 Hello everyone. Welcome back. Let's just continue from where we left off. We are in page 38 in your PDFs. The daily tasks of leading or running a worship ministry. So we looked at the task of scheduling, rostering teams, the task of pastoring your team members. And the third task is the task of meeting with your pastor. It's again connected with the four areas of relationship that we need to focus on one of them being your relationship with the pastor. And the task of meeting with the pastor constantly regularly is ensuring that you are constantly communicating with your pastor and keeping him updated. And so that is one of the tasks of leading the worship ministry. And if that's not possible, you can always keep him posted, communicate via email or call, whatever is convenient and possible at that time. Okay. So that's another task of communicating with your senior pastor, meeting with him, etc. And then the other task of budgeting and paying for resources. So what does this have to do in worship ministry? You're wondering, isn't it? The task of budgeting and paying for resources. What does that mean? So there is the administrative part to the worship ministry as well, which we will go a little deeper into administrative responsibilities in the next chapter. But for example, let's say we have a worship team retreat happening and I want to take the worship team to a location just to have this retreat for a day or a two. So I'm going to start looking for venues for different, say campsites or resorts or whatever, whichever place can accommodate the team, 50 people or so. So I'm going to get a court from them. I'm going to get a court for the venue. I'm going to get a budget for the food. I might even get the budget for the transport. And what is a stationary, if we need anything for the games to buy anything like a ball or something. And so I put together a budget for the worship team retreat, approximately 50,000 rupees. And you send it to a pastor and the accounts team for approval. And then once they approve it, everything went well. You go for the retreat, you come back and the responsibility doesn't end there. You make sure that you have to pay the vendors. So you have to pay for the vendors, pay for the resources or anything that you might use to help your ministry that needs to be paid for, cord charts, equipments, etc. So the task of budgeting and paying for resources is another responsibility in leading the worship ministry. So it's not always flowers and lights and stage and cool things. It's a lot of administrative work behind the scenes. The task of planning music for the year, for the week and for the year. So again, you look at any special occasions, celebrations that will be happening in the church, anniversary, Sunday, of course, you'll have Good Friday, Easter, Christmas, New Year's. And during the month of Christmas, we'll have outreach programs or a Christmas concert, all these different things. So you plan the music. Okay, what are we going to do here? What are we going to do there? Why? Because if you're planning on doing a big Christmas outreach, like a Christmas concert or whatnot, the team cannot practice in the month of December. The practice has to start at least a couple of months earlier. So having a plan for music for the week, for a month or for the entire year, again gives you a plan, an insight to see ahead of what's coming and plan accordingly. Okay, and all of this is not going to happen in one day, planning music for the week or for the year. It's a process that you might have to meet and discuss with your senior pastor, if you have a core team, with your worship team, that as well meet with them, okay, discuss what needs to be done, what can be done, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, the task of planning music for the week and for the year, the task of sharing in the wider pastoral work of the church. Sixth point, the task of sharing in the wider pastoral work of the church. We cannot say that I'm only the worship pastor, so I'm not going to do hospital visits. I'm not going to go to the funeral, so weddings, purchases, I'm not going to do premarital counseling, et cetera, et cetera. But we take responsibility, we share in the wider pastoral work of the church. You're supporting each other's ministry, right? We remember that a need doesn't need a call for you to meet the need. For example, now this is very important, is that you have to know your primary roles and responsibilities of your job description. Okay, so if you as a worship pastor, you know your roles and responsibilities, that is, for example, let's say you're working on the roster and it has to be sent out today and it's urgent. And then if someone comes along and asks for help, it's okay for you to explain the situation to them and say no, because you can go and help other people, but not at the cost of sacrificing your work. If I don't send out the roster today, what can happen is that there's going to be confusion and chaos. Okay, who's doing what? The setup team, the sound and the setup team is dependent on me to send the roster on time, so they can plan the equipment, the stage plot, who's going to stand where, what not. The media team needs to know the roster, who's leading, what's the band like. And so if the roster doesn't go out, nobody is going to know who's leading worship. If nobody knows who's leading worship, that means the song lyric document is not going to be sent to the media team. So if me not doing one of my responsibilities on time, it's going to have a ripple effect on all the other teams. That's going to set them back. So I want to help, but at first I want to make sure that I'm also helping, but doing my job on time. So once, if all that is sorted, and if there is a responsibility that is not urgent and immediate, if you can lend your hand to other areas of ministries in