Church Growth Strategy

Have you ever had a time with the Lord in His word where you're like, "I know I've read this book before, but THIS verse, I don't ever remember reading this! This is GOLD!" 

I had that very thing happen to me today while reading and underlining through the book of Acts. I got to Acts 9, which is the conversion of Saul and about 3/4 of the way through is verse 31:

"So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.  And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied." 

This is how I've learned the Lord works! He gives you nuggets of gold here and there, as if to specifically encourage or challenge you in response to your concern or prayers of late.  Lately, I've been troubling myself and worrying about how or what we can do as a church to grow and not get stale or stagnant.  I feel often like we have planted in a desert and soon our water is going to run dry.  How foolish was I to think that the end result of growth of our church was all of my or our leadership's doing? I knew that at a surface level, sure, but deep down, I've been convicted of trying to be in control of our growth, to "keep the momentum" going, to do everything I can to make sure people are walking through the doors.  

So I have my time with the Lord this morning and read Acts 9:31 and realize in the most loving way that the Lord is saying, "doofus, chill. Rest in me and grow your fear and find comfort in the Holy Spirit." Is there a role that I can play in the growth of our church? Yes, but it's in cultivating my fear of the Lord and comfort in the Holy Spirit and relying on the Lord to multiply; not fancy lighting, not catchy logos or series titles, and yes, not even billboards.  All of those things are ways we ultimately respond to our growing fear of the Lord and comfort in the Holy Spirit who challenges us in our MISSION. Those things in themselves, when not motivated by a fear of the Lord and the gospel mission, are just that: things.  

The early church was growing and "multiplying" greatly because of their walking in the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1:7  "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..." 

Psalm 111:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!"

So, I have been challenged. I have been convicted. I have been empowered now to find my comfort in the Holy Spirit and see our church grow and seek to cultivate in our people to "walk in the fear of the Lord."

So... How's that going for you? I'm a work in progress. 

Psalms for the Simple (8 of 150): Praise

Hey all,
If there were a Psalm that I wish I could have branded on the frontside of my brain to be the first thing I think about when I wake up, I think it would be this one.  Psalm 8 is a GREAT way to wake up and commit your day to the Lord.  If you will, let me convince you of this.
Themes by verse:
Verse 1: The name of the Lord is majestic and greater than any other name in history, PERIOD. In Philippians 2:9-11 says "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus ever knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."  Interesting point: The name of the Lord brings God glory, "you have set your glory above the heavens." No thing, and no one can take God's glory from him, it is out of our reach, yet so overwhelming that it drops us to our knees when we think of how it was displayed through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in our place on account of OUR sin! God is glorified and his name is made great because of his grace.
Ok that was verse 1.  This post could get VERY long if I'm not careful.  I want to challenge you to read this Psalm and think through them in this way: theme it out verse or section by section.  Even write in your margin if you want to remember your time with the Lord and what he was teaching you.
Verse 2 is interesting. What do babies and infants have to do with strength against foes? According to my ESV study bible, this could be a reference to the people of Israel being compared to the majesty of the Lord and how it doesn't matter the size or strength of the actual person/people, but more so what they are praising.  I say praising here because it says that God has established strength out of the "mouths" of infants.  I looked into this a little more and saw that the Septuagint uses a greek word for "strength" that means "strength attributed to God in song."  In other words, the people of Israel are, out of their mouths, though small and infantile they are compared to God, proclaiming the strength of God. It's praise. And when your strength rests in the Lord, your enemies are nothing, and thus are "stilled."  Interesting eh?!
How are you proclaiming the Lord as your strength today, this week? Do you trust the Lord with your concerns? Do you recognize yourself as infantile and minuscule compared to our amazingly great God? And do you know that your size or inferiority doesn't prohibit you from a relationship with him? God opened that door to us through Jesus Christ who paid the price of our sin on the cross.  He is the reason we can, though inferior, proclaim HIS strength in our lives.  Do you know Jesus?! That's paramount to this whole discussion.
Verse 3-8 is a great description and declaration of the coming (now come) Messiah Jesus.  Read that and see how he is ruler over all things and the only one in scripture who is worthy of Glory and Honor. He is the only one who is given dominion over the works of God's hands. Jesus is ALL over this section.
The Psalm finishes just like it started, (we call this bookending, there's a bigger name for it, but I can't recall it off hand.) Verse 9: The name of the Lord is the greatest and most majestic name in all of history and even before time, period.

I guarantee you start your day off with this in mind, you will have a proper perspective to your day. If you're ambitious, commit this whole Psalm to memory and have it playing through your mind on repeat all day. You cannot be shaken when you are pursuing the Lord, and when you are "bumped" with the stress and trials of this life, you spill what you are full of.  Make your life full of praise to God for the sending of his Son Jesus who saves you.

Have a blessed day!

