Tell Me Your Story (Podcast Interview)
I was interviewed on the More Than a Worship Leader podcast, and he sent me the questions beforehand so I could prepare. I wrote my answers out and am sharing them with you for this week’s Fertilizer. (Make sure to respond to the questions at the end.) If you want to listen to it, you can here.
Can you give us a quick rundown of your path to and through ministry?
I grew up in church, first on the mission field in Costa Rica, and then as part of a church-planting family in Texas. I started as a drummer and then added guitar. I was playing on my worship team when my leader appointed me to replace her when she was having her fourth child. I was 18.
I went to college to learn about music, I went to Kent Henry conferences to learn about worship leading, and I went to the secret place to learn about Jesus.
Tell us about Ad Lib Music.
About twelve years after I started leading worship, I had this desire to help other local worship leaders. I was on staff at two churches at the same time, but I had to figure out how to help all the other leaders around me and still make a living, without being on staff. That’s how the worship coaching model in Ad Lib came to be. I had a business coach who helped me structure things and think as a business leader in ministry to other leaders. I worked part-time from 2002 to 2008, then went full-time in 2009. Then in 2013, I started adding coaches to our team. Today, we have ten coaches in Pennsylvania, Texas, Colorado, and South Dakota (random, I know), and I lead it from the mountains of Costa Rica.
Can you give a summary of the Five Faders book and what made you write it?
The Five Faders teaches that each of us is motivated primarily by one of five passions: Artist, Shepherd, Priest, Educator, or Producer. These passions, or as we call them Faders, are the why behind everything we do. But here’s the thing. If I don’t know what motivates me, I will likely be expressing that passion in an unhealthy way because those passions blind me. So I can only be my best self by knowing how I’m wired, what my Fader is. Then I can begin honoring my teammates and helping them to become the best version of themselves. And lastly, the imagery we chose is the faders on a mixer - they go up and down. Here’s one of the big learnings from the Five Faders. It’s not a personality test that tells you what box you’re in. It’s a discipleship roadmap that teaches you to slide your default faders up or down as the moment requires it. We all have all the Faders and need to learn to turn them up or down to be appropriately balanced.
That’s the summary, but why I wrote it is simple. I was coaching a group of worship leaders in 2018, and as coaches, we’re always trying to ask “side door” questions. For example, instead of asking a leader, “How is it going?” we ask, “What are you learning about being a leader?” I asked the team of leaders, “Where are you on the spectrum between rock star and gardener when you’re at rehearsal?” That one question led us into a long discussion in which each leader began to see themselves the way others see them, a huge need for all of us. I don’t honestly think I came up with this, but rather it was given to us from the Lord, and we’re trying to steward it well because I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that there is no issue on a worship team that can’t be addressed by looking at things through the Five Faders and walking toward healthy expressions of each Fader.
In the book, you say, “I dream of worship teams all over the world that are learning to equip one another. Who aren’t satisfied with the way things are, but who have availed themselves of many resources and have become great stewards of the gifts they carry.” - Tell me more about that.
One of the things that both grieves me and concerns me is when things are always “good enough.” When my bass player has been at the same level for the last ten years. When worship teams violate the spirit of worship in how they do things, giving only the bare minimum, they end up sabotaging themselves. Worship teams are called not only to give the Lord their best, but also to be part of building up the Body of Christ. Too often, we are silos in our own churches. We duplicate everything and spend all our energies inwardly. How beautiful it would be if we looked for ways to inspire and encourage other congregations in our communities!
How can people find the book and follow Ad Lib Music?
Our website is AdLibMusic.com. You can find us on all the socials. There’s a link to the Five Fader’s Amazon page at the top of the website. And if you want to buy a copy of the Five Faders for each of your worship and tech teams, you can do that on our website for a 10% discount.
–
So here are the questions I’d love you to respond to:
Who invited you to serve in worship ministry? Tell me the story.
What is your team like?
What do you wish people knew about you? What message do you care deeply about?
Either comment below or email Dave@adlibmusic.com.
-Dave Helmuth
Author of the Five Faders and Founder of Ad Lib Music
Tell Me Your Story (Podcast Interview) (Nº 476)
