In this month’s Q&A webinar, Keith Getty, a musical artist and author helps us understand the relationship between senior pastors and worship leaders. Sing! was written to use with family, friends, and worship leaders to help people understand why we sing.
Music deeply influences the church more than we realize. The relationship between senior pastors and worship pastors/leaders can sometimes be tricky. These questions help navigate this dynamic relationship and help the church work together in harmony.
Since senior pastor’s brains tend to be wired academically while worship leaders are typically more creative, how do you develop clear expectations between the senior pastor and worship leader?
Not every senior pastor and worship leader is wired the same. It really comes down to personality traits. In some ways they are more the same than different. At the very basic level, the musician is there to serve the pastor. Musicians are servants that help to enhance people’s worship to the Lord. While worship leaders may need room to create, ultimately, they have a boss that they need to respect.
If the senior pastor has a problem with the worship pastor, they need to discuss the issue immediately and resolve it. By not resolving it, you are delaying relational carnage in your church. You must establish who is boss and who isn’t in these situations. Be the leader, have clarity, and have integrity to establish this relationship.
If you’re in a position in which the worship leader disagrees with you, you’re already at a loss because they’re controlling the hand. Worship leaders are allowed to have passion and a voice, but they still need to respect the senior pastor. The pastor needs to lead his people. Encourage the worship leaders in what they do and allow them to bring out their talents.
We are all fearfully and wonderfully made. If a worship leader feels unheard or undervalued, listen to what the worship pastor is saying. In great movements of revival, people have unique relationships with their pastor, serving them. Go about the conversation with sensitivity, ask them what they want you to understand, and ask what they are trying to achieve. The goal for worship pastors should be to help God’s people sing. Singing is a representation of what church is. When your eyes aren’t fixed on Christ, it’s easy to focus on our own emotions.
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Daniel Im (@danielsangi) is the Director of Church Multiplication for NewChurches.com at LifeWay Christian Resources. He is a Teaching Pastor at The Fellowship, a multisite church in Nashville. He is the author of No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry, and co-author of Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply (2nd ed) with Ed Stetzer. He also co-hosts the New Churches Q&A Podcast, the 5 Leadership Questions Podcast, and a brand new podcast with his wife on marriage and parenting called the IMbetween Podcast. He has an M.A. in Global Leadership and has served and pastored in church plants and multisite churches ranging from 100 people to 50,000 people in Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Korea, Edmonton, and Nashville. Visit Danielim.com to learn more.
