Pulse Check for Musicians

Intro and background

We should start by checking that your worship band have an established leader, know why they're playing and singing together, and are happy to be under the authority of the church leader or council.

This Pulse Check will help your choir / music group / worship band establish how well they're doing the stuff, and will provide pointers to iron out concerns, problems and rise to challenges.

If your band is working well and your congregation is going out closer in their walk with God you may not need this. If you’d like to know where your group thinks it’s going, then this easy to use tool will give the group members themselves the way of putting their finger on the pulse. The tool demands the highest levels of honesty and humility, but it will help your worship band or music group to serve your congregation and the wider community.

Pulse Check for Musicians and Choirs

All the worship band or music group need to do is:

... agree on the validity of the statements as the key essentials, and

... vote confidentially on a scale of 1-4 for each one where 1 means I strongly agree and 4 means I strongly disagree.

Encourage your musicians that this will help them to recognise where they're working well together to welcome in God's kingdom, lead the people in their devotion to their Father, and send the congregation out to fulfil God's calling on their lives. Of course it will also help the band to realistically work on any areas they're serving themselves more than God.

Each member should work on their own. Add up the scores and work on whichever you all think is the priority. You may need to unpack any reasons for your prioritisation.

1 Our musical director is a good all-round leader

2 We work together in discerning God's will

3 All members of the band know God's calling

4 Issues are always dealt with in an open way

5 Each of us spends time nurturing our gifts and talents

6 We are always honest with each other

7 Each band member respects God's gifting in each other

8 We know we're pulling in the same direction

9 We're happy to play golden oldies as well as write new material

10 We all submit to God, the church leader and each other

11 We sing and play to enable others to live as God wants us to live

12 We feel ready to pass on God's gifting in us to others

Further help

We may be able to help with confidential summary scattergrams and facilitation to help point out the group’s strengths and weaknesses. Take the opportunity for the director/conductor/lead musician to facilitate and enable growth in advance of decline or other catastrophe.