When I was first asked to write an article on worship team recruitment and development, I felt I was probably the last person who should be writing on this subject. I mainly felt this because I really do very little recruiting. Very little of my time here has ever been spent trying to fill spots on worship teams (although early on I certainly endured my share of stress trying to find last minute subs). When it comes to recruitment of musicians, I honestly spend most of my time trying to figure out what to do with the many talented musicians who approach me to see if there is any need or openings on any of our worship teams. Now, I'm not saying that every week professional musicians are knocking at my door, but I do have very talented musicians approach me fairly regularly to let me know they're available.

We currently have five worship teams (I am leading three of them and I have two other leaders) and we play every five weeks. We pretty much rotate straight through. All of our teams are full and we have people ready to step in pretty much any time someone leaves a team(with exception of drummers, while we do have drummer for every team, I don't generally have really good drummers on any waiting list).

When I first thought about writing on the recruitment and development of worship teams, I simply thought, I don't know much about that because I don't really do much of that. But the more I thought, the more I realized that there are many reasons that we do have an abundance of musicians. While many of them have very little to do with me, I have at least been able to observe them. I hope that I may be able to pass some of these things on to you and that you also may find yourself having to turn away or redirect musicians instead of searching frantically for them. Many of these ideas are more foundational in nature. Some of these things you may have very little direct control over (our church is in Portland , OR , a city filled with musicians). Hopefully you will find them both challenging and helpful.

Principle #1 - Worship Ministry Is Part Of A Bigger Picture

One key reason that we have an abundance of musicians is that they like our church. Now I know that might sound pretty basic, and maybe it is, but most of our musicians would go to the church whether or not they played there. Why is that important? For one thing, you have to realize that a lot of this will not hang directly on you. There are many factors upon which you may have very little control. I simply want to let you know what some of those factors are. You will have to figure out what you have going for you and what you don't. I am pretty sure that I would not be rotating five teams if the church wasn't a place where people wanted to plug in. I may have some input or part in the people liking the church, but honestly that part is limited. I'm not the primary driver. The point of this is in no way to create opportunity to blame others for what you can't control, but simply to say that you will have to work with what you have and be creative in trying to overcome obstacles.

Principle #2 - Value Your Musicians And What Your Musicians Value

So what really will attract musicians? Besides liking the church in general, there are many things that will be very helpful in drawing musicians to a church. Let's start with values. I believe this is the foundation for any success we have experienced in this area. One thing that will really help draw musicians is to truly value music and the arts. In many ways I find music and the arts inseparable, not only from philosophical standpoint, but from a practical one. Wherever I find artists I find musicians. The common interest and love for both beauty and creativity seem to draw both to places that value and inspire beauty and creativity. As a church we truly value beauty and creativity. We are not always very good at it but we do strive to honor that value. We try to allow those who are good in those areas to run with their creativity and allow them to bless the body as a whole. Beauty is a reflection of God. The beauty of his creation, even in a fallen state, reminds us that God is not a sterile, plain God. It is a small glimpse into his vastness, splendor and majesty. If your church is very plain, you probably won't draw a lot of people who value beauty and creativity. You may not be meeting in a beautiful building, or even in a place where you can change the appearances (you may be meeting in a rented space, as we are) but if you truly value arts and beauty you will figure out ways to accentuate what you do to make it more creative. The value has to be manifested. Even if you are meeting in a beautiful church, it may become stale if it always stays the same. Creativity propels change. If you're like me, you might feel unable to really do much artistically or creatively. For me, I try to create opportunity to let artistic people run instead of trying to come up with all the ideas myself. Are we a super beautiful, highly creative church? No, but people see our values and artists and musicians are definitely drawn to them. The truth is, most really creative people would still probably find us somewhat boring in our creativity, but they see that we are doing something and that is more than they see just about anywhere else they go. The church has pretty much abandoned the arts. Value for arts and beauty is clearly one of the significant factors that bring musicians into our church.
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I would like to now focus briefly on three key areas in which creativity and beauty affect our worship teams directly. These areas will be key in helping move musicians who attend because of the values of the church into participation in your worship ministry. Musical quality, Lyrical depth, and Uniqueness are three factors in a music ministry that are critical to musicians. I would like to make it clear none of these things we do for the sake of musician recruitment. They are all done because of our values and because we feel they are what is best for the church as a whole. Still, they have been critical to the process of drawing musicians.

Principle # 3 - Don't Give God The Lame Sacrifice

If we ask the question - "what will draw musicians into our church?" we have already noted that there may be many answers. But once we get past the simple issue of whether or not they like the church in general, there is probably no clearer draw to a musician than providing quality music. What will draw quality musicians to your worship ministry? Value quality music. Although I am certainly speaking in generalizations, most people who truly consider themselves to be musicians don't like to play "church music." Churches have a tendency to play boring music. Songs that consist of four or five simple chords played very plainly do not call out to musicians, begging them to join in. Be creative with your music. Don't make it your goal to just be able to play a song. Try to play a song well. Try to be musical. Somehow, the church has decided that doing everything as unto the Lord means that we can get away with poorer quality, instead of striving for the best. I am fully aware that there are more issues in worship than just quality music, such as the heart of the musician. I just feel we need to try to excel in both areas. I am by no means the best person at creating truly creative and "musical" music. I try to draw the best out of the team. While there is certainly skill level involved, often the issue is whether or not you're simply content to just play the song. If you strive towards creativity and quality you will get the process moving. You will begin to draw musicians that can actually bring in skill and creativity. This may take a lot of time and work up front, but it will save you greatly in the long run.

