If you want to hire a new worship leader or need an interim worship leader, Ad Lib Music can help! Here are five options: 

1. Coaching From Within

2. Hiring Program

3. Self-Service Hiring Program

4. Interim Worship Leader Program

5. Interim + Hiring Program

The most expensive hire is the one you repeat in 12 months. We also believe it’s not good stewardship to spend several thousand dollars to find and hire a worship leader and then fail to invest in supporting them with coaching. That’s why every time we help a church hire a worship leader, we highly recommend providing coaching for their first year.

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First, why do we offer this service? We bring the following to the unique challenges of hiring a worship leader.

• Knowledge: We assess the musical skills, leadership skills, personal philosophy, spiritual maturity, and core aptitudes of candidates to help determine that it is an excellent fit for this specific church and role. We utilize our Five Faders development system to discern precisely the leader your church and team needs — Artist, Shepherd, Priest, Educator, Producer. You’re not just looking for the “Average Sam” worship leader. You’re looking for that uncommon, specific “unicorn” worship leader.

• Perspective: We clearly and accurately describe the church, the win, and the role needed – from an outside perspective. We also serve as an objective yet empathetic third party with no skin in the game except to care for worship leaders and help churches.

• Focus and consistent energy: Typically, hiring isn’t anyone’s “job” at the church – instead, they’re being asked to add it to their plates, which often comes at the expense of the core mission. And because they’re asking staff and volunteers to invest time in this program, we have a time-saving yet thorough process to efficiently do the maximum amount of work BEFORE getting the team together for an interview. We bring customizable templates, a proven track record, and seasoned worship leader perspective.

• Connections: We network with potential candidates, schools, and denominations from our existing network. That said, it’s important to note that we are NOT a headhunting organization that will send you dozens of candidates from our database. As experts in worship and hiring worship leaders, we join your search team with the heart to see the church healthy and growing.  

1.    Coaching From Within

Goal: To raise a leader (or team of leaders) from within the church rather than hiring from the outside.

Our go-to solution is to identify and develop leaders from within. I know what you're saying – “We don't have anybody. Trust me, I've looked!”

But we believe it takes a worship leader to raise a worship leader. In other words, we can both see potential in someone and have the skill to develop their capacity as a worship leader BECAUSE we are worship leaders. The reality is that developing leaders from within is both a truly biblical model and wisely practical. Leaders who are developed from within tend to stay longer and already know the culture of your church.

We can help you identify a leader or a team of leaders and then support them for their first year through one-on-one coaching and rehearsal coaching. This costs $400 a month or $4800 for the year. And yes, I realize that could be a sizable percentage of your budget for this position. However, since the leader would be one of your existing members, the chances that they would be open to a reduced stipend to accommodate the cost of coaching are reasonable.

2.     Hiring Program

Goal: To support the church through a Christ-centered process in hiring a worship leader who is a great fit. This costs $7,500, independent of the time it takes.

 Again, we are not headhunters, nor do we have dozens of great leaders waiting to be paraded in front of your church’s hiring team. Instead, we join your team as seasoned worship leaders and experts in the area of worship, with a tested system for hiring. We are intelligent discernment partners, avoiding costly pitfalls in qualifying or disqualifying candidates, and we give our focused time and attention to lead the process. We bring outside perspective and help you make the best decision.

• Serve as a coach, a seasoned leader and stabilizing presence through the whole process

• Meet as necessary with Pastors, Leaders, and Hiring Team

• Implement a successful hiring process using the Ad Lib Hiring Playbook

• Lead the pre-launch process, clarifying the actual needs for this position on three levels: discernment from God, budget, and defining the One Thing (core) of the job

• Help craft the job description with teeth, clarity, and heart

• Write the advertisement and post to all effective job boards, including two months on ChurchStaffing.com

• Network with Ad Lib Music’s existing connections of candidates

• Lead an in-depth pre-screening process as candidates apply

• Lead the interviewing process, schedule and orient candidates to guest worship lead

• Coach the church on making the decision. (The onus for hiring is on the church, and Ad Lib Music’s role is to coach the church through the entire process, giving the church a playbook that can be used in future hiring endeavors. The church covers related expenses, such as additional advertising, candidate travel, etc.)

3.   Self-Service Hiring Program

If the church only needs initial help, this Hiring Program is a good choice.

Goal 1: Coach the initial process for a successful staffing transition. This costs only $2,500.

• Help the church prepare the "pre-launch documents” with discernment and information gathering to articulate with clarity the exact and unique kind of leader that the church needs

• Modify (or create) the job description

• Provide the church with Ad Lib Music’s 78-page Hiring Playbook that includes a step-by-step hiring process as well as templates for everything including marketing, what technology tools to use and what timetable to expect, what questions to ask and how to structure the interview process

• Suggest any potential candidate from our database

Goal 2: Help evaluate the top candidates that the church has found.

• We will help evaluate the top candidates that the church has found and coach through the discernment at a rehearsal, a service, or in a meeting

4.   Interim Worship Leader Program

The Interim Worship Leader Program buys the church the time it needs to find a good fit because it is vital not to be rushed in the hiring process!

Goal: To continue growing during a leadership transition by providing guest worship leaders to maintain a quality, worshipful experience until the new staff is hired. The cost ranges from about $2,500 to $6000 per month.

