Music Director

Creative Church•Maple Grove, MN

3d•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a highly skilled, spiritually mature Music Director / Worship Music Director who can help build, strengthen, and carry the musical culture of Creative Church across our worship environments. This is more than a keys position or someone who simply directs the band on Sundays. We are looking for a builder, developer, musical leader, and highly proficient worship keys player who can take ownership of the practical musical needs of the worship department while helping cultivate the spiritual health, excellence, unity, creativity, and flexibility that mark our culture. The Music Director works closely with the Worship Director, worship leaders, musicians, and Production Team to turn vision into execution—preparing teams, strengthening arrangements, developing musicians, shaping our worship sound, and helping create environments that are musically excellent while remaining deeply responsive to the Holy Spirit. This person should be equally comfortable preparing a detailed musical arrangement and abandoning that arrangement when the room moves in another direction. They should understand how to lead a band through planned worship, extended ministry moments, spontaneous worship, hymns, modern worship songs, and everything in between. Presence matters. Preparation matters. Culture matters.

Requirements

Advanced proficiency on piano and keyboard
Significant experience serving as a worship keys player
Strong knowledge of the Nashville Number System
Ability to confidently play in all keys
Ability to transpose naturally without relying on a keyboard transpose function
Ability to hear and follow chord progressions quickly
Ability to learn and memorize music quickly
Strong understanding of chords, harmony, rhythm, musical structure, and arrangement
Strong understanding of piano, organ, pads, synths, strings, textures, and contemporary worship keyboard sounds
Ability to create clean and organized chord charts and musical resources
Ability to confidently lead a full band
Strong understanding of modern worship music and contemporary worship keyboard techniques
Ability to play consistently with a click track
Significant comfort supporting and leading spontaneous worship musically
Ability to adjust arrangements and musical direction quickly and confidently on the fly
A deep and active personal relationship with Jesus
A life marked by prayer, scripture, worship, and spiritual growth
Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit
A genuine hunger for the presence of God

Nice To Haves

Experience playing multiple instruments is not required but is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

Direct and lead worship musicians during rehearsals, soundchecks, and services
Take ownership of the musical preparation and execution of worship sets across Creative Church environments
Support worship leaders in carrying the vision, direction, and flow of each service
Build arrangements, transitions, dynamics, spontaneous moments, tags, vamps, musical cues, and extended worship sections
Help create musical environments that are prepared and excellent without becoming rigid or over-produced
Remain highly flexible and responsive when worship leaders or pastoral leadership change arrangements, repeat sections, move into spontaneous worship, change keys, introduce an unplanned song, or adjust direction in the moment
Recognize where a worship leader is going musically and help the band follow quickly and confidently
Communicate clearly with musicians during rehearsals and live worship through Nashville Numbers, musical cues, talkback, hand signals, and other established systems
Support the Worship Director on Sunday mornings by helping lead the team both practically and spiritually
Work closely with Production and Audio to ensure the band, playback, keys, transitions, and overall musical sound function cohesively
Understand how to create musical space that supports prayer, ministry, healing, altar moments, and spontaneous worship without overplaying
Prepare and organize songs before rehearsals and services
Create clean, accurate Nashville Number charts, chord charts, arrangements, and other musical resources
Maintain accurate musical resources within Planning Center Online
Ensure keys, BPMs, arrangements, tracks, patches, sounds, pads, transitions, and necessary musical information are prepared and communicated before teams arrive
Review upcoming worship plans and identify musical needs, difficult transitions, key changes, spontaneous opportunities, or potential issues ahead of time
Develop musical solutions and backup plans when necessary
Help maintain consistency in how songs are arranged and executed across Creative Church
Build systems and resources that allow volunteer musicians to walk into rehearsals prepared and confident
Develop a strong working knowledge of Creative Church's worship repertoire, including modern worship music, hymns, gospel-influenced worship, contemporary worship, historic songs of the Church, spontaneous worship, and songs spanning multiple generations
Demonstrate advanced proficiency on piano and keyboard in both rehearsed and spontaneous environments
Confidently use Nord keyboards and understand patch selection, layering, splits, organ sounds, piano sounds, synths, pads, and live worship workflows
Build and maintain modern worship keyboard sounds using tools such as: Nord, MainStage, MIDI programming, Ableton Live, Omnisphere, Keyscape, Software instruments and MIDI plug-ins
Understand how to build, layer, and manipulate piano sounds, pads, synths, textures, strings, organs, ambient sounds, and other worship keys elements
Create and organize patches, pads, textures, layers, and soundscapes that serve individual songs and worship environments
Understand how to build atmosphere musically without overcrowding the room
Understand modern playback systems, click tracks, cues, stems, and worship music workflows
Have a wide working knowledge of worship music across generations and styles
Be familiar with traditional hymns and historic songs of the Church
Understand modern contemporary worship music and current worship trends
Be comfortable moving between highly structured songs and open spontaneous worship
Understand presence-led and Spirit-led worship environments similar to ministries such as Jesus Image, UPPERROOM, and Bethel Music
Be comfortable leading in presence-led, Spirit-led worship environments where the plan may change in real time
Actively help identify, disciple, train, and release musicians into greater levels of musical and spiritual leadership
Coach, mentor, and develop volunteer musicians
Identify emerging musicians and create pathways for them to grow
Help recruit and onboard new musicians as the worship ministry grows
Develop younger and next-generation musicians within Youth, Young Adults, and other ministry environments
Provide private coaching or lessons when needed to strengthen individual musicians
Give clear, encouraging, and actionable musical feedback
Help musicians understand not only what to play, but why they are playing it
Develop additional MDs and musical leaders who can eventually carry responsibility at the Creative Church standard
Shepherd and care for musicians relationally rather than viewing people simply as players needed to fill positions
Supporting Youth and Young Adult worship environments musically
Assisting with staffing and scheduling needs
Helping younger musicians prepare for services
Developing emerging MDs, keys players, and band leaders
Establishing musical standards and systems that can carry across ministry environments
Helping next-generation musicians develop strong worship vocabulary and musical instincts
Teaching younger musicians how to operate in both structured and spontaneous worship environments