 Good morning. Good morning. Good to see you to see you all. Hope you all are doing well Hi Christopher. Hello Abney. Hi Kennedy. Hi Hello Rupa Prabhakar. Good to see you Charles. My friend. How are you doing? I've been asked Good to see you You want to pass the praise Lord? Good to see you too. Thank you. Good morning, Paas too. Morning Rupa. Hope you're doing well. All right. Okay Great. Let's get started. Okay. Can I request one of us to just leave it as in prayer, please? Any one of us? Shall I pray first? Yes, please. Thanks Abney Let's pray. Father God, we are so thankful for a new morning. We thank you father for your mercies and new every morning We are so thankful for this time When we'll be learning about how to worship you father worship ministry and father as you are leading us as we are opening doors of wisdom for us of revelation for us of Lord learning how to do it in a way that pleases you about father Let all that we learn father be received by us in its fullness about father We ask you to bless pastor ocean Speak through him about father and lead us to a place Lord father where we are able to worship you in the way You want us to father and be very very careful in things that you want us to be careful about our father so that your name is Glorified through our lives in every way in every walk of life We may continue to glorify you and we may worship you day and night father through our lives through our attitudes through our emotions and Through everything father and above all through the spirit Once again, thank you for bringing us together in this fellowship. We thank you for teaching us Beautiful words of life. Thank you for everything that you've given us in this day We give you glory honor and praise and ask this bread and also want to pray for brother Charles Who's not keeping well father. We just came to know we asked you to give him Complete healing health and wholeness about father and revive him above father by the power of your Holy Spirit Completely heal him and help him about in Jesus's name. We pray and ask amen Thanks, I mean Thank you my chance. Hope you get better soon right Yeah, let's do a quick very quick recap of what we covered last week and Take it forward from there. So we completed chapter 3 in worship ministry. We just looked at it as an introduction to worship ministry in itself We looked at the four relationships That can make or break us if you want to have like an Us an impactful worship ministry there In our context worship ministry, but it's applicable for any ministry that you are involved in Is your relationship with God or your relationship with your family? your relationship with your pastor and Finally your relationship with the extended Team members That you are leading right the importance of all of it and all of it are significant in its own way Right and then we very briefly saw the daily tasks of running a worship ministry Worship ministry is not a Saturday or a Sunday thing It's not just what happens on a Sunday, but also There are there is more to worship ministry Then what happens only on a Sunday every planning that is involved some of the things that we did see was The importance of scheduling or rostering teams of having a roster in place The task of pastoring your team members, you know We are not just worship leaders if you're a worship pastor or if you're leading a worship ministry You are their shepherd, right? We ought to care for them nurture them lead them guide them All of that so that's another task of pastoring your team members The task of meeting with your pastors We could be so took one meeting is the vision casting meeting you meet him to discuss about his vision for that Particular year or your your vision in your heart for the worship ministry for the worship team for that particular year That's a that's a meeting in its own and then also a meeting him Frequently communicating with him with your senior pastor on a regular basis keeping him updated on what's happening with regards to ministry because There will be a lot in his plate that he has to follow up with and he will forget he or she will forget But so it is it comes down to the responsibility of the worship pastor worship coordinator worship leader whatever your title will be With the church to meet with him to keep him updated regularly at the task of budgeting You know paying and paying the vendors the resources Etc and at the task of planning music for the year for the week the task of sharing in the wider pastoral work of the church and the task of Growing in your musical and your leadership skills on a regular basis So that in brief is an introduction to the worship ministry It's like a short window a sneak peek into worship ministry and there's so much more to it, right? I mean it's a vast Right, but then now Let's go into chapter four in your PDF worship ministry in the local church a page 40 and In this chapter, we'll study about the organizational aspects of the worship ministry, right? And Immediately it may seem like for at least for some of us, you know Organized aspect of worship ministry should worship ministry be organized It doesn't really happen I haven't seen it happen, but then hey, yeah You know this the organizational aspect of worship ministry is very very important, right? So let don't Having an efficient and an organized team will have a larger impact. So very quickly. So this is how This the the worship ministry is organized at APC right, so you have you have a the senior pastor and Under the supervision of the senior pastor, there is the worship pastor And then under the supervision of the worship pastor, there's the band The sound team the media team that city projectors, you know, all of that comes into that The singers singers also come into the band, but you know, we try to focus differently on the musicians and the vocalists Separately All right, because we are a team at the end of the day, isn't it? And so But I hope that image kind of gives a brief Undis explanation of an understanding of how we are organized. It's very simple. Isn't it? It's a simple flow chart. There's a senior pastor It's a worship pastor and everything else, you know, that that comes under the supervision or The