I would agree on many counts with what Matt Osgood has written. I have been a part time worship pastor before and can vouch for making sure you are following the right path that God may be leading you on. One of the harder things to do in my life has been to turn down Worship Pastor positions; believing that God had me exactly where he wanted me to be and to not just go for the sake of the position. I still am not back in ministry on a paid position basis but have to say that I am incredibly grateful for where my family and I are located and amazed at what God is doing in our home church. Thanks for sharing your heart Will and it would be great to hear how your journey is coming. Joe

Will, in many ways I'm in the same boat. I've volunteered for nearly 10 years at a local Church doing small groups and very small youth events. I often wonder, "what now?" I think everyone else's posted thoughts are wonderful; I'd highlight the importance of contentment. I think it’s easy error in trying to write out how things should look for leading worship; i.e. a progression from small groups and volunteer work to paid positions and larger groups/crowds. But such ambitions, if they are left to themselves, aren't really the point of leading worship. I think it is so easy to get caught up in creating your ministry that you stop ministering. I'm presuming a little based on my own experience and don't mean to project anything onto you! By all means, keep searching and planning because those are good things. I don't mean to neglect their importance. It’s just so easy to get ahead of God if the “worship pastor” thing is left to plans alone.

Churches will tend to be looking for a combination of training/experience/calling/gifting/character. Some of those you can work on on your own, or in your church, others you may need to look further afield. In the same way that, if you thought God was calling you to be a violinist you'd look for vioilin lessons, there are different places you can look for some of the training and experiences that churches might look for. Two things to consider would be: London School of Theology run a course in Theology, Music and Worhsip, and increasingly graduates from that excellent course a finding their way in worship pastor positions (or equivalent). You can do a full degree course, or part time certificate. There are a growing number of internships available with Worship pastors in UK churches. You spend a year working closely with someone in exactly the role you're looking to fulfil. Both of these will likely leave you not terribly well off at the end financially, but put you in an excellent position to look at taking up a post somewhere. In the past few years I've had 4 'intern's , three of whom have gone on to work for churches in a similar role so I'd really recommend it. People often begin recruiting around feb/mar time.

I'd guess that 98% of worship pastors (team leaders) in the UK are not paid. So the 'progression' from volunteer, small groups up to full-time and big churches is not a logical or linear one. Being a worship leader is not a career, but a calling. That's not to say that being paid as a worship pastor is in any way wrong, just that I think it's pretty unusual - certainly in the UK. Matt www.worshiplifesongs.com - Free worship songs www.picturemotive.tv - Creative video production resourcing churches