Are You Ready to Join a Worship Team?

Serving on a worship team is a great opportunity to honor God and help other people pursue God. Because worship is so important to the life of a church and has the ability to draw people toward God, it is very important to prayerfully consider and evaluate whether or not you are ready to serve in this area of ministry. So how can you determine whether or not you are ready to be on the stage? While there are a lot of questions that need to be asked, there are two main questions that you need to start with. The first question you need to ask yourself is “how is my attitude?”, and the second question is “how is my musicianship?”

How Is My Attitude?

Even though you may think that musicianship is the main factor for being on stage, your attitude is actually the first and most important thing that you need to evaluate before you join a team. Being on a worship team means you hold a position of leadership within the church. Jesus taught that if you truly want to be a leader, you have to be a servant. In other words, you have to put others above yourself, no matter what position you are in.

Philippians 2:3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.

There is nothing more detrimental to a worship team than having a person who is self-centered, has a hard time taking constructive criticism, doesn’t like to submit to leadership, is not teachable, or thinks he or she is better than others. It’s important to remember that no matter how things go, you should seek to always put others above yourself in your words and actions.

You also need check your attitude in your everyday life. As someone who is in such a visible position of leadership, you need to live your life in a way that is honoring to God. This isn’t to say that you need to live your life perfectly, but you do need to have the right response to your sin and you need to actively seek to honor God each and every day.

How Is My Musicianship?

While your attitude is the most important thing in worship, your technical skills are also vitally important. As a worship team member, you have the very important job of pointing others toward God, and a big part of doing that is being musically proficient. Each instrument on the team has a specific role, and they all fit together to make one sound. If there is even one weak instrument, the whole team could potentially sound “off.” If you are a singer, you need to be able to sing in tune. If you are a guitarist, you need to be able to play the correct chords and strum the correct rhythms. If you are a drummer, you need to be able to lead the dynamics well and keep a steady tempo. So, before you join a team, make sure you are proficient on your instrument to effectively play the music at your church.

As you talk about all of these things with your mentor/leader, understand that not everyone who wants to be on a team is ready to be, or is even a good fit for the team. So try to keep a humble attitude and an open mind as you talk about all of this. Keep in mind that it will be difficult for someone to be open and honest with you if you tend to get defensive and are easily offended. If you are not ready to join a team at this point, that is okay! Whether the reason pertains to your attitude or to your musicianship, work on the areas that you need to grow in and continue to move forward.