JD Greear says we need to develop the attitude of Christ, who used his position of leadership to wash feet, not to command respect.

I recently spent some time with long-time pastor Steve Stroope, who’s been in the ministry now for forty years. We talked a lot about what he felt was critical to building a strong church. As he put it, pastors need to see themselves as theservants of the people in their ministries. We need to develop the attitude of Christ, who used his position of leadership to wash feet, not to command respect. And one of the key ways we can do this as a church, Stroope says, is topay our volunteers.

When we thinking of getting paid, we immediately think of cash. But Stroope pointed out that we don’t have to give out money to give people something of great value. It takes some thought, but it’s worth our time to figure out what replenishes our volunteers. After all, if we aren’t paying them, then we’repunishing them.

Stroope gives nine ways to pay your volunteers:[1]

1. Praise

Praise can come in two forms—public or private. The public stuff, done sincerely and in moderation, is vital. So thank specific people publicly or give them shout outs for a job well done. And get creative: if you’re writing books or posting on Twitter, that’s just as public as when you stand in the pulpit.

Private praise is just as important—and for many people, much more important. Many people are uncomfortable with public praise, but no one dislikes a personal pat on the back. So write a letter of gratitude. Give them a call to let them know you see their hard work. It doesn’t take much time for you, but it just might be the highlight of their week.

2. Special access to you

Like it or not, if you’re in the ministry, your volunteers think you’re important. So don’t treat them like a burden. When they call you or email you, respond quickly. It affirms them and reminds them that you don’t think of them like a stranger. In short, be their pastor. After all, Jesus didn’t have financial wealth to spread around, but he gave special access to twelve specific men. What greater wealth could we hope for?

3. Allow them to give input

This isn’t just a way of paying your volunteers. It’s also just a smart strategy. Your volunteers have the most on-the-ground data available. So even if you think you have a handle on the ministry, they can offer unique and invaluable insight. Ask questions and listen. Even if you don’t follow every suggestion they give you, simply being heard goes a long way.

4. More responsibility – i.e. “promotion”

On the face of it, you might think that giving a volunteer more to do was cruel. They aren’t getting paid—why make them do more for nothing? But think about it from their perspective: would you rather fill the same role forever, or have your talents recognized? Wouldn’t you be happier if someone saw your leadership and said, “Hey, I think you might be capable of much more.” Giving away opportunities isn’t a sign of poor leadership. It’s just the opposite: insecure leaders hoard every responsibility, leading to burnout; but strong leaders create more leaders.

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Jeremy Armstrong says it’s something every leader must learn to deal with:

I don’t know of anyone who loves conflict, but it’s something every leader must learn to deal with. Your case may prove challenging because it sounds like you might be conflict averse—that you’d rather avoid problems than aggressively seek to resolve them. Leaders who are conflict averse tend to gloss over messy issues, wish them away, or withdraw. Meanwhile, team morale erodes and unity unravels, so it doesn’t serve you well to sweep those sticky matters under the rug.

In my younger days, conflict used to paralyze me. I would lose sleep over the least bit of friction within my ministry. I even took it personally, assuming that any semblance of conflict casts a bad reflection on my leadership. I’ve since learned that every ministry has its issues. The question is whether I, as the leader, rise up to do something about it or not.

Be Proactive
In 1 Chronicles 28:20, an aging King David exhorts his son, Solomon, to proactive leadership: “Be strong and courageous, and act” (NASB). The ESV translates that last part, “Do it,” and the NIV reads, “Do the work.” No matter the translation, the language is assertive. It’s as if David is saying, “Solomon, you’re the leader. Do something about those pesky problems.” In the same way, I urge you to be proactive. Don’t wait for problems to go away or solve themselves. If you care about your ministry and your people (which I’m sure you do), then take action. Assert leadership.

Firmly, But Lovingly
Ephesians 4:31 instructs us to put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice. Good advice when you’re just about to confront someone. Leave your anger behind. Don’t use an accusatory, harsh, or vindictive tone. Be humble and speak lovingly to those involved.

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Matt Boswell is concerned that omitting older hymns in our gatherings silences the rich voices of church history.

When I mention historic hymns, maybe you cringe as you recall a “worship war” in your local church. Maybe you’re eager to only sing the old hymns. Or maybe you wonder why it is important at all. My aim is not to renew local church disputes or bolster mere sentimentality, but to commend something else altogether — to encourage younger churches to remember their history by joining with the countless men and women who have shared these songs over hundreds of years.

Our society is fixated on what’s new and what’s next, but hymns remind us that what’s next is not always what’s best. Singing the historic hymns of our faith reminds our congregations that we are not the first generation who have wrestled and prayed, asked and believed. We are not the first to write hymns of praise to God. We walk gladly in the footsteps of our fathers who have written praises to Christ that have stood the test of time.

With a steady diet of merely new choruses, we can develop both modern idolatry and historical amnesia. Perhaps we should adopt this paraphrase of C.S. Lewis? Sing at least one old hymn to every three new ones.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him all creatures here below,
Praise him above ye heavenly hosts,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
–Thomas Ken, 1674

Hymns Teach Us

Hymns are portable sermons that articulate, exegete, and pronounce biblical truths. They shape the way we view God, man, Christ, and how we are to live in light of the gospel. The truths they communicate preach to us throughout the week following the style of Deuteronomy 6 — at home and away, when lying down and waking. As R.W. Dale famously said, “Let me write the hymns of the church and I care not who writes the theology.”

