I’ve asked Jason Hatley, my Pastor of Worship Arts at The Journey and founder of WorshipLeaderInsights.com, to share some insights today on a topic that affects every pastor AND worship leader:
“We’re just not on the same page.”
Ever said that about your relationship with your Pastor or Worship Pastor? I hear Pastors and Worship Pastors say this most often when it comes to Worship Planning. “We want to work together to plan the worship service, but we’re just not on the same page.”
You know the problem with this statement right? You guessed it:
The problem is the page doesn’t exist!
Most Pastors and Worship Pastors who struggle to “get on the same page” do so because they have never had a conversation about two important things:
#1 – How they view worship planning.
#2 – How the other person views worship planning.
They aren’t clear on what they think the process should look like. They aren’t clear on their responsibility. And most of all, they aren’t clear about what the other person’s responsibility looks like.
Let me give you a quick exercise to try and explain:
Of the four choices below, which set of words best describes your current Pastor / Worship Pastor relationship when it comes to worship planning?
- You do your thing and I’ll do mine. I’ll see you on Sunday morning.
- We’re not against planning life-transforming worship services together, we just don’t have the structure, system, time and/or resources to do it.
- We are working together to implement some creative elements, but it’s not always consistent and it’s not as smooth as we want.
- We are working together in a structured way to plan in advance and create relevant, God-honoring, life-transforming worship services every week.
Ok – so what number did you choose?
I’ve found that most pastors and worship pastors THINK they are doing better in the area of worship planning than they really are. But when asked to answer the question above they gain some new clarity about both where they are and where they want to go.
Believe it or not, getting honest on the answer to that question is the starting point for maximizing the Pastor / Worship Pastor relationship.
As you might imagine, #4 is the goal, and what I refer to as an Actively Engaged Pastor / Worship Pastor relationship.
In this scenario the pastor and worship pastor are hands on in creating the worship service from start to finish (not just their respective parts). They are both giving and receiving ideas and feedback on the service. There is a true synergy to the worship planning process.
So, if the Actively Engaged Relationship is the goal, how do you get there? Honestly – it’s far too much to type here. But that is exactly what I would like to teach your worship pastor in my upcoming Worship Pastor Tele-Coaching Network.
Over the last 5 years of doing these coaching networks for worship leaders I have had pastors email and call me to tell me what a difference the network has made in their worship pastor AND in their working relationship together. And while the Pastor / Worship Pastor relationship is a BIG part of the network, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Over the course of 12 months I want to come alongside your worship leader and personally coach him/her on how to systemically and strategically overcome the 7 BIGGEST challenges that every worship leader faces like how to develop a plan for personal growth, how to double your worship team AND your effectiveness in leading the team, how to create a worship planning system to help you break the week-to-week grind, how to ensure every element for Sunday is ready days before the service, and much more.
Apply before September 15 and receive over $373.00 in FREE Bonus resources. Get all the details here: www.WorshipLeaderInsights.com/Coaching.
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