Shaun Groves
Not every church needs a full-time paid music minister. (Some reasons yours may not.)
We don’t have one of those at our church. Instead, we have created an all-volunteer system that has served us well. Results may vary. Here’s the nitty gritty.
Positions With Descriptions
Leader of worship leaders: That’s me. I’m an unpaid volunteer serving no more than 5 hours on the busiest week. My job is narrowly focused on two things:
- 1. Teaching the leaders how to lead both music and a team of volunteers. This includes helping them with conflict resolution, rehearsing a band, correcting and encouraging volunteers, choosing songs each week, choosing keys…and crossing other bridges together when we get to them.)
- 2. Creating and maintaining our priorities and processes. I collaborate with the other leaders on this, but ultimately it’s my responsibility. More on what those priorities and processes are later.
Worship leaders: Including me, we have five volunteer worship leaders in rotation. These individuals choose the songs and lead the rehearsal when it’s their turn. Four of these leaders also sing. The fifth plays electric guitar instead and turns the vocal duties over to other volunteers. I meet monthly with our worship leaders.
Worship Administrator: This is the most important position. Sully, our worship admin is a gifted drummer and also very organized. (Don’t even try to replicate this system of ours without a likable organized great communicator as your admin.) He sends and receives a lot of communication between the leaders and the volunteers. He schedules all volunteers, is responsible for setting up sound equipment and lyric slides. He makes sure all charts are correct and waiting for every player and leader when rehearsal begins.He also oversee our slide operators and sound techs. This is an eight hour per week paid position. (I have no idea how he does so much with so little time.)
This team works well together because our pastor and elders have given us the authority and freedom to lead. We feel trusted and empowered.
The Priorities
The first thing I did as the new leader was determine our priorities. We have only two priorities:
- 1. Truth. Everything we sing and say must be true. A great song isn’t great if every line of it isn’t true.
- 2. Participation. We want to eliminate all barriers to participation. Lyrics are correct and changed on time, keys are within hymn range (D to D), sound isn’t distracting or offensive, there are no tryouts so anyone who wants to serve will be given that opportunity, etc.
Just as important is what did not make the list of priorities. As a musician I’d love to be creative. But creativity is not on our list. It comes only after truth and participation and never to their detriment. These two priorities supersede all other personal preferences and agendas.
Before The Processes
I inherited a team of volunteers I didn’t know well. We gathered them and got their feedback on what it had been like to serve in our church’s music ministry in the past. What we learned was disheartening – It was hard to be a volunteer at our church sometimes. Volunteering meant saying yes indefinitely, with no end in sight. Musicians often didn’t have charts in their hands until Sunday morning, and those charts were frequently incorrect. Musicians almost never heard the songs before showing up to rehearse them. They were sometimes embarrassed by how badly they sounded, frequently feeling unprepared. Some volunteers had quit and were considering volunteering again but wanted assurances that things would be different this time. Others perceived the praise team as an exclusive club only the best could join.
This candid feedback greatly influenced the creation of the following processes. We wanted to make serving in music ministry open to and easy for all.
The Processes
We have two processes. One for recruiting and retaining volunteers and another for putting each weekly church service together.
Volunteer Process
- We ask people to volunteer for only six months at a time. I read some research years ago that proved volunteers last longer and work harder when their commitment is not open-ended.
- Before volunteering, we ask those who are interested to pray and talk through the commitment with their family. That commitment has four parts: 1.They will spend time reading scripture, listening to and talking with God every day – not just Sunday (I provide resources on how to do this and offer to meet with them personally about this as well). 2.Church will be treated as a family and not a gig – be there even when you’re not serving. 3.Use your words to build up and not tear down, receiving critique and correction from leaders with humility and not critiquing or correcting others unless you’re asked to do so. 4. Come to rehearsal prepared by practicing your part in advance. Band rehearsal is not for learning individual parts; it is for putting everyone’s practiced parts together.
- We put this commitment in writing. If a volunteer wants to make that six month commitment they let the worship admin know.
- I do not persuade anyone to volunteer or try to talk them out of quitting. We trust them to make the best decision for them and their family and we simply let them know the door is open if they ever they change their mind. Life has its seasons so we extend grace to those who are unable to serve in this season.