Working on a God @ Work video today

Our church has, by God's grace, been growing and flourishing beyond our expectations this year.  God has definitely been working and is at work in our church!  One of the greatest joys as a pastor here is to see and have a front row seat to not only God's work in our church body as a whole, but also in the individual level of those apart of it.
When people ask me the question, "hey, how's it going with the new church?" I love to turn them to our website that has our growing collection of God @ Work videos.  I recently wrote a post about the "God @ Work Initiative" (CLICK HERE)  This post describes the background thought, logic, and preparation to what we hold very dear at our church: Personal Testimony.  One of the best ways in God's grace in drawing people to himself is through those who have a story about how God drew them to himself! It's a simple logic: God is at work, and his work is contagious, so let's tell people how he is at work and see how he uses that for his ultimate glory in bringing people to himself through the work of Jesus Christ.
Today I get to work on one of those videos.  It is a long tedious process, but one that I will gladly take on because of the proclamation of the gospel, not from a preacher whom you'd expect it from, but from the person sitting next to you in the congregation.  It's one thing for a preacher to get up and share the gospel, which our pastoral staff does really well, but it's another, more rewarding thing, to see that Gospel through the Holy Spirit being proclaimed out of the mouths of those it's being preached to!
Our ultimate goal with these God @ Work videos is to glorify God by encouraging and challenging people to get out of their box and share the story of how God brought them to their knees and rescued them in His love through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, by faith.
Here are a few examples of the videos I'm talking about, and soon I will post the video of the one I'm working on.  Enjoy!

Psalms for the Simple (7 of 150): Refuge

Psalm 7 is one of the psalms that I think provides the most comfort for those who struggle with the fear of man.  I can relate well to the fear of man because that has been the thorn in my flesh for most of my life. When I hear of something that someone said about me that isn't true, like slander or mockery, it really tears to my heart. Why? I want to be liked! I want to be someone who EVERYONE likes and I have worked hard to try to make it that way. Unfortunately, that goal will absolutely NEVER happen.  Not everyone will like you, not everyone will be on your side.  Not everyone will support you or will be an asset for your mission.  And our challenge, as those who struggle with a fear of man is to GET OVER IT! Who cares what that person thinks of me!?
Easier said than done, I agree, however the bible says "The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe." ~Ps 29:25
So what do we do when we face slander in our lives? What do we do when something is said of us and is spread of us that isn't true? What do we do when someone seems to be out to get you and you don't know why and they don't stop? Psalm 7 gives us a great insight into the heart of David who is struggling with that same problem and comes to his conclusion: find refuge in the Lord, NOT man!

Under the title of this psalm it tells us that this was a song of David in response to the words of Cush.  I briefly tried to research what happened, or what Cush said, but came up empty.  But based on the psalm, it would seem that this bully Cush decided to slander David in some way that really hurt David to the core.
So David responds in anger and as king lashes out with his army to kill Cush! Right? No.  David turns to the Lord as his refuge and brings his concern and problem to the feet of the Most High.
Vs 1-2: "O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver."
If you've ever been bullied in your life, and not just as a child in grade school, but even in adulthood, you know exactly why David described it like a lion who is tearing his soul apart.  Undeserved and unprovoked torment and slander is most painful! But we can learn from David's example here and approach the throne of God with our concern and have him search us and cry out for deliverance.
Notice in verse 3 that David, before moving on into praying for God's revenge, prays first for the Lord to reveal to him any fault of the matter. "Am I deserving of this? If I did, even unintentionally, let my enemy overtake me." David is quick to take blame and repent of something HE DIDN'T DO! He just wanted to make sure, before the Lord, that he was innocent of the slander against him. That's a man right there. Living up to something that maybe only the Lord knows you are at fault for and taking the punishment. However, the Lord determines that fault, not the other party.
David then opens up his mouth the praise of a God who stands up for the righteous, who protects the upright in heart, and lays waste the wicked man.
At the end of his reflection, David worships the Lord (vs 17).  How often do we bring our complaints to the Lord and expect him to fix our problems, but are so angry about the situation that we fail to worship the guy who we are appealing to to help us!? We ought to give thanks everyday for the grace and faithfulness of God for even waking us up in the morning! Let us also bring our concerns before the Lord, but remember him as our Savior and king, the ruler of all, the creator of all, the epitome of righteousness, the only name worthy of praise and glory.

If you are reading this and have experienced slander, or maybe are in a work situation with someone who just plain bullies you.  The LORD is your refuge, not the approval of that person. The LORD is your refuge, not the ceasing of that slander.  The LORD is your refuge and give thanks to him for the ultimate vengeance on your part by Him!

