The Pastor and Worship

The role of the pastor in worship is certainly a vital one. The pastor sets the manner in which the church enters the presence of God. The attitude and tone in which a church enters worship says a lot about where the heart of the church is and this starts with the pastor. It could be anything from prayer in the beginning, to greeting those around you, etc. What is important though is that the pastor is leading the church into the God-centered worship it needs to be in.

When someone is a pastor and they are trying to lead their church in God-centered worship it needs to be handled with care and patience. Many times new pastors will rush in this process and just send a memo to the worship leader, choir, and the congregation about what is going to change in the service. They might also just rearrange the entire order of worship. This tends to upset many members and when that happens God-centered worship is impossible because the congregation is too busy being angry and wondering why in the world the pastor did what they did. When a pastor goes at this with ease and he explains his motives and intentions congregations are usually much more receptive to what is going on. John H. Armstrong’s book says to start out with this, “Let us begin, then, with a brief overview of the scriptural understanding that God has made all human beings with a capacity for offering worship to someone or something.” What the pastor must do is make sure the congregation knows what they are worshiping and not only that they are worshiping the one true and living God, but that they are worshiping in the right heart and attitude. When a person worships they must give to God all they have in their worship and the pastor must make this clear. It is not a time to sing a few songs that make us feel good. It is a time to offer up our praise, thanks, and worship up to the God who reigns. The pastor is the one who must teach and show with his own life the meaning and importance of worship.

“Word-centeredness or its lack inevitably plays the most significant role in a church moving toward of away from a God-centered worship climate and culture,” writes Jerry Marcellino. The word of God should be the guidelines for every aspect of the church, including worship. Worship is still a time to teach theology through song. The words in a song are a crucial part in the worship of the church. It can teach and edify believers when they are being shaped the worship that they offer to God. It is important for the pastor to take seriously song selection. Every word in every song should be God-centered and this can only be known by the word of God. Style, form, lyrics, and rhythm should all go through scrutiny before being allowed on the alter. When, being led by the pastor, the congregation becomes more focused on the word in their individual lives you will see this in the God-centered worship of the entire church.

Now when you talk about worship, corporately, you talk about the whole service in general. This is everything from prayer at the beginning, call to worship, announcements, and the public reading of scripture. The pastor must be diligent in the way he handles all of these. If there is rough transition from one thing to the next it will take peoples focus and attention away from God. The entire service must be in an atmosphere of worship. The pastor needs to be able to go from a call to worship to announcements without making the congregation lose focus. The way an entire service is handled is crucial. Derek Prime and Alistair Begg write, “A completely unstructured form of public worship is no more guaranteed to be guided by the Holy Spirit than a structured one.” One thing we must know is that the Holy Spirit plays the central role in any service of worship. As the quote stated a service could be just as Holy Spirit led when it is structured. Many see it irresponsible to try to lead people into God’s presence without any planning or structure.

Now depending on your location, neighborhood, size of your church, the people in your church, and your own personal preference the number and style of your worship services will differ. When it comes to multiple services you must look at the preference and ages of your congregations. Some churches find one Sunday morning and one Sunday afternoon service best, but most have multiple services in the morning. Saturday night services are also becoming popular, but again this depends on your own congregation and personal preference. As John Bisagno puts it, “This is an issue you will never side step.” What he is talking about here is the preference of traditional or contemporary services. No matter what church you go to this will be a topic. A wise pastor will not choose one and rid the other. For this is a huge risk of loosing most of your older congregation or loosing most of your younger congregation. Most churches are finding good balance in either one traditional and one contemporary service or a blended service. A pastor must delegate this wisely so he doesn’t offend half of his congregation because of his own preference, or his wife’s. Dramas and skits are also topics in churches right now. Bisagno thinks they are some of the best tools for outreach purposes. Yet, there are churches, usually reformed, which feel that dramas and skits have no business in church.

As you can see there is a lot for a pastor to delegate when it comes to leading the church in God-centered worship. He must take all of these things into account when trying to create the right atmosphere in the church. The atmosphere of a church is different in every church. As long as the atmosphere is God-centered than there isn’t a problem. The pastor has a huge responsibility in leading his congregation in an attitude of worship and having his congregation worship with all that they have.