the church, it is very important that you do so. So the task of sharing in the wider pastoral work of the church is essential. And then the task of honing your musical and leadership skills. There are two aspects to it. As a worship pastor, you are a musician and you are also a leader. So you need to work on two aspects of your skill set. You need to grow as a musician. What are you doing about it? When was the last time you practiced your keyboard or your singing? Are you doing your vocal warm-ups every day? Are you practicing your guitar? Are you learning something new on the acoustic guitar or electric guitar, whichever instrument it is? So not forgetting that you're a musician, you lead worship. Are you building the repertoire of songs? Are you exploring? Are you writing songs? All of that versus? And also your leadership skills. I don't know how many books there are out there on leadership. John Maxwell alone has, I don't know how many. 13 steps to leadership to 27 to 24 ways to being a good leader. Pick one and make sure you're growing as a leader in leadership skills. Pick a topic. If you know as a leader that your challenge is confronting people because you want to be that nice person. You know, my challenge is I'm a very nice person, but because I'm a nice person, people take advantage of me. I don't know how to confront people or give constructive criticism. And so work on that. See if there's a material that is available online or if there's a book that is written or if there's a person or mentor that you can approach to and sit and talk with saying, this is my challenge. How can I grow as a leader in this specific area of my life? And so you're constantly honing your skill in that area as well. So the task of honing your musical and leadership skills are very essential in leading worship ministry. Okay, so very quickly, let's go through the entire list of the tasks of running a worship ministry. Just seven, the list really doesn't stop here. Okay, the list really doesn't stop here. It goes on, but it's just a generic few points. So that is scheduling, fostering your team members, meeting with the pastor, budgeting, planning music for the entire year, sharing in the wider pastoral work of the church and the task of honing your musical and leadership skill. Okay, are you all with me? Everybody okay? Okay, all right, I think that is yes. Let's move into chapter four. Chapter four, worship ministry, the organizational aspect of it. All right, so we're going to go deeper into the practical aspects of worship ministry. So here this is the structure. In chapter four, if you look at page in page 40, you will see how the organizational chart is designed. Okay, so from right on top we have the senior pastor under whose supervision there's the worship pastor, under whose supervision there's the band, there's the sound team, there's the media team, that's the slides, LCD projector, the singers, even the IT team to a certain extent is responsible, and then you have the congregation. Okay, and this is the structure of the worship team, the very first page of chapter four. Okay, so having this organizational chart will help us, okay, figure out, okay, this is where we're at, and this is, you know, we know who to go to if something is not working, all right? If something, we can hold them accountable if something is not right, or if something is right. Okay, so now that the organizational chart is sorted, let's move on. Remember, this is going to get more practical, it's more intentional in terms of how the worship ministry is organized, how it should be organized, okay? So the role of the pastor, this is talking about the senior pastor, the role of the pastor is the one who ultimately is responsible to God for the church so the worship team comes under his pastoral oversight so he provides general vision, direction, and motivation. All right, so vision, direction, and motivation. He shares the goals for worship ministry with the team and sometimes gives the worship pastor the plan of messages for the year so that the team can prepare appropriate songs. Okay, so pastor will share the pulpit plan or the sermon plan for the entire year and based on which we can prepare the team as well and introduce new songs, et cetera. So this is the role of the, one of the responsibilities of the senior pastor is to give vision, direction, and motivation, okay? His role to teach the congregation on worship is also essential. So the pastor should teach on worship, reason why we worship biblical expressions of worship, et cetera in the church on a regular basis so the congregation can receive the revelation of on worship. So, you know, one would think that it is the worship pastor's responsibility to teach and do everything, but no, it's also the senior pastor's responsibility more so. If you want your church to be a worshiping church, you teach on that subject, you know, you help them understand the importance and the power of worship, et cetera. Okay, and all of this is in line in context with the worship ministry, yes. Okay. So once we've understood the role of the senior pastor, now let us look at some of the roles of the worship pastor. Okay, some of the roles of the worship pastor. The worship pastor as a priest. Worship pastor as a priest. So a priest was like a bridge builder, right? In the tabernacle of Moses, it was the high priest. So the tabernacle in itself was the meeting place, right? That's what we learned. It was the meeting place like a bridge between heaven and earth. And so when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, once a year on the day of atonement to pour the blood of the animal on the mercy seat, the high priest was representing the people when he went in. When he came out of the tabernacle, he was representing God to people, right? And so there was a bridge. So the high priest or the priest was