 Hey everyone, welcome back to the second session of Worship Ministry. Let's continue in chapter 3. We discussed in the previous class, previous session about the four relationships that make or break us. We do have a successful Worship Ministry. And now we very briefly talk about the goals of the Worship Ministry. Christopher, go ahead. What happens? Christopher raises his hand and he leaves the meeting. Hi, Christopher, are you there? Sir, can you hear me faster? Yes, I can. Yeah. This is actually one of my earlier points in a previous class where the audience for the present Worship Team is really God. And I just think that there are times when it's very important to be able to also have a relationship with the audience or the congregation, which basically means that the congregation and the Worship Team are together in unison praising and worshipping God. And the Worship Team is really like a, you know, like a facilitator to provide to this, I mean, to meet their objective. And just two examples really quickly that I can think of is, you know, in a soccer match where, you know, someone scores a goal and, you know, the person who scores the goal is, you know, going and, you know, telling the audience, he puts his both hands up and tells the audience to cheer. Because, you know, they want to win, you know, that match. And the audience is so important to be able to meet that objective. And the second one is a little bit of a personal story where, you know, a long time ago when I was, I mean, really young, maybe around eight or nine years old, I attended this musical, this pretty famous musical called Jesus Christ Superstar. That is in Mumbai and in another city. And as the cast was actually getting into the onto the stage, they didn't come onto the stage. From the back, they came through the eye itself. And I still remember that, you know, it was Jesus who was the person who was playing the role of Jesus in that musical. He bent down and said something to me. I can't remember, you know, how are you doing or whatever. And that really touched me. It was like a real personal kind of, you know, interaction. And I still remember I was, you know, like telling my mother of my father saying that, you know, Jesus actually spoke to me just now, you know. And so I think that that audience, I'm sorry, the congregations is so really important. And that relationship makes that, you know, that participation as well as that need for the congregation to be an interesting part of this person worship. And not, it could be beyond person worship also even, you know, just in fact, just being in tune with the, you know, the summit example, you know, when the passage says amen. And, you know, the entire audience is like, you know, the entire congregation is singing so much of passion. So just the point over there, you know, that that relationship is, I don't know where it fits in, but it probably could be the fifth one. Yeah, so just sorry to mention that. Yeah, Christopher. I mean, I agree with that as well. But so here's the thing, right? Again, it comes down to spiritual maturity, like what I mentioned to Louis as well, you know, to what he said. And the reason I say that is, yes, absolutely, we are there to, you know, minister to God first and then, you know, we are serving the congregation as well. Yes. And I also mentioned that we need to be very sensitive to the congregation that you are leading as well. Right. You know, I mean, it again comes with spiritual maturity as a worship leader, say you're leading a song. And then, you know, you just, you, let's take the topic of a repetition, you know, as an example. I wouldn't say repetition is bad or good. I mean, there's, you need to be sensitive to what God is doing, what God is leading. Right. You would repeat a chorus. If you feel okay, that's where the Holy Spirit is leading. And that's where the song, you know, he wants you to go in that direction. And so you lead the congregation, you know, and if you're not sensitive, and if you are just doing, say, vain repetitions and you've lost the congregation, the congregation is just like staring at you. Say, okay, dude, what are you doing? Move on kind of a thing. It happens, isn't it? And so what I'm trying to say is yes, you have to be sensitive to the congregation, their background and whatnot. But also you have to keep in mind that, say, if you're the worship pastor, if you're the pastor, you are their shepherd. And you are also leading them. Right. And slowly as we go on this journey, you know, okay, you know what God's put in your heart for your congregation. We just can't be in the same place thing. Okay, you know, this is the congregation. This is the background. That's where they're comfortable at. No, but slowly and steadily you hold their hands kind of thing. And then you take them to the place where God has told you to take them. Right. And the journey, you know, we take time. That's where we as pastors or leaders should be patient. Right. So we need to take them into the deeper levels of intimacy with God. We as shepherds. And so that is also there. So you, you know, there is a part where you have to honor the congregation. This thing. And you also need to know you as a shepherd, as their leader, you, you have this responsibility to take them deeper into their relationship with God as well. Right. So, yeah. Just adding to what you've shared. But thanks for sharing that question. Yeah, thank you. So the name of this section from the bottom of page 36, we will start discussing about this talk very briefly about the goals of a worship ministry. A vision is important. Having a goal is crucial. Right. So a team needs to know where they are going. Then the one who's leading the team needs to know where