Jathan Good

In June, after months of being forced to hold worship services in an online-only format (thanks to COVID-19), California churches were allowed to begin meeting in person again. This time, with a limit of 100 people or 25% of the building’s capacity. Just a few weeks later, Governor Newsom ordered that churches “discontinue singing” while gathered for worship services. This resulted in an uproar from many Christians. How can we hold a worship service without worshiping? How can the government dictate whether we praise God or not? Didn’t Jesus say that we must sing?

As a worship leader, your first priority is to lead your team. If I’ve learned anything about leading teams over the past 23 years in ministry, it’s that the culture of the team determines the effectiveness of the team. Create a culture of camaraderie and connectedness, and your team will be much more effective.

With the government temporarily requiring churches around the nation to shut their doors in response to COVID-19, online worship services are becoming the new norm. We don’t know how this will affect the way we do church in the long term. For the next few weeks or months, your church needs to figure out how to make an online worship service feel more like the real thing and welcome people who’ve never experienced a live stream service before.