Darcy Watkins – October 4, 2024
I am part of a tiny minority of worship musicians who are still welcomed even though my age approaches that of senior citizenship. The comments I get from younger folk is that I don’t force an “old” style on the team, and I learn the newer ways to play the instrument to fit the team.
What happens when you get pushed out of the worship team? What do you do when you no longer “fit” the worship team? This seems a contradiction to the whole idea of ministry, we are set apart, not aside. I call this “worship in mid-life crisis”. That is mainly because I am now in my 60’s. It happens to people much younger, and not just due to agism.
I have enjoyed a long-haul worship ministry, not one of fame. No record albums, no big concert tours, no fame to the name “Darcy Watkins”, but I have written numerous worship songs. No Dove awards, no labels or recording contracts, but some of my songs have been (and some still are) used in worship at some churches. I led worship ministries at a department head level for about 15 years and have participated as part of worship teams my whole adult life, pretty much since I was saved at the age of 21.
Since I always look younger than I am, it was a longer run before reaching the point where I “looked” like I should perhaps do less up-front worship leading. At that point, I was still a department head, providing leadership to the teams and worship leaders. That has since passed. Every church I have been a part of since, I have served on the worship team, usually after enjoying a time of rest to get to know the people. I still feel welcome as part of my present church’s worship team. When I attend worship conferences, it is not unusual that I encounter someone in ministry there who I had input to as they were forming. Some of them come out to me and introduce me to their teammates.
There does seem to be times and seasons where there is churn on a worship team. It can be related to pastoral leadership succession, reorganization, or simply a leadership decision to give the up-front ministries a “face lift”. I am not going to condone or condemn this, just point out that it happens. In worship discussion email lists back in the 1990’s, I read cases of “old” worship leaders being asked to make way for the next generation. I also see it in worship groups on social media. People will share their stories. More recently, it seemed like many churches were into “Rock Star” worship leaders. Then later, there was house cleaning as some of these “rock stars” were caught behaving like other rock stars. It still happens.
The real question becomes how you can prepare for when it happens to you. What do you do to be prepared when “worship in mid-life crisis” hits you?
If I were to use my experience as a template, I would suggest:
- Invest in the development of others, especially the next generations. This way they will always have a fond memory of you. Even when you aren’t part of the team, they may still ask you for advice. Obviously, this is something you take on at the beginning, not at the last minute (when it may be too late). But the outcome could be an invitation to minister to a worship team. They may ask you to teach them something. Or at least they may want to hear your stories.
- Find alternate venues. A pastor in the Vancouver BC region once said, “The fastest growing Christian ministries in our region are related to addiction recovery and new Canadians (immigrants)”. That was some time ago. I would add ‘homelessness’ to that for today. I became involved with a worship ministry targeting the recovery community. I am still involved in this. Maybe you have a connection with people in one of these areas. I was never into drugs, but I was led to the Lord back when I was 21 by a drug addict in recovery.
- Network with other worship leaders and musicians. Alternate venues for worship ministry come up at the most unexpected times and at the most unexpected places. There is always room for more good worship musicians and singers. It just may not be during the Sunday morning services at your church.
- The important thing is to avoid bitterness. Brush the dust off your shoulders and keep on keeping on. We are in this for the Lord, not ourselves.
As I alluded to earlier, I consider it a privilege and an honour to still be welcome on the worship team at my church. It is not something I take lightly or for granted. I pull my weight, even sometimes helping the tech crew tear down gear afterwards on my “days off”.
My prayer is that you invest in others, making room for them so that you will always be set apart for ministry, not aside.