he or she is going because vision is crucial. Without that, it'll be like you're just running on a treadmill, so to speak. Okay, a lot of work can get done, but then it seemed like you're just running in the same place. So, you know, having a goal, you know, always help in that journey, like having specific goals, having goals that are measurable, right? Having goals that are actionable. So with that in mind, just a few, you know, is one of the goals is nurturing, nurturing and encouraged and joyful worship ministry. Community. Okay. Nurturing one of them. So what is the meaning of nurture? What is the meaning of nurture? It's the question for us. Okay, I haven't said as speak now or for ever hold your peace. Okay, so what do you mean by nurture? What does it mean? Okay, Pung says okay. What else? Charles, Louis, Nisha. Can I say something, sir? Yeah, sure, please. I think nurture is the attention and the care you give in the process of maturing. It's the care given in the process of maturing. Yeah, okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Louis. Thank you. Anybody else? Anything? Investing, sir. Investing. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. Thanks, Rupa. To bring up and look after. Okay. So budget, anybody, anything? What do we, what image or what picture do you see? I mean, I'm sure most of us can think of when we nurture a child. When a parent, parents, they nurture the child. How do they do that? And why do they do that, right? They take care of it. They invest into the child, right? You're in their journey of, you know, as they're growing from an infant to a child, to a teenager, to a young adult, et cetera, et cetera. You are nurturing them. You're taking care of them, right? You're investing in them. You're leading them. You are guiding them, right? In many ways, you are a shepherd to them, right? And in this context, you are the shepherd. And one of the goals of the worship ministry can be nurturing and encouraged. That means you are investing. You are taking care. You are creating, right? A joyful worship ministry community. You know, so we can talk about just creating a community or the importance of community at length, but we'll do that sometime soon. But the importance of nurturing and encouraged and the joyful worship ministry community, creating effective, consistent, and beautiful worship environments, right? Creating effective and consistent worship environments and beautiful worship moments, right? One of the things that I mentioned was, you know, for the goals to be successful, they need to be specific, right? They need to be measurable. And if you are, one of the goals of your worship ministry is to create, you know, something that's exciting and whatnot, how do, what are some of the examples of a goal that can be specific versus some of the goals that are not specific? Can anybody think of that as an example? Some of the goals that are specific and some of the goals that are not specific? Anything you'd like to share? You know, goals that are measurable versus goals that are not measurable. Any examples? Okay, so one of the examples that I can think of is, say, for, I can ask the team to just say start writing songs versus a more specific goal can be, let's write three congregational worship songs. So you see the difference, right? One is very generic, very general, okay, a goal. Let's start writing songs, okay, you know, versus let's write three congregational worship songs. So now all of a sudden it's become very specific, okay, I'm going to write three songs and we're going to do, and we're going to make it very congregational. So it's not just a very, a solo act kind of a thing. Okay, so there's more direction. And as an example that I shared when we released our first album is that we just didn't set out on a project to write songs. We had a very specific time and a theme given to us. Okay, we're going to write songs based on these Psalms. So now we know where to look to, what to look for. Okay, it could be another example specific, a very generic thing, train a volunteer worship leader versus, so train a volunteer worship leader versus train Christopher to lead worship for Sunday night service. Okay, so Christopher, sorry, Christopher, I'm just using it as an example, because as I'm thinking of the example. Okay, so instead of saying, okay, here's the goal, we're going to train a volunteer that's very generic. I don't know who's this volunteer or whatnot, right? Versus, I'm going to train an individual specifically to lead worship, right? So any other examples that you can think of a very specific goal versus a non-specific kind of a goal, right, time to practice. Yeah, so time to practice versus what are you going to practice in that time? Okay, just give me another minute, because there's no one at home, someone just disturbing me with the calling, but just give me another minute, please. I'll be back, sorry. I'm so sorry. Everything I dreaded not to happen today is happening today, when no one is at home. Oh boy, okay. All right, but anyways, so let's just move on. So you have some of the worship ministry goals is nurturing, creating and establishing longevity in your volunteer force of musicians, techs and leaders, establishing longevity. This can't be stressed enough. The emphasis on it, the importance of it, is you need to make sure that they don't burn out, using them over and over and over again for everything and then eventually they quit the team. And so the importance of the roster, the rotational system and whatnot is super crucial, which we will talk about that in the very next point. So three goals of the worship ministry is nurturing them. Are you investing in them? Are you taking care of them? Are you creating