Vision, Goals & Duties:Building a Worship Ministry - Kim Gentes

Vision, Goals & Duties: Building a Worship Ministry from Scratch

A question that many of us face at some point in worship ministry is how to get started in a new situation. A new church, a new ministry or one that is currently making a change to re-start how the local community will see and implement an understanding of worship.

A Process To Find Your Local Community's Vision, Goals and Implementation

What I wanted to do to help with this is to outline a very brief sketch of a process. This process is meant to just be simple architecture for helping you and your local church leadership build your own vision, goals and implementation of what worship looks like in your community. This is made in such a way that it is flexible as a "process" to accommodate whatever your own local community is hearing from the Lord. Use this process if it helps to take you further in gaining a clearer vision, agreed upon goals and implementable "duties" that will help facilitate those goals.

"Duties" are a byproduct of goals, goals are the result of having a vision. By the time you have reached "duties" a ton of thinking and assumptions have been made that stem from more fundamental principles. For that reason, I encourage you to start by considering something that that helps you work through this kind of achievable process:

Vision --> Prayer --> Goals --> Prayer --> Duties & Practices
(Theology) (Principles) (Spiritual Formation)

In this article, I have outlined a simplified, step-by-step way of explaining this. Again, this is something that is intended to help give you a basic process for coming up with what your own vision, goals and duties could look like in your local community.

Undergirding the Process with Theology, Principles and Formation

You will notice that there is a second line below the vision/goals/duties process, which lists theology, principles and spiritual formation under each of the respective steps for using this process. These are assumptions which should be implicitly a part of the process, knowledge and lives of those involved. The importance of them is that they infuse and support the vision, goals and duties with the character and qualities of essential Christian orthodoxy. The assumption in this process is that your foundational beliefs and formational lives provide the strength of character as God leads you by His Spirit to go from vision to implementation.

Here are a few samples of how those underlying qualities may intersect with the outcomes that you may build from this process. Example:

Vision (theology) - your vision of worship in your local church may be highly informed by the Scriptural models you see in chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation. As a result you see a picture of people from all local cultures in your area finding a place in your local church worship gatherings (from the concepts found in chapter 5 regarding "every nation, tribe and tongue").
Goals (principles) - perhaps your goals are likewise informed by Jesus interaction with the woman at the well about worship in John 4, and you decide that worshiping in "spirit and truth" is an essential goal the Lord is calling our local church to.
Duties and Practices (spiritual formation) - perhaps your weekly music rehearsals with your band include a time of praying through an examen together.

Essential caveat: the examples given in each step (including those examples listed directly above) are just that- examples and samples. They are not meant to be the answers/ideas that you will use for your local congregation. They are just there to give you specifics that communicate what is meant in each section. Don't use those. Build your own vision, ideas and implementations.

Step 1- Vision

In some form, have the main pastoral leader in charge of worship, the main church pastor and the new worship leader (or whatever combination of appropriate leadership represents these roles in your church) gather together and explore what God is directing them as the vision from which their local church worship ministry should begin. This can mean letting each of the three people explain, uninterrupted for 5 minutes what their vision of worship looks like (how they see it as God has inspired them). After each of them share their vision, stop. Don't correct or try to balance one another. Take 5 minutes to just be silent and listen to God (perhaps do an examen together). Then allow the 3 people to have a conversation about what the positive points they saw in other people's visions. On a board, write out all the positive points from what people said. Take and make a column for all the positive points that all the people agree are both positive and essential. What matters most about this kind of a meeting is humility. Listening to God here requires that we hear the voice of God through the inspiration, hearts and passions of others. That we accept that we must hear God together, not in isolation. In this way, God may help speak to this group of people the vision He has for the local church. At the end of the meeting, if possible see if you can write a narrative (a 3 or 4 sentence description) that can provide a picture of what all the participants believe is the "vision" of worship God is seeking in this local church. Write that down. Consider it. Take notes or make a summary (including this narrative) of what came out of this meeting.

Sample Summary--

Vision Beliefs: We believe God wishes us to be a community of free expression in worship, fully allowing all members of our community to worship God. We believe that God desires us to be bold and expressive in thanks, humble and intimate in worship and filled with joy in His presence. We see a vision of God being present in worship and us being present to Him in adoration. We see a vision of worship focused on the importance of singing to God, not only about him.

