Mentoring/Training Worship Leaders

[janowen66]

After reading the posts about the frustration of attending worship conferences I wanted to share what is on my heart. I have such a desire to encourage and help train beginning worship leaders with few resources. I have planted two churches and had no experience and no money and btw, no team! I also had no one to help train and encourage me. So I have such a heart for this and would be interested in actually making trips to do this overseas to work with indigenous worship leaders as well. The encouragement factor alone can be huge! Anyone know of organizations who do this? And how do you train your upcoming worship leaders? Do you get together with other leaders to be encouraged?

[twc_admin]

Hi,
great post - I'm feeling the same thing. IN the last month, I've had like 4 people who have approached me feeling they are called into worship ministry - I want to teach, equip, and help them - but where do I start?

[janowen66]

I do meet with another worship leader and we share ideas. I've had an intern and I've taught a class and I'm presently mentoring a young woman in our church through weekly meetings. We're going through "The Worshiping Artist" by Rory Noland. Great read. I'm doing it with my team as well. But through all of this I've wished I could come up with a curriculum of sorts - key points to make sure I don't miss a very elemental part of it. I've struggled to know how I can reduce it to "7 key points"!!!! Then I could maybe go to other places and teach it if I had the opportunity. One on one is certainly time consuming but maybe you could do a group mentoring thing? meet every other week? I love this kind of thing but it's hard to make the time to do! I'd love to hear what you would want to make sure you told any worship leader. That would make a great discussion!

[bethoumyvision]

I'd definitely be interested in hearing more about this myself. (I'm new on the forums by the way as of today--finally joined!)

I'm one of those who feels she's being called to worship ministry, & have approached our church's worship pastor about what to gain experience & knowledge, etc. I'm, of course, trying to get experience by being involved in our praise team by singing & playing my instruments (flute mainly, some piano, which is another skill to work on!) & since we also have an additional service with hymns & the usual choir, I'm getting experience by leading the choir at times, leading rehearsals, & have been able to have the experience of leading worship for that service before as well. I feel like leading a traditional service is so much easier than contemporary though! (Or is that just me?) :)

I think gaining experience is definitely a key in this ministry.

I look forward to reading any further replies here!

Amanda

[janowen66]

I should have said that I have actually had four - five worship leaders at my church learn under our ministry. I have at least two that lead when I'm gone and sometimes when I'm not. :) Our student team has two really good, growing worship leaders. They all learned from - as you said - serving with me, leading rehearsals, communion services, on retreats, etc. We meet occasionally to talk over questions about why and how, etc. I firmly believe you can't learn from a book, but you have to dive in at some point. One thing I've done is let them lead in a less stressful setting - on a retreat, Wed. night, holiday weekend, and then I watch so that we can talk about it afterwards. I also take them to learning events with me and hook them up with great resources like this forum. I also involve them in decision making and get their input and perspective. In other words, no one leads worship in our ministry unless they are a ministry leader in other ways as well. My leaders are some of my "heaviest hitters" and they help carry the load all the way around. I think they learn in all of these ways, not just onstage. I admire your desire to learn and your humility in knowing you need to! Hang in there!

[Alison]

We are starting a monthly get together at Journey Ecclesia called 'The Worship Leader Roundtable'. Each month, a different topic will be on the 'table' to discuss. Drew & I will bring information and materials to the meeting, but it's more about learning from each other and learning together...we've invited anyone who has been in a worship leader position, is currently leading worship, or would like to move into worship leading.

The first one is this coming Sunday...

[janowen66]

Hey, you're only an hour and a half from me! I'd be interested in seeing/hearing how that format works out for you. Let me know some of the details.

[russhutto]

I'm not extremely seasoned or wise, but I am getting older every year (aren't we all?)...

In my experience, I've had the privilege of working with several "up & coming" worship padawans. Not that I consider myself a Worship Knight or Master, but I think at every level along our journey of relationship & ministry we should be pouring what we are/know into someone else.

When thinking back over my journey, I've had the honor of raising up 7 "leader" type folks. They're not necessarily "full-time" paid staffers, but they are actively involved in leading worship right where they are.

Out of the 7, one has shelved the calling and is doing nothing really in music. Sadly, it's due to several "encounters" with well-meaning CHURCH people who knew nothing about traning/mentoring and more about their own preferences. Try as I may, I can't convince the guy that the church is a safe place. SHAME on the these specific people AND the church at large for beating people up, for chewing them up and spitting them out.

I bring this up only to say that even those that we train and mentor can get derailed. In going through this experience with this young man, I've learned to not only teach/mentor in the practical application of music/leadership in ministry but also in the "Dark Side"...

