The Worship Leader and the Pastor pt 1

Just as there are things that a pastor should say to their worship leaders, there a things that a worship leader should let his pastor be aware of. These things are important to strengthen the relationship between pastor and worship leader. We have learned that a pastor should make it clear to the worship leader that he is "the" (capital W) Worship leader. God has placed the responsibility of leading the church on him, not the (lower case w) worship leader. The worship leader must acknowledge that it is the pastor's vision for the church, not theirs. But the pastor must allow the worship leader to do the work that God has endowed them with. 

The first thing that a worship leader should clarify to his or her pastor is that being part of the "team" is more important than any title we might have. As worship leaders, we must make it clear to our pastors that we are here to be part of the team that leads the church. Worship leaders are not just the "music guy." The worship leader is the second most influential leader in the church. That is a great responsibility. The pastor must know of this and be able to trust us with this influential status. We must ask that we have the proper authority from our pastor in order to lead the people and our worship teams. We must have the pastor's blessing in the decisions we make, but he must allow us to make decisions. The worship leader should ask the pastor to continually communicate his vision for the church to us so that we can keep it on our hearts as we lead the people. 

A pastor must display public confidence in his worship leader. It will never be healthy for the church if the pastor is publicly putting down the worship leader or his team. Pastors should allow their worship leader to use his spiritual gifts to their fullest. He must delegate all of the responsibility onto the worship leader and allow him to lead the church. 

The pastor needs to have to trust in his worship leader. And the worship leader needs to have trust in his pastor. This is important because as the worship leader works under the vision of the pastor, he must feel that the pastor will protect him when he is under attack from sin, criticism, or self-doubt. This trust will build a relationship beyond coworkers. It will build a friendship that will cause the kingdom of God to grow. The relationship between these two is crucial to the church because the pastor and the worship leader are probably the most public figures of leadership in the church. God has placed great trust in these leaders.