The expectations on worship teams to deliver high quality services each and every week have consistently risen in recent years. The time commitment for a weekend service in a large church can easily equal 20 hours or more per week. This sets the bar pretty high for volunteers, and sometimes churches need to [or want to] bring in pro players to help shoulder the load.
This creates a quandary – what do you look for?
Pro players are used to being hired for their musical talents, not their “spiritual side.” To some, a church is simply another gig, with its own unique set of distinctives. That’s unhealthy for your team in the long run – I would advise against having long-term musicians who aren’t believers and on board with what you’re doing as a church. That being said, one of my dear friends was impacted to the point of making a faith decision through experiencing church and his interactions with the worship team – all because he was brought in to play….
On the vocal side, it’s easier. I do not believe that a non-Christian should ever be leading vocally – we make that person into a hypocrite the minute we ask them to sing the words of a worship song on the platform. More to come in the days ahead…
Hmmm - well, let's see...
I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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