Guided Coaching & Newsletter Recommendation

By Worship Strategies

What Is Guided Coaching?

Everybody loves a good story, especially the ones that tell of a hero who goes on a quest to defeat an evil villain, pushing through all odds and danger to win the day.

But do you know one the most essential parts of telling a great hero story?

Every one of your favorite blockbuster films has this, whether it's "Star Wars," "Harry Potter," or "The Karate Kid"—they all have one thing in common:

Every hero has a guide to help them along their journey.

Think about it: Would Luke Skywalker have been able to destroy the Death Star and vanquish the Galactic Empire without the wise ObiWan Kenobi? Or would Harry Potter have been able to defeat the evil Lord Voldemort without Albus Dumbledore to teach him? What about Danny LaRusso's triumph at the All-Valley Karate Championship—would it have been possible without Mr. Miyagi?

Yeah, I don't think so.

In a worship team, we don't necessarily have the usual character types you see in a film or novel. But if we view our team members individually as the "hero" within their own development, then that's where a "guide" is needed to help them make progress in their journey.

The Lone Wolf

If you've ever heard my story of becoming a musician, then you'll know that my experience is of mostly being "self-taught," especially as a guitarist. In my teenage years, I mostly learned techniques on my own, with a handful of occasional lessons before moving beyond what the teacher was able to instruct.

But this mostly autodidactic approach isn't exactly true; I had other teachers in my musical upbringing, ranging from piano instructors to band directors and worship team leaders who gave a lot of input along the way. I used much of what I learned from them in my guitar playing, but the finer points of technique were up to me to learn from whatever resource I could grab along the way. (This was pre-YouTube, so my resources were limited.)

I thought I was doing just fine; after all, I could "hang" with musicians much older than myself and consistently deliver every week in whatever I was doing. But my eyes were opened when I got to college, and I quickly became acutely aware of how lacking my musicianship and technique actually was compared to other peers.

Enter: the Guide(s).

Thankfully, I came under the guidance of several teachers who taught me what it meant to really dig into a piece, study, or technique. There were rocky moments along the way, but by the time I ended my academic career in music, I was in a wholly different place as a musician, thanks to the encouragement, guidance, and input from several mentors. Since then, I've regularly relied on check-ins with mentors and immersing myself among more capable musicians to keep the momentum going, and I've really enjoyed the growth.


The Guide for the Worship Team

For those of you who direct the music programs at your church, you have a unique opportunity to guide your junior musicians and other volunteers into higher levels of excellence and authenticity through guiding them in musicianship and discipleship.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, this often comes down to vocalists and lead players who need a more direct approach when progressing/learning, but this kind of guidance equally applies to everyone in the band. It all comes down to communication and meeting these team members where they're at, incrementally prodding them to advance more and more.

Much like the "wax on, wax off" method used by Mr. Miyagi, or ObiWan telling Luke to "trust [his] senses" when attempting to block laser bolts while wearing a blinded helmet, you as the leader need to guide your team members with communication they understand and give them challenges that aren't overwhelming to achieve. After some time, this all translates into a "new normal" for them, where what was previously hard becomes easy and second-nature to perform.

A couple of keys/examples:

  • Keep your communication simple. Complicated jargon and higher levels of theory are overkill, and I guarantee your team members' eyes will glaze over if you try to defend your request with an exhaustive explanation of chord theory and density of textures. Just say: "Sing/play this note, it fits the chord changes better."

  • When it comes to technique, especially for singers, look for opportunities for them to move beyond strict chord tones and explore things like suspensions. Oftentimes, when we come to a 5 chord that resolves to a 1 chord, there's an opportunity to throw in a suspension from the 4th to the 3rd of the chord. (Not every time will work though; treat this with discretion.) Many singers will default to arriving directly on the 3rd, but if you set them up to delay that arrival and sing the next note above, then they'll eventually catch it. Just be sure that the band is also playing the suspension to avoid confusing dissonances that will throw off the singer. Similar approaches can be used for your instrumentalists, whether it's a slightly more complicated drum groove, bass line, or lead pattern.

  • Sometimes, those who lead the singing may misspeak or get their words mixed up in their exhortations, resulting in theological errors being communicated to the congregation. In these cases, it's important to demonstrate correct communication when conveying doctrine, and if you notice a persistent pattern of error, take the opportunity to gently educate the whole team how to effectively deliver exhortation in worship. This can look like a devotional time prior to rehearsal, or it can be a separate Bible study time.

For you "heroes" out there, please understand this: Corrective words are NOT meant to be a blow to your self-worth. It can be frustrating and humbling to receive correction, but always view it as a chance to improve. Sure, there will be cases where the correction is condescending or is blinded to what you are able to do, but all you need to do is respond with: "Sure thing, I'll make that happen." If you experience multiple times where your leaders consistently talk down or belittle you, then ask for a private conversation where you can work out a solution.

Remember that the overall goal is to bring the highest level of excellence as an offering to our LORD—and it takes the combination of mentee and mentor to bring your team to the next level, always focusing on humility and service when making the improvements.

I don’t know about you, but catching the news is such a drag these days, especially as a Christ follower. This is mostly because of the persuasive bias that pervades the commentary, vying to hit your pain points so that you’ll consume more and more. In the end, you just worked up into a frenzy in the constant “us-vs.-them” cycle.

Well, the last few weeks have been different since I started reading a new source for catching the news; it’s called “The Pour Over.”

“The Pour Over” is a free newsletter that catches you up with the major news of the day, giving a balanced perspective of the facts and always circling back to a Christian worldview to make sense of what is happening through a Biblical lens.

If you want to take a breather from the fray, then grab your free subscription to “The Pour Over” here:

Be blessed 👊✌️