This past week I have come to the beautiful realization that I very blessed to have such a great group of musicians to work with at River Valley. I mean how many churches are able to have former professional musicians, former worship ministers, or multiple musicians with a degree in music? Well let me tell you, not many do. I don’t want it to seem as though I am bragging, but I really do think it is awesome that God has called all of these people to one place to serve Him together. Even if my team we nothing more than a band of untrained musicians I think we would still have a dynamite team. This is due to the fact that every person on our team seems to have a built in passion for worship and a motivation to improve it.
So, here is my problem. We have gone through several systems and rotations to try and accomodate our 15+ person team, and the best one thus far is rotating vocalists and musicians playing every week. However, I know the day will come (and I hope it does because the more people involved the better) when we have enough musicians to have several teams. Then, what do I do with my dedicated musicians who want to play every week? It’s no that they feel they have to be on stage every week, but they have all expressed a deep desire to play together on a weekly basis. I know people need breaks or they will burn out, but what is the balance between burn out and snuff out. I thought about just having two rehearsals every week, one for each team. But is that really a good idea (with the minister in mind)? Post some comments. I would love to get some fresh perspectives.
# Josh on January 26th, 2007
Man, I know what it’s like to want to play every week, but I think one thing that gets overlooked is that it is near impossible to make that work long-term. One thing that I really wish would get impressed upon people (volunteers) is that every once and a while, you’re going to need a break — even if you love it more than anything — or you are going to get totally burnt out.
Bottom line (in my opinion) is that if you want to keep volunteers thirsty for service and wanting to play every week then don’t let them play every week. Make them take a week (or month) off here and there. That is the best thing in the long run because they won’t get totally burnt out, and they’ll still remain passionate about serving. Otherwise, no matter how much they love it, they’ll eventually begin to think of it just as a “duty” instead of as a privilege and an enjoyable thing.
And having two practices per week is just going to begin to drain you — which is equally sucky. I wouldn’t go down that road at this point.
So that’s what I think.
# Mike on January 26th, 2007
Too many talented people…what an awesome problem to have. I concur with Josh’s comment. You always want them hungry to do more, not resenting what they’re currently doing.
I would even suggest that a couple of times a year you turn the worship leading duties over to one of your competent team members. Then you could just come and worship for a change as well.
# Joel on January 29th, 2007
I think you both have very good points. We need to keep people excited about what they are doing by letting them do it often, but we can’t allow them to burn out by letting them do it too often. The hard part about that is that certain people can handle more than others and one may burnt out or get squelched out before another.
I think by doing all that I can to accomodate the talent around me and by giving ample opportunity to use that talent there will be some sort of natural balance that will develope, and that people will be smart enough to let me know when they are doing too much or would like to do more. Thanks for the comments guys!
# Josh on January 29th, 2007
I agree to an extent, but don’t assume that people will know when they’re doing too much. Most of the time they aren’t smart enough to see it themselves, and you need to remind them. It’s easy to let it get to the point of burnout if you’re not careful.