Recently I heard the story of a lady who worked as a volunteer in a church.  She had the keys to the kitchen.  She was the “kitchen master” you might say.  She would offer to prepare food for many church events and the kitchen was hers.

It came time for God to take her home.  As the people were gathered for the funeral, they went downstairs to enjoy refreshments and people wondered where all of the refreshements were.  After several minutes of wondering, someone finally said, “Well, this lady had the keys to the kitchen and she always provided the food.”  The people gathered realized they would need to prepare their own food.  There was only one problem.

The kitchen was locked.

My Own Journey

I used to think I understood music and worship ministry.  What I’m coming to realize more and more is that I understand music and worship technicalities. I can usually tell if a song’s going to work for our congregation, I can lead a rehearsal, I can teach someone how to vamp – blah, blah, blah.  But what I’m realizing that I absolutely need to understand is music and worship ministry.  As in – time, and a lot of it.  Time to invest in people and develop and disciple new leaders.  Time to invest in eternally significant things, not just picking a song that will be a hit for a while and we might forget in a year.

Do You Build Worship Teams, or Worship Ministry Teams?

We’re all familiar with worship teams – in fact, we probably implement them every week.  They look like this:

• Worship Leader (someone who might sing and play and instrument such as guitar or piano)
• Guitar player
• Keyboard player
• Bass player
• Drummer / percussionist
• Singers

The worship leader leads these teams, leads the congregation in worship, leads rehearsals, teaches these teams how to play together, etc.  But what happens if the worship leader dies “with the keys to the kitchen” so to speak?  The team is now left on there on trying to figure out how to lead the team, the congregation, rehearsals and more.  What we need are worship ministry teams that look like this:

• Someone in a leadership role who is mentoring people in music and worship ministry
• Multiple worship leaders who lead the congregation, teams and rehearsals.
• Creative teams to help plan worship services and pick music.
• People who are passionate about connecting people into music and worship ministry.
• People who enjoy administration and can schedule teams, input important records, etc.

Now what happens?  No one person carries the keys.  The team is thriving and continues to thrive if someone moves on.

My Mistakes – My Goal

I am guilty as charged of falling into the trap of being the “keymaster.”  Are you?  What can we do to make worship ministry teams and not just worship teams?  Would you join me in taking the time to invest in the servants in your church to build a thriving ministry, not just a group of people who rehearses and leads music during services?