Vision example: Jane selects songs that are inspired by God’s unction throughout the week, but she might add song(s) during the service that she (or the other pastors) sense at the time are important for the moment. She plays and sings well, with a band that sounds good, but the congregation is encouraged to display and voice their worship and adoration. The songs and music connect with the language and idioms of the people in the community. Songs of worship may be paused if someone has a word or encouragement from the Lord. Likewise, worship may lead seamlessly into prayer and ministry if the Lord prompts. Jane includes songs that sing and pray to God, not just about Him.

Step 2 - Prayer

Schedule a Goals meeting for a week after the vision meeting. Give each of the participants the summary from the Vision meeting and have them take it with them and use it as a prayer point, to think, imagine and hear the Lord on how He wishes to fulfill having the vision become a reality. Each participant could write down some of the things God brings to mind during prayer throughout the week. Bring those things to the Goals meeting.

Step 3 - Goals

In this meeting, the participants should reconnect and see if the vision narrative they wrote in the previous meeting is still representative of what the three of them agree on. If it is, then they should look at the vision and ask this question: "How does this particular vision become reality?" Another question to ask is: "What practical things are needed to make this vision a reality?" The answers to this question should deal with any ideas that one of the people brings up. Just write the ideas on a board. After going through as many ideas as possible, and writing them down, combine them into the obvious groupings of areas that make sense. What you are looking for is taking the list of all ideas and boiling them down into their most essential component parts that are required. Try to write down these core parts that will make the vision a reality. Those core things are your goals.

Sample Goals:

Spirit led song selection and worship leading.
Openness to Spirit-led congregational participation during the service.
Good musical skill in the leader and band
Song selection that, while based in Scriptural principles, fits the age, culture and languages of the community
Importance of first person language to God in songs (lyrics) and prayers.

Step 4 - Prayer

Schedule a duties and practices meeting for a week after the goals meeting. Give each of the participants the list of goals you came up with from the goals meeting and have them take it with them and use it as a prayer point, to think, imagine and hear the Lord on how He wishes to fulfill the goals in the weekly context of your local church. Each participant could write down some of the things God brings to mind during prayer throughout the week. Bring those things to the duties and practices meeting.

Step 5 - Duties and Practices

In this meeting, the participants should reconnect and see if the goals list and the vision narrative they wrote in the previous meetings is still representative of what the three of them agree on. If it is, then they should look at the goals and ask this question: "From these goals we have identified, what practical steps do we need to take?" Another question to ask is: "What do we do each week to encourage and implement the goals we have in our local church meetings?" The answers to this question should deal with any regular items that facilitate accomplishing the goals. Just write the items on a board. After going through as many items as possible, and writing them down, combine them into the obvious groupings of areas that make sense. What you are looking for is taking the list of all these practical items and boiling them down into their most essential component parts that are required. Try to write down these practical items that will make the goals become embodied activities in a church service or small group meeting each week. These things are the list of duties and/or practices that your participants can attend to for preparation and engagement before and during the gatherings.

Sample Duties and Practices:

Band practices weekly. The proficiency of the musicians must be good enough to change direction and flow seamlessly from song to song.
Musicians and vocalists must practice on their own to memorize the core repertoire so that they can do the music spontaneously without having necessarily practiced a given song for a given meeting.
Worship leader gets the songs (and any essential arrangements) to the band as soon as possible during the week, so the band members can practice.
Band members/vocalists should plan to spend time during the week preparing their parts for the songs.
Church service scheduling should include at least 30 minutes for worship in each meeting
Having an open mic at the front of the church for congregation or leaders to come to if God leads.
Songs played should often include Spanish versions or sections or entire songs to connect with the Hispanic speakers in our community
Direct, first person, intimate and “to God” language in songs.

Step 6 - Tasks: How to Do this each Week!

When you have gotten to this point of having some articulated vision, goals and practices you should be able to see that you have revealed the why and what of your local church worship ministry. This is good, but there is one important aspect that remains- how. To get your vision into action on a daily, weekly and specific gathering situation, you need people, resources and plans. This is something we are all familiar with. If you look at the list derived from Step 5, these are all things that point to practical items we must do. What you should look at now is how to get those done. Take each of the items from step 5 and explain in minimal detail how you will get those done each week or for each meeting. Each explanation should include these items:

who will do this
what resources, equipment, tools will they need to do it
when will they do this

For example, from our sample list above in Step 5, here are some tasks that match to try to implement these items.

