Worship Leaders and Our Pastors

(I am writing this as someone who leads people in worship. So when I use pronouns like we and us, I am refering to worship leaders. I just thought I would make that clear.)

Pastors of our church are just as much worship leaders as those that lead music. Now, not all pastors have any idea of musical theory, but worship is so much more than just the music. Worship is how we live our lives in a God-honoring way. It is the job of the pastors of the church to equip the people with biblical wisdom and knowledge of how to live that life. With that said, God has placed us in the churches we are in so that we can best serve our pastors and their plan of leading people into Salvation.

We must realize that no two pastors will be the same. It could take us a great deal of time and prayer to be able to coexist with some pastors. The key is to know that you need to be on the same page as they are. We must be on board with the leadership plans. It is not healthy for us to have our own agenda that opposes the lead pastor's. Hebrews 13:17 says worship leaders should be an asset and a joy for their pastors. After all, it is his church to lead; we are only leading them in a certain aspect. The pastor is there to train and bring up his people in the Word. It is important to know that regardless of the pastor, he is a gift to you and the church. 

Ephesians 4:11-12 says, "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry..." Paul was telling the church in Ephesus that God sent all these different people to fill these different job roles to train and equip us with what we need to accurately proclaim the gospel. And God has given the pastor, not the worship leader, the responsibility for the direction of the church. If we disagree with the pastor, because we have sinful reasoning, we are the ones who need to submit according to Hebrews 13:17. 

Proverb 18:2 says, "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion." We need to listen to whatever correction or encouragement our pastor makes toward us. His leadership lets the church know that they are in good hands. And if we blow off everything he has to say about how we do our part, then we are tearing apart the church body. It is important to watch and listen for a pastor's theology, his heart, his understanding of his role, the way he relates to his wife and children, the way he relates to his staff, and so much more. If there are sketchy areas in him that you might think are unbiblical, they should be addressed. For all you know, you could be the one being unbiblical. 

It is crucial for the pastor/worship leader relationship that we be willing to initiate and communicate any good or bad issues we might have. Ask him what he thinks of how the music went and what he thought could have been done differently. It’s good for him to know that you respect his opinion and his leadership. Both the pastor and worship leaders will grow if there is open communication between the two of them. It will build a foundation for a strong partnership. Because we are part of the same team and our goal is to bring people into God's glory.

We need to be able to learn from our pastor. He is not only teaching the people in the congregation, but he is also teaching us as leadership. The church will take notice when we grow as leaders. They will appreciate it and it will honor God that we are growing closer to Him. And when we grow, our pastors will appreciate it as well. When we grow musically, we will have more to offer in leading our team. We     will have a greater to play any song suggestions the pastor might have for us. Pastors aren't generally aware of what it takes to play some songs, so it is important that we take the initiative in progressing here.

Worship leaders need to have a heart after Jesus' heart. That is the heart of a servant. We must be willing to serve our pastors and make their tasks a joy. A church with leadership that is never on the same page is destined to fall apart. For the sake of the church, and for the love of the Father, we must be in partnership with the pastor and know that he is the one God has place in leadership over the church.

Worship Leaders and the Church

There is a very important relationship between worship leaders and the church. The church reminds us, as worship leaders, that our job is more about leading God's people than just leading a time of singing praises. Sometimes the relationship between a worship leader and the church can be little complicated. There are times when the church body can have very negative things to say to a worship leader. Maybe they don't like the song choices you have made, maybe they want you to play more hymns, or maybe that don't like your "hippy style" of how you dress. It is true that you can't please everyone. But through worship, we aren't trying to make everybody happy. We are worshiping to please an audience of one, our God. But as we lead, we must find the best ways to serve the church so that the church can please God.

When we struggle with issues with dealing with our church family, prayer should be our first step to a resolution. If we lack prayer for our family, we will lack power, grace, and love as we lead them. Praying for the church body will help us remember what we can't do without the Holy Spirit. It will reveal to us our emptiness apart from what the Spirit can do through us. Prayer will open our eyes to what God has for the church as a whole. God will humble us by showing that His plans are better than ours. We want everything to run smoothly with little room for mistakes. But God wants the woman going through a divorce to know that He still loves her, the kid who just lost his parents to know they are worshiping Him in heaven, and the lost to find their way to the Father. His plan is to do all this by magnifying the greatness of the Savior in the eyes of the church. Prayer will make us want to care for others. It will show us that our job is just as much about leading people, as is it is about loving people. Leading and teaching are the activities, but loving and serving are the motivation behind them.

