To bring God glory and bring people closer to Him through our worship services.
Qualifications & Commitment:
Committed Christian
Members of the Praise Team need to be Christians and should live lives that reflect Christ in them. If there are problems along the moral line the leader needs to deal with it, if there is no improvement that person may be asked to step down from the team. Because the Praise Team is a position of leadership it is not the best place for new-Christians or ones that struggle spiritually and are not living a lifestyle that reflects Christian maturity.
Faithful
Team members need to make worship and practice a priority in their lives.
Ministry often involves a sacrifice – this often expresses itself in a time commitment.
Being faithful to a ministry means committing to being there and being there on time.
This means being there on time to practices and also being there in adequate time on Sunday morning. Team members who disregard starting times for rehearsals and meetings or fail to come to them have evidenced this lack of faithfulness and will not be allowed to play/sing in the service.
Available
This means a commitment of time. We are not simply looking for warm bodies to play music we want people who are committed to this ministry. As Praise teams we need to practice, this means scheduling a mandatory practice before Sunday morning as well as a warm-up time on Sunday morning. Everyone including the sound man needs to attend, if not then the individual or team will not be allowed to play.
Initiating
In Private Worship -
Team members need to be worshippers throughout their week and worship God in their own private devotional lives not just on Sunday morning. Every member needs commit to enter into a spirit of worship on Sunday morning before church starts.
In Spiritual Growth
- Each member of the team needs to be responsible for their own spiritual growth. commit to developing their spiritual walk with the Lord. Stagnant spiritual lives means a stagnant praise team. As a group you need to encourage and challenge one another to go deeper, not just play and sing music.
In Public Worship
– you as a leader need to initiate singing, clapping (lifting hands if appropriate). Confusion results if there is no definite initiating leadership.
Teachable
No one has ever "arrived"
- when we think we have we settle into complacency and are already on a downward slide.
This means being open to one another, to new ways of looking at things and open to correction (ask others what they think of how you are doing).
Humble
We need to point to Christ and not glorify ourselves or our musical ability. "He must increase and I must decrease." John 3:30
Humility will receive constructive criticism and be open to the comments and ideas of others.
Pride and stubborn insistence on our way is what causes fights. Christ’s attitude of humility needs to be reflected in thinking about the needs and ideas of others first.
Committed to Excellence
We should never "wing it" or "fly by the seat of our pants" in any ministry and this should be reflected in our worship with careful planning, practicing and execution.
This does not mean "professionalism" and we are not there to entertain people but we need to do our best and bring God glory through our ministry.
Musicians and vocalists need to work at their music so that they are proficient and it flows well. Mistakes and bumbling should not distract or detract from worship.
We should never be content with where we are at but always seek to become better at what we do and serve God with excellence. Therefore we need to be committed to improve ourselves and our abilities.
Kids are an exception to this rule as they are learning, but people are usually very forgiving and encouraging when kids play/sing.People are not as forgiving with adults and visitors only give us 1 opportunity to lead them into the presence of God in worship. Children do need an adult leader to help coach them (sing with or "conduct them from the front pew).
Committed to Teamwork – There is no "I" in teamwork.
Every praise band needs to view itself as a small group and a team. Our musical goal is to flow as a team and draw people into the presence of God in worship. Our heart attitude should not be to shine forth our own talent or skill but to work at the ministry of worship as a team. As such individuals should not be seeking to showcase their voices or musical talents. We need to lead in such a way that the people do not even see us up there.
It also means that we need to be careful that we don’t take a "my way or the highway" attitude (James 4:1-3). Maturity in Christ means being able to work with each other and thinking of others and their ideas before our own (Php. 2:2-4). Any differences need to be dealt with in love and seek to foster peace (James 3:17).
Some people are very gifted musicians and/or vocalists, but they find it hard working with others and have trouble flowing with the team. We want to encourage these individuals to use their gifts in other ways. Special numbers, offertory, youth group or kids club are some of the many programs that need gifted musicians.
Committed to Prayer – praying with your team at practices & before services
Committed to Encouragement – building each other up with positive comments and affirmation
Responsibilities:
Attend Practices - Every team member is required to attend practices and Sunday morning warm-up. If you can not commit to be at the practices you will NOT be prepared to lead worship – you will end up "winging it." This is not acceptable and you will not be allowed to serve Sunday morning.
Lead in Worship – initiate don’t hesitate (that only brings confusion)
We should not have wishy washy worship where people don’t know what they are supposed to do. Announce to people when to stand and when to sit.
Be right on with your starts and closes – practice, practice, practice so that you know when to come in and if you will be doing the song more than once etc…
If the song lends itself to clapping or some other action discuss it with the team as you practice.
Know who is doing which components of the service (Welcome, Scripture, Praying for Offertory…). The leader needs to discuss these things beforehand.
Assist People - help people "enter into" worship – that is to encourage people to worship God and not be focused on "what they get out of it." Worship is giving praise to God.
Prepare your heart to worship – on Sunday morning we are often so rushed and harried (not to mention late) that we are not in an attitude of worship. We need to take time as a team in the warm-up to quiet our hearts, pray and read Scripture so that we are entering into worship prepared.
Pray for the service beforehand with the pastor and the team.
Help – your team and team leader in any way that you can. Your Praise Team Leader should give different people opportunities to plan and lead the worship and you can help by volunteering to do different components.