leadership of the worship pastor, okay? So the sound team we will learn a little bit more about the sound You know the equipments that is that are necessary in the chapters to come But then you'll understand what's the role of the worship pastor in the sound team, right? And also the the media team really a worship pastor should also be involved with media team pretty much. Yes to one of the examples was I Think about four years ago 2018 or so There were a lot of inconsistencies in the lyrics of the song that was being projected For the congregation as the worship leaders were singing as a worship team was leading There were inconsistencies. There's so many things it can be, you know, spell check is one of the reason and I mean At APC most of the time we are singing English songs and when you take the language of English We have to decide if it's it's going to be spelt in American English or British English And so pastor Ashish prefers using American English and so those inconsistencies in over there and also the font or the Case okay, which where which word where do we use the upper case in the lower case, you know for all of that? And so we had to sit together Me past Jake's with the media team and pastor Ashish and we decided, okay, we're gonna use this The American English, you know small words like how do I say favor, you know Brits would spell it without the you Americans would spell it with a you and all of that's a small details like that you work it out and go through the database of I don't know a thousand art songs and Spell check correct them and also we decided to change the entire font The case to uppercase all the lyrics every word would be an upper case just to be consistent and you know So there would not be any So that's an example of how a worship pastor worship leader is also involved with the media team Right gone are the days of the OHP's right overhead projections. You remember that Anybody old enough to remember that those days. It was amazing. Just you know put it under there show the lyrics take it off But yeah, now we've become more sophisticated use different softwares and whatnot, right? So that's how We were involved with the media team and with the sound team We coordinate with them with regards to what equipments do we need to buy? You know with regards to this the speakers and the microphones The cables the batteries small things like that the mic stands the guitar stands. How many stands do we need the music stands? you know and Having a constant conversation with them you are involved at the end of the day when we talk about worship ministry I mean we are in this context. We are now talking about the music and the sound as well, right and also the overall You know the equipments that is necessary for the church and so that's another important aspect of And the responsibility of a worship pastor with the sound team. So that's the basic picture. I hope you get an idea I mean it doesn't when you're leading in your planting a church if you're leading a worship ministry and you can Organize it the way you want to but I'm just most of the examples that we will look at from this chapter and the next chapter is how worship ministry functions at APC and All of that is a suggestion or guidelines You know our ideas that you make you can take it and incorporate it in your church Or if there's a better idea as you can email it to me As well, okay, so it's not it's not to say that this is how we're doing it APC. You also should do it, okay? So keep that in mind, please Okay, so let's keep this move on to page 41 So we see that we are the worship pastor will be under the supervision of the senior pastor, right? So very it's very quickly understand the role of The pastor it's very good. There is The pastor is the one who is ultimately responsible to God For the church so the worship team comes under his pastoral oversight He provides general vision Direction and motivation he shares his goals for worship with the team Through the worship pastor. Okay. That's very important. You see that so he shares his goals for the for worship with the team Through the worship pastor sometimes gives the worship pastor the plan of messages For the year so that the team can prepare appropriate songs Right all the sermon see these the sermon plans and also Yeah, everything that is planned for the year Will be sent out so that you know, we can plan prepare appropriate songs, right? His role as an example the pastor is the key to the worship ministry. He must be an example of a worshiper before the congregation So this is where like the perspective is changing a little bit So if you're not the worship pastor, and if you happen to be the senior pastor who under if you know If there's a worship pastor under your supervision, this is something else to keep in mind He must be an example of a worship. He must be an example of a worshiper before the congregation a Worshiping pastor will birth a worshipping church a non worshipping pastor will will never have a worshipping church No matter how talented the worship leader may be He leads much more by example in this area than by preaching he can preach about worship But we'll see no response from the people if he's not living if he is not a living example Right, so that's you know a basic understanding and the for us to know the importance of the role of a pastor He's very vital to the church as well In his role to teach the congregation on worship just as we discussed that you know Senior pastor is the lead worshiper without the title of a worship leader Right, so the worship pastor sorry the pastor should teach on worship Reason why we worship biblical expressions of worship, etc In the church on a regular basis so the congregation can receive the revelation on worship, right? The last two words there is revelation on worship revelation comes with Teaching isn't it so there's an unveiling that happens when there's a teaching to the congregation On different aspects of worship and the importance of it, right the biblical than the theology of worship, etc So that's one of the roles is to teach the congregation on worship to create that culture of worship, right and then the role of the worship pastor The role of the