Worship leaders take a lot of hits from the church. There is much encouragement we receive and there is a handful of criticism we take. Our leadership ability will only grow if we take these acknowledgements, both positive and negative, prayerfully and biblically. We can't allow the compliments to fill our minds up with pride, and we can't let harsh words harden our hearts and make us bitter. There are appropriate responses to both. The most important thing we can do when receiving encouragement is to take the praise off of us, and point it to the Father and the contributions of others. When we receive criticism, the best thing we can do is allow the comment to build us up not bring us down. We must thank God for the correction and ask Him to build us up through it. Corrections can remind us that we are imperfect and sinful people. They should remind us though of what Jesus did on the cross for us. We remember that the cross is a loud statement of our sin, unworthiness, and need. And in light of the cross, we can receive criticism graciously because God has fully forgiven and justified us. 

The most important question you be asked as a worship leader will be "Do you love your church?" This is what matters most to God. Because He loves the church and we should love it as well. We may get discouraged or lose hope in our church, but Christ doesn't. God never gets tired of the church singing praises to Him (in tune or not). He never gives up on His plan to reveal His glorious wisdom through the church. (Ephesians 3:10) When we look at the people of the church, we just see people, nothing special. But God sees His treasured possessions. They are bought with the blood of His Son. Since they are precious in His sight, as they should be in ours as well.

Faithfulness=Excellence

I think we tend to devalue the idea of excellence because we feel we can't attain so we will just settle on "trying our best." It is good to strive to do the best we can in our worship, it isn't good if we just stop there then we aren't really giving God our best. We are only working until we meet a standard that we are content with. But it is not our standard we need to meet. It is God's standard we must strive to, and that is a standard of excellence. 

We see the greatest example of "worship excellence" in Jesus Christ. In Colossians 1:19, it says, "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." In Jesus, excellence was found. Jesus embodied everything that pleased God. Through Him, excellence came out of the presence of God. Excellence must always point back to the glory of God.

I think God created us for excellence. Romans 3:23 says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." What have we fallen short of? We have just missed the mark for excellence. God made us to long to be in His glory. We long for what we have fallen short of. Excellence can be defined as an attitude committed to presenting the best of one's gifts to God for His glory. So when we strive to give God the best, according to His standards, we are growing closer to excellence. 

In Luke 16:10-12 we see three principles of excellence. We learn that if you are faithful with a little thing, God will give you much. If you are faithful with riches, God will give you true riches. If you are faithful with that which belongs to someone else, God will give you your own. Through these principles, we see that in order to attain excellence we must be faithful with whatever circumstances we are in. The key to excellence in worship is faithfulness.

You Cannot Do This on Your Own

As a worship leader, I will usually do all of the planning, preparing, and playing for any worship meeting. I have played in a few different worship bands before, but I have never the worship team leader with a band before. In recent year I have had those opportunities to lead with a full band, usually high school students. But things can become more complicated with the more people you lead with. I tend to lean more towards leading in a smaller more intimate setting with maybe one or two acoustic guitars and maybe light percussion. Often though, I usually lead by myself.

I do this because I do not like to complicate things. I am person who tends to over complicate everything in my life. When I am leading people in worship, I want all the "bells and whistles" to be secondary experiencing the presence of God. After this week's reading, I have questioned my motives for this. Am I really doing this for His glory, or do I avoid playing with others because I am being selfish and desire the focus to be on me? We all ask ourselves these questions at some point in our walk with Him. Bob Kauflin did a great job at pointing out why it is important to have the contributions of others while leading worship.

When we choose to try and lead on our own, we can find ourselves trapped in sin of deception. We may think that what we are doing is bringing greater glory to God, but in reality we are just deceiving ourselves and we can become filled with a sense of pride. I become to rely on myself so much that I don't allow the Holy Spirit to use me to magnify God. Kauflin says it like this, "Why is the solo model of leadership so appealing? Because we're proud. If I'm the only one responsible for putting things together, I get all the credit. I lose sight of giving glory to God."

If we are not allowing people to help us with preparation or any of that, we are denying people the chance to serve God by serving you. We have to rid ourselves of the mindset, "My way is the best way." We need to allow people to worship God by being a part of the entire process. If nothing else are primary jobs as leaders should be to pray, rehearse, and lead God's people. Every week is another opportunity to benefit from the contributions and insights of others.

We also must get to the point where our worshiping isn't only what the people will see Sunday mornings or in other public meetings. The people of your church will never see some of your most significant acts of worship. The most meaningful acts of worship will happen in your hearts at any moment the Holy Spirit compels you to praise Him in any way. True acts of worship are decisions you make to put selfishness to death so Christ might be more clearly seen in your life.

