Jason Hatley, founder of Worship Leader Insights, continues his guest blogging series today:

Now that you’ve identified where you are from yesterday’s post, let’s dive into how to get to the place you want to be in the Pastor/Worship Pastor planning relationship.

There are 4 Steps to Active Engagement.  We will cover the first two today.

Step #1 – Commitment: the first step to Active Engagement is commitment.  Commitment (when it comes to the Pastor/Worship Pastor planning relationship) is the sum of Trust and Flexibility.  (C = T+F)

Do I trust this person enough to receive their ideas?  Am I flexible enough to lay my ideas aside and go with their idea?

In an Actively Engaged relationship, there is give and take on both sides.  If the message needs more time, I am willing to cut a song.  If there is a creative element that will really highlight the theme of the day, the Pastor is willing to make room for it in his message, and even teach in a way that sets it up.

This is just one aspect of the Trust+Flexibility equation, but this can be applied to almost any decision making process in the church.

Step #2 – Clarify Roles:  In his book, The Performance Factor, Pat MacMillan states, “You must have role clarity, or you will have role confusion.”

Understanding the role that each of you play in the relationship is paramount, because the understanding of each others roles shapes your expectations of one another.

In The Journey’s worship planning process, Nelson’s role is leading the teaching team which sets the direction for the day.  My role is leading our creative team to work hand in hand with our teaching team to produce creative elements that will enhance the main theme.  I also lead the worship planning meetings (more on that tomorrow!).

Because I know what to expect from Nelson, and he knows what to expect from me, there is no tension over misplaced expectations or lack of clarity.

In tomorrow’s post, I will discuss the final two steps to an Actively Engaged Pastor/Worship Pastor relationship.

Jason

PS:  Check out the Free Webinar I am doing for Worship Leaders on Thursday, October 30.  Learn how to overcome the Top 3 challenges that every worship leader faces in this 2-hour event.  For more infom or to register, visit www.WorshipLeaderInsights.com/events.

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