because the leader is not doing what Ephesians 4 calls him / her to do :
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church : the apostles , the prophets , the evangelists , and the pastors and teachers . Their responsibility is to equip God ’ s people to do his work and build up the church , the body of Christ . ( Ephesians 4:11-12 NLT )
Instead , too many leaders have this mindset : “ I do the work of ministry , and my team members are just helpers , assistants , and substitutes .”
Equipping worship team members is not easy for a lot of reasons . But a big reason is because most leaders don ’ t have a plan . They approach team member development haphazardly with no plan . But if you implement these five vital elements , you ’ ll have the process you need to equip your team members .
1 . CLEAR ( AND MULTIPART ) PATH When it comes to developing your team members , you need a clear path that team members follow . They need to be able to understand where you ’ re leading them . And this path can ’ t have one beginning and end . It needs multiple beginnings and endings . Think about college . Imagine walking in as a freshman to find your class schedule is four straight years of classes — day after day , week after week , month after month . “ No thanks . I ’ ll keep flipping burgers at McDonald ’ s .”
But since college is broken up into semesters and years , you can see the path better . And there ’ s also a sense of accomplishment at each step along the way — you ’ re no longer a freshman , you ’ re a sophomore . Then a junior . Then a senior . ( Then a senior again . At least for those who crammed four years into five .)
So as you build your development process , you ’ ll want to create a clear equipping path with milestones where team members start and stop along the way . And remember , you ’ re equipping busy volunteers , so quicker is better . Look for ways for those milestones and breaks to happen frequently . If you want to see an example of a multi-part equipping path , visit
WorshipWorkshop . com to look at how we use these Core Paths : BEGIN , BUILD , MODEL , and MENTOR .
2 . CONSISTENT CORE CONTENT One of the problems with developing worship team members is the fact that most worship ministries have relatively regular turnover . New people come in and current members step down — they either move away , change churches , or just decide it ’ s time to take a break .
Earlier in ministry , I ’ d often plan a training event for my whole team . We ’ d focus on a big issue like “ understanding biblical expressions of worship and platform presence .” The training would be helpful and the team would make progress in that area . Before long , I started to see the same issues return :
• Heads buried in the music stands
• No clapping or raising of hands
• And too many of their faces looked like someone had poured vinegar into their Cheerios that morning .
With typical team member turnover , many of