DROP YOUR EGO
Being on a stage every week is an interesting responsibility. Everyone knows you, but you probably do not know everyone in your church, especially if it’s a large one. People admire you and look to you for leadership, and if you gain their respect, they follow you. It’s fantastic, but it’s also dangerous if your heart does not stay in check. If you’re not careful, the stage can feed your pride and ego instead of an opportunity for you to feed the flock. That is why it is so important to mentor and empower someone. It forces you to drop your ego and say “NO” to the lie that all of your value is found in what you do on the stage. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” When leaders fail to drop their own ego, their ego tends to drop them. Depending on how high your arrogance is, the ride down could be a pretty painful one. Mentorship is nearly impossible when the teacher is consumed by ego, because self-centeredness impedes the ability to care about anyone else’s success except their own.
SHARE THE SPOTLIGHT
Sharing the spotlight can be literal or figurative or both. Whether you have the position, attention or the actual lighting equipment, it’s important to the success of the one you are mentoring that you gradually and intentionally spotlight them. Obviously, you want to make sure to give them worship leading opportunities. Start by giving them songs in a set, and eventually they should be giving you days off. It’s also important to know and teach them that it’s not about their ego. When it comes to church and worship, it’s not about anyone’s glory except for God’s. Make Psalm 115:1 a theme verse: “Not to us, Lord, not to us but to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and Your faithfulness.” Recognizing the light of the world together is the most amazing way to share the spotlight.
CULTIVATE COLLABORATION
Mentoring reaches another level when you include the one you are investing in into the creative process. This can be one of the more challenging tasks in the mentoring process, because it requires two or more minds coming together. Everyone thinks differently, but when you successfully put those thoughts together you get a balanced attack toward your goal. One of my strengths is that I’m an achiever. This can work against me as a mentor, because I like to get things done. As a mentor, I have to be very intentional about cultivating collaboration. For instance, I sit down every week with another worship leader in our church and create the worship setlist. My pastor, who mentors me, is also intentional about collaboration. He sits down with me, every week, and asks for my input in his sermon. The result is a better sermon, setlist and an overall better worship experience in our service. Obviously, collaboration greatly benefits our church, but that’s not all. It greatly benefits the leader you are mentoring. It gives them buy in and models the idea that we can do things better together.
