Worship Growing Pains

I started as a worship leader in a church plant that set up weekly in an elementary school cafeteria. After having worked on staff at “big” churches I enjoyed the challenge of mobile ministry, and what I learned each week became the basis of WorshipIdeas.com. In a nutshell, it was all we could do to pull off a decent praise set – the enormity of setting up church every week left little time or energy to get really creative.

Once the church grew and we moved into our own building, the setup stress was gone but I discovered a whole new set of problems. Everything became more complex – tracks, loops, more volunteers, longer sets, videos, etc. – and we could no longer “wing it” on Sunday mornings.

I learned our commitment levels needed to be beefed up a bit. For instance, after a few Sunday morning audio train wrecks our sound guys agreed to come to rehearsals. This gave them more time to get comfortable with the service order and any sound issues instead of being in last-minute panic mode right before church.

I also remembered a rule from my big-church days: nothing ever stays put in a church unless it’s nailed down or locked up! We created a safe area for cables, batteries, light bulbs and other necessities.

Bottom Line: Has your ministry grown but you’re still operating like it hasn’t? Re-evaluate your praise team procedures this week to determine if you could be more efficient and effective.