Rosters, Sundays, rehearsals, song choice… they all matter… but really this gig, it’s about people.
You know for years I wanted the title of “Worship Pastor”. Since I was 16 I dreamed of working for a church, leading every Sunday, having a team of amazing people, running worship nights and people encountering Jesus. I wanted that title so bad, because it meant I would be doing what I really wanted to do = love people into a deeper relationship with Jesus. For years I faithfully served but I wanted to move beyond the administration and be pastoring the people. Like officially… I mean don’t get me wrong – I live for the details… I love people Tetris and Planning Centre was essentially my second home… I loved the constant changes, the fitting of roles because x,y,z was going on with this person over there and meant this change over here… I loved finding the ideal service, the order of things which really at the end of the day, all of that revolves around people. In fact, it took me a really long time to see I was already pastoring people in the admin side of things…
I had the same conversation with one of my clients – echoing my heart ache in wanting opportunity and desiring so deeply to feel included in the bigger decisions, the ones I thought would have the most impact: the songs, the event theme, the moments created for our people to meet Jesus more deeply. Surely they were the moments that really mattered. But as I relayed my revelation: the phone call to my bass player was in fact the most privileged position, she began to weep.
You see Worship Pastoring, or even just being a leader, isn’t about the outcome or Sundays. It’s about the little moments along the way that end up having the biggest impact. For years, I rang, texted and emailed my fellow team mates not knowing I was sowing into their lives in a way unseen. I had the privileged position to speak into their lives during their week – once I begun to see the person, the rosters went out the window so to speak (I mean I still made them happen etc.) and then I began to get intentional. I made sure I wasn’t just calling them to fill a roster. People needed to matter more than paperwork and programs, so when those days inevitably arose I made an intentional decision to contact them later that week and go for coffee or follow up something they mentioned was going on in their world. Some things were minute, like they’d watched a movie and I had now seen it too, or they’d had a crap day at work. Some were big rocks shifting in their nights and I would make them meals, send a card, text them. Either way soon enough God revealed to me Worship Pastor wasn’t a title. It was a way of living.
Put simply in the greatest commandment:
Worship Me.
Love on my people.
Worship. Pastor.
Once I had this revelation having a title no longer mattered (so much so when I finally did become the Worship Pastor for a season, I laughed to God and couldn’t believe how little I cared for a title). It’s actually so simple. Worship Him, Pastor the people. When I got that right, no matter the sphere, everything seemed to fall into place.
This is how we should be doing our lives, let alone our roles. Where our number one priority is our relationship with Jesus – not the program for Sunday, the devotional for rehearsals or the list of things we need to get done. But our own personal walk with Him – intimate and intertwined, and therefore the overflow of our Sundays. Our relationship with Him isn’t something we tick off our lists for the day. It’s paramount. It’s foundational. If we can’t get that right – what are we doing in leadership for the Kingdom?
Our love for Christ compels us to view others now through a Kingdom lens. It organically becomes our next priority: the loving on His people. This heart toward others becomes our outward highest order, where the roster grid and the ideal service layout falls into place naturally and unforced. We learn the ebb and flow of giving and receiving, that people matter regardless of fitting style or expectation.
I feel like God set me up from a young age with a call to minister and I always saw it as a doing thing. But people, along with our relationship with God, are not tick boxes. Then He showed me what it really meant. Serving Him, serving others.
Now I get the delight of living it out in my day to day life. My prayer is for you as you lead your teams that first and foremost you aren’t just putting together Sunday’s for Sunday sake, but that your relationship with God would consistently be so tight, so authentic, so outpouring it naturally overflows into the Sundays you work so hard to create. My prayer is that your people are being nurtured and cared for in the Monday-Saturday as well as within service from the overflow of your heart for Christ. And sweet one, if something here is out of alignment, find the courage to speak up. It’s okay if you’re not okay, as Bill Hybels says, “We all get better when a leader gets better”. Fix some time in your week to get your relationship with God back on track, make it a regular rhythm within your week, and while you’re there calve out time to have coffee or a call with each of your team members. Place value on them, not their gifting or what they can do for you. Jesus was the ultimate in servant leadership, so if He lived and lead this way, let us live and lead that way too.
Keep it simple sweet one: Worship Hip, Love on His people.
until next time… xox