Worship Practice

This is the one area of worship that is most easily neglected by many worship teams and/or worship leaders. When I say it's neglected, I don't mean in the actual time spent in weekly practice, but in the quality of practice and in the "focus" of the practice. A worship team could consist of many different groups; a small praise team or choir, the praise band or orchestra (if your church is large enough) or simply the worship leader alone. Either way, all must spend time in rehearsal. Most worship leaders have several favorite scripture verses that focus on God's desire for worship teams and their leaders to rehearse and be "skilled" in their leading. Here are two of my favorites;

"Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy" (Ps. 33:3 NIV)

and...

"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people" (Col. 3:23 NLT)


Working for the Lord? Never thought of that before I'll bet.


I've just spent the last week reading over several other web pages, books and blogs on worship and rehearsal to get some ideas as to what other worship leaders consider to be important about worship rehearsals and came away with three basic ideas as to what makes up a "quality" worship rehearsal. Most of the articles I've read, focused on the "musicality" aspect of rehearsals; such as - musical theory or vocal techniques etc, which are definitely important don't get me wrong, however there were a few articles I read that focused other "non-musical" aspects that I felt were more important.


1. Make prayer important! Have a designated prayer time.
2. Have a "Plan" for your worship rehearsal time.
3. Start and end on time!


I. "Prayer Time"

Does your worship team begin their rehearsals with prayer? Do they pray for each other? How about prayer during the songs? How about closing in prayer? Each one of these times of prayer has a purpose and serves a powerful function of a well disciplined and skilled worship team.

I have experienced both sides of this one. I've been in worship rehearsals that had very little prayer time built into them and I've been in rehearsals that were "overloaded" with prayer. I'll explain that in a minute. I personally feel that a portion of the rehearsal should be set aside for prayer as this helps the team to bond together in fellowship as well as assisting them to focus on the task at hand. This is where the leadership skills of your worship leader are so important in setting the tone for rehearsals. I remember a comment I heard a few years ago during a worship conference I attended (sorry, I can't remember who it was...) but the worship leader was sharing his thoughts on leading rehearsals and said he always treated rehearsal time as an "off-hour" extension of Sunday mornings regular worship. I like that idea.

II. Have a plan for your rehearsal time.

This might seem like a given to some, but I've experienced rehearsals where there was no real plan for worship rehearsal time and things would easily slip by and time seemed to drag on and on. That is not good. If you or someone you know is a teacher, you know that teacher's have to prepare "lesson-plans" for each day. Now I'm not saying you have to go overboard and make a detailed rehearsal plan - but at least sketch out on a notepad a simple basic plan of what you want to cover for the rehearsal. (I will share examples in another blog later on)

III. Start and End on time.

What this boils down to the most is respecting the time commitment that everyone on your team has made to being at rehearsals. Yes, you will have those "dedicated" individuals on your team (Bless their hearts!) who will never complain about going past the end time of rehearsal or putting in extra time to get that song arrangement "just right" for Sunday morning. Nothing can be more frustrating for your team members than to spend a good percentage of the rehearsal time with "chit-chat" or catching up on events of the week, rather than actual practice. Even prayer time, should be kept in check as well. (although, there is much more merit to spending time in prayer - than simply wasting time catching up on the season finale of your favorite TV shows...) Save that for "After-rehearsal" for those who are able to stick around and visit - rather than having to rush off to relieve a baby sitter or spouse from childcare duty.

I hope this gives you some good ideas to consider for your worship rehearsals. Have a great worship this week!

Blessings,

Dave