The Role of a Pastor in Worship
Forward	What is a pastor's role in worship? The pastor takes what he has received personally before God, and translates and transfers that to the people. However, in a Church setting, worship is a corporate thing. We cannot flow in the Spirit by depending upon someone else's getting-in-touch with God; it is the responsibility of the believer to prepare their hearts (in daily worship and in prayer) for the Sunday service. There is often a prophetic quality that the Holy Spirit brings when His people worship Him in complete abandonment. Thus, it is important for the pastor to safeguard not only the arrived manifest presence of God, but that the worship service flow with His Spirit's leading!
Index	Giving God Our Best The Role of the Pastor
Giving God Our Best	Our motivation of giving God the very best is paramount for worship to be successful. Let's examine Malachi 1:6-8. 6. A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? 7. Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. 8. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts. Here, the people brought blemished animals (imperfect sacrifices) to the Lord that cost them nothing. Here, God is addressing his people in saying that they were giving their half or leftover strength to Him. Well, why not give it to your governor. Would he accept it? No way, and why should God have to settle for our leftovers?
The Role of the Pastor	Quality Control. It's important not to repeat things that you observe were done well, otherwise sensitivity is lost. It might have been a great song last Sunday, or the way a particular person or the choir sang a song. If we artificially repeat things, the anointing may be lost. God's character may be constant, but His moving by His Spirit is dynamic. Worship should not be the "ice-breaker" - not the preliminaries. It is helpful to prepare through pre-prayer before a service starts, to break up our "fallowed ground" and to till the hardened soil in our hearts. But why wait till last-minute on Sundays when coming before the Lord should be a daily experience, Monday through Saturday? The safest way of operating in the gifts of the Spirit is true worship (not praise). True worship comes when there is a vulnerability, a brokeness, a heart that abandons all self-centeredness and completely thirsts after God. When this happens, and when the gifts operate, there is no "superstar syndrome", no hero worship, no spotlights on people. Our goal is to minimize personality demonstration and to maximize the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and our focus upon Him! Continuity. The pastor and the worship leader need to focus on the same thing. There can be no room for two agendas, otherwise pride, control and manipulation can set in and do damage. There can't be two differing messages, otherwise if a trumpet gives an uncertain sound - as the Bible says - the people can't prepare for battle. Worship is the focal point. Don't worship the worship, it's methodologies, the styles of music used, the techniques employed - but offer it and raise it up to God. Don't let it be an exercise of pride! The performers must not be the focus (they should actively not draw attention to themselves, and nor should those giving prophetic words or songs). There must not try being show-people because if their lifestyles are off, they are the most visible people in the church. Promoting a person to the ministry platform too soon - especailly an artist/musician - can hurt them if they are not a good example. The pastor might have to pull people with double lifestyles off the platform for a season so that they can purify themselves before the Lord. Maintain a balance between spontinaety and order. Form and Force. You need them both. The idea is like a human skeleton (order, structure) and the organs and flesh (life) that it supports. If you only have order and no life, it's like a skeleton just standing there, symbolizing death. If you have only life but no order, you're just a blob of flesh on the ground. There needs to be a balance of the backbone of order from which life and spontinaety proceeds. Maintain a sense of awe and majesty without creating a far-off perspective of deity. We mustn't lose our reverence of the Master - Lord Jesus. Yet, the Lord must not be depicted as being so far off that He cannot be reached. You get what you preach. Preach the whole counsel of God! Create an atmosphere of Christ-centered simplicity, not sophisticated man-centered spectatorship. The contrast is akin to lifestyle worship versus performance worship. We don't "do" the worship. We are worshipers! Worship paves the way for the miraculous to happen. Because you get in touch with God, this causes the Word to be incarnated, so to speak. You m ove from ritualism to reality! God's intention is to move in such a way that it is not boring but has variety and spontinaety and diversity - a diversity that is God-inspired and God-anointed, not by Man's created programs!