It’s Not a Week Off Its a Strategy

Posted on February 19, 2013 Updated on February 19, 2013

I am full-time worship minister at a church and during this last weekends services, I was not on stage at all.  I was not on vacation, I was not sick, I was not preaching, and I was not being reprimanded.  I was in the building, in every single service for every single song, but never once did I step on the stage or grab an instrument or sing into a microphone.  When I left the church building after the morning services I couldn’t help but feel that my strategy of not being on stage and visible as “the worship minister” was completely misunderstood.  Let me explain:

As I do every week, I saw many of my friends and regular church attenders exiting their services or passing by in the lobby or halls .  As many of them saw me and realized I was at church but not on stage, they all seemed to respond with the same sentiment.  “Are you sick?” “Is something wrong?” “Why aren’t you on stage?”  And without fail, after I explained that I was not infected with one of the one hundred viruses spreading through our city, all of them said the same thing; “I hope you enjoyed the week off.”

A quick disclaimer before I explain the misunderstanding.  All of these people that approached me on Sunday, I know care deeply about me, and their comments were not condescending in the least.  In fact most of them were excited that I was able to take a break.  However, I want to make something clear, I did not take the week off and Sunday was not a break, it was a strategy.

As I said to start to this post, I am a worship minister.  If I were to summarize the basic job description of a worship minister in one sentence, our role is to usher people into worship of our incredible God, in most cases through music. One of the biggest problems that I have found with worship music, and honestly worship ministers, is that far to often worship becomes incredibly personality driven.  Whether you realize it or not, often the quality of worship at many churches is not determined by the quality of the atmosphere to worship, but by the presence of the worship minister.

Let me ask you a question: When the worship minister at your church is missing do you have a harder time worshiping God?  One might blame a lack of musical or worshipful quality as the problem.  However, I would say the real problem is the worship minister.  Not that he was absent, but that he did not do his job, leading you into worship of an incredible God.  When the worship at a church becomes contingent upon the presence of the worship minister, I would say the worship minister has failed.

I have found myself guilty of this at times during my ministry, leading in such a way that my leadership becomes the contingency for great worship.  Over the past 2 years I have done my best to avoid this pitfall as a worship minister.  On multiple occasions I have taken a back seat, spreading leadership of songs around to my team, sometimes not even singing, but just playing an instrument.   Well, I have decided that this year, my goal is to take it one step further and get off of the stage all together.  Not every week, but more than just the weeks I am on vacation or sick.  As God has brought some incredible, competent leaders into my ministry, it is time that I let them lead.  One might ask, “isn’t it your job to lead worship?” I would say that is exactly what I am doing, taking personalities out of the equation (mine in particular) so that worship happens if I am there or not.

So this last Sunday I was not on stage at all.  I was not on vacation, I was not sick, I was not preaching, and I was not being reprimanded.  I worked a very full week, was the first one the in the building Sunday morning, and attended every part of all four of our services.  So trust me when I say, it is not a week off, it is a strategy.