Lead Pastor, We Need Your Voice
Imagine a world where the two people who share the vast majority of stage time at your church were best buds. I know that many lead pastors don’t have anything near that on their radar screens for how they work with their worship leaders, but John Maxwell’s leadership Law of Connection is still irrefutable:
“Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand.”
He also says, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
I’ll say it this way: “Your working relationship will fail until you build an actual relationship.”
If you’re a lead pastor, your worship leader needs your voice. Desperately. And he or she will be ready to hear your voice to the degree that you invest in a relationship with them. Not just a relationship with a goal:
To the degree that they feel valued by you, they will serve with their whole heart.
Let me give you seven voices your worship leader needs to hear from their lead pastor. I’m writing it from the perspective of worship leaders.
CLARITY
Giving us clarity about what a win is is one of the kindest things you can say. Assumptions are killing us. They break trust, devalue our efforts, and confuse us. It’s not uncommon for a worship leader to be given an assignment, spend hours and energy trying to complete it, only to have you shoot it down. That’s demoralizing! Or you can work hard to clarify what you truly want to see happen. Get past your unspoken assumptions and clearly verbalize what you want. We need your voice of clarity.
AFFIRMATION
Even capable leaders question ourselves, question what we produce, and question how we lead. When you see something we are doing well, SAY it. We need to know we’re on the right track. Affirmation from you weighs way more than from others. It’s wind in our sails.
CORRECTION
If all you ever say to us is positive, it’ll start sounding hollow, like you’re blowing smoke. We need to hear (privately) where we’re falling short and where our opportunities to do better are. We expect to be growing, and we know we make mistakes. Even your identification of what needs to be corrected helps build our confidence.
EVALUATION
When you evaluate us, it reminds us that we’re on a journey. That we have some skills that are great and some that still need to be developed. There’s no way we can know unless we’re being evaluated. Your voice can be trusted to evaluate us as you apply the Law of Connection. Just imagine how pointless it would be if an athlete were never evaluated by their coach.
COACHING
A coach helps us see how others see us. One of your greatest gifts to us is that you are someone we can trust, and you give us your perspective on how we lead. By definition, we’re on the inside (and also the blind side) of us. You’re on the outside. Coach us by asking insightful questions that help us understand ourselves and improve.
DISCIPLESHIP
Because this isn’t a sales job, but a spiritual role, we need you to help us grow in Jesus. And because of the influence my position carries, there should be an equal investment in our spiritual lives. We are disciples first and ministers second. Please invest in our discipleship. In fact, wouldn’t it be great if the worship team were the most spiritually mature people in the church? That’ll happen when we are discipled.
COLABORATION
We are co-laborers with Christ. It would make sense for us to feel like we’re working together in the Kingdom. Even though we have “different lanes,” we never want to feel like we’re siloed from each other. Bring us in on things we can partner on. Of course, Sunday mornings are the obvious ones, and if we just start there, that’d be great. We’d love to do things with you, not just for you.
In all of this, we’re not saying you’re not doing a good job, or that we know better than you. There’s no pressure here. We’re simply communicating what we need to be at our best.
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Here is a printable PDF of this Fertilizer.
-Dave Helmuth
Author of the Five Faders and Founder of Ad Lib Music
Lead Pastor, We Need Your Voice (Nº 469)
