WORSHIP LEADERS
THE END : 7 WORDS OF HARD EARNED WISDOM FROM A PARTING WRITER | Jon Nicol
This is my last column article I ’ ll write for [ WM ] Worship Musician magazine . After 14 years teaching and coaching at WorshipTeamCoach ( almost eight of those I ’ ve spent as a regular writer for [ WM ]) it ’ s time to hand things off .
I need to tell you this : I ’ ve done this before , and it ’ s always a little messy . I led worship vocationally for about 20 years starting in the late 90s . In the fall of 2018 , I handed the leadership reins of my worship ministry to someone almost two decades younger than me .
Yeah , on purpose .
It looks great on paper : find someone internally who understands the culture , is bought into the church ’ s ministry philosophy , and is someone the team already knows , likes , and trusts .
Then you let them lead .
It ’ s like a Wendy ’ s Double Cheeseburger .
When you look at the promotional picture , it ’ s a mouth-watering work of art with the two juicy patties and perfectly layered toppings . When you buy one and open it up , it ’ s a mayodripping , tomato-slipping mess created by a teenager who has no regard for how you ’ ll eat it ( and likely wear it ).
But it ’ s still delicious .
After doing the good-but-messy succession in 2018 with my worship ministry at my last church , I ’ m now doing it again with my coaching and training business , WorshipTeamCoach . com .
One of my coaches , Matt Miller , started off with a $ 17 video course to teach his team how to be more expressive in worship . He then became a member of Worship Workshop ( our team member training site ), later enrolled as a coaching group client , and worked hard to intentionally transform his team .
He had such success that I eventually brought him on as a coach . Then , I started asking him to help me run parts of the business for me . One day I called Matt and I asked , “ If I were to sell WorshipTeamCoach , are you interested in taking over ?”
“ Giddyup !”
We had a couple messy cheeseburgers along the way . But those moments just helped strengthen our resolve of why we ’ re doing what we ’ re doing . On May 28 , we met for dinner with our wives and signed the papers . On June 1 , Matt officially took over as the owner and director of WorshipTeamCoach . I ’ m excited to be handing this off to someone who understands the foundations we build , the philosophy of leadership we teach , and is someone my team and our members know , like , and trust .
It ’ s too early to talk about any changes , but I do know the WTC team is going to keep writing for [ WM ] as long as they will have us .
30 June 2023 Subscribe for Free ...