10 Tips to a Better Rehearsal

By Jon Nicol

Read Part 1: 1 - 4
Read Part 2: 5 - 6

7. If you’re the leader, lead.
Don’t be afraid to take charge. A worship team should never be a full democracy. Often times in churches we have this misguided sense that we’re all in this together and there’s an equal say. But there’s a clear theme of leadership and authority structure in the New Testament.

As a leader, should I be open to suggestions? To constructive feedback? To the fact that my way might not be the best or right way? Yes. But when the call or decision needs to be made, I need to make it.

And remember, this is servant leadership. But it’s still leadership.

[And if you want to go even deeper on that idea of a servant leader, check out this 45 second description of a “level 5 leader” from Jim Collin’s book Good to Great.*]

8. Don’t be afraid NOT to run the whole song.
This was alluded to in #3. But it’s important enough to be it’s own point. If a song is well know by the team, don’t waste time playing it all the way through. Work on the intro, the outro and any section of the song that might cause a stumble.

And like it was mentioned in #3, use your well-worn song as a warm-up or sound-check tune. Or open your rehearsal by using this song to worship together as a team.

9. Institute a No-Noodle Policy.
Instruments (and voices) need to stop when the leader or another person is talking or working out something. This is a respect issue.

Let your team know that if the issue at hand doesn’t pertain to them, they can work out what they need to work out with their instrument volume at zero. Vocalists, acoustic guitarists and drummers…you might be out of luck on this one.

10. Get your team in the habit of marking up their charts.
You may need to resolve to say “write this down” or “mark this spot” each time a change is made or a problem area arises. Eventually it’ll catch on. At least I’m hoping it will for my team…

And just to enable this, keep a replenishing supply of cheap mechanical pencils at your rehearsal space.

So there's 10 tips to make our rehearsals better. I know you've got some great rehearsal techniques that I didn't mention here. Add those below; we'd love to hear them.

*Disclosure: Amazon affiliate link