Worship leaders should make a priority of developing management skills, and not excuse themselves from this on the basis of their being artists. Rather, they are prophet-musicians in the church, a position that carries tremendous leadership responsibility.
I was startled one day to realize that worship leaders really don’t lead worship. They lead people. This was a new revelation for me. It meant that management skills were needed by worship leaders, too. Worship leaders, however, are not always happy to find this out. It may be a revelation, but it’s also hard work.
Rationalization by Artistic People. There are several problems inherent in building a team out of such a diverse group of people as “musicians.” Having an artistic bent myself, I can readily identify with the rationalizations artists use to escape management responsibility. Perhaps the first of these is, “Artists are supposed to operate more by emotion and spirit, less by reason.” That sounds logical, but it allows artists too much liberty to justify their moments of poor judgment or their impatience with details. It gives them the freedom to remain impulsive and unpredictable—not good traits for a leader of others.
Even folklore suggests that the more artistic one is, the less likely he or she is to be responsible. I often used to comfort myself with this alibi while remaining generally sloppy, missing appointments, or being chronically late to meetings. Again, this myth needs to be dealt with in order to become a strong leader.
Another loophole artists use to avoid change is that they justify any disunity that may appear among them. The excuse? “Artists just have volatile personalities.” In some circles denying the virgin birth of Jesus causes less trouble than the “proper” interpretation of a musical passage! Because of these and other “accepted” excuses for irresponsible behavior, it is no easy task to lead, let alone manage musicians.
Worship Leaders Are Prophet-Musicians. Some of these generally accepted rationalizations probably originate from a false identity among worship leaders. They don’t have a clear opinion of who they are. The importance of their role has been downplayed or unrecognized for years. In my chats with worship leaders, pastors, and other church leaders, I have discovered that many think of worship leaders as only being musicians or “entertainers.” But the Bible teaches that they function prophetically.
Rather than thinking of themselves as musicians first, worship leaders must see themselves as prophets, or at least as people who operate strongly in prophetic gifts. And prophets are men and women with tremendous responsibility.
Prophets are entirely different from worldly musicians. Prophets can make or break a church. Prophets are men and women of the Word who know the Scriptures and handle them rightly. They are leaders in their congregations. They have an awesome responsibility.
Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. (1 Tim. 3:1–6)
In this Scripture, God describes the kind of people suited for leadership in the church. Prophetic worship leaders are far from being just “artists.” Like all spiritual leaders, they set the lifestyle standards for the church and are to be examples of excellence. Everything the Bible teaches about leaders applies to the prophet-musician.
Worship leaders who think of themselves as “mere musicians” have a lot of identity-changing to do. Clearly, worship leaders must have the correct self-image. They cannot cast themselves in the role of entertainers. Called to a high honor and much responsibility, their ability to lead worship depends as much on their exemplary lives as on their musical skills.
As I conduct seminars around the nation, I see an increasing number of churches that are becoming aware of the responsible roles of their worship leaders. In these churches it is no easier to become a worship leader than it is to become an elder; these are also churches that honor their worship leaders and are blessed for doing so.
How to Become Creative and Organized. With the right self-image, it becomes a little easier to want to get organized. One day the Lord spoke to me: “Just look at your desk!” he said. “It’s disgusting!” I responded, “But Lord, I am the creative type. You know—artistic, musical, and all that.” And he said, “Are you trying to suggest that I’m not creative?” I responded, “No, sir, I would not want to suggest that. But it would take a miracle for me to keep my desk organized!”
Suddenly, I realized that I had just stumbled onto a key for personal discipline. I began that day to trust God for the change he would work in me and have kept a pretty neat desk ever since.
This seemingly insignificant lesson has helped me to realize that most change begins when we admit the obvious. Though we may see ourselves as not having been born with the gifts of organization and leadership, the skills involved can be learned. If worship leaders lead people, then they must make a choice to develop the skills needed to manage or pay the consequences of lack of teamwork and lowered effectiveness.
Add Leadership and Management Skills to Your Worship Anointing. You can always tell a leader: People follow him or her. Getting people to follow you into the Holy of Holies requires leadership skills. Once you have a following of people, you need to learn how to manage them: to organize, to plan, to direct, to train, to delegate, to evaluate. It’s not an easy task. But the tools of leadership and good management will greatly increase the impact of your worship leading.