Worship Leader Blog

Photo: katietegtmeyer

Whether your title is "pastor" or not, as a worship leader, you are, in effect, a pastor of sorts to the people who serve on your team. Although it is really important for us to get our teams ready to lead worship each week, an equally important (perhaps more important) part of our responsibility is to nurture our teams toward greater spiritual maturity, and to love them and care for them. There are obviously many different dimensions to this kind of pastoral care, but one very basic and very important element is prayer.

We all pray for our teams--sometimes we pray that they'll show up for rehearsal on time, or that they'll be able to play in time or sing on pitch. Sometimes we pray for the calamities and tragedies in their lives (as we should), but it's all too easy not to pray for them at all, especially if things seem to be going okay for them.

As I was reading in 2 Thessalonians this morning, I was struck by the way in which the apostle Paul prayed for the people he cared for in the church at Thessalonica:

With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

--2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, NIV

Four main characteristics of Paul's prayer are suggested to me by this passage:

1. We should pray often for our teams.

Paul said he prayed "constantly"--I confess that I'm still not entirely sure how that looks in practical life today, but I'm guessing that it looks something like this: a lifestyle that is generally God-focused, so that at any given point during the day, we're connecting with God, talking to him about what's going on, listening for his voice at every turn. The names and lives of the people we lead are on our minds and in our hearts every day, and our love for them leads us to ask God to bless them, help them, protect them, teach them, and help them grow. Our prayers might be overt and spoken, or it may be the unspoken longings of our hearts that the Holy Spirit hears.

2. We should pray for their character and growth.

Paul prayed that God would count the Thessalonians "worthy of his calling"--he was essentially asking that they would become the kinds of people God had called them to be. This is so important for those of us who serve in the worship arts ministry--our ministry depends so much on our authenticity. I need to be praying that my team members will be growing in their walk with Jesus.

3. We should pray for God's power to be present in their lives.

Paul prays that God would, by his power, "fulfill every purpose" of those he prayed for, along with "every act prompted by faith." This is essentially a prayer for a vital, growing relationship with God--Paul wants to see God active and working visibly in the lives of the people he's praying for. He wants them to be actively engaged with God in a life of faith. And so should we pray for our teams.

4. We should pray that Jesus is glorified in them.

This last aspect of Paul's prayer is really the whole point, in a sense, isn't it?--that "the name of our Lord Jesus would be glorified" in the lives of those we lead. This is the goal of our worship leading on Sundays, and it is the ultimate goal for all of our lives.

Let's pray for our teams and watch what God does in their lives.