Do you ever wonder how to make your worship team members more passionate on Sunday's? Have you ever been disappointed by the lack of ardor you see on your worship team? I know I have before and this problem used to drive me nuts. I would spend half my time on Sunday's trying to inspire zeal into my team only to get a minimal increase out of them.
DO THE SPIRITUAL MATH WITH ME:
Pray up a storm early on Sunday mornings
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Lead the prayer before service sound check
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Lead the pre-service team prayer
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Feed them Bible verses through out the day
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??? 5% TEAM PASSION INCREASE ???
This does not look like a working formula. Most of the time I did this, I was left drained. I knew there had to be a better way to inspire the worship team, so after being fed up with my poor results, I did some research. Here's what I found: Passionate Worshipers are formed through a Passionate Prayer life.
“ …The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
— James 5:16
That's it! The secret is right there. It's not cool lights or amazing new technology that will amp up your team. It's heart-felt prayer. You want a team that ministers effectively and passionately? Teach them to pray passionately!!
For me, I realized that I needed to do a better job of teaching my team members about adding their supply of faith & prayer to the service. It was just as important for them to speak out declarations of what the service will be, rather than the worship leader leading the prayer time. My job is to be a facilitator of God's presence, not a dictator.
Naturally there were some awkward moments in our pre-service prayer time when we made this shift. Lot's of quiet moments where I could hear people thinking 'should I pray this out loud or not'. I had to give this some coaching, time and even teaching to help our team members realize their gift to the service.
I have found that what hinders most people when it comes to praying out loud is that they don't 'feel' like the Holy Spirit is giving them a 'Word' to pray, so they just keep to themselves. If that's you, let me help set you free by saying this - Don't wait for a 'move of God' to pray His will, become the move of God that prays His will. Speak out what you already know the Bible says.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…”
— Isaiah 61
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father”. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
— Romans 8:14-17
“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you..”
— 1 John 2:27
You will never go wrong speaking the Word of God together over every service. Always having fresh expectation for what God will do is crucial to seeing what God is doing!
Since making this course correction, I've noticed an increase of passion on stage and even team prayer times. I've also noticed that the worship team has even gotten bolder about what they're believing God for in each service. It's cool to hear and increases my faith. It may be true that these prayers were always inside of their hearts, but now that it's being articulated, it's not staying there. These heart felt prayers are becoming a reality in every service. Make no mistake, Passionate Worshipers are formed through a Passionate Prayer life.
IF YOU FIND THAT YOUR TEAM STRUGGLES IN THE AREA OF PASSION OR MAYBE YOUR TEAM ISN'T PRAYING EFFECTIVELY TOGETHER, HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO SPARK UP YOUR TEAM PRAYER TIME BEFORE SERVICE:
1. Start off with a relevant Word - giving some context for your team to focus on helps produce targeted prayer. Targeted prayer laced with the Word of God will always prove to be effective. You can never go wrong starting off with the Word.
2. Open up a time for your team members to pray for one another - As noted earlier, James 5:16 is a great scripture to anchor yourself on prayer, but did you know that the Apostle James started that thought off with the topic of confession? He fully writes "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." (James 5:16 NKJV). There's power when 2 people come in agreement on a particular issue. Maybe have a time where your team is split into groups of 2 or 3 and have them pray for each other and the service. This can creates a close sense of community & trust on your team.
3. Bring in Scriptural confessions for the entire team to speak together - I've seen this work well with our team. Speaking the Word together will increase spiritual growth. The key is to get everyone involved so making copies to give out is important.
4. Take communion & worship together - you could also invite other ministry teams in your church (youth worship team or children's worship team or production team) and have a unified prayer/worship/communion time together. Taking Communion is always a spiritual encounter and can help your team honor the sacrifice of Jesus more consistently. You know you're a true worship team when you can worship together off the platform before going on it.
5. Invite a Pastor or Church Elder to help lead in prayer - This can help bring the team closer to heart of the local church by having an elder or pastor present. This even bring's in a fresh new dynamic of prayer that's not normally around in your team.
I hope this blog has helped you to keep passionate prayer fresh on your worship team. Be encouraged knowing that you're not doing this alone, but God is for you and with you. I'd love to hear your feedback or comments on this so could you take a moment to write something below? Thanks & Stay Blessed!!
Seth Putnam
/ www.sethputnam.net / (831) 915-9359 / seth@sethputnam.net /
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