a bridge builder, so to say. Okay. So the word priest may project images of flowing robes, clerical colors or even ephods and glistening headdresses. Okay. So, but that's not what it is in this day and age. That's the image we get when we use the word priest. But as I mentioned, a priest is a bridge builder. And so you are constantly thinking of ways and how can I build bridges between communities, between the congregation and the team, from the platform on from the stage to the church, congregation down. What can we do? What can I do as a priest to build the bridge? Between, you know, between the congregation and the team. So as a worship pastor, we have to remember that we are, we have the responsibility of a priest. And as the worship pastor, the worship pastor as a prophet, we challenge the church to follow Jesus and actually be his disciples. So the word prophet may similarly to the word priest above conjure up an image of a bearded figure with justice in his heart and sharp words in his mouth. But we'll keep that aside again. Forgive me for going back to first chronicles chapter 25, verse one. It says, David and the generals of the army set apart the sons of Asaph, and Jonathan for the ministry of prophesying with the harps and liars, with their instruments basically. And so I'm sure you already learned the importance of prophetic ministry, hearing God's voice and declaring his word, how to move in the prophetic and all of that. And so we understand what prophetic is and what the role of the prophet is. And so as worship pastors, we function as a prophet as well. We either speak it or sing it by inspiration. So worship pastor as a priest, worship pastor as a prophet, worship pastor as a teacher. We teach people as well. We teach our team members. We educate our church about worship and what it means to be a worshiping Christian. And worship pastor as a pastor. We are called to shepherd our people. And that means it takes time. It takes patience. We need a lot of strength. We need a lot of wisdom. We need discernment. We need all the help we can get as pastors. Don't forget that as a worship pastor, your responsibility is not just to lead worship. We've learned that so far, but it is also a responsibility to pastor. We care for our community of people. And worship pastor as intercessor. We pray more than we say, and this dominates our leadership lifestyle. Worship pastor as an intercessor. It doesn't sound very fancy, right? Intercessors are those backbones. So many ministries that who intercede for people who stand in the gap and wage war against the principalities of the spirit realm. And so as a worship pastor, we are not to forget that we are intercessors as well. And as a worship pastor, we are also mentors. Recently in APC this year, we did a series on mentorship, mentoring people, the biblical approach to mentoring people. And so as a worship pastor, not to forget that you are a mentor to or people will look up to you as a mentor. And so there is a mentoring progression that is mentioned in the notes that is popularly followed. And I've added that because it has helped me in how I choose to mentor people. And the mentoring progression is simply this. I do it. You watch me do it. I teach you to do it. Now you do it with me, and I do it with you. You do it on your own, and now you mentor others. This is a very simple progression that seems to have worked worldwide and I can say that it's worked with me as well. So you do it. And then you let the mentee watch you do it. And then you teach the person how to do it. And then you let them do it with you. And then the roles change. You do it with them. And now you do it on your own. Now it's your responsibility to train others. And the final role as a worship pastor is a worship pastor as an administrator. So scheduling teams is an administrative role. Getting budget for the venues, planning the worship team retreat. All of that is an administrative part of your role. Some of the administrative tools that can help, as mentioned, is the scheduling tool, like planning center, et cetera. A set planning tool, a community building tool, a core team that will help you accomplish and achieve what you want to do in your church through your worship ministry. So seven different roles. Worship pastor as a priest, as a prophet, teacher, pastor, intercessor, mentor, and administrator. Welcome to worship ministry, guys. How many of you are excited about worship ministry? It's exciting. Any questions, any thoughts that you want to ask? Yeah. So I know we've discussed quite a bit on the administrative, you know, it's been enough information about the responsibilities and the roles of the responsibilities of a worship pastor and worship ministry. I do not want it to be an overload of information, but I just really wanted to sink in, you know, about the responsibilities of worship ministry, okay. All right, let's move on then. Some of the role of the worship team members. What are some of the qualifications of individuals for them to be part of your worship team members is have a firm commitment to the team to be regular and present whenever required. Rehearsal, preservice prayer, have attitude of enthusiasm and cooperation must be open to receive correction, instruction, and submitted to the authority of the worship pastor and pastor must be flexible musically. So all of that can be expounded in itself. Have a firm commitment to the team. You know, when we have the audition process here at APC, one of the things we don't put up a sign board that says anyone who wants to join the worship team, please come aboard. Everybody's welcome aboard. No, we don't do that. But we have an audition process. And those who want to register for the audition, one of the questions that we ask is how long have they been attending APC? And the minimum requirement is three months at least. Three to