Leslianne Newberry
I would love to see families cared for and have the support for longevity in ministry. We see a lot of worship leaders that don’t have the support. Mainly we see men that are leading worship and then their wives are totally disconnected from the church or disconnected from their ministry. And I would just love to see the whole family unit cared for in a place that’s safe to talk about some of these issues. Or to be able to have people in our home, like you said, to cook a meal, and have discussions. To care for people’s souls and their well beings and come alongside these families.
Because it can be real isolating being in ministry, especially as a creative person. You can often be misunderstood, or you may speak different languages. It’s hard to connect with other people on staff. Creative types can be hard to deal with.
David Capes
Well, part of it is going back 50 years, a person trained as a minister of music. They went to seminary for that, and they had some of the same language, as the theologians, the pastors. They had a little bit more open space on the church staff. It seems like worship leaders today are set aside to be in a different spot from that. That’s my observation. I don’t know if you see that too.
Tyler Newberry
I think so. We’re speaking in generalities, but I think it’s mostly true for most contexts. We’re just trying to create an ecosystem that’s not a one-time event. This is a culture shift that needs to happen. And I don’t think we demand much of worship leaders today, when they come in to serve the church. When they were brought on staff, they weren’t asked what their theology was. They weren’t asked, how’s your soul? They were asked, do you have any videos of you playing. Can you play the guitar? Can you play the piano? Can you lead an orchestra? Can you lead a choir? And that’s about it. So, what we’re seeing is the cost of the low bar that is asked of worship leaders.
David Capes
We mentioned earlier, before this recorded conversation, that a worship leader in general will spend 30 to 40 percent of the time in front of the church [on a Sunday morning]. You have the pastor who’s going to preach. You’ve got other things that are going to happen. But that’s a lot of time to be in front of the church. Are people trained for that? Are they ready for that? Do they have the theology for that? Do they have the depth of soul for that? Now I hope they’re good musicians, by all means, but I’d rather have somebody that’s not a great musician, that has a deep soul. You want both. What are you guys proposing to do in the future? What can Asaph’s Table do to help fill in this gap that we’re talking about?
Tyler Newberry
I didn’t go to seminary. I’ve been on a church staff as an ordained minister for about 21 years, and so maybe I have an honorary masters in counseling. I hope I meet that need in shepherding, caring and counseling. So, I am not the right answer for everything. But what I do know is I can facilitate. I can facilitate an ecosystem, a culture of conversation that I believe can plant the seeds, till the soil and just ask the Spirit of God to rain down his blessing and bring fruit from it. That may come through offering professional counseling, asking churches to give their worship leaders breaks, that may come through conflict resolution between lead pastors and worship leaders. There needs to be a lot of that.
We live in a wonderful city that has a good culture of church planting, and so through assisting church planters in writing a philosophy of liturgy. A lot of churches that are starting, haven’t done that. It’s kind of last on the list to find a musician, and then when that musician comes, they piecemeal together a philosophy, It happens almost unintentionally. We want to be able to go to a church planter and say, let’s spend the next month writing a philosophy of what this church believes about music? What does it believe about readings? What does it believe about communion?
David Capes
When you say readings, do you mean scripture?
Tyler Newberry
Yes, Scripture. Readings, responsive readings, poetry, the use of the Psalms. In my opinion, many churches have abandoned the Psalms. And Frederico Villanueva could speak more on this than I could. He is a pastor in the Philippines who studies and writes on using the Psalms in worship. So when you start the church, when you plant the church, we know what we believe is an effective worship pastor. But right now, it’s a shot in the dark when you hire a worship pastor. Let’s see if he works out. Let’s see what she does. Let’s see if it works out. But we don’t even know what she’s supposed to do. And so being able to facilitate some of these things is my main goal. To connect the right people, to connect the right conversations and to pursue some answers.
David Capes
You were saying that most people doing music ministry right now, doing worship leadership, don’t have any training in theology, and those areas. Is that something your organization could do, or help facilitate?
Tyler Newberry
I could facilitate it for sure. I’m not technically equipped to be doing biblical training. But I have biblical knowledge. I know the Bible because I’ve done it for so long. But I would like to encourage seminaries to have some kind of opportunities for worship leaders to get the basics, irrespective of your denomination even. What do you as a worship leader need to know about Scripture? What do you have to know about your role? What does scripture say about leading worship? What does scripture say about the role of music in the local church? Or does it even speak to it at all? So being able to ruffle some feathers, shake the bushes and get people to understand that what you believe directly affects what you practice. If a church isn’t doing that on purpose, they’re probably missing the mark.
David Capes
You’re now a 501 c3 organization. What should people do if they want to get in touch with you, want to know more about what you’re doing. Because in order to do all of this, you’re going to need some funding. You’re going to need help. You can’t do this on your own.
Tyler Newberry
The best way right now is at atasaphstable@gmail.com. Think of coming at the table, sitting at the table. For those on Instagram, it’s the same, AtAsaphsTable.
David Capes
Thanks so much for being with us today, Tyler & Leslianne. We look forward to seeing Asaph’s Table as it grows.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
