New Worship Practice Schedule with Explanation

We are going to be implementing a new schedule this coming week, which is a slight variation on what we have done in the past and I thought I would share it with the reasoning behind each one.

4-5 JAM session for newbies
5:00-5:30 clean the building as a team!
5:30-6:00 dinner
6:00-6:30ish bible story and prayer time
6:30-7:30 worship and prayer time
7:30-8:30 music practice time (work through the songs in detail)

These aren’t hard rules on times, but general guidelines. As you can see it’s a full schedule and many of our older worship team members can’t get there in time for the earlier parts, but some of the younger ones can be there for the whole thing, so we invite anyone who can to come to any parts they can make it to!

Here’s the why behind each one:

4-5 JAM session for newbies

This is a time when we focus on recruiting beginners, as well as making sure we are all well rounded musicians.  I think it’s essential to always be recruiting and training new players, so we take anyone, regardless of skill level.  Also, I think everyone in the band should at least have the basic skills to play along on all the other instruments and all the tech positions too, if at all possible.  It helps with all sorts of things to have to walk a mile in each other’s shoes. 🙂

For a more detailed explanation of WHY to have JAM sessions check out this article:

http://newsoundworship.com/jammin-your-way-to-a-better-worship-band/

http://newsoundworship.com/how-to-run-a-jam-session/

5:00-5:30 clean the building as a team!

In order to save on costs, our church decided to set up a cleaning rotation and have us all pitch in.  I decided my group would take the main worship center and bathrooms.  I am convinced it helps us to stay grounded and humble.

Check out this article for more:

http://newsoundworship.com/want-to-join-the-worship-team-heres-a-toilet-brush/
5:30-6:00 dinner

We have a rotation and just ask people from the worship team and friends to make us a simple dinner that we can share.  It’s often as simple as picking up pizza or boiling some pasta.  It’s an excuse for us to share our lives together over a meal and I am convinced having a meal together makes us a better, more caring family.

6:00-6:30ish bible story and prayer time

I want to make sure if we have things that we need prayer for, that we take care of each other, so this is a great time to ask for prayer.  Also, we have been experimenting with this GREAT way to really make the bible come and alive and be truly interactive. Check out the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0042JU6MM/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

6:30-7:30 worship and prayer time

We want to spend a good amount of time focusing on God with or without instruments, taking turns leading songs and just worshipping God for who He is and all He has done and asking Him to reveal what he wants from us.

7:30-8:30 music practice time (work through the songs in detail)

Then we spend time working on the mechanics of specific songs and training newer candidates on how to play.

We are always experimenting and hoping to keep growing all of our worship team members up into more and more fully mature disciples and worshippers and musicians and technicians for Jesus!

If you want to come join us, just give Jason a buzz!