“Hello, and welcome to this episode of the Worship Band Builder podcast, where we are working with you to lay the foundation for skillful worship! I’m Eric Roberts. I’m joined by my co-host, Emily Roberts.”
The list we are reading from today we got from a social media post by http://www.joelbrown.co.uk/
Ten Tips for Worship Leaders.
1) Make sure you have a development plan that addresses your skills, character and leadership potential. You don't become a well-rounded worship leader by accident; be intentional about growth.
2) Invest time, money and training in your gifts and skills. Raw talent makes for a good one hit wonder but isn't enough for sustainable ministry.
3) Find and commit to a mentor who has your permission to evaluate your progress and motivation. Whether that be your Worship Pastor, Pastor or another experienced Worship Leader.
4) Learn to worship in the absence of music to ensure music doesn't become the object of your worship. That's harder to do than it sounds for most of us due to our modern dependence on music for worship.
5) Learn and try out new songs as guided by your context. Sometimes our reluctance to learn new songs is laziness masked by a preference for tradition.
6) Learn your hymns too and try to find ways to make them fresh and musically accessible.
Look for Episode 17 which Is PART 2 and Includes tips 7-10
FULL PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Eric:
hello and welcome to this episode of the worship band builder podcast, where we are working with you to lay the foundation for skillful worship. I'm Eric Roberts and I'm joined by my cohost, Emily Roberts. And we are on if you're watching this on YouTube today, we we're on a totally new setup. Like we're looking straight at you at the camera instead of looking straight at each other. So go on YouTube, check out this new angle. Do you like this Angle? I mean, I don't know. Do you like this angle time will tell time will tell. I don't know. We keep changing it up because you know, episode what 16, I think is where we're at. And we just like to mess around. I just like to make stuff difficult mostly, mostly, but today we're going to do 10 tips for worship leaders. Okay. So I found this on worship leader collective, and this is posted by, I guess now I don't even know his name.
Eric:
Oh, Joel, I'm going to have to shout out joelbrown.co.uk because that's he posted this little like meme and 10 tips. And so I've read them months ago. I haven't read them lately. And Emily has never read them. Have never read them. And I told her don't you dare read the show notes. I have not seen these yet. No. So let's read these, I'm gonna read these to her. Then we're going to talk about them. And we're going to see what we think about 10 tips for some leaders. Would this really help him? And it got a lot of likes. It was a very pretty, you know, thing. I don't know, whatever you call that. It was a pretty big, yeah. So let's see. Number one, let's just get into this because we are, this is going to be a crazy week for us and we got a lot of cool stuff going. And so let's just get through these 10 tips, make sure number one, make sure you have a development plan that addresses your skills, character and leadership potential. You don't become well-rounded worship leader by accident. Be intentional about growth.
Emily:
Okay. Can you read me that first part one more time?
Eric:
Yeah, this is the kind of confused me. This guys must be super smart guy. We're like we can't even figure out number one. Okay. Number one, make sure you have a develop development plan that addresses your skills, character and leadership potential.
Emily:
Okay. So that sounds like personal development to me.
Eric:
Yeah. Look like skills, character leadership, and a plan like maybe like what you're going to do. Look at yourself and go, Hmm. I'm going to make a plan to develop myself. That's probably make it.
Emily:
I think that is actually an excellent tip because I think that is probably the biggest thing that gets overlooked. You know, we're busy trying to build the band and make the stage look perfect and maybe coordinate our songs with the service theme or whatever it is that is occupying our thoughts. But are we as the worship leader taking responsibility for our personal development, are we becoming better on our instruments? Better vocalists? Are we most importantly maintaining our spiritual wellbeing so that we can represent the Lord when we're on the stage? Yeah. I I'm in full support of tip number.
Eric:
Well tip number one, make a development plan. That's, that's pretty proactive. I mean, a lot of people don't plan and especially not right. Especially plan an entire plan that addresses your skills, character and leadership. That's pretty Epic. That is specific. Yeah. Number one is Epic. And like you don't become a well rounded worship leader by accident. So be intentional about growth. That is probably what I've been saying all along since we launched worship band builder was continual and intentional training and that's kind of what this is. Right.
