“I’m only a guitar participant. A keys participant. A music man…”
It’s straightforward to place ourselves in a field and “keep in our lane.” But, we frequently resist when others attempt to label us or confine us. What’s that about?
In each church the place I’ve served—when there was an official job description—it all the time ended with the dreaded strains:
It may appear extreme. However what if that’s really a name to a larger mission?
The Individuals Past the Platform
Musicians are usually introverts off stage. We like inexperienced rooms, again corridors, and quiet corners greater than crowded lobbies. However right here’s the reality: we belong among the many individuals.
Years in the past, at a ministry convention, I discovered the distinction between a stage and a platform:
If we’re actually worship leaders—not simply the vocalists, however the band, the tech crew, the entire workforce—then we’re not performers. We’re influencers.
So how will we transfer from stage to platform? From performers to individuals of affect? It begins with child steps.
Child Steps Towards Affect
Listed below are some easy, sensible methods to maneuver your workforce from musicians to ministers:
-
Forged the Imaginative and prescient.
Create a brief, memorable assertion of function. Put it on a t-shirt, a espresso mug, or a wall backstage. Say it typically. (Craig Groeschel reminds us: church leaders are CROs—Chief Reminding Officers.) -
Assign a Part.
Ask every workforce member to visually and spiritually “lead” a selected part of the congregation—entrance proper, again left, and so forth. Inform them, that’s your congregation. -
Be Current.
After a number of weeks, encourage workforce members to spend time with their assigned part earlier than or after worship. What if the worship workforce was out greeting individuals till service started, moderately than getting into from behind a curtain? -
Mannequin and Rejoice.
Share your individual tales. Rejoice wins. Affect spreads when it’s seen in motion.
Affect Builds Relationships
As your workforce engages with the congregation, each teams turn out to be extra actual to one another. When your “assigned part” asks about your position or your religion, your workforce will get to re-cast the imaginative and prescient. They’re not nameless musicians. They turn out to be approachable, trusted, and identified.
Think about the affect on a first-time visitor: they shake fingers with somebody earlier than worship begins—then see that particular person stroll as much as the platform and decide up a guitar. That second turns into a bridge.
Individuals are eager for connection. Your workforce wants relationships, and so does the congregation. When musicians turn out to be ministers, and platforms turn out to be locations of affect, the result’s actual worship—and lives modified.
Editorial Notes
This text reinforces Worship Chief Journal’s core themes of Trinitarian Worship, The Native Church, Multigenerational Engagement, and Worship as Formation. It encourages relational management, private presence, and a shift from efficiency to pastoral affect.

“I’m only a guitar participant. A keys participant. A music man…”
It’s straightforward to place ourselves in a field and “keep in our lane.” But, we frequently resist when others attempt to label us or confine us. What’s that about?
In each church the place I’ve served—when there was an official job description—it all the time ended with the dreaded strains:
It may appear extreme. However what if that’s really a name to a larger mission?
The Individuals Past the Platform
Musicians are usually introverts off stage. We like inexperienced rooms, again corridors, and quiet corners greater than crowded lobbies. However right here’s the reality: we belong among the many individuals.
Years in the past, at a ministry convention, I discovered the distinction between a stage and a platform:
If we’re actually worship leaders—not simply the vocalists, however the band, the tech crew, the entire workforce—then we’re not performers. We’re influencers.
So how will we transfer from stage to platform? From performers to individuals of affect? It begins with child steps.
Child Steps Towards Affect
Listed below are some easy, sensible methods to maneuver your workforce from musicians to ministers:
-
Forged the Imaginative and prescient.
Create a brief, memorable assertion of function. Put it on a t-shirt, a espresso mug, or a wall backstage. Say it typically. (Craig Groeschel reminds us: church leaders are CROs—Chief Reminding Officers.) -
Assign a Part.
Ask every workforce member to visually and spiritually “lead” a selected part of the congregation—entrance proper, again left, and so forth. Inform them, that’s your congregation. -
Be Current.
After a number of weeks, encourage workforce members to spend time with their assigned part earlier than or after worship. What if the worship workforce was out greeting individuals till service started, moderately than getting into from behind a curtain? -
Mannequin and Rejoice.
Share your individual tales. Rejoice wins. Affect spreads when it’s seen in motion.
Affect Builds Relationships
As your workforce engages with the congregation, each teams turn out to be extra actual to one another. When your “assigned part” asks about your position or your religion, your workforce will get to re-cast the imaginative and prescient. They’re not nameless musicians. They turn out to be approachable, trusted, and identified.
Think about the affect on a first-time visitor: they shake fingers with somebody earlier than worship begins—then see that particular person stroll as much as the platform and decide up a guitar. That second turns into a bridge.
Individuals are eager for connection. Your workforce wants relationships, and so does the congregation. When musicians turn out to be ministers, and platforms turn out to be locations of affect, the result’s actual worship—and lives modified.
Editorial Notes
This text reinforces Worship Chief Journal’s core themes of Trinitarian Worship, The Native Church, Multigenerational Engagement, and Worship as Formation. It encourages relational management, private presence, and a shift from efficiency to pastoral affect.

