How To Build Up Your Team
While serving as an interim worship leader for a year, one of the Ad Lib Coaches sent his team something like this EVERY WEEK. It points out something good each person on the team did. He sends it out through Planning Center Online’s text option.
“Just Give Up”
It was cloaked in tiredness. It hid behind a lack of passion. It was tucked between the pages of insecurity, failure, and disappointment. Finally, on Thursday, I recognized the liar as he whispered, “Just give up. That would be the right thing to do.” My family and our prayer team banded together and prayed against it in Jesus’ name.
Antipsalm
Before reading this, put this in your ears. Ready? Now read this:
“The Lord doesn’t care about me at all. There’s always something that I’m struggling to have. I have to trudge, sweating through arid, rocky deserts with no place to rest and no sound except the pounding in my own head. I have no idea where I’m going and no idea why…”
Am I In Sync?
It was 1984. Apple launched Macintosh (yes kids, Mac’s full name was Macintosh until 1999). The Terminator came out. Prince’s hit Purple Rain was everywhere.
Look Each Other In The Eyes
The best wedding day advice I received: “Don’t forget to look each other in the eyes.”
With all the details, all the planning, all the preparation, all the stress, all the expectations, all the pressure…did I mention the details? It’s easy to miss the moment.
Once A Month
Lou has a lawn care business. He’s good at what he does. His customers are usually happy, and he’s making a decent living. He has eleven employees who work diligently in the heat of the summer sun.
Well, actually, I should say “had.” It closed earlier this year.
Recover
A worship leader once wrote this after leaving his church staff position:
“I need a little bit of space to recover from the battlefield before I go to the next war…”
Fractional Priority
One of our Denver coaches (Orin) was telling me about the latest rage: part-timers are now being called “Fractional Employees.”
Plan In Bulk
If you can help it, never plan one week at a time.
What’s Your Secret?
You want to be a good steward of the leadership opportunity God has given you, right? You want to help your team be more confident and comfortable as they serve. You want more capable, Godly people on your team. You want to experience joy as you pour out each week. You want to complete your calling to the very end. You want to experience fullness.
Hire From Within
After two and a half decades of supporting churches in your worship ministry, we’ve noticed something. The longer we’re around, the more the church personnel change. While we do know some leaders who have been at the same church since 2002 (when Ad Lib started), many have moved on. Even though some leaders feel like fixtures, even they are no longer leading worship.
Lead Pastor, We Need Your Voice
Imagine a world where the two people who share the vast majority of stage time at your church were best buds. I know that many lead pastors don’t have anything near that on their radar screens for how they work with their worship leaders, but John Maxwell’s leadership Law of Connection is still irrefutable:
“Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand”
The Mirror
Here’s the strange thing. I ask good questions for a living. As I coach worship leaders, I listen to what they say, what they leave out, what they focus on, what their perspective of reality is, and I ask questions from the OUTSIDE. I’m not better than them; I’m not a better leader than they are; I can’t outplay them as a musician. My value is that I’m not them. I’m not on the INSIDE.
Post Conference Blues
Conferences are great! I used to be the guy who would sit in the auditorium in the afterglow. I didn’t want to leave. I had been inspired, encouraged, stretched, and poured into. What I received was not just information, it was impartation. I wanted to take many of the presenters home with me.
The Long Game
Are you aging out of worship leadership? Are you feeling burned out or pushed out? Do you wish you had the same passion for Jesus, worship leading, and people that you once had before all those years in worship ministry? How can you rekindle a youthful, yet mature exuberance for the next season of ministry?
My Favorite Questions
Thanks for reading this year! As we prep for a new year, I want to equip you with tools for reflection. Worship leaders usually aren’t very good at reflecting. Introspection and navel gazing, yes, but real reflection, not so much.
After The Noels: What Happens To Your Heart After Christmas?
The candles go out, the lights come down, the room empties—and suddenly it’s quiet. After weeks of rehearsals, planning, long days, and late nights, Christmas Eve hits with so much beauty and energy…and then it’s just done... it's over.
Crazy
On Christmas Eve, a church in your area is holding six services: traditional, contemporary, blended, modern, emergent, and orthodox. Then, after the candelighting, the worship team is hopping on a redeye to do a missions trip to Cambodia over Christmas and New Year’s.
Ministry Model
Stop and think for a moment. What has most influenced my model of ministry? Many of us don’t even realize we have a model. Can you identify it? Who shaped it? A pastor? A co-worker? An industry? A speaker at a conference? An author? A friend? A podcaster?
A Really Good Lunch
I was on staff and was failing with my techs. There was constant tension. There was contempt and sarcasm. And so much passive aggressiveness. There was no life. Rehearsals were dreadful.