What: Band practices weekly. How: leaders, musicians and vocalists will meet on Thursday evenings at 7pm. They will practice the intro/outros and arrangements of the songs. Band members will have already practiced their parts and be ready to play together. Vocalists will sync up their blends and parts.
What: Worship leader gets the songs to the band as soon as possible during the week. How: Leader will complete the set list (all songs with appropriate key and arrangements) in the appropriate scheduled service in the WorshipTeam.com planning system (or whatever planning system the church uses) by Tuesday morning and send out a notification so the band can know it is there and ready to use as a practice guide.
What: 30 minutes+ for worship in each meeting. How: pastoral staff will schedule and expect at least 30 minutes of worship during the service. Leader will plan songs appropriately.
What: Having an open mic at the front of the church for congregation or leaders to come to if God leads. How: sound techs will set up appropriate directional mic that can be muted/unmuted when in use and will attend mix so that it is heard when used.

Another possible thing to consider is articulating the tasks you need to help you fulfill these items in the form of worship ministry job templates. This is just a way of specifically communicating the kinds of things you need specific people to do to accomplish these tasks. An example of these kinds of templates can be found here: Worship Ministry Job Templates.

What Next?

This basic framework is meant to help you design your own articulated vision, goals and implementation (duties/tasks etc). It is missing a lot of details. It does not talk about a lot of practical things you will need, such as training, equipment and many other things. Those are things that should always flow from the need that is outlined in your vision and goals. Be careful not to simply add duties and practices to your worship ministry that have nothing to do with the vision and goals. Also, the examples given in this list are cursory samples and do not include some basic things that most churches have (such as biblical principles, reading scripture publicly, etc). Those are left to you to include and implement in your vision, goals and tasks. This guideline article also does not talk about how to recruit people into your local worship ministry, which is something that will be essential if you don't plan on doing everything by yourself (which we strongly recommend against). You should consider how to bring people into the shared service of worship ministry. One resource that may be helpful in this regard is our resource on Worship Team Auditions, which is a method you may find useful.

The point is this- this article is meant to help you organize your thoughts about worship ministry, and how to get it started in a way that both follows God's leading to you as the leader and God's direction given to your local congregation (which may come through other pastoral leaders). This is not the end. Hopefully this is a helpful start to get you going as you build the worship ministry God is calling for in your local community.

Further Resources and Help

Over the years, I've built a toolbox of help and resources from many friends and mentors who have helped me and others around the world through their helpful insights. I list some of them here as they are specifically pertinent to this topic of building a worship ministry in your local community.

To Know You More (book) by Andy Park - this is a wonderful book by a world renowned songwriter, worship leader and pastor who has personally lived through building worship ministries in many local communities. Andy is a personal friend and brilliant practitioner. No matter your level of "expertise" in being a worship leader, you can be guaranteed to learn something from this humble insights. If possible, consider reading this book at any time as you are building the local church worship ministry God is seeking in your church.

Mike O'Brien (coach and consultant) - I have known Mike for many years. He is a trusted friend, a skilled musician and brilliant trainer. Mike is not one of those "I know it all" pushy personalities who will force you into his mold. He is a mentor with a pastoral heart along with being a gifted musician, worship band leader and arranger. He will help you and your local church walk through building a worship ministry, making a transition or improving your own local church use of resources to best match the vision God has given you. Not just that, but he is deeply committed to serving the body of Christ. He loves the church. And he is intent on helping you follow God's call on your life. If you ever need a practical coach who can help you through these things, Mike is the guy. I can' t recommend him highly enough.

Dan Wilt (speaker and author) - Dan is a personal friend of many years, and is one of the world's leading voices in the "worship movement". Dan is a published author and international speaker, but more than that, he is a sincerely devoted follower of Jesus. If you need any resources in training for theology, history, spiritual formation and understanding of worship in the global and formational sense- Dan is the person you want to connect with. Any time you have the opportunity to access a book, resource or training session Dan is leading, you will not be disappointed. A brilliant and humble guy who has served the church and continues to do so.

Peace in the love of Jesus,
Kim Gentes