Having a Music Director in your worship band isn’t new.
Churches worldwide have implemented this role in various ways, and over the last several years, The Austin Stone has done the same.
Here’s how the Music Director (MD) role has helped our church’s worship bands lead our people well, and the characteristics to look for in a Music Director to maximize a worship team’s potential.
At some churches, the Music Director role can be pretty complicated. For us, the MD is any band member who listens to the band as a unit and gives cues through a talkback mic. Cues range from transitions and reminders of specific parts (such as rhythmic hits or unique sections) to guiding dynamics during a less-structured moment. While we expect all our musicians to know every song by heart, an MD’s support voice can help build confidence across the band.
Why does confidence matter? We could say we value excellence or want to minimize distractions caused by mistakes, but the most important thing is this: we want our bands to lead worship with authenticity!
Think of it this way. A prepared band has to think less about executing the song and can devote more attention to the lyrics, their meaning, and the congregation’s participation. As musicians, the more we have to think about the parts we’re playing, the less attention we have to devote to worship itself.
Please don’t misunderstand—MD cues cannot replace an individual’s preparation for a song, but they can help lock in that preparation.
MDs also help because things inevitably shift from the morning’s plan. Sometimes a set offers a more open moment, or leading worship for a special event allows for more spontaneity. At other times, technology breaks down, or the band falls out of sync.
Whatever the case, the holiness of our worship comes from our hearts and minds dwelling on and proclaiming the words of our songs together as one church, and that can happen in a planned or unplanned way. So, having one person run point in those moments gives the band the confidence to know what to do next, whether it's a quick pivot or a major change.
Our church used to be very “band-centric,” where a band mostly stayed together with a particular worship leader. Because they spent so much time playing together, bands could build chemistry and sometimes handle change smoothly without someone saying anything on a talkback mic.
However, as we’ve embraced a congregational volunteer-based model, band members likely change each week, making an MD’s cues during a set even more important.
Being an MD in a band isn’t rocket science, but it does require specific ingredients to succeed. Those things are a servant’s heart, musicianship, and a good setup.
“Having a servant’s heart” can sound cliché for church volunteers, but the truth is, no matter your role, we’re all called to serve others as Christ served us. We love God by loving others. This isn’t optional; the New Testament repeats it over and over again:
“And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, ‘If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.’” (Mark 9:35)
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12–13)
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace…” (1 Peter 4:10)
A servant’s heart is especially important as an MD, because you are primarily there to serve others. In such a creative and public role, it’s tempting to “show off” or get frustrated. But cueing a band is for heir benefit, not yours.
What does this mean when a band member is missing their parts? The call is still the same as Philippians 2:3—you consider them more important than yourself. This means you see them as more than “just a band member”; help them get through the moment, and don’t use the mic to humiliate them.
What you say in moments of mistakes greatly affects the band’s morale. I remember times when a trusted MD helped me laugh it off or even cover for mistakes because they knew me so well and could give the right encouragement to get me back into a worshipful posture.
You also have to care about more than just your own parts. I’m an electric lead player at our church, and if I only cared about the cool lines I get to play in a song, then I’ve only served myself. Some songs also put my instrument in a back seat, and that doesn’t mean I get to check out, especially as an MD. You are not there to dominate, but to elevate everyone else!
It’s one thing to care about instruments other than yours, but it’s something else to focus on them while you play your own parts! This one boils down to one thing: preparation.
First, you must be prepared in your instrument's craft. As an electric guitar player, I have to know my parts well enough that I don't have to think about them constantly. This is challenging, because if I can play a song correctly while focusing 100% on my parts, I'm not done preparing. I must admit, I don’t always get this right. At my best, I can guide the band while paying attention to my parts with only 70% (or less) of my brain. The more a song can be played correctly with divided attention, the more capacity is left over to serve others. Sometimes you need this; sometimes you don’t. Either way, you need capacity to give, and the only way to build capacity is through preparation!
Second, you should be familiar with the role of each instrument enough to have a competent conversation with each band member. I am entirely unskilled as a drummer, but I know enough about the feels and dynamics needed in different songs and moments to have a productive conversation with a real drummer. Is a part too hard to pull off cleanly? Offer ways to simplify it that stay in the same lane as the original. Does someone have another idea? Listen genuinely to them and help them figure out a way to express their creativity without taking the “worship” out of the song. You don’t have to play everything, but a good MD has experience studying and understanding each instrument’s role in a song.
What equipment helps MDs be successful? Not every church has the same equipment or setup, so this might not apply to everyone, but MDs at The Stone use talkback mics. This works great for us because we utilize in-ear monitors at almost all worship events.
Talkback mics are tricky to balance in a mix. If it’s too loud, you get lots of background noise taking up space. If it’s too quiet, you can’t hear what the MD is saying when everyone is playing. It can definitely help to pan the MD mic to just one side because your brain can pick out sounds from just one ear a bit easier, but that’s ultimately a matter of preference (I typically run MDs down the middle of my mix).
One way to help with noise is by putting a gate on the mic. Most soundboards can gate a channel, which mutes the mic until the volume crosses a threshold and the gate opens. This is also tricky to balance because a gate that is too weak opens during loud parts (defeating the purpose), and a gate that is too strong can cut off MD cues altogether. To combat this, you can physically gate the mic with a foot pedal (push-to-talk) or use an optical gate that senses your distance from the mic and opens when you’re close. I’ve had the most success with optical gates because they're hands-free, letting me play guitar while my feet run the pedalboard. I use the D’Addario IR Mic Mute, which I highly recommend!
I also think it’s advantageous for the MD to control (or at least view) tracks during a song (if you use them). To reduce brain overload, it helps an MD see what the tracks will do next and avoid lapses; nothing’s more confusing than the MD saying one thing and the tracks doing another. The tracks are the only thing that can’t react to an MD cue!
The MD controlling tracks also makes it faster to pivot, whether in a planned spontaneous moment or when something goes wrong. While not always possible, the person who can talk to the band in real time can react the quickest in any given moment. It’s not about competence in running a tracks rig, no matter how good we are; it’s always slower to tell someone else to start/stop, skip to a section, or make a tracks mix change on the spot. Taking the telephone game out of the picture lets us pivot faster and get back to focusing on worshiping Jesus.
A skilled MD can help direct the band, but more than anything, they provide structure and guidance so the band can worship as they lead the church. The whole point of worship is for our hearts and minds to dwell on and proclaim the words of worship we’re all singing together.
The MD isn’t meant to complicate things; woe to us who walk away from a worship set glorifying our own performance! All of these ideas serve one purpose: more authentic worship.
Jeff Amstutz is an advocate, guitarist, music director, and a South deacon.
