7 Ways To Support Your Worship Team Members

Practically every position at a church is strenuous; each has its own particular set of difficulties and big asks. Worship jobs in particular can be taxing because of the hours required, from weekly practice to numerous weekend services. Below are a few simple things you can do to ease the burden for your worship team members (or really any role!).

1. Offer a discretionary budget

Worship jobs come with a lot of instrument-related expenses, such as tune-ups, guitar strings, drum sticks, etc. A discretionary fund, guitar string stock, or something of the like can be an unexpected bonus for your worship leaders and musicians. The time and money you’ve saved them by providing these things won’t go unnoticed.

2. Be relational

As a senior leader, it’s often difficult for your weekend worship staff to truly know you. This may not seem like a big deal – especially if they're only around you on the weekends – but your musicians knowing or not knowing you can make or break building trust on your team. By personally knowing all of the people who work for you, you’re creating unity, casting vision, and fostering community. All of these things are desirable traits in any gig, and will also serve to increase the tenure of your worship team.

3. Don’t micromanage

Worship leaders, musicians, and creative personalities in general don’t like to be put into a box. They want freedom to create and follow the direction God is giving them for worship. Cast good vision, and then step back and trust your team to get you where you need to go. You’ll all be less stressed and more productive for it.

4. Enjoy successes AND failures

Celebrating both success and failure communicates a deep sense of care to your team.

It sounds too simple, but this one makes a big difference. Letting people know they’re valued outside of the performance they can provide for your church creates a loyalty and an atmosphere of hard work, the kind people won’t offer if they’re too afraid of doing something wrong. (Note: this isn’t an excuse to hire or keep people who aren’t doing their job well.)

5. Plan team events

Remember that your worship team is working and serving when most people are spending that weekend time with their friends and community at church. As such, it is a natural step for them to bond with each other and find community not only within the church, but also from within the team itself. Planning events for the team and their families is a nice way to help your team have healthy friendships and build community. It also provides those who are new or disconnected with an opportunity to be around the rest of the team outside of a church setting. Team building for the win!

6. Host worship nights

Create space for your worship leaders and musicians to worship outside of leading a service themselves, whether that means hiring an outside worship leader/team to come in once a quarter or having monthly team meetings where everyone can worship together. Worshipping the God they’ve devoted their life and time to without worrying about lighting, the congregation, or anything else is an invaluable gift you can offer your team. This helps avoid burnout, boost morale, and is also beneficial to your congregation overall, since healthy leaders are able to pour healthy life into others.

7. Offer childcare

Consider how big a benefit this is for your team. If your church has multiple services in a weekend, sticking kids in children’s church all weekend is monotonous for the children, which becomes a strain on families. Providing a child care option for your worship team members can provide a fun place for staff kids before service begins, which will free up your people more. Offering some type of childcare, even if it’s dedicating a room in the children’s wing and allowing the participating staff to split the cost of a sitter will be a huge relief to everyone.

Have you implemented any of these ideas in your church? What, if any, additional perks do you offer your worship team?