Collegiate Collective

How do you raise up new worship leaders and band members and prepare them to lead in ministry? In this roundtable three worship leaders talk through different approaches to bringing in new band members, conducting auditions, facilitating training, and releasing to leadership.

Participants:

• Josh Martin (Resonate Church – Pullman, WA)
• Luis Cuevas (Resonate Church – Ellensburg, Wa)
• Kyle Winters (H2O Church – Columbus, OH)

Key Points:

• Create an environment that is more inviting than an audition, and helps to see potential worship leaders and band members in an environment that they are comfortable in. Jam sessions lend themselves to a bit of chaos due to the amount of people present, but being able to see so many at one time is highly beneficial.
• Auditions have merits as well, one of which is allowing you to focus on each person individually. 
• One thing that is very effective is to use current band members to find new members in their musical area. Saying to a drummer “you’re in charge of finding new drummers” helps by empowering each musician to have a sense of ownership, and encouraging them to pour into the other younger musicians.
• How do you keep excellence high? Skills vs Character. Where is the student that has both? To grow character and competency, band members need to be involved in the life of the Church, and held accountable to those commitments that they make.

Questions to consider:

• What kind of culture are you facilitating within your worship band? How does that affect your ability to raise up new members?
• When you look at the growth patterns of your band members, are they growing in competence and character?
• What is one thing you could do today to help find more potential musicians?