worship ministry thought - prepared for rehearsal

recently, in a conversation with a volunteer musician in our worship band, i finally put into words an unspoken expectation that i have for our players and singers. something that really bugs me is when people come to our thursday night rehearsals under-prepared. some people’s attitude is that thursday doesn’t really count, sunday is when it matters.

this attitude irritates me and i finally know why. as a leader, by the time sunday morning rolls around, i have to move on from the technical music stuff and concentrate my mind on god and on the people i’m supposed to be leading. if i’m too distracted by worries of whether the band knows their stuff, then i feel as though i’m not operating 100% as a leader. i’m not as in tune with the spirit as i lead. i guess this principle is not unique to worship leading. in any job, you rely on others to do their job so that you can do yours.

so why does thursday matter? if we can work out all the technical details on thursday, and work through dynamics, etc. then my mind is more at ease between thursday and sunday. i can come in sunday morning and engage my mind fully on god. i can respond to the spirit. i can pay attention to and “read” the crowd, therefore being better able to lead. if thursday is considered practice time for any individual and they are behind, i’m worried about whether or not i can count on them on sunday.

in fact, some time ago, i officially distinguished the terms “rehearsal” and “practice”. To me, practice is an individual thing. Each person practices on his/her instrument, learning songs and woodshedding parts. Rehearsal is a group thing. Each person needs to come to rehearsal having already practiced. At rehearsal, we’re not learning individual parts as much as we are working out how those individual parts work together. We’re working dynamics, listening and responding to each other musically.

so, what do you think? i welcome any thoughts from fellow worship leaders and worship band members.