Conclusion: Jesus as our Worship Pastor

I want to close simply and quickly with a thought about our Savior.  Jesus is the worship pastor for worship pastors.  When in doubt turn to the author and perfecter of your faith. Wake up every morning calibrating your heart in the light of Jesus, then you cannot help but have a pure and biblical motivation. Preach the gospel to yourself. It will keep you humble knowing constantly that Jesus is still the hero, not you.  He is the mediator between God and man, and ultimately without him, our jobs are pointless: we can never lead someone into the presence of God as a sinner.  Jesus is our worship pastor who leads us as the ultimate prophet being the voice of God. He leads us as the ultimate king providing the greatest, yet surprisingly simple structure of honoring God found in his word, the bible. And he leads us as the ultimate high priest who can sympathize with our weakness yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:14-16). Always hold fast to your Savior knowing that all of the strategies, philosophies, and methods discussed in this study would be a fleeting futility apart from Jesus as its foundation. When he is your focus, you will be able to adequately cultivate a culture of worship in yourself and reflect that upon your congregation. I finish with the words of Psalm 113:1-3

Praise the Lord!

Praise, O servants of the Lord,

praise the name of the Lord!

Blessed be the name of the Lord

from this time forth and forevermore!

From the rising of the sun to its setting,

the name of the Lord is to be praised! ^[1]

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^[1] The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ps 113:1–3.

Worship Pastor as King (cont.)

Auditions and Applications

To lead in a kingly fashion, begin to form processes and procedures for auditioning perspective volunteers. Construct and work closely with your senior pastor on all aspects of this job, but particularly on the fine print of these applications so as to be able to draw out the necessary information from an applicant on where they could best be used in your ministry or perhaps another ministry in your church. For auditions, be sure to have another ministry leader or staff apart of the audition. This will protect you from the possibility of accusations as a response to a declination to be on the team. Never audition alone and allow the other person to provide input so as not to give the impression that you and you only run the show in pride.

           

Planning Tools

You should have your services planned out with plenty of time for your team to be comfortable with the music.  This does not mean that you can’t make last minute changes or allow the Spirit to take you on a worship tangent. What it does mean is that you have a venue by which your team has access to recordings, charts, sheet music, etc so that they can be prepared and competent with the music. There are many different venues to choose from, but with modern technology and resources available on the Internet, I’d suggest ministries such as Planning Center Online,[1] to upload service plans and schedule volunteers in advance. As a general rule of thumb, I have found that it works best to have your volunteers planned out at least 1 month in advance and your services planned out at least 2 weeks in advance. I have used Planning Center Online for a few years with success.

           

            Rehearsals are opportunities

If you have a worship ministry with musicians whose caliber merits a necessity for a midweek rehearsal, then there is no question that you should have one. Striving for excellence is not an idol if you do it for the purpose of bringing the Lord the most pleasing offering of praise you possibly can.  Rehearsals are also perfect opportunities for you to cultivate and disciple your team! Spend the first 20 minutes of a rehearsal going through a book of the bible or the latest book on worship together.  Take time during the rehearsals to have pointed discussions regarding the reason why you are doing a particular song that weekend or perhaps enlighten a newer volunteer with the process of song selection and how you order your worship set and maybe even accept suggestions. Use rehearsals as a venue to grow your team’s unity, your church’s culture of worship, and discipleship focused on the personal ways in which your team functions as worshippers outside of Sunday morning. 

           

           

Train with the humble mindset of replacing yourself

Lastly involves delegation and leadership strategy.  My friend Andi Rozier once told me in his British way, “Mate, your purpose in ministry is to work yourself out of a job.” Hopefully what he meant by that was not a disrespectful statement of hoping I would leave, but rather a very biblically sound and wise statement of the minister’s purpose. This concept ultimately goes back to the discussion of discipleship but now in terms of structure and leadership in the specific ministry that you oversee.  Just as the goal in discipleship is to make disciples who will then ultimately make disciples, your job in ministry is to lead in a way that the people you are leading will inevitably be fully resourced and capable to lead.  To put it in a simple, yet drastic way, would the ministry that you oversee significantly be hurt and fail if you were die tonight? If you answered yes to that question, you should take this as a challenge to restructure your workload and delegate and provide more responsible opportunities for your volunteers so that you are in essence leading the future leaders of the body of Christ. This means that you are constantly looking for the opportunities to train people in the specifics of what you do and how you do them and give them the opportunity to practice!

Do you allow anyone else to be the worship leader on a Sunday morning? Or do you make sure that you are the front man every Sunday and when you’re gone they have a prayer service with no music? You should be seeking out people who have the skills and abilities necessary to lead worship and pour into those people! Train them in the philosophy of your worship ministry based on the study and research you’ve done on biblical forms and functions of worship! Include them in the process of planning.  Give them feedback and critique them so that they improve in this wonderful task we have as worship leaders!

Work, knowing that you could be gone tomorrow. Who knows, you might actually, in doing so, see the Lord leading you to take on a different role in the church and give you the opportunity to actually install someone you trained to take your current spot? That is a privilege! Don’t hold so tightly to your position that you fail to respond to the leading of the Lord. In all of that, make sure that you are prepared to exit that position and that your ducks are in a row so that the bride of Christ, the church, is not hurt in any way. That is called ministry leadership stewardship and it is also called effective shepherding.

