Worship Team Values

     Our values define us and direct our actions. If I value football, I'm gonna spend time watching and playing football. If I value time alone with God, I'm gonna have time quiet time set aside with the Lord. If I value friendships, I am going to work extra hard at being a good friend. 

     Our values as a worship team will also define how we operate and how we function. Most of the headaches that unfortunately plague worship teams come from a flawed value system. 

     So here are core values* I'd like to submit as the driving qualifications for someone wanting to be on the worship team. 

1) Authenticity- Your life off-stage. No one is perfect. And no one expects perfection. But we want to make sure that what are confessing matches how we live. 

2) Availability- Your time. Can you devote the time needed to practice, show up at rehearsal and be on time for a presentation? All the heart and talent doesn't mean a lot if a person is not able to be at the worship service. 

3) Attitude- Your heart. What is your motivation? Are you on the team because you like the spotlight? Do you just really love music? Or are you so dynamically in love with God that it overflows and you want lead others into His throne room. 

     I have found that stressful or difficult situations can show someone's true attitude. A good friend once told me, "the challenge is not in acting like a Christian, but in reacting like a Christian." How do you react when you don't get the solo? What if you are not asked to play as often as you like? How do you receive criticism? 

     Anyone can learn an instrument or to push buttons. But it takes a lifetime of working on your attitude. What matters is your trajectory. Are you aiming hard at developing a Christ-honoring attitude? 

4) Ability- your talent. Do you have the artistic and technical chops necessary to effectively lead a group of people in a way that is aesthetically pleasing and distraction free? Nothing is worse than jarring someone out of a transcendant moment with a wrong note. They happen, but it should be the exception to the norm. 

*(I need to confess that I flat out stole this from a dear friend : Bryan Nelson, Worship Director at a church in Topeka. He has been a long-time mentor and dear friend and "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". )