 Okay, good morning once again. Thanks for joining in good to see you all Let's get started so in the last Classes or last sessions we ended with chapter two talking about The brief history through time and how music and has evolved through time Especially in the context of worship ministry It was a wonderful journey and I'm sure it will continue to evolve right so music that was in the 60s or the 50s It's not the same as music these days Every decade the sound has changed And there's been a different move and And so the church has also adapted over time not easily there has been a little Resistance But then you know eventually you know they give in and The sound in the context of worship is also very different So, yeah, that's what we study in the last class last chapter, but so today we From this chapter on it's going to get a little bit more practical And More insight into worship ministry in itself, okay So Yeah, I hope you enjoy This is the chapter three is an introduction to worship ministry. Okay It Worship ministry or leading a worship ministry is very different from leading worship Okay, there are a lot of challenges that are involved in leading a leading a worship ministry And and the list can go on and on right? So it's it can seem like a very Thank thankless part of the ministry But if you had if you were thinking that worship ministry or leading a worship ministry is only about leading worship Oh boy, you are so wrong Okay So and that's what we're going to take a lot of insight into it You know because worship ministry in general worship ministry in my opinion Get is the only ministry of a church that gets the highest number of feedback or suggestions And from at least from my experience, okay, for example Why do you guys only do fast songs or start with fast songs? Why can't you all start with slow songs? Why do you all only do new songs? Why don't you do old songs? Classics, why do you only do classics and why don't you do any new songs? Uh, why do you don't why do you not do any songs from the 90s these days? And only from Bethel and elevation Uh, why don't why do you only do songs from the 90s and not do the latest songs? You get you get the picture, isn't it, uh, you know, so Worship ministry Is the only ministry of a church that gets the highest number of feedback and suggestions and And yeah a lot of things, okay So, uh, yeah, I mean there's just a real uh example a real-life example from my experience is that Once Sunday, I started off a set by, you know, it's With this classic song called uh as the dear pants for the waters. We all know that song, right? And so I started off the worship set by start starting that song just to get everybody in into the groove warmed up and Uh, and so on that same day after the service towards the end, we all come out and I received two kind of feedbacks one was a very positive one someone came and said to me Uh, you know, it was wonderful that you started with a classic, uh, you know vintage Uh, it was wonderful. Uh, I love that song as the dear pants for the waters and all that and the same day after this person Another person comes and says it's like, why did you start with so slow songs? You should start with something jumpy songs So, uh Worship ministry is not about pleasing people If you're in it to please people, uh, you will be so discouraged So disappointed very very fast. You will be exhausted. You will burn out in one week Okay, uh, so there are a lot of challenges, uh leading a worship ministry Okay, so it's very different from leading worship Okay, we have to get that very clear leading a worship ministry is very different from leading worship Leading worship is part of the worship ministry, but in and in itself is not worship ministry Okay, um, so And we need to uh, so we need all the help we can get In terms of, uh, you know, leading the worship ministry reducing our stress levels so that we can sleep well I you know refining our systems, uh, you know So that the musicians the techs and everybody else in the team also feel valued and cared for Okay, we need a lot of help and leading worship ministry and and And so that's what we're going to learn today. Okay In this chapter at least this is an introduction to worship ministry okay, so and And there are four relationships That make us make or break us in ministry in general, but in in in our context the worship ministry Okay, um At least this is from my experience that these four areas of worship ministry leadership Uh, we'll kind of set the principles will kind of set will set the tone like the foundation That we need to lead people and to lead this ministry in general. Okay, and so these four relationships will Will will requires your attention You know, it demands your attention and so you need to give it to it Okay, and the first relationship that will make or break is your relationship with god Okay, uh, like I mentioned these four points. Uh, these are not the only four areas Uh, but you know the list can grow But uh for now I've only put these four together because I felt these four pillars of Basic foundations are very important Um, and as I've mentioned that, uh, these are Uh relevant to any area of ministry ministry in general, but most uh, but more so in our context worship ministry. Okay Um, so our relationship with god Um Your your walk with the lord is what's going to keep the fuel burning Okay, it's your secret time