Heart or Talent . . . A surprising answer to what matters most What do you look for in a Worship Team member . . . great talent or a great heart? That’s a question I’ve gotten hundreds of times in regard to our audition system here at The Journey. My answer is simple: BOTH! I want incredibly talented people who have a heart for God and our church. Yet for many of us, we find ourselves in a place where we feel we have to choose between the two. So which one is more important? Again my answer is: BOTH! When we only ask members of our team to fulfill ONE of these two criteria, we’re setting them (and ourselves) up for failure! Before we get too deep into this, let me say that Excellence is the goal of your team. Not perfection . . . not 1% better than the church next door . . . Excellence. At The Journey we define excellence as doing the best you can with what God has made available to you. This means that our best may not be the same as your best. To experience excellence on your team you can learn from others, but you can only measure against yourself. Some worship leaders will use that as an excuse. They will allow bad musicianship, poor preparation, and uninspired worship leading and say, This is all we have to work with, but at least they have great hearts. Not true . . . you may not have world-class musicians, but you can raise the bar, hold them accountable to practice and memorize their music, provide training and grow your team where you are. So ask . . . Am I doing the best I can to train my team? Other worship leaders will say, Our team is full of great musicians, but they’re not really committed to Christ or the church. That’s just how they are I guess. Again - that’s not true! You may have team members like this, but our job is to help them take that step . . . and sooner rather than later! The truth is, the longer you allow someone to serve on your team who is not committed to Christ or your church, the LESS likely they are to EVER be committed. Ultimately we are growing disciples as well as artists on our teams. When I first started in ministry I thought everyone who wanted to join our team would automatically be a talented, hard-working, committed musician and follower of Christ. And most are, but some aren’t. If you have a spectrum (like the one below) where Talent is on one end and Heart is on the other, with the Ideal Team Member having both Great Talent and a Great Heart . . . ||——- Talent————————————< IDEAL TEAM MEMBER >————————————Heart——- || . . . I’ve found that MOST people fall a little to the left or right side of the spectrum and few have both from the very beginning. So our job is to help those people make their way to the middle to become fully committed, and talented members of our worship arts teams. Here are 3 ways to do that: #1 - Care more about the people on your team than what they can do for you. That means loving them enough to help them take the necessary steps of growth. Don’t allow them to stay where they are . . . Your calling is to be their pastor, not just their band leader. #2 - Create check-points. Whether it’s a need to grow in talent or heart, create checkpoints along the way so that a) your team members know you expect them to grow, and b) you have a system to keep an eye on their progress. #3 - Honestly assess where people are BEFORE they join the team. If the talent isn’t there, then you may need to help them find another area of service. If there’s a heart problem, then you will need to consider whether serving in this important area of ministry is the right place at this time. It’s always better (and easier) to assess this before they join the team. In the end, don’t settle for either a great heart or great talent. Strive for both. Pastor your people and help them become all that God has called them to be as a member of your team!
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 03:17:10 +0000
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