Chapter 16: Building the A-Team
Getting Started with Auditions
Building and maintaining a worship team is a vital part of being a worship leader. For
smaller ministries such as house churches, or churches where a pipe organ is the only
permitted instrument, this chapter may not apply. But for churches and ministries that
regularly utilize volunteers on multiple instruments and/or singers in their worship
services - this hopefully will be helpful.
First, decide what type of people do you want on your team? Are they humble?
Teachable? Are they in love with Jesus? Is that necessary? Is part of your worship
ministry giving potential team members a place to belong before they believe? How is
their stage presence? Are they stiff and static? Remember, the entire team (not just the
leader) sets the tone for the congregation. If your team looks bored and asleep, expect
the same response from your congregation.
Heart trumps skill. Both are important and often both can be found in the same person -
but if you have to choose, choose heart. Heart is humble, teachable, and thankful to be a
part - skill can be unengaged, a prima-donna, and flaky.
Some ministries also choose to require that players & singers be involved in another
area of service within the church in order to earn the privilege to be on stage. I’ll leave
that decision to you.
Conducting a Semi-Formal Audition
(one way to do it)
• Arrange to meet and ask the auditee in advance to prepare a worship song of their
choice.
• Meet. Make introductions. Be warm and positive. Be unassuming - wear a cardigan if
necessary.
• Ask them to perform the piece(s) they prepared.
• Assess skills important to your ministry (Can they read sheet music? Chord Charts?
Are they able to pick harmonies, guitar parts, etc out of a song by listening to it? Do
they have to play it as rehearsed/written - or are they able to make on-the-fly
adjustments if necessary?)
• Answer any questions they may have.
• Ask any questions you may have.
• Be honest with them about their performance. It’s hard to tell someone that they're
no good, but it’s important to be direct and speak the truth in love. Suggest other
ways that they can get involved that may be more catered to their gifts.
• If they are good enough to make your cut, let them know what to expect next. Make
sure you have their contact info. If you use worship planning software, let them know
what to expect from that (eg. “We use an online planning tool plan our services and
schedule volunteers. You will receive requests to serve for certain dates to which you
can accept or decline based on your availability. You can also block-out dates in
advance that you know you’ll be unavailable. You can view service plans, download
chord charts & mp3‘s to rehearse with, etc. I’ll be sending you a welcome email
shortly with links to tutorials that will show you how it all works. If you have any
questions, let me know.)
• Dismiss.
Conducting an Informal Audition
(Sneak Attack)
• Ask an individual or group of people if they want to get together and jam sometime.
• Setup up a jam session and evaluate people purely based on your interaction.
• Afterward, ask selected individual(s) if they’d be interested in playing in church some
time.
Test Drive Audition
(Living on the Edge)
• Blindly invite someone to play/sing in a service.
• Give the sound guy a heads-up to turn them down in the house if they're terrible.
• If they rock it, ask if they’d be interested in being in regular rotation.
Mass Auditions
(The American Idol of Worship Music)
• I held mass auditions once. Never again.
There are probably a million ways to conduct auditions and ultimately you need to find
or create the method that works best for you and your context.
Finding New Talent
People pop up in random places. Sometimes it’s the guy that finds you in the hall - “hey,
I play piano if you ever need anyone”. Sometimes it’s the husband throwing his wife
under the bus - “she has the most incredible voice”. But often, the people you want the
most are the one’s you never hear of. For example, I have a friend that I knew for three
years before finding out that he played guitar. I drafted him and he has been an
indispensable part of our team since.
Humble people tend to fly under the radar - but may be the ones that you want the most.
In addition to picking up leads on new players by happenstance, you might also make a
public announcement for those who might be interested in being involved in worship
ministry - perhaps annually, bi-annually, or quarterly. You may not need any more
talent, but you may be surprised at the untapped resources waiting to be discovered.
Have a BBQ and invite interested parties and their families over to your house to hear
your vision, interact with current team members, ask questions, etc. It will give
potentially disconnected church people a way to connect and engage in the life of your
church.
Ok, so what if you’ve tried all that and you’ve come to the conclusion that your church
just doesn’t have the talent pool? Or maybe you’ve managed to recruit 14 guitarists and
0 drummers. The way I see it, you have two options:
1. Make do with what you’ve got.
Nowhere is it written that true God-worship requires drums, a bass, a keyboard, an
acoustic guitar, two electric guitars, and a background vocal. I once attended a worship
gathering where the only instrumentation was a bass guitar and a saxophone. It was
awesome! Don’t be afraid to be original with what God has given you.
2. Craigslist.
Seriously. A buddy of mine needed a bass player at his church. He posted a volunteer
bass position on Craigslist, received multiple replies - one of which became the weekly
bassist as well as one of the most faithful members of his team. Be unconventional. Have
fun with it.