"Recruiting a Worship Team" Video Transcript

Video Transcript: Recruiting a Worship Team

Steve Elzinga  

Alright, welcome to this session, the next few sessions anyway are going to be about the worship leader, maybe that's you, maybe you want to be a worship leader, maybe you're the pastor, and you want to know more about what a worship leader is doing or what they could do. We're going to be looking at how to recruit people. That's the one we're doing now. But how do you practice? How do you prepare for rehearsal? How would it what is the worship leader do at the actual service? So all the things that sort of relate to what a worship leader would do? So the first problem is, you know, recruiting people. 

Steve Elzinga  

Oh, by the way, this is my wife, Marie. I mentioned her earlier and a few sessions, and she is the music director at our church, and she's done a incredible job at every church we've ever done. You'll see some of the videos of the band that she leads and the singers And so on. And I think you'll agree with me she knows what she's doing. So really, she should be teaching this class. I'm teaching it because I know how to do PowerPoint and, you know, put things in in order but she really is the one that knows how to actually make it you know, there's, there's a lot to knowing what to do and we're trying to help you with what what what, what the know and, and all these all this information and so on. But in the end, you have to be able to work with people and, and my wife does a really good job of that. So as a way to just introduce her to you. We'll just sing a little it's an old Hymn "Well in me o blessed sphere"  how does that him go? The original? Well, I can't remember how the original "trying to sing from memory and it is not working right".

Steve Elzinga  

Anyway, we're gonna do a little difference "Dwell in Me O blessed spirit ...", I will be doing a little bit of singing a little bit later. But right now we're going to talk about how, how do you recruit people. Maybe you don't have people or maybe you have just one piano player that can just read the notes or you're trying to get into contemporary music. They don't know how to read chords. You don't have a drummer, you don't have a guitar player. Maybe you have one person that maybe can sing a little bit, maybe no one knows how to sing harmony, or whatever your situation is. How would you recruit more people to be on your worship team for some common issues that most churches face. Number one, they lack musicians and singers and have no idea how to get any number two,

Marie Elzinga  

lack of training and no idea where to start.

Steve Elzinga  

And that might be you and that's what we're here. To help you with 

Steve Elzinga  

number three older people wanting old music and younger people wanting new music, and there's a bit of tension between the two. Our church doesn't have that anymore. But we our first church had that. They were singing only the older songs. And you remember how we introduce new songs?

Marie Elzinga  

Yeah, we did a kids program where all of their grandchildren, children were involved. And then that just went over really well, because they want their kids to participate, and they want them to succeed. So

Steve Elzinga  

write those songs for that thing was they were contemporary, 

Marie Elzinga  

they are contemporary, 

Steve Elzinga  

all of a sudden, we had all those songs that we could do, right. And sometimes we'd introduce a new song to begin with, or the end the service with. And after a few years, we had enough to make a little book, we had a little book and once it was a book, it could be used during the service. So some churches it takes a little bit of coaxing. To get there, but I think most people in the end, appreciate it. 

Steve Elzinga  

Number four, a bunch of people that want to sing. But no one wants to practice. We had that in our present church. 

Marie Elzinga  

Yeah. When we first came, people would come to the service that were involved in the worship that Sunday, but they'd show up maybe a half an hour before the service was to start not having maybe they didn't even know what the song list was for that day. And yeah, that was just chaos. Nobody knew. What when does the verse come next or the chorus or it was just

Steve Elzinga  

right, so one leading one would start and the other one stopped in a different place

Marie Elzinga  

and then giggling and it really wasn't worshipful. 

Steve Elzinga  

It just takes practice. 

Marie Elzinga  

It takes practice.

Steve Elzinga  

Or number five, a tendency to cater the music to those who complain the loudest. What do people complain about?