- We do not have tryouts. But, we have new volunteers watch one rehearsal. If, after watching, they’d like to give playing or singing a shot, we put them on the schedule for one Sunday. After that Sunday the leaders and I discuss any problems we saw – not just with their ability, but primarily their attitude. If there are no red flags, the volunteer is a part of the team for the next six months.
- The worship admin asks each volunteer for their availability, how often they’d like to serve, and then creates and communicates each volunteer’s schedule to the volunteers and leaders.
- We’re always looking for new leaders – people who can communicate with confidence and clarity, can choose and arrange songs, can lead a rehearsal and model Christian character. When we see a volunteer with leadership potential, we give them opportunities to hone those skills (leading music at retreats, prayer meetings, etc). I help them learn from those experiences. Eventually, I ask them to become a leader.
- I’ve asked our best musicians at each instrument to serve as “section leaders.” These individuals are available to potential volunteers who want to improve their musicianship before deciding to volunteer. The section leaders can also help current volunteers at their instrument. This rarely happens, but the help is available if a musician asks for it.
We currently have eight vocalists, three drummers, two bass players, three keyboardists, three electric players and one banjo master. But we didn’t start out that way. We attracted musicians because we created a process for recruiting, supporting and keeping them healthy.
Weekly Service Process
- The leader for the week sends the worship admin a list of songs on Tuesday – along with roadmaps and keys. Example: How Great Is Our God (key:G) V1-C-V2-C-B-C-C
- The leader also determines when other elements – such as communion and offering – will take place. If the pastor has a preference about songs or the placement of elements, he contacts the worship leader for that week.
- The worship admin creates a web page where the mp3s and charts for each song can be downloaded. He sends the order of service, with a link to this webpage, to volunteers and elders and our pastor on Wednesday.
- The worship admin creates the lyric slides, prints song charts and places them in folders we’ll use in rehearsal.
- Musicians and crew set up Sunday morning in time to start rehearsing at 7:30. First service starts at 9:45.
- After rehearsal, ten minutes before the service starts., the worship leader talks through the service flow with the musicians, pastor and head usher. He or she makes note of who will start each song, how each transition between songs will be handled, when communion and offering will take place, etc.
Choosing Songs
Anyone in the church can suggest a new song to any leader. We’re open.
In our monthly leadership meetings we choose which new songs we’ll introduce to the church. This is a decision we make together and we don’t all have to like a song for it to be added. But we never add a song that isn’t true or that we think our congregation won’t participate in singing.
We add only one new song each month. If we’re unsure if a song will work, we’ll sing it during the offertory. Then we talk about how that went and decide whether it will be added.
When a new song is added, we sing it two weeks in a row. This assures that at least half of our congregation will have heard it.
The worship admin maintains an online catalog of songs and we’re going through that catalog now in our monthly leadership meetings to delete songs we inherited years ago that none of us have been choosing to put to use. Again, this is a group conversation. I merely facilitate and focus it around our priorities.
Doing “Ministry”
Some music ministers have already contacted me saying, “But what about ministry?” Essentially, what they mean by “ministry” is spending time with people when they’re hurting, discipling people who want to learn, encouraging those who are struggling, lending a hand in any way needed. Who does these things at our church if we don’t have a full-time paid music minister? We all do.
Two of our volunteers experienced the loss of a child in the last year. I sent out emails to all our volunteers letting them know about the tragedies, encouraging them to pray and serve these families. Our volunteers wrote cards, made visits, delivered meals and hugged and cried a lot. So did our full-time paid pastors, and our volunteer small group leaders, and dozens of just regular church members who love these families.
Got Questions?
I’m writing this post primarily because I’m asked all the time how we “do worship” at our church. It’s much easier to email somebody this link than try to explain all this again! But maybe I’ve left something important out. If you have questions, leave a comment and I’ll holler back shortly.
Melissa Jones says:
My myriad of questions:
1) Do you actually _make_ new charts every week or do you use something like SongSelect and just download in the appropriate key, giving the expected roadmap?
2) Do you all agree on a key for everyone to use all the time (so the congregation never needs to change), or do you allow the different weekly leaders to sing in the key that is most comfortable to them?
3) Do you have females leading at times, and if so, how do you deal with “guy voice” vs. “girl voice” in keying a song?
4) What do you do at Christmas with new songs? One or two new ones per year?
I’ll probably think of more later. Thanks for the opportunity to ask!
Shaun Groves says:
Great questions!