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[1] www.planningcenteronline.com

Worship Pastor as King: Organized playlist eases stress of planning a worship set

Have a playlist of the current songs that you do and go through them quarterly and determine which songs should be retired and consider introducing new songs. A great way to involve your congregation in this is to make this list available online as a playlist through the iTunes music store, for example.  This allows you a resource to turn them to in order to get more familiar with the music that you are, and will be doing.

            If you are convinced of the philosophy of song selection and categorization that I presented earlier as a reflection of the biblical model of how the Lord set up his Temple, you might put together a list like this to help you in planning services:

Ones (Horizontal)	O Praise Him- Crowder Adoration- Baloche Happy Day- Fee Hosanna (Praise is Rising)-Brown Holy- Hughes Here For You- Tomlin
Twos	Salvation Is Here –Hillsong One Way- Hillsong I Believe- Moeller/McCoy Lift up the Name-Caterer Beautiful One-Hughes
Threes (Diagonal)	Here is Love- arr. Stanfill You Alone Can Rescue- Redman O The Love of my Redeemer – Caterer Hallelujah for the Cross- Rozier Lord, I need You –Tomlin You Never Let Go- Redman
Fours	Always- Stanfill The Stand- Hillsong Our God-Tomlin Stronger-Stanfill Arms Open Wide-Hillsong Mighty to Save-Hillsong
Fives (Vertical)	Revelation Song-Riddle All Glory-Rozier God, You Are My God- Ingram, Noland, Mabury Jesus, You Are Worthy- Brown Your Name- Baloche The First Place- Westerholm Lord of All- Stanfill
Communion Songs	Jesus Paid It All There Is A Fountain How Deep the Father’s Love- Townsend Nothing but the Blood Amazing Love Here is Love How Marvelous
Christmas Songs	Joy to the World (1) O Come all ye faithful (1) Etc. etc.
Traditional Hymns	Holy Holy Holy (5) All Hail the Power (1) Come Christians Join to Sing (1) Amazing Grace (3) Great is thy Faithfulness (3)

           

            Song frequency and introducing new songs

Regarding song selection and particularly song frequency of use, a general rule of thumb is, “when you (the leader) are sick of the song, the congregation is just getting used to it.”  It will be difficult to cultivate a culture of worship that is tracking along and engaging in the worship set if the songs and elements that you do are new every single week.  When introducing a new song to the mix, do it first as a special element, placed in the offertory section or pre-service, and then if it fits well, you can then “teach” that song as a response to the message.  Then do the song in its categorized spot in the service for two weeks in a row. It can then be considered in regular rotational status. This conditions the congregation to be familiar with the song or element. It is also has been my experience that, in today’s congregations, even some of the old hymns my have to be reintroduced or taught.

It has worked best in my situation and experience to have a rotation of regular songs at a frequency of around five weeks. The same songs are not being done over and over, and yet the familiarity of the music is still being cultivated. This does not mean that you have five different pre-planned, cookie-cutter, worship song sets that you rotate, it simply means that you try to space out your songs in a way that the frequency is comfortable to your congregation’s ability to learn and be familiar with the music without overuse. This is not only true of worship songs, but of worship elements as well. Start thinking of how you can change the frequency of elements and song usage to better and more efficiently cultivate that culture of worship in your church.

Worship Pastor as King: Spirit leading in organization and structure

Organization has always been the hardest aspect of the worship pastor.  We are creative individuals who don’t like to be cooped up with the busy work in an office. To be overly organized in the realm of the worship pastor is sometimes viewed as “quenching the Spirit.” You don’t want to have everything so planned out that you aren’t flexible to if the Holy Spirit leads you in a reflective time of praise. There are other circumstances, such as multi-campus, video venue, churches that are confined to time constraints due to live streaming the pastor’s message.  In this case you can’t organize and plan enough and make sure that times and cues are hit perfectly. Is this “quenching the Spirit?”

            A common misconception is that it is impossible to plan and be spirit led at the same time. I have known worship leaders who purposefully do not plan a worship set until late Saturday night before, making sure that the Spirit is giving them the right music that will best praise the Lord. In the meantime, he loses volunteers on the worship team because they are overwhelmed with the stress of going into a Sunday morning oblivious to what the music is.  The misconception here is that the only way that the Holy Spirit leads is spontaneously or “in the moment.” That simply is not true.  Yes, it can be true, but is not actually a biblical standard.  Bob Kauflin helps flesh this out:

The bigger your church, the more critical consistent planning and rehearsal become.  But even when you’re small, it’s wise to develop the practice of planning.  It’s not un-spiritual to determine ahead of time when things will take place, where transitions should be explained, how many songs to sing, what creative elements to include, or how the meeting will ended. We’ve found that the Holy Spirit’s most important guidance often comes before the meeting even begins.[1]

            Thus leading in a “kingly” role is described best as being organized, well planned for and prepared. It is amazing how easy this can be when it comes to developing simple yet effective processes and procedures regarding planning and the facilitation of the worship experience.  We’ve spent a great amount of detail discussing biblical philosophy behind the planning of an effectual worship service, so now let’s take that truth and develop very tangible and organized charts and lists to help with the process. 