Principle #4 - Let Your Musicians Be Musical

While the average church attendee is more likely to put up with plain music, musicians will simply get bored. That is often the curse of the musician. They can't just sit and pretend they like it, even if they want to. The positive side is that if musicians are allowed to play good music, pretty much everyone likes it.

The next area that will be directly important to your worship ministry will be lyrical depth. I probably hear more comments from the people in our church body regarding the lyrics to our music than I hear regarding the quality of the music. Just as we value creativity in our instrumentation, we also value lyrical creativity. Our community does not really value songs that are shallow lyrically (particularly self focused songs) or songs that simply repeat certain phrases over and over. We tend to value the poetic and the historic. We tend to use a lot of hymns (some to their original tunes, others re-written musically) because of their lyrical depth, but would honestly prefer to write more of our own music. Musicians will be drawn to creative and meaningful lyrics. I know that this is a very subjective area but try to imagine an artist reading your lyrics. Would he or she be inspired? Would it be very thought provoking? Would they elicit worship even without music?

Principle #5 - Grind Your Own Cutting Edge

The third area in which beauty and creativity directly affect our worship ministry is that of uniqueness. Your church should have its' own identity and not just be seeking to be like someone else. One reason that many musicians don't like to play in churches is that they are all playing the same thing. Many church musicians are simply trying to play the same songs that every other church is playing. Their idea of creativity is to play those songs "cooler." That does nothing for most musicians. They are simply not that drawn to the fads of the church culture. I'm not saying that it is wrong to use songs that are used at other churches. I'm simply saying that if that is what you are landing on, you will lose interest of those musicians who do not see themselves as fitting within the dominant church culture (and these are usually the ones who will help your ministry the most). Again this issue runs much deeper than simply recruiting musicians, but it will be important in the process.
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Principle # 6 - Create Creativity

All three of these areas really stem from the issue of creativity. Whether it is creativity in music, lyrics, song selection or style, artists and musicians will be drawn to creativity. I would be completely inaccurate to portray our ministry as having excelled (or coming even close) in any of these areas but have been most definitely surprised to see how our value for these things and our striving towards them has drawn musicians to participate in the ministry. The beautiful thing is that you don't start attracting musicians once you've "arrived," you start attracting them when you make a commitment to begin the journey. It's value based, not simply performance based. If you live out of your values, they will know. If you do not live out of what you say you value, they will know.

Principle # 7 - To God Be The Glory

Finally, I would like to touch briefly on a few more things that may help to draw and keep musicians. Very critical to this whole process is the understanding that all of this is done unto the Lord. While we have talked much about the quality of the music being the best it can be, I am in no way advocating a "performance" mentality. Many true musicians have a slightly different view of their participation in worship than do most others. Many musicians play their best as an offering to the Lord. That is why they want to play quality in a church setting. They believe that they are presenting an offering to the Lord and that God will do with it what he pleases. They are not trying to figure out what will manipulate the congregation.

All of this is to say that if you allow musicians in your worship ministry that seem to be "performing" and showcasing their talents for personal glory you will need to deal with it. If you don't, your ministry will be a turnoff, not a draw. This is one quick way to make sure no good hearted, quality musicians will want to join your ministry. I know that this is a very subjective issue. If you are working with people then you have to use discernment all the time, that's the nature of ministry. Fortunately you can usually tell if a person is there for self gratification before they ever pick up and instrument. Try to get at the heart of why they even want to play early on in any conversation with them. Don't be afraid to continually communicate with your entire worship ministry why you do what you do. Make it hard to be a "performer."

Principle # 8 - Be A Leader

The last critical area I would like to touch on is that of organization. Be as organized as you can possibly be. When musicians show up to practice, have things ready, have a plan. Know what music you want to work on. Make sure everybody has the music they need. Even if your practices are very free flowing, always have a plan to fall back on. Musicians are not always the most structured people by nature but they generally like things to move. I am not advocating a militant type of structure, just good leadership that knows how to lead the group well. One of the biggest frustrations of musicians is to show up to something and feel like they are going nowhere and getting nothing done. As a leader it is your job to make sure that their time is not wasted. That doesn't mean two straight hours of intense practice without a break. You may spend a lot of that time relationally. Again, that's an issue of discernment. You just need to make sure that their time is not wasted. Do everything you can to bring organization to the group. Because of the nature of musicians, there will always be struggle in this area. Just don't let it be caused by you being unprepared.

Principle #9 - Embrace Principles & Explore Methods

As with everything else related to church planting, there are no simple "how to" ideas that will make everything perfect. Even if there were, they would not come without hard work, diligence, and the blessing of the hand of God. Values are always more powerful and longer lasting than a "how to." These values can help draw and keep musicians and more importantly they will allow you church body diversity and depth in worship both through the musicians and the artists. As you have seen, many of these ideas are not things you can do alone. Unless you are the lead pastor, you probably do not directly dictate the values of the church, but chances are that you can be highly influential in the process. I would encourage you to truly think through these issues, not only for the sake of musician recruitment, but for the overall health of your worship ministry and church. I hope you find these ideas to be both helpful and challenging as you seek to create a philosophy for worship ministry that best fits your particular context.