3 Ways to Add Worship Team Members

One of my “weaknesses” as a Worship Leader is recruiting. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the person who wants to go out and get all up in people’s faces trying to persuade them to join the team.

That being said, there are ways to build a team without being a recruit nazi or without constantly feeling like you’re chasing people. Each one of these ways works and can be a great way to add members to your team!

1) Promote (through large gathering avenues) and hold seasonal “official” auditions. It can be once a year. Twice a year. Heck, you can even hold them quarterly if it floats your boat. With an established pattern in place, people that come into your church will see the up and coming auditions and flock to them, right? Well, hopefully.

This method tends to work for the medium to larger size churches that potentially have an influx of musicians/singers just based on the amount of people that come every week. This also works well for a church that tends to have a changing rotation. If you’re team is made up of just a core team and newer members are never rotated in, what’s the point of auditioning anyone?

2) Promote (in a more individual word of mouth vein) and hold “audition hangouts.” I know, I know, that’s not a very official sounding title is it? Nah, but that’s the point. I’ve always been a fan of organic networking and relational connection.

For me, I’m drawn more to this style of adding members. This is the kind of audition that is the result of hearing from a friend/team member/church attender about a friend that plays drums or sings. Optimally, this person would already be plugged into your church and have the church’s purpose and vision down already.

I’ve always approached people that were pointed out to me with an invitation to lunch. We get some lunch and chat for a bit about THEM! This is the “hangout” part. I like getting to know people a little bit before auditioning them. So, we talk over food and talk about their experiences and perspectives. Then we discuss the audition.

I also have a very flexible audition style. The majors are all the same:

• Audition on a familiar song
• Audition alone (not in front of the entire team)
• Audition with the Leader (the one who is ultimately responsible for making the tough calls)
• Right then and there I offer one of three options: 1) That was great let’s do this. 2) You have lots of potential, would you like to continue to work with me? 3) I’m sorry but this just probably is not the best fit for you. Can I help you find another area to get plugged in?

Usually, I like to have some sort of “buffer” time where the new person comes in for 3-6 weeks and hangs out with and rehearses with the team before actually taking the stage. Of course there are always exceptions to that guideline for me.

3) JUST ASK, SILLY! If you know of someone in your church who’s got some skills, just ask them if they’d be interested in helping out! One of my fears in dealing with people is rejection. Believe it or not, a lot of us who seem to be confident and all about their “giftings” are usually pretty insecure in other ways. My area of insecurity is being turned down by people. I don’t know why it bothers me so much but it does. So much so that I’d rather just not ask people.

But in getting over myself and just ASKING PEOPLE if they’d be interested, I’ve made some of the best connections and friends for life. Some of my best personal friends to this day are people that I invited to come and be a part of the team. Of course there will be the “no’s” but the “yes’s” make everything so much more fun!