[This post is part of a brand new blog series, “Your Guide to Practicing the Essential Skills of a Worship Leader“. Check out the other posts here.]
If you’re alive, you probably want a mentor.
We long for someone to come alongside us, believe in us, and help us achieve our dreams. The problem is, we are waiting for them to come to us and don’t realize what we already have.
You need a mentor. Matter of fact, if you lead worship you already have the best worship leading mentor. Your senior pastor.
Sure, he may not be a great singer or know all the trendiest worship music, but he knows more than you realize. And you need him in order to take your worship leading to the next level.
When I took my first staff position at my church, I didn’t realize how much help I needed. I was oblivious to how little I knew about leading a congregation. My pastor has been an indispensable guide and voice to me. He encourages, he challenges, he envisions.
Quite frankly, without his leadership, I don’t know if I would have stayed in the local church.
7 Reasons Why Your Pastor Is A Worship Leading Mentor
You need your pastor’s leadership (and here’s why):
1. Your pastor knows his congregation
Worship leading is less about knowing tons of songs and more about knowing the people you serve. What demographic are they? What is their history? What style of music will serve them best? These are the things your pastor knows. Learn from him.
2. Your pastor has a heart for people
Someone who has the calling of a pastor desires for people to grow. More than anything, he wants people to experience God. Dear worship leader, learn this from him. There are too many worship leaders who don’t care. They love music, innovation, and artistic excellence but don’t know what it means to pastor people in worship.
3. Your pastor has a vision from God
Struggling to decide on how to cast vision to your team? No better place to go than your pastor. He most likely has a specific vision from God for your specific church. Start there. For a guide on how to do this, check out my FREE ebook, Beyond Sunday.
4. Your pastor has more experience than you
I understand that this may not be the case if you serve a young pastor. But either way, he’s been appointed for a reason. Trust His experience and calling from God.
5. Your pastor can coach you
This has been indispensable for me. Oftentimes when I feel overwhelmed, a simple conversation with my pastor sets my feet on the right track. Allow him to coach you as a worship leader.
6. Your pastor has a deeper grasp of theology
Even if you think you know more than your pastor, he has a theological perspective that you need to own if you’re going to serve there. And worship leader, theology is of uber importance to you. Learn it. Study it. Breathe it.
7. He provides a unique perspective
Let’s face it. Your pastor is probably not as good a musician as you. I tend to view songs and service orders through what I like in an artistic sense. Artistic is not always the best decision for local church worship. Learn from his perspective (as a “non artsy” person) on how to lead worship, craft your setlist, and create worship experiences.
So rather than waiting for Paul Baloche to show up at your church, allow your pastor to mentor you. The more pastoral you become the better worship leader you’ll be.
Question: What has your senior pastor taught you about worship leading? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
David, this is so good. Many young worship leaders/pastors, or even worship musicians think they’re God’s greatest gift to their church. We stink of arrogance and believe everyone needs should be in awe of our awesomeness and talk about us for days after seeing us play.
Why am I talking about arrogance? Because it’s that prideful spirit that prevents us from learning what we can from the most important person at our church. We’re called to serve him and his vision, and we can’t let pride disconnect us from that.
Personally, my pastor has taught me so many things about engaging with people, responding to interruptions, handling distractions, working through transitions within our team, etc – things they just don’t teach you in bible college.
This is wisdom you can’t buy.
If you’re young and in worship ministry, print this post and talk through it with your pastor – it will strengthen your relationship with him and create an opportunity for you to learn from him.
Sorry, I don’t want to exclude veteran worship pastors/leaders from this. If you’ve never sought the wisdom of your lead pastor for your worship ministry, now’s a great time to start.
Well said, Ryan. The local church is not the place to launch your global worship enterprise 🙂 Serve your pastor and then see what happens.
Kudos, David! You have comprehensively covered what is one of the most important relationships a worship leader can have. As a relatively new worship leader, I was able to go to London to Soul Survivor church, for a worship teaching conference with Tim Hughes and Mike Pilavachi. Soul Survivor was where Matt Redman started his worship ministry, and Tim Hughes had taken over by then. One of the Tim’s points that stuck with me was that he always ran his lyrics past his senior pastor before he ever did them in worship. It was a songwriting issue, but it exposed me to the larger issue of how you should view your pastor if you’re leading worship. I had had a vague sense of this before, but this experience brought it home for me. Praise God for your clarity on this most important topic.
Derek, that is a brilliant idea! I have never brought my lyrics to my pastor, but I’m certain that would demonstrate my commitment to his vision. And having him thumbs-up the theology in my song-writing would just be icing on the cake 🙂
You got it brother! The theology is the issue here- we absolutely HAVE to get that right before anything else. Otherwise we’re responsible for our congregation going to weird, wacky places theologically.
It’s good to know I’ve been led in the right direction before even reading this. Once I started crafting the worship songs that I hear in my head, the pastor was/is the first person I hand a lyric sheet. Need his “ok” on my Biblical references, as they sometimes get veiled (and hopefully not to the point of distortion) in the artistic process. I’ve always respected that pastors have a big responsibility with what flows from their pulpits. They vet guest pastors, long before handing them that live mic–musicians should be no different.
That is a great point, Derek. I totally agree. Did you live in England or was it just a visit? I’ve learned so much from those guys when it comes to worship.
I was living in Belgium serving with the US Army in the NATO band. It was a weekend trip to London and was so beneficial to me. I still use things I learned there.
Awesome.
Love the thoughts here…many times we can fall into the trap of viewing what the pastor doesn’t see, instead of what is seen…important distinction to make.
Conor, I’m not sure I understand your statement. What do you mean exactly?
1) The senior pastor who had the most impact in my formative stages emphasized 2 things to our congregation – 1) Know the Word, read it for yourself. 2) Worship – get alone with God and worship Him personally. These two messages changed my life (I wasn’t even involved with worship back then)
2) Now as a “seasoned” worship leader, a word of caution. Don’t put the senior pastor on a pedestal. No leader is not all-knowing. Sometimes you need to share your insight with him and he will benefit from your perspective.
A good leader will be a great listener. Just use good timing, be respectful, and don’t do it in the heat of battle.
Good balance, Rob. I agree that the learning is mutual. Oftentimes what I’ve noticed is young worship leaders who feel they’re on top of the world and can’t be told what to do from a “non musician”. But in a healthy relationship, you both learn from each other.
As a worship leader who has been without a senior pastor for 8 months now I can tell you that his role is very important to the position that we hold. The link between the senior and the worship leader is huge. Thanks for the reminder David. We are praying that God brings us the man HE wants us to have soon!
I’ll pray with you, Paul. That’s a big hire!
David, excellent thoughts here. I especially like your closing thought. “The more pastoral you become the better worship leader you’ll be.” If more would approach this sacred task in the role of a pastor who uses music, it would be awesome.
Thanks Chris. Yea, this is something I never learned in college. Something changes in you when you lead the same people in worship week after week.
David thank you so much for this post. Very true indeed. My pastor has taught above everything else to listen to what God is saying during a service, and declare it over the church as I lead. He has taught me the importance of prophetic worship. This article is right on point about your pastor being your worship mentor….