Singing is a form of teaching that uses poetry to open to us the word of God. When Isaac Watts published Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, his intention was not to sing Scripture line by line, but to create poetic and emotive renditions of Scripture that enabled the church to sing the truths of Scripture.

Singing for the Christian is formative and responsive, and therefore must be informed by Scripture. We learn what we sing.

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.
–Samuel Stone, 1886

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Robb Redman helps worship leaders avoid ministry burnout:

Not long ago I attended a workshop taught by a veteran contemporary worship leader, in his current position for twelve years. At one point he mentioned that several other worship leaders began their ministries at about the same time as he did. Painfully he recounted how one after another dropped out of ministry due to extra-marital affairs, divorces, burnout, or an inability to lead and manage effectively. Of the several he began with, only two were still in their positions.

Few worship leaders think their current job will be a short-term ministry or that their careers will be a series of brief stints marked by crisis, conflict and burnout. Yet this pattern is increasingly common. Why is this happening?

The chief reason for the alarming burnout rate among worship leaders has to do with the lack of adequate training. They are simply not prepared to lead effectively in the complex and demanding environment of the evolving 21st century church. The lack of training, support and networking among worship leaders is taking its toll. For every successful worship leader there are several others with stories of pain, heartache and disappointment. Many of the best and most talented are collapsing under the load of unfulfilled expectations from their churches, pastors, teams, families, and most of all, from themselves. The sad truth is that many worship leaders are having to learn on the job, and the lessons aren’t being learned fast enough. As a result the average tenure of contemporary worship leaders is alarmingly brief.

In the space available here we can only hope to scratch the surface of how worship leaders can be better equipped for effective ministry for the long haul. I believe they will need to become intentional life-long learners, that is, men and women who seek actively to grow in four main areas: spiritual formation, musicianship, theological depth and ministry leadership.

1. Spiritual Formation
“The secret of being an effective worship leader,” says veteran worship leader Monty Kelso, “begins with having the heart of a worshiper.” Worship leaders are “lead worshipers,” as pastor and author John Piper calls them, who lead while worshiping, not instead of worshiping. Yet the difficulties and demands of ministry often leave worship leaders with little or no extra time for personal worship and the care of their own souls. Are worship leaders too busy to worship? Eugene Peterson observes that the term “busy pastor” is an oxymoron. Busyness is not an indication of effectiveness, but rather a product of our own vanity and laziness (The Contemplative Pastor). On the one hand,we keep ourselves busy because we want to believe we are important. “The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands on my time are proof to myself – and to all who will notice – that I am important.”

On the other hand, our busyness is often the result of allowing others to dictate our agendas. “It was a favorite theme of C.S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard,” continues Peterson. “By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone.”

Bruce Larson (qualify him as source) calls worship “wasting time in God’s presence.” From a human point of view worship doesn’t accomplish anything. A cartoon I saw recently in Leadership sums it up nicely. The church secretary motions for a parishioner to enter the pastor’s office saying, “Pastor isn’t doing anything, he’s just praying.” From God’s perspective, however, worship is the highest form of ministry. Worship and prayer are the work of ministry, not distractions from it. It is true that ministry activities can be worship, but they are not automatically so any more than sitting around doing nothing is meditation.

So how can we prepare for the long haul of ministry? Here are some basic steps to learning the care of your soul:

* Set aside a regular time for personal worship. Find a place where you can be alone without distractions or interruptions. Listen to worship music and sing along. Or take a walk and be silent. Meditate on scripture, such as the Psalms, and let the words and images of the Bible become the content of your praise and prayer. Many evangelicals are discovering the richness of the “liturgical” traditions, such as the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer, which is agold mine for personal worship.

* Be accountable to someone else for your spiritual growth. We need to be in a small group or have a spiritual director. This may rub many of us Protestants the wrong way, but I believe we have misunderstood Luther’s insight about the priesthood of all believers. He did not mean that there are no longer any priests, he meant we are all priests to one another. We do not need the mediation of any priest other than the High Priest Jesus Christ in order to have an authentic encounter with God, but our brothers and sisters may minister to us powerfully by keeping us accountable and focused as we grow deeper in our life with God.

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Musings on whether to quit or not to quit:

I suppose every person in ministry is strongly tempted to quit from time to time. Not quit as in “send out a resume, start looking for a job” quit, but “walk out today” quit.

I’ve got a pastor friend who fought with his church for most of two decades about fundamental decisions about the church’s future. No one paid much attention, and one Sunday he preached what was on his heart (as we say in Southern Baptist land), closed his Bible and walked out the center aisle, out the front door, never to come back to that pulpit. He never regretted it, and he was satisfied he’d done the right thing.

I tend to believe he did, but most of the time I’ve entertained that same fantasy, I can’t say it would have been the right thing to do. I’ve known several ministers who quit on the spot (or close enough to it that it felt the same.) I can’t say they were doing the right thing.

One pastor I worked with for several years got into a tug-of-war with his worship leader over choosing hymns. The pastor wanted to choose them. The worship leader felt it was his job. The deacons asked the pastor to work with the worship leader. Instead, the pastor resigned. I’m pretty sure that was just stubbornness and pity. “I’ll show them what happens when you don’t support me,” he was probably thinking.

For every Christian who quits a responsibility on the spot, there’s probably two that should have quit long ago. I don’t hold it against them at all. But I’m distressed about those Christians who are seduced by the allure of trading a good name for the momentary power over others available to the person who quits on the spot.

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