A Sabbath of Many Colors

"And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation."

We have read these verses from Genesis 2 at some point in our Christian walk. But what are we really being told here? Are we lazily supposed to have a day where we do whatever we want to do to relax? Or is a day we are to dedicate to hard work? God makes it clear that it is important to have a day of rest. God himself even took the seventh day after he created the earth to rest and look at his creation. And because we are made in the image of God, it is just as important for us to have a Sabbath, a day of rest. 

So what should our day of rest look like? In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul continued God's work on the Sabbath. Throughout the book of Acts, Paul was found worshipping with the people on the Sabbath. From Paul and the apostles, we see the Sabbath as a day of worshipping the Lord. The Sabbath should be a day where we put any distractions we have during the week aside and focus on our God. There are so many distractions we are faced with in our walks with Christ. It is crucial that we have at least one day where we say no more and give God the attention He is do.

So how should Sabbath look for the worship leader? Well maybe it should be a day where he does what he should be doing all week for the glory of God? It should be where it isn't about the worship leader; it is one hundred percent about Jesus. Practically that could be saying we don't need these awesome guitar riffs, we don't need to worry about how stylish we dress, or just put down the phone and get off of Facebook for a whole day. The point of the Sabbath is to refresh and refill with the Holy Spirit. It is not a day to be lazy, but it is a day to refill our cup.  

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.

The Pastor and The Worship Leader

There are a lot of things a pastor would like to say to his worship leader of his church. There are plenty of times where a pastor might want to strangle his worship leader to the ground. There are many different reasons for this relationship to be quite complicated. Most worship leaders have a hard time knowing it is not about them and what they envision for the church. If worship leaders and pastors don't see eye to eye on things, communication breaks down and nothing is accomplished. Communication is the key. Therefore prior to a pastor chooses a worship leader, he must communicate to potential candidates clearly what they must be. And worship leaders will either humbly mold to what the pastor wants, or be prideful and want to do things their own way.

Worship leaders need to understand that we work under leadership. In 1 Chronicles 15:16, David tells the Levites to appoint a man to lead them in congregational worship with music. David hires a worship leader here. The point is that worship leaders serve under the leadership of their pastor. Honestly, worship leaders need to be knocked down off of their high horse. The pastor really is the man who is the true "worship leader." He is the one who shepherds and teaches God's people. God has given pastors the responsibility of caring for their churches and creating a vision and a plan for them. Pastors can be thought of as the architects because they create the blue prints and vision of what their church will be. Worship leaders are merely builders, helping hands that the architect uses in order to see his vision come to existence. Worship leaders must realize that it is not their church and it is not their vision. God has not bestowed that responsibility on them, the church belongs to the pastor. 

So it takes humility for the worship leader to come under the leadership of the pastor, but it is essential. When this is the foundation of that relationship, the pastor and worship leader can become a great team in fulfilling this vision. Pastors need a worship leader that is committed to the common goal of the church. They are looking for a worship leader who is committed to the church family and will be there for a while, not someone there only for a gig then leaves. No, the worship leader must be willing to be part of the church family and with integrity, be a leader for the church. 

If the relationship between pastor and worship leader isn't strong, there will be nothing but trouble ahead. The pastor is not looking for someone that he will constantly have to butt heads with. He is looking for a partner to build and raise up a kingdom for Christ. He is looking for someone who will be a friend, not a cold and distant employee. Worship leaders will need to understand that the pastor is "the" worship leader. The pastor is looking for a partner not a project. They are looking for a worship leader that they can pastor and will allow them to pastor and shepherd the church. Pastors are also looking for leaders who will protect them from fire, because pastors are imperfect people trying to do the perfect will of God. And they will come under fire of the enemy, so worship leaders must be there to defend them and fight the good fight beside them. 

The Greatest Commandment

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

English Standard Version (ESV)

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Love the Lord with your entire being! This is what Moses is telling the Israelites soon after delivering the Ten Commandments. He tells us that we must love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, and soul. And His love should be at the forefront of our hearts. It should be the first thing we think about when we wake in the morning, and the last thing we think of before we go to sleep. Moses tells we shouldn't be able to stop talking to people about the love of God. He even says that we need to have God's love in our eyelids so we are constantly thinking about it. When people enter their homes, they should see signs of God's love on their doors. So that will be the first impression everyone will have.

