How To Effectively Lead A Team Of Musicians

August 14, 2025•6 min read

"Expressing appreciation for the sacrifice people are making goes a long way to forming solid teams, along with a great sense of mutual love and fellowship as you serve the Lord together."

How do you effectively lead a team of musicians?

Well, this doesn’t really apply to everyone, but quite often you will find that the church piano player ends up in this role. The reason for this is that the piano is a foundational/polyphonic instrument, and so music team leaders are usually pianists or guitarists (unless the lead is vocals only).

So what kind of things should we make sure are in place, if we have the responsibility for leading a team?

I’m going to list 7 keys to effectively leading a team of musicians.

Make sure you are qualified musically and spiritually for the role.

By this, I don’t mean formal qualifications, but rather that you are competent enough in your role to carry it out well. Even more importantly, you must be a faithful follower of Christ, who is (by His grace) not walking in any unrepentant sin or being driven by sinful motives, and you must be in submission to your leaders (in a biblical way). We all sin and need God’s grace and forgiveness, but there’s a difference between lapses into and a willful carrying out of that which we know to be sin.

As I read Scripture, my personal conviction is that the role of a worship leader, depending on how that is carried out, is reserved for men. I don't want to take up time in this post to go down that rabbit hole, but what I'm getting at is when it is clearly a "leadership" position, towards the congregation (rather than just singing vocals or leading with the piano) my conviction is that men should fill this role. It can look very different in each church, obviously. In addition to this, those men should aspire to the qualifications of elders and deacons laid out in 1 Timothy and Titus, as godly character is essential when you are leading God’s people.

Sadly this is taken too lightly, especially in the realm of worship and worship leaders, which has led to much damage in the church and a lot of harmful consequences.

Carefully select your music team members (skill is important, but character is more important)

As mentioned before, godly character is such an important requirement because after all, this is an act of service unto the Lord, and His people. Musical skill is important, and any candidates must be able to play at a basic level, but their faithfulness to the Lord is far more important.

Be willing to have a musician with godly character who is not amazing but still plays fine, rather than a musician who plays amazingly, but is very apathetic and compromised in their faith. That will only lead to problems later on.

Plan well-organized rehearsals, doing all the prep you can to maximize the time.

This relates to things like selecting the music, making sure you have enough copies, and that you have chosen suitable keys and formats of music for each team member. If there are vocalists, you may want to give them lyric-only sheets with larger fonts that are easier to read.

Appreciate the time commitment people give, and don’t take it for granted

A church is often so reliant on its volunteers, and as Christians, we should be willing to serve in our local church. However, we shouldn’t take this for granted. It’s important to be sensitive to those times when a commitment to a church activity may be causing someone to neglect greater priorities. If that’s the case, those people shouldn’t be made to feel guilty.

Expressing appreciation for the sacrifice people are making goes a long way to forming solid teams, along with a great sense of mutual love and fellowship as you serve the Lord together. Make sure the people in your team feel like valued fellow members, not just people who are a means to an end.

Maintain good communication with your pastor/leaders

Remember, they are the ones accountable to God for what happens within the church, so make sure you communicate and list well, and do all you can to make their job a joy not a burden.

Communicate your expectations clearly to team members, and make sure they do the same for you

As I highlighted in a previous post, when you do this, it really does help to minimize relational conflict because everyone knows where they stand.

And then finally, the last point is…

Be pastorally sensitive and prayerfully proactive towards your team members.

It’s not just all about the music. Your team will be made up of brothers and sisters in Christ, and as Christians, we go through different trials, emotional and spiritual difficulties, and we all carry burdens.

As the leader of a music team, we need to be sensitive to this, because it really is more important than the music side of things. However, that’s not the case if you have someone who is constantly draining everyone else by talking about their issues, and that’s why you need to choose team members carefully.

But life does happen, and we bring that to church; and we should because that’s the place we need to be when we’re doing well and when we’re struggling.

This may simply involve you referring someone who is obviously in need of some spiritual care and counsel to a leader, or you can just pray for them and encourage them in the Lord.

That aspect of prayer is important too, so always make sure you have a dedicated time of prayer in your rehearsals, and on the Sunday morning before you lead the worship time.

One thing I have loved seeing is when a worship team doesn’t just pray before the service, but also when it’s over - they come together again and thank the Lord. It’s a beautiful thing to see and be a part of!

Now, just to recap, here are the 7 points on how to effectively lead a team of musicians…

Make sure you are qualified musically and spiritually for the role
Carefully select your music team members (skill is important, but character is more important)
Plan well-organized rehearsals doing all the prep you can to maximize that time.
Appreciate the time commitment people give, and don’t take it for granted
Maintain good communication with your pastor/leaders
Communicate your expectations clearly to team members, and make sure they do the same for you
Be pastorally sensitive and prayerfully proactive towards your team members.

If you are, or will be, leading a team of musicians, I hope this has helped encourage you how to navigate it in a way that brings unity within the team, and glorifies God.

[Return to The Church Piano Player Website]

This blog post was written by pastor and pianist Kris Baines, from The Church Piano Player. Kris lives in the UK with his family, having recently moved back from New Zealand where he worked as a pastor for the past 26 years (also leading worship/worship teams). Kris has also spent over 35 years writing, recording, and performing music and is now bringing all that combined experience together to help equip church piano/keyboard players.

Check out the church piano player website for more information on online courses by Kris Baines.