1) I sometimes make a chart of a new song for us to use, but usually we purchase charts from Praise Charts and other online services. We’re investigating Song Select though right now. Do you have a service you like using?
2) One of our leaders is an alto – but she’s most comfortable singing even a bit lower than typical alto range. We have charts on file in two keys. One a third lower than the other for her to use. We try to stay in hymn range, which is D to D. But with modern worship songs we sometimes have to amend melodies slightly or allow ourselves to go as low as a C and as high as an E. We don’t want to stay outside of hymn range but a short departure in a song is no big deal.
3) We do. One of our leaders is female. And when the guys and I are leading we are always accompanied by female voices and we make a habit of asking them to lead songs vocally, as well as pray or read scripture. If I’m leading I don’t feel that I have to take the lead on every song. Leadership is more defined, for us, as choosing songs, making decisions, and running the rehearsal. About keys…Hymn range worked better when altos, tenors and basses sang parts. That’s not as common anymore, so there’s no key in which everyone can sing melody. We stick to hymn range and allow the alto leader to adjust down no more than a third when she’s leading.
4)At Christmas we go to standards – different arrangements from year to year. The rules on new songs go out the window at that point. Which brings up the matter of hymns, which I haven’t addressed. We use a lot of hymns but half our church wasn’t in church ten years ago so to many of them these old songs are new. We treat them as such.
keith says:
How do you handle the sharing of mp3s with team members within the context of copyright laws.
Also, I find SongSelect very handy. I don’t know anything about its cost, though.
keith says:
That first sentence is a question.
Shaun Groves says:
The mp3 streams online. It’s not actually sent to the musicians.
This is a legal gray area or at least not an area agreed upon by everyone I’ve asked. Some say streaming a song you have no license to stream is always illegal. others say non-profits like a church are exempt from this rule to a limited extent (you can’t set up a radio station streaming 24/7, for instance). Others say because the “audience” for the stream is so small we’re in the clear.
Now that we’re moving into a facility with some basic technology, I’d like us to record our services so that we can send our own recordings of CCLI songs to musicians for reference. This, however, doesn’t help us out when a song is new and hasn’t yet been played in a service.
These recordings are legal, oddly.
According to our CCLI license (parts 1.1.e and 1.2.b) we gave the right to record songs used in our services, and make duplications (not to exceed 15% of church attendance). Weird, huh?
Patrick says:
This is where I can nerd-up a bit and actually contribute to the conversation.
Best scenario: tell the musicians what music they need and have them acquire it. Send iTunes links, Spotify playlists… whatever you need to link them to the song. Then, the whole legal question is solved by the recipient acquiring the music by legal means.
Second best scenario: acquire copies of the mp3 file by paying for all the copies you’re going to distribute. LifeWayWorship.com works like this, and so does every “church-style” website that I’m aware of. CCLI has a rehearsal license that lets you acquire tracks and then report when you make copies of them to distribute. It’s to cover the master use portion of royalty (not the songwriter royalty.) When you make your own recording and distribute under the “stock” CCLI license, you’re paying to copy the song (mechanical)… but you own the master because you made it.
Church-run online streaming shouldn’t be an option (at this point) because even with a streaming license like CCLI’s or WorshipCast, you’re still without the master use piece.
Kaylie says:
Thank you for sharing this model. Nowhere in my talents and gifts is music included, but organization is one of my strengths. This is a wonderful volunteer leadership model that could work in so many places besides music ministry!
Melissa Jones says:
And a couple more:
5) Do you as the “leader of leaders” sit down regularly with the paid staff as part of a church staff meeting (or something less formal like lunch or an accountability group or something)? Basically, what is the line of communication between the volunteer staff and the paid staff?
6) Do you have “spiritual authority” in helping the church figure out the directions they should go like most churches expect of their paid staff? Do you know what I mean? Does the church body/paid staff see you (or someone else on your team) as part of its “official” leadership? Not concerned about the “prestige,” just wondering the extent of your role.
7) Dang it….had another good one that had nothing to do with the above two that I can’t think of now. It’ll come to me eventually.