We are commanded to teach this to those who enter our homes. As worship leaders, we are held to a higher to standard to show God's love to everyone. Not only should we show God's love but also we should be capable of teaching God's love to our families. Understand how to love like we should is the key to worshipping the Father. It reminds of lyrics in a song by a band called Mumford and Sons, The lyric is, "Where you invest your love, you invest your life." When we teach about God's love, we are investing in those we are teaching and it will become our lifestyle. His love is what will lead us to salvation.

Your Ministry Family

Paul lays out what the qualifications are for a leader in 1 Timothy 3. A church leader must be, "...an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a love of money... he must manage his own household well...he must not be a recent convert...moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders..." So there are lots of qualifications we will need to attain in order to become the kind of leader God has for us to be. One of the most important things we must know how to do is balance our family and the ministries we lead. There are great challenges those families in ministry face.

 Time management is a huge issue for leaders trying to find balance in our family lives and ministry lives. I have talked and seen much hardship on men in ministry. Many of my friends who are in ministry are mid 20's to mid 30's, and most are married and have at least one child. Having a family is great, to me it is the important thing, but ministry can be huge burden on the family. If we allow the ministry to absorb all of our time and efforts, then there is none left over for our spouse, there is no energy to go play with our kids. This does not please God. He has placed us as men as the leaders of our household, and we must find a balance of time and energy to our families and our ministries. And if one of them must be held above the other, it is your family.

Another struggle of a family in ministry can be the expectations of other people. When we are in leadership of any ministry, our families are looked at in a different perspective. There is great pressure placed on them. People may have unrealistic expectations of what our wives should be like, and how our kids should behave. There are unrealistic expectations of how our families should act or if other family members should be involved in the same ministries. People may think that a pastor's wife should be the most obedient woman to her husband. But we forget the fact that though people maybe in spiritual leadership positions, they are still imperfect human beings, and we cannot expect perfection from imperfect people. People shouldn't expect our four year old to sit still, listen, and be the perfect little kid. Regardless of how great a leader we may or may not be, they are still a four year old. And, trust me, kids don't listen a lot of the time. The key for a family to overcome these expectations is to just remember they are serving the heart of God, not the hearts of man.

In order for our families to overcome the challenges of ministry, we must have the priorities of the ministry clear. The number one priority of our ministries should be our family. They will have the greatest impact in the service of our ministry. They will be our greatest asset and our greatest challenge. With our family as our team, we need to allow them to feel safe. We need to protect them from those who may choose to harm them with their words. Our ultimate calling in ministry is raising up our family in the grace of God. To do that, we must continue to abide in God. When we remain in Him, he will protect us and bless us.

Do Not Love the World

1 John 2:15-17

English Standard Version (ESV)

Do Not Love the World

15  Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life[a]—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

In these verses John is telling us what it means to love the world. When we hear that term, "The world," we need to know what it means. To love the world is to love all things that are finite and not of God. Things of this world will pass away with time. Our money will last as long as we are alive, but after we die, our money is meaningless. The glories of this world will fade away, but the glory of the Father will last forever. 

In verse 15, John tells not to love the world and if we do, the Father is not in him. When we become obsessed with worldly things like wealth, status, media, technology, or even people, we are being less obsessed about Christ. It diverts our attention away from what really matters and that is God. He defines what he means by the world in verse 16, "...the world- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions..." So the things of this world are the things that our sinful flesh desire. And when we long for these things, Christ is being pushed aside to make way for new things. 

He closes these verses in verse 17, "And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." John is telling us that these desires will pass away, but if we remain faithful in the will of the Lord, we will abide in Him forever. It comes back to us abiding, or remaining, in Him. As worship leaders, we need to be on guard all of the time so we are not enticed by the sinful desires of this world. It is so easy for to become consumed with the coolest Apple products or any cool new toy that will "help us" with our worship music. But if we try to say no to the world on our own, we will fail. We must abide in Him always so that we can overcome the lusts of the world. Because as we do the will of the father, He will abide in us as we abide in him.