Marie Elzinga  

Maybe their favorite songs not being sung, the one that they've just heard on the radio that they love,

Steve Elzinga  

or they don't like contemporary and you know, and they want more than one hymn or they want all contemporary and they don't want any hymns or they don't like the drums or it is to loud

Marie Elzinga  

you know, contemporary,

Steve Elzinga  

I had one guy say the drums were too soft, only once. Okay, 

Steve Elzinga  

number six tension between letting anyone who wants to participate, do so, and recognizing and developing people's gifts. That's a hard one. I mean, you want people to participate. You want more people to participate. But if you make participation, your only goal, then you get a lot of participation, but the quality goes way down. And you know, you get a guitar player that practices once a month. Playing with a guy who practices three hours a day. Soon the guy that practices three hours a day, you know, doesn't want to do this anymore because everything has to go down to that level. So how do you develop a program where everyone has their own place to play?

Steve Elzinga  

Number seven, wanting something better, but not willing to work at it.

Marie Elzinga  

Right. And that ties right in with the last one.

Steve Elzinga  

Yeah. Well, what work does it take?

Marie Elzinga  

It take a lot of work. I mean, there has to be a commitment to a certain

Steve Elzinga  

like what like in our band, they're committed to at least what?

Marie Elzinga  

Well, definitely the rehearsal.

Steve Elzinga  

And how long is it

Marie Elzinga  

that takes anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours to longer if there's something new that we're pulling off 

Steve Elzinga  

and do the members of the practice before 

Marie Elzinga  

they're, they are expected to be working beforehand,

Steve Elzinga  

like a three four hour commitment than an hour service, right. So it's right takes a minute. With a classically trained musicians who have a difficult time adjusting to the contemporary format, what's

Marie Elzinga  

well, somebody who has been trained classically or has had lots of lessons is used to seeing every single note written down on the page. And then I play what those notes are. And when you're doing worship music the way it is now, it's mainly chords. So if I see an F over C, I know that I'm playing an F chord with a three in the bass, so the F chord, and I'm putting a C in the bass.

Steve Elzinga  

And you're not playing the melody,

Marie Elzinga  

not playing the melody. We're not playing what's on a page I am. 

Steve Elzinga  

You have to just know the chord

Marie Elzinga  

Exactly. And I might I might have to work at that. It's something that takes a while to adjust to. So different way.

Steve Elzinga  

It's like, I mean, the problem is you have guitar players. That's how they play and all the other instruments just play from the chord point of view. That's the way contemporary music is. So I don't know a lot of times classically trained people, I mean, they, it takes a lot of lessons to get to be able to play all the notes.

Marie Elzinga  

And yeah, you're asking me not to play all the notes in a sense. So ego also plays into it, because hey, I'm able to do all this. And maybe I have to measures here in intro where I get to do my thing. But for most of it, and especially in some of the newer stuff, I play very little, I might even just be doing a pad or it's background stuff. In the end, the guitar is doing much more. So that can that can be a little bit of a blot.

Steve Elzinga  

And, you know, I took all my lessons long ago ago, I have to learn something new. I mean, it doesn't take long to learn, but some just just don't want to hit. 

Steve Elzinga  

Number nine music people who are more ego orientated than worship oriented and don't really understand the difference. We've had that were people They like, the attention. They like the microphone. They love singing, they like singing in front of people. And they like performing, like, you know, forming for people getting people to really get excited about what they're doing and worship, which is it's, I'm trying to not draw attention to myself. I'm only trying if I do draw attention to myself, it's to draw attention back to God, it's worship. It's not about me or the players. In fact, in heaven, we probably won't have any worship fans, because we'll all be just singing our hearts out and we won't need someone saying Okay, now Let's all sing. 

Steve Elzinga  

Number 10 worship facility problems with difficult acoustical issues. Our church was an old grocery store so the ceiling is low, they had all the ceiling tiles and sound was just dead as can be and we're trying to do things to improve that but, you know, Your Worship space. It might be semi outside and busses are going by or who knows? Those are difficult things you have to work with to. Sound system issues. Be back. It's too loud or distorted. We're going to deal deal. We're going to have three sessions on sound and what we can do about it. 

