So much of worship ministry training these days is philosophical or theoretical, but as a practitioner, I tend to gravitate towards the practical applications. What I’ve found through both success and failure is, if we make sure the foundational principles are in place, we avoid the shallowness and structural weaknesses of many typical worship ministries. The following 10 ideas are the pillars that have been critical to building a life-giving organization and creating an atmosphere of freedom and simplicity where people can genuinely enjoy God. These are values and principles that I continually communicate to everyone who joins our team. I know that if they get this philosophy down deep in their hearts, they will never have to struggle with many of the common problems in local church worship ministries.
1. The senior pastor is the worship leader.
The senior pastor leads the church by example in worship. As the one who has been given the spiritual authority to lead the local church, the senior pastor indirectly, or sometimes directly, communicates the vision and direction for everything from style to a theology of worship. Not only do people look to their senior pastor for the vision of the church, they also look at him during services to see his vision for worship. This is why I appreciate Pastor Ted so much. When people see him lifting his hands, kneeling on the floor or dancing before the Lord, my job of leading becomes easy.
2. The worship ministry should be a team.
Because I don’t play well enough to lead from the piano or with a guitar, I used to feel inferior to other worship leaders until I saw the hidden lesson. Forced to rely on others early in my ministry, I realized something that sometimes takes years to learn: I can’t do this by myself. Some worship leaders rely on their own talent so heavily that they miss out on the joy of team building. Others are insecure in their gifts and control everything to maintain their significance. Either way, the blessing of unity and the power of vulnerability are never realized. This team mentality requires everyone to give up their rights as individuals for the good of the whole. We surrender ourselves to bigger goals and objectives, fulfilling different roles, and allowing God to use us as one. Of course, this means that we have no tolerance for hot shots or prima donnas. Each serves the other in humility, and together we accomplish more than we ever could on our own.
3. Leading worship requires a clean heart and good skill.
Pure hearts are essential to successfully leading others into the life of God. Because worship is a heart connection with God, as leaders we must model transparency and vulnerability when we engage in worship. But our God-given abilities are also important, and music, just like preaching or plumbing, has an element of skillfulness that either increases or decreases our effectiveness. Psalm 33:3 encourages us to be skillful, and the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 illustrates that we are responsible to cultivate the gifts and talents we have received. Some have the heart of worship without skill and others have skill and no anointing, but when we lead worship we want both. We want our teams to be like David in Psalm 78:72; “with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.”
4. We must speak the truth in love.
At New Life, our basis for auditions and the team mentality is Ephesians 4:15, which reads, ” … Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” Mature relationships require the truth. Most of the time we have the “syrupy” love with no truth, or brutal truth without love. In worship ministry, as in all ministries, we must have it both ways — truth and love. You’ve heard the saying, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” If we can embrace this idea on our worship teams we open the door for authentic relationships and genuine discipleship. If the team has the courage to shoot straight with each other, and if we, as leaders, demonstrate a willingness to invest in them, trust is earned and permission is granted to receive correction and instruction in love, so that we all grow together.