with him your prayer life, uh, your your life of worship your spiritual life your emotional well-being all of it, um Is is is connected to your relationship with god. Have you lead people? Have you lead your ministry everything? because um, you know There are highs and there will be lows in in the worship ministry in Right, and of like for example elijah His high was cutting off 400. Uh, you know heads of ball worshipers And then he immediately, uh, you know goes into this mode of depression Our lord, why am I alive? What am I doing? Etc etc? And uh, there will be phases of seasons in life where you will where we will feel like that You know, there will be a moment of high. It's like everything is going great. The ministry is awesome. Uh, you know, we did this We did that etc etc but um, but there will also be a low and We need god In both the seasons of our lives We need we need him when we are on the high and we need him When we are on the low it's not to say we need him Especially when we are high and we need him especially when we are low We need god all the time In our successes in our failures in our good times in our bad times Um, and so it is your relationship uh with the lord Will give you the wisdom the knowledge the understanding on how to handle situation circumstances how to handle fame And success and how to handle failures as well Okay, so if your relationship with god is not sorted as fundamental and basic as it may sound Uh, it it's that relationship that's going to make or break you Okay, it is when uh, it is the lord who gives us the vision for ministry a burden for the ministry And so most of the time, uh, and again I've learned this from my own experience that I used to associate Burnouts, right? When you keep doing a lot of things you're busy, you know, you experience burnout, but uh I've learned that Burnouts are not really associated with doing to a lot of things It is in doing a lot of things we lose vision And because of the lack of vision of direction and uh, you know, we feel lost And so it is our relationship with the lord our walk with the lord Is going to keep us intact You know, like a well oil engine You know he keeps He poured in the oil and lamp right, um So our relationship with god And secondly our relationship with our family In the north, you would see it's mentioned that our first church to which we must attend Is our family Being a good husband, wife, son, daughter, father, mother, or even friend is Central to being a good worship leader and overseer of a worship ministry Okay, um, so our first church to which we must attend or give our attention to or tend to Tend to the flocks as we say, right? The first church that we need to tend to is our family Uh, you know, I like the romans chapter 12 verse one, which is the mess in the message version. Um Hold on a second. Let me see if I can find it Have you read this before? Um, but just very quickly. I'll put it for us over here You can find it. Are you guys, uh, learning something getting something from today's session so far Understanding following Yeah, so this is what it says romans 12 verse one and two partial two in the message version It says so here's what I want you to do god helping you Take your everyday ordinary life. You're sleeping Eating going to work and walking around life and place it before god as an offering Embracing what god does for you is the best thing you can do for him Okay, uh, and so you see how the first point and the second point is integral, right? It's kind of interconnected And so the second relationship that we make or break You is your relationship with the family if we give too much of attention to ministry, uh, which we, uh, which is Tend to happen, uh, you know in the name of doing god's work god's work god's work god's work ministry ministry ministry And there and there's hardly any attention given to the people at home your children your family, uh, you know You you you are treated like a paying guest. Oh, yeah, yeah, roshan only lives here He comes here to eat and sleep and then he's gone. You don't know where he is what he's doing But he's doing ministry You know, so, um Let it not be the case Okay, so our relationship with our family is essential Um for us to be in a successful ministry long term All right, and the third relationship is our relationship with our pastor Okay, and I cannot stress enough on the importance of it Right, uh, so one of the most vital relationships in a local church is often one of the most neglected The relationship between the worship leader and the pastor of the church um, and so Sometimes what will happen is that the worship pastor will have his own vision And uh, but and forget that he is under the supervision of the senior pastor And then that causes friction Right, um that causes an exchange of unpleasantries so to say Uh But we got to keep in mind. Isn't it that we are under the supervision of our senior pastor You know, like the lesson we learned from the david's worship team in first chronicles chapter 25 We see time and time again. Hey, man He man and his son asaf and his sons jirathan and his sons They were all under the supervision of the king That word says right if when you again i'm just refreshing reminding us from first chronicles chapter 25 If you've forgotten a verse six, especially they were all under the supervision of the king uh, and so Our surrender our submission