Conferences and Coaches

A pastor - who was also an author - once joked that the subtitle to every book, if it were honest should read: ‘How to be more like me.’ Truthfully, the same could be said of most conferences. And perhaps that is the point? We admire what people do, and are curious about how and why they do things in certain ways. For worship leaders, I believe there can be an amazing benefit to attending worship conferences, like observing and learning from the wisdom and experience of people who have worked, lived, learned, and led in different contexts. Ministry can feel isolating, so just being in a room with other people who do what you do can be a reminder that you are not in this alone. Worship conferences can grow strength and courage for you to persevere in leading and serving God’s people well. And there is even the opportunity to grow relationships and camaraderie that outlast the event. I have attended several worship conferences over the years and have loved and benefitted from my time. But for me, I have often been unsettled about a disconnect I experience at conferences - the aspiration verse my reality. When I have the opportunity to attend a worship conference and learn from the ‘best of the best,’ it is so easy to compare and contrast myself, my team, and my church over and against what I am seeing and learning at a conference. I have to constantly guard my heart as to not allow bitterness, resentment, or discontent to take root. Truthfully, we need to guard our hearts against these things at all times. And we can just as easily compare ourselves over and against those we view as less capable and get ourselves in the same vicious cycle of pride and vain conceit.

I believe there is a way to be trained and equipped as a worship leader, with your team, and for you church in a way that leaves you feeling more encouraged about where you are and where the team is headed. I believe that way is hiring a coach.

When I was serving in a previous church, I brought in a worship leader friend of mine to coach me, our leaders, and our team. It was enormously helpful in at least three ways:

An outside perspective. It is easy to overlook or miss people, problems, talent, and opportunity simply because of our proximity to our work, relationships, and ministry. A coach can make observations from their experience and background that bring a new perspective to your specific context.

Personally crafted. When I brought in my friend, Shelly, to coach one of the teams I led, I did so specifically because she was a female worship leader who did not lead from an instrument. Many of the worship leaders I was working with at the time were female who did not lead from instruments. I wanted our worship leaders and team to benefit from Shelly’s knowledge and expertise, but I too wanted to know how I could encourage and equip these worship leaders whose experience of leading would be different from my own. This is a massive benefit to hiring a coach rather than attending a conference. Because a good coach can craft training and development that is specific for you, your team, and your church.

Questions. Many conferences will have the opportunity for a time of Q&A. The benefit of questions with a coach is the context and relationship. A coach will be more familiar with you, your team, and your church. They will have a better understanding of the skills, gifts, and struggles you are trying to navigate and will be able to ask you questions to personally craft training and offer their outside perspective. You too will have the benefit of more than a few brief moments for questions, and hoping for a helpful response.

So should you take your team to a conference or should you hire a coach? The answer is yes. There are benefits to both. But if you are looking for a place where you can ask as many questions as you like, have a development plan crafted specifically for you, your team, and your church, and have the observations of someone outside of your context, a coach is the way to go.

If you’d like to explore what coaching with me would look like, you can sign up for a free 30-minute assessment call here.

The Holy Spirit And Leading

Last week I wrote about listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our preparation. That being attentive to the Holy Spirit and leading spontaneously and speaking, praying, and communicating extemporaneously does not necessarily equate to being led by the Holy Spirit - that we can in fact be led by the Spirit in our preparation. But what about the corporate gathering? What does it look like to be led by the Spirit there?

It still looks like prayer. Union with Christ, communication with the Holy Spirit. Asking Him, seeking Him, inviting Him to do what only He can do - lead people to Jesus, convict people of sin, comfort people in their affliction, transform hearts and lives. For me, I will often leave more space in between verses, or a chorus, or in between songs as I ask the Spirit to speak to me, and I press in to hear Him.

It looks like observation. It can be tempting when we are leading worship to simply close our eyes and get lost in our own private worship world. But we are there to serve people by leading them in song. As you listen to the voice of the Spirit, listen to the voice of the people - watch them, pray for them, let their response or lack thereof shape the way that you communicate and lead. Not so much in a ‘give the people what they want,’ kind of way - but as a shepherd, leading and guiding them to see and respond to the Holy Spirit.

It looks like communication with your team and the congregation. In rehearsal practice and communicate to your team the moments where you may do something different than planned. I heard Charlie Hall one time talk about how preparing for moments of spontaneity with his team was like opening a window - everyone knew where those window moments would be in the song or the setlist, and they would approach together, open the window, see if the Spirit was using that opportunity to lead them in a direction different than they had planned. I have often found it helpful to communicate to the team something along the lines of ‘when we get to this point of the song, I think we will either go here or here…’. Maybe that’s repeating something we have already sung, maybe that is tagging something from another song. But communicating prior to being in the moment so that your band can be aware, and know how you’d like them to respond is important. Likewise, we must communicate with the person running lyrics - having options ready, and preparing them for where things may change, and any kind of verbal cues you may give to help them lead with you rather than trying to catch you. And finally, we must communicate with the congregation. Leading them through, rather than running out ahead and asking them to try and keep up. Verbal cues, inviting them to sing with you, inviting them to lean into the voice of the Spirit together.

We can be Holy Spirit-led in our preparation and in our leadership. But we can be neither if we are not Holy Spirit-led in our daily lives.