Nick Ittzes

Pursuing Excellence in Worship Leadership

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Excellence starts with godly self-esteem, which worship leaders need to instill in their team members by helping them to understand who they are in Christ. Excellence is not something we arrive at, but something we continually pursue; it is a state of “being” more than a state of “doing.”

Excellence has become a management buzzword. It may soon find itself on the list of “wonderful words to be used for management by clichés.” Nowadays many people are climbing aboard the excellence bandwagon. But what does it really mean to pursue excellence? As worship leaders, can we define excellence so it is more than a noble-sounding sentiment? How can the worship leader develop a team that pursues excellence?

God Inside: Wellspring of Excellence. For the Christian, pursuing excellence is the inescapable consequence of his or her fellowship with the Christ who does “everything well” (Mark 7:37). This is so because everything we need for life and godliness has already been given us in Christ Jesus (2 Pet. 1:3), and we can access what has been given us by believing his “very great and precious promises” (2 Pet. 1:4). As a worship leader, therefore, your approach to excellence begins with creating grace-based, faith-energized people, for they always tend toward excellence.

Start Building a Godly Self-Esteem. As worship leader, your role will be to teach your team who they are in Christ. For if they have an unbiblical self-image, they will be hurt in at least five ways:

1. They will tend to ignore God’s inspiration. Suffering from low self-esteem, they will think that any thought they have surely can’t be worth much. You can imagine how that can rob a worship team of God’s gifts.
2. They will tend to have a master-slave relationship with God rather than one of fellowship, love, and trust. They will be paralyzed by the fear of “doing something in the flesh,” and won’t budge unless God confirms their proposed action with supernatural events. They will fear innovation, although innovation is a sign of life.
3. They may suffer from a damaged internal guidance mechanism that torpedoes the things they do attempt. Somehow they will manage to inject a fatal flaw into their work.
4. People with low self-esteem often have difficulty receiving criticism or even suggestions from their leaders or peers. This is a serious leadership problem all over the world and is the silent killer of many a church and ministry.
5. Finally, people with low self-esteem tend to think they are failures if there is something they don’t know. Therefore, they have difficulty in receiving expert help, too. They will stay away from training sessions, will resist attending conferences, and may not be willing to receive even their leader’s correction.

Go for the Roots. When someone doesn’t know who he or she is in Christ, he or she will produce bad fruit, setting “aside the grace of God” (Gal. 2:21). To start flailing away at the bad fruit may, in fact, create more bad fruit. If we don’t deal with the roots, we will eventually cut our team off from Christ, for Paul also says, “Encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thess. 5:11), and he proclaims a spiritual unity that grows out of God-given endurance and encouragement (Rom. 15:5).

The Foolishness of Preaching. Often I am asked, “Then, how can you deal with the consequences of a wrong self-understanding?” I can give no better answer than what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:21: “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” Every healthy Christian group includes nurture as part of its dynamic. I would encourage you to teach on the theme of who we really are according to the Word.

Spiritual Identity. Your team members must know who they are before they can exercise their gifts. Nebuchadnezzar was the mightiest king of his day, but when God punished him, he forgot who he was and acted like a cow, not a king (Dan. 4:25–33). He was totally ineffective in his leadership role. Similarly, when Christians do not know who they are, the results may be bovine.

Excellence Is a Pursuit, Not an Achievement. In the pursuit of excellence, be careful not to substitute perfectionism. Perfectionists set absolute and usually quite arbitrary standards by which to judge themselves and others. Their standards may be so high that the result is a paralyzing inactivity. Because they dread failure, perfectionists often become expert procrastinators and blame-shifters.

On the other hand, those who are content to pursue excellence are unafraid to scale the heights. For them the chief issue is improvement. The perfectionists’ standards are static. But those who pursue excellence impose no limits on their performance, and eventually will best the standards of the perfectionist. The gospel is clearly an invitation to pursue excellence. Character, as well as the gifts of the Spirit, are presented in terms of practice and improvement (1 Cor. 14:12; Phil. 3:14; 1 Tim. 4:15). One can talk about improvement only when something is imperfect. Those who pursue excellence are not undone by making mistakes.

The Pursuit of Excellence

Confrontation for the Grace-Based. Building excellence, then, begins with establishing people in grace, helping them achieve a biblical self-image, and unshackling them from the fear of failure. But it doesn’t end there. Problems will still need to be confronted; however, our attitude as leaders must reflect the grace-based approach. Otherwise, we will revert to the old law system in which rules, reproaches, and shame are used to keep people in line.