Steve Elzinga  

Number 12 the sound board operator problems. I mean, you guys practice real hard, but

Marie Elzinga  

oh, we're totally dependent on whoever's behind the board because they can make us sound good, or they can make us sound really, really horrible. Yeah.

Steve Elzinga  

And in relying on the sound operator for the guitar solo, and he, he's like three seconds late and someone's mic isn't. You know, so if, you know maybe a sound person has been doing it a long time in your church and maybe their ears are gone. We're gonna have a whole session on that too. What are the big major problems, what we can do about it? 

Steve Elzinga  

13 leadership issues is like is the worship leader in charge is the sound person in charge is the excellent guitar player in charge. And if you're if you're the worship leader don't come in and take charge, someone else will want to do it. So those are a lot of the the issues. But if you don't have a team, you got to somehow go out and get a team. So why is it necessary to recruit a team of worship players? In the past, we only needed one organist and one song later with the hymns. It was like,

Marie Elzinga  

there wasn't even a song.

Steve Elzinga  

Yeah, you just played and the organist played every single note the soprano the the melody, the Alto, the tenor of the bass and was like, here we go. They did a little introduction, and in off you went, but what's changed

Marie Elzinga  

With the contemporary way you try and involve somebody, usually on a keyboard, someone on a guitar. That's the bare minimum. And then there's someone that's singing with that, hopefully some harmonies. So the bare minimum now is the song leader, the person leading the melody at least, and someone providing accompaniment, that's the bare minimum.

Steve Elzinga  

So there's there's more music people that want to use their gifts, more instruments would like to play and see of all these people and now you know, it, the single act, someone could just go and practice the organist good practice on their own comment and just do it. But now you have a team of people like, like a sport and, you know, you have to practice or it's gonna be total chaos.

Marie Elzinga  

And the more people involved, the more exponentially it gets involved. Yeah, it gets more complicated. So the more people involved, the more practice is actually needed,

Steve Elzinga  

yeah, you think maybe less because you have more people involved to carry the load, but it really becomes more. Some of the benefits, more people using their gifts, rather than just one person. Now we have a bunch of people, more enthusiasm in a group, you know, one person practicing all by themselves, as you know, but here with a group, there's a group dynamic thing that happens. There's something to work towards, hey, we have to put this together and what partner you're gonna do, and there's more pieces to figure out, which is more complicated, more work. But on the other hand, it's more rewarding, and it's really cool. When it works out. More people really care about how the praise and worship goes.

Marie Elzinga  

Yes, more ownership.

Steve Elzinga  

Yeah, so we have so many singers and so many players and whether they're on for today, they care about the whole worship program and they're singing their hearts out even though they're not up front. Well, where do you begin in your recruitment? Again, the way you know, where do you start? Well, you start on the inside, I think you start with who you have coming to your church. If you have a few talented people then just start with them. We, you know, when we came to the present church, they had a lot of issues, a lot of problems, the church had thrived and had gone downhill. And they had this, everybody participate, and it was just mass chaos. And so remember, we came in and we said, you know, let's just start with a few people and get that well organized, and then expand from there. So we sort of made one little team out of all of it. And how did that go?

Marie Elzinga  

Or not good well, at all? Yeah, there were hurt feelings by that because hey, I used to be on stage and I got some of my self importance from that. And it was a way that I could serve possibly, and now all of a sudden, you're telling me that I can't and it was hard to convince them that no, we just want to try this for a while and then hopefully we'll expand and include more people, hopefully you in the future, but

Steve Elzinga  

it's hard, but I think what helps in all of that is to say, temporary. Right now we're doing renovation at our church and I picked out a color that's a little, you know, for some people, they're like, oh, okay, they can't see the whole vision, you know, like, I can see it. And one person called me and, you know, it was explaining their concerns. And so and I said, You know what, this is just temporary. We're just gonna, we're just going to do this. And if it turns out poorly, I will repaint the whole thing is just temporary. In other words, just just try it. And we'll see. And if it doesn't work, we can always switch things in. You know, I think, I think it kind of helped. 

