How to Recruit Musicians (without adding more to your plate)

I’ve never met a worship leader who didn’t want to add more people to their team. Most of us love adding new folks, expanding our creative potential as a band, and seeing musicians do something special with their talent. 

Most of us; however, run into an issue. There’s no time to recruit people to their team. Sunday morning is busy! There’s set up, technical issues, people running late, sound check, service, tear down, and more. For most of us it’d be crazy to add something else to the list. So, here’s my solution: don’t! Don’t add something else to the list. Delegate it. 

Sometimes I’m not sure leaders know they can do this. But try delegating recruitment. Of course, you’ll have to step in at some point, but at least on Sunday mornings, give it to someone else. 

 Here’s how: Appoint a person or two on your team to become worship ministry recruiters. Make it their job to leave stage after service and talk to church members. Have them hang out in the lobby, go to next steps or growth track classes, and spend time connecting with the church with the intention of finding musicians. (Pro tip- this is even easier if you have another band member tear down the recruiters equipment so they can get to the people faster)

 Who might that person be? I always want someone more extraverted in this role, I’m sure you can see why! I also want it to be someone who has been around a while and knows the heart of the ministry, our vision, and how we operate. I want them to be able to speak confidently and clearly about what we do! Some of those talking points may be instruments we’re looking to add, vision of the worship team, schedule (rehearsal/Sunday morning), or why they love serving. 

 What happens when they find someone who’s interested? At that point, the recruiters point the musician to the worship leader. At times, I’ve set aside specific times in my calendar for meetings with interested musicians. If that’s the case, the recruiters can even book a meeting for me! At other times, I just have the recruiter get the name, email, and phone number of the musician send it to me later on. 

 From there, all I have to do is follow up! I go to the meeting, type up the email, or make the phone call to answer any other questions and discuss the audition process. 

Delegating recruitment can relieve a lot of Sunday morning stress! And if you’re like me, you’ll find other people are way better at recruiting than you are! Try finding a couple people to take over recruitment this week!