I agree. The living shall praise the Lord. (Isaiah 38:19)

That's what hit me. You have a full-time paid worship leader whose job revolves around the church music demanding that unpaid volunteers who live half an hour from church, work 50 hrs per week commuting an hour each way must sacrifice time with their family to memorize the music.

Agree! I've been begging our lead worship pastor to have regular practices (even once a month is preferable to none). Right now we just do a run-through on Sunday mornings prior to services. Granted, our church is blessed with some great musicians, but I always feel like I'm playing catch up, even if I've memorized the songs on my own in advance. Practice and memorization are conducive to being more engaged in the service of worship. I pray our leaders understand the value of regular practice.

Yeah most worship music is pretty basic really, not hard to memorize at all, it’s really knowing the meters and nuances of each song.

I often wonder if they ever have listened to the song. Almost all of it is diatonic in nature, if you know the song and you understand basic music theory it's pretty easy. Also it's not a bad idea to actually practice

💯 CCM worship music is literally written to be easy, to be learned and sung quickly by large groups of amateurs. If you can’t pick up a song like that after 1-2 run throughs, you shouldn’t be playing in front of people, you shouldn’t be leading others. You should go home and practice.

OMG YES YES YES!!!! I am a drummer. I have played in bands since I was 7 years old. I am now 56. The ONLY bands that I played in that ever used music stands were orchestras. All school bands we had to memorize our music (again, except concert) and every gigging band I have been in stands were never used. Not even in practices. I am so sick and tired of hearing all the 'stands' people say well even Bob Dylan uses a stand now... Ok..he's 10000 years old!!! (jk..LOVE some Dylan) But I know you have all heard these push-backs. As for our team, I am NOT the paid leader....so I can say what I want (and my leader would say I absolutely do) but I don't control what happens. I HATE music stands. The ONLY time I ever use one is when I am playing a new song with insane drum riffs that I really want to get right. But no one sees my stand. I hate hate hate singers using the stands. And they have stated over and over if the stands go so do they. And when you have under 150 people in your church, you can't (and I get this when the leader says it to me) just piss off those doing this stuff for free. I get it...but I still disagree at times. I am pretty sure that if I were the paid leader there would only be maybe 2 of us on stage.. And no vocalists. LOL UGH!!!!!! And yes chronic lateness. Our practice is 7pm. We usually start about 7:30-7:45 because only 2 of us are ever there before 7pm. Singers show up whenever they feel like it. And the guitar and bass player pretty much the same. This also goes for SUNDAY before service rehearsal. 8am is practice. 9:15 is service. People are showing up (congregation) at 8:30. Sometimes singers don't show up until 8:20-8:30. But again, our team is 7 people. MOST of us play every Sunday 52 weeks a year plus special services. So if these rules were mandatory, I know we would absolutely lose 2 of the people for good. And possibly 4.

I'll jump in here too...and I have a question above as well. I have also played in bands and we never had stands...everything was memorized and actually much more involved, with intrumental harmonizing, tighter breaks and such... you guys know the drill. But the lead sheets we are handed, just before service will be in "who knows what key"...and the chord changes... specifically some slash chords and transition chords are usually different. CCLI lead sheets are usually wrong I feel much of the time, so do you memorize several versions of the same song? My worship leaders are INTENT on changing keys, so whoever the singer is, can sing it...versus learning a song in a set key...and especially NOT considering whether it's easy for the congregation or not. The praise team singer needs are the most important.... and I actually disagree but cant argue with leadership.

Who do the men, women and minors on the team tell if they find themselves breaking the code of conduct? What are the consquence or rewards of confessing?

Glad you found the videos! Please send me an email and I'll help you out 👊