“I’m only a guitar participant. A keys participant. A music man…”
It’s straightforward to place ourselves in a field and “keep in our lane.” But, we frequently resist when others attempt to label us or confine us. What’s that about?
In each church the place I’ve served—when there was an official job description—it all the time ended with the dreaded strains:
It may appear extreme. However what if that’s really a name to a larger mission?
The Individuals Past the Platform
Musicians are usually introverts off stage. We like inexperienced rooms, again corridors, and quiet corners greater than crowded lobbies. However right here’s the reality: we belong among the many individuals.
Years in the past, at a ministry convention, I discovered the distinction between a stage and a platform:
If we’re actually worship leaders—not simply the vocalists, however the band, the tech crew, the entire workforce—then we’re not performers. We’re influencers.
So how will we transfer from stage to platform? From performers to individuals of affect? It begins with child steps.
Child Steps Towards Affect
Listed below are some easy, sensible methods to maneuver your workforce from musicians to ministers:
-
Forged the Imaginative and prescient.
Create a brief, memorable assertion of function. Put it on a t-shirt, a espresso mug, or a wall backstage. Say it typically. (Craig Groeschel reminds us: church leaders are CROs—Chief Reminding Officers.) -
Assign a Part.
Ask every workforce member to visually and spiritually “lead” a selected part of the congregation—entrance proper, again left, and so forth. Inform them, that’s your congregation. -
Be Current.
After a number of weeks, encourage workforce members to spend time with their assigned part earlier than or after worship. What if the worship workforce was out greeting individuals till service started, moderately than getting into from behind a curtain? -
Mannequin and Rejoice.
Share your individual tales. Rejoice wins. Affect spreads when it’s seen in motion.
Affect Builds Relationships
As your workforce engages with the congregation, each teams turn out to be extra actual to one another. When your “assigned part” asks about your position or your religion, your workforce will get to re-cast the imaginative and prescient. They’re not nameless musicians. They turn out to be approachable, trusted, and identified.
Think about the affect on a first-time visitor: they shake fingers with somebody earlier than worship begins—then see that particular person stroll as much as the platform and decide up a guitar. That second turns into a bridge.
Individuals are eager for connection. Your workforce wants relationships, and so does the congregation. When musicians turn out to be ministers, and platforms turn out to be locations of affect, the result’s actual worship—and lives modified.
Editorial Notes
This text reinforces Worship Chief Journal’s core themes of Trinitarian Worship, The Native Church, Multigenerational Engagement, and Worship as Formation. It encourages relational management, private presence, and a shift from efficiency to pastoral affect.

“I’m only a guitar participant. A keys participant. A music man…”
It’s straightforward to place ourselves in a field and “keep in our lane.” But, we frequently resist when others attempt to label us or confine us. What’s that about?
In each church the place I’ve served—when there was an official job description—it all the time ended with the dreaded strains:
It may appear extreme. However what if that’s really a name to a larger mission?
The Individuals Past the Platform
Musicians are usually introverts off stage. We like inexperienced rooms, again corridors, and quiet corners greater than crowded lobbies. However right here’s the reality: we belong among the many individuals.
Years in the past, at a ministry convention, I discovered the distinction between a stage and a platform:
If we’re actually worship leaders—not simply the vocalists, however the band, the tech crew, the entire workforce—then we’re not performers. We’re influencers.
So how will we transfer from stage to platform? From performers to individuals of affect? It begins with child steps.
Child Steps Towards Affect
Listed below are some easy, sensible methods to maneuver your workforce from musicians to ministers:
-
Forged the Imaginative and prescient.
Create a brief, memorable assertion of function. Put it on a t-shirt, a espresso mug, or a wall backstage. Say it typically. (Craig Groeschel reminds us: church leaders are CROs—Chief Reminding Officers.) -
Assign a Part.
Ask every workforce member to visually and spiritually “lead” a selected part of the congregation—entrance proper, again left, and so forth. Inform them, that’s your congregation. -
Be Current.
After a number of weeks, encourage workforce members to spend time with their assigned part earlier than or after worship. What if the worship workforce was out greeting individuals till service started, moderately than getting into from behind a curtain? -
Mannequin and Rejoice.
Share your individual tales. Rejoice wins. Affect spreads when it’s seen in motion.
Affect Builds Relationships
As your workforce engages with the congregation, each teams turn out to be extra actual to one another. When your “assigned part” asks about your position or your religion, your workforce will get to re-cast the imaginative and prescient. They’re not nameless musicians. They turn out to be approachable, trusted, and identified.
Think about the affect on a first-time visitor: they shake fingers with somebody earlier than worship begins—then see that particular person stroll as much as the platform and decide up a guitar. That second turns into a bridge.
Individuals are eager for connection. Your workforce wants relationships, and so does the congregation. When musicians turn out to be ministers, and platforms turn out to be locations of affect, the result’s actual worship—and lives modified.
Editorial Notes
This text reinforces Worship Chief Journal’s core themes of Trinitarian Worship, The Native Church, Multigenerational Engagement, and Worship as Formation. It encourages relational management, private presence, and a shift from efficiency to pastoral affect.
