When I was in high school I played the trumpet in the school’s band program. This was my main instrument all the way through college and I loved it, and I was pretty good at it! I remember one day in band class, the band director passed out new music to a song and we all began to play. As we started playing, the part I was playing was not matching up with what the rest of the band was playing. Somehow I had gotten a different version of the song! Now let’s be clear… I was playing my version of the music beautifully! I just had the wrong sheet of music! Before I realized that though, I became really frustrated because I knew I was playing my part correctly. But, I also knew it was not matching what the rest of the band was playing. I think this is what happens so often in our churches between our lead pastors and our worship pastors. They both are playing really great pieces of music, but they just don’t go together. The pastor is playing one version of the song while the worship pastor is just rocking out on a completely different piece of music. So over the next few minutes I’m going to give you three ways to help ensure that you and your pastor stay on the same sheet of music.

Submit

The first thing you have to do is submit to the leadership of your lead pastor. This is really a non-negotiable. If you cannot support your pastor and his vision for the church, then you probably need to find another place to serve. God has placed that person as your leader at this particular time. The worst thing that you can do is not support the vision of your lead pastor. This will bring division and disharmony and it will severely damage the trajectory of your church. The enemy loves nothing more than having disunity between the pastor and the worship pastor. If you are having a hard time with this, I would encourage you to carve out some specific time of prayer and fasting so you can hear what God has for you. After you do that, you will have two choices.

The first choice is to suck it up and get behind the vision of the lead pastor. It’s really that simple. You have to figure out how to support your pastor. This might come through conversations about what he wants or asking him what kind of worship music he likes. Maybe listen for what kind of things in worship experiences he has liked or not liked. Get to know, from your lead pastor’s perspective what a successful time of worship would look like if achieved. Through these conversations maybe he would get an opportunity to hear your point of view, too, and hear your voice in a productive way.

The second choice is to ask God to open up another door to a church where you can serve. Many times this is the answer. My first opportunity as a worship pastor was at a great church with great people. I learned a lot in the year I was there but it was evident that I was not a fit. After I made this decision God opened up the door for me to come on staff at Stevens Creek Church and I’ve been here ever since. I believe if you are faithful and humble enough to really listen, God will open up the right door that you are to walk through.

2. Communicate

The second thing you need to do is communicate regularly with your lead pastor. Communication is one of the most important things that will happen between a pastor and a worship pastor. Make sure you have a consistent line of communication. I’ve been fortunate to have the same lead pastor for 25 years so we know each other pretty well. Even after all these years, we still try to connect several times a week. One of those times is intentionally on a Wednesday or Thursday. On these days I want to see how his message is going and to see if there’s anything that I can help with to enhance his message or to set up his message. The other key time for me is Sunday morning before the services start. I always try to catch him before the first service just to make sure we are both on the same page. We also try to connect after the first service to see if we need to adjust anything for the remaining two services.

3. Encourage

The third thing is to encourage your lead pastor. As a worship pastor you know more than anyone the pressures that come with pulling off Sunday services every week. It’s not easy coming up with new ways to say things week in and week out. Send him a text to see how he’s doing during the week and tell him you’re praying for him. Brag on him in front of people or post something on social media highlighting something he’s done. Just because they are the top leader doesn’t mean that they don’t need affirmation and encouragement from their team.

I’ve been very fortunate over the years to have good communication with my lead pastor. I really believe if you can put these three principles into practice you will be playing from the same sheet of music and making beautiful music together for years to come.

At Stevens Creek Church, I (along with my staff and many volunteers) oversee the entire “experience.” That includes everything from what you feel as you drive onto the property to the elements you see as you sit in the service. There are so many churches out there on the brink of having great experiences, but for one reason or another, they can’t seem to get over the hump. I want to share 5 things that if you can incorporate into your planning, you will see an immediate return on your efforts.

At Stevens Creek we believe that creating a great experience is much more than just what happens on the stage. Of course the service is very important, but if people have a bad experience in the parking lot or checking in their kids, it makes the job of the people on stage much more difficult.