The new covenant perspective sees confrontations as dealing with tshe conflict between flesh and spirit—between the old sinful nature and the renewed person in Christ (see Rom. 7:7–25). Thus, biblical confrontation comes from the position of an ally, working with Christian brothers and sisters to help them stand against their human tendency to sin.

Being before Doing. God’s Word has in it the power to build us into channels of excellence. Therefore, as a leader you will want to focus on what Scripture says we are in Christ. With that as a foundation, the principles of the Law actually become promises of what God will work in us by his Spirit. Only in that context is it appropriate to discuss the parameters of excellence.

Before anything else, excellence must be spiritual. God is more interested in replicating his character in us than he is in getting us to do work for him. Joyce Meyer has said, “We are called human beings, not human doings” (Counseling Psychology: Theories and Case Studies. [Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1975]). Consider, for example, 1 Corinthians 13:1, which introduces a concept repeated several times in the chapter, each time dealing with a different issue of performance without love: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Even more pointed are Jesus’ words of warning: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers’ ” (Matt. 7:21–23).

Clearly, worship leaders must lead their teams into spiritual excellence. Godliness is to be preferred over musical skill if we can’t have both.

Excellence in the Word. Closely linked with spiritual excellence is a deep commitment to accuracy, completeness, and honesty with regard to the Word of God. We have already said that worship leaders function in a prophetic role and that they must therefore be equipped with Scripture.

Excellence of the Externals. Although Jesus did not espouse glitz and glitter, we can also safely say he did not found the cult of mediocrity. Outward appearance does matter. External things, such as being on time, having your instrument clean, properly grooming your hair, are all signals to the observer that you mean business.

We are not talking about style here as much as a commitment to doing things well. A three-piece suit, for example, may be completely out of place in a church filled with baby boomers. But dirty clothes and their olfactory offenses are out of place among leaders in any setting.

Artistic Excellence. I have observed an ever-growing tendency toward musical excellence among worship teams. This trend results in the development of musical skills in the congregation, which is a worthy goal. Thus, learning at the congregational level is more “caught” than “taught.”

Forbid Carnal Competitiveness. When we deal with artistic excellence, we have to be especially careful of the flesh. The Bible gives us wonderful, healthy advice on this issue: “Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else”(Gal. 6:4). Aside from Scripture, the primary yardstick for measuring excellence is each person’s past performance.

Setting Goals for Excellence. We have now come full circle in the entries in this chapter. If excellence is to be more than a buzzword, then it requires our involvement in setting milestones for progress. That’s what leadership does. It creates and fuels vision and mobilizes people to achieve more than they dreamed they ever could. My prayer for you is that the excellence of Christ in you and in your team will find increasing manifestation daily.

The Worship Leader as Servant

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Servanthood is a powerful leadership tool. This is because, in serving others, the worship leader becomes like Jesus and walks the path that led to his glorification through obedience. Worship leaders serve God first, then their church’s leadership, their worship team, and their congregation.

When his disciples began to vie with one another for positions, Jesus told them, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:25–28). In those few words, Jesus was stating a great leadership principle.

The Power of Servanthood

If you have learned to serve, you are bound for kingdom success. In fact, servanthood is such a powerful leadership tool that it works in any organization, whether church-related or not. There are at least two reasons why serving has such great power: It replicates the life of Jesus, and it puts us on the same path as Jesus.

Serving Replicates the Life of Jesus. Becoming more and more like Jesus is the essence of being Christians. And the more like him we become, the more we will be able to do his works. (See Jesus’ complete sermon on this subject in John 13–16.)

A major part of becoming like him is becoming servants. Jesus commands us to follow him in servanthood. After he washed their feet, Jesus told his disciples, “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:13–17). The foot washing has significance beyond its obvious lesson in humility. In Jesus’ day, washing the feet of guests was a common courtesy, much like helping someone off with his or her jacket would be in our time. It demonstrates that the leader is not above taking care of the ordinary needs of his staff.

Clearly, the servant-attitude on our part is an attitude that would please our Lord Jesus. Pleasing him is the roadway to kingdom power, for in the great miracle chapter, John 14, Jesus said, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14:21). Our hearts’ desire is to have God show himself to us in our worship services. Obedient servant-leadership is surely an avenue for that to happen.