a culture? Are you creating effective, consistent and beautiful worship moments? Establishing longevity in your volunteer force of musicians, techs and leaders, right? And now we move on to the section where we talk about the daily tasks of running a worship ministry. Daily task of running a worship ministry. The task of scheduling and rostering team is one of the first things that we will see. The task of reducing or scheduling and rostering teams. Check. You guys can you hear me? Oh boy, okay. My internet connection dropped up something is really not right today. My sincere apologies guys. Thanks. Can we continue? Okay. And so we're in page 37 of the content. We're talking about daily tasks of running a worship ministry. Yes, there are daily tasks of running a worship ministry. It's not just a Sunday morning thing of showing up to church and start leading worship. There are tasks every day. And that's what we will discuss in this section. One of the tasks is scheduling and rostering teams. Scheduling and rostering teams. So I want to one more time just share that roster tab with you and just take us through just some of the entire roster and how it looks. It's not complicated. It's not a complicated thing. So as you can see, we have few sheets. Here we have the sermon plan and some of the songs suggested for ministry time. These are some of the songs I suggested to be sung post the sermon because Pastor Ashish has requested that we will move into a time of ministry that focuses on healing and deliverance. And so just a few suggestions to the team. So here we have some of the jam rooms suggested for the team where they can meet for practice. And here's the roster of all the worship leaders who will be leading worship at different locations. So as some of you know that we have five different locations. One is Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, North, East and West. And the names that I mentioned, including the Children's Church worship leaders I mentioned here. And this is a sheet only for worship leaders. The dates I mentioned. And now we look into the teams rostered every Sunday specifically. So for 18th, so I led a central on the first Sunday. This was my team, Jonathan, acoustic guitar. So everything is very specific. So you can see the keys, acoustic guitar, electric guitar one. If you're lucky, you have electric guitar two, bass, the drums, vocals. MD is what we call it as what we call as music director. So this and this is only at central. So where we have one person on the stage who will also be MD or music directing. So they will have a mic. And when they speak, only the team members will be hearing. We'll be able to hear from the mic. So they'll be directing. They'll be in conversation with the worship leader saying, okay, can we go to the next song? Do you want to change the song? Or do you want to stay in the moment? All of those technical stuff. Okay, so anyways, this is how the roster looks like. North is more of a one man army kind of a thing. South we have a little more than one man. East and west. Okay, so this is how a worship team roster for APC looks like. Very simple. But that's what it is. So this is a huge thing. When I'm rostering teams, it takes me a solid five days to put together a roster. It's another challenge here is getting people's availability. Remember that I'll show you an example of what my roster message also looks like in the next chapter. But then so sending out the message and getting everyone's availability. We are a team of at least 50 people. Following up with 50 people getting their dates and reminding them to send their dates. And if I need a worship leader for a certain Sunday and if I don't have anybody, check with the two, three people saying, asking them, hey, are you free to lead on this Sunday? Are you available? And all of that. And if they say no, I have to check off alternate things. So making a roster is a very time consuming thing. So I asked Pastor Jay Kumar and he's so glad I'm doing it now. So two ways, some of the churches that approach this roster method is one is the team model and the other is a band model. So what is a team model? So some worship ministries run on the team model. In other words, they involve many people rotating between different leaders. And this is the model that we follow at APC. So every Sunday, it's not the same team that's playing together. There are different individuals and every month you will be playing with different individuals and not the same team. They involve many people rotating between different leaders, creating different bands, each worship service. So musicians get to know each other and get diversity in their experience. So this is very intentional as well. So this is the team model. And other worship ministries run on the band model, which means so they have say band A, band B, band C and band D. They have a set of musicians that will lead. You know, there's the same set of musicians that will lead every alternate week or every week or every one Sunday a month and whatnot. So that basically is what a band model is. And if you don't know which one to use and if you're going to be leading a worship ministry, see which model suits your church the best and pick that and work on that. The thing about having a band model is most of them will give their availability say four or five months in advance. And so they know, okay, this is when they are rostered and to be playing or to lead worship and whatnot. And so they can plan the other part of their life around that as well. Whereas the team model is more on a monthly based thing. So around, I send out a roster message on the 15th of every month asking people for their availability, the worship team members for their availability