Communication Foundation: God talks to us, We talk to God, We talk to others about God

Functions: Prayer, Testimony, Meditation, Scripture, Prophecy/Preaching, Confession

Possible FORM	FUNCTION ACCOMPLISHED
Worship Songs	Prayer, Testimony, Scripture, Meditation, Prophecy, Confession
Communion	Testimony, Meditation, Confession
Baptism	Testimony
Open Mic Scripture reading	Scripture
Responsive reading	Scripture, Meditation
God @ Work video	Testimony, Confession
Calling out attributes of God	Testimony, Meditation, Prayer

            This list obviously could go on and on, and I would encourage you as a worship pastor to be developing your own list and be prepared to give the reasons why you want those elements to be done in your services knowing what function they have in a worship service.  Lead your congregation and cultivate a culture of worship in your people by making this list and the reasons available to the body.  The more your people know about the theology of the greatness of God and how we can biblically respond, the more they will grow that corporate heart of praise and culture of worship.

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[1] Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway 2008).  182.

Worship Pastor as Priest: Discipleship = Heart over Ability

The worship pastor has the great challenge of leading a group of sometimes good, but more regularly mediocre musicians to come together in unpaid unity as a band to lead a congregation of music critics. That sounds like a gross generalization, but if you are a worship pastor or worship leader, you do know what vain of thought I’m going down. It is hard to take unpaid and a hodgepodge of mediocre and great skill level volunteers who happen to play an instrument and try to form a worship band that meet up to the unwritten standards of the people in that congregation! This can be an area of stress for the worship pastor and I want to present to you an alternative to a life of worry with this regard simply with a priority shift. The shift is not the priority of making an amazing band, but the priority of discipleship of the people that God has entrusted to you.

In the context of a worship ministry, the people who God has entrusted to you ought to be growing in the area of their personal worship so that when they are on stage playing an instrument or singing backup, they are indeed leading out of an outpouring of a heart that is consistently worshiping throughout their week. A priority is to intentionally shepherd the heart of your team with this worship-as-lifestyle concept.

This can be done a number of ways. Encourage them as a worshiper, not as a performer: To surround themselves with reminders of Christ, whom they serve; To feed on God’s word daily; To communicate with God by listening to the convictions and the nudges of the Holy Spirit; To hide away God’s word in their heart, memorizing, meditating and applying it in their everyday lives. They ought to seek to recognize Christ in every context of their lives, looking for inconsistencies of actions and represent Christ to the world. Thus worship is a life pursuing Christ as Lord over every aspect of their lives. We can, and most certainly will stumble, but we need to frequently confess and repent of sin so as to be cleansed by God (1John 1:9). This leads into another important aspect of shepherding your team in discipleship: Christian community.

Community is integral to being a disciple of Christ. They ought to be in Christian community to confess and repent of sin. This can be as simple as an accountability relationship, or as involved as a designated small group. I’d argue that both are to be pursued. Accountability and community is vitally important in making disciples, not performers. Following Christ in a fallen world is hard, and being “coached” and encouraged on many fronts outside of one’s spiritual disciplines just strengthens the disciple to be more and more like Jesus. As a worship pastor, this is your responsibility to your worship teams and volunteers: disciple them to be better followers of Christ by showing them the transparent reflection of Christ in your life.

Therefore the purpose of our disciple-making is to make disciples who then are drawn to and geared for making disciples themselves. By the grace of God, you will be shepherding people who are standing on stage leading worship out of the outpouring of their hearts geared to the worship of Jesus Christ.

As a pastor, your eyes should be in tune with seeing fruit of the Spirit evident in their lives. To shepherd effectively, you need to know your flock. This begins with an application process. A very pointed and strategically questioned application can quickly reveal useful information in knowing the strengths and weakness of your team. It can also help to prevent a wolf in sheep’s clothing to come in and cause division and devour your flock. This is where the worship pastor needs to have Spirit guided resolve. Just because an individual can play the electric guitar does not mean he should be given platform to play. There will be times when through the application process it becomes evident that the person’s unstated reason for wanting to be on the worship team is to show that he is an amazing musician and that people would see him play. RED FLAG! If you are not careful to identify and deal with the red flags, you could inadvertently feed someone’s sinful pride as opposed to growing them in humble service to our Lord.

Being a worship pastor who leads in a priestly manner means that you care more for the heart of your team members than their ability to sing or play an instrument. You have a longing for them to display more fruit of the spirit than musical perfection. You need to have a passion for their spiritual growth more than their growth in any worldly context. Provide them with resources to grow in their relationship with Christ and make it a passion of yours in understanding God’s word enough to encourage and challenge your team with it regularly. Do you show appreciation to your team? Do you compliment them on their good work. Do you provide ways for them to improve in their craft without making it seem like that is your only concern? Do you encourage your team to be in a small group? Do you do the hard thing sometimes and confront a team member with a sin that is evident in their life? Do you then provide the resource and the accountability to walk them through to see victory over this sin through the application of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit? It is a fear of mine that there are worship pastors who love the music more than they love the people. This unfortunately will be something that the devil will try to tempt the worship pastor with consistently throughout their career. To lead a worship ministry in a priestly way, you must lead by example. You must display a passion and hunger for God’s word and display a humility that will be contagious and be transparent with them about confessing sin. Spend time together as a team praying and seeking the Lord, confessing the idols of perfectionism and performance. To cultivate a culture of worship in your church, it MUST start with the effective and priest-lead discipleship of your team.

