I enjoyed a great cup of chamomile tea with just the right amount of honey at Starbucks this morning. The best part was my conversation with a young and aspiring worship leader. I was greatly relieved that this twenty-something worship leader didn’t find it completely “uncool” that I had tea instead of coffee. In fact, it turns out that he is into mixing great teas as well! His key questions were, “What do you (an Executive Pastor) and Senior Pastors look for in a local church worship leader?” And, “What would make you hire one person over someone else?”
Honestly, I’m not sure I want to write about our conversation. I know I’ll get some “fan” mail, or it may be more like “hit the fan.” Remember, you can always just press delete!
The issue of young worship leaders finding their way in the local church is a complicated one. So many are “gigging” around for the best weekend pay. I understand that reality. Young worship leaders need to eat and if churches are not able to hire them as staff, at least for now, this is the result. My concern is the long-term effect of the absence of a developmental culture in the local church that would encourage worship leaders to stay connected on a longer-term basis as they develop their craft.
Money always complicates the issue. Twenty years ago it was easier. Ministry didn’t demand complex technology from video and film to simultaneous multi-campus broadcast. Churches didn’t have recording studios and entire arts departments. Regardless of size all churches feel the pressure to keep up. What used to be done by one worship leader now requires a number of skilled and at least part-time paid people. The need for skilled tech and production staff reduces the amount of money available to hire worship leaders. This is part of the reason behind the “contract” model that has become popular in the last ten years or so. The contract model is the deal where the worship leader isn’t on staff but paid a weekly amount or an annual contracted amount to lead worship for a prescribed number of Sundays or weekends a year. This model allows for the worship leader to pursue other endeavors in addition to the church. This can be good, but is possibly shortsighted. Worship leaders often go for the best pay. But in doing so do they give up a church home to develop and be developed. Our leader of worship leaders at 12Stone Church, Chris Morgan, says, “What you catch them with is what you keep them with.” I think he’s right. If you invest, shepherd and develop that’s how you keep them. If you write checks, then you just keep writing checks. But as soon as somebody can write a bigger check than you – game over. You can’t keep up with the never-ending demands of money. Leadership is needed to lead the way.
At 12Stone, we don’t have the answer, but we have a vision and we have taken action on that vision. Our vision is of a culture where we can develop worship leaders and musicians starting at a young age. If you have the same vision, perhaps we can trade ideas, rather than trading worship leaders.
Well, back to my conversation and this young man’s questions, “What do you (an Executive Pastor) and Senior Pastors look for in a local church worship leader?” And, “What would make you hire one person over someone else?” Good questions. In essence, this is what I said to him.
• Leader over Artist
I love musicians and artists in general. I missed the Grammy’s this year and I’m still bummed about it. I’m a closet wannabe rock star. I love to play the guitar. My problem is that I’m truly a lousy player, so I mostly just collect really cool guitars and make my legit player friends mad that I own them! So to all of you who are artists, peace, and I love what you do.
That said, the question was about being hired in the local church. You simply can’t trump leadership. The ideal, of course, is a leader with artistic gifts, but when push comes to shove it has to be leader first. Leaders will attract artists, but artists don’t attract leaders, they attract fans. A worship leader will attract and develop other worship leaders and other musicians. That’s the difference. Artists and leaders have very different agendas. Both are good, but very different. If you will allow me to over generalize, an artist is highly interested in things like writing an original song or performing in the next concert. All good. A leader, however, focuses on discovering and developing other leaders. There are artists who are leaders and leaders who are artists, but not many, and I believe we need leaders to keep us moving forward.
Candidly, developing leaders in the arts is not easy. Many of us have a tendency to fill our schedules with the demands of Sunday morning and ministry in general. Developing leaders takes time and the extra mile effort. When it comes to developing leaders in the realm of the arts, it takes a very special gift and requires passion and commitment.
• Drive over Dream
As I’ve mentioned, I’m a guitar player, well, kind of. I have friends who are truly great players. Several of them have dreams to be the next great recording artist, going on tour, and having a record that goes platinum. Pretty cool dream! One of my friends toured with Santana for a short while as a guitar player. He dreamed about joining the band full time, but admitted to me that he never had the work ethic to make it big. He’s extremely talented but doesn’t have the drive to go the distance. We were talking about it one afternoon and he said that he just wants to play guitar, and that he didn’t want to fool around with all the business aspects of the music industry or hassle with the people headaches. Needless to say, now in his fifties, his dream has not come true.
Whether you are an artist who wants to make it big or a worship leader who has a calling to serve a local church, or maybe a little of both, you need drive to make it. You’ve got to have a dream, but a dream alone won’t get you there. There is always a price to be paid. I love chapter two in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, The Story of Success. It’s called, “The 10,000 hour rule.” Malcolm gets at the principle that achievement is talent plus preparation. He uses examples from Mozart to the Beatles to Bill Gates. Gladwell writes, “And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t just work harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.” He gives great stories and illustrations of the elite performers (not just musicians) who had at least 10,000 hours of hard practice under their belts before they found success. Dreams are great, in fact, a must, but without drive they amount to little or nothing.
• Character over Talent
This is not a new topic, but it remains a hot topic. Nearly everyone in church leadership has faced, and possibly given into, the big temptation to put a talented person on the stage that has not demonstrated a consistently solid character. I’m not referring to churches that hire non-Christians to play for the weekend services. There are major differences of opinion on that topic. One side says they do it as a method of evangelism, the other side says you can’t have unbelievers be part of leading Christian worship. There are many positions between those sides. I will leave you to your own debate and opinions on that subject. In this article, I am referring to those who are Christians on your platform.
I’m a sinner saved by grace, and hopefully among the last to throw a stone of judgment at anyone. But I also hold myself to higher standards as a leader. I remember a season in my leadership when my prayer life was not as it should be. God spoke to me clearly saying that I was not to speak on the topic of prayer until my prayer life was solid and consistent. I honored what God said to me. Let me also say this is not about perfection or anything close. It’s not about legalism. But at some point we must acknowledge that there are standards. Scripture has made those standards clear. I believe that the leaders and artists on church stages are responsible to maintain a high level of integrity in their personal character that is worthy of the privilege to lead in worship.
I’ve sat in church services where the talent was so bad it was painful. Most of the people are embarrassed and some want to leave. No one wants to invite people to those environments. But that doesn’t give us permission to use people who sing and play songs that don’t remotely resemble the life they live. Candidly, this takes us back to leadership. I don’t think people with high talent and low character should be abandoned. I think they should be discipled and developed. Let’s put the top talent on the stage, but first invest in them so they can live the life they sing and play about.
So, what do you think? Leader over artist, drive over dream and character over talent. I’m banking on these thoughts for the future of young worship leaders!
Dan Reiland is Executive Pastor of 12stone Church in Lawerenceville, GA, currently holding the #1 space on Outreach magazine’s list of Fastest-Growing Churches in America.