six months, but three months minimum. Now that question, that is just to check if they've actually been committed to church for at least three months. And they want to make this their home, make APC their home church. Now if they are bouncing all over the place and they don't know, you know, they're just testing and checking which church they want to belong to, it's very easy to know that they're not committed and they cannot be committed. Or they're not ready yet. So commitment is huge when it comes to having a member, a team member on the worship team. So remember this one thing, people. It's very easy. It's very, very easy to add to a team than to undo a team, okay? Because I'll say that again. It's very easy to add to a team than to undo a team because undoing a knot is never fun, isn't it? And, you know, I have made mistakes where, you know, I think, oh Lord, I think I've made a mistake having this person on the team with their character and the integrity and their attitude, which will affect the dynamic of the entire team and eventually the church because of that person's unhealthy attitude and behavior, right? So it's very important to take things slow. Have the right person on the team to their attitude, their character, their integrity, all of that matters. And they must be flexible musically. You know, they're going to be part of the worship team. That means one of their responsibilities will be to sing or play an instrument. Do they have good command over their instrument? Are they investing in themselves? Singers, from what I've seen, what I've experienced is that they hardly invest in themselves. Yeah, I sing, you know, I sing at home. I sing in the bathroom. I sing. So that's enough. I don't need to go to classes. I don't need to learn to breathe well properly. I don't need to understand the difference between head voice and the chest voice. You know, I just sing whatever comes. You know, I'm not going to work on my timing. I'm not going to work on my pitch. So this is all for the singers out there. Invest in yourselves. Okay, I know musicians, they'll at least go for some classes initially to just learn the guitars or the keyboards and then they'll eventually move on to YouTube and learn from there on, but invest in yourself and that will help you be flexible musically. Okay, and this is not a music class. I can talk a lot about it. The importance of being flexible. So, yeah. All right, let's move on. Practice is personal and rehearsal is relational. So what is the difference between practice and rehearsal? Because a worship team will have to meet for rehearsal, isn't it? So can anyone say the difference between practice and rehearsal? Practice and rehearsal, practice versus rehearsal. So practice is what you do at home and rehearsal is with the team. So if the worship leader sends out the set list or the song list on Tuesday morning and so from Tuesday and the worship team is going to meet for rehearsal on Saturday. So from Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday the musicians practice at home. They learn their songs, they learn their parts, their guitar parts, their keyboard parts, their drum parts. So they practice the songs at home. Practice is what happens at home. Rehearsal is what you do with the team on Saturday morning. You do not come to a rehearsal on a Saturday morning and then try and learn the song there. You come there and say, oh no, I didn't listen to the song. So what are the chords in this song? That is not the place or the time to ask or learn the song. Rehearsal is not the time to learn the song. Rehearsal is where you learn to play that song together as a team and make the necessary changes when needed. But you practice and you work on the song at home. So that is the responsibilities and the role of a musician, worship team members. That in turn is going to help them be skillful because as we learned in First Chronicles 25 musicians were skillful, they were all skilled. They had the ability to do something well. And so when you are skillful and when your heart is in the right place, it becomes very easy to combine skill with the biblical truth. And that's going to have a powerful impact on the church in building a healthy environment of worship. Skill versus biblical truth. What happens most of the time is emphasis is given on one thing or the other. For example, skill is not important. It's okay if you can't sing on pitch, if you can't sing on time, no problem. But as long as you have the heart for worship, that is all that matters, brother. Just your heart. Versus on the other side of the spectrum is skill, skill, skill, skill, skill. It has to be perfect. Everything has to be great. We have to sound like tight and amazing but have no heart of worship. We want to do it for all the glory. We want to do it for the fame. We want to do it because we want to be seen. We like to be seen, et cetera, et cetera. But that's the balance we want to strike is skilled musicians with a heart of worship or worshipers with a heart of worship who are striving and thriving to be skilled musicians. Where we are not satisfied at the level where we are at. We are constantly seeking to grow and improve in these areas. Are you with me? When that happens, you will see all these skills in a worship leader. You will see that they practice. They are effective musically. They are organized. They are well-prepared. They are reliable. The character, the integrity is not questioned. You see God's grace over their lives. With this, I will stop. There is a lot of information today. Practical information. I hope it helps just a little bit more insight into the worship ministry part of it. It's going to get a lot more practical as we progress from chapter to chapter. I'll stop here. Thank you for joining. We'll resume next week on the same chapter. Thanks, guys. God bless you. Have a good day.