Serving Puts Us on the Same Path as Jesus. Another reason why serving has such great power is that it puts us on the same path that led to the glorification of Jesus. Jesus was exalted by God because he was first a servant. God commands us to

do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:3–11)

We Get Back What We Give

Imagine the power of a worship team that is composed of servants who desire nothing more than to glorify God and bless his church. In your role as leader, you can build such a team—not just by teaching on servanthood, but by being an example to the team.

Unfortunately, many people who come into leadership in the church think that leading is synonymous with throwing your weight around. But that destructive mentality must be replaced with obedient servanthood, in which we place God’s will above all else and serve one another at every opportunity. Jesus promised, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38). According to Jesus, therefore, if we give servanthood, we will receive servanthood back. We generate a giving people. Thus, the servant-leader is able to accomplish what the domineering leader can only long for—a serving people.

Targeting Your Serving

Let’s now consider the target of your serving, and how to accomplish your servant-leadership.

The Worship Leader Serves God. It seems almost unnecessary to mention that you serve God. But we can lose sight of the basics because of our tendency to worship at the shrine of the extraordinary. The chief target of your ministrations is God. You are not the entertainer of a human audience. You are first and foremost a servant of the Most High God, to bring him pleasure. Then you can lead people where you have been. Your primary calling is to get close to the heart of God and to minister to him according to his desires.

You Serve the Church’s Leadership. Worship leaders who try to enhance their own position at the expense of the other leaders in the church are clearly out of God’s order. To use the incredible power of music and worship for selfish ends is utterly reprehensible. Rather, you will use your gifts to support the total ministry of the church. If that ministry is utterly unworthy of support and seems entirely unredeemable, then ask the Lord for a release to join another congregation.

Because music and worship have such a profound impact on the total life of the church, you can serve the other leaders by staying in close contact with them. Ideally, you should be involved in the top-level leadership of the church, where you can find out what the spiritual and strategic needs of the church are.

For example, let’s suppose that the church is planning a missionary outreach to Mexico. If you are involved in planning, you can be seeking God for ways to prophesy life into that vision from your position as a worship leader. God can give you creative ways to keep that vision before the saints.

You Serve Your Team. Serving your team means that you will see yourself as their supporter, equipping them to do their job well. Years ago, Larry Christenson said, “The sign of a successful leader is a successful staff” (A Message to the Charismatic Movement [Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1972]). Promoting, empowering, encouraging, training, equipping your team—these are the hallmarks of a professional leader. My church is singularly blessed to have as a worship leader one who runs a tight ship. Commitment is very high. But his team knows that he will “go to bat” for them regarding their needs. Partly because of his commitment, our team has some of the finest sound equipment available today. They have a place of honor in our church and exert a positive influence at every age level and in every facet of our ministry.

A good leader will also “take the heat.” You will shield your team from the many “well-meaning dragons” that come with their hundreds of mutually exclusive “suggestions” and complaints. You will see to it that your team is answerable to you, before other leaders in the church. You will be your team’s advocate at church budget time; you will plead the team’s cause to have money allocated for instruments, sound equipment, tuition, and expense payments so that your team can attend worship conferences and so forth.

You Serve the People. Finally, you are a servant to the congregation. Your purpose is to lead them into the manifest presence of God. You occupy a prophetic role and serve the congregation by leading and equipping them for true, spiritual worship. But if you are the servant-leader, you will be careful to lead the people with compassion and understanding. I have seen some musicians lead with a chip on their shoulders. They have an agenda. Their attitude is, “I’m going to teach you how to worship if it kills you.” For example, I had a classmate in seminary who was very intellectual and deeply involved in liturgical worship. At graduation time, he asked for a call to a rural church somewhere in the Midwest. Since that seemed incongruous with his worship interest, the administration asked him why he would want such a call. His answer? “I want to teach those peasants how to really worship!” Needless to say, his request was declined.

As a servant-leader, you will find out what your congregation’s musical tastes, abilities, and worship skills are. Then, rather than looking at how much they are lacking, you will gratefully build on what they already have. You will stretch them without breaking them.

A New Standard for Leadership

This is an hour in which God is raising a new standard for leadership. The days of leadership by egomania are gone. God is looking for leaders whom he can trust to replicate the life and style of Jesus, for to such leaders he will gladly send people. He is looking for churches that are safe for struggling Christians, where their leaders will care about the flock more than about themselves. If you will answer that call, you can take your place on the cutting edge of what God is doing today. Answer now, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Sam. 3:9).

Worship Leaders and Planning

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Planning is a continuous process. Scripture encourages planning, and God promises success if we will invite him to be part of the process. A retreat is an ideal time for long-range planning and a time to offer suggestions.

