Give Your Worship Leader a Break (by Training Up Others)

The kids are out of school, the daily temps are up, and I’m looking forward to a little R&R in the summer months to come. As a worship pastor, I know the value of a Sunday break from time to time. But in my experience, it’s not truly a break if I can’t enjoy peace of mind while I’m away from ministry. This peace of mind only comes when I know my regular responsibility of leading the weekly worship service is in good hands.

As I look back on two decades of Sunday-to-Sunday ministry, I’m so thankful to the Lord for the men and women He provided for the usual and unusual seasons when I needed a break. The rightful priority we give to worship in our weekly gatherings compels us to put faithful and skilled leaders in place to lead worship. In this author’s estimation, worship leaders are a rare species. Song leaders, skilled musicians, production experts, performers, cheerleaders, and even giant-hearted servants of all sorts can be put on a stage to lead music in a church. But these are not the same as worship leaders.

Worship leaders are attention-getters, yet all their musical skill is meant to draw attention away from themselves and toward God. Though they employ art in their work, they are more curators than creators in what they do. They collect and display God’s word revealed in Christ to the church so that the church might wonder in awe at the beauty of what He has done. And everything they do must be for the benefit of others, not themselves. In this way, they take up the shepherd’s role in caring for the flock of God. They help feed, protect, guide, and nurture the sheep they lead because that work has been entrusted to them, not for their glory, but for the Lord’s.

When the time comes to give our regular week-to-week worship leaders a break, congregants will certainly notice their absence, but it need not be a detriment to the normal rhythms of gathered worship. By preparing ahead of time and training other church leaders, you can provide your worship leader (and yourself) with some peace of mind while they are away.

Identifying a Replacement Leader

When looking for a replacement leader, seek out a person who aligns with your church’s mission. Ideally, this is a committed, mature member of your church that your pastors, elders, or other leaders can vouch for. This person will be put up in front of the family as a leader, so to do that well, they need to be generally known, trusted, and respected by the family.

Likewise, find someone who not only loves and serves the church well but also loves your church’s ministry of worship. If I were looking for a babysitter, I’d first go to my friends and family, who I know love my children and can trust to care for them as I would. Do the same when you look for someone to fill the shoes of your regular worship leader. Seek out someone who already cares greatly for your people, your theology, and your vision of gathered worship.

Can They Do the Job?

Second to finding someone of character is ensuring that they can perform the job of leading worship in the service. This means you’ll want to ensure that their musical skill, either on an instrument or with their voice, is adequate to hold its own. Playing music for worship and leading in worship are not the same thing, the latter requiring a unique capacity of skill than the former. Be sure that whoever is being prepped to fill in has at least some experience in leading before throwing them into that unique role.

The best way to do this is to provide regular opportunities for them to stretch their technical and leadership skills alongside your current worship leader. This is the apprentice model, and it still works! Train up new leaders by having them lead songs from time to time or even entire services, all while under the active tutelage of your worship leader. This is less about creating back-ups than it is about creating new leaders. After all, the church should not be gathering to hear a performing artist. Therefore, every new leader should simply be carrying on the tradition of their forebears – faithful gospel ministry focused solely on the person and work of Christ, not the personality of the current leader.

Lord willing, you have one or more people in your church who fit this bill. They are committed, capable, and equipped to step in to lead, and you know this because you’ve seen them do it! But don’t simply hand them the keys and wish them good luck.

Work Ahead of Time

Consider all the various moving parts involved in putting on a worship service: song selection, volunteer scheduling (and last-minute rescheduling!), stage prep, lighting design, lyrics, sermon note presentations, live stream programming, song arrangements, rehearsals, and a host of liturgical elements like prayers, readings, and worship transitions between each element of the service. The church expects the full-time worship leader to handle this load each week, but it’s unreasonable to saddle your sub with all these responsibilities.

Work hard ahead of time to have as much of the leg work done already so that your volunteer substitute can focus on the immediate needs of the service, namely leading the band and the congregation in song. You can do this by making sure the big picture items are prepared beforehand by your current worship leader and then dividing up the rest of the technical and administrative workload as needed amongst other church staff or volunteers. Many hands make light work! There’s very little reason to force your sub to be the host, cook, waiter, and busboy.

The Debrief

Lastly, when your worship leader returns rested and revitalized from their time away, be sure to have them follow up with their substitute and debrief the worship service. It’s a healthy practice to discuss what went well or what could have been handled differently so that young leaders develop healthy habits, muscle memory, and maybe even some thick skin when necessary. Our perception of how things went and their perception of how things went might be wildly different. Sometimes your new leader is too tough on themselves for their performance, when they met all the right marks. Other times, we might have to pastorally guide a naïve and prideful heart to fashion a healthy future leader.

In our efforts to care well for our worship leaders, we receive this opportunity to build up new ones. Though this requires some extra intentionality and diligence, it pays off in a ministry that showcases the high value of worship and pastoral care for the church. Start the process now if you have not done so already. Be on the lookout for future leaders who are well-prepared to step into the spaces left by a worship leader needing a much-deserved break.

©2024 Jon Gilmore. Used with permission.