A Question About Church Bands

Hi All,

I read a question at one of the forums that I frequent and felt I should chime in from my own experience. Below is a bit of that conversation. It is probably far from a complete response. Hopefully, though, it will help to give leaders a little altitude as to why we structure things the way we do.

Hi Songman, I wanted to respond to your question in a pm just because this kind of thing can be a little contentious in the context of a public forum.

" Your question: "It sounds to me like you guys have a pool of players and pick them as necessary to form a team. How do you guys make sure no one is left behind? or members from forming "Clicks"?" There are so many different ways to structure your teams. I have tried a bunch of them! And here is where I have landed at this juncture on the journey. At Westside we have a large pool of players on 4 campuses and some smaller band type opportunities as well. 1. I think it is important that everyone buy into the larger team. Not just the band or campus they play in. Even when they are in the chairs, they are still on the team. When one member of the team wins, we all win regardless of whether you are playing that week or not. 2. I don't like to create bands for few reasons. One is the danger of creating elitism or "cliques." It is inevitable that some people will align themselves more with their band than their team or the church as whole. My opinion is this isn't healthy. I like to mix the players up. And their schedules usually do this naturally anyway. It creates a better sense of the broader team. People will own the bigger visions for worship and the mission of the church when this is done well. I don't think it is healthy for anyone to play every week either. It is important for people to have margin. Also, it is more important that they get they are a member of the "church" before they are a member of the worship team. We need to have a well developed bench. Set bands have a way of discouraging this. When life happens to one of the band members i.e. vacation, sickness, moral crisis etc...you have no one who can step in who knows the team and music. I have seen this happen a lot. 3. Regarding "no one being left behind." This may sound harsh, but I don't feel obligated to use every person who comes along who might play an instrument. We work hard to recognize and develop talent and character. But, we definitely have a bar of what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable for a persons ability. Always a hard thing to measure. Our goal is to facilitate an environment where people can connect with God. Everything is filtered through that, including the acceptable level of player for our church culture. It is also true that the program can outgrow certain players. I have found that some musicians are very content with where they are at musically and are surprised when they are no longer on top of things. The program got stronger, but they didn't. And, they feel that tension. There are also the folks who have the humility and desire to learn and grow as challenges are placed before them. They become the kind of core members who will model for the rest of the team how it is done in attitude as well as performance. They "get" how their effort is a sacrifice of praise before God who deserves the best we have at any given time.

I realize their are musical and relational advantages to having "set" bands. But I believe the upsides are worth the potential downsides. And, we work hard to create plenty of opportunity for community with the team. The musical downsides have been negligible in my experience.

Sorry this is so long, but as I prayed about it I felt like I should respond. Thanks for reading. Please let me know if I can be of any help." Grace and Peace, Pastor Troy Kennedy www.newworship.com www.westsidefamilychurch.com twitter.com/troykennedy http://www.worshipleader.com/webinars

Comments

[JC]

I don't mean this as an insult so please don't take it that way. When I read "This may sound harsh, but I don't feel obligated to use every person who comes along who might play an instrument" how is that not saying "Yes, God may have given you a gift to play but you're not good enough for us. Go play to God somewhere else"? Telling people their gifts from God aren't good enough just doesn't seem like something Jesus would be telling us.

[Troy Kennedy]

Thanks JC. I appreciate your honesty. I don't think any of us would say that we are all equally gifted by God in any given area. Or that people are always aware of the truth regarding their ability. (Ever seen American Idol?)

For whatever his reasons, God apportions to all of us talent and experiences that are different. The body of believers is extremely diverse and we all have a place. A person may have an average talent or skill set and another may be better. There are lots of opportunities for people to serve God with whatever gifts they have aside from Sunday morning in a band. It is one of my jobs as a pastor to point people in the direction of their greatest giftedness and ultimately, greatest joy in serving Gods Kingdom.

[JC]

Thanks Troy. Appreciate the response.

[Ben]

Troy - Excellent post. This exact advice you provided me earlier this year helped solidify what the Lord was doing with our worship team. Thanks for your heart to encourage other worship leads!

[Harold Forbis]

Troy, this really is excellent advice. I find that maintaining the family identity with one team, and rotating members, rather than breaking up into A-team, B-team, etc., for the reasons you list, has always been the healthiest way to go about it. Sometimes it's difficult to match player and singer strengths and weaknesses to have consistently solid group, but figuring that out is part of leading sheep, isn't it?

I think you see this model in I Chronicles 25, with the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, who were all one team, scheduled to serve in rotating shifts by casting lots, "the older with the younger, the teacher with the student."

In years past, I have scheduled 100 team members for 30-35 worship meetings a month, with Bible college meetings, multiple Sunday meetings in multiple locations, children's services, and other needs being served at the same time. Even though at that time we had specific teams assigned to some of these different venues for practical reasons, the team members within those groups still served on a rotating basis, and we had many members serving on multiple teams, all with the understanding their team was part of the larger whole and available to serve anywhere needed.

Anyway, good post, thanks for provoking the thought.