Worship services on a Sunday morning take planning, programming and preparation that takes some effort during the week prior to any rehearsal. As a worship leader, we have many responsibilities that effect many people in regards to our ministry. This article is about running a rehearsal smoothly and effectively. It is intend to help you, the worship leader, whether you are a full-time staffer or a volunteer lay leader in your church. I hope you will gain some insight on some of the things that I have learned over the years in worship ministry.
To have a rehearsal, there must first be something to rehearse. Our job as worship leader or program director or whatever you want to call yourself, is to first have a plan in place. Songs chosen in the right key, a setlist order that flows correctly, charts pulled and distributed, audio distributed so the band knows how the song goes. We first have to take time to plan.
Maybe a meeting with your pastor to find out what direction he is going with his message could be a good start to your planning so that you can plan songs to hammer home his punchline. And spending some quiet time with the Lord as you seek His guidance on song choice. However we go about planning, there must be a plan.
Next, we must have a way to distribute and communicate that plan to our band members, our media techs and choir (if you have one). There are several online sites that offer service builders with the capability to upload mp3s, charts and more. Most of these sites give you a way to communicate with your team and give them access to the files for their review and practice at home. A must have in any worship ministry.
This leads me to one of the most important aspects of an effective rehearsal I have always expressed to my teams that practice happens at home and rehearsal happens at rehearsal. If I have even one band member show up to a rehearsal and he/she has not gone over the material for the weekend prior to a rehearsal, it slows the whole process down for the entire team and can cause sloppy playing and aggravated team members. So, communicate to your team to practice at home and be ready to rehearse. You'll be glad you did.
O.K, it's almost time for rehearsal. We, the leader have a responsibility to honor that valuable commodity we call time. Let's say you have a rehearsal that lasts 2 hours. You have 10 people rehearsing for this weekend's set. If I were to ask you what your time is worth in a dollar figure, per hour, what would you say I would guess that you placed that number fairly high. So, for the sake of making a point and because I stink at math, let's say that number is $50hr. What a nice even number. You have ten people and 2 hours. That makes your rehearsal an expensive chunk of time. We should value our team member's time above all. It's important that we take the time to prior to a rehearsal to be prepared when everyone shows up. Like, turn the sound system on, computer, projectors, make sure mics and monitors are functioning, and so on. Whatever you have to do to make sure when everyone is on time and ready to play, you're ready to go without a glitch that could cause a setback and waste needed rehearsal time.
I could share so much more on this subject but it would have to be a small book. I hope what little I've shared with you today will encourage you and equip you to serve The Church in your calling and move your ministry forward with excellence.
Press on,
Jesse