Raising the bar

Button Boy · 06-16-2003, 12:58 AM

My wife and I have been leading our congregations' praise team for several years now and we are quite frustrated with the low quality of people we have gathered about us. (This sounds truly harsh as I type this) We love everyone of these people, and they come to us for many reasons- fellowship mostly- but we really want to raise the quality bar in our praise team. More practices have been suggested, but I am the only guitar player, and the only other instrumentalist is a pianist with a complete inability to play syncopated rythms. I am so afraid of losing those we have, but on the other hand, the low quality of performing may be causing us to lose more. So what do I do?

Obviously, prayer comes to mind. I am more than willing to listen to the sugestions you'all may have...

YIX

georgeo · 06-17-2003, 10:01 PM

this is indeed a difficult situation to deal with.

one biblical example that pops into my head immediately is Miriam, the wife of Moses, who was known to be a gifted musician. she led the Isrealites in worship after the crossing of the Red Sea.

what i'm getting at is, there are many people that confuse being a lead worshiper with worshiping. don't get me wrong, lead worshipers should worship in spirit and truth, in rehersals and on sunday mornings, but they should, by no means, be the only people worshiping.

some people, when asked why they want to lead worship will say "because i love to worship." thats great. i'm really happy for them, because they have a heart that longs to be in the presence of God. But that alone does not qualify one to be a lead worshiper.

(this is where i get controversial, and where i need to be careful in my wording, i don't mean to insult anyone at all by this, and i'm sure there'll be plenty of people to correct me)

i think that 99% of the time, musical talent is a must. i tend to believe that there are plenty of people with outstanding musical gifts from God who love to worship Him. i think these are the people that should be the leaders of musical worship. why? because they have been given the gift of musical talent.
is this to say that someone who has a heart for worship cannot be involved in musical worhsip at all? not at all! theres sound crew, prayer team (i've always thought it'd be great to have someone who just prayed for the worship team while they practice and worship and everything)

so basically, thats my reasoning why i think it would be ok for you to try to find people who are more musically advanced to improve your worship team.

i might suggest just bringing in more advanced musicians who are called to be lead worshipers, and start practicing with them, start having them play on sundays, maybe on a rotating basis. you might be suprised to find others rising to their level.

and to end my long windedness....you're on the right track by praying.

in Christ,
David

nate95366 · 06-18-2003, 08:44 AM

Be careful about adding more practices (unless you only practice once a month or something like that). The important thing is what goes on inside each practice.

If you want to keep the people around, but (slowly) raise their level of ability:

1) Pick out a few things that you really want to accomplish, and make them really specific. Examples: I want our band to play with attention to dynamics and I want our singers to be on pitch and sing in 3 parts.

2) During practice, don't just "go through" songs just to "go through" them. Work on those things (inside the songs) that you really want to accomplish. Work on them over and over, maintaining your enthusiasm as the leader.

3) Emphasize the importance of individual practice, especially the fact that for most musicians, it is hard to contribute one's best at a group practice if one does not make a habit out of individual practice.

The other half of your situation stems from the seeming fact that for your group, whatever happens next is going to be based on a seemingly sudden change of someone's mind. You want it to be their their mind that changes toward a direction of "owning" the quality of their playing/singing and working toward giving a more excellent gift to the Lord. You don't want it to be a situation of "Well, the leader just turned into a dictator the other day and now he's forcing us all to practice, and all of this right out of the blue..." Do some intense prayer and study and I think you'll find that God values our best in worship. Once you're able to put that into words that communicate to your praise team, they can start the process of owning the same thing.

Some of the other suggestions can be a part of this - for instance, inviting a guest musician who exhibits the personal qualities that you want your musicians to exhibit. Perhaps they wouldn't play with your group on Sunday mornings, but you could have them play with you at practice and coach a few of your musicians/singers. Third person is good sometimes, and it's always good to get another point of view.

Nate

trpullen · 07-01-2003, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Button Boy

Obviously, prayer comes to mind. I am more than willing to listen to the sugestions you'all may have...

YIX

Yix...

Prayer is a great idea. Guilt is good too. God calls us to give the 1st (or best) 10% of our harvest to him. I believe this stretches into all parts of our lives. I give more than 10% of my music to HIM....sounds like you do too. Lovingly remind them that God has not called us to be THE best....he has called us to be OUR best. Give the BEST WE HAVE. I didn't totally get it until I re-read the lyrics to Little Drummer Boy of all things. "I played my best for Him"...."then He smiled at me" We should all be so lucky to have that opportunity.