worship pastor is just to sing and lead worship That's it, huh? Okay, and then let's see you back next Sunday again. You just come plug in your guitar keyboard Sing a couple of songs go home and that's done. That's the role of the worship pastor, isn't it? Well, yeah, no So in chapter 3 we began by learning that worship leading is different very different from leading a worship ministry Right and we saw the different daily tasks of leading a worship ministry. It's not only Sunday based and so here we see the seven roles of the worship pastor Okay The first rule of the worship pastor is a worship pastor as priest Okay, so what What was the role of a priest in the Old Testament? To stand on behalf of the people in presence of God to stand on behalf of the people in presence of God, okay? Thank you Avni and anything else to offer sacrifice Yeah, to offer sacrifice. Yes. Thank you to offer sacrifice to represent. Yeah To be mediators here to hear the voice of the Lord and connect people with him Yep. Yeah, thank you that anyone else Can someone read a revelation chapter one was five and six, please Revelation chapter one was five and six. I hope I'm right Revelations got to be easy to find right case. Yes Revelations chapter one verse five and six says and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness the first born from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth to him who loves us and Has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and Priests to serve his God and the God and father To him be glory and power forever and ever amen Man, thank you. So he has made us a kingdom and Priests isn't it to serve his God and father So there in itself like immediately we see that our role as as our role as priests, right? in second Peter also Very quickly. We all know that verse Two nine two nine, right? Thanks. Yeah, you want to go ahead and read it for us I think it's first Peter Yes But you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own position That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light Thank you It's so we are chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation, right? I mean the choice of words there is amazing So you have the word royal and then you have priesthood now when you when you think of royal You don't think of priesthood immediately isn't it But priesthood is not the first thing that at least comes to your mind when you use the word royal think of kings and queens and The throne and the prince and the princess the great royal family. You know how it is, right? but Here the word royal is followed by priesthood Royal priesthood and and this this thing about priesthood is been in God's heart from the beginning, right? And I've mentioned this one of the recurring themes in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is that you keep hearing Reading God say that I will be your God and you will be my people I will be your God and you will be my people right and very quickly if you if you go to Exodus chapter 19 You know Exodus chapter 19 verse 4 Exodus 19 for it says you yourself have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on Eagle's wings and brought you to myself Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant then out of all the nations You will be my treasured possession Although the whole earth is mine You will be for me a kingdom of Priests and a holy nation Okay, now this was before the you know, they had just come out of Egypt and Before they you know sinned by building a golden calf and whatnot In God is saying and so and then we know later I mean just a long story short I would you know and you've already we all know the story a long story short and they sin and whatnot eventually Moses asks Who was on the Lord side? They shall come to me and and it say the Bible says only the Levites came running and whatnot, right? So from there on you see that the Levitical Tribe becoming the priesthood tribe But until then God's heart was heart was not only for the Levites to be priesthood But the entire nation of Israel to be his priesthood a holy nation and now that is made possible for us Through the blood of Jesus as we just read in Revelation 1 5 to 6 is he has made us Kingdom and priests kingdom of priests, right? And so we need to keep that in mind one of the as you have already and rightly mentioned of the duties of a priest Well, you know is a mediator to offer sacrifices to serve and whatnot, right? He was the bridge builder right so He would rip the priest the high priest would represent people to God and then after meeting with God He will come and represent God to people Right so you you with me, right? And that's what we are all called to be as And so that's one of the key roles of a worship pastor is that That we are a priest and we need to keep that in mind right a priest is the purest sense of the term a Bridge builder, right? You may prefer to think of it as a pastoral role in your church community or worship ministry But with a different place, right? So that's first thing We are called to be priests Yes, Christopher go ahead. Oh, yes pastor. I was just Wanted to ask a question that it caused to the priest being the representative of God and You know in certain denominations that that that role is also an extents towards even you know Providing I Mean doing confession and you know providing some kind of penance, you know to the to the person who comes you know for confession and in a sense the Congregation Feels that Because this the priests are representative they they should they need to go through the priest to you know to be able to Communicate and an interest with God. So you just want to I get your view on that So I don't know the details As in the functions of the particular denomination that you're talking about Christopher So when I mentioned that You know the high priest in the Old Testament in the Old Covenant would represent the nation of Israel Before God right he would take the blood and put it on the mercy seat And then you know It was a high priest if God spoke to him and most of the time God would tell okay Go and tell this to people of Israel right that happened with Moses and we see it happening with his brother What's his brother's