ' s the bigger question : what ' s ' the wrong ' behind that . What ' s really wrong ?
Most improvements you make feel incremental . And those changes don ' t seem to move the needle of forward progress . So you gotta wonder ... " Is it me ?" " Is it my team ?" " Is it my church ?" " Is it just our culture ?" " Why — despite all the good things happening — does it feel like we ' re stuck ?"
WHAT ' S IN THE WAY ? There are three big obstacles that I see keeping most worship leaders stuck .
Time There ' s hardly enough time to be ready for Sunday , let alone building your team long-term .
Commitment The entire team isn ' t fully committed to your standards of excellence .
Sunday Quality and Engagement The congregation doesn ' t fully participate and the team doesn ' t look or sound consistently excellent every Sunday .
So what needs to happen ? You tell yourself ...
• " I need to train and develop them more . But where do I find the time to do that ?"
• " My team needs to practice more and commit to excellence . But they ' re not fully bought in . They ' re OK with being OK ."
• " My church needs to be more ' alive ' on Sunday . Since the team is focused on just getting by musically , they don ' t engage or lead the congregation ."
So you ask yourself , " What do I need to do ?"
Um … ... train and develop my team more … ... get them to buy into higher standards … ... improve the Sunday experience to engage the church more ... ... and ...
Yeah , you ' re seeing it , right ? It ' s a vicious cycle of obstacles that keep you from making every Sunday exceptional .
• You don ' t have enough time for team development .
• So your team sticks with the status quo — they ' re OK being OK .
• Because of this , most Sundays are mediocre .
But , every so often , you have that knock-it-outof-the-park , home run service that shows you what could be . And you would love to make your typical Sunday experience align so much closer to that exceptional one . What would it be like to have a team that can make every Sunday like that ? But , without burning out yourself or your team .
There ' s no way in the scope of an article that I could outline everything you can do to make every Sunday exceptional and stay emotionally healthy . But let me walk you through one critical way to get unstuck from this vicious cycle .
GET UNSTUCK : THE FIRST BIG STEP The first step you need to take towards your team embracing higher standards of excellence is to get crystal clear on what those standards are . Unfortunately , most worship leaders have never explicitly spelled out their expectations for their team members . But , it ' s missioncritical . You can ' t hold your team accountable to vague expectations and unclear standards .
When you create clear standards and documented expectations — and get buyin from your team members — you ' ll be able to lead your team to their " next level of exceptional ."
So … how ? Let me give you some baby steps to make this first big step .
Baby Step # 1 : List Your Expectations Take 20 - 30 minutes to brain-dump . Write down every one of your expectations for your team in all different areas of your worship ministry :
• Preparation ( personal practice and rehearsals )
• Scheduling / availability
• Musicianship / technical skills
• Training / development
• Relationships / team interaction
• Faith / conduct
• Church attendance / membership It ' s OK if you don ' t think of everything . You can add more later .
Baby Step # 2 : Decide … Policy or Guideline ? Determine how each expectation should be framed — as a guideline or a policy . A guideline is what you expect without a strict process or steps for fulfilling that expectation . A policy prescribes how to fulfill that expectation . Here ' s a policy …
Rehearsals start promptly at 7 pm on Thursday nights .