#3 – No one will be as passionate about worship leading as I am…and they’re not supposed to be.
Sometimes, our expectations of other people can really get us into trouble; especially in ministry. My Dad taught me a long time ago about dreams and visions, and how to go after the God-given scope of your life that the Holy Spirit has set on fire. From a young age, I took that teaching very seriously and developed a passion for worshiping Jesus and leading people into worship that superseded everything else in my life. So what’s the problem? Isn’t that a good thing since I am a worship pastor? Absolutely. Having a passion for worship and worship leading only becomes a problem when we try to invoke our passion on everyone around us and expect them to feel the same way we do. Here’s what I had to learn: They’re not going to…and they’re not supposed to.
If you are on staff (or volunteer) as a worship leader/pastor, the passion that you have is God-breathed and God-ordained; He gave it to YOU! He didn’t give the same passion to the youth pastor or the children’s pastor or the small groups pastor, or even the lead pastor; He gave it to YOU because this is your place in His body! The part of this that gets sticky is when we get our feelings hurt (Imagine that….a musician with hurt feelings!) or get offended because we’ve carved out a moment in the services that we’re “all about” and no one seems to care; or we work hard on a transition that gets pulled at the last minute because it doesn’t fit the flow; or we’re just getting to the best part of the song when the pastor walks up unexpectedly and leads the congregation in a different direction. Any of these sound familiar? If any of these scenarios have happened to you and you’ve not struggled in the least little bit, forgive me, but have you really ever led worship? or led anything, for that matter? Because if you have, you know that things are going to happen that don’t fit into your “box” of ideas and your plans, at some time or another, will be thwarted – whether by the Holy Spirit or by man. Because every single one of these circumstances, along with many others, has happened to me, here are a few mindsets I’ve learned to adopt over the past few years. Here’s hoping they help you…
- Your lead pastor is the TRUE worship leader in your church. While you may be more passionate about worship than he is, you must follow his lead and not try to make something happen that he doesn’t support. Get up under authority, stay covered, and you’ll stay blessed!
- Don’t put your expectations on people; you’ll get disappointed. I am blessed with the best worship team on the planet (I may be a little biased!) but not one of them eats, drinks, sleeps and breathes this thing like I do; none of them plan and plot toward encounters in worship all week long; none of them carries the weight of the music, services and the worship experience like I do. THEY’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO! Don’t get frustrated with people when you feel like they don’t “get it.” Chances are, you’re expecting way too much out of them.
- Be flexible. If you are a worship leader worth your “salt”, you’ll be prayed-up when you step onto the platform and your number one prayer will be that the Holy Spirit has His way – even if that means skipping or changing something you worked hard on all week.
- It’s not about you. I love this quote from renowned worship leader Glenn Packiam: “…The worship leader is not a priest who mediates on behalf of the people; he is a priest who stands among the congregation of priests, calling attention to God. He is, as a priest is, one of the people. He shares their bloodline, their heritage, their history. He knows their stories….” Worship leading is all about seeing the Bride connect with the Bridegroom and we, my friends, are mere facilitators of that experience; nothing more, nothing less.
Maybe we need to rethink the concept of our calling as worship leaders/pastors and thank the Lord for the passion He’s deposited into us. And at the same time, come to the revelation that what He’s deposited into us is for us as worship leaders/pastors, that His Kingdom may come and His will may be done.