With uh with our pastor is directly linked with our relationship with him How do we understand his vision and know and learn that we are not in competition with him? Uh, he he's a senior pastor He has a vision from the lord for the church for the land You know for the people that he is leading at the end of the day He is accountable to god for his actions and and for everything that he decides on he is accountable Our responsibility is to serve him serve the vision of the church well Okay, um, and so there are three vital points, uh, you know that make shows That are a healthy relationship with our senior pastor between the worship pastor and the senior pastor The first thing is uh respect Okay, worship pastor needs to respect by submitting to his authority Accepting the direction and the decisions of the pastor Okay, accepting the okay. This is where the pastor, uh, you know, this is his vision for the church for the city for the nation Uh, and I'm going to accept that direction And and I will do my best to serve him accomplish that vision Okay, and vice versa and the pastor should show respect to the worship pastor by constant by not constantly Interrupting and preempting the worship pastors methods without consideration Okay, so some not all of you might be worship pastors Some of you might end up being senior pastors As well of a church and so if there's a worship pastor under your leadership, uh, under your supervision It's very important that you don't micromanage You trust At the one of the reasons why you've hired that person as a worship pastor is because you believe that person has the The abilities and the capabilities the skill set that is necessary to lead the worship ministry And so as a senior pastor in this scenario, let's just say I'm a senior pastor Uh, you know, if I've hired Abinas, uh as my worship pastor I've I I would give him a gist. Okay. This is my vision. This is where we what we want to do This is the goal for this year Let's work towards it Uh, and and I'm going to trust him with the with the responsibilities that has been assigned to him Uh, and so, you know, they're not constantly interrupting is like and say is like keep giving suggestions What are you doing like this? Try to do this do that do that do this do that? um, so it's very important to give that space uh And the space to even fail So the person under you is not constantly thinking that if I fail, I'm going to get fired Are you with me right? I hope you're understanding what I'm saying um, so The worship pastor needs to respect the vision of the senior pastor for the church and then the senior pastor and I also have to understand and you know take the hands of the wheel And trust his worship pastor that he has hired he or she has hired Okay, um And there will be times where you will disagree with each other A worship pastor will might disagree with the senior pastor's methods his ways his ideas and vice versa but uh As I've said before that you can disagree with the person and still respect them Right a disagreeing does not necessarily mean disrespect. So you can disagree respectfully Okay, so respect is one of those components that's going to keep a healthy check on your relationship With your senior senior pastor and vice versa Okay, um, and the second part is consideration What is that so when the worship pastor when the pastor and the worship pastor have different ideas About the direction the service should take Each must have consideration for the other The worship leader should be considerate of the pastor respecting his expertise and experience The pastor may allow the worship leader to make mistakes due to lack of experience and correct him or her gently After the service instead of publicly during the worship time The role of the pastor is to build up Okay, so we are uh considerate to one another Uh, you know, have you used this word? Um In a daily life saying People these days are so inconsiderate. You know, how can they be so inconsiderate? Uh, oh, he is a very inconsiderate person. He or she What does that mean is that? they In consideration Inconsiderate simply means that one individual has no regard For the well-being of the other person It's as simple as that. Okay. Um Okay, a life example, I'm not, um So I live in an apartment. Okay, right and this is parking space I'm saying this because I used this word inconsiderate recently Um I can't believe I'm using that as an example right now, but okay. Here we go So I live in an apartment. Uh, you know, there are parking spaces for every apartment You know, every house has their own space and um space for the cars and for the bikes There is no allotted Parking space for the bikes So when there is no allotment when there is no proper direction, what happens full chaos, right? Anybody will park their bikes however they want wherever they want Without being considerate about the person who's parked, you know, um other vehicles And so, you know, they can see that if they park their bikes there They, you know, the other person will not be able to take their bike out, which is, you know, a little inside But who cares I'm gonna park it anyways Because what I want to do is more important. What is that that I won't have I have I found a space to keep my bike because I'm gonna keep it and I'm gonna move on in life And so that's just a Very poor choice of example there as uh for that word in consideration, but