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Spirit of Excellence

February 25, 2009 By 3 Comments

worship“Make a joyful NOISE unto the Lord all ye lands” Psalm 100:1.

As a worship leader, I often have this Scripture quoted to me by people who have not been given, shall I say – the gift of song. “The Bible says, ‘make a joyful noise’ and that is just what I do”. Unfortunately, that is the same verse that many people use in defense of why they should be part of our Praise and Worship Teams. But I believe that the Lord has called us to something greater. Our lives and our ministries should be a living example of the excellence of the Father. Is your team lacking in their desire to become better musicians? Read on for some helpful tips on how to foster a Spirit of Excellence.

I have been leading worship for ten years and in every team I have worked with developing a Spirit of Excellence is always my first goal. Psalm 33:3 says, “Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.” The word skillful in the original Hebrew means “to do well, to make something beautiful”. The Lord requires us to make a beautiful sound before Him. We can look throughout the Bible and see ordinary people who did not settle at mediocre, but who desired to become excellent. King David chose Chenaniah to be the head of the ‘ultimate worship team’ because he was skillful. He was able to take on the job and do it beautifully (1 Chronicles 15:22)

As leaders, what can we do to foster this spirit throughout our teams?

First – ENCOURAGE, ENCOURAGE, ENCOURAGE!!! I cannot say it enough. Encourage your team members to go home and practice. Worship services and rehearsals are not practice sessions. There must be practice going on at home if we are to foster excellence in our teams. You will be able to tell immediately if practice is happening at home. The level of skill during your rehearsals and services will begin to grow. If you see a member making a good effort to become a better musician, point it out in rehearsals. Encourage them in front of the group. Every one likes to hear that they are doing a good job. Sometimes, this even encourages others to do better.

Second – Send personal emails or notes to those team members that you notice have grown in skill level. I love when my pastor or a member of the congregation sends me a personal note to tell me I am doing a good job. There is nothing like the feeling of a job well done. On the flip side, send a personal note to a member that is not growing in skill. Offer personal help to them; give them articles or tips that could help. Anything you can do to encourage a willing heart will be appreciated.

Third – Always be available to help your team members if they request private help. I am not necessarily talking about private lessons or spending hours a week with them. In the past I have met with our horn section for an hour before rehearsal just to work with them one on one. Yes, it does require more of my time, but it is worth it. Meet with your singers separately from the band and visa verse so that they can get more individualized instruction.

Fourth – Be prepared for those who oppose. Some people are very happy with where they are. They do not want to change or get better. Understand that some people will not be on board. When I strongly implemented this idea into our team we did lose a few members who were not ready for the challenge. That is okay. We are all at different levels with our walk in the Lord and we cannot force anyone to go with the flow. We can only invite them to join in and pray that they do.

Fifth – Be prepared for a great sound and a great spirit among your team. The constant encouragement and feeling of accomplishment will create a great spirit of unity of the team. On a natural level, you will be able to do more music more efficiently because your team members are eager to create a beautiful sound to the Lord.

Last year, the vision for our Praise Team was developing a Spirit of Excellence. This year, we have a new vision. That does not mean that we pin an imaginary badge on our jackets and say, “Yes!!! We have the Spirit of Excellence . . . . Moving on”. No!!! We are constantly fostering that idea that an excellent heart, an excellent spirit, and an excellent sound is pleasing to the Lord.

Related posts:

  1. How To Pursue Excellence AND Authenticity in Worship
  2. CD Review: Ryan Delmore “The Spirit, the Water and the Blood”

Filed Under: Recent Articles, Worship Leadership, Worship Theology

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  • Cleophas

    This was awesome encouragement really the spirit of excellence needs to be fostered and we will see our teams attracting the presence of God and people enjoying and worshiping God with us.

    Cleophas

  • Tommy

    This is a great topic! There is so much that can be done here. I am trying to structure a “Worship Connections” program for our church. The issue I run into most is overstretched worship leaders who have to draw the line somewhere regarding the amount of time they can give to team members. I am a volunteer team member and play on two teams. We have four campuses, four teams for each campus. Each team covers a week per month. We have three full time worship leaders and one part time. Of course, there are all the inbetween youth events that need to be covered as well as the sunday services. We have five services at the main campus each weekend. Two on Saturday night and three on Sunday morning. Other teams come in on Sunday evening to cover that service.

    So, we are blessed to have many worship teams and members at our church. My goal is to get the worship leaders to take note of team members that excel in either spritual encouragement and or techinical skills at executing their craft as players. The vision here is for worship leaders to develop leadership skills in these members and offer them the opportunity to serve a real leaders for other team members that lack in one or both of these areas. I think it would be honorable to give these members recognition by upping the ante for them and challenging them to a position. It is my hope that this program would ease the load for our worship leaders and give others the opportunity to mentor others.

    I have participated in worship for three years at our current church and a few years at another church years ago. In these years, when I hear team members argue over striving for excellence in their craft, I always see “insecurity” as the main culprit. My heart goes out to these members! I don’t know for a fact, but in my experience as a musician, it doesn’t make sense to me that one would invest themselves to overcome the obstacles of learing their instrument proficiently enough to play in worship, but yet don’t want to excell beyond a basic proficiency. Fundamentally, there something wrong here and an area for ministry that would pay off in dividends.

    Even if the reality is that one is “OK” with just being good “ENOUGH”, it would then stand to reason that they also would have to admit that they view the “Church Gig” at a skill level that is beneath the level of a “Real Player” (semi-professional and or professional). This may be the fault of worship leaders in “under-emphasizing” the “excellence” required to perform in the capacity of worship. I feel that there is a huge ministry here to encourage these members. Placing importance on the skill needed to perform in this capacity, should help to further the idea that being excellent in your craft is what is expected and why “they” are on the team in the first place. This should serve to both send the message that a certain performance level is expected and that they have what it takes to begin this journey in worship.

    Anyway you look at it, I think that the originator of this post is right on. There is a huge ministry here to be developed for worship team members.