so I can start rostering them. The second point, the second task is kind of administrative and also pastoral is what we've already discussed in the previous point in your relationship with the team members. The second task is the task of pastoring your team members, which is also in line with nurturing them. As a leader, as a pastor, we are called, you know, you need to be proactive, give them pastoral care, you know, take genuine interest in their lives. Right, you know, take the time to ask team members who seem to be carrying a heavy burden, what you can do to support them specifically in prayer or in scheduling and whatnot. So this building relationship is, it's nothing again complicated but just taking genuine care and pastoring them is crucial. And the third task is the task of meeting with your pastor. These are the daily tasks of worship ministry, remember, okay. And so the third task is the meeting with your pastor. So there are two kinds of meetings. One is meeting him regarding the vision and that will happen around say twice a year, right. You're meeting with pastor to discuss very specifically about the vision for that particular year in the direction that he wants to go on. And the other meetings are monthly recording meetings that will happen to just give him the update of what's happening in your worship ministry. The one point that we discussed is there is no such thing as over communication with your pastor. Okay, so that's what happens, you know, in this meeting, you can, you will also keep him updated via emails saying, okay, in the month of February, the month of March, this is what happened with the worship ministry. We went on a retreat so and so many people came. This is what we did in the, at the retreat, etc., etc. Okay, so the task of meeting with your pastor is one of the daily tasks of leading a worship ministry. And another task is again, by the way, if all of these points so far was not fun and exciting. Welcome to worship ministry. Okay. The fourth point is the task of budgeting and paying for resources. Okay, the task of budgeting. So again, once again, in the context of worship ministry. If you're planning, say worship retreat or worship team camp or worship team get away or arranging breakfasts or lunch or whatnot, everything is has to be budgeted, right? And an example here for if you're planning for a worship team retreat, you know, we need to plan ahead before that happens. So for example, I have to propose, I mean, I have to come back and, you know, plan and say, okay, this is the location, the venue where we will be having the camp. And so what is the price of that camp? Say, you know, it's a lack. And then how much is it going to cost per head? Is there a travel expense? You know, so you put all that in an Excel sheet and say this is the expected estimated expense. And so you send it to pastor by copying the accounts team and asking him for his approval. So you've made a budget, right? Or for another word, say for some of the songs that we record, right? Are you have seen battle cry on one? So for we need to put a budget for the video shoot. Once again, how much is it going to cost for the location? How much for the vendors? You know, there are so many different vendors. Are you hiring a camera? How many cameras are you hiring? Are you hiring lights? Are you hiring generators? Are you hiring lunch? I mean, catering for the people who will be there. All the small things, okay, the juice and the snacks and all of the details has to be in the budget. Having fun already. Okay. And then you send it out, you know, for approval. And then, you know, and it doesn't end there. Your job doesn't end with splitting up a budget. You have to follow up with making sure that the vendors are being paid. The paying the resources. Right. That's another thing. What else? I mean, so, I mean, guys, this list can go on and on. Okay. And it will be, it'll look very unique to your church to, to your settings. So I just don't want to give a few examples of where I am at and just put it in a box and say, okay, this is what it know. But this will be one of the tasks if you are leading a worship ministry. And okay. So that's one of the things. And another task of leading a worship ministry is planning music for the week and year. Okay. Planning music. We're getting talking about music because worship ministry will is a huge part of it is music related. Right. So many of the most effective worship ministry leaders, I know are always sifting through the most fresh and appreciated songs out on the radios at the events and whatnot. So you're keeping yourself updated with what's happening in the, in the worship circle around the globe. What are some of the new songs that are being produced that are coming out of the fresh thing. So you're listening to it. And then, you know, that's one of it. And you start planning the year around it. There are tens and thousands of beautiful songs, you know, listen to many select few learn fewer still. That's the process that I'd like to follow. So listen to many, you know, we have access to technology like never before. We have access to resources. We have access to songs like never before. Just 10 years ago, I couldn't imagine that, you know, some of the songs artists can be available, you know, in Bangalore or in India. Right. So how it used to work here is if we wanted a CD or of an artist. The artist would have released a CD like say five years ago and five years later it would reach us over here. And then I would read that CD or cassette. Does anybody remember cassette? He's like, wow, it's like gold. But now we have Spotify, Apple Music, all these streaming devices that is, you know, allows us to listen to music at our fingertips. So, you