WorshipCentral

Hey

We have a rota too... get given a blank one to write down which weeks we are able to play/sing over the next 3 months and then give it back to the person who then sorts out who's definitely playing/singing on which sundays.
Yeh they are good cos you know which weeks you're involved well in advance, and you actually say when you're free, so shouldn't coincide with holidays or whatever.
We aren't able to develop as more than one band really, cos we have limited musicians... 2 keys, one of which drums as well, 2 bassists one of which does guitar as well, 2 flautists, both sing as well, and about 3 or 4 other singers. So we don't exactly have the musiical capacity to develop as more than one band really unless we had certain people in them all. So yeah.
But we find the whole rota thing pretty good cos then everyone knows exactly when they're involved and if something comes up that means they can't do that sunday, they can ring around in advance to get someone else to do it instead (so there isn't a major panic on the sunday).

God Bless
Nic
xxx

I believe rota's build up the team as a whole. Each playing with each other, and in a way brings some consistancy across each service. No band gets better and leaves the others behind, no clicky-ness comes into the team, etc.

I send an email out to all our musicians before doing the rota for the next month, then if they don't get back to me with availability it's their responsibility to sort out a swap. Rota's are good IMO for the reasons mentioned above, everyone gets comfortable playing with everyone else - it takes longer to get to that stage than if you were only playing with one group of people, but you do get there, especially if (as we do) you have a monthly get-together where all the team comes together to play/pray/learn.
Also as others have said we couldn't have fixed bands - we've got a couple of drummers, a few bassists, and about 6 keyboardists etc - so things have to swap around.

www.RESOUNDworship.org
Free New Worship Songs

I have to do rotas, in a similar way to those mentioned previously. I have a llimited amount of musicians and it is crucial to know thier availablity and how to fill in the gaps. At least with a rota, everyone knows when they are going to be playing, and everyone isnt jostling for a place to play when everyone is available.
Over time as well, you get to know everyone strengths and weeknesses pretty well and adjust for them accordingly.
The other thing to watch for is overload, not just from worship but other areas where the worship group members may have roles in the church. Someone needs to have an overview of all of the rotas, not just the worship ones. There is nothing worse stress-wise than having 2 or 3 conflicting roles to play on a Sunday just through bad planning, and it can effect all of the roles you are filling.

God Bless
Neil

We went to a 3-team structure for our service (we also have teams for the other three smaller services) about 18 months ago. We were struggling to integrate a lot of new people and also wanted to explore different groups specialising in different areas. we have a VERY wide range of abilities, ages (from 14 to 60) and expectations in the teams and this way we were able to help people specialise in their particular 'flavour' and mentor people. It meant that we do have quite different worship styles week-to-week but this has proved to be a good thing.

I think rotas are very useful, but for us, when I've drawn up a rota I usually just fill in the worship leader column and let the them choose the musicians, songs etc...

God Bless,

Steve

We use online rostering - absolutely love it.. hillsong & CLC (Auckland) use it too:

http://www.onlinerostering.com

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I Love God - I Love People - I Love Life

Here we have full rotas with worship leader, and the band on the rota for each week. And i think it works really well. Obviously you still have to have the old shuffle around now and then if someone can't make it. But with the bands already being chosen, it spreads everyone out evenly. and also it leads to good continuity each week. So it doesn't end up every other week you have a full band, followed by a week with just guitar and bass.

The bands are pretty much the same for each term or whatever, just so each week you don't have to play with a completely new band or anything, which then makes sound checks and practices take longer.

And then with this all sorted, all the worship leader has to concentrate on is the songs, and not thinking about picking a band each week, and if they are gonna be available or whatever!

A sound man/woman and a visuals person is also put on the same rota, so you don't have the dreaded thing of turning up to sound check an hour before a service and there's no sound guy to do it!

Blessings

i think one of the main barriers to doing rotas for everything is size of church, number of people, and resources.

we're not quite at the stage where we can do a rota for more than the worship leader and AV stuff. we would need about one more of each of the standard instruments to make it work i reckon.

it is actually quite nice having a varied team every time you lead. obviously, for it to work the musicians need to be at a good level to be able to play with different people (which we are very fortunate to have), but i do like having a different set of people each time

See we sorta have a rota but we decide it when we rehearse which is once a month for the month coming up