Worship Pastor as Prophet: 5 Element Worship Set

Let’s talk about that 5 element worship set. I use the term “element” here because the worship set is not limited to songs. Elements are forms and can include but are not limited to Scripture readings, testimonies, confessional element, personal or corporate prayer, etc. This 5 element set is intended to bring the heart of worship from horizontal to vertical. The first element will be horizontal, the third element is diagonal and the fifth element culminates the journey with vertical. The heart is now eager and excited to hear God speak in a sermon from His word. The second and fourth elements are simply those “in-between” elements that we discussed earlier that help smooth the flow from horizontal to vertical. A second element may be a gathering song that has fairly testimonial in portions of it. A fourth element may be a song that is testimonial in the verse but extremely ascriptive and vertical in the choruses. These elements are not always musical. The second element could be a time where people greet each other and share why they want to worship the Lord this morning. A fourth element could be a time of confession where after the testimonial element the people are led through a confessional exercise that is responsive to a reminder of the sacrifice of Christ and bringing our sins to the foot of the cross. This could be in the form of actually writing sins down and having the people bring them to the foot of a cross in the room. The elements are creatively endless, and with ever-evolving technology, there will be new elements of which we currently aren’t even aware. For example, I have even seen text messaging being used powerfully in a worship set.

There are elements that emphasize different functions of worship that can be used quite powerfully. Open mic scripture reading is an effective way that we have seen in terms of the diagonal or testimonial portion of the worship set. Open mic scripture reading is an element that is carefully and strategically set up by the worship leader calling the congregation to find and share short passages of scripture that the Lord has used to impact their lives that particular week. This can be themed and act as a powerful time of worship by reading God’s word, book-ended and spliced in with verses of a particular hymn or other song that fits with the theme.

Regardless of the element, the journey should go from horizontal to vertical, from the hillside of the temple to the holy of holies. When this is done, you will notice a drastic change in the culture of worship at your church. The heart is conditioned by the Word of God through the Holy Spirit to leave the baggage and stresses of life at the door and focus on recognizing and responding to the greatness and overwhelming presence of God. As a worship pastor, train your volunteers on your team to understand the philosophy behind the songs you choose and the order in which you sing them. Come up with some elements that fit in those categories and try them out in your worship services. Take notes on how you could lead these elements better or how the people might better respond to them. Please keep in mind that the numbers are arbitrary. This method works with 3 elements instead of 5. It can be changed to an entirely different order of service but still follow the goal of the heart of worship
getting to a vertical direction focused entirely on the glory that is only God’s. Being a worship pastor is founded on a prophetic basis where you ought to be able to rightfully handle the word of truth and protect your congregation from false teaching. There is plenty of false teaching you need to be protecting them from in the music industry, even the Christian music industry. Study God’s word and see for yourself the mandate we have in responding in worship to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Do not take lightly theology and doctrine. Make it a priority in your responsibilities as a worship pastor so that you can better lead people in doxology because of your own heart’s overflowing of theology and the greatness of God!

Worship Pastor as Prophet: Strategic and Biblical Service Order

While on staff at Harvest Bible Chapel in Illinois, the leadership of a few men helped shape my philosophy of worship in amazing ways.  Dr. James MacDonald, Andi Rozier, Matthew Westerholm, and Rory Noland have been instrumental in the development of this particular philosophy of ordering a worship experience that I’m about to flesh out in writing.  To my knowledge, nothing has been formally published on this philosophy, so I want to be sure to give credit to the above men for their amazing influence in my life and training me in this biblically based philosophy of a strategically purposed worship experience.

How many times have you gone to a church service and before you knew it you were done with the music portion of the service and didn’t realize it? Your soul was not stirred, your heart was still not in a right place, and you felt a bit confused for some unknown reason. Before I dive into a solution to this problem, I must say that no method of rhyme or reason can consecrate the heart; only God’s word and the Holy Spirit can do that.  This particular philosophy is focused on opening the door as wide as possible for the Holy Spirit to move in the hearts of EVERYONE in the context of a corporate worship service.

The goal in this strategic ordering of music and other worship elements is to condition the heart to be consecrated and overwhelmed with the greatness of God by utilizing the Holy Spirit’s working with the word of God (Isaiah 55:11).  This means the Word of God through song, readings, prayer, and other elements. If it is not a direct quotation of God’s word, it is a well prepared and thought out paraphrase of God’s truth. EVERYTHING in a worship service must correlate to the truth portrayed in God’s word.

