Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Thought Life

Home
Evangelical
Churches, Promote Your Worship Dude

Churches, Promote Your Worship Dude

Last updated on: January 22, 2015 at 9:42 am by Owen Strachan

Churches, Promote Your Worship Dude 2015-01-22T09:42:55-07:00 Owen Strachan

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

There are few positions in the local church that can be more confusing to figure out than the worship leader/dude/guy/servant.

Who is the worship leader supposed to be? Is the position merely about singing songs? Should the person in charge give mini-sermonettes? In a good number of churches, the person who leads music operates in limbo. Half rock-star, half-minister, the worship leader doesn’t know exactly where he stands, and the church isn’t quite sure what to think about him. Where this kind of confusion exists, a solution is needed.

I propose a solution: churches, promote your worship leader.

Worship Leaders as Pastors

For a variety of reasons, the worship leader is not viewed as a pastor in a good number of churches. I believe this is a mistake. Leading in worship is not simply a matter of hitting notes and reading music. It is a form of congregational shepherding. It sets the tone for a sacred weekly moment, in which the body of Christ in its local expression joins together to drink deeply from the well of God’s Word.

Congregational music is intimately connected in the apostolic mind with being “filled” with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). When we’re singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, we’re praising God out of the overflow. The one who leads us in this holy task is not simply a musical director. This person sets the tone, shepherds us through the liturgy of the service, and lifts our eyes to God, readying us for the ministry of proclamation through the sermon.

This means that worship leaders are pastors. They are not half-pastors. They are not deacons. They are shepherds, and their primary medium of shepherding is song. Think about what this means in aesthetic terms. God, who is himself beauty, desires that his people experience the sensory and emotional delight of music devoted to him. God, you could say, is the ultimate aesthete. He wants his people to experience the pleasure of theocentric aesthetics, and so it is right that churches appoint a pastor to lead the people into this joyful experience.

Too Many Worship Leaders Are Languishing

It is my sense, however, that some churches don’t know what to do with their worship guy/leader/director. In some cases, this is understandable. There aren’t always a ton of musically inclined people in our evangelical congregations. This is increasingly true in part because beautiful music has fallen on hard times in our context. Most people frankly aren’t interested in the Western aesthetic tradition. They have no ear for complex and rich musical productions. The church, writ large, doesn’t take the arts super-seriously.

But that is a boondoggle for another day. A bigger challenge is that some churches have not recognized that their worship leader is languishing. Where this is true, a few possible outcomes present themselves.

1. Make the music leader a music leader alone. The role is not a shepherding or teaching role. This move may be best when there isn’t a good candidate for promotion.

2. Promote your worship person to a pastoral role. This, in my view, is an ideal outcome. There’s no role in Scripture for “ecclesial rock star.” Biblical polity promotes precisely two roles in the church: deacon and elder. Elders are pastors. They shepherd the flock. They teach the body in different ways.

This is the direction that Southern Seminary, my employer, has gone (see this Baptist Press report). The worship program here trains men to pastor the flock as worship leaders. I think this is precisely the right way to go for churches who have a qualified candidate. Don’t leave the poor worship guy–and the congregation–stranded. Train up your worship leader in the Word. Mentor him. Then unleash him to pastor the flock.

I bet, in many cases, you’ll see him step up and own the role in a way he previously has not.

Ministry Leaders Should Be Pastors

In general, this principle is a sound one: if a man is doing significant ministry in the body and has teaching gifts, and if he meets the elder requirements of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, then make him an elder. Don’t leave him in congregational no-mans-land, stranded somewhere between “Eternal Intern” and “Full-fledged Pastor.” Promote him.

This isn’t only true for worship leaders. It’s true for college ministry leaders, Sunday School teachers, and the like. The church must carefully appoint elders. But eldership, as I’ve heard Mark Dever say, shouldn’t be like hitting the lottery. In a healthy, Word-driven church, our expectation should be that elders are developed, recognized, and enfranchised.

I know of a good number of evangelical churches where pastors are not elders. This, in my view, is not healthy. The New Testament offers us a beautiful simplicity when it comes to church leaders. There are elder-pastors, and there are deacons. It’s not wrong to add staff positions–administrative assistants, interns, and the like–but our churches should be focused on filling these two God-appointed roles in the body.

It’s frankly weird how often evangelicals consider scriptural polity, shrug their shoulders, and then say, “Hey, the Bible is great–but I’ve got an even better idea for how we could structure this church!” In my own work in Christ’s name, I’m trying to do my very insignificant part to push against this all-too-common instinct. Instead of creating half-elders and unenfranchised ministry workers, let’s focus on developing pastors. Let’s remind the men in our churches that 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 aren’t only benchmarks by which to consider elder candidates, but are standards of godly manhood to which all men should aspire.

Churches, Promote Your Worship Dude

It’s not always possible, as I’ve said, to make the music leader a pastor of the church. If that’s not doable, then churches shouldn’t feel pressure to do so. Smaller churches in particular will face this challenge.

But I don’t really have that kind of situation in mind. I am aiming at settings in which the worship leader is either a rock star who sings worship songs or an enfeebled note-singer afraid to step on toes. The worship leader is really going to flourish when he is invested in the congregation’s life as a shepherd. He’ll feel free to set the tone for the weekly service, to not only sing with his whole heart but share verses and biblical wisdom that draws the heart of the gathered body to God.

Let’s not be scared of our worship leaders. Let’s not leave them out in the cold. Let’s not make them half-pastors who do half-ministry in the body.

Let’s promote them and in truth unleash them to fuel the aesthetic, emotive, and theological appetite of the church for its God.

**********

For more, see the influential writings of Bob Kauflin, and also the excellent contributions of Matt Papa, Matt Boswell, and Devon Kauflin.

Previous Post

January 21, 2015

"American Sniper" Shows Virtuous Manhood in Action

Next Post

January 23, 2015 5 Takeaways from American Sniper

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "heaven is a world of love" 9Marks abortion academics Adam Sandler adoption adultery adulthood aesthetics aging ajith fernando al mohler alice walker America american education american shaolin apologetics architecture atheism atonement august rush barack obama baseball basketball batman beauty berry mauve or muted wine Bible biblemesh biblical studies biblical theology biblical womanhood billy wolfe blogging bob kauflin body book culture book reviews boston celtics boston college bowdoin college bowling alone boyce college boyhood Brooke Fraser Bruce Ware bullies bullying business business ethics C.S. Lewis calling calvinism canada Capitol Hill Baptist Church carl henry carl trueman carolyn mahaney cbmw celebrity Chicago child's play children Christ Christ and culture Christian education christian hedonism christian ministry Christian vocation christian womanhood christianity and culture church government church history church internships church life church matters blog church membership church planting cities CJ Mahaney colin adams college college admissions college life college ministry collin hansen complementarianism conferences congregational worship conservative thought consumerism conversion council on biblical manhood & womanhood council on biblical manhood and womanhood covenant life church creativity credo magazine credobaptism cross movement crossway books crucifixion culinary culture cultural engagement cultural theology culture culture shift d. a. carson dads daily mail dan barry dancing with the stars daniel dennett darrell bock dating David Barash davy rothbart death death of God debt desiring God developmental league devotional thoughts dick morris dining disability discipleship doug sweeney douglas groothius economics economy education egalitarianism eliot spitzer ella rose strachan enlightenment entrepreneurs entrepreneurship environmentalism Eric Metaxas ethics evangelical theological society evangelicalism evangelism extended adolescence extreme home makeover family fatherhood feminism fiction film flame food foodstuffs football four gospels frank miller friendship gay gay Christianity gender roles genderblog george marsden girltalk gk chesterton God gospel gospel of John gospel risk gq greek mythology guillermo del toro happiness harold ockenga Harvard health heaven height hell henry center herb london higher education hillsdale hip hop historical theology history holidays holiness Holy Spirit home-school homemaking homes homosexuality hope human dignity human flourishing human life image of God imagination intellectual Christianity intellectual life iron man Islam J.I. Packer james mcavoy James Q. Wilson jeremy lin Jesus Christ jim hamilton joe namath John Calvin John McCain john owen john piper john rockefeller jonathan edwards journalism justice justin taylor kairos journal keira knightlet la times leadership lesbian life of the mind Lifeway links literature Lord's prayer louie giglio love male sex drive mall manhood manners Mark Dever Mark Driscoll marriage mars hill martial virtue martin luther masculinity materialism matthew hall maureen dowd memoirs of an ordinary pastor mentoring military millennials ministry missional missions monergism moral argument morality motherhood music national review nba new atheism new england New Testament new york new york times new yorker newsweek nietzsche northeast notre dame npr obedience oprah oprah's big give orphan care overheated prose award owen wilson pain parenting Park Community Church pastor-theologian pastoral ministry pastors persecution philosophes philosophy political philosophy politics poverty prayer preaching presidency presidential race pro-life professors proverbs psychology public school public square public theology publications quebec quilting race racism radical womanhood rap music rc sproul rebecca walker Reformation 21 relevant magazine religious liberty resources revelation revival richard dawkins richistan risky gospel robbie george robert putnam ron chernow Russ Moore salvation salvo magazine sam harris same-sex attraction sanctification scholarship science scripture secularism seminaries seminary life sex sex drive sexual ethics sexuality sexualized culture shooting sacred evangelical cows shootings simple church singleness social justice social media social networking Southern Baptists southern seminary sovereign grace Spanglish spirituality sports sports illustrated sports injuries stanford steve mccoy suburbia suffering superhero t. suzanne ellder Tea Leoni technology television the darjeeling unlimited the gospel coalition the southern baptist theological seminary the wackness theological journalism theology theology of work thinking Thom Rainer tim challies tim keller time magazine titan Together for the Gospel tom carson tom wolfe tragedy transgender travel trinity trinity evangelical divinity school truth twitter ty pennington unashamed workman Uncategorized violence virtue vocation voddie baucham war wayne gretzky wayne grudem weddings wikipedia will smith williams winnie hu womanhood work world magazine worship writing youth sports

Select a Month August 2021 July 2021 May 2021 March 2021 December 2020 October 2020 June 2020 February 2020 January 2020 October 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 November 2017 October 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the lesson in the Parable of the Lost Coin?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Riches must be counted Keep your house clean Money is a blessing God values each lost person