Emily:
But it's continual intentional training for yourself
Eric:
for you. Yeah. Because if you're a worship leader and you've got flaws, you can see your flaws in your whole team to spreading out and call wrecking havoc on your team. And really, as a worship leader for me, it's always been about trying to overcome my own personal obstacles because I can't really lead if I can't get there on time. I can't really lead if I don't plan ahead, I can't lead if I don't know the parts when I get there. So it's as a leader, I was always struggling with my own stuff. Like get my own stuff. Right. So that's, this is key number one way to go Joel Brown, number one, we love it. Let's go to number two. Number two, invest time, money and training and your gifts and skills. We're all talent makes for a good one hit wonder, but it isn't enough for subs, sustainable ministry. Yeah. You're going to have to pay. I liked that one. Um,
Emily:
kind of ties into number one, I think.
Eric:
Yeah. And I think, um, you, you hear a lot of coaches and I haven't, I don't, I don't harp on this, but a lot of the coaches I listened to, um, financial coaches and some of the people who I follow, they're always talking about, you know, you got to spend money, you got to invest. And I always kind of think, well, of course, cause they're selling stuff, but it's true. Anything that I've done, I've usually spent money and I I'm good with that. I spend money on myself. I went to college, my parents put money. She's not, she's like, yeah, but he does spend the money. But when you see something like, like recently I was going to get a skateboarding. Um, course for Augie. Yes, yes. A skateboarding course. It's it's really, you know, but it's training like he's trying to learn. So I want to get him this course, that goes, w you know, this is what the guy is saying. Invest time and money and training for your skills.
Emily:
Maybe not on a skateboarding course.
Eric:
Well, no, I think you should. You should be. You should invest in skateboarding. Courses
Emily:
could add that in, but that's not what, what are, uh, what's his name? Joel. Joel, that's not, I don't think that's where Joel was going.
Eric:
The matter is this invest the money in your training. So Hey, if you want to learn a skateboard, widest kick out there for years trying to do it. When this guy, Aaron Keyes, he's like a pro skater, he made all these little things. So there it is. Yeah.
Emily:
Now I will say, okay, that, that was sort of a blanket statement. Don't be afraid to spend money. So maybe it's a worship conference. Um, as a vocalist, I would say, don't be afraid to go get a vocal coach. Even if you are a trained vocalist. I find that, um, I don't know what I sound like all the time. It's good to have a sounding board, somebody that can remind you, um, or kind of show you where you're sliding into some bad habits may be without noticing. So, um, yeah, that, if I was leading worship every week, I would give consideration to, uh, getting a vocal coach. Maybe the same could be said for your instrument to yes.
Eric:
Yeah. I think the key of this number two is don't be afraid to spend money on yourself. Don't be afraid to, you don't have it. Don't spend money. You don't have to invest money, invest money in your, in your gifts, save money and buy products that you think are gonna make you.
Emily:
Then I was just about to say that this is not, um, like, Hey, yay. Let's spend money on a bunch of expensive equipment because they said invest in myself.
Eric:
Would I say, I think you should buy another guitar. We're going to move on number three, because the, the, the point is spend money. Okay. That's what I got from number two. Yes. I'm sure that is exactly why new guitar. Number two, this is hilarious. Number three, find a comment, find and commit. I need to read that right. Find and commit to a mentor who has your permission to evaluate your progress and motivation. And, uh, whether that be your worship, pastor, pastor, and other experienced worship leader. So basically commit, find a mentor. That's number three, find a mentor. Yeah, I agree. This guy is dead on. I mean, I'm somebody who can speak to you and say, Hey, you know, you, um, you need to get straight, man. Get it straight, get your life straight. Get off. I don't know. Mentors have changed my life.
Eric:
So yes, find a mentor. Or I was lucky as a young teenager that a mentor found me and he said, Hey, I see your talent. I want to mentor you. I said, yeah, let's do it. And that led me onto a journey, a lifelong thing. So we still talk my mentor and I, my mentors, I had several, but yeah, you have to find a mentor. Don't do this alone. Whether it's, um, some, uh, new, these worship leader, cohorts, where they all get together in these groups, those are fine. You have to pay for them. And those are good because it might be hard to find somebody that's up level your skill. Like I like to look up like find somebody who's already doing it better than me or doing it bigger and go, Hey, how are you doing it? When I was a young teenager, I was hanging out with a bunch of like 30 and 40 year old guys. And because I was like, well, they're successful. They have businesses there. They're doing it. I'm going to see what they're doing. I wasn't hanging around with a bunch of, you know, 20 year old guys. I was hanging around with 40 year old guys. So that's another thing about mentors look up and find somebody that's there.
