Recently I heard the story of a lady who worked as a volunteer in a church.  She had the keys to the kitchen.  She was the “kitchen master” you might say.  She would offer to prepare food for many church events and the kitchen was hers.

It came time for God to take her home.  As the people were gathered for the funeral, they went downstairs to enjoy refreshments and people wondered where all of the refreshements were.  After several minutes of wondering, someone finally said, “Well, this lady had the keys to the kitchen and she always provided the food.”  The people gathered realized they would need to prepare their own food.  There was only one problem.

The kitchen was locked.

My Own Journey

I used to think I understood music and worship ministry.  What I’m coming to realize more and more is that I understand music and worship technicalities. I can usually tell if a song’s going to work for our congregation, I can lead a rehearsal, I can teach someone how to vamp – blah, blah, blah.  But what I’m realizing that I absolutely need to understand is music and worship ministry.  As in – time, and a lot of it.  Time to invest in people and develop and disciple new leaders.  Time to invest in eternally significant things, not just picking a song that will be a hit for a while and we might forget in a year.

Do You Build Worship Teams, or Worship Ministry Teams?

We’re all familiar with worship teams – in fact, we probably implement them every week.  They look like this:

• Worship Leader (someone who might sing and play and instrument such as guitar or piano)
• Guitar player
• Keyboard player
• Bass player
• Drummer / percussionist
• Singers

The worship leader leads these teams, leads the congregation in worship, leads rehearsals, teaches these teams how to play together, etc.  But what happens if the worship leader dies “with the keys to the kitchen” so to speak?  The team is now left on there on trying to figure out how to lead the team, the congregation, rehearsals and more.  What we need are worship ministry teams that look like this:

• Someone in a leadership role who is mentoring people in music and worship ministry
• Multiple worship leaders who lead the congregation, teams and rehearsals.
• Creative teams to help plan worship services and pick music.
• People who are passionate about connecting people into music and worship ministry.
• People who enjoy administration and can schedule teams, input important records, etc.

Now what happens?  No one person carries the keys.  The team is thriving and continues to thrive if someone moves on.

My Mistakes – My Goal

I am guilty as charged of falling into the trap of being the “keymaster.”  Are you?  What can we do to make worship ministry teams and not just worship teams?  Would you join me in taking the time to invest in the servants in your church to build a thriving ministry, not just a group of people who rehearses and leads music during services?

Yet again, I’m going to postpone my post on discipline and exercise until tomorrow.  I was going to post it today and ignore what everyone else is posting about – but’s too important to not talk about.

You’ve more than likely heard, but for those who haven’t, Mike Guglielmucci, who wrote “Healer” which had quickly risen as a worship-song phenomenon throughout the worship leading world, and who had claimed that the song was born out of a battle with cancer was exposed yesterday morning. Various news sources revealed that he had been faking it all along.

What do we do with something like this?  The first thing my wife said when I mentioned the news to her is, “That is absolutely disgusting.”  And she’s right – but once we get past the insanity of what Mike chose to do and really wrestle with the consequences for the rest of the world as they watch this – how do we respond?

• How do we respond when the world says that Christians are no different than the rest of the world and are actually mere hypocrites?
• How do we respond to the fact that someone families put their trust in as a youth pastor devastated that trust?
• How do we respond to someone using one of the most serious diseases that cause so many people immense amounts of grief as a disguise?

We respond the way we would respond every day.  Realize we are all sinners and filthy in God’s sight without Jesus’ work on the cross.  Learn about, embrace and daily practice integrity in everything we do.  Surround ourselves with accountability on several levels – we can’t just trust our family to hold us accountable as we are completely capable of fooling even our own families.  And then respond this way:

• When the world says we’re no different – admit that they’re right. We are all messed-up sinners who need a Savior.  We all talk one way and act another many times.  Embrace humility and compassion above all else.
• Realize even more the importance of accountability within our personal lives, our family lives, our professional lives and our lives in ministry.  We must have people that hold us accountable.  And not just an occasional question here or there.  We need to be willing to be put to the grueling test – and often.
• We pray.  We realize that what he has done does not change who God is and what Christianity is all about.  And we realize that God is still the Ultimate Healer – for everything – physically and mentally.

My heart breaks for Mike – and even more so his family.  My heart breaks for the church.  But even more so – my heart yearns to apply integrity, accountability and raw honesty with unbridled passion to everything I do.  Will you