Over the years I’ve sung and worship led at a number of conferences, as well as hosting them. Having been under different styles of leadership and learning from my own experience I thought I’d offer you my top 10 tips to overseeing a worship team at a conference (part 1) and also how to best worship lead in a conference (part 2 – stay tuned!).
How can we best facilitate a worship team for a conference?
- Invite your team members to be involved well ahead of time:
- Send out save the dates to those you’d really like involved, send a follow up email/text and begin to lock a team into a roster well before locking in other music related details.
- Where possible have well accomplished musicians and leaders, but also make room for newbies if they are confident and reliable.
- Share the load across various team members – don’t always rely on the same crew for every component of worship. If they serve week in, week out it might be nice to offer them a session to sit and be refreshed.
- As the leader share the load of leading moments:
- Unless there is really no one else this one is really important. You can’t do it all and it’s an awesome opportunity to empower your team members and upcoming worship leaders to gain experience in a different setting.
- You might like to have live background music on arrival or during mingle or meal times throughout your conference. This is great practice for team members who would like to be involved but may not be fully ready for the platform in a conference capacity.
- Pick songs majority of the people attending will be familiar with:
- Be sensitive to who might be attending – if your attendee’s are intergenerational include songs that will include them in the journey.
- If it’s your church – pick what they’re familiar with stick to the songs you might already do or want to revisit or perhaps even introduce. If it’s multi-church – pick what the majority know, and throwing in something people may not have sung in a while can be really unifying. It might even be worth hitting up a few of the senior pastors of the churches attending and find out what they are singing in their community to get a better idea of what is current for them. What is current for you might not be for them.
- Introduce one new song as an anthem:
- Check in with the event organiser, and see if there is a song that keeps in with the theme or big take away of your conference/key note speaker.
- Be conscious to choose congregational songs which enable people lyrically to really connect with the heart of God, and don’t forget always point them to Jesus.
- Communicate with all team members – even if it seems insignificant:
- Provide them with all the resources needed for the conference.
- Send charts, recordings of the versions you prefer and any notes for transitions or style that need to be considered – i.e. if you’re doing an acoustic set or items.
- Setlist options for worship leaders to choose from.
- Have a variety of songs as backup options for extra ministry time or unexpected moments you need music:
- There is nothing worse than doing the same song or setlist because you haven’t been organised! Have a good 5-6 songs you can choose from to accomodate.
- Pick enough songs to spread over your conference. 1-2 day conference I’d pick anywhere from 10-15 songs – you might only need 8 but if there’s a segment you aren’t expecting it’s better to be prepared. 3-5 day conference you will have a much larger pool of songs, it could be anywhere from 15-25 songs. Some might only use the tags or bridge/chorus combo. But again better to over cater!
- Have a rehearsal day prior to the conference:
- Whilst having rehearsals on the day or before sessions is going to be helpful and necessary, having a day in the lead up or the day set aside prior to your conference beginning and being able to utilise the space you will be in, gather everyone who will be involved and set them up for a win.
- Rehearse the songs you know you are going to do across the conference and any that might have parts that need concentrating on.
- Backing vocals will need some space to make sure they’re on the same page. It might be worth having vocals work through parts in a different room and then combine together with the band later on.
- Honour the tech crew:
- Stick to your allocated times so they can have technical run throughs and troubleshoot any issues.
- Be mindful sound checks are not rehearsals, allow time for that prior to getting into your setlist.
- Communicate your needs well ahead of time – what gear do you need, if you’ll need in ears, types of mics and expectations.
- On the day try and keep your foldback/inear changes to a minimum, be considerate not to overload your sound guy with changes constantly.
- An effective leader is an effective communicator:
- Communicate your expectation of punctuality, well rehearsed and anything else to your team ahead of time. And reiterate when you arrive.
- Be sure to tell everyone when and where they need to be whilst allowing for a bit of flex on the day, so there’s no confusion and everyone is on the same page. For example, if you say join us after breakfast make it clear what time you want them there so there’s no confusion.
- Pray together in the lead up, during and after:
- Always keep the main thing the main thing! If God isn’t apart of your process as a team you may have missed the point!
- Be worshipping together in your rehearsal, and encourage your team to worship in the lead up so you can build upon that foundation when your attendees join in corporate worship sessions.
I pray whatever conference or gathering you might be facilitating and leading God will work in and through you! And on the day, just encourage your team to have fun and love Him.
until next time… xox