On a scale of 1 to 10, how is your relationship with your lead pastor?

Or if you’re a lead pastor, is the connection with your worship leader strong?

We all know this is the most important relationship on a worship team, but it’s rare for this partnership to be healthy. At best, they tolerate each other. At worst, it’s an all-out war of misunderstanding.

But it doesn’t have to be. It’s time to be intentional about it.

I’m talking about more than just being a “yes” man. I’d even venture to say your lead pastor is looking for more than just someone to fulfill orders. He wants a partnership. He wants your input. But he also wants you to understand the vision, buy into it, and work it out within your volunteers.

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We talk a lot about passion. Having a passionate worship team. But is that really enough?

I have a feeling it’s not. And I think you might agree.

There’s a few goals that rise above for me:

• Having a fire for Jesus behind & beyond the stage.
• A steady, daily gaze into His Word.
• A heart that trusts His goodness through trials.
• A team that loves the Church, not just their opportunity to play.

I’ll take that any day over a charismatic bass player who has cool hair and good stage presence. Of course, cool hair and good stage presence isn’t the devil. I work on my hair and my stage presence, though some may contest 🙂 These things aren’t mutually exclusive. But it’s important for us to create a culture where a fire of Jesus is cultivated off the stage. We need to do more than just call for energy, stage presence, and leadership of songs.

Because here’s the reality – if you have a person on fire for the glory of God in the secret place, it’s going to show in their leadership on the platform. It will. It might not be mosh pits, backflips, and sprints across the stage, but a fire for His presence will release an authority in worship that is better than just manufactured stage presence.

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Envision it. A team that doesn’t just play music on Sunday, but a family. Not only a family, but a family on a journey together, chasing the heart of God.

Does this describe your team?

If you’re a leader, you feel the pressure. We need to disciple our teams. We need to be spiritual. We have to worship and have deep conversations. But it’s rare for a team to really do this well.

And believe me, I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to choose a book for your team to read together and find that no one reads it. I know what it’s like to have a Bible study and no one engage.

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