Emily:
Yes. And it would be good if that person was also a musician, but that is not a deal breaker. If it's somebody that can be a spiritual mentor for you, take it.
Eric:
Yeah. I had passed. I had a, I think about, I had a pastor as a mentor. Then I had one of the worship leaders as a mentor. And then I had some older guys that were much older as mentors. And then I would spend a lot of time just sitting around and talking to my grandpa who was a pastor. And, um, we had, you know, different viewpoints and I would just pick his brain. So that's good. Number four. Uh, if you, if you need help finding a mentor, just send us, send us a note, send us an email. We do coaching all of these, um, podcasts and webinars. Don't replace a mentor, but they're a good place to start. And then if you need to find somebody personally, you can just send me an email number four, learn to worship in the absence of music to ensure music doesn't become the object of your worship. That's harder to do than it sounds for most of us due to our modern dependence on music for worship.
Speaker 4:
Hmm Hmm.
Eric:
Learn to worship in the absence of music. Yeah. I mean, I get that music is just one thing for me. I'm music. I've always kind of said that music was my language to talk to God. But then again, you know, the last 10 years I haven't done as much, you know, worship leading on stage. And I've just, you could just be walking around and talking to God that could be worship. What do you think?
Emily:
Well, certainly worship is not just singing and playing music. There's much more to it, to that more to it than that is what I'm trying to say. Um, but what that is specifically for you, maybe it's, uh, a gratitude journal, maybe it's time, uh, in the Bible or just prayer time could be a devotional, could be even a small group that's studying God's word. Um, I'm not sure if that's exactly what he means, but those things are all legitimate ways to, um, build your relationship with the Lord.
Eric:
Yeah. And the other let's take it from the other side. Cause I think I get it. If he says, learn to worship in the absence of music to ensure that music doesn't become the object of your worship. So I think what, what I did in the past, probably when I was really obsessing over like my, the production and all the, you know, is I became really obsessed with that kind of stuff in my band. So if you take away all the music, would I still worship if I just sat with an acoustic, you know? So like the production and the whole thing doesn't become like the worship. So maybe to strip it down, maybe not like, maybe you're just going to say, okay, today I'm just going to worship with an acoustic. I would do that about every quarter and the pastor would get all kind of weird about it because he would think I was like taking a week off or slacking or something maybe, but I would want have let all the band members take a week off and just do a week where it was like an acoustic.
Eric:
And you remember that. And I liked those weeks and the congregation liked them. And some, sometimes it's like, Oh, well it wasn't like the big thing. Well, it was that's because even as a church, I think we get used to worship being a certain thing, you know, a certain production value. So I think that's good. Just try not to make that, um, even though your whole job as a worship leader is to make the production, try not to make the production, the worship. All right. We're halfway through learn number, learn number five is learn and try out new songs as guided by your context. Sometimes our reluctance to learn new songs is a lazy laziness masked by a preference for tradition.
Emily:
That is probably more, I'm sorry, I'm going to say this again. That was probably more applicable years ago. I feel like now worship leaders have kind of moved into this, you know, we gotta have the latest and greatest all the time. We've almost gone the other direction to where we, you know, we're not keeping songs around for even more than a year or two.
Eric:
Yeah. I think it's guided by. So learn new songs guided by your context. Like if I was in a more gospel church and they were playing a lot more gospel songs, then instead of more of a rock modern church, modern rock, it was like a modern gospel, then it, yeah, it would stretch me as a musician. So maybe, and I think he's going to talk about that, but learned to try out new songs. Um, I think learning, learning new new songs is laziness, maybe mass by preference or tradition, but also I think preference and tradition play a large role in our congregation. So I think maybe if you're a worship leader who's and I've been in this situation, I usually lead songs that I like and songs that I, you know, that fit me. And I know that there have been times where there have been congregation members that maybe liked a different style that I wasn't versed in.
Eric:
So I was like, well, I'm just going to keep doing this. So I think there's a balance there. I think you have to be varied, but not, you have to stay in your wheelhouse too. I mean, if your wheelhouse is, you know, kind of a pop rock worship, then it's hard to do like a gospel song or like one time we tried a country song at our band and I really wanted to, it was a Amy Grant song and it had this really cool, like acoustic thing and the band just, just flopped it out. And I finally at the end of rehearsal, I'm like, we're not doing that song.
