Let’s face it – there are dozens of things you’d like to do to train your worship team so they can do their best in serving and leading worship on Sunday mornings.
You’d probably like to teach them the best way to learn the music and be prepared when they walk into rehearsal. Maybe you’ve been thinking about helping some of them learn to play their instrument with more skill.
And there’s a whole list of practical things they need to know (cut offs, how to transition between songs, learning and following hand signals, etc.). Not to mention the whole “presence on the platform” and “emotionally connecting” thing that Tom Jackson teaches!
So where do you start?!
It starts with an idea and a plan. And when someone else comes up with a good idea that worked for them, and that you can use – I say, use it!
When Angie Thomas, Director of Contemporary Worship at First Baptist Church of Geneva in Illinois, sent us a recap video of her own worship team training event, we knew it was a great format that many of you could probably use, too:
Angie had been inspired by an Expressive Worship Workshop and wanted to share Tom’s concepts with her team. The teaching DVD she uses in the clip above is Tom’s first Expressive Worship Workshop DVD set. Apparently, the group received it very well, and Angie says that since then, they have “held each other accountable by regularly using the phrase ‘capture and engage’.”
Angie had been thinking that after they watched the video she would find ways to work out Tom’s concepts in a practical way. But before she could even mention the idea to her team, they asked her if they could “get practical” in the next training session!
I don’t know what Angie will decide to do – but I do have an idea for you, Angie… take one or two of the songs from the worship music makeover DVDs (the second DVD in each of the Expressive Worship sets shows Tom working through a rehearsal with a praise team), and go through the rehearsal just like the praise team does on the DVD. You can apply the teaching to your own team, practice through the songs, learn the rearrangements Tom does, and then rehearse them until they feel comfortable.
Once you’ve done it with a few of the songs from the Expressive Worship DVDs, you’ll have the framework to bring one of Tom’s associates in for a day of Expressive Worship Team Training on a song or two that your team would like to learn.
Thanks for sharing your great idea and plan with us, Angie! Anyone else have more ideas on how to get your team trained to best fulfill their calling and use their talents?