Our church has accounts with both PraiseCharts and SongSelect. Our Sunday morning crew (led by our music minister) prefers having a PraiseCharts chart (i.e., “real” music). I tend to use different keys than what is available through Praise Charts, and their charts seem cluttered and busy to me, so I’ve been using Song Select’s chord charts mostly. I’ll use one of SongSelect’s lead sheets (if available) when it’s a song I don’t know well. It’s also literally just me many weeks at this point (sometimes I’ll have a percussionist), so I don’t need to worry about other musicians’ preferences that much at the moment. When Song Select has just the lyrics or just the CCLI info, I’ll make my own chord chart or try to find it elsewhere.
Our music minister is the one who deals with the CCLI stuff and I think Song Select makes reporting that easier. It links with PlanningCenter which is what we use to schedule musicians and songs.
I worry that I pitch things too low for the congregation because it’s more comfortable for me. Exclusively using chord charts probably only contributes to that issue since I don’t actually _see_ the notes I’m singing. I need to start paying more attention to that. D to D is a good rule of thumb. Thanks!
Melissa Jones says:
Oh…Oh…..
7) Do you feel that expertise/training like you’ve had is essential to being the “leader of leaders?” I’ve had to learn on the job how to lead a band and many of the other things you’ve mentioned (it’s _not_ rocket science, after all!). I mean, certainly we shouldn’t allow _ONLY_ famous professional musicians to lead church music programs, but do you think it requires formal training of some sort (or years of experience leading a band)?
8) Also, when we _did_ have multiple worship leaders on Saturday night, we never managed to codify who was the “leader of leaders” and it led to some miscommunications between the paid staff and our crew……but I don’t know how appropriate it would have been to just step up and say, “I’m the administrator/point of contact here.” How did you decide on this hierarchy? Has it led to some hurt feelings?
9) In the transition between the paid staff position and the volunteer crew, what did you do to help change the culture of the church?
10) Got any suggestions for attracting new musicians? No one seems to be complaining (to my knowledge anyway), but it sure would be nice to have help! And sadly, this is not Nashville or its vicinity. Does your church still have things like children’s choir to train young musicians in the craft? Or do you rely on musicians coming to you?
I think I’m done. Sorry! I love talking shop, but don’t get the opportunity very often.
Shaun Groves says:
Great questions again!
5) My pastor is a close friend. We talk often. And he’s not an aloof pastor, very personable and engaged with all of us informally. Formally, I meet with him a couple times a year. I’d like there to be a formal yearly review of the job I’m doing but, at the moment, that process doesn’t exist for volunteers.
One of our elders is also a worship leader, so we hear an elder’s perspective from him occasionally too.
We could be more formal about all this for sure.
6) I’m not sure what you mean here but I think you’re asking something important so please rephrase if I miss your point totally, k? I am just a volunteer. But leadership at our church – this is my opinion only – isn’t defined by title or pay. I’m treated like a leader because I’m leading people. And not just musically. I’ve taught in the children’s ministry quite a bit, I substitute teach for our pastor a few times every year, I give regularly of time and money. Does that help?
Praise Charts can give you sheet music or a lead sheet. We use lead sheets exclusively. No source of lead sheets is always correct. Praise Charts misses the mark regularly. But I don’t mind checking the charts and making those corrections. We use other people’s charts as a starting point, expecting that they won’t be correct and will need some finessing on our part.
On pitching songs. Our alto song leader tends too low as well. More than a third lower than the hymn range version is really, probably, too low. The thing we all struggle with is figuring out what we actually CAN sing. It’s different from what we’re USED to singing or might be most COMFORTABLE singing right? She’s not always comfortable singing only a third lower than the hymn range chart, but she CAN…and she sounds amazing doing it. I bet you can do it too. It’s all about posture, breathing and confidence. ; )
Shaun Groves says:
One more thing on range. People sometimes say “But Chris Tomlin sings this in B flat??” And Tomlin is writing for arenas or young people who will scream the high notes. That’s not happening at my church. So we take How Great is Our God, for example, down from B flat to G. That places the highest note at D. Perfect for a small room full of old people who don’t scream. ; )
Hope that helps.
Melissa Jones says:
Yes…confidence is sorely lacking….which leads to poor posture….which leads to poor breathing. 🙂 God’s working on me though (I’m certainly being given plenty of opportunities to _not_ hide behind other musicians)! And every week, I just do my best and figure that’s all I can do. Like I said, _I_ haven’t heard any complaints! 🙂
As for #6…..I think what I’m trying to say (poorly) is what I asked specifically in #9 later. How did you transition the people (including the paid staff) from a mentality of “we have the professional Christians to do/decide these things” to a mentality like you described above – you’re a leader because you lead?
