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If youve never heard of Craig-

slist, you either live near myparents in Iowa, or youre livingunder a rock. Its a place whereanyone can post any ad to buy,sell, barter, trade, giveaway, meet,greet, scheme, scam, and so on.Good, bad and ugly all come withCraigslist. But if you can maneu-ver through the bad and aroundthe ugly, Craigslist can be a usefultool in recruiting musicians. In

two different ministries, in two

different areas, Ive found several

instrumentalists using Craigslist.(yes, including drummers.)

There are several things to con-sider when using Craigslist to re-cruit musicians.

Two Big Questions:

First, is your leadership OK with

non-attendees playing on your

team?Some churches ask people

to attend a certain amount oftime before they can serve in cer-tain ministries. If there are poli-cies like that at your church, youand your leadership will need towrestle through the implicationsof allowing outside players in.

Another related issue to wrestlewith is the idea that you mightbe sheep stealing from anoth-

er church. Two of the musiciansthat Ive recruitedfrom Craigslistwere from otherchurches. I asked alot of questions tomake sure I wasnthindering anotherministry. In onecase, the musician

was involved in achurch that hada closed worshipteam. They didntrotate in othermusicians otherthan to sub fortheir regular play-ers. [Their loss: heplays drums, keys,

guitar and bass AND prepares

before rehearsals!]

If you work through the irst is-sue, the second is this:Is your leadership open to un-

saved people on your team?

In the ministries Ive been in-volved with, the conclusion wasthis:

1. We dont want non Christ-fol-

lowers serving as worship teamsingers. Their primary role is tomodel worship.

2. While the band members can

also model worship, theirs is

more of a supporting role. Sowe adopted a mindset of whatBill Hybels calls radical inclu-sion. We dont get too manyopportunities to build relation-

ships with lost people inside ourchurch buildings. So if theres achance, lets take it.

Please understand that this deci-sion isnt right for every churchand every ministry. If your lead-ership is opposed to an unsavedperson on your team, you needto submit to that decision. And

just so you know, the majorityof the musicians Ive recruitedfrom Craigslist are believers, justin church situations that didnthave worship bands.

Writing the Ad

Once approval is in place, itstime to write the post. Use thesequestions guide you.

What do you want?A drummer? Bassist? LincolnBrewster? (yeah, me too.) Whenyou post, be speciic. If yourelike most smaller and mid-sidechurches, you probably needmultiple musicians to round outa solid rotation. So you couldpostNEEDED: Acoustic Guitar-ists, Electric Guitarists, Keyboard

Craigslist Musicians:Using Craigslist to Find More Musicians

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Players, Drummers and Percus-

sionists needed for church wor-

ship band.

This shotgun approach couldlikely communicate two things.At best, it says you are workingwith very little. At worst, you and

your church look desperate. Asolid musician likely does NOTwant to walk into that situation.

So post for a speciic instrument.Wanted: An electric guitar play-

er

What do you want from the mu-

sician?

Theres no need to go into everydetail, but give the Craigslist-pe-rusing musician some idea of thegig.

Where your church is located?

Craigslist is centered around cit-ies/areas. It helps keeps thingslocal, but it can still cover a largechunk of geography. 35 miles tothe other side of the county could

be a deal-breaker. Its better tonote your location upfront andsave everyone the hassle.

How often will they play?

Is this a one-time "ill-in" gig, orare you looking someone to playevery-week?

What kind of skill is required?

Give an idea of what your mini-mum need is.

When are rehearsals?

Are they expected to be at re-hearsals? I usually mention inthe ad what night rehearsals arescheduled. To most musicians,that insinuates the requirementto be there. By the way, Ive foundit way easier to get my outside

musicians to come to rehearsalsthan I do my own church volun-teers. Theyre itching to play andarent bogged down with smallgroups on Wednesday, nurseryduty on Sunday, and board meet-ing on Tuesday.

Is there pay?This is important. I say up frontin my posts that this is an unpaidgig. Heres the good news: a ma-jority of musicians have nevergotten paid. Again, most are justhappy to play music.

How should they contact you?

While I like being open and ac-

cessible as possible, Craigslistgets tons of scammers. I usuallyopt to use Craigslists built-inanonymous reply system ratherthan showing my e-mail address.Youll still get the scam replies,but they stop once the post isgone. Usually.

