Man of Depravity - Tyler Braun's posts on Church Ministry, Worship, Seminary, and Theology.

Advising Worship Leaders

2010 February 22

by Tyler

This is another post in a series I’m doing of questions that some of you asked. If you would like to add your question, go here and do so.

Today’s question is from Jeff Patterson. Jeff and I go to seminary together at Multnomah. Be sure to check out his blog. He asked:

1. What do pastoral leaders who have input on the music worship plan formation each week need to know about working with their worship leaders?

I would begin by saying that a pastor who plans and prepares weeks and even months ahead is SO much easier to work with than the pastor who throws something together the Friday and Saturday before a Sunday morning church gathering.

There is a fine line between the pastor who dictates how things are going to go and the pastor who doesn’t involve himself in the planning process at all. Each of those poles are hard to work with and each pastor should figure out which pole they tend to stray toward and move towards the other a little.

I think lead pastors who are involved in the flow of a weekend gathering is a wonderful thing. If you think of a gathering as a story, the importance of connecting the various elements is incredibly key. Some pastors are great at this, most of them are terrible at it. While I don’t want a lead pastor doing my job of leading the worship and music time, I also enjoy working with someone who can transition in and out of various elements.

Jeff also asked:

2. How would you advise a young worship leader to deal with his or her pastoral leaders?

A few things come to mind for me:

-Be a sponge. It is easy to be critical of the senior leaders of a church because there are undoubtedly a lot of things to disagree on, but each pastor has been involved in church ministry much longer and there is much to learn from.

-Take a stand. No one likes to work with a mindless robot. Everyone has an opinion and a voice. Don’t just let them run the show.

-Be a friend. Depending on how your church is structured this might be more difficult to do. Part of this is a strategy knowing that it is much easier to work with a friend instead of a boss, but I truly believe work is much more enjoyable when you work with people you care about. Go out to coffee with them, invite them over for dinner, include them in random activities.

How would you answer these questions?

Filed under: church

http://www.contentunderpressure.net Josh

I like these answers.

The church in North Carolina when I first began leading worship was most instructive to me. I grew so much as a believer from that experience, and have taken hold of a lot that was learned. The pastor and his wife (she was a vocalist) spent a majority of our practice time discussing what worship and humility was. I was able to see it modeled in their life, and that carried over to the way I led. It still does.

So, I’d say that both the pastor and worship leader can model different things to one another in the relationship. There will also be points of intersection as well, as both should model obedience and humility in their roles. But, the pastor should bring a load of wisdom to the relationship, which would make your ‘be a sponge’ point very key.

It’s easy to get caught up with all the details of a service or sermon series, but if key attributes of following Christ aren’t being modeled in their lives outside of the church it’s a lost cause.
http://www.rkweblog.com Rich Kirkpatrick

Very thoughtful and useful stuff, Tyler. I completely agree with your advice.

You are indeed wise for you years. I wished these conversations were available back in the day for me. Keep having them.
http://paulwilkinson.wordpress.com Paul Wilkinson (Thinking Out Loud)

As someone who worked with a number of pastors over a many years, I really appreciate your third point on question two, “Be a friend.” It’s so much easier when you can relate outside of the task at hand, and it can actually get rather tense if you realize that you’re just a utility or tool needed to keep a worship program going, or you’re (in a smaller church) needed only because no one else can play the guitar or keyboard. I left two worship leading positions because there was no such relationship.

Worship leaders should know early in the week what the theme of the next service is going to be and what the key scripture text will be. I actually preferred it when the pastor was familiar enough with the worship repertoire — both songs we did and songs we’d never done — to make suggestions; but a worship leader shouldn’t be afraid to speak up if the suggestion is problematic either in and of itself, or in terms of its fit with other music.

Two other words: variety (in styles, instrumentation and the service format itself) and medley (running several songs together to create worship ‘touch points’ with different people of different ages and tastes.)
Jeff Patterson

Thanks for the thoughtful response! I’m neither a worship leader (though all of Christ’s people are in some sense), nor a Lead Pastor. But on our pastoral team I’ve found what you layout here to work well in practice. We’ve learned to love and respect one another, plus Share life and theology so we know where one another come from. Another point under #2 could be “pay relational rent” — which is both being a sponge (listener) and friend (advocate).

See tomorrow in class!
http://jskogerboe.com Joshua Skogerboe

Hey Tyler. Interesting post again. I’d like to weigh in on your answers to young worship leaders. Yours were helpful, and I’d like to add another piece of the puzzle. I remember reading a great book by Tom Krauter for worship leaders that was set up as a series of Q&A. The questions was, “What do I do if my pastor tells me to lead 2 fast songs, 2 medium songs, and a slow song before his message?” Tom’s answer was great: “I knew there would be an easy one in here… You do 2 fast songs, 2 medium songs, and a slow song before his message.” His point was that, in the end, your Senior Pastor is the leader of the flock, the head of the congregation, and your boss. Tom wasn’t saying you should be a doormat or allow your ideas to get walked on (as you’ve pointed out above). Rather, he was saying, “communicate your willingness to SUBMIT to AUTHORITY first, and then press back with your own ideas.” This has served me very well over the past 15 years as a worship leader. If my pastor floats a half-baked (or bad) idea, I always tell him, “You are in charge. At the end of the day, I’ll follow your lead. But I want to press back on that idea for a minute.” This has gained the trust of my leaders, and ultimately, they have given me great deference in making service planning decisions.