We can experience true worship more when instead of doing everything ourselves, we allow others to come into our creative spaces and be apart of worship. This can spark a creative fuse that will expand what worship could be beyond what your mind can think of. We must put to death our pride and realize that other people are wiser than us. You will have opportunities to fellowship with band members and find out how others are doing in their walks with Christ. There isn't a band playing when these things happen, but these are what real acts of worship should look like.

To let it roll or Plan it vigorously? (Spontaneous or thought out?)

            For many years, there have been many disputes within the church. Disagreements on what styles of music to play, appropriate dress attire, and general things about how a church service "should" be run. Although most of these aren't so important to defining our eternal salvation, there is still much to think about. We raise questions like is it better to thoroughly plan out all details of the entire service, or should we just be spontaneous and throw all plans out the window. I think it is good to find a balance of the two.

There are numerous things that planning can be good for, but there are also things it won't really help us with. Planning cannot replace our dependence on the Holy Spirit. Sometimes planning will hinder us from depending on the Savior through prayer and faith. We rely on our own plans without leaving open room for the Spirit to work through (Or take over when He needs to.) Our goals in planning should be to plan wisely, humbly, and prayerfully, fully expect that God may provide fresh and unexpected guidance during our meetings.

Planning can be profitable though. We must keep in mind that plans are meant to serve us, not rule over us. If done with the right mindset, planning can make more aware of our need of God to work through us. We must make our plans with Him calling the shots. In our uncertainty of our plans, we should be lead to pray for His guidance and wisdom. Plans can clarify what God has set up for us to accomplish. They can also help prepare team members for their contributions in all forms. It helps to really rehearse with all of your musicians, not just to play through the set list. It can be helpful to discuss the dynamics of the music with the musicians and it will give them a better understanding of what you want as a worship leader. 

Spontaneity is the flip side of planning. Bob Kauflin said, "If planning is classical music, spontaneity is jazz. Both are important for serving the church faithfully with our gifts." We want to allow the Holy Spirit to work through us in as many ways as possible so that He can affect people’s hearts and lives. In 1 Corinthians 12:7, it says, "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." The Holy Spirit can and will work through anyone. 

If we are going to maintain a healthy tension of planning and spontaneity, we need to know how we can mature in our spontaneity to adhere to God's plans. First, we can't plan to do too much. When we try to overdue it in a limited time, our worship can become rushed and forced. Second, we must practice musical spontaneity alone. Just sing your prayers or make music to different scriptures that God is speaking to you with. Thirdly, work on spontaneity with your team. Practice with them so they can visibly see when you are going to do something unplanned. Lastly, practice spontaneity in rehearsal. It seems like it would defeat the purpose. But when you try something new in rehearsal, you prepare your team for it and you can try it out. This is a great idea incase it fails miserably. So we must find a healthy balance of planning and being spontaneous.

What Biblical Worship Should Look Like

Biblical worship is what God has called our worship to be. There are key principles to being part of biblical worship. Some times we take what worship is lightly. I know I have been guilty of this. If we begin to lead people in worship at a young maturity level of our Christian walk, we can have a tendency to have a shallow view of what worship is and what it should be. When we dedicate ourselves to digging deep into God's word, and when we understand what biblical worship is, our worship will go from being shallow to being knee deep, and then one day it will be as deep as the ocean. Here are a few of the key principles to biblical worship.

First, our worship must be grounded in the Word itself. We must direct our focus on the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. We have to lean on our faithfulness of God. Until we find foundation in God's Word, our worship leans on our own ideas and understanding of what worship should be. Secondly, we need to realize that worship is a dialogue. It is not a monologue. Worship is a conversation between God and us. And it takes two to converse. As we sing to God in praise, we need to hear what He has to say to us through the Scriptures.

We need to realize that our worship is part of a covenant or an agreement with God. We will be faithful to God for how He has been faithful to us. Our part of this covenant is to reflect God's way is with us. Our worship must be representative of the Trinity. The Father must initiate the worship inside of us. Jesus Christ, the Son, mediates for us because of the blood He spilt for us. And the Holy Spirit reminds us to serve the Lord. All three need to be active in our worship.

Worship should be done not only in our own private sessions, but should be done as a community and as a family. Worship is a family affair. Our church must be a home so lets make it a home. Throughout the Old and New Testaments God's people would come together to worship Him. Our worship also is called to be caring and welcoming. Worship, whether music or other ways, must show God's love to a broken world. We are called to be healers to those who hurt. Worship is our way to mend their wounds.

We must be in this world, but not of this world. Worship must reflect God's glory, not the world's glory. This will show our true hearts of worship. And it teaches us to look beyond the exteriors and into the hearts of worshipers. Lastly, our worship needs to be generous. We can't be stingey with our worship. It needs to be an over flowing joy from our souls. It has to be laid on thick, and it must be a celebration of God Himself.