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.
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