By Wisdom Moon
Last August, I accepted a part-time worship director position at a local church here in Kansas City. After just a couple of weeks into my new role, I quickly realized that I needed to recruit more people on the worship team. Sound familiar?
One day I was discussing this challenge with my senior pastor and he said something that I’ll never forget. He told me to look for people who are Faithful, Available, and Teachable. I immediately started to refer to them as FAT people…just so I can remember it easily.
I’ve been leading worship for over 15 years now and this is my favorite phrase so far, that sums up what type of people we should look for.
You know how to shred on the guitar? Great! But, are you a faithful person? Are you faithful to God? …to your spouse and kids? …to your other commitments?
He’s the best bass player in town? Awesome! But, is he available to play on the worship team at least once a month? Is he available and willing to serve in other areas of ministry besides playing the bass? Let’s avoid the I’m-A-Bass-Player-So-I’m-Too-Good-To-Do-Anything-Else Syndrome.
You’ve been singing for 30 years? Wow! That’s incredible! But, are you teachable? Are you willing to continue learning and honing your skill? Are you open to suggestions during rehearsal? Are you able to adapt to our way of leading worship?
When you are desperate for singers and musicians, it can be tempting to lower your standards and just let anyone that has a heartbeat join the team. However, I want to encourage you to look for FAT people. If they don’t seem to be around, be patient and wait for them.
Let’s pray for more FAT people in our churches!!
Wisdom Moon is a husband, father, worship leader, songwriter, and Founder of All About Worship & Kingdom Songs. He was born in South Korea, but spent most of his life in Silicon Valley (California), and currently resides in Kansas with his wife and three kids. Wisdom has been involved in worship ministry for over 20 years. He currently serves on staff at a local church as a part-time Worship Director, helps Christian companies with their digital marketing, as well as continuing to run the day-to-day operations of All About Worship and Kingdom Songs.
That is an awesome way to put it. Ministry is a calling and you need people that understand and believe the message of your church / parish to facilitate and lead by example. Great post!
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a question for you mark-
in a church, should leaders just put people in positions to serve because they need the spots filled or do you wait for the right people who are gifted and anointed to fill the role?
in my estimation, there seems to be a lot of people in the wrong places in churches. I understand that in a small congregation, there frequently aren’t enough volunteers but in large churches, there should be enough to fill the spots correctly.
I have seen WL’s who (it seems apparent) that perhaps they aren’t supposed to be doing that. I have seen drummers that shouldn’t come within a mile of a drumset and yet are drumming on stages.
for myself-I am anointed to play one instrument and I have laser beam focus on that one task. I could play other ones but the blessing won’t be on it.
I really do want to understand the process behind how a church runs/administrates these things thank you.
In a perfect world everyone would be extremely talented and anointed.. but the fact is not everyone is like that. The church just needs Faithful, Available and Teachable people..(FAT).. None of us has it all together.. we’re all on a journey.