Steve Elzinga  

Number two, get the farm team going. Okay. We talked about that another time. session that you have to get, you know, get get people learning the guitar learning apart. Have a singing class, start, start developing the talent that you have. We had a guitar class once we had 20 people take the class. And then two months later, we had that group of 20 lead the singing on Sunday morning. So we had 20 guitars, some of them learned well, some of them didn't. But all together, it went really well. Do acquire. You know, you can teach people you can find out if they're disciplined enough to come to the choir practices. 

Steve Elzinga  

You can hear them saying you can teach them a few parts. See who can learn see who can't you know. Another crazy idea I had is do karaoke night. I had I was on a Guatemala mission trip and we had karaoke night and, you know, some people from our church. Were there. I heard some people sing that I've never heard sing before. And some of them did really horribly. But some of them did surprisingly well. And I could think, wow, you know, a little bit of help, and that person probably could be a worship leader. So, I guess start creating music and music things. And then you can kind of Listen, I mean, sometimes you're sitting next to someone, you go, Hey, they got a nice voice. And then you invite them, maybe to a practice. So that's where you start. 

Steve Elzinga  

You start on the inside. And let's say you don't have much talent on the inside or you're, you've exhausted that and you're working on it, but it's, you know, it takes a while to develop. You might consider going to the outside, ask a bigger church, if they have some talent to help you. You're struggling along let's say you're just a new church or you're a smaller church and you just, you know, these big churches have all kinds of people that are just sitting on the bench with their talents that they have, they have gifts and abilities but they have no Where to go with them. And if you ask them to help, they might just jump on it. Or go to the local music store and ask for help.

Marie Elzinga  

Yep, we did that. That one of our church plants,

Steve Elzinga  

yeah. 

Marie Elzinga  

We didn't have enough people that were helping us or could carry over the parts and we could really use the help at that time. And the local music store guy was an excellent guitarist. Yeah. Is a Christian as well, which helped. Yeah, but it hasn't always been that case. We have had guitar help from someone that really wasn't anything. You know, it wasn't he was anti christian or anything but when we asked him to help out he came and he's now a worship leader full time and does a beautiful job.

Steve Elzinga  

Number three, check out the local talent in the community and ask for their help. You might go to places where local people are playing if you see a guitar player playing Afterwards you could often ask him Hey, what are you doing on Sundays right?

Marie Elzinga  

The coffee shop local

Steve Elzinga  

coffee shop places or you know asking around well what do you look for if you're out there looking for people to be in your worship? What kinds of people do you look look for? First of all, look for those that have more musical talent than what you have inside your church right? If you have a good drummer in church then use that if you have a good singer, use that but if you don't you want someone that's you know, at least talented to start with. 

Steve Elzinga  

Number two, those who have a walk with God I mean, if they have a walk with God, especially worship singers, you want people that know God and love God saying to people, hey, let's sing no to God. Those who are interested in a walk with God, okay, maybe they don't have a walk with God but they're interested. And then finally, those who are not sure about Christianity, this Where it's different and that the guy you talked about, we had moved to Vancouver, and we're going to plant a church and it was just Marie and I, so we have a band of two. And I was, you know, I can play the guitar, but I'm not, you know, outrageously excellent at it. And there was a Christian, someone that we knew that was a Christian that lived like, two blocks away from us. And I met them and they knew we were planting a church. And they came to me and said, Hey, our neighbor across the street is an excellent, excellent guitar player, but they don't go to church, but they should. So they told me the person's address. And so I walked over there and knocked on his door. And he opened the door. I had never had seen him he had never seen me and I said, I'm your neighbor said that you play the guitar. And I'm interested in guitar players. 

Steve Elzinga  

So he invited me in. And he sing and, and then I said, you know, we're starting. We're having a Grand Opening service in six weeks, and it would be really cool if you could play with us. You know, we really need the help. And so we said, okay, so we had our grand opening service he played the guitar went really, really, really well. And after the service, I said, Wow, this was awesome. We're meeting next week to and, you know, could you and he said, Yeah, okay, yeah, I'll play next week. So he came, he played the next week. And after that, I said, we're meeting next week too, and he think and little by little by little, he became a guitar player. Now. He was a Christian. And yet he's playing in a Christian worship band. I wouldn't ask a non Christian or someone who isn't sure about the whole thing to lead the singing.

