The Unlikely Team - Part 1

Many of us can remember the playground as a kid . . . lined up against the fence as teams are being carefully selected.  Were you ever the last kid standing at the fence?  Feeling alone, uncomfortable, realizing that nobody actually wanted you on his or her team, but inevitably you were taken as a consolation prize by the captain who lost the rock-paper-scissors battle that started this whole thing.

In case you were wondering, that is not the ideal method of building a team.  Unfortunately, many times our Worship Teams can be viewed as such.  “Oh sure, they only allow the cool kids on the stage.  Apparently once you reach a certain age you will be discarded from the cool crowd.  I sure wish I was part of the cool crowd.”

Granted, we need to get along with the people on our team, and trust is an absolute necessity.  However, working with people from different backgrounds, demographics, status, and interests has many benefits as well, each person brings with them a whole new level of influence.  I realize I cannot reach everyone in our church . . . however, the more diverse people we have on stage, the more opportunity for each person to find someone they can connect with because of their own similarities.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (ESV)

   ¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.  ¹⁴ For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

Ditch The Band

The worship team.  Many people refer to the musicians on stage of the modern church as "the worship band."  I want to spend a few moments explaining why "band" can't and doesn't work in today's church culture.

By definition, a band is something that binds things together and constricts movement.  Although many of today's rock bands are terrible examples of faithfulness and loyalty because many of them are willing to sell each other out for a solo career (much thanks to large sums of money and fickle fans), the very idea of a band is a closed group.  There is only enough room for one drummer, a couple of electric guitarists, a backup singer or two, and of course the one and only lead vocalist.  The rest of the musicians that you see performing with these bands are "hired help" that come in, learn a few horn or string parts, play the gig, collect a paycheck, and go home without any opportunity of ever making it on the cover of the next album.

Although every young musician dreams of being part of the next great rock band, the message that we send to our potential volunteers when we talk about the church "band" is that there is no room for them.  Don't get me wrong, I realize that much of this is semantics and our desire is to use anyone that is available.  However, it is all too easy to turn a group of musicians that volunteer their time to help people worship freely and without distraction each and every Sunday morning into an elite group of people that sends the message to potential volunteers that there is "no room in this band."

Here is how we have done things at River City Church, and will continue to do them as long as I am privileged enough to work here.  Everything is about TEAM!  We have one TEAM at our church filled with many individuals with many different gifts.  We mix and match our Sunday morning team from a roster of incredibly diverse volunteers.  (Check out Romans 12:5)  I wouldn't have it any other way!

I realize that there are many churches that don't do their worship ministry this way.  I am not saying that we are right and they are wrong, but I am saying I am one hundred percent positive that this is the most effective way to communicate to potential volunteers that we have room for you, this is a place that you can serve, and we would be proud to worship the Creator of the universe with you by our side!  (Isaiah 40:28-31)  That is powerful!