In the book of Proverbs we read, “A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing” (Prov. 20:4). Sluggards are tragicomical figures. Can you imagine what kind of person would fail to plow, sow, weed, and feed, yet go out in the fall, surprised at not finding a harvest?

The sluggard fails to realize that today’s decisions will determine tomorrow’s results. He or she needs to learn that planning is a key to reaping a harvest. Worship leaders also need to plan. They are looking for a harvest of people who can enter into the presence of God unhindered, to bring him pleasure, and to be a channel for his power to be manifested in all the earth.

I know congregations in which there is a steady growth in worship life and power. They are blessed with growing numbers of people committed to worshiping the Lord. Their music is filled with life. People stand in line to become part of the worship team. They are able to field two, three, or more complete worship teams. Most of all, the power of God is evident in their times of worship, so much so that there are testimonies of physical and emotional healings occurring during the worship. Such power in worship comes, in part, from the dedication and the spiritual quality of the leaders and their people. But spirituality cannot be divorced from getting a plan from God for the worship life of the congregation.

God’s Views on Planning

God more than allows us to plan, as if he were giving in to our weaknesses. With wonderful promises, he encourages us to plan. But he wants to be involved in the planning process. Our plans must be submitted to the Lord to succeed. Planning becomes carnal only if God is not invited to inspire and lead the process. But he promises that if we commit to him whatever we do, our plans will succeed (Prov. 16:3).

I have a friend who once stated proudly in his worship service, “We never publish a bulletin, and we never plan anything in advance because we want to be inspired by the Holy Ghost, and we don’t want the devil to know in advance what we’re going to do!” But that’s not really a scriptural view. For God’s inspiration can work flawlessly through the process of thinking, organizing, and planning.

The process by which Luke wrote his Gospel is a clear example of that. Luke did research as any historian would. Describing his strategy, Luke tells us he “carefully investigated” the stories about Jesus and wrote them down in an orderly fashion so Theophilus might be assured in his faith (Luke 1:1–4). Though Luke studied, researched, and in an orderly fashion recorded his findings, we receive his Gospel as “God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16), written by the Holy Spirit himself. Therefore, inspiration is not excluded by, or even limited by, the ordinary use of human intellect and planning.

Prosperity. When we plan, we open one of God’s channels to prosper us: “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” (Prov. 21:5). This power-packed promise contains three main concepts: First, there must be plans. Second, there must be diligence. Third, our plans and diligence must help us avoid hasty “crisis management.”

Unity from Planning. Planning has an amazing ability to unite people. This is especially true if they are allowed to contribute substantially to the process. Unless insensitive parents or other adults quash it, children have an unquenchable desire to do. “Let me, Mommy!” is the cry of just about any child I have ever known.

A worship team that lets its members have a vital share of the planning is responding to that God-ordained drive inside of people to create! It’s unfortunate that in most churches the real doers have to live by the creed, “It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.” Only the bold and perhaps slightly rebellious will be able to develop their potential. The submissive may have trouble flowering to their maximum under a rigid system.

Maximizing Group Gifts through Planning. Planning is essential to the stewardship of our gifts. For instance, let’s suppose that your worship team is asked to minister at a large outdoor rally. If you plan ahead far enough, you will discover that your bass player has connections with the top supplier of sound systems in your five-state area. You further discover that if he has six weeks or more notice, he is able to arrange for a manufacturer’s demo of its top-of-the-line product free of charge. You get $25,000 worth of public-address equipment for a weekend, and it doesn’t cost you a cent! It takes planning ahead to benefit like that.

Some Basics about Planning

The exciting business of planning with the Holy Spirit is a big subject. To date, the best single resource I have seen to guide you through the process, short of retaining a professional consultant, is a book by Dr. R. Henry Migliore, titled Strategic Planning for Ministry and Church Growth (Tulsa: Honor Books, 1988).

Retreating Is Ideal. My favorite format to initiate planning is a retreat lasting at least a weekend, but preferably a whole week. The format should alternate between structured meetings during which the group works through a formal planning model (such as the one presented by Dr. Migliore) and relaxed times that give attendees the opportunity for informal interchange, walks, prayer, meditation, and so on.

What should be involved? Your long-range plans for worship can include matters such as these:

1. Gradual upgrading of the sound system.
2. Upgrading of musical instruments.
3. Securing permission to perform copyrighted pieces.
4. Publishing a recording of your group.
5. Establishing and increasing funding for the purchase of music.
6. Plans to attend worship seminars and symposia.
7. Increasing congregational awareness of the importance of worship through special sermons, nights of worship, etc.
8. Increasing interest in worship leading as a ministry.
9. Involving young people more in worship and worship leading.