• Scheduling appropriate worship leaders for each week until the staff is hired

• A coach will often model outstanding leadership by leading worship with an in-house team one week each month, including a weeknight rehearsal and Sunday service

• Arrange for another high-quality leader to lead the other weeks of the month

• Coordinate with the guest leaders with details for song choices, chord charts, recordings, etc., and orient each leader with the worship culture, band makeup, service flow, etc.

• OPTION: We can also handle all the worship team scheduling in Planning Center, including being the point of contact for last-minute changes.

5.   Interim + Hiring Program

The Interim & Hiring Program combines the Hiring Program with an Ad Lib coach (or other qualified leaders) serving AS the Interim Worship Leader. It includes everything from the Hiring Program and the Interim Worship Leader Program.

Goal: To provide an excellent worship leader who gets to know your church, working from the inside to hire a new leader from the outside. This costs starts at $800 per week, with a 25-week minimum and $500+ per week after that. (Total cost for Hiring Program remains at $7500)

What Some Churches Have Said

(more at adlibmusic.com/testimonials)

 "Ad Lib Music helped us steer through the hiring process and engaged with our leadership on this search. Their expertise, wisdom, and the insights the Lord has given over these years to guide us in our efforts have proven invaluable. Thank you!"

Dwight Lefever, Lead Pastor, Providence Church, New Providence, Pennsylvania

"The apostle Paul talks a lot about the importance of many parts working together in unison as one body. Ad Lib Music came alongside our church to be a part of our body, helping us to continue our mission of spreading the gospel message of Jesus Christ by providing key individuals to plan, facilitate, and lead our weekly worship services, as well as orchestrating a guided search process for our next Worship Pastor. Their attention to detail exceeded our expectations, and their commitment to finding the right candidate left no stone unturned. And their service was nothing short of Christlikeness. The future of our church will forever be indebted to Ad Lib. We could not be more satisfied and thankful. Choosing Ad Lib is the right choice."

Ryan Clift, Pastor, East Fairview Church of the Brethren, East Fairview, Pennsylvania

“Ad Lib took the time to get to know us and our worship culture. Then they started to work through the candidates to find the best fit, and it worked beyond our wildest expectations!

Bill Hogan, Pastor, WordServe Church, Fulshear, Texas

"Ad Lib is a great resource for churches. They will help with the search for Worship Leaders as well as provide amazing opportunities for training (audio, worship leading, etc.) for staff and volunteers. I personally worked with Kevin searching for a Worship Leader for our church, and he is persistent and thorough in seeking potential applicants."

Paul Cockrell, Lead Pastor, Waypoint Church, Richardson, Texas

“Now that our search for a worship leader with Ad Lib Music has come to a successful conclusion, I wanted to let you know what a pleasure it was working with our coach. She communicated with us quickly and clearly, attended many meetings and led them well, screened candidates with thought and wisdom, and so much more. Ad Lib was worth every penny spent! I will recommend you guys to everyone.”

Allen Dise, former Senior Pastor, Newport Dove, Elm, Pennsylvania  

"As a solo pastor in a small church with limited resources, the best aspect of the Ad Lib experience was the fellowship and camaraderie of like-minded co-laborers in the gospel. Ad Lib wasn’t your typical consultant, in for a weekend and out again. They were invested in the process, committed to the success of the ministry, and willing to go the extra mile."

Dr. Chris DiVietro, Senior Pastor, Park Road Presbyterian Church, Reading, Pennsylvania

“Dave was a great asset to CBC in the midst of our transition to find a worship leader. He was a servant leader who provided coaching to our worship leaders. He took a young and inexperienced guitarist and developed him into an effective worship leader.”

Jeff Burkholder, Senior Pastor, Community Bible Church, Marietta, Pennsylvania

“Ad Lib Music helped our church through a very difficult time of transition in the loss of our Worship Pastor. Our coach’s calm presence, servant heart, and passion to serve the local church brought healing to our church and our worship team when we needed it the most. His wisdom, experience and insight also helped our leadership team as we crafted a new job description and went through the interview process. I highly recommend Ad Lib’s expertise in coaching and leading worship to any church facing transition or simply wanting to help their worship director grow and be encouraged. I think that the cost was very reasonable for the amount of time that they spent in helping us in the process. If you would have told me a year ago that we would be spending this much, I would have probably been thinking ‘Wow, that is a lot of money for a church to spend for those services’ but in hindsight…seeing all that they did in the process and the load that this took off of me and our leadership team and the experience and wealth of knowledge that he brought to the process…it was money well spent!”

Daleen Charles, former Executive Pastor, Pequea Church, Willow Street, Pennsylvania

“Ad Lib Music’s experience in the field of music and knowledge of church life enabled us to go through the music pastor search process in a relatively smooth fashion. Our coach’s participation as well as his colleagues for leading Sunday services (and weekly rehearsals) were wonderful!”

Jay Quirk, Lead Pastor, Washington Avenue Bible Church, Ephrata, Pennsylvania

Ad Lib helped us in the search for a new worship leader and provided valuable insight and information that helped us in that process. I would highly recommend Ad Lib Music and Dave Helmuth to any pastor or church that wants to improve their worship experience.”

The late Dennis Loose, former Senior Pastor, LifeSpring Fellowship, Lititz, Pennsylvania

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