name Moses a sir? He said was it a sir? Yeah, so Point is God would tell him go and say this to my people and so and so and so and so right So that is what I meant by saying okay The priest would represent God to people right like a mouthpiece like a mediator but Confession of sins and whatnot. I mean now that if It's very clear that we can directly go to God and confess and you know one John One eight, I think if you go to him and confess us since he's faithful enough to forgive us so That way, I don't think we need another mediator Jesus is A high priest we can boldly go to the throne of grace So has have things changed from the Old Testament and how the peace towards was viewed Or how you know the the congregation in fact will be the priest and after Jesus came Did it did it change or has it changed? I would say yes because See the priest I mean we're talking about the the high priest and whatnot. We were talking about The Old Testament Old Covenant and we have specifically even more specifically talking about the Jews right the Hebrews the Jews but Once again because of the sacrifice of Jesus, we are all brought into his family Right to into his kingdom. He is our father as well, right? He's not only the God of the Jews the Hebrews. He's our God. He is my God as well Right so that in itself says a lot of things and so he is our high priest and the book of Hebrews makes it very clear so Yeah, I don't know what else to add to it But you know, but if you want to get more specific about the Jews You know, there are the Jews who would still practice that go to the temple and whatnot But then there are Messianic Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah so Yeah, you're welcome Christopher Right Recently, I think last month or a month ago. We had a men's conference at ABC and the theme was Prophet priest and king I mean I would actually if you haven't if you were not there for the conference, it's available on YouTube I think it's it's beautiful teaching on you know as Being called to be a prophet's priest and king more for men, but then we're all everybody's welcome to listen to it it's a must must listen because That is leading me to the second point the worship pastor as a prophet Right so in the notes we sing we challenge the church to follow Jesus and actually be disciples the word prophet may Similarly to the word priest about conjure up an image of a bearded figure with justice in his heart and Sharp words in his mouth or you may think of someone who if you And more cosmetic circles regularly offers what they believe God is speaking to them for the congregation or Those in their influence say this is the Lord But in this case in our context of what why what we mean by worship pastor as a prophet is Go back to its root meaning. It simply means to prophesy Right at its foundation to prophesy means to speak or sing by inspiration Right, it is so much in line with the priest, isn't it? Is you you sing over you declare right? And so we are we are to as worship pastors worship leaders As pastors minister leaders in general we are encouraged to prophesy over our people to declare over our people We have to constantly listen and lean into God's heart to see okay What does he have to say for me for my life and for the congregation for the people for the team that you are leading and also? Is This this book is very prophetic, right? You just declare this and we do that, isn't it? We declare this over our lives. We say, you know, I declare this verse over you You know, you are free. You are delivered. You are set free example, right? And so we are encouraged to do that constantly because this book is alive every word of it is alive, right? This it's life John chapter 17 verse 17 says are you sanctifiers with your truth and your word is truth? Isn't it and then Jesus is the truth we read that in the gospel so What as a worship pastor? We are called to be prophets to declare to sing over all the people that you're leading to speak over the people that you are leaving, right? That's a second role and the third role is a worship pastor as a teacher. Are you guys are learning yet? Oh Oh, you're like, oh boy, this is a lot Right Yeah, the third role once again a very simple worship pastor as a teacher Right, we are we have to teach we ought to teach The people once again that you're leading on on the word from the word The importance of worship the biblical aspects of worship the theology of worship the postures of worship Etc etc. So, you know that comes without saying and worship pastor as a pastor That's the fourth role. So we care for our community as shepherds Recognizing the lines of leadership that we need to care. I read this court somewhere It's a very popular court. You might have heard it already is This is more to do with the youth the young people is They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care I can I say that again, they they don't care how much you know Until they know how much you care and so in the role of a worship pastor as a teacher You might we might know a lot of things we might communicate a lot of things but then that will not have a Major impact If you'll if your role as a worship pastor doesn't communicate that and say that you and show that you actually Care for them that you want to shepherd them that you want to guide them because we are their shepherd, isn't it? So they need to feel love they need to feel valued Etc etc. So that's the fourth role of a worship pastor is Pastor them right and The fifth role worship pastor as intercessor Once again, this is in line with the worship pastor as a priest because priest also would intercede So we pray more than we say and this dominates our leadership style and I need to There might not be a lot in the notes to talk about Intercessor or intercession in general, but then I just want to use this opportunity to encourage us for you to just learn about the importance of Intercessory prayer intercession as a ministry leader Especially as a worship pastor in this context. It's It can get so busy in our lives about just thinking about Every other thing of putting a song list together planning for this event of worship said putting a band together the roster and What not