5 Mistakes Your Worship Team May Be Making
David Santistevan

Let’s face it. None of us sets out to mess up. Mistakes are inevitable.

And the longer you lead worship, the more your church grows, the more you’ll need to pivot and change. What worked 10 years ago may not work today. Matter of fact, what worked last year may not be the best idea today.

That’s actually the sign of great leadership. You don’t need to have all the answers, all the time. But you do need to keep a pulse on what is working and what is not, and have the courage to change when necessary.

So consider this post less of a brash, unfriendly rebuke and more of a reminder, a reminder to be proactive about avoiding ruts.

So here we go:
1. Overemphasizing Excellence: It’s interesting how “excellence” has become the hallmark of the modern church. Our bands are tighter than ever and production is brighter than ever. More churches are doing albums of original music than ever before. But I have to ask, are we becoming more Christlike? Is your team growing in their closeness with Christ? While excellence doesn’t negate holiness, it is possible to overemphasize it to the point of excluding more important matters.

2. One on Ones: While your team may be massive, a massive team is made of individuals. And individuals need care. The tendency the bigger your team gets is to treat everyone like an army of drones. Mass emails. Group texts. Big announcements. But what tends to happen is people don’t feel valued. They feel part of a system rather than close friendship. Here’s the challenge: figure out a way to make your team close. Allow the individuals to feel their value.

3. Going Deep: You lead worship on Sunday, but do you worship as a team? How can you expect to lead people deep into the presence of God if you aren’t going deep as a team? A constant challenge I set before myself is for our “public ministry” to be an outflow of private devotion. Not only do we personally want to know God, we want to be familiar with pursuing Him as a team.

4. Being Shallow: Well, total shallowness isn’t anything to party about. But when you come together as a worship team, what do you do? Are you always sharing devotions? Singing songs together? Having deep discussions? Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes the greatest team building is ridiculousness and randomness. The randomness may be what you need to create the sort of team that is ready to go to war together. Why? Because you enjoy being around each other. You prefer each other’s company. That kind of camaraderie is essential for unified ministry.

5. Connecting to Your Local Church: Sure, you’re serving the local church. Every Sunday you provide a great service to your people. But is your entire team connected to what God is doing outside of the worship ministry? How is your worship team giving? How is your worship team church attendance/presence off the stage? Does your team come to church when they’re not scheduled? Are they giving to missions? Are they in a small group? Are they the lead pastor’s biggest fans? Are they massive fans of the church as a whole or just the worship ministry? These questions are a great sign as to your team’s health

These are all points we’re revisiting as a team. What about you?

The above article, “5 Mistakes Your Worship Team May Be Making” was written by David Santistevan. The article was excerpted from www.davidsantistevan.com web site. July 2016.

The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”