Three Tools for Worship Ministry
The daily race to use every minute of the day to maximum efficiency can be exhausting and counterproductive. We have a desire to experience as much as possible, absorb as much as possible, and influence as much as possible. At the same time, we want to have a thoroughly fulfilling family life and rich and varied leisure time. While many of these goals may not be realistic, it is certainly understanding that we would want to make the most productive use of our time, whenever we are at work or at home.
For ministry life, I have found that there are three fundamental tools which are critical to achieving progress in becoming more efficient. Success in this area of life, is not judged by what time is freed up, but by the opportunity it provides to better serve God, our church, and the musicians we work with each week. As a music pastor, I have responsibilities to the people I serve, as well as the duty to prepare music for the weekly worship services of the church. We value the time our musicians dedicate in service, and we also have a high standard for the music we offer in worship, therefore anything that makes me more productive is a welcome help to make us more successful at our goals.
The first tool is not new, but is something I use every day of the week. Planning Center is a website that was launched in 2006. Originally just a utility for service order planning and scheduling of volunteers, the suite of products for churches now includes everything from registration and check-in platforms, to giving and data management. For me, Planning Center is primarily our digital musical library and the hub of resources for our six campuses. It allows me to view service orders created by each of our worship leaders in one place, and gives us shared access to charts and the musicians who are available to serve. The ability to search by assigned categories is robust, and connecting to volunteers for ministry assignments is very simple. Coordination is greatly enhanced between the various teams that serve in the weekend services as well. Everyone from the tech teams to the ushers are better informed and feel valued by the extra layer of communication we can provide through Planning Center. Access is available for a monthly subscription fee and more information can be found at planningcenteronline.com.
The second tool is also a website, but again this site, biblegateway.com, is a daily reference point for me. Bible Gateway is not just an easily accessible Bible database, but an incredible tool for study, devotion and inspiration. There are dozens of devotional resources, audio Bibles and daily readings. The searchable features are user friendly and can save hours of time in cross referencing when preparing messages or notes for Bible studies. For forty dollars a year, Bible Gateway Plus allows you to write & store notes as you read Scripture and sync your notes across all your devices. Although the paid subscription allows access to many more features, the free portal is still very useful and gives access to writings from authors such as C.S. Lewis, John Piper and A.W. Tozer.
The last tool I want to share is the most important of all. It is the book Replenish by Lance Witt. Although it might seem counterintuitive, this book helps to make you more productive by what you don’t do. In this case, the “don’t” is don’t neglect the care of your soul. In our drive to do more, at a higher level, and at a faster pace, we can often slip into the trap of working in our own strength at the peril of all we seek to accomplish. A leader who is demonstrating “success” in their public life, while their private life is in shambles is really no success at all. Lance Witt discusses various pit-falls of life in ministry and gives practice and sensible recalibration for keeping our hearts centered on Christ and demonstrating leadership from a healthy soul. When we remember that the glory of God is the goal, and that we get to be partakers in the ministry He accomplishes, we will be more ready to get out of the way and remove ourselves for any notion of a successful outcome. As Witt writes, “There should never be anything blocking the bride’s view of the Groom’s glory. My constant challenge as a leader in the church is to get myself out of the way so that the bride will be awestruck by the incomparable majesty of her Groom.”