This list could go on almost indefinitely. What is included on such a list will depend greatly on your mission statement.

Involve Everyone. Everyone who is involved in the worship life of the church—whether in a leadership role or as a selected representative of the congregation—ought to take part to some degree in the worship planning retreat. In addition, questionnaires can be distributed to the remainder of the congregation ahead of time, seeking responses about the worship life of the church.

Preparation for Planning

A good planning retreat requires much preparation. You must have attractive facilities, good food, and restful lodging. Even more, there must be spiritual preparation and practical homework.

Prayer, fasting, studying worship, and attending worship seminars and conferences are all-important preparations for the retreat. If you are filled with the Word of God and godly advice about worship, your retreat will be very fruitful. Practical groundwork would include arranging for substitute worship leaders on the home front, as well as advertising the retreat to the congregation. It’s important to let everyone know what you are doing, what your goals are, and why you are doing it. It would be very helpful if the pastor would support the idea of a worship leaders’ retreat from the pulpit, explaining to people how such planning will benefit the whole congregation and the work of God in your community.

The Product of Planning. No planning program is complete until there is a written organizational plan encompassing all the items that are part of your planning model. I am convinced that writing a coherent statement about anything I am wanting to do helps me understand my task far better. Not only that, the written plan will help to keep you from “management by platitudes,” in which vague statements of an undefined hope replace real goals.

Planning Is a Continuous Process. Part of your commitment as you begin planning is to decide that you will do planning continuously. This is necessary, first, because your written plan must be your working document—your written orders. Just as a contractor continually refers to blueprints, so you must continually check your progress against your written goals to see if you are on target.

Unlike those of the contractor, however, your plans will continually change. You are not building with static materials on the unmoving ground. Your materials and your ground are continually changing. If your plans are not adaptable to changing situations, they will be like Saul’s armor to young David: Their weight will keep you from the battle.

And, unlike the contractor, you can never say your building is finished. So, if you are working with a seven-year plan, you can drop year one when it has ended, but you will have to add a new year seven. Every week you and your team ought to devote some prayerful time to check your progress against your plans. Every year, at least, you ought to update your long-range planning.

Finally, plans dealing with people must involve educated guesses. Most of us vastly overestimate what we can accomplish in the short term (although we tend to underestimate what we can do in the long haul). Consequently, you probably will need to adjust your plans to a less ambitious pace.

Planning for Worship Services

The concept of planning can be applied not only to overall goals for the worship team but for the worship services as well. Each worship service can be a piece of the master plan. If your congregation is involved in strategic long-range planning, you have tremendous resources for planning your worship services, sermons included. For instance, one of the issues a church considers in planning is its strengths and weaknesses. Similarly, in your services, you can encourage the strengths and prophesy solutions to the weaknesses!

Planning and Spontaneity. Planning does not exclude spontaneity. As with your longer-range planning, so in the services, you must retain flexibility. The Holy Spirit may not reveal all his plans to you because he wants to be able to use someone else in the congregation in a significant way. For example, I have ministered on several occasions with a worship team in which we sensed it was God’s will to have a healing service; but we had no clue as to how the service would be conducted. But as we obeyed as much as we knew, the Lord gave his Word to someone in the congregation, revealing what else was to be done. And in every case, the service was a wonderful experience of his manifest presence.

Who Should Be Involved? As with large-scale planning, so planning the Sunday morning and other services needs to be open to all the people in the congregation. Ideally, they should be encouraged to call you or even to attend the planning session if they feel they have an insight from the Lord for the service. Of course, the pastor and other church leaders could make extremely valuable additions to the service planning.

Tools for Planning. How do you plan a worship service? Here is a simple outline that I have found to be effective:

1. Pray at your planning meeting.
2. Ask the preacher or teacher to tell the group what word he believes the Lord has given him.
3. Ask the others present to share any Scriptures, songs, hymns, prayers, insights, or perceptions they may have had that they feel relate to the service you are planning. If they have been going through some difficulty, encourage them to share that. Often what we experience is common to many others in the body.
4. Arrange the parts of the service for an orderly flow. For instance, if the Word deals with a need for deep repentance, starting the service with songs of rejoicing would be very odd. Such a sermon ought to pave the way for rejoicing, not the reverse.
5. In that regard, I also believe that every service ought to end on a note of victory unless the people remain unrepentant.

