Worship Leader for Bold, Inclusive, Contemporary Chicago Church

by Trey Hall
(Chicago, IL)

JOB OPENING: BAND LEADER/ WORSHIP LEADER

Urban Village Church—a bold, inclusive, new multi-site congregation in Chicago—seeks a band leader/worship leader to join our music team and lead music at weekly Sunday services (one, maybe two gigs a Sunday). S/he will be someone who can pull together a band from nothing, loves playing and singing with others (volunteers), and has organizational skills to manage lots of loose threads.

Urban Village Church is very committed to diversity. We strongly encourage all qualified applicants, especially people from racial/ethnic minority groups, to apply.

Our ethos is bold, experiential, fun, welcoming, and eclectic. We are not looking for a rock star or diva but for a very talented someone who enjoys leading people in the countercultural joy of singing *together*.

Basic responsibilities (10-20 hours a week, depending on number of services):

1) recruiting and overseeing a great *volunteer* band (instruments and vocalists) for each diverse service;

2) choosing, preparing, rehearsing and leading all music;

3) organizing all related stuff (a/v, set-up, rehearsal scheduling, charting, publicity, etc.)

The ideal candidate will lead strongly on guitar and vocals (if you play keys or something else, too, let us know) with a broad musical range:

*folky/bluegrass/acoustic updates of traditional Christian hymns (think Sufjan Stevens);

*contemporary worship music (think Robbie Seay, Chris Tomlin) that gets at both personal connection with God and the community call to make the world a better, more loving, more just place.

*contemporary Black Gospel, R&B

*pop/rock from U2 to Indigo Girls to Ron Sexsmith
ability to put down the guitar and teach people to sing an old spiritual a cappella, maybe even with different vocal parts.

Interested or know someone who might be? Send an email to info@urbanvillagechurch.org with ALL of the following: (1) a description of your style, repertoire, and experience; (2) a short resume including 3 references and their contact information; and (3) at least five audio or video links to samples of your music/music leading.