Last week, I talked about the great importance of building a pipeline to raise up worship leaders. If you have not yet read that article, please do so before checking this one out. 

So often, we have great intentions—wanting to mentor someone or lead our teams in a study that can transform their thinking about worship leading—but we just don’t know where to start.

Now there is a resource that will guide you every step of the way in training your worship teams and investing in mentoring relationships. And the leader’s guide and participant journals are free — you just need to print them.

Here is what you have available to you:

Weekly Study for Mentoring Relationships

A vital, yet often overlooked, aspect of a worship leader’s ministry is the intentional act of replication. Identifying and mentoring a successor is not merely about ensuring the music continues; it is discipleship at its core. This person might be a teenager with a burgeoning passion for leading others in worship, or perhaps a faithful adult on the worship team who demonstrates clear potential and a humble heart. The process of pouring into another person—training, encouraging, and empowering them to lead—is a direct reflection of the Great Commission. To make this essential task more accessible, this leader’s guide for The Worship Ministry Guidebook simplifies the entire journey. A current worship leader needs only to identify the person or persons they feel called to mentor, and together they can walk through the guidebook in less than a year, building a firm foundation for the ministry’s future. This study is structured to be accomplished in 10-12 months.

Weekly Study for Worship Teams

In addition to one-on-one mentorship, this leader’s guide also facilitates a comprehensive 7-month study to lead your entire worship team through relevant sections of the book. This group experience is designed to get everyone on the same page, cultivating a shared and deep understanding of the true biblical meaning of worship. It will unify your team by clarifying what it means to be a worship leader—a calling every member of the team shares—and equip them with practical skills to guide your congregation beyond singing songs into powerful, transformational encounters with God.

Monthly Cohort of Worship Leaders

Additionally, the study guides and journals can be used with a monthly cohort of worship leaders. Each participant would need a copy of The Worship Ministry Guidebook and the Advanced Participant Journal. The group leader would need a copy of the Leader’s Guide. Participants would work through the book, answering the questions in the journal in the weeks prior to their meeting. Any number of individual studies could be assigned per month, depending on how much work the group wants to do each week. When they meet monthly, the leader would guide them through selected questions and a discussion of their reading material.

In-Depth Personal Study

For a worship leader who wants to go deep with the study, they would work through the Advanced Edition of the Participant Journal to guide them through the Guidebook. They may find the resources in the Leader’s Guide to be a valuable bonus in their work.

The Materials

The Worship Ministry Guidebook

The text serves to provide the content of the material. This is a guidebook that walks you through every aspect of leading worship in the church– understanding what worship is, what it means to be a worship leader, how to plan worship that truly engages your people, how to prepare everyone for leading worship, and finally, practical instruction in many areas of worship, such as speaking between songs, platform presence, musical transitions between songs, creating a worship service with flow and direction, and much more.

The Worship Ministry Guidebook is now available in Spanish and Chinese. The study guides are currently only available in English.

The Leader’s Guide

This guide provides the leader with everything they need to lead the study for teams, mentors, and monthly cohorts. The guide provides 30 weeks of regular studies, 13 bonus studies (for the advanced track), and 14 projects to help participants go even deeper in their study. The Leader’s Guide includes material summaries, reading assignments, and discussion questions to help prepare for group studies and lead them well. The study offers significant flexibility to help you tailor it to your needs.

The Participant Journal: Advanced Edition

There are two journal options for this study: the Advanced Edition and the Team Edition. The Advanced Edition is for mentoring relationships, personal study to go deep into the book, and for cohort groups. A copy of this Journal should be given to each participant in these tracks along with a copy of the Guidebook. It will guide their weekly work.

Within the journal are weekly reading assignments and questions specific to those assignments with room for the participant to write their answers. The Advanced Edition includes the 30 basic weekly studies, all 13 bonus studies, and the 14 projects. 

The Participant Journal: Team Edition

The Team Edition is for worship teams. A copy of this Journal and a Guidebook should be given to each participant. It will guide their weekly work. The Team Edition includes all 30 basic studies, skipping sections of the book that may not be relevant to all worship team members.

Within the journal are weekly reading assignments and questions specific to those assignments, with room for the participant to write their answers.

Leader’s Guide Plan

Weekly Instructions

• • Each week, a specific reading section is assigned in the participant journal.
  • The participant journal includes questions to be answered in preparation for the group sessions.
  • Additional questions are provided in the leader’s guide to facilitate group discussion, but the leader should feel free to modify or add questions to suit their group’s needs and ministry setting
  • The guide serves leaders of both mentoring studies and worship team studies.
    • Worship team study – There are 30 weeks of studies, skipping sections of the book that may not be relevant to all worship team members. The Team Journal does not include the bonus sections, but you can simply print the bonus studies you would like to cover from the advanced journal to work through that material. You can also eliminate some weeks or assign a few to at-home study. Some studies may be spread over two weeks to allow for in-depth exploration. This guide is to serve you in discipling your team, so use it as you feel it will be most valuable.
    • Mentoring study – Complete the 30 weeks of worship team studies PLUS the 13 bonus studies. 
      • This plan encompasses study of the entire book, as all sections are relevant. 
      • The mentoring study may be conducted one-on-one or involve leading a group of people on a shared journey. 
      • Throughout this study, suggestions are provided for bonus projects that can be assigned to help the mentee better grasp the material. Leaders are encouraged to think of ways to help those they are leading delve deeper into the material by adding other relevant assignments along the way. The projects, while referenced in the weekly lessons, are detailed at the end of the guide. The projects are included in both the Leader’s Guide and the Advanced Participant Journal. Additionally, the projects can be printed out individually for use.

LEADING TEAM GROUP SESSIONS

• • Pray for God’s guidance as you lead these sessions.
  • Sessions can last 30 minutes or more, depending on the depth of discussion.
  • Be mindful of time constraints and adapt the sessions to meet the needs of your group.
  • Some weeks may require less time, while others may need more.
  • Make prayer a part of each session.

Flexibility in the Study

• • Some sections may be skipped or completed individually, depending on your discretion as the worship leader/planner.
  • The bonus sections are to be utilized for the mentoring program and generally skipped for the worship team study since these sections deal with issues that may not be of importance to most worship team members.
  • Use these discussions as opportunities to encourage, equip and mentor team members and help them grow into new responsibilities.

• Goal of the Study

  • The goal of this study is to help your team gain a deeper understanding of biblical servanthood in worship leadership.
  • The study aims to increase passion and participation in transformational worship, pointing people to Jesus Christ.
  • The study will provide a great way to begin a mentoring relationship with a person you invite to journey with you.

  Chapter Reviews

  • At the end of each major chapter, there is a review study to help your team summarize the concepts of the previous weeks of study.
  • Highly Recommended: Consider scheduling a special meeting to review the chapter, allowing 60-90 minutes to help your team grasp the significance of the material. 
  • Note: It is difficult to cover the chapter reviews in a short session.

Take a look at page excerpts from the study guides

Look around you in your church and community and identify someone who shows the character and giftedness to be a worship leader. It might be a student or someone who has been on the worship team for years and is sensing a call to go further.  Who will you invest in?