Another related point. Let theperson know how soon they

should expect a reply. Believe itor not, they're looking forwardto hearing back from you. Oth-erwise, they wouldn't have both-ered to reply.

So let's spell this all out:Wanted:An electric guitar playerto play in two services a month

at Trendy Metaphor Community

Church just outside Ourtown.

Youll need to be able to read

chord charts, play some by ear,

and be able to play simple leads.

Rehearsals are Thursdays at 7pm.

This isnt a paid gig, but it is a

chance to connect with a group

of musicians and play music. If

youre interested or have ques-

tions, please reply to this post. We

should be able to get back to you

within 24 hours.

Going Public

The ad is written. Now its timeto post. Youve got a few options:

1. Theres a section called COM-MUNITY. Under that youll ind

MUSICIANS. This is where thelocal Whitesnake tribute bandlooks for a new drummer. This isa decent place to post.

2. Another section is GIGS. Thelogical place here is TALENTGIGS. Even though youre lookingfor adult musicians, the ADULTGIGS is NOT the place to post.

3. The best place Ive found is ac-tually in the MUSICAL INSTRU-MENTS in the FOR SALE sectionIm sure Craig and his List peoplein San Francisco might frownupon me posting an ad like thatin a section intended to sell in-struments, but that seems to bewhere a lot of musicians lookMost are just perusing for a good

deal on a used guitar.

And note, my postings have beenremoved because they werenttechnically a for sale item. ButIm always clear with my heading I dont try to trick people intoopening the ad with somethinglike: 69 Les Paul, must sell. $100obo. (It is tempting, but bait andswitch isnt a great way to intro-duce people to your church, orJesus.)

4. You could post in all three (Ivetried), but Craigslist is set up tocatch duplicate or similar post-ings in multiple categories (andit did). The good news, it will al-low duplicate postings after 48hours.

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"Craigslist Musician,

Meet the Team."

When youve posted the ad, youllwant to have a game plan in placefor connecting with musicians.

Since neither of you know each

other, its good to build in a littletime to get acquainted. BeforeI invite them into the interviewprocess that we use, I like to e-mail or talk on the phone a timeor two. If they seem like their in-terested, I send out a packet ofinformation to them. Heres whatit contains:

Interview Process Explana-tion. (This explains the..., well,the interview process. I knowthat titles a little vague.) And bythe way, I use interview becausesome church people tend to freakout at the idea of auditioning fora ministry. That's another article.

The Values and Expectations ofOur Worship Ministry.

Non-Attending Musician Expec-tations. This is a list of expecta-tions I have for our outside mu-sicians. Ive landed on the termnon-attending in order to stay

away from the connotations ofoutside.

Non-Attending Musician Appli-cation. Most of the info is simi-lar to our regular application.We ask about spiritual beliefs ina way that doesn't assume any

Christian background.

At Heartland, we've adopted a3-step interview process. 1) In-formal interview with worshippastor. 2) play/sing for worshippastor and a few other musicians3) invitation to sit in on a re-hearsal. By the 2nd step, I usuallyknow if the person is right for the

team. But the third step allowsthem to get to know the band andvice-versa. I go one step furtherwith non-attending musicians. Ilet them know that theyre wel-come to play for at least one ortwo services without committingto being on the schedule.

One last important point. I feelits important to clarify to the

musician that this arrangementis temporary. I spell out clearlythat I hope one of the followingthings happen: The musician

connects within his own

by Jon NicolThis arcle frst appeared in the

WorshipTeamCoach.com

blog on January 13, 2010.

You may copy, use and distribute this arcle as long

as you dont sell it (you wont make that much) or

change it.

church and uses his talents andgifts there.

uses his experience here atHeartland to help him commitand serve in a different church

inds that our church is a good

it for him, and he commits to be-ing a part of the ministry here.

I can tell you not to expect a highpercentage of success for everyposting. I've posted at times andhad zero bites. After one round ofposting, I was talking with fourdifferent musicians and only oneworked out. But that's still not

bad odds. So instead of clickingon Craigslist to ind a used Bow-lex or minivan, you might justtry to ind that bass player yourteam needs.