With that said, full consecration and humility in the heart is not something that is easy to “jump” right into. We are so prone to the prideful “closing” of our hearts that at the beginning of a worship service you may not be able to genuinely sing “Hallelujah” as an outpouring of your heart. You are distracted with life pressures or sin that has clouded your vision to what is most important. This is why you don’t want to start a worship service with a vertical worship song.  Chances are you would be excluding the majority of your congregation in your “leading” them in responding to the presence of God, because they are hindered and needing to repent of un-confessed sin in their lives.  A culture of worship formed and cultivated in your church brings your congregation READY to jump right into the vertical songs because it rightfully has been the outcry of their heart all week, living repentant lives. That is worth stating plainly:  We are to be leading and cultivating a culture of worship that results in a congregation that walks into the sanctuary already with an overflowing heart of praise to our awesome God.  But the sad truth is, this isn’t the case. We do our best to lead people in conditioning  hearts to realize greater the presence of God and to respond in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24). Following those categories mentioned above in order, from horizontal to vertical,  lead right into the sermon.  The goal is to have hearts so in tune and overwhelmed by God’s presence that they are ready and eager to hear him speak.

When you unpack this biblically, we seek to form our worship services in a similar way that the Lord commanded his Temple to be set up. A generic setup of the Temple shows the temple mount starting with the hillside leading to the courts (outer and inner), and then leading to the holy places (holy, and most holy). Think back to the categories of worship songs into the context of how the Temple was setup.  When you view the conditioning of a heart of worship for the believer, think of the journey from the hillside going to the holy of holies. I discussed much earlier how the holy of holies was the place where the presence of God was manifest in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, upon the death of Christ as the atonement for sin, the curtain was torn making the presence of God not a place, but a reality in the life of the now reconciled believer.[1]

In this model the worship leader is standing on the hillside calling out saying “Hey everyone! Come and worship with me!” (Horizontal). As people gather with him, they move into the courts and start telling each other what the Lord has done in their lives and rejoice together in the work of the Lord through Jesus Christ (Diagonal). After the declaration of the reconciliation they have in Christ and what the Lord has done for them in Salvation they are lead into the holy place and holy of holies where they are floored with the greatness of God and respond with shouts of “hallelujah!” and declaring the majesty of God! (Vertical). When heart of the worshiper has entered the holy of holies, what is happening then is between he and the Lord. The others in the room have faded into the background of his concern and he is focused fully on ascribing glory to the Lord in thankfulness for who he is and the salvation that has been given by him. What happens next is awesome! He speaks to us through his word, and we respond again with praise.

With this in mind, the order that has worked best for our church, and correlates nicely with the Temple setup model, is to start with a 5 element worship set that leads to the sermon where God’s Word is preached without apology and authoritatively, and then ending with a 1 or 2 element worship response.

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[1] Hebrews 9 gives an amazing description of the work of Christ in being the once and for all high priest opening up the holy of holies. 

Worship Pastor as Prophet: Worship Songs: Choose and order biblically!

Another form that needs to be addressed in this discussion is in the area of worship music. Every worship pastor has probably been put under the stereotype of a “worship musician” who is hip on the latest Hillsong or Passion album, writing his own music, or digging in some of the best indie Christian music out there.  Regardless of stereotypes, I want to spend some time on song selection and ordering elements. As a reminder, song choice and service order is a FORM and not a function of worship, but to strive for excellence and a biblical standard we ought to talk about this. It is an important subject because it is sad how many churches go week by week with worship element packages that have no biblical rhyme or reason to them.

We need to start with choosing the right worship songs. There are generally (and I mean generally) three types of worship songs and then there are what I like to call “christianese” songs. “Christianese” songs don’t have any place in a worship service and are typically very man focused. These songs are heard mainly on mainstream Christian radio, and though they may be very encouraging with puffy statements of how God is our buddy, they are lyrically shallow and sometimes counterintuitive to our standing with the Lord.

It goes without saying that the style of the music or the catchy nature of the tune has nothing to do with the message of the song. It would do the worship pastor good to choose songs based on the lyrics and message before being savored by the music it was put to. In terms of the message of the song, there are three categories of God-glorifying worship music that ought to be used in a worship service:  Horizontal, Diagonal, and Vertical worship songs.

