Worship Pastors: 4 Essential Tips To Land The Interview

Here at Vanderbloemen Search Group, we have the privilege of helping churches all over the country find high capacity worship pastors to lead their congregations. We see a large volume and variety of resumes and videos from candidates with a passion for worship, and we’re honored to see their heart for leading others in worship of our King. But as we evaluate submissions for worship leader positions, there are several things that can make a worship leader’s application stand out among the rest.

If you are a worship pastor in transition, here are 4 essential tips that you should know as you begin to launch into the interview and search process:

1. You need a video.

Worship sample videos help us see your heart, experience, talent, and potential in addition to the written information on your resume. In fact, having multiple videos is the best way to represent the breadth of your experience. We understand that not everyone has access to high caliber video and audio equipment. Don’t worry too much about the quality. We tell our church clients not to judge someone based on the A/V quality of videos.

Know that audio samples are not sufficient to show your experience. Stage presence is an important factor when vetting worship pastors. If you want to land the interview, you need a video representation of yourself to show the client.

2. Your video needs to highlight you.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but many sample videos that candidates submit to us are of an entire team leading worship. We want to see you leading and hear your voice, we don’t need to hear the rest of the team. We understand that sometimes it can be hard to distinguish your voice in the mix of a live worship video from a Sunday service. In that case, we advise creating an additional video of you in your office or at home playing the guitar or singing a capella as a supplement to showcase your vocal range. This is not a substitute for a live worship video, but can help us get a better idea of your vocal and instrumental talent.

Note: We realize that studio samples are enhanced and mixed; so while we appreciate receiving them, we would also like to see you live and/or unplugged. In all cases, remember that a variety of music samples showcasing your abilities and stage presence is best for the interview.

3. Your video should include both music and speaking.

We want to not only see you lead the music but also lead the congregation. In your video, show us transitions, prayer, special music, scripture readings, and other pastoral teaching elements. Churches considering hiring you want to see how you engage and lead people in order to discern if you will be a fit for their congregation or not. 

Also, if you have the capacity, include a short 30-60 second personal introduction to your video as well to help us get to know you, your heart, and your personal philosophy of worship.

4. Include team leadership in your resume.

Much of a worship pastor’s role and responsibilities happen off stage. Be sure to include on your ministry resume the part of your job that shows influence with volunteers, leading teams through rehearsals, or managing creative arts or technical staff. What do you do to develop your band and vocal volunteers? How do you lead them not only in their craft but spiritually as a worship pastor? What role do you have with service planning weekly? Do you have oversight of multiple campuses? What other programming elements do you use outside of music? Do you have other skills such as video editing, audio mixing, lighting and stage design? Do you value songwriting? If so, consider sharing a link to your website on your resume.

We are continually honored and humbled to walk with candidates through their job search process and see their heart, calling, and talent for serving the Kingdom. It’s our prayer that these tips can help worship pastors through job transitions and ultimately to where God is calling them to lead.

Worship leaders, what other interview tips do you have for your colleagues seeking worship pastor positions?

If you liked this, then you’ll also like 5 Things Your Worship Band Isn’t Telling You.