Vineyard East Worship

7

um?

Do I sense that Patrick is a Hurricane fan?

We’ve only been doing church for a little more than a year. But we have alot of folks who love the Lord and love to sing and play. We have quite a number of youth who are very talented and it has been a HUGE pleasure to worship with them. It’s also very, very cool to have mom and son or daughter (or sons and daughters) on the team. If you’re a parent, there may not be anything cooler than seeing your kid develop a heart for the Lord and for worship music.

At this point in our growth, I can’t see myself turning anyone away that wants to play or sing unless it’s obvious that they should learn a little more about their craft. It’s been my experience that when you play/sing worship music, the Holy Spirit has a way of drawing you in; for life. I wouldn’t want to stand in the way of anyone getting closer to Him.

One last comment: It seems to me that there is a trend in some churches to favor younger people over older people regardless of talent or ability. Please never do this. It would be such a waste of experience and wisdom.

6

um….

5

auditions are a funny thing. at MVCC we’ve never really had an audition process until this coming year, but for us auditioning for a band that plays on Sundays is secondary. We tell people right up front: you are not necessarily going to be considered for a band. We already have two bands, we’re heading for a third and not everyone is going to ‘make the band’. We make most of our decisions based the needs of the church, not based on pressures from musicians who feel ‘called’ to play keys on Sundays.

What is primary for us is the development and growth of people who serve and to develop in them a mind-set of ministry, not simply a mind-set of good singing (my experience at Estes 06 was a testament to the Vineyard’s strong ministry development bent. There weren’t just musicians there; there were ministers of the grace and reconciliation of Christ. It was awesome to see!). This mind-set (the Sunday worship band not being the primary goal), helps us to consider whether a person might be better suited as a small group worship leader, or maybe they can’t commit to the Sunday schedule, so they participate as a back-up, or maybe they’re an incredible jazz guitarist who isn’t going to be able to play power chords in a steady 4/4 because they’ve never developed that sensibility, or maybe they’re bluffing. These are all, at their core, people development issues.

The way we engage with people is by having them attend our MVCC Discovery class first (where they learn about the values of the Vineyard and about what makes MVCC tick), then they attend a newbies gathering (or perhaps just sit one-on-one with a worship leader) and interact over how the values they were exposed to in the Discovery class impact and direct how the worship ministry operates (sound and media are part of the worship ministry at our church). We talk about something we call the 4C’s (Competency, Commitment, Character and Calling), and how everyone in the worship ministry is evaluated through this filter. Then we do one of the following: a) invite them to a rehearsal with one of our bands, having prepared a couple of songs ahead of time, or b) if there is great uncertainty about where they are coming from musically (like a drummer who says he’s a misunderstood jazz-style drummer 8^O) then we’ll do a one-on-one.

From there we make a decision together about what direction the newbie might want to take. Perhaps there’s something there that makes them the kind of person who would do well singing lead on Sundays, but maybe they’re not going to be leading a band (these are two different things), or perhaps they really like the small group environment and don’t really have any ambition to be in a committed band situation (we do bands, not teams that rotate. The lineup of a band is static for the most part), or perhaps they simply need to develop a bit further. Because the aim is not to place someone in a band, or to add them to some ever-expanding rotation schedule, the process, though fairly rigid methodical, supports a very fluid interaction. If we do not have openings in bands right now, we tell them. If they need to rethink whether they might be more cut out for some other type of service in the church we tell them. If we think they might do well as a small group worship leader, we tell them.

We want a process that supports and facilitates regular, coherent and consistent interaction with the worship ministry.

4

Sounds like everyone (so far) has similar ways to gather new peeps! Cool…

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we are a church of about 300-500 people. we hold auditions every 6 months, which is also the length of time each team member commits for.
we open up the auditions to anyone and everyone. they first fill out an application and read over the covenant agreement, then they come for a scheduled 15-minute time slot. i try to get an entire band together of existing members so that i can hear their input. i ask the auditioners to prepare 2 out of 5 songs that i choose ahead of time based on challenging rhythms/harmonies/bass lines.
if they have solid musical skill, i sit down with them and thoroughly go over the covenant agreement. if they just started coming to the church, i ask them to hang out for a while and be a part of community (i.e., life groups).
i like to keep the auditions open for everyone, because it gives people an opportunity to step out of themselves and serve the church. even if the person doesn’t start playing on the team, we get an opportunity to develop relationships and hopefully find another way for them to serve.

2

In this church, being so small, I actually started out by having the few people interested in worship ministry do a small group study with me. We used Matt Redman’s Unquenchable Worshiper, and spent a lot of time talking about where Vineyard worship came from, where we are headed, and did a lot of worshiping together. We did that for 5 months before anyone stepped into the worship team to join Rich and me.

I have also done the “sneaky” thing, or had someone who’s musical opinion I value get near someone in a setting to see how they sound. And of course, getting to know people is the ultimate way to determine heart, but we can’t always do that for everyone. I will also ask our pastor, or a person’s small group leader, about a potential person. And we do ask our worship team members to be in a small group, so that helps- SOMEone knows them! I also watch for how they participate during the service.

I will take heart over musical expertise always… you can teach musical skill easier than you can teach a true heart of worship! Even if it means the sound person knows “you might have to turn his guitar down on occasion, give a listen and make sure he’s in time.” Or a vocalist, who’s worship is contagious, she draws people in, but once in a while, her harmony is not the best. I’ll take her or a star singer who is watching the congregation, and working her vocals to please the crowd.

1

I find that the people who just all of a sudden show up at church and on the first week they want to be a part of the worship team and share their long list of credentials on why they should be, waves a dozen red flags on so many levels…LOL!

Seriously, with a larger church you kind of get recommendations from people, so I would go sit by them or get close to them to witness their actions and stuff without them knowing it! (Hee hee hee…)
Really, I would get to know them a bit and maybe then invite them to small group where worship happens…and see where it goes. A few things happen; you get to know them, they get to know you, and you get to hear them and see their posture during worship.

Next I’d invite them to just “hang-out” at worship practice and get connected with people. Maybe ask the person to “sit in” on a couple tunes during or after rehearsal.

The heart plays a huge role in it (to me anyways)…people can be gifted but lack any “team player” abilities. The best thing I’ve found is to do a three month trial period. They join in and after three months you assess how it’s going…Did they mesh with the team? Were they able to follow cues? Did they add to the harmony of the team? Did they go off on their own spiritual nervana leaving the rest of the team behind?
Is there hat size quite a bit larger since they’ve joined the team? Were they really only legends in their own mind? Just kidding…

Take a good look and discuss with them (in love and grace) the benefits of their joining…or the areas that need to be addressed. There is nothing worse than having someone be counter productive with a guaranteed spot! Distractions like this can effect the team, the sound man and the church at large…

Truthfully, the real bottom line is this: God opens doors for people to use their gifts…and God does His own tweaking of situations to work for his glory. The very best medicine is to be open to what God is doing, pray for the newbees and your teams, and let God handle the rest…Just be listening when He speaks!

Blessings,
Mike