Blog | Volunteer Church Musicians: Quantity vs. Reliability
Volunteer Church Musicians: Quantity vs. Reliability
Churches need volunteers to operate, and building a strong volunteer culture at your church can help drastically with improving the efficiency of Sunday morning preparation, smoothing out rough edges in production, and lastly (and most importantly) advancing the gospel to unbelievers.
Volunteer management is one of the most crucial responsibilities of being a worship leader. Not only do you need to recruit people – you need to recruit talented musicians who can create an engaging worship environment for your congregation. And unfortunately, as you have probably already experienced, volunteers aren’t always reliable.
Volunteer Church Musicians: Quantity vs. Reliability
Almost every church is in need of additional volunteers, and worship ministries are no exception. If you are trying to recruit additional volunteers to join the worship team, here are a few things to keep in mind:
1) More Doesn’t Equate to “Better”
A lot of worship leaders believe that they need more volunteers to stabilize their ministry and its participants, but that’s not always the case. In fact, if you have a lot of volunteers but the standard of reliability and commitment is low, you can end up with a bystander effect where everyone assumes another will fix the problem.
Having more volunteers doesn’t necessarily grow the ministry in a good way. It certainly can if the right volunteers are recruited and led in the right way, but growing the number of volunteers in a ministry shouldn’t always be the first focus. Pour your time into what you currently have – leading volunteers to be the best version of themselves and giving them an opportunity to display their strengths.
2) Instilling Reliability in Your Volunteers
Not all volunteers will hold the same standard of reliability at your church. Their age, involvement at the church, connectedness with the team, and many other factors will all play a role in how committed they are.
It’s smart to focus on delegating responsibility to volunteers in your ministry. Giving volunteers work that requires trust on your part is a great way to begin building a culture of volunteer reliability.
Meet regularly with your volunteers – whether it’s one on one or in a group setting through team meetings. If a volunteer feels their connection and commitment to you and the ministry is solely based on their Sunday-morning involvement, they will be significantly less committed to the worship team. Meet with and establish a bond with them, helping each of them recognize how important they are to you and the ministry.
3) Lead by Example
Your actions as a leader will directly affect everyone else’s behavior. Level of musical preparedness at rehearsal, whether gear and the sound system are setup before everyone gets to rehearsal, what time you show up, etc. – they are subtle behaviors that can have drastic implications on your volunteer culture.
If you want your volunteers to be reliable, demonstrate it in everything you do. Stepping up your game on preparedness and reliability can completely change your worship team environment and behavior.
Wrapping It Up
Having more musicians doesn’t mean your worship team will be any more reliable. Instead, focus on what you currently have. Shepherd and lead your team members through example. Delegate responsibility to trusted volunteers and allow them to step into places of leadership through their own strengths. Instilling reliability in volunteers takes time, but is absolutely essential if you want to build a strong worship team.
About the Author
Chris Fleming is a professional musician from Minneapolis, MN who has played with artists such as TAYA, Big Daddy Weave, and Jason Gray. He is actively involved with the worship music scene and has contributed as a drummer, music director, song writer, and producer for various worship artists and churches locally and nationally. Chris is the Motion Designer at Motion Worship, helping to create motion background collections and countdowns for our subscribers.