I’ve been giving lots of thought to five questions that I am going to try to ask myself on a weekly (and sometimes daily) basis as I go about leading the worship ministry at my church and in helping others to do the same.  These questions are helpful to ask for the sake of your own heart and for clarifying why you do what you do.  They’re not easy questions, that is, if you’re willing to open yourself fully to them.

Question #1 - Which do I spend more time thinking about - glorifying God, or impressing others? Look at where you’ve spent your ministry’s money in the last 90 days or so.  How much of it was for “wow” factor (as if God can be impressed), and how much of it was spent in an earnest effort to see the name of Jesus communicated more clearly and worshipped more passionately?

Question #2 - Which do you focus more on - the musical offering you give, or WHO you are giving your offering to? At the end of the day, there is no guitar tone, no keyboard sound, no drum beat or vocal harmony that honors the Lord more than the other.  So, when it comes to worship ministry, where is your focus, and where are you asking others to focus?

Question #3 - What should a worship team look like? - I’m not going to add anything to this, except that self-control and joy are both fruits of the Spirit, and they are a powerful combination in worship ministry.

Give it some thought.

Here is what I play through, it has already been nicknamed “Mission Control”.

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Obligation is usually an engine fueled by guilt, and unfortunately, it is driven at high speeds in many church environments.  In the last few years, I have had the chance to mentor and help some really great worship leaders in environments other than my own, and I have found “obligation” to be the motivator behind many worship ministries.  Worship leaders can be tempted to remind volunteers of their “obligation” *insert nasal-sounding, nit-picky tone here* to Jesus in order to get them to do more, show up earlier, stay later, or basically sacrifice more than really should.  I actually heard this from a worship leader in Tennessee, who told me his pastor had told him to instruct his worship team to arrive three hours before a worship service to work on one song - after all “Jesus died for their sins, so what’s a few hours of their time in service in return”.

Shoot me now.

I’d rather talk with my leadership and the volunteers I have the privilege of leading about….COMMITMENT.  Where obligation is guilt-driven, commitment is inspiration-focused.  I like to ask the following questions of myself and my teams…

1. What are you committed to seeing improve right now?

2. What are you committed to giving in order to see this kind of improvement?

3. What are you willing to commit in the future to sustain this improvement?

The answers to these questions are usually colored by inspiration, whether big or small.