What Do You NEED?
I’ve been a church musician for 40 years. (since 1984)
I’ve been leading worship for 34 years. (since 1990)
I’ve been coaching worship leaders for 22 years. (since 2002)
However, the last time I was on staff as a worship leader was in 2017.
And the last time I lived in the US was in 2019.
I’m still learning all the new songs (Holy Forever is pretty cool in Spanish, too!) But honestly, even with all that experience and continuing to lead worship regularly, I feel out of touch with what it’s like to be a worship leader on staff at a church in the US, and I need your help.
Ad Lib Music’s passion has always been: “In simple love and pure devotion to Jesus, we are eradicating isolation and burnout so that leaders bear much fruit.” Our team of coaches in Pennsylvania, Texas, Colorado, and Costa Rica continue to embody this mission.
We want to provide the exact support, perspective, and training you need. We want you to be fruitful in worship ministry until you reach 75! Our core services are one-on-one coaching, rehearsal coaching, team training, retreats, audio training, guest worship leading, service evaluations, and worship leader hiring. Everything we do is live, relational, and contextual.
But we want to know what you FEEL the need for. If you’d answer the following questions, it would mean a TON to me. You can just respond to this email or click here for the fancy version.
Do you need more support as a leader or for your team? In other words, are you looking for better training options for your team or yourself?
Where do you currently receive training, encouragement, support, and perspective from?
Where does your team currently receive training, encouragement, support, and perspective from?
What would it look like if you could design the perfect solution for what you wish existed?
Do you wish you could regularly or occasionally hire a Virtual Worship Admin to handle your Planning Center Online, ProPresenter, or Multitracks?
Select all the typical “issues” that apply to your worship services:
Our worship team seems like they’re just performing, not worshiping.
Our worship team mostly stares at their music stands (or the back wall) when leading. Also, they never seem to smile.
Our congregation does not seem to be engaged in worship - most people seem just to watch and listen.
Some vocalists seem to be in their own little “worship world.”
I keep hearing feedback noises.
The drums are too loud!
I can’t hear the vocalists over the instruments.
The harmony singers are louder than the melody. Or I can’t hear the harmony singers.
The music is often too loud (or not loud enough).
People on the stage often start talking when their microphones aren’t turned on.
Every week, the sound quality seems different.
We don’t have enough people for our worship and tech teams.
The music seems to have nothing to do with anything else that’s going on in the service. The different elements during the service seem to be separate events rather than part of a whole. The service doesn’t flow seamlessly from one item to another.
There are often awkward silences between songs.
Our worship leader talks too much.
Our worship leader never says anything - it’s as if he/she wants the song to “do all of the work.”
The lyrics on the screen often don’t match what we’re supposed to be singing.
And ps, you’re not signing up for anything by doing the survey. It's just my way of wanting to see what the average worship leader longs for. So don't feel you’re going to get roped into something you’re not looking for at the moment.
-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)
What Do You Need? (Nº 401)
