Blog | 4 Tips for Growing Your Worship Ministry

1) Announce Worship Volunteer Needs & Make Signup Forms Accessible

This should be a no-brainer, but if you’re going to get people involved in your ministry, you need to make it accessible to your entire congregation. Not only do they need to be informed on the need to join – they need a direct and concise way to apply for the worship ministry.

Whether it’s a form on your website or a simple card placed in the worship guide/program/bulletin, make an easy enrollment form accessible to everyone, which leads to the next point…

2) Onboarding: Trial Runs or Auditions

Just because someone signs up to join the worship team doesn’t mean they’re a good fit. After you receive applications to join, you need a process to “test the waters” with new volunteers. Here are a couple ideas:

Trial Runs: A great way to introduce and test out new worship team volunteers is through trial runs during rehearsals. Make it clear that new volunteers are supposed will be introduced slowly by having them join for a few rehearsals, but not playing on Sunday. At least initially. This gives you a chance to see if they are a good fit culturally and musically with the team without sacrificing a standard of quality on a Sunday morning.

Auditions: Auditions are a fantastic way to test out new volunteers, but they can be tricky to navigate. On one hand, you want to gauge volunteers’ musical abilities, but you also don’t want to boil down your criteria for involvement to strictly musical aptness. If you run an audition night, choose a couple songs for the new volunteers to learn. Pick 1 instrument – whether it’s guitars, bass, drums, etc. – that you’ll have volunteers try out for on a given audition night. Leave that role empty for the volunteer auditions, but fill your other instruments with your usual volunteers. That gives you a chance to hear them in context and see how they mesh with the team. Make sure to always find time to hang out with the volunteers, whether on audition nights or others to see how they get along with everyone.

3) Team Nights

Everyone wants to feel that they are a part of a community. And while close friends may regard rehearsals and Sunday mornings as a “hang time” with their close friends, these types of worship cultures can begin to feel cliquey or exclusive to new volunteers.

Introducing team nights once a month is a great way to get people together to share ideas, future worship culture direction, and give everyone a chance to hang out and get to know each other. The more people in your congregation hear of opportunities to connect with others on the worship team, the more inclined they’ll be to join. Ask new volunteer applicants to join for a team night to feel out the culture and hear a little bit about how the worship teams are run!

4) Delegating Leadership

You’re the worship leader, but that doesn’t mean it’s your responsibility to lead the music all the time. As a leader, part of your responsibility (and hopefully a very large part) is to grow others into leadership positions. Spend time identifying committed, talented, and energetic volunteers who are already a part of your team. Invest in them and begin delegating leadership responsibilities to them (only if they’re interested, obviously).

Investing in committed volunteers and empowering them to lead is a great way to build of a culture of involvement from the ground up.