I hope you get the idea, right? I hope you get the picture Uh being considerate to one another. Okay, so you listen to the work of a senior pastor of of his plans You're considered about him. Uh, and you know, and then you take time um And and the senior pastor also takes time to be considerate about the worship pastors ideas his ways his plans for the worship ministry Um, not keep interrupting or suggesting constantly Uh, you know, do this do that do this do that do this do that do that do that do that it will It's like, um, you know freedom with a leash You know, you say, oh, yeah, you have absolute freedom, but uh, I'm gonna put you on the leash and everything, you know, so, um Yeah, consideration respect and consideration and the communication constant communication so, um There's I mentioned this there is no such thing as too much communication or over communication uh A constant communication that you can have with your senior pastor Uh is a must Right, uh regardless of, um Uh, if he's busy or not because most of the time senior pastor will be busy involved with uh, you know, so many aspects of ministry But it is our responsibility As a worship pastor that I constantly, you know, give keep him updated of what's happening where we are How many people are in the team? Uh, what are we doing this month? What's happening next month? um, all of the basic communication so, uh, you know And that is very important and so what happens is that that, uh, it creates accountability a culture of accountability in yourself and um and the And senior pastor will know that okay, this person is accountable He's constantly keeping me updated on what's happening and he will trust so the trust will only grow Right Okay, so uh, that's the third point the third relationship that our relationship with our pastor is very important that can make or break The ministry that you are leading respect consideration and communication Okay, and uh, the fourth relationship is The relationship with you and the people that you are leading Right with your extended team members Okay, and so Hebrews 3 13 We are told to encourage, uh, you know as long as it's called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness um we're called to encourage one another and uh encouragement can be like an oxygen To you know to the person that that's going through a rough day or a rough season in life Right um and So what are you going to be doing? Uh about having a healthy relationship with the people that you are leading Okay, um because Leading a team is hard as i've mentioned And um, and you need a team to lead the worship ministry eventually you can't do it all by yourself And when you have a team that means that are people involved in a team And uh, but there are there is a possibility That there will be criticism backbiting, uh, you know unspoken competition And all of that but It is our responsibility as leaders as worship pastors Etc is to make sure that we teach on encouraging one another we teach on on kingdom values and kingdom principles Uh, we we build them up as we just learned in efficiency Is that it is our responsibility to build our team members to and to pray for them to encourage them And to teach them not to be easily offended You know and and you take time to sit with them to learn uh to To see how they are doing in life you walk with them You make time to get to know the people that you are leading how they are doing in life Uh, spiritually how is their family doing all of those things are very essential You know in in leading a worship ministry Okay, so for for simple relationship that can make or break us is what our relationship with god Our relationship with our family our relationship with our pastors Pastor and our relationship with our extended team members Okay, uh any questions or any thoughts any doubts so far Anything that you want to share Pastor what are the few challenges that you face when it comes to the relationship with the extended members of the team Because I think everyone will be different And that's not always so easy to get in touch with everyone Yeah, so getting in touch is not the problem we can get in touch with them. Um Yeah, but as you mentioned, you know the challenges keep changing Yeah, they're We find creative ways to come up with different challenges to make our lives difficult So some some of the you know Recurring challenges can be Um when when a team member is not in sync with the entire team Right, for example, they have not understood the culture of the team. So that's very essential. Um Sorry, there's my phone. I forgot to put it on silent. Yeah, um Just imagine that a one team member is out of sync. Um Whether from the rest of the team that means they have not understood the culture And what and that will affect the entire dynamic of the team that functions functions in Um, okay, and like I said jeffina, um the challenges will vary it will look very different. Um And so some of the challenges that I've faced Uh can be very different from the challenges that you will face In the ministry, but then the basis of it is uh people Anywhere anytime people are involved. They're going to be challenges. Uh one of it and and the basic part of it is um Being teachable For example, do they know how to receive feedback? Uh, or do you know how to give feedback? This these two things will uh are essential. It's like the fundamental foundation