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I want to offer you a definition of the word “leader” that I learned from a pastor I once worked with named Dave Browning. Dave told me that leaders ”see what needs to be done”, and they “do what needs to be done”.
As a worship leader, you have many responsibilities. You lead musically, you lead vocally, you lead corporately, you lead relationally, and often times, you lead organizationally. Your leadership is what is consistently ”driving the bus” so to speak when it comes to the ministry of corporate worship. If you are a leader, then according to this definition, you probably experience a unique tension when you come to a church building or a gathering place to lead worship. You get fired up to lead because it’s in your wiring, and enjoy the process of leading, but you’re also a little uneasy – because you see so many things that need to be done. You ask the Lord to open your eyes to what’s missing, and so… You see the musical needs. You see vocal capacity not being used to its full potential. You see a corporate body that still has places yet to go in worship together. You see relationships that need to be started, led, or even refereed. You see organizational issues that need to be tweaked, such as who is playing what, and who needs to get their chance at playing.
According to this definition of leadership, though – it does not stop there. You don’t just see what needs to be done – you DO what needs to be done. Operating under the blessing of your ministry leadership, and working beneath the banner of the vision and values of your ministry, you go to work… After a service or time of worship, you find yourself compelled to have conversations about the musicality of the worship. You are driven to talk to vocalists who sing with you about the good and the bad of what just took place. You feel almost duty-bound to think about how you led the corporate body in worship so that you can ask the Lord to show you ways to improve as a leader. You find yourself walking around the room checking in on key relationships (both in your ministry and across the church body), and you’re looking for opportunities to help your organization out by looking for people that you think can fill the gap in places that are lacking.
Seeing what needs to be done is a mixture of giftedness, wiring, and the Spirit, but it’s also a lot of humility, because you choose not to see your own want and needs, but the needs of your church.
Doing what needs to be done is also a mixture of giftedness, wiring and the Spirit, but it’s also a lot of discipline, because you choose to do the hard work that others may not be willing to do.
Some people will consider themselves to be leaders because they see what needs to be done, or at least they see what they think needs to be done. They see holes, gaps, and unmet expectations, and they may even vent or complain about these things, but it stops there, and this is not leadership – its critical analysis.
Some people want to be leaders because they do what they think needs to be done. On their own, without any thought to vision or values, they do things. They put forth a lot of energy and may spend a lot of time on these projects, but they’re not the right projects. The projects they work on don’t add strategic value to the life of the ministry, but instead simply just relieve the individual doing them.
A leader is someone who is willing to emerse themselves in the Lord, pleading to Him to guide them in His will. Walking in that humble submission, a leader then submits again to the vision and values of the church or fellowship. In humility, that leader, then sees what needs to be done for the sake of the vision and values that they submit to. Taking a step further, a leader then does what needs to be done, and equips and empowers others to do the same.
You can’t just see the need and do nothing.
You can’t just try to meet a need that may or not be real.
Leaders see what needs to be done, and they do what needs to be done.
Tags: Leadership, Simplicity, Strategy, Worship Leading