1. Have A Greeting Plan

We want people to feel welcomed and cared for before they even sit down in the auditorium. So years ago we implemented a five-touch greeting plan for our first impressions team.

The first touch is in the parking lot. We do this by having parking attendants greeting and guiding people through the lot. We also identify guests by asking them to flash their lights. Then we take them to designated spots and have volunteers specifically assigned to address their needs. The second touch is with our greeters at the front door. This is a simple welcome into the building with a warm smiling face. The third touch happens as you check your kids in or go to the information center. Both of these places have people who are ready to help you and answer any questions you might have. The fourth touch comes before you enter the auditorium. Here we have greeters welcoming people, again with a smile, and handing them a worship guide for the day. The fifth touch is the ushers helping people find a seat in the auditorium. We hear all the time how people remember their first time at the Creek because people were friendly and welcoming. I guarantee if you implement the 5 touch rule, people who come to your church will feel like you care about them, and are there to take care of them.

2. Intentional Worship Time

There are three main things I look for in our congregational worship time. First is to start with energy. Most of the time that means an upbeat song that people can clap to. It allows everyone from the seasoned believer to that person that’s just kicking the tires of christianity to be involved. Everyone can clap but not everyone will engage in worship.

The second thing is to sweat the transitions. Make sure there is a flow to your setlist. If you are going to talk, make sure it is scripted out so you can transition into the next song with ease. Some people think a script or a plan limits God moving, but I think it’s the complete opposite. When you script things out, it gives you flexibility to adjust if God is taking things in a different direction.

The third thing is knowing how you want the worship set to end. How do you want people to feel? What do you want to accomplish? If you pray at the end of your set, what do you want to accomplish through your prayer? Here is a blogpost I wrote on How To Pray With Purpose. It’s also important to remember that your private worship affects your public leading of worship. You can’t lead people somewhere you haven’t already been.

3. Engaging Comments

In so many of our churches this section gets the least amount of attention -- and it shows! Comments and announcements should be four to five minutes at most, but ends up being ten minutes of everything happening in every ministry, and a mini sermon from the student pastor who’s trying to impress everyone with their preaching skills.

Here are four things that will immediately improve your comments section.

1. Have a script for your comment person. Link for example script.

2. Use a timer - ours is 4 minutes long and we make sure it’s visible.

3. Rehearse the comment section and provide feedback.

4. Make sure your main objective is to connect people and to give them their next step - not to read a bunch of announcements.

4. Relevant Authentic Message

Our lead pastor Marty Baker and our entire teaching team make authenticity a priority. We always want the content to be very clear. If you sound super smart, but your words flew over your audience’s head, then you have not communicated anything. Like it or not, people think in short impact statements, usually 140 characters or less. We try to boil our sermons down to two or three tweetable statements that can live on in people’s minds and social media feeds long after we leave church. Let social media be your friend!

We have found that 30 minute sermons are the sweet spot for us. If you’re preaching longer, you might be talking to hear yourself talk. Most people check out after 30 minutes-if not sooner.

Run your sermons through this filter: What you want people to know, what you want people to feel, and what you want people to do. We find this gives the sermon focus.

We also always give people a chance to pray the prayer of salvation. No matter what you teach, it is so important that you give people that opportunity.

5. Life Giving Exit

The exit is just as important as the entrance. We want to to give people a reason to come back, so before we dismiss we will talk about some next steps that will encourage them to come back for more. It’s important to end with something hopeful or life-giving, and we usually accomplish this with a song. Make sure your greeters and ushers serve with the same energy and excitement as they did when people were coming in. And the parking lot flow is just as important when people are trying to get out. We are constantly trying to make that a better experience. One easy way to alleviate some of that pressure is to hire a police officer to help with the traffic at the road.

We have an hour to make a mark on people. Let’s do our part to make it the best hour of their week.

How To Get Along With Your Boss (Pastor)

Submit