At Field Church, we exist to adore Jesus.

Worship and prayer are our number one priority, and we want to create spaces where together we can encounter the Living God. Our worship team is key to helping lead our people into His presence when we meet, and we want to build a strong worship-leading community that feels like family.

Our approach and values

As Jesus followers, our number one aim is to glorify God and enjoy being with Him. It is our privilege as worship leaders to help create environments where other people can encounter Him and worship Him too. As a worship team at Field, we want to create a culture of joy, honesty and excellence. Practically, this looks like: being part of a team and serving regularly; preparing well for practice; turning up on time; committing to discipleship in a small group setting and having fun!

FAQs

So what does it look like to be part of the worship team family?

We are really excited about building an intentional, passionate community of worship leaders and band members. There are training opportunities, song-writing sessions, worship nights, retreat weekends and social gatherings where we can hang out and enjoy each other's company. Like with being part of any family, it will require an element of sacrifice and commitment… but it is worth it!

Do you run training sessions?

Highlights from our summer training sessions can be found below, along with two video training sessions.

How do I join the team?

We would love to hear from you if you are interested in joining the team! Please get in touch with us at hi@field.church and let us know if you have experience as a singer or play an instrument. We anticipate introducing seasonal auditions (watch this space!) and will require you to watch the training videos coming soon.

Training for Team Members

We’ve created some notes on our training sessions on ‘The Heart of Worship’ and ‘The Mechanics of Leading Worship’. Please read or watch the videos of these teachings below.

Session 1 - The Heart of Worship

Why do we worship? We worship simply because He is worthy of our worship. Have you found Him worthy? Of your life? Of your Sunday? Of practicing your scales, so you’re ready to improvise? Have you found Him worthy of the Gospel? We don’t worship God because of what we can get from Him. We worship because of who He is.

Why does God command us to worship? God is the most perfect being. When we express ourselves it’s the completion of our joy in Him. Worship is good for us, for it is where our joy is completed. Psalm 34 says ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good.’ Whilst you can see for miles, to taste you have to be really close, and there is a transaction of mutual delight.Worship is the pathway to joy. When we look at Jesus and contemplate Him, we are transformed into His likeness - we become like what we behold (2 Cor 3.18). We also find freedom in worship, through feeding on truth (Col 3.16). Much of our formation comes through songs.  We worship with both mind and heart; the mind is being engaged with truth and the heart is responding to the beauty of God. Both have to be happening at the same time to change us and produce fruit. If the heart is engaged but not the mind, it will lack something in our lives, and vice versa. Are we living more laid-down lives as a result of our worship? 

What does this look like in preparation for a Sunday morning/leading a worship set?A worship leader should be like a great waiter. Be aware of what is going on in the room. Don’t interrupt too much, but do anticipate the needs of the people. There are also times when you need to lead, to sing out the Father’s heart. Prepare. Preparation is the platform for spontaneity. We have this idea that spontaneous and prophetic can only be in the moment, but you can prepare it, and it’s no less prophetic. However, despite your preparation, you need to be ok to lay it down. It’s more important that you obey His leading in the moment if He’s doing something different. Prepare, but hold it lightly.When listening and learning a song, ask yourself, ‘Do I know the revelation it carries?’ This is the key to anointing; if you’ve received the revelation that a song is carrying, when you lead it, it will be powerful because it’s coming from somewhere real and authentic. Ask yourself, ‘What does this song carry? What’s the revelation here, and do I know it?’ Your job is to lead people into the presence - to take their hand and take God’s hand and join them together.

Finally, do you have a vision for why you are leading worship? This is one of the most important things about worship leading. Something that is a privilege can turn into a burden if you don’t have a vision for why you are doing what you are doing. Dig deep. Why am I on this team? Why do I turn up on a Sunday?

Session 2 - The Mechanics of Leading

The Heart of a Worship Leader - The core characteristic of a worship leader is service. Your heart is to serve God and serve His people, by helping people to fall in love with, and capture, a vision of Jesus. You communicate Who He is through worship, preaching and your lives. A clear example is the parable of the ten virgins: we can’t share our oil, but we can help people to get their own oil, and that is key! Worship leading is a ministry of reconciliation: it is missional, and we are proclaiming the Gospel and telling of his works, so have that mindset when you come into worship.

When you are leading worship, have compassion on your people and where they are at. The tone you use is really important. Acknowledge where everyone is at and gently shepherd people into the Presence. Learn how to handle the moment where people are not with you and it feels hard. You can use it as an opportunity to explain and teach people why we are doing this. Ultimately, it’s not about us or them, but it’s about lifting the name of Jesus high. We would worship even if God didn’t come, simply because He is worthy of our worship.

Practical Tips

Opening worship:

Worship leaders are hosts in many settings. If there is a dedicated host (ie Sunday morning), you must connect with the host before the set. Work together on how/who will open.

You could share a scripture, testimony, or something encouraging that will help people to get into the right place. Keep it short. You can introduce yourself which helps people connect with you. You need to gain the trust of your people - they will only come with you if they trust you. 

Closing worship:

This depends on where you arrive. You need to match the energy of what’s gone before you, and don’t leave a space. Keep it simple. 

Where a host is present, worship leaders need to work with them. There needs to be a connection - keep your eyes open, and communicate beforehand. Transitions are so important and need to be managed really well. In general, worship leaders need to learn to be good hosts and communicate a lot more to explain what we’re doing.

Building a set:

Often, there will be a particular song that’s going to be ‘the one’. You may want to position this as the third song in, and then consider, how do I help people get ready for that revelation? Choose songs that help define what we’re doing, or paint a picture of God. It usually tends to be something a bit more high tempo. Then pick something similar mid-tempo. Then sing the ‘sweet spot’ song. Finally, have in your back pocket lots of choruses ready to choose from, to respond to what God is doing. There are also things you can do to bridge or transition the moments in between: you can pray, talk about it, sing about it, or sing prophetically. Allowing the people to hear the truth as they are waiting will build a holy anticipation. Then when you start singing a song they know, people are with you! Similarly, during a time where people are sharing testimonies, you can sing something simple and prophetic in response to what they have shared. This brings everyone together and cements what God is saying.