Plan to Plan. There is a great potential for blessing hidden in faithful, prayerful planning. You don’t have to be an expert planner to start. As I said to a perfectionist friend of mine once, “I like my way of doing things better than your way of not doing things.” Ask the Lord to help you, purchase a good book, attend a seminar on the subject, and start!

Learning Biblical Leadership Skills

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The Bible teaches that authority has its place in the church. It shows, however, that leaders should accomplish their goals through persuasion, not power; through support, not control; through open-mindedness, not closed-mindedness.

Servant leadership is God’s appointed method for managing the church. Unfortunately, most people who are thrust into leadership positions in the church have not been trained in biblical leadership skills. Many think that their position of leadership makes them the “boss” who hands down dictates. Others, who may realize how carnal that is, abdicate all leadership, and their group suffers from a lack of direction and discipline.

Neither kind of leadership pleases the Lord. God fully supports authority in the church. It is not a society of indistinguishable equals. Some people are to lead, others are to follow. But the tools of leadership are the issue. In this entry, we will look at some of the tools the Bible offers to help you fulfill your leadership role without violating your servant role.

The Person of the Leader. Jesus compared leadership to leaven in a loaf of bread. Yeast works quietly, in the background, without a lot of “hoopla.” It’s really a kind of infection, moving from cell to cell. But it takes good yeast to make good bread.

Similarly, if you are to infect your team with the right qualities, you must do it yourself. What you are will always have more influence than what you say and do. Therefore, your own character development must become the root out of which your leadership skills grow, lest you bear bad fruit.

Persuasion versus Power. One of the most important differences between carnal and biblical leading has to do with the overuse of power. Carnal leaders put far too much stock in their position. They think that their title, or even their obvious qualifications, should cause people to do as they are told.

That might work with immature Christians, but as they mature, people will begin to challenge that kind of leadership style. One of the most significant problems with the overuse of position, title, or power is that it fails to address the heart of the followers—the center of motivation and willing allegiance.

There is a proper use for authority and power, and we will deal with that later. But when leaders too often convey the attitude, “Do it because I said so,” they will not capture the hearts of their followers. They will repel the strong and make hypocrites of the weak. This is why persuasion is the chief tool of the godly leader.

For instance, Paul writes to Timothy regarding the teaching role of the pastor. He says that pastors are to patiently instruct those who oppose them, so that God may give them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2:25).

Top-Down Support versus Control. Another important aspect of biblical leadership is that it provides more support than it does control. Many leaders are driven by a desire to control others. They go far beyond training and try to determine all the details for their subordinates’ work. Their subordinates have very little autonomy, and their ideas are generally rejected. But godly leadership equips people to develop their own gifts and their own creative ways of dealing with problems and opportunities. Godly leaders invest their own time to find other resources to help their subordinates succeed.

Maintain Open Leadership. Leaders do not have to have all the answers. God has all the answers. Yet leaders are often defensive about ideas and suggestions offered by those who work with or under them. Instead, all people ought to feel their leaders value their input and in fact seek it out. Leaders need to discern God’s voice speaking through anyone he chooses. This calls for humility.

The main difference between valuable advice and criticism is timing. If you seek suggestions before you do something, it is valuable advice. If the suggestions come to you after you have done something, it is criticism. Choose to get valuable advice.

Deal with Issues Properly. Problems will arise in every group, no matter how saintly the people are. There will be difficulties from the outside as well as from within. At this point, how you handle the problem will determine whether or not you are a team-builder.

Team-builders develop the ability to put problems “outside” the group. In other words, they approach every difficulty with the attitude, we have a problem.

For instance, suppose your piano player is unable to attend your practices on Thursday evenings. If you are a team-builder, you will not consider it the pianist’s problem but something that your group needs to address and attempt to resolve. The piano player needs to feel that his or her schedule is important enough to the group that they will seek a way around it. Even if they fail, the piano player will not feel rejected.

You can always tell team-builders by their language. They use phrases such as “We have a problem,” “What can we do?” “What do you think?” “Do you have any ideas about worship this Sunday?” “Can we ____________?” “What if we ____________?”

Recruiting Team Players, not Soloists. Add new people to your group who will work well in teams. You need to be careful that you do not consider only their musical skills, anointing, or even their theological expertise. One can have all of those characteristics and still not make a good team player. If you inherit an egocentric “superstar,” have a loving but frank conversation with him or her. Invite him to join the team indeed, or to resign and do occasional solos.

