Worship Leader or Worship Pastor?
Just because we lead people in worship doesn’t mean that we are fulfilling the role of a Worship Pastor. Anybody with a guitar, a tour bus and a good song can lead people in worship, but when the bus pulls out of town all you’re left with is a great experience. God certainly uses these experiences, but the challenge of authentic transformation happens in the trenches of weekly coaching, encouraging, and serving the people in your own local church family. This is the value of a Worship Pastor.
Heart or Skill?
Psalm 78:72 describes David as a man who led Israel with integrity of heart and with skillful hands. Heart and skill are two primary issues that every Worship Pastor wrestles with, not just for themselves but for the people they lead. Both are biblical mandates that take a central role in the job description of a Worship Pastor (Ps. 33:3; Pr. 4:23; Mt. 6:21).
Unfortunately, many of our worship ministries are obsessed only with skill. We practice and practice, running the song list over and over at a Thursday night rehearsal and then play it again on Sunday hoping that something different will happen. Most worship leaders in America hold a part time or volunteer position and lead a team of volunteer musicians, so it’s no wonder that we tend to overemphasize excellence and give more time to developing skills than to healing hearts.
But a Worship Pastor is one who is not willing to focus on skill at the expense of people’s hearts. He knows both must be addressed but also realizes that worship is fundamentally a function of the heart, and that when a heart is transformed in worship, everything else follows.
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