[Are you new here? You might want to consider subscribing to my posts via RSS or Email. You may also want to follow me on Twitter.]
There is no more important relationship in your ministry than between you and your senior pastor. I believe if that relationship can be built on trust, respect, and friendship, there’s no telling what can happen.
It’s typical for there to be a more controlling, task-oriented senior leader with a semi-lazy, yet gifted, artsy worship leader. Many times the relationship just doesn’t jive. It can go a long way for you to humble yourself and seek the input of your pastor.
In a previous post I talked about how important it is to own your senior pastor’s vision. Today I wanted to take it a step further and give a simple blueprint for making that happen. It’s so important to have open and honest dialoge with your pastor. Hopefully these questions can help guide those conversations.
Here are 7 question you should ask your senior pastor:
1. Am I being supportive of your vision?
2. Am I sensitive to the Holy Spirit in my leadership?
3. How can I improve what I do?
4. What is your vision for worship in our church?
5. How can I better serve you on the weekends?
6. How can I improve in my public speaking moments on stage?
7. What matters the most to you?
The most important thing about this post is action. Your pastor appreciates action. Don’t ask these questions and leave the answers in a notebook or stored in your memory. Act upon them. Use it as a guide for your task list this week. Let it flavor everything you do. Make your senior pastor the most successful guy on the planet.
Fulfill his vision.
Go.
Question: What do you do to live out your senior pastor’s vision? Are there any questions you would add to the list? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
I really like #6. That is something that must be learned.
I wrote a post about it yesterday: http://bigb94.webs.com/apps/blog/show/6486607-4-steps-to-become-an-effective-speaker
It’s tough for us creative types to get along with those lead pastor fellows sometimes 🙂 But this list is a great way for worship leaders to humble themselves and acknowledge that we’re under our pastor’s authority. I think #5 is the best question on this list because it makes a definitive statement to your pastor: “I’m here to serve you.” And your reminder to take action and not just file the information away is just so good. Great post bro.
Thanks Ryan. Seems like you may be putting this into action already?
Definitely. And what I’m realizing is how important it is to be in constant dialogue with my pastor. It takes time to develop a relationship of trust, but being able to be open and honest with each other has transformed our ability to lead our services together. It’s not “ok, I’ll lead worship so you can preach” or “you preach so I can rock the altar/response time.” But we work together to feel God’s heartbeat for our church for each and every service. It’s a unique experience that I’m privileged to be a part of.
Awesome, dude. I love that.
How can I improve on what I do.
Gosh that is such a loaded question yet, all I need to do is point everything towards Christ in all I do.
Great stuff brother
Check out your permalinks settings btw
Thanks man. Pointing to Christ is what it’s all about. What’s up with my permalinks settings?
the dates are showing up and making them too long. Tentblogger has tutorial on how to set them up so they’re short and pretty
Yea, you know, I tried that but after I switched my permalinks to just the post title all my other links went bad. It was frustrating and John couldn’t really figure out why. He even logged into my dashboard and couldn’t figure it out. Maybe I’ll try it again.
#8 What does your ideal worship leader look like and how do I get there?
Love it, man.