WORSHIP LEADERS
7 SUREFIRE WAYS TO DEMORALIZE A NEW TEAM MEMBER Jon Nicol
ONBOARDING ANDI
Andi made it ! She sailed through the audition process , nailing every song we put in front of her . As a killer keyboardist , solid alto , and decent acoustic guitarist , she was a dream recruit . In fact , I was secretly planning on fasttracking her to be a primary worship leader over the next year .
She didn ’ t really want the spotlight . But she had an unusual mixture of quiet confidence , engaging platform presence , and spiritual maturity that begged to be developed into a worship leader . Even if I never got her out front to lead , she was the kind team member who only comes around once every few years - if you ’ re lucky .
But within four months , Andi came to my office late one afternoon , the day of rehearsal and dropped a bomb , “ This will be my last Sunday , Jon . I don ’ t think the worship team is a good fit for me .”
I ’ m sorry , what ?! She could have told me she was a Russian sleeper agent seeking to defect and I would ’ ve been less shocked . “ What am I missing ? It seems like everything has been going great .“ But I was wrong .
She began to lay out the reasons she didn ’ t feel
like she belonged . The longer the list got , the more dumbfounded I became .
I don ’ t feel like the team likes me .
“ They like you ,” I said , “ they can just be a little clique-y sometimes . And honestly , I think there ’ s some jealousy . We ’ ll work on that . What else ?
Every time I ’ m scheduled , I learn my vocal parts from the recordings , only to have another vocalist either sing the same line or worse — something that doesn ’ t work with what I learned .
“ Yeah ... we have some vocalists who just do their own thing . I ’ m sorry about that ,” I apologized ... again . But she had more .
Then after the service last week , the senior pastor ’ s wife told me she didn ’ t appreciate that I was wearing ripped jeans on the platform . Is it against the rules to wear ripped jeans ? I ’ ve worn them several times !
“ Shoot , yeah ,” I said sheepishly , “ Pastor Jim and his wife are a little old school . I saw that you wore ripped jeans and I was going to mention that . Sorry I didn ’ t think to bring that up sooner .” I paused . “ Is there more ?” Oh , there was more .
A few weeks ago you gave me the verse and chorus to lead at rehearsal , and Sunday morning you made an excuse why you were just going to lead the whole song . I know I didn ’ t sing it that well . I just wish you would have been straight with me .
“ Um ... well ... it just didn ’ t seem to fit your voice . You ’ re right . I ’ m sorry . I should have given you clearer feedback .”
I wanted to quit that Sunday . I just felt like you didn ’ t want me on the team .
“ Andi , you ’ re fantastic !! I ’ d take ten of you on my team ! I ’ m so sorry I made you feel that way that week .”
You know , it wasn ’ t just that week . I ’ ve felt like I didn ’ t belong ever since the first rehearsal .
“ Seriously ?! I thought you had a great first rehearsal . What happened ?”
You don ’ t you don ’ t remember that I was 20 minutes late ? I was sitting in my car in the front parking thinking no one was here . The doors were locked and there were no cars here . Turns out , no one told me I was supposed to park in the back of the building and come in the rear doors .