Marie Elzinga  

Right?

Steve Elzinga  

You know that. That is like worship, and I'd be putting him in an awkward position by saying I want you to sing songs you don't yet believe. But he's just playing the guitar and he's hearing the word And so I, you know, you're gonna have to make that judgment for yourself. But like Marie said, that person, you know, became a part of the band. And then when we left that church to go do other things, he's the one that took it over. And he's still the one that's in charge and their music is awesome. They're just building a $4 million building for all these years. And so in his family, you know, walking with God, I mean, he

Marie Elzinga  

definitely was like gods and he was brought into our path.

Steve Elzinga  

Yes.

Marie Elzinga  

I'm not sure that that always happens. Yeah. Evaluate. He was an incredibly humble person is Yeah. And was just willing to do whatever. Yes. So so

Steve Elzinga  

you have to you know, you have to balance those kinds of things. And and hopefully if someone does come on board they do girl in the Lord. Well, how to have that potential worship team members on an ongoing basis, you know, how do you Deal with who, you know, people want to be on the team or, you know, you want to ask someone to I mean, what do you do? And I think there's a few things that would help in terms of, you know, finding and deciding who can be on the worship team. And one of them is to have some kind of criteria in place. If someone just comes up and says, I want to be on the worship team, and you have nothing to say, but okay, or no, you have to say, Well, there are some requirements. And here's a few that you might put in place, participated in choir, you know, if you have a choir, I mean, we have a choir what, one

Marie Elzinga  

couple times a year, Christmas, Easter, that sort of thing. Yes, special occasions.

Steve Elzinga  

If the person isn't humble enough or willing to just put the time into that, then it's like, well, so you can say to them, Oh, you want to be on the worship team? Fine. But we what we do is we have spirit person participate in the choir first. Or can they sing parts? I mean, you you You don't have to make that the requirement, but if you do, it really eliminates a lot of people that can't sing, because if you can sing parts generally you can you can carry a tune. A regular church attender. You know, especially for singers. We have some people now to that, you know, we were just kind of noticing that they're more regular church at church, when they have to sing, and when they not up front, sometimes they're not and it's like, you know, what kind of leadership is that?

Marie Elzinga  

Right and it makes it difficult just from the practical standpoint of you don't know our songs well enough to lead them right. So and they might be excellent. I know one of our people. He is awesome. He is great. And he has got the great attitude. He has everything that you want in one of your worship leaders. That is also very involved with his own band, which goes around To churches? Well, it's not working so well because he really doesn't know our songs that well. So then when it's our Sunday for him to sing, I'm spending lots of practice time saying, no, that's not quite how it goes.

Steve Elzinga  

So it just feel like you're a part of the team, right? A d willing to sit in on a few practices.

Marie Elzinga  

Right. One of our requirements is if you're interested in let's say, you're a new attender. First of all, you need to know what our church is about. And have to have a commitment to that we are a people we're a body. Do you get what we're about? And then are you humble enough to just come to practices for at least six weeks, and see how our practices go and see how you fit into just that smaller team?

Steve Elzinga  

audition, so you know, eventually you want to sit down with them? do an interview? Yep.

Marie Elzinga  

To do a one on one just to conversation. Who are you? What kind If we get along as people,

Steve Elzinga  

why did you come to this church? Why do you care about our music thing? Yeah. Yeah. B have them sing or play a song they know.

Marie Elzinga  

Yeah. Just to see what where are they at? Can they hold pitchs of a melody? And then if I sing parts with them, can they hold their part as well? Or if I sing the melody, can they do a part to just get an idea? And that's just for the singers. It's not for the instrumentalists 

Steve Elzinga  

trial period.

