Worship, Serve, Lead: 3 Key Tasks of a Worship Team Member

I like to tell our worship team members to remember three main tasks as they’re fulfilling their role: worship, serve, and lead. These three simple words have really helped me to frame our job in a way that reminds me of its breadth and depth, as well as its highest priorities. These thoughts should apply to every member of the team: from musicians, to technicians and everywhere in between.

1. WORSHIP

Before we had an instrument, a microphone, or a role in the service— whether we have a soundboard and a stage or no one can see or hear us at all, we’re all worshipers first. We are called to worship in every circumstance as adopted children of the Living God, through the work of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us never forget that truth.

As we take up our various roles in supporting the church in gathered worship, we must seek to find our greatest joy in personally knowing and glorifying our God. We need to approach any moment or task with that goal in mind. If we skip over our own personal worship, if we place our identity in anything other than the spiritual adoption that we have received in Christ, if we have as our ultimate goal anything other than “seeing and savoring Jesus”¹, then we will be leading people in a game of smoke and mirrors: a broken ritual of fake smiles and empty words.

Our first, all-encompassing task as worship team members is to model faithful worship. As we cultivate lives of repentant trust, as we seek to be deeply satisfied in God, as we long to honor Him with our lives as well as our words, God will be most glorified in us.

2. SERVE

Though this should be an obvious aspect of any leadership in the church, it can easily be overlooked when we find ourselves in the trenches. It can be all too easy to get caught up in a sweaty defense of our own taste preferences or leadership styles instead of humbly seeking the best for our congregation.

Jesus came as a servant-leader, seeking our good in the glory of God— even at the price of his own humiliation and pain. If we keep His example in mind, we will be able to lead humbly and not cling too tightly to our own preferences, opinions, or need to save face. We must be willing to lay down our own rights to bring ultimate Good to others.

3. LEAD

I feel that it’s necessary to paint in this part of the picture right after “serve” — and really, right alongside it. As we are seeking to humbly serve the people of our church, we must also avoid going to the extreme of letting others’ preferences and opinions trump any of our own God-given wisdom, direction, or training. We also need to remember that we are ultimately accountable not to our congregation, but to God.

We should not become slaves to external preferences or perceived needs, but instead seek to lead our flock to go where God wants them to be, and to grow in the ways that God wants them to grow. Sometimes this won’t be an easy or comfortable place to be. But if we’re truly seeking to know God and serve His people, at some point it will be necessary to lead them into Godly change, risk, and sacrifice.

This has been just a quick run-through of three high-level tasks that I think we should keep in mind as worship team members. Feel free to let me know if you have any additional thoughts in the comment section below!

¹ John Piper