of it. Uh as a leader as a worship pastor I need to know how to give a feedback um That my decision is not biased it's uh, you know Regarding what are the challenges are towards an individual and um And is that person with you know that you are leading able to take um that feedback in a very in a positive way And so that can go either ways You know, and so what has happened in my experience is that you give a feedback It has not been received. Well, they'll quit the team The other person will receive the feedback well and you see them grow exponentially Uh, you know in their walk with god So being able yeah, that I think that's one of the main challenges in ministry is that Learning to give feedback one and then learning to receive feedback Is a huge outsider Anybody else anything else that you want to share or ask from what we've covered John do you want to share any of the challenges of a mural experience very momentarily briefly if you want to no completion My challenge would be to get the right people But it's still praying and looking for that and um So honestly what has happened is to lead worship Without a break almost a year and a half is Yeah, just that is a day and in between like Manu two Sundays Yeah, no including last Sunday three Sundays of God So that was one challenge and that is still a challenge That praying and asking God for more people To volunteer. Yes. It's awesome. Yeah, thanks JP. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, it's been quite challenging for John in Mangalore So anybody called to go to Mangalore? Please get in touch Master John Yeah Any any of the challenges anything else that you want to ask people please ask Um, you know from what we've shared with the relationships Uh that we've spoken about Uh, I'll just add one more thing. So there was one instance where um, I had to really Uh bring feedback as we were just sharing This was regarding the conduct of a person character and conduct Of a person in the team which disrupted So many things within the team and even within the church, right and good thing is that when Uh prayer when we prayerfully took that decision to Uh take the person out of the team Um, it was challenging for us But after that we saw a great, um great growth in the church even in numbers So I don't know if that is spiritually connected, but that is what we so so the similar instance had happened twice like when Two people were taken out of the team. There was a high Uh, you know high amount of change in the growth of the church Right, right. Um, yeah, so I thought I just said that Yeah, awesome. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Okay, uh, everybody else good. Um Zalatoli Rosalind May thoughts any questions? Okay, all right, um If there are no questions, we can continue All right, so uh the goals of a worship ministry um It can be simple, which is nurturing creating and establishing Okay nurturing We are we are called to nudge. We are pastors and uh shepherds, isn't it? So we are to nurture people that we are leading in the congregation Etc. Nurturing and encouraged and joyful worship ministry community Uh creating effective consistent and beautiful and worship environments Establishing longevity in uh your volunteer force for musician tech and leaders So there is the practical and the spiritual involved It's it's practical and the spiritual is involved in every area of worship ministry that you're leading. Uh, and so it's nothing different here So but just that the goals are a little different So you continue to nurture people that you are leading and the congregation that you are leading And you create A healthy culture within the team and that as a result of that would lead to beautiful worship environments You know, so it's So this work the time of worship is not just the 30 minutes on the stage And after that, uh, you know, life looks very different. So it's not consistent Right, the life is not consistent on and off the stage. So creating an effective and a consistent And beautiful worship environments a beautiful culture of worship Uh, it's very important Establishing longevity in your volunteer force of musicians tech and leaders. How can you help them? Do what they are doing for a longer time along a period of time Right, uh It is a possibility that if there's only one person to run the media team That means it's just just one person who's doing the Presentation Sunday after Sunday after Sunday after Sunday Uh, there will come a message one day or an email saying that, uh, you know, I haven't taken a break in a year's time Uh, we need to find someone else to do the PPT this Sunday So, um, you know, we are constantly thinking about how to build the volunteering team as well And so that we are not overusing the people. Um To us who's serving so we are considered about the people that we are leaving. Okay There's just a very small basic goals of worship ministry Uh, but this section, uh, the next one is crucial the daily tasks of running a worship ministry The daily tasks of running a worship ministry. Uh, now there are a lot of things that I have not added to this list Which I have added to my personal list recently Um, as I've had this question asked many times is like what do you do? Uh, you know, I I serve as a worship pastor Yeah, is it so what exactly do you do? Only Sundays, what are the work is there for you? Besides sunday, um Yeah, so let me just