Marie Elzinga  

Yep, that's that six weeks, I was talking about

Steve Elzinga  

practice for a while and a few services. There may be a little evaluation, you know, is working now.

Marie Elzinga  

And that can even be in conjunction with the rest of the worship team that already exists. Do you feel like we as a body could get along with this person? There has to be that comfort with each other to it's a very trust based group 

Steve Elzinga  

right? So how do you how do you say no?

Marie Elzinga  

Saying no is like the worst, worst thing ever? And I try not to say no. If, okay, if there is some way that they can help out. I want to say yes. 

Steve Elzinga  

Okay, what do you mean some way?

Marie Elzinga  

Well, if they can hold a melody, okay, if they, I'm just talking for the singers. Yeah. But if they can stay on pitch I can probably use you if you are committed, and you're willing to work out what you're doing.

Steve Elzinga  

Okay, so I'm a guitar player, and I'm not really that good. So what how do you say no, or how do you let nature take its course or

Marie Elzinga  

quite often and I've had that before with guitar players, let's say. They see the quality that already exists in usually they'll say, I'm not willing to work that hard. I see that person who puts in that much time and I don't have that much time to give or not willing to.

Steve Elzinga  

Okay, here's the person that, you know, in the United States, we have this thing called American Idol and people try out and some of them can't sing at all. I mean, it's just like, I mean, you, you know, you could I suppose you could put them on the team and then tell them if the sound person to turn their volume up, but right that feels. Yeah, so how do you, you know,

Marie Elzinga  

and you're not really helping the person then either How are they to?

Steve Elzinga  

So what I've seen you do in the past is if they maybe have some potential, it's like, well, you know, here's the reality, you're not holding your own pitch here, you're, you know, it's, you know, I'm willing to give you a few lessons to see if we can overcome some of that or your your voice is really pinched and we can work on that. Or, you know, how about but how about the person that just they have this inflated view of people have told me I have a great voice and I would be a great worship leader and they they just simply do not.

Marie Elzinga  

Alright, We actually had one lady who that was exactly the situation. I felt horrible because, I mean, she was worship. We worship him when she was singing. Yeah. So she looked great up there. But she was so distracting to the rest of the team that they were having a hard time staying on pitch with her. So I did have to sit her down and break her heart.

Steve Elzinga  

Yeah. Yeah, one way I remember I

Marie Elzinga  

did also offer her voice lessons and spent hours and hours with her in lessons.

Steve Elzinga  

Remember one that where, you know we take them singing the whole band singing but just we could isolate their one voice. And I just had him listen. Yeah, just you know, this is this is what you sound like. Yeah. And when he listened to it, he's like, okay, cuz he wanted to sing solos. He wasn't getting the, the place that he I mean, he was singing with the worship team, but he wanted more. And so when he listened to himself, he looked at me and said, so I'm just like, To be on the team at all. And I said maybe, and then he and then he was okay. So it's hard, because there's egos involved. And, and some people have a low view of their abilities. 

Steve Elzinga  

And so you're trying to encourage them, and you give them roles and you ask them to sing, maybe a loan for something a little solo, a little part or something. And then you got the person that has the inflated view. And they see that and they go, Well, how come I didn't get asked to sing that? And then you know, and so you have people that think too highly of themselves and people that don't, and as you're helping one, the other one gets jealous. And so there's jealousy and the egos and who gets what? And then you have some people who no matter how much energy you give them and how much you're using the solo and the microphone and everything, and you lift them up and give them opportunity. It's never enough, right? They want more. They just sing a solo last week and they want to sing it this week and They don't see that no one else is really stepping, you know, they're they're taking all the spots. And it's just, you know, you're dealing with

Marie Elzinga  

lots of ego

Steve Elzinga  

and emotions. So in some ways you're like a den mother trying to, you know, rein in the kids. It's just like a mom with the kids. And this one has this personality and you're trying to make a team and I guess it always comes back to that, look, you know, they have to constantly remind the team that we're here to worship, we're not here about us, we're here to help people sing in heaven, we won't exist because everyone will be singing. So that is the goal with all that we do.