Shaun Groves says:
We’re used to this sort of thing. We’re not a hundred year old church transitioning to a high rate of volunteerism. We’re a ten year-old church that has always relied heavily upon every believer giving their time, talent and resources.
When the church began (I wasn’t around) we had two full-time staff. The lead pastor and a music minister/youth minister. Children’s ministry was all-volunteer – from top to bottom. And youth ministry was very dependent on volunteer leadership too.
So lay leadership is nothing new for us. Truthfully, it’s something I fear we’ll lose as we grow.
Tracy Edwards says:
This post reminds me so much of why I love leading worship. It also reminds me of why I am not doing it any more (or even going to church, for that matter), and that makes me sad.
I love a system that clearly defines roles, expectations, and vision. It’s the only way this can work. Where in the heck did you get that organization??? You are keeping that gift a well-hidden secret!!
The most important statement in this whole post, for me, is, “This team works well together because our pastor and elders have given us the authority and freedom to lead. We feel trusted and empowered.” That is a gift, my friend!!!
Shaun Groves says:
I am grateful for that gift over and over again. There are lot of paid staff at churches that don’t have this level of support and encouragement. Let alone volunteers. I meet folks on the road who are either micromanaged to death or are completely abandoned and rudderless.
Grateful for sure.
As far as organization goes? My friend, you know me well enough to know I can’t organize my fridge or my closet. That’s why I married Becky. But this is different. This is just prioritizing, strategizing. I can do that…as long as I have someone organized to actually make those ideas happen ; )
Steve Rogers says:
It seems to me the only replacement that has been made is the name of the music minister/worship pastor to worship admin. I would agree that Sully’s job is the most important of the teams. However, it is also a paid position and therefore, you still have a paid music minister that handles the admin work. Most peeps do not realize that for every minute leading worship, there is at least one hour of prep.
I have served as a music minister in all three roles; volunteer, part-time, and full-time. There are benefits and drawbacks to each.
I like the post and the descriptions that you presented. I think that you have several great points:
1. Freedom from leadership to lead, not every place offers that.
2. Everyone is responsible to minister to the church and the community, not just paid staff.
3. Building a team environment that fosters others to use their gift of leadership and grow that gift.
I think it comes down to the people, we are blessed at our church to have several people who volunteer in the worship arts ministry and it sound that is what you have as well.
I would like to know if you have age requirements on your worship leaders/teams?
Shaun Groves says:
Great point about the amount of admin work in a music minister’s job. Great point.
About age criteria? Nope. We have talented youth who sing, run sound or operate lyric slides. And, well, I’m not guessing at the age of our oldest volunteers but there are some a few years older than me ; )
No age qualifications. Why do you ask?
Steve Rogers says:
Just trying to get an idea of how the students participate in worship. Without a worship pastor or music minister to lead them in your church I wanted to know. I believe it is great to have them leading, regularly not just on special days.
Shaun Groves says:
Ah, OK, Steve. Well, one of our leaders used to organize and rehearse a youth band that led the youth in singing periodically at their Wednesday night gathering. They also led in our Sunday morning services once each quarter. But, because of a lack of time on the part of the volunteer leader, that’s been discontinued. This is one major downside to an all-volunteer music ministry for sure: The most pressing needs get met while other needs are neglected when work and life outside of church whittles away at our available time and energy.
Lydia Anthony says:
First of all, thank you, Shaun, for such a detailed look inside a volunteer music ministry. Secondly, thank you, Melissa, for all your thoughtful questions and Shaun for your answers. I’ve learned so much from both! (I’m also an alto with a tendency to pitch too low. D to D – will definitely remember that!)
I’m doing music as a volunteer in a congregation hovering around 30. It’s basically three of us, one who is more gifted in being in front of people and knowing how to draw them into worship, me, more gifted in the admin side of things and choosing songs, and the slides guy. We are learning a lot about how to work as a team and how to draw in others to participate and help lead songs. The thing I think I love the most is blurring the lines between “official” and “unofficial” ministry. “Each one has” (1 Cor 14:26) and I feel like my biggest responsibility as a leader is to encourage as many people as possible to use what they have to minister to the whole church.
Thanks again!