take you through some of the things that uh, you know, that's there in the worship ministry The daily tasks. So there are daily tasks weekly tasks Some of them are monthly tasks and some of them are quarterly tasks. So the way I have Separated them is like that daily tasks weekly monthly and quarterly and so the kind of repeat, okay So one of the responsibilities of leading a worship ministry is scheduling teams or scheduling bands Or what we call it as rostering the team? Uh, okay, so who's doing what? every sunday Okay, so, uh, let me see if I can get an example What I want to show It's just an example. Okay. Um, so I'm currently working on the roster for the month of october Um, I hope you can see this Right, this is the rostering sheet Uh for worship teams for the month of october, which I'm currently working on Um, and so let me just take you through this So this has my different sheets, uh, you know, the first We'll have all the details of all the jam rooms and studios that we hire where we meet to practice Um, we have sermon plans This has to be updated for october So sunday, what's the topic? of the sermons, um Pastables and the pulpit plan accordingly. I will make the changes And so this sheet is only Worship leaders. So as you can see I'm running very thin 15 very second 29th for locations like north east and west Please pray for me Okay And uh, so in addition to that the cc team simply means the children's church team as well So we have to put the team for that as well. Uh, this is how the rostering sheet looks like, um And then we have location wise. So at central, you know, we have who's leading worship Who's playing the keys who's playing the acoustic guitar is there an electric guitarist? But for this sunday, we do not have an electric guitarist. So we have to manage without electric guitarist We have a bassie Who's on drums and backup vocal background vocals Um Yeah, all of this. So once the worship leaders are sorted for every sunday. The next step is to build the team for each sunday Okay, and uh this Is quite a task So Okay, um Now there are a couple of ways and uh, how That this has been done with other churches as well. So, um So what some worship ministries do is they run the team model Um, so for example, what happens is they have a bunch of musicians Arex if six a team of six or seven That they will and the team will not change for the entire month That's the team model. Okay. Uh, so it could be the same band for a month or two Uh, and then there's another model, uh, where You know, the the members will keep changing every sunday and that's where the uh, you know, the roster comes into the picture and so You can pick A system a method that works best for your church Okay, you uh Which which will help the ethos of your community Okay, so it both has its benefits. Um advantages disadvantages pros and cons But not by a lot So you pick a system that works best for you And so this is one of the tasks of leading running a worship ministry daily tasks of running a worship ministry And uh the task of plastering your team members Uh, so we saw in the four areas four ministries, uh, four relationships that make or build the last one was your relationship with your extended team members and one of the Areas that how you take care of them is by plastering them Um, right. Um, so I think in efficiency chapter four somewhere says, uh endeavor Uh, you know to keep the unity To keep the peace among one another so the word endeavor simply means to be proactive to do something fast To be the first one to do something positive Uh and being proactive will uh will save us From in any relationship. That means you're not waiting Uh for the other person to text the opposite of proactive is reactive Right, it's okay. Let me wait on this person to do the send the text and then I will react by sending another message Okay, let something fall off the stage if I know something is about to fall from the stage I will wait I will fold my hands and I'll sit I will wait for it to fall then I will uh, you know go ahead Uh, so proactiveness is what okay if you see like a mic is about to fall or a guitar is about to fall Or the entire stage is about to fall What you do is you take you you are being proactive about fixing the problem even before the problem takes its final form And so it's very similar with Relieving and pasturing the worship team members is that you are proactive and you take uh initiative About being interested in their life Okay, sending a text message or happy birthday message or an anniversary message calling them a random call So catching with catching up with them for a chai the Whatever just meeting with them or Uh, you know coffee It's it's all shows that you are interested in getting to know them Right. Um, so to take the time to ask the team members, uh, you know, who seemed a little lost who seemed to be going through a tough time in life Uh, so ask them is there anything you can do to help them? Okay, so what what you're doing is that you are building a culture of encouragement Right as pastors. We are shepherds. We take care of them. Right. We are called to take care of them Um, so the goal of your pastoral care is to give your team Care to one another as needed All right, um, so what okay, so we'll just pause here because see that we're very close to the session So we'll come back and we'll resume from where we left Okay, thank you