Apprenticing. One of the most successful worship leaders I know relies heavily on apprenticing. When people desire to join his worship team, they are invited to attend the practice sessions and just observe for several weeks. Then they are allowed to join in the practice. Finally, if they have been sufficiently integrated into the group, they are allowed to participate in leading worship on Sunday morning.

Consider the benefits that come from this approach: The worship team has the opportunity to get to know candidates and candidates get to know the heart of the worship team before they even have to think about playing their instrument or singing before them. They can see teamwork in action and can observe the values of the group. In addition, the lengthy trial period tends to wear out glory-seekers. It establishes the role of the worship leader as the one in charge. It also helps candidates to recognize the importance of their role. In the long-range it increases the honor of the worship team in the eyes of the congregation by establishing a professional level of commitment. Finally, it tests the consistency of faithfulness of candidates before they are assigned to the team.

You should welcome any and all qualified candidates, but making it easy to join your team devalues the group and makes it less popular and less effective! Prayerfully consider developing an apprentice approach to your team-building.

Disciplining for Group Health. Before you even consider discipline, you must establish two things: (1) clearly defined limits (i.e., what is allowed and what is not); and (2) an atmosphere of love. With those things in place, you can exercise discipline when there are infractions.

First, there must be standards of performance. The group must have a clearly established commitment about such things as practice times, absences, tardiness, missing prayer times before services, and anything else that is important to the anointed functioning of the group. Then, if someone violates one of those standards, the leader should waste no time in properly reprimanding the offender.

If you allow the standards to be violated with impunity, the most committed members of the group will become demoralized. You will lose your best people and be left with the ones who have no standards at all, and they will reproduce after their own kind!

There are some simple steps to doing a proper reprimand: First, describe your perception of the problem without accusing. Your perception may be wrong, or there may be real extenuating circumstances. (Example: “John, it seems to me you have been thirty-five minutes late to the prayer time three Sundays in a row. Is that correct? Is something wrong?”) If your perception was correct, and there were no serious, extenuating circumstances, describe how the behavior violates your team’s standards. You don’t need to act out anger; just be matter-of-fact. (Example: “John, you know that being late without good reason is contrary to your commitment to our team.”)

Then explain the consequences. (Example: “It hurts us when you’re late. Our prayer time is lacking your presence. It isn’t fair to those who are on time. Frankly, I feel hurt and angry.”) Explain that it is up to John to be a team player and to support the group’s standards. (Example: “John, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you are going to be part of the team and really participate. No one can make you do that but you.”)

Finally, explain what you will do if the improper behavior takes place again. It is helpful if such actions are established as a matter of policy. (Example: “If this happens again, I will recommend that you be placed on probation, which means you won’t be able to participate in Sunday worship for six weeks.”) End on a positive note. (Example: “But I really don’t expect it to happen again. I know you love us and love the Lord. You are a tremendous asset to us with your skills on the synthesizer and your strengths in the Word.”)

Conclusion. God has honored you highly by giving you the authority to lead. Learn to do it well! Grow in your leadership skills day after day, and you will build a temple he will gladly inhabit.

Building a United Worship Team

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A key to building a united worship team is to have a clearly defined statement. This entry suggests ways to go about developing such a statement, including planning a retreat for this purpose. Start beforehand by asking the right questions of your pastor. Determine what goals the team will have in your church, and work to define team values.

United purpose and action have tremendous power. I think about that when I fly on a jet plane. Air molecules are so tiny I can’t see them. Yet if enough of them travel past the surfaces of a wing at one time, they can lift thousands of pounds off the ground! One of the first signs of good leadership is unity among those being led. When there is heart-unity, we can reach any goal the Lord gives us.

Assuming we have godly people who have a call to lead worship, two important ingredients for building unity are (1) developing a clearly defined mission, with goals and objectives, strategies, and action plans; and (2) having a leader who practices the skills of team-building.

Clearly State Your Team Mission. Many worship teams develop serious problems of disunity as they increase in numbers. Very often that has less to do with disloyalty than with a missing sense of mission.

Joining a group that doesn’t have a clear mission statement is like proposing marriage on a blind date. You are committed, but you don’t know to what. Since everyone has his or her own perceptions of what a worship team ought to do, these perceptions proliferate as the group grows, and the seeds of disunity soon sprout like mushrooms after a cool rain.

On the other hand, if the worship team can clearly state its mission, objectives, philosophy of ministry, strategies, and action plans, those joining will more likely be people who are in agreement. They will probably spend most of their energies helping the group achieve its objectives instead of trying to change the group.

