See the Person, Not Just the Chair
See the Person Sitting in the Chair
At Worship Support Network we serve thousands of churches every year. We work with nearly 5,000 subcontractors, and we listen to the real stories coming from our teams and our clients.
One observation keeps showing up: it is rare to meet a Worship Leader, Church Musician, or tech pro or volunteer who has never felt taken advantage of by the church.
If you want to see the person — not just the chair — start with that ache. Teammates not tools is not a slogan. It is the difference between a room that uses gifts and a family that carries people.
I’ve been guilty of this. Even when I’m trying not to be. Work is busy. Life is busy. Some weeks the best I can do is stay locked on the next service and get it across the finish line. If that’s you, you’re not alone.
Neither ditch hits the target
Some leaders swing the other way. They constantly ditch mission, discipline, and standards so no one feels used… yet the team walks away uninspired, with no clarity and no purpose.
Love the person more than the chair does not mean lowering the call. It means getting the order right.
Define the calling first. Then build everything else around it.
Communion, then community — including admonishment
John 15 makes it simple. Abide in Jesus. Stay connected to Him. That is communion. Then love one another. Do real community with the people around you.
Real community includes Colossians 3:16: “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.” Teach and admonish one another. That is family language. Admonishment without communion feels like being managed. Communion without truth eventually feels thin.
We’re called to do God with each other, and to do life with each other. Treat teammates like community, not a lineup, and discipline has a home.
Then let the production grow out of what you’re actually experiencing with Him and with one another. Communion before production is not anti-excellence. It is how excellence stays human.
When community is optional, people feel like tools
Take a minute and think about what that could look like in your context. When we treat community as optional, people almost always end up feeling like tools, and eventually even the mission can feel misguided.
When we lead from communion first, God has a way of shaping the services, the production, and the way we carry it all out.
Here’s to building teams that thrive in their calling of communion.
Worship Support Network exists to stand with those teams. Read who we are, how we serve churches, our guest worship leader protips, or start a profile. Likewise, when a chair is empty this week, Worship Support Network’s app makes filling gaps in worship and tech teams easy — and the person who fills it still deserves to be seen.
