Blog | Dealing with Untalented Worship Ministry Volunteers

1) Remember You Control Their Reputation

Your team members all look up to you, and many of them will take on the opinions you hold. That puts you in a position of responsibility over the reputation of your worship team volunteers.

Back to our case of the untalented worship team member… Everyone knows it, and chances are, they aren’t quiet about it. While no one would openly express that to the volunteer, the chances are that your team members talk behind that volunteer’s back about things they get frustrated about with them. It’s a huge bummer, but it’s almost always the situation.

You need to walk very carefully with these issues. The line between expressing frustration and gossiping behind a team members back is very fine. If you participate in those types of discussions or express your frustration with the team member, you may inadvertently affect everyone else’s view of that person. That kind of stuff builds up silently until someone slips a word – intentionally or on accident – and the volunteer immediately feels hurt, excluded, and ganged-up on.

You control your team’s opinion about each other – take that responsibility very seriously.

2) Stepping Up or Stepping Down

There’s a lot of reasons a volunteer may be, for lack of a better term, “musically sloppy”. It doesn’t always have to do with technical capabilities or skill. Often it’s a mixture of unpreparedness, lack of practicing/rehearsing the songs, technical ability, unfamiliarity with your church’s versions, and many other reasons. The point is, if someone is flubbing during every rehearsal, it’s time to have a talk. But that conversation isn’t always about stepping down…

Sometimes, untalented volunteers are also just very un-observational or unaware people. Do they know how underprepared they are compared to everyone else? Do they recognize what your vision for the worship team is? Do they know the difference between “learning the songs” and “coming together to rehearse the songs”? There is a good chance they may be massively underperforming because they were never told otherwise. Have an honest conversation with them and let them know you’re expectations.

In other words, asking them to step up and take on a bit more responsibility and leadership with their role. You may be surprised at how things change.

3) Offer Training

It depends on what instrument the volunteer plays, but if you know how to play (at least better than they do), offer to give them lessons. Your job as a worship leader is to lead your team members, and if that means offering lessons to one of your volunteers, then do it! Anything you can do to keep them up to speed with the rest of the team is helpful.

4) Be Specific

Are they playing too many fills? Are they showing up unprepared? Do they play too loud, or you don’t like their tone? Are they rushing or dragging the tempo too much? Are they off -pitch? Is their behavior and attitude unacceptable?

Before you go on to talk with your volunteer about stepping up or offering them lessons, make sure they are specifically aware of what the issue is. Without that having been established, it’s impossible to have a conversation about improvement.

5) Consider Your Options

If the “untalented volunteer” happens to be your only volunteer for a particular instrument or role, you’re in an entirely different situation than if you had multiple volunteers in that role.

In the former case, do everything you can to catch them up to speed and get them to step up and accept a bit more responsibility in their role. You depend on them to be there and be prepared, and if that means offering lessons, suggesting a teacher, meeting with them before rehearsal to run through things – whatever it is, do what you can to get them up to par with the rest of the team.

Now, none of that should change even if you have additional volunteers. Do everything you can to invest in them and grow them, but also remember that you need to be fair to everyone. If this volunteer seems entirely disinterested in the role, not only are they distracting congregation members from worship by messing up and drawing attention – they are also keeping enthusiastic and talented volunteers from stepping into that leadership role more often. Do you feel that their participation is bringing down the team’s ability to perform and disallowing other volunteers to participate and grow?

Consider your options based on your church worship ministry’s unique situation and make your decisions out of the best interest for the team as a whole.