know, how you go about planning music for the week and the year is once again, let's say, you know, in line with the sermon series. Pastor Ashish is super organized if you don't know that already. Right. So he has the whole sermon series planned for an entire year. He's sent it out to all the ministry teams. He's like, okay, this is what it is. And he's also flexible. It's not that most of the times he sticks just to it, but he's sensitive to, okay, you know, to change it and whatnot. But I say, even 60, 70% of it, if he does it, it works for us. So he sent out the thing. And now as a worship pastor, it's also my responsibility to put together songs that will, you know, what do I say, that will kind of reflect the theme of the sermons as well. So that's what's planning music for the week or the year will look like. In addition to a special Sunday, say, Easter Sunday, Good Friday, Christmas, New Year's, and whatnot. Right. So plan ahead for major services. So Christmas Easter, as mentioned, select songs early, suggest songs to your teams early. So that's one of the things that's one of the tasks, daily tasks of leading worship ministries planning music for the year. And the sixth task is the task of sharing in the wider pastoral work of the church, right, wider pastoral work of the church, hospital visits, funerals, weddings, purchases, premarital counseling. So there are two sides to this coin. You know, as a worship pastor, I cannot say I'm the worship pastor. So I'm not going to do, you know, go to funerals or do anything there. Or, you know, I'm not going to visit hospitals and whatnot. Why? Because I'm only the worship pastor. I take responsibility only for the worship ministry and whatnot. The wake up, you know, won't work like that. It's a beautiful thing to share in the wider pastoral work of the church. You are a worship pastor, yet you are still a pastor, right? So it is also your responsibility to share in the wider pastoral work of the church. And also secondly, let your other pastors and leaders know the time slots in which you can do other tasks. Okay, so there will be, you know, those who will approach you and say, hey, can you do this for me? Can you do that for me? And whatnot. So this is the other side of the coin I was talking about, right? So let your other pastors and leaders know that time slots in which you can do other tasks and the time slots in which you are otherwise occupied. And build steel walls around your plan time slots until everyone understands you're very, very serious about keeping your time ordered. Okay, so you guys understand, right? What the point is all about saying, okay, you know, you are sharing the wider pastoral responsibility and whatnot, but at the same time, not at the cost of not doing your work as well. Okay, so if there's another task that needs to be done, if someone is approaching you to do something else, are you very politely say, okay, you know, I'm free at so and so time, I can only do it at that time. Until then, I have to finish this work that has been assigned to me, which is important as well, because the work that you do as a worship pastor is only you can do that work. If you don't finish that work, nobody else will be able to finish it, right? Because it's very skill specific. You understand what I'm saying, right? I hope you guys are following. Okay, so the task of sharing the wider pastoral work of the church, one of the tasks. The seventh one is the task of honing your musical and leadership skill. The task of honing your musical and leadership skill. This I'm kind of teaching to myself as well is out of experience because worship ministry in general can keep you very busy, right? Because the work especially in ministry doesn't end, never ends. It's not like nine to five and you shut off. You might get a message at 10 o'clock saying, okay, this family so and so passed away or whatnot, you have to be ready to just go and be present, be available. And so many examples like that. So ministry in general will keep you busy. And if you're a worship pastor, if you're also a musician, it is very, very, very important for you to keep practicing. You know, to keep honing, to keep getting better in your craft, right? David was skillful and it is his skill that made him stand before kings, right? It was so skillful that he made instruments. And so, you know, honing your musical skills and addition also to leadership skills is the way that you can improve as a person, as a leader, can you grow? Right? Because it always requires refining. Okay, so these are just some of the few tasks and my experience as a worship pastor that you will be doing in day to day scenario, right? Is there anything else you think that can be added? Okay, so very quickly, let's just go through all the tasks of earning a worship ministry. The first one is the task of scheduling, rostering teams, not just be the worship team, it could be multiple teams, different teams, the sound team, the media team, etc. The task of pastoring your team members. Let's not forget that, right? Task of meeting with your pastor and the task of budgeting, paying the resources, the vendors, task of planning music for the year and for the week, task of sharing the wider pastoral work of the church, the task of honing your musical and leadership skill. Okay? So that's the conclusion of chapter three and I think I'll stop here for today and I will resume chapter four next week. Yeah, is that okay guys? Yeah, I hope everybody's still alive with thanks for bearing with me today with all those interferences and the internet failing and whatnot. Thank you so much. Thank you so much pastor. You're welcome, thank you guys. You guys take care and see you all next week. Thank you pastor.