and we lose the wonder of Intercession of praying for the team or praying for someone Or we forget the wonder of the power of prayer You know just because we're in worship ministry, but then Prayers so much more important in our lives as worship pastors and in leading a worship ministry, so When you can just learn about intercessory prayer read about it so many beautiful books out there on intercessory prayers So make it a lifestyle in your role as a worship pastor Right and the sixth row is a worship pastor as a mentor Right so we are always looking for the person to fill our shoes and to fill the needs of exemplary worship leaders in our community That is true by the way, so we are always looking for the person to fill our shoes as because we're not going to be a worship pastor for you know For ever types, right? So you you are building leaders of tomorrow You're mentoring them once again. It's again in line with pastoring and you're leading guiding them and And and training them equipping them and powering them and all of that Right, so one of the process that I was taught of the mentoring progression Is mentioned in the notes? It's Very simple process This is the mentoring progression, right? You're with me, right? We are in page 43. It's on top of the page 43 If you want to mentor someone and if you are mentoring someone They want to be mentored. This can be a simple seven steps, right? So I would say I do it and then I tell my mentee you watch me do it and And then I teach you to do what I've been doing and then you do it with me and Now the roles change I do it with you You do it on your own and you mentor others, right? That's simple mentoring mentorship progression mentoring progression It's can be complicated and it's Help me in my journey and mentoring people or it's simple isn't it so I do it You watch me do it. I teach you to do it Give an example of any any real life situation Setting doing sound in church, right? If you're or if you're a graphic designer or whatever Right, so I'm going to do the graphic designing. I'm going to do the sound for church You know, you come and sit with me and you watch me do it the way I choose the sounds How I'm setting up the equipments and whatnot and then I will teach you to set up the equipments and you know Teach you more about the sound and the hurts the kilo hurts and all of that Now you do it with me and now you do it by yourself Then you go ahead and train others. So the role of a worship pastor as a mentor is Should not be underplayed Okay And then finally the seven role the seventh role is Remember we are talking about worship ministry as an organizational aspect And so there has to be some Something involved, you know in our role is worship pastor as administrator Right Administrator so you put together put things in order you plan In X etc. So we order resources and Stewart people's energy to achieving lasting results so You know just from the notes says I've been in local churches where worship pastor was weak and lacking in administrative skills But worship arose passionately and beautiful Sunday after Sunday in their congregation I've also been in churches where the worship ministry was so efficiently organized that it seemed like the maintenance of the system was more important than actual meeting with God on a Sunday morning yet we need effective systems of the Ministry to run well. Okay, so it's it's a simple spectrum, right? That we all have from one end to another It's like sorry I'm using a scale as an example I'm just going to flow in full prophetic brother. I don't need to plan anything. I don't need to prepare for anything You know only fire fire fire fire, you know, and then there's the other end of the spectrum, you know Anymore planning any more if it if the if the services is organized anything, you know any more than So much so that you know There's no vision of and or the importance of following the voice of God or the leading of his spirit But then there is a balance Right there is a meeting point Where both needs to be balanced? The importance of being organized and the importance of being led by the spirit and if you can if you can And that is a skill which we will just talk about in the next section to come But we need to understand that okay, this is worship leader called Jeremy Riddle Some of you might know what he used to lead at Bethel Jeremy Riddle he says this Instruct it stayed with me forever He said prepare You know like it depends on you and lead like it depends on God Right and say that again Prepare like it depends on you But lead like it depends on God, so when I'm preparing for Sunday service, I'm going to prepare I'm gonna put in my thing because I'm gonna put an effort to just pray about the set list and whatnot and Sunday morning I Share this with the team as well is Sunday morning. We say okay guys, you know, we've we've Practiced we've listened to the songs. We've we prepared We know which chords we are supposed to play which key that each song is in all of that is done. We done What we can Now let's lead like it depends on him Right and so this is beautiful mix a Balance of being being organized and being led by the spirit. Okay If it helps some of the administrative tools find an administrative tool that can help you like a scheduling tool set planning tool Community building tool, you know and have a core team As well that that's that's going to be very helpful, right a core team Because now we have five at a PC. We have five different locations. We have worship coordinators for each location You know, they're like my core team types, you know, they They take care of location specific things with regards to worship ministry and whatnot. So the important is That's the seventh role worship pastor as an administrator. Okay, so very quickly. What are the seven roles of the worship pastor? As a worship pastor, you're a priest You're a prophet. You're a teacher Pastor you're an intercessor. You're a mentor and an administrator Can I hear a name that? Okay Good, so yeah, I hope you all are still alive and and well Cool, so we'll stop here for this section and we take the bridge and we come back and we resume with the next section All right. Yes. Have a good one