Worship ministry is mostly about getting out of our own way. If we can minimize distraction, be more authentic, build trust, and love Jesus, we’ll create an environment where people participate rather than spectate. 

A skill set so desperately needed is leading spontaneous moments.

But let’s set the record straight. By spontaneous I don’t mean unplanned, unprepared, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants worship. For spontaneity to work well, you need a plan for it.

I remember the first time I tried to sing a spontaneous song in a service. I’m fairly certain that angels fled at the sound. Even Jesus turned to Gabriel and was like, “What was that?!?” I spent a grand total of zero minutes preparing for that moment. And it was obvious.

Effective spontaneous leadership isn’t actually spontaneous at all. It’s the result of hard work, practice, and planning.

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We live in a day where the excellence of local church worship is at an all time high. There are more original songs, more recordings, and more professionalism than ever before.

We talk enough about excellence here at Beyond Sunday to know there’s nothing wrong with a well planned, well executed worship service.

But oftentimes a passion for excellence can be a disguised as an over-dependence on the epic. We don’t truly believe God is enough so we seek to make “powerful worship” happen in our own strength more often than not.

Have we become so dependent on “powerful worship experiences” that we don’t know how to seek God without them?

• What happens when you’re on your death bed?
• What happens when you’re alone with God on Monday morning?
• What happens when your son or daughter is addicted to heroin?
• What happens when you’re in the darkest night of your soul?

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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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