I recently read a blog post written by a church worship leader.  The author was raising an issue of people that are middle-aged and up being left off of church worship teams or being passed over for worship leader positions solely because of their age.  According to him, this is something that is happening regularly all over the country.

Let me first say, if this is happening and where this is happening, it’s just plain wrong.

If you don’t know, I’m 30, almost 31.  I don’t see myself as a young pup anymore, but I’m also not middle-aged yet.  Over the last 10 years I’ve had multiple churches hire and move me across the country for the sole purpose of restructuring, rebuilding and updating their existing worship program.  These churches have ranged from as young as 25 years old to as old as 140 years old.  You could definitely say they’ve been established and have had a bit of tradition.  I’d like to tell you a bit about what I experienced in those ventures.

In every situation there were people on those existing teams that had been serving for at least 15-20 years.  I absolutely believe in more experienced people being mentors for the less experienced.  Every situation I’ve come in to it has been a priority of mine to have those with experience to be mentors.

Two problems came up every time:

1. Most that had been involved for years, did not want their program/system changed.

Today’s innovation becomes tomorrow’s tradition.  A lot of these individuals had played a role in beginning a contemporary worship program in their church.  They helped create what was a new system at the time.  They built the program.  They loved that program.  They were used to that program.  In essence, it was their baby.  They weren’t ready to realize that their baby had grown up a bit and it may be time to treat it a little differently.  The idea of their services, song selections/styles, rehearsal schedules/flows and other things being changed felt personally offensive to many of them because they were so tethered to the existing system.

Please hear me in this; I’m not saying these are bad people or are people that don’t love God with an incredible passion.  I’m saying these people are exactly that, people.  They have feelings and as their system/program that they love is, in their perception, being attacked, those feelings get hurt.  For many, those feelings were too much to overcome and so for them, they felt like it was time to quit.

2. I required more musically, artistically and professionally than had been required in the past.

I’ll admit it; I’m a perfectionist and a control freak.  I know it.  I also know that it’s a great asset and a detriment at times.  I know that perfection is never attainable, but I do believe that excellence always is.  To me, excellence is doing the absolute best you can with what you’ve been given. 

I believe regardless of skill level there are a couple of things everyone can do:

• Memorize your music. If leading worship is a priority to you, knowing the music should be a priority.

• Be prepared for rehearsal. Practice and rehearsal are TWO SEPARATE THINGS.  Practice is what you do at home.  Rehearsal is what we do together as a team.  If you don’t practice at home, you waste everyone’s time at rehearsal.  If leading worship is a priority to you, rehearsal has to be a priority.  If rehearsal is a priority to you, practice has to be a priority to you.

Before you freak out on me and say, “But Michael, our worship leader gets us the songs a couple of days before or sometimes at rehearsal!” let me say, that’s not how I do things.  I believe one of a worship leader’s most important jobs is to set their team up for success.  I ask my team members to be prepared because I am.

• I have the set lists planned and posted a minimum of 8 weeks in advance
• I schedule my team members a minimum of 8 weeks in advance
• I provide recordings for how we will play the song, if it’s going to be different than a popular recording that is available, I go into the studio and record it myself

Even with providing every asset at my disposal to help team members be prepared, for some it was in their opinion, asking too much of them.

I know that I am an average guitar player and an above average vocalist.  That is my current reality.  I’m not content with that reality.  I want to be better and am continually striving to grow and be better.  I challenge my team members to strive to grow and be better.  Often I found that many people who had been involved for an extended period of time were just as content with their skill level as they were the existing system and weren’t really interested in putting in the time and effort to grow and be better.  For many of them asking this was again too much, and they decided it was best for them to not be involved.

I don’t care how old you are; I care about heart, effort and skill.

As I said in my opening, if churches are dismissing people because of their age, it’s just plain wrong.  I’ve never dismissed someone from a team because of their age even though it’s been said and rumored that I’ve done just that.

I don’t write this as an indictment on the article I mentioned earlier, I write this to bring another perspective to the conversation based on what I’ve experienced.

Let me close by saying, if you are a musician with the combined trinity of heart, effort, and skill, you will always have a place on my worship team.