Better Stewardship of Resources. Churches are beginning to see the importance of defining their mission as a whole. But groups within the church also benefit from a specific statement of their particular mission. Can your worship team define its mission and how it will be accomplished? If it can, it is ready for better stewardship of its resources. It will invest itself consistently in doing things that help accomplish its mission, and there will be far less “wheel spinning” than if it has only a vague idea about supplying music for the church.

Give a Greater Sense of Value to Tasks. As groups age, they often lose the vigor and excitement of the early years. One of the reasons this happens is that every growing group has to deal with an increasing amount of “drudge work.” Take the role of the music librarian, for instance. It has little inherent glamour. The music librarian is responsible for acquiring, cataloging, retrieving, and filing the music for your worship team. He or she has to secure performance rights. When the group is young, he or she is caught up in the excitement of it all. But as the group gets older, the person realizes that the job has become repetitive. If at this point, the librarian does not see how his or her task is accomplishing a larger mission, he or she may find reasons to leave the post.

Ask the Right Questions. How can you define your worship team’s mission? It begins with asking the right questions of the right people. Here is an outline of good procedures to follow:

1. Worship teams are accountable to their pastor; they cannot develop a vision independent of the church they serve. Contact the pastor, and set up a time when you can meet to discuss both the church’s vision and your team’s role in accomplishing it. To help your pastor to prepare, you might ask him or her to read this article and the others in this section.
2. Meet with the pastor. Listen to her. Get her heart. Ask her how she sees the worship team fitting into the overall mission of the church.
3. Take your worship team on a weekend retreat. Spend time in prayer, informal talks, and group discussion regarding your mission statement. Write a preliminary draft.
4. Review your preliminary draft with the pastor.
5. Refine your statement of mission over a period of several weeks or even months, if necessary. Nothing is gained by hurrying.
6. After your mission statement is completed, refer to it often. Pray over it. Say it in church. Put it in your church handbook. Your mission statement will be the foundation from which you can discover God’s long-range, medium-range, and short-range plans for your group.

How Are You Involved? What are some of the functions of a worship team? That will depend on your church. On your retreat, pool the ideas of your group based on the roles you have already filled as well as their dreams. Most of all, your team goal will be to make your distinctive contribution to the overall mission of your church.

Just to get your thinking started, you might consider the following:

1. Participate in the strategic planning meetings of the church. When the worship leader is intimately involved in the long-range, medium-range, and short-range planning of the church, he or she is better able to help move the church’s vision forward through the incredible power of worship and music.
2. Prepare the people to receive the Word of God.
3. Prepare the people so that God’s presence may manifest itself freely. Engage in consultation with the person who brings the Sunday message so that the worship time becomes a meaningful and coherent focus of the service.
4. Prophesy to the church through the Word and through music. As a team you do more than sing about God’s glory: You impart it prophetically to the worshiping church.
5. Teach the church to sing. Because we are a spiritual priesthood of believers, all of us need to grow in our musical abilities for the sake of worship.
6. Develop the gifts of the church. Create opportunities for ministry.
7. Teach about worship and worship expressions such as dancing, clapping, kneeling, and so on.
8. Raise up additional worship leaders. Every ministry worth its salt disciples others.
9. Develop a worship awareness among the children and youth.
10. Meet with the pastor to plan services. Perhaps begin by working together on special services.
11. Serve as a resource for special evangelistic outreaches.
12. Sponsor seminars on worship for area churches.
13. Help raise up worship teams in other area churches.
14. Participate in evangelistic outreaches.
15. Develop worship leaders for house fellowships in your congregation.
16. Raise up specialized worship teams to visit shut-ins, nursing homes, hospitals, and jails.
17. Provide a library of resources for strengthening worship in the home.

As is evident just from this beginning list, there are endless possibilities for your team’s involvement.

Define Your Values. Once your pastor and you have identified the goals your team is to have, you will then need to discuss your values as a team. By values, we mean the standards of conduct and professionalism that will be required of worship leaders.

Your values must reflect the values of your church. For example, if your church is casual, your team would be out of place if everyone dressed in three-piece suits and formal gowns.

Most of your values will develop from applicable Scriptures regarding what spiritual leaders are to be like. In addition, you can learn a lot from attending gatherings for worship leaders and church leaders, exchanging ideas with others who have a calling like yours.

A united worship team that shares a common vision can carry the church to the heights of communion with God. Commit yourself to learn how to build a team that is centered around a worthwhile mission.