A new category here on the BabuLife blog called "Worship Leading Lessons". These posts will share some of my lessons learned through experiences, successes, failures, teachings etc. Some of the best lessons I've learned in life are through trying, failing, trying, failing, failing, trying and succeeding every once in awhile. I'm not foolish enough to think I've got it all figured out, but I do have some things that I hope can be an encouragement to anyone willing to read. If anything, this will be an open book journal revealing how God is molding me into a true worshiper of Christ.
A couple of weeks ago I was able to participate in a recent Worship Leader Webinar on "Successful Music Rehearsals" led by Tony Guerrero, Director of Creative Arts at Saddleback Church . It was a much needed moment for me as a Worship Pastor. I had some encouragement on things we currently do on the Grace worship team along with some good insights on how to improve our worship rehearsals.
Practice vs. Rehearsal
Over the past year, our worship band has been striving to raise the bar on itself. We've been encouraging ourselves to know the tunes before weekly rehearsal, know the setlist before the weekly rehearsal, show up on time, accept/decline assignments in PlanningCenterOnline etc. We've been successful in many of these areas and we're continuing to challenge ourselves. During the webinar, Tony shared a fantastic definition that made it completely clear to me on what we needed to turn the heat up on our team.
The idea of Practice vs. Rehearsal isn't unique, however, it made more sense when it was simply defined by Tony. Practice is what the individual team member does on their own, rehearsal is when the team members come together with their individual known parts and put it all together.
What this means is very little time should be spent during a rehearsal listening to the recordings so team members can figure out their parts. This should already be ingrained in them before they arrive because they've already spent the time practicing on their own. I know, it sounds like a principle that should be a "Duh!". It can be easy for worship team members to fall into the trap of "winging it". Showing up, listening to the songs for 30-60 minutes during a 120 minute rehearsal and looking over a chord chart for the first time is not productive rehearsal time. A nice reminder to my fellow worship leaders & team members out there about the calling, the necessity and the importance for each worship team member to actively participate in the mission God has called your local church's worship ministry to fulfill (not just the guy behind the mic).
Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
4 For the word of the LORD is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
Psalm 33:2-4 (NKJV)