I use these directionally descriptive words as categories because of the direction that one’s heart, soul, and mind are pointed if singing the words genuinely. The first category is Horizontal songs, which can also be referred to as gathering songs.  These songs are horizontal by nature because the message that is being sung in general form is: “Hey lets gather together to worship our Lord! He has saved us, let us now come together to lift up our voices to praise!”  These songs will typically be in the third person tense and focus heavily on the body of Christ coming together corporately and declaring the intent and motivation to praise God.  You have songs that declare heavy amounts of truth of God’s work of Salvation and a plea to come and worship together because of this.  Insofar as form is concerned, the style of these songs are typically more upbeat and energy driven. The purpose of these songs is to energize and get the church body excited to praise God in song.  In these songs you are very aware that others are with you in the room and you are united together and pursuing now a greater purpose and intention to praise. A great example of a song that would fit this horizontal description is David Crowder’s “O Praise Him.”  In general when you think of a horizontal worship song, think of a song where you are singing to the person next to you, “Hey, let’s praise the name of Jesus together right now! Sing with me! Let us ascend the hill of the Lord! (Psalm 24:3, Psalm 95:6) ”

The next category is the diagonal worship song. These songs can also be referred to as testimonial songs.  These songs speak on the work of God in the life of the believer and how the believer relies solely on God and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our sin.  Testimonial songs still are very corporate expressions because we are declaring to one another how God sustains them in trial, forgives them of sin, and how he sacrificed his son for them. These songs recount our sinful nature and the grace of God.  These songs also state the attributes of God that pertain to the life of the believer such as God is faithful to me, God never let’s go, or Christ has healed me.  Most hymns fall into this category by nature, because most of the lyrically strong hymns have a personal nature to them about the work of God in the believer’s life. A good example of a song that is in the diagonal and testimonial category is the old hymn put to modern music “Here is Love” or even a modern worship song like “You Alone Can Rescue” by Matt Redman. Also the song “Enough” by Chris Tomlin fits in this category, and of course the song “Amazing Grace” by John Newton fits here as well.  When you think of a horizontal and testimonial song, think, “Hey, let me tell you what the Lord has done for me! (Psalm 9:1, Psalm 77:11-15)”

The final category of worship songs are the vertical worship songs.  These songs can also be called ascriptive songs that lyrically ascribe worth, glory, and honor to the Lord. Such songs may rely on the Revelation passages that declare glory, honor, strength and power to the Lord.  The focus of these songs is no longer what the Lord has done for the believer but responding to the greatness of God with words of praise. The singing of this song is now with the throne of God in view and our voices are unified directly TO God in giving him what he is most worthy of: glory.  The person who sings this song genuinely is no longer caring of the people around them, they are fully engaged in declaring praise to a one man audience: Jesus Christ.  Lyrically these songs may be more simple and repetitious in order to promote emphasis of the praise: “Holy, Holy, HOLY is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come! (Revelation 4:8).” “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created (Revelation 4:11).” “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed (Revelation 15:3-4).” And I’ll leave you to read Revelation 19 on your own to have a personal time of worship.  The point is that the vertical songs are just that: songs of praise and thanksgiving that we are singing directly and vertically to God.  The praise shall leave our lips and not be directed to anyone else except the Trinitarian God of the bible.  He alone is worthy of praise and vertical songs truly are the most appropriate songs that declare and respond to this truth.  Musically these songs are more like anthems and may have more legato and beautiful sounding melodies. They are the songs that you will most likely have stuck in your head for the rest of your Sunday after the service is over. A couple songs that fit in this description would be  “Revelation Song” by Jennie Riddle, “All Glory” by Andi Rozier, and “Agnus Dei” by Michael W. Smith. When you think of vertical songs think this, “How Great are you God, worthy of my praise and thanksgiving!”

I know what you are thinking, “Aren’t there some songs that don’t fit neatly in one of the categories?” Yes! The beauty of art is the fact that you can’t always fit good art in the confines of a categorical box. Some songs are very horizontal but then jump to diagonal in the choruses or perhaps even jump to vertical at the bridge.  The important thing is not trying to categorize songs perfectly but to make sure what you are doing fit because the categories as a form fit perfectly in the context of many of the functions of worship. Songs can be meditative, testimonies, prayers directly to God, presentations of scripture, and even confession of sin.  If the song does not lyrically fit in these categories or the message is not accomplishing a function of worship, please spare your congregation the confusion and don’t use it in a worship set. It may be a great song, but probably is not appropriate to adequately lead people to a genuine and truthful response to the overwhelming greatness and presence of God. Song selection is vitally important in terms of cultivating a culture of worship in your church as a worship pastor.  If you put no thought into it but base it on musicality, you’ve just identified and idol in your life that needs to be put to death.

So with adequate songs in play, how do you put together a worship song set that is most effectual? When dealing with order of service, you have many traditions that come into play, as well as personal preference. The phrase was already mentioned, “Theology leads to doxology.” Some people have taken this phrase in a more drastic way and demand that the worship response by song is to be done after the sermon where theology was preached in a way that motivates a response. I really have experienced powerful worship services where this was indeed the case, and I have ordered some of my church services to reflect this model. However, to say that theology only comes by means of the sermon is simply false. With adequate and careful selection of appropriate worship songs, theology is declared in song and it is responded to. It is with this vein of thought that I want to present to you a philosophy of planning a worship set using the above categories of songs but now including other elements that may or may not be musical to fill the slot of one of those categories.  I want to give a disclaimer that this is by no means the only biblical model to structure a worship service, however has proved to be one that works very well.