Letters to Leaders, Vol. 2

I'm so excited about this series .. yet, I find myself defensive immediately on each of the first two releases.

That's NOT a good thing, I suppose.

But, I want to ask ...
"how does this person know that the WL does NOT do those things".

How many congregants really know how the WL lives their live M-Saturday?

And in the context of "do this and we'll follow" ... what would that look like? How do they follow the WL in these service acts of worship? Does the WL stand up and talk about what they are doing? Does he initiate a project?

Personally, I like to consider this in 3-4 spheres.

1) The God sphere. Between God and me. HE knows what I do Mon-Sat so part of being a WL is actually following His leading during the week and pleasing HIM!!

2) The Family sphere. How my family sees me live Mon-Sat. Part of being a WL is actually leading in following. I need my wife (and kids, and extended family members) to see me FOLLOWING the leading of the Holy Spirit day in and day out. By following well, I'm actually leading well.

3) The Small Group Sphere. These are those that I interact with throughout the week more than those I might see only occasionally. Sometimes this is a Bible Study group. Sometimes it's a workout group. Other times it's just a group of life friends. These people need to see me leading my family well as I follow God's leading day in and day out. We have to work at "leading" well in these environments, because our tendancy is to not think about leadership at all once we clock out. The cool thing about this sphere is that your leadership might not have anything to do with the same type of leadership that you minister in and through when at "church." The point is that you are always leading a righteous life, pursuing God's ways, running a good race, and fighting a good fight in the context of tight knit (small group) community.

4) The Community Sphere. This is where I see most WLs excelling in. This is the "easy" leadership sphere for us. We "lead" music. We "lead" a team of musicians. We "lead" the congregation in song. This is mostly what we're hired for. This is our visible "ministry" and has the potential to be the most glamorous and lauded of all the spheres (to outsiders), but also has the potential to be the most plastic and insincere of all the spheres. People "see" this leadership the most. And I think as we focus our lives and center around God, family, friends, and community, in that order, everything falls into place.

I know that I am guilty at times of putting the most "visible" leadership first in my life and usually it takes a little nudge from the Holy Spirit to bring it back into order.

*** ADDED ***

I guess my point in sharing this is that I don't think it's our responsibility to share with the masses ALL THE TIME, but more important to share with those who are closest to us. I think if each of us WLs and worship team members really modeled this by living it out, we'd see the overflow effect. In my mind, I don't see any real, practical way for any one person to "lead" in a meaningful, life-altering way any more than a handful anyway.

Well, what about CEOs and Pastors of megachurches, and the Apostles, etc. Personally, I think they lead small groups of leaders. Real leadership happens in the context of authentic relationship so I believe that there has to either be a chain of leaders leading leaders or an actual chain of "command" (which is a surrogate for relationship).

Rambling now. Make any sense?

Good post, Mandinator!

I will say one thing though - and I think it is due almost entirely to our messed up Western mindset, but I have never had anyone express to me any disappointment in their worship leader/leadership which in any way related to he/she not actively helping the homeless. Though that is changing, I still think that issue is WAY off the radar for most Evangelicals (i.e. - so called "Bible Believing Christians").

Being in the South, the issue is all-too-often the immense sins of "He didn't let me on the team" or "He hasn't yet sung the hymn I suggested...3 days ago". Sad, but true.

In the North, I suppose the sin that makes people lost respect for your worship leadership is not smoking the right brand of cigarette in the parking-lot after the service is over... oh, I'm sorry - that's just the NorthWest. ;-)

I jest, but only partly...

More seriously, though - I think, particularly in larger churches where the congregation is unlikely to know the worship pastor personally or have regular interaction with he/she, the average person's worship is almost as much affected by the reaction/response in worship of the person in leadership which they have the closest connect-to (their small-group leader, for example), or - if there is one - the person on stage that they actually DO have some interaction with, and in those cases those individuals lives are VERY important to the heart response of those "under" them. However, each of us are potentially that to SOMEONE, so we each have the same responsibility to LIVE IT - not only for our own sake, but for the sake of the Gospel, and how it touches the lives of others.

Me too!

I don't know if that's necessarily bad though. It's important that we know what others think of us as worship leaders and what they think about worship, but that doesn't mean we have to agree with everything they say, does it?

Russ shared some great thoughts on the subject.

Great stuff, Russ and Saint...I agree!

Oh, Saint...being FROM the NW, I can tell you that you have it wrong...they smoke in their cars!

Smitty

Hey there

Firstly, as a newbie (Although not altogether new!) I must say that I'm glad I've found this site, as already I feel challenged and encouraged to grow in the calling God has placed on my life!

As far as the latest "Letters to Leaders" post, I have a few comments.

Firstly, in my head (and heart), it's not a stage, it's a Sanctuary! Coming from a traditional background, a big part of my heritage is having a healthy respect for the Reverence of God as King. For me, when I enter the sanctuary to lead, I'm mindful that it's holy ground on which I stand, and I am called to act accordingly. Ok, that's off my chest.....

I really like the comments by Russ on the different spheres of relationship. I’m going to be speaking at a worship conference at a local church, on creating “Flow” in worship. My number one point is that as worship leaders, we must Guard and Foster our relationship with God zealously, both the private and public parts of it. If your personal relationship (quiet times, solo worship etc) with God is not adequate, you public one (Family, church, small groups etc) will reflect accordingly. If that’s not a wake-up call for us, then we must be in a deep sleep!

In my context, though, ministering to the poor takes on a different role. In our (the Anglican) church in Cape Town, there are VAST resource discrepancies between different parishes. I’m based in a church where there are about 35 musicians, but I also minister in a church 4 miles (7 kms in our language) away where I’m the only musician. If I’m not there, the people have to rely on CD’s for worship.

Now, God’s put a vision on my heart for Worship in our church, and part of that is to address the inadequacies that hinder His people from intimate worship.

I would say that that’s one way where we can live out our calling, don’t you think?