When I Realized the Pastor is the Worship Leader
Pastors, stand at your posts and be ready. We must lead our people to sing to the Lord, even if we do not categorize ourselves as singers.
I love preaching. I believe God has called me to preach, teach, and lead in His church. Whenever I have the opportunity to deliver God's Word to His people, I take it unless the circumstances of my life demand that I pass.
He had not called me to be a worship pastor…until this past Sunday (you’ll see what I mean).
I preached at a First Baptist Church in southern Louisiana this past week. The congregation had lost its pastor a month prior to Easter. They are in a burgeoning town ripe for Gospel witness. I had Psalm 119:9 as my text, desiring to emphasize the necessity and beauty of God's Word to make and keep our way pure.
As I walked in, two ladies were attempting to get the speakers to work as they played a hymn through YouTube. They did not have a worship minister, so they were working with what they had. I asked my wife to go and try to help since she had worked as a worship minister at her former church. The speakers seemed to be on the brink of exhaustion, but we went ahead and began the service anyway. At the outset, the deacon who called me said, "Once the songs are sung, it's up to you." I had already been asked to pray a Word over the children, which I had not expected but was ready for.
But then the speakers not only buffered; they sputtered to the point where the young lady said, "It says that they are done." I wondered what would happen. I looked. I'd read in a new pastor's book that a pastor can read Psalms in lieu of singing.
Instead, one lady went to get the book to locate where the hymns were in the hymnals, and as she found "Trust and Obey" on page 500, the deacon asked, "Who is going to lead? You, or is Brother Christian going to step up?" I looked at the lady, and she had this look of "please help. I can't do it." I asked Danyel, and she said, "I don't know that tune."
I felt compassion in that moment. I saw them. Sheep without a shepherd.
So I sang. The Lord gave me confidence, peace, and the grace to barely stay on key. But we sang to the Lord.
This is when I realized-the pastor is the worship leader. This is not to take any responsibility or credibility away from music ministers. The church needs them. One pastor cannot do it all alone. My wife served as a great worship minister. My uncle is a faithful worship pastor, working to train and send out musical missionaries in northeast Alabama.
But the pastor is responsible for the flock. The pastor's role is to lead and feed the sheep, to help nourish them with God's Word, and guide them to glorify Him. The pastor leads them into worship. The Psalmist commands the people to sing as written in Psalm 96:1-4: "Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods." God is great. We should sing to him. He is worthy of it.
We see an example during the dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles 7. Solomon has finished praying, and God has sent fire to consume the burnt offerings (7:1). The “glory of the LORD filled the temple” (7:2). The people see God’s glory and bow down, worshipping and giving thanks to him.
In response, King Solomon and the people offer more sacrifices. They all dedicated the house of God (7:5). Then look at the details.
The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the LORD that King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD—for his steadfast love endures forever—whenever David offered praises by their ministry; opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood.
The Levites and the priests played the musical instruments. Not Solomon. Not the people. The religious leaders led in worship. They were responsible, ready at their posts to begin.
Pastors, stand at your posts and be ready. We must lead our people to sing to the Lord, even if we do not categorize ourselves as singers. He is good, and his faithful love endures eternally. On that day, I was responsible for those saints, and God gave me the joy to help lead them in worship.