It is a pleasure to serve as this week’s guest blogger!  My name is Jason Hatley and I serve as the Pastor of Worship Arts @ The Journey, which my wife Karen and I helped start in 2002, and as founder of Worship Leader Insights.

As the Pastor of Worship Arts, I invest a tremendous amount of my time in creating the weekly worship experiences.

This is the part where I usually take all of the credit, but since I’m on Nelson’s blog I want to be 100% on the level with you.  I don’t accomplish this on my own.  In fact, if I am serious about our worship services being the very best that they can be every week, I can’t do this on my own.

It takes a team effort.  That team is founded on the Pastor / Worship Pastor relationship.

This week I will be talking about how the relationship between Pastor and Worship Pastor is a central issue in planning effective worship services, and I will teach you the four steps to maximizing this relationship, and your worship service planning.

So, let’s get the ball rolling on this topic by defining worship planning.

Worship Planning Defined: the process by which the Pastor and Worship Pastor work together to strategically design worship services that are relevant, creative, God-honoring and transformational.

There are three important distinctives in this definition.

1. …Pastor and Worship Pastor work together – Do you have a scheduled time for meeting with your pastor or worship pastor to plan, implement and evaluate your worship services?

2. …design worship services –  Do you have a process for worship planning that can empower you to work with your Pastor / Worship Pastor to plan 6 months to a year out?

3. …relevant, creative, God-honoring and transformational. – At The Journey these words describe our values for worship services.  What are your values for planning worship services?

By the end of this series, you will have some insights and systems that will help you maximize the Pastor / Worship Pastor relationship, and ultimately help you plan more effective worship services.

Jason Hatley

PS:  Check out the Free Webinar I am doing for Worship Leaders on Thursday, October 30.  Learn how to overcome the Top 3 challenges that every worship leader faces in this 2-hour event, visit   www.WorshipLeaderInsights.com/events.

While you are there, be sure to sign-up for my free monthly newsletter!

© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.

About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.