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.