...Areas that we as musicians commonly overlook when we share our gift. Such as, how to react to negative people, submitting to appropriate authority, being accountable when nobody's looking, connecting with smaller groups, avoiding burnout, putting family first, etc.

Not that I've got it down to a formula, but I think that we should strive to train/mentor AND EQUIP our proteges to approach ministry from a balanced perspective so that they are not crushed if and when things turn south.

Praise God! The other 6 are actively pursuing ministering to the Body through music/ministry.

[janowen66]

You're kidding! You're getting older??? I agree with you wholeheartedly. People do not get derailed usually because they don't know how to put together a set list or lead a rehearsal! Generally it's much deeper than that - as you said, family issues, personal integrity issues or just having your heart broken. I have had SUCH a tough year at our church and have seen the aftermath of all three of these problems. It is imperative that we let people know that this is somewhat expected and also how to guard your heart and deal with situations. The dark side of ministry - i like that. You should write a book. I have some stories for you to include.

There is an awesome book that touches on this called "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality" by Peter Scazzero. It should be required reading for all who are ministering, in my opinion.

What I would have given for a mentor to help me and give me perspective the first time I ran into turbulence.....thanks for the input.

[free_by_grace]

I am excited that the church I am attending is growing more emphasis in mentoring, and as a musician I get to participate in and witness mentoring in action.

For our Men's Retreat this coming weekend we have grabbed a couple youth guys to play guitars in the "man band" at the retreat. These are up-and-coming kids who are taking lessons from our lead guitarist. Our lead guitarist was a studio musician in the LA area years ago. He now works as a grocery store manager, but that's just to pay the bills. His passion is mentoring and training musicians who have a heart for the Lord.

So as the bassist in the band I hope to inspire, encourage and help in their mentoring process this weekend in whatever way the Lord is willing to use me. Perhaps I will learn from them.

The mentored isn't the only one who benefits from the process. The mentor often can learn and grow through the mentoring process as well. I am not necessarily disciplined enough to be a good teacher, but maybe I should look at the verse that says "In our weakness he is strong".

[R.True]

Mentoring IMO should be a life long thing. I've been 'mentoring' a young man for the past 7 years (he's 21 now) and although we don't even attend the same church anymore, I'm still mentoring him. It's considerably more than mentoring, it's being his friend. Just this past week, he asked my wife and I to help him with his finances, he wants to make sure he's making smart decissions. Mentoring goes way beyond the act of worshiping or playing music of worship to God or leading music of worship for people.

Mentoring should be based on a desire to see someone grow in all areas of their life, not just in the area of 'worship'.

I really wish I had someone who took such an interest in me when I was this young man's age.

For me and my young friend it started one Sunday morning I was leading the worship session. I was scanning the congregation and I felt that God pointed him out to me. I didn't even know him. Didn't know if he was musical, played an instrument or anything. What confirmed this was my wife saying she felt the same thing, with the same young man later that day. We approached him that week, talked with his parents and have been growing our friendship since.

We have played a couple hundred music sessions to date and now he is inviting me to come to the worship sessions he's been asked to lead at.

The mentoring journey is a long one IMO. There are very few overnight success'. We want to help these 'up & comer's' grow spiritually, emotionally, mentally, we want to help them mature. It's about time spent, what you do during that time is up to you. Just make sure those you mentor know you're in it for the long haul, they will feel much more supported and more importantly they will feel like you care about them.

[El Ben]

Speaking of mentors, Fred won't toot his own horn or anything, but he's like worship-leader machine! He's constantly spitting out musicians and worship leaders and influencing young bucks like me who've got more zeal and mouth than they've got brains.

Thanks, Fred, for helping me to have brains.

[garyhodges]

It's so interesting that this discussion has come up just now. Those of you that know me, know that this is what my wife and I do -- mostly in Ireland.

Having just returned from there on Monday, the main thing that we got from that trip was the fact that the only way the church is going to grow is if those who are now in the church, in any position of influence, will step up to the plate and become equippers. Then those who have benefitted from their work can take up the mantle and become equippers themselves.

Then -- I was just speaking with a guy today in my hometown who is praying about planting a church. He said that just in the past few months, God has revealed to him this principle as well, and sees this as key to growing the church.

Several of you so far have mentioned the importance of viewing mentoring on a holistic basis. Bravo. That's gotta happen.

For those of you who see a need, don't be intimidated by the prospect of becoming a mentor/trainer. Make it a natural thing and allow God to use the experiences you have had to encourage others. It's just like lifestyle evangelism -- simply share what God has shown you. Also keep your eyes open for resources that you can share with others. There's a lot out there when you begin looking.