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» Do the fundamental things well
Number 2: An enthusiastic music director
In many small churches, the music team is lead “by default” - one person organises a roster, and the musicians choose their own songs each week, or perhaps the senior minister chooses for them. While this seems like a manageable kind of arrangement, in the long term it will fall down.
Every team needs a leader. Without one, vision-setting, accountability and weekly organization suffer. Pastorally, the team also suffers, because there’s no one responsible for looking after its members. Without a committed music director (MD), the music team will inevitably end up in a state known as “maintenance mode”.
Maintenance mode describes the state of any ministry where there’s no sense of forward motion. The minimum amount of effort occurs to keep things just where they are. People are content turning up each week to do the same things they did the week before… and the year before.
It’s kind of comfortable, but the problem is we don’t make any progress towards our original goal. In fact, many ministries stay in maintenance mode so long that the original vision for the task has been forgotten. When a team forgets the reason for its existence and starts just going through the motions - particularly in a ministry as demanding as music - the team members will begin to lose both their passion for the task, and their effectiveness in serving the church.
Look out for some of the signs that this has occurred:
• You haven’t had a music team meeting in ages
• People are always late to rehearsals… and each week they get later!
• It’s getting harder to fill the music roster each week
• There’s not as much prayer as there used to be
• The people who need to practice at home aren’t doing it any more
• The musicians seem to care less about the standard of the music. You’re actually having fewer disagreements about how the music is played.
It’s the MD’s role to get the team out of maintenance mode and back into vision mode. This involves more than just a few emails to organise the weekly roster. He or she is responsible for enthusiastically leading the music team in God’s purpose for music at church. Here are the MD’s main roles:
» 1. Work with the senior pastor and other leaders
» 2. When you plan to change, do it together
» 3. Encourage the team
» 4. Direct the music rehearsals
» 5. Deal graciously with differences in musical opinion
» 6. Make it enjoyable for the musicians
» 7. Be well-organized
1. Work with the senior pastor and other leaders
The senior pastor should be aware of what’s going on in the music team. He’s the one ultimately responsible for the congregation, and he should be part of any major decisions affecting the music team or music in church generally. From a practical point of view, the weekly service won’t run well unless the music director, the preacher and the leader of the service work to bring everything together.
2. When you plan change, do it together
Getting out of maintenance mode involves change, and planning to change. But when this is done by only one person it can remove the sense of team ownership. Get the whole team together at least twice a year. Set the vision, and ask for ideas for concrete, practical steps you’ll take towards that vision, together. Do the fundamental things well.
3. Encourage the team
Music is undoubtedly one of the most challenging ministries at church, and the people who are involved often sacrifice a lot of time and energy to serve. They need to be valued and thanked and encouraged and reminded that what they’re doing is worthwhile. It’s helpful when this is done on both a group level and an individual level. It’s great if the senior pastor can thank the musicians from time to time. Pray for and with the team.
4. Direct the music rehearsals
Music rehearsals are notoriously inefficient, and it only gets worse the more musicians you involve. But even in a small group, you will benefit from nominating someone to be responsible for directing the rehearsal. This person may be the MD or someone else qualified to give some thought to the musical arrangement in advance.
5. Deal graciously with differences in musical opinion
Music is emotional, and that has implications for the way people express their opinions about it. My experience is that almost everyone at church has a fairly strong opinion about the way they think music should be done. When differences in opinion are voiced (either within the music team, or from outside), there’s a tendency for them to be voiced fairly emphatically.
Always listen. Make sure you understand the comments that are made and take time to think about them before responding. The MD needs to provide leadership in this area, to recognise the differences that are there within the music team, and help people stay faithful. The MD also needs to provide leadership in responding graciously to any criticisms made by members of the congregation or the leaders.
We have to keep the central things at the centre of what we do in music. Songs should be Biblical and faithful to God’s purpose for music. In matters that aren’t central (for example, deciding how many hymns and how many upbeat praise songs to sing) it’s important to strike a balance. I don’t believe in pandering to a particularly vocal group at church, nor do I believe in watering everything down to the lowest common denominator. But we have to remember that music is subjective, and that people need different things to be able to engage with the songs. So listen to people and be willing to do things in a variety of ways.
6. Make it enjoyable for the musicians
Try and compensate for the occasional stress in rehearsals by making a deliberate effort to have fun. Enjoy the music. Warm-up games like jumping up and down or doing actions to the music are great ways to loosen things up.
7. Be well-organized
Everybody should be clear about when they’re rostered on to play at church and what songs are going to be played. Communicate this not only to the musicians, but also to the preacher and the person printing the outlines or overheads. And ideally several weeks in advance! Sloppy organization will create confusion and anxiety for people.
A well-organized music roster will:
1. Take into account what songs are being played that week. The MD is responsible for both the music roster and the weekly song selection. It’s great to spread around jobs to different people, or to have the preacher pick songs that fit the weekly sermon, but if this happens without regard for who actually has to play the songs, it can create problems. The musicians you have each week have to actually be able to play the songs! This is even more important for churches with smaller or less experienced teams. Even if the church already knows the songs well, it’s possible to choose songs that are new or too hard for the musicians.
2. Take into account different levels of experience. Because the primary goal is to be serving the congregation, the better musicians should play slightly more often. The less experienced musicians should still have a regular chance to get trained by playing in groups alongside the more experienced musicians.
3. Give people a rest. If you don’t have a big music team, this could mean you have to sing along to a CD every now and then. That’s OK. If you kill your musicians you’ll be singing to the CD a lot more often!