Need advice. Should I stay or get out of church worship team?

I guess I'm a littIe late chiming in since you seem to have already made your mind.
have been playing in a P & W band for over 8 years now and while their has always been a bit of drama here and there throughout my tenure I pretty much try to stay out of it.
I guess the main thing you need to decide is why you do it. If you are doing it for your own edification and satisfaction and the you are not liking the environment and the situation then I suggest you leave.
If you are doing it as a ministry to others and for your church then I say weather it out and don't let it bother you. I know that sounds easier said than done but once I decided I was not doing it for me and my personaI benefit. found it a lot easier to stay away from the drama and grumblings.
I will say that although I was kind of out of my element at first having never played this genre I don't regret getting involved at all. I have learned a great deal and i know that my playing with a group and ensembles has definitely improved no matter what genre of music I am playing. It has been a rewarding experience.
While one would hope that you would not have to put up with this kind of stuff in a church environment you are dealing with people and like someone mentioned previously "nobody is perfect".
 
I'd also consider compensation. I'm sure you're not doing it for the money, but with a congregation of 5,000 the people running things are almost certainly paying themselves well. If they want people to help make their services successful and they make the decisions about what you do, they should be paying you enough to make up for all of the time they're taking from you too.

I don't know the details of your church, but some of these guys are millionaires, and I'm not interested in putting in a lot of hours helping to make rich people richer for free/cheap.

They don't pay me at all and that is one thing that does bother me. If they were paying me I would be willing to take more stress/frustration. I can easily put in 15-20hrs. per weekend that I play counting practice and run-throughs and services. Also, that doesn't count the several hours of just listening to the songs while jogging, at the gym, whatever. Don't get me wrong I would've happily done it just for other people and the kingdom if they would just treat me with a little respect. I could think of a lot they could do to make it more fun(Less stressful) but, they just don't seem to care.
 
I guess the main thing you need to decide is why you do it. If you are doing it for your own edification and satisfaction and the you are not liking the environment and the situation then I suggest you leave.
If you are doing it as a ministry to others and for your church then I say weather it out and don't let it bother you. While one would hope that you would not have to put up with this kind of stuff in a church environment you are dealing with people and like someone mentioned previously "nobody is perfect".

I do agree with that. When I started out I was doing it for my church(the campus that I attend) and I enjoyed doing it for the people. Then they started asking me only to play another campus since Jan. and they only have young guys playing my home campus. I might have been ok with that if they would've asked me and had a reason for it. One of the leaders mentioned to a friend of mine that it wasn't about age but, they did look at how people fit in. Well, that's real nice. So, they are thinking I don't fit in at my home campus. What's that about? Well, I wouldn't really want to play my home campus anyway because the guitars are so far down in the mix they can't be heard anyway. When I sit in the congregation mostly what I hear is track. One of the worship leaders admitted that it's mostly track. I want to be heard and I want to enjoy it but, neither one of those is happening. BlueDGT can you hear yourself in the mix? Can people in the congregation?
 
It all went downhill when those Gregorians started chanting....
 
As a worship leader, I am sorry that you have had a bad experience in church. I think you have received a lot of good info here, and I agree that it is probably better to move on than continue to feel like you are a round peg in a square hole.

There is never an excuse for disorganization. With all the technology we have with Planning Center, Multi-tracks.com and rehearsal mix, there should never be a question about arrangement, keys, parts, etc. That's on the leadership of the church, not you. Again, no one is perfect, and over 52 weeks a year, something will slip through the cracks, but consistently? No excuse!

My one piece of advise to you would be to sit down with the worship pastor or senior pastor and explain why you are leaving. Your leaving might just be the catalyst for positive change in the future for the worship team that sounds like it is so badly needed. It maybe too late for you, but your leaving might spare someone else coming down the road.

Hope this helps a little!
 
I've been involved at various levels in church worship music for 20+ years. I've spend most of the last 7 years as the music minister for our contemporary service.

Like in a lot of places, people, both players and singers as well as leaders, get involved for a lot of reasons. And sometimes the "goal" of the music ministry isn't as clear as you would like it to be. This has been true in church music since probably 34 AD. AW Tozer wrote a book on the problem of worship as entertainment back in the 1950s. Same issues apply today, different particulars.

I am sorry that you've had this experience. I'm sorry that the leadership seemed to push you to the side, without much explanation. (And I don't say this as a perfect person, I've had to make some hard decisions about people, and have made mistakes in implementing those decisions).

We run between 300-400, and have a really great team. They are involved because they want to lead their church in worship. We don't try to do exact covers, we adapt songs to our setting and abilities. I have a bit of an "all-comers" policy. At one point we had flute, violin, acoustic, electric, keys, bass, drums, mandolin, and the occasional banjo. These are people in our congregation who want to use their talents, so we figure it out. We have some great players, and some beginners. Our bass player started playing last year, but she's eager and works hard, and it was easy to work her in. My son just started playing cajon...he's 11...he can play on the beat, but he's not a percussionist yet. If we can't play it, then congregation doesn't hear it...we don't use multi-tracks or anything like that. And our congregation appreciates that. They frequently say they like how we play a song more than the radio or recorded version. It's not because we're better (but we are pretty good), it's because we're us, and we're part of the congregation, and we're living life with the people in the congregation.

My approach wouldn't work in every setting, and that's ok. Other approaches wouldn't work in our setting. That's ok, too. While I do feel it's important to not put distractions in the service, I also feel it's important to remember that the music exists for a purpose other than my playing music.

Again, OP, sorry for your experience.
 
Really?
Why hang around with people that are not inclusive?

Man I totally agree. It's not the way I would've expected them to be especially being in church. The one big problem with all of this is that it's kind of giving me a bad feeling about my church that I used to really enjoy. Anyway, on the bright side I think I did learn a lot about playing in a band and playing in front of other people. I think that is going to help me jam with others.
 
I am sorry that you've had this experience. If we can't play it, then congregation doesn't hear it...we don't use multi-tracks or anything like that. And our congregation appreciates that. They frequently say they like how we play a song more than the radio or recorded version. It's not because we're better (but we are pretty good), it's because we're us, and we're part of the congregation, and we're living life with the people in the congregation.

Thanks for you reply! I'm not totally giving up on playing p&w. I know there are many opportunities out there. I'm always going to practice and jam as much as I can. A better situation will come along eventually.
 
Amen! Gonna work on that. Not sure how to go about doing that but, intend to make it happen somehow as soon as possible.

Well, if you want to try starting your own band try Craigslist. Make sure you know what players you are after, and what type of music you want to play. Most people will also want to know whether your goal is to play out. Also if you are looking for paid gigs or not. You'll need a practice space hopefully with rental drums and a PA to start.
Or, look for an existing situation you might fit in with.
Just be prepared to meet a couple of the people like we've been discussing along the way.
 
You're getting nothing positive out of this experience. You're actually losing sleep over it and you're not sure if you should stick around? Easy choice. Start your own band with people who want to make the same kind of music. Better yet, play by yourself for yourself. Your church doesn't deserve you.
 
Join an atheist band.Dont be scared, they are just like every other guys minus the worship part. :)
 
Ehh... Doubt his worship band sounded like this.


Ok I don't hear the lyrics,Swedish you know but very cool music.Never heard of them.Had to google.Thanks for the link Sergio.In return I can recommend the book American fascists by Chris Hedges for you.
 
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