Emily:
Yeah. Well, it was a pretty complicated song. And I don't know that you should be trying to jump into other genres. I'm not sure that's where he's going with this. Um,
Eric:
yeah, I'm not sure either, but I guess maybe just don't be reluctant to, don't be lazy is what I got out of that. And uh, just because you prefer one thing or have a tradition, don't be lazy. Maybe try some new songs, go, go get some of the newest worship songs and try a few. Maybe, maybe that's what he's saying. Don't, don't stick with the same old songs because they're because they're easy because everybody knows him.
Emily:
There's a certain amount of, you need songs that everybody knows because that's what they're comfortable singing. They don't have to focus on learning the song. They can actually worship to the song. So I don't think this is saying, just get rid of all the stuff that you're comfortable playing or that has been used more than once or however many times. But I do think that, um, there can come a place where you're in a rut and if you're in a wreck, you probably know it. You probably are going. Yeah. I wonder if they're going to be okay with this song one more time. If that's where you are, then, then yeah. That's probably something that needs to be addressed.
Eric:
Yeah. All right. Number six, number six, learn your hymns too. And try to find ways to make them fresh and musically accessible.
Emily:
Oh, well that is so cool because we are getting ready to publish a hymns songbook. And the key to the hymn song book that we're doing is that we're making them playable for guitar players and anybody who just doesn't feel comfortable changing chords every two or three beats. So
Eric:
yeah, I love the hymns. I've never had a problem with this, but some people do some of these, some of these young, young worship leaders, and now send me, send me notes or old worship leaders. Some of you guys just don't like hymns and I've met people. Um, I'm not gonna, I can't I'm, I'm so scared to make any generalizations statement in our current culture right now. But some worship leaders just have told me, I don't, I don't like cams. I'm not doing them. And I'm like, Oh wow. You know, I grew up not in church, but my grandfather and grandmother, I don't know. And then my classical training, I just like hymns.
Emily:
Oh, I love him. No,
Eric:
I don't get that idea. So if that, if that's you and you're like, no, I just don't like hymns, they are dumb. Send me a note. Tell me why Semia put some comments down in the, in the thing I want to, I want to know why, why you don't like them. And uh, if you're, if you're there going well, there's so many cords and I get it because if you don't simplify them, then they don't sound good. And that's what the song is going to be very simple. Four chord hymns, you take out all of the passing chords and it's, and it makes it more guitar driven. So check out the YouTube videos too. We've done a lot of those on the channel. And then they're like, Oh, that's a cool song. That's a cool thing. But hymns are very in the old school version of him is very annoying. Really? When you hear it just in an old style to a modern band, it's like, they can't really translate that guitar players can't, you know, four, four Brock drummers. Can't, it's like weird, you know, and that, and maybe that's why people are against them. So I would say, like, he says, try to make them, try to make them musically accessible, try to make them easier, try to make them a new version. And I think the church has done pretty good with that in the last decade.
Emily:
Oh yes. Ever since Chris Tomlin did the amazing grace, my chains are gone. There have been several hymns that have gotten a fresh face and they have, um, added a chorus, potentially made them more contemporary.
Eric:
Yeah. Made it more better. Thank you, Chris Tomlin for making that song more better. Right. So that's number six. And I think, you know that I'm enjoying this conversation, but I think we should save seven, eight, nine, and 10 for the next episode. So this will go into part two episode
Emily:
I'm with you. I don't, I don't think we're going to squeeze that into this episode. So
Eric:
yeah. I feel like we're getting kind of, it's getting kind of the point where the episode is going to end and we've got kind of a lot of good stuff, so we'll make sure you check out the next episode for part two of 10 tips for worship leaders. We're taking this off of the worship leader, collective posts that are found by Joel brown.co.uk. And actually, uh, I'll tell you, Joel, I think he's like a medical doctor. So we'll talk about that in the next episode. Also, if you want to make sure you go to worship band, builder.com, check out all the podcast, all the past webinars, we're doing webinars. Now that kind of go along with some of our podcasts, which gives me a chance to doodle on the screen and do all the stuff that I like to do to make it a little more in depth. So if you like a topic checkout, worship band, builder.com, and then go to webinars and we will see you next time. God bless.