Are You Fiercely Loyal To Your Pastor?

[russhutto]

If you'd care to join me I've begun a discussion over on russhutto.com about this very issue. Lincoln Brewster dropkicked us with this question during the National Worship Leader Conference (in one of his workshops) and it is one of a few BIG questions that I think we need to address as worship leaders who work with and sometimes "under" a lead pastor.

Feel free to drop in and leave a brief comment and come back here if you'd like to take the discussion deeper.

[carguy1]

Response posted on your blog.

[milepost13]

Since my lead pastor is my father, yeah, I'm pretty loyal. It ticks me off to hear anything negative about him on either fronts, especially because I know him so well. I'm also loyal to our other four pastors, none of whom are my father, but all whom I have deep relationships with.

Nate

[chipshot0701]

SO, now I have to jump over to your blog and read up on this subject? I wish you guys could just hold the topic in here so I wouldn't have to jump pages. But,,,alas Here I go ....umphhhh, ah made it over there.

[russhutto]

Here are some thoughts from the discussion over on the blog:

As a member of The Worship Community I’ve seen some posts from hurt and disgruntled worship leaders who are venting about the dysfunction in their relationships with their pastors. There is a time and a place for that. It’s healthy even, in the right venue to share frustrations and vent with colleagues.

What isn’t ok is to belittle and berate your pastor. We all know that no one is perfect. We all know that we all stumble. What I am learning and trying to live out in a more intentional manner is walking in understanding and love at all times. Sometimes those in leadership do things we totally disagree with. Sometimes they do things that we think make absolutely NO sense. Sometimes they seem to do things just to do them, with no rhyme nor reason.

My challenge to US worship leaders is to share your frustrations with them. Be loyal. When someone is talking about them, even if it’s just in jest, we’ve got to come to their defense. When someone is belittling them, we’ve got to stop it. Right then.

We are our strongest and most effective when we walk in unity. Jesus prayed that we (His followers) would walk in love and be unified. Talking about your pastor behind his or her back brings division and causes a divided front.

I think this goes with any member of your church really. We should be fiercely loyal to each other - making sure that if we ever have an issue with anyone we go straight to them and try to work it out that way as per Matthew 18. If that doesn’t work - still don’t gossip - bring it to the leadership.

Man, I needed to hear this. This is definitely an area of struggle for me—and highlights my own pride and self-righteousness. I too often forget that what I’m REALLY doing when I’m criticizing others, especially those God has called to and gifted for certain tasks, is saying, “I’m better than them,” “I know better than them,” “God didn’t know what He was doing when He put THEM in charge.”

In my daily job as a clinical systems analyst and RN in a local hospital I have always felt that regardless of how I felt about my supervisors or the organization that should, outwardly support them. Then, if I have an issue with them, I take it to them. Think that this is the same sort of relationship that we should have with our pastor. We do not always have to agree with one another, but our congregation should never know that we disagree. This is not to say that we are to be disgenuine, or dishonest with our congregation. I simply mean that outwardly we should be united and our disagreements should happen behind closed doors.

Loyalty comes with trust and trust comes when leaders consistently and intentionally deliver on what they promise. Blind obedience/loyalty without a foundation of trust is stupidity and it leads to all kinds of problems. The solution to a Pastor who has broken trust most certainly is to approach them in love and to not back bite, but, why should you defend a leader who has broken trust with inconsistent behavior? I would say that it is better to not speak about it within your church and seek outside counsel. Sorry if I stole thunder, but, trust is something that is earned and our pastors need loving accountabilty and not blind loyalty.

[russhutto]

Loyalty comes with trust and trust comes when leaders consistently and intentionally deliver on what they promise. Blind obedience/loyalty without a foundation of trust is stupidity and it leads to all kinds of problems. The solution to a Pastor who has broken trust most certainly is to approach them in love and to not back bite, but, why should you defend a leader who has broken trust with inconsistent behavior? I would say that it is better to not speak about it within your church and seek outside counsel. Sorry if I stole thunder, but, trust is something that is earned and our pastors need loving accountabilty and not blind loyalty.

There is a lot of truth in this response, but you didn't steal my thunder. This original post is about being loyal to leadership, not being an idiot. It's a reminder that we are a body with many parts, that we are all on the same team. The loyalty that I speak of isn't blind, it isn't mindless. It's Godly.

My advice to anyone who feels that they can't trust their leadership for whatever reason, is that they are in the wrong place. Begin to ask God to show you how to move on.

Trust is earned, sure, but if you accept a job on a team where you don't really know the people you'll be serving with, then maybe you're jumping the gun a bit.

My point is not to encourage people to be zombies, but to promote unity in our churches. If you've been around church life for any amount of time, you're bound to hear someone belittling the leaders. My challenge for worship leaders, is if you're around at that moment, put a stop to it. Defend the leader YOU'VE locked arms to lead with.

I'm tired of hearing worship leaders that are disgruntled or even just bored acting like they can do a better job of pastoring people, talking up a storm about it to everyone but the pastor, and wearing a mask on Sundays like there are no issues. If you think you can do a better job at being the lead pastor, go for it. Quit yapping and rock the pastoral position. Otherwise, serve like you know how, to the best of your ability, and come alongside those in leadership showing the church that we are all on the same page.

Just to reiterate, I'm not talking about turning a blind eye to misconduct or bad pastoring, I'm talking about being part of a team that works in unity to serve the local congregation. Bad pastoral leadership and how you as a worship leader handle it is an entirely different topic.

Cheers.

[yod1948]

Amen!


We should be careful (VERY CAREFUL) about publicly making critical remarks of anyone but especially someone in a position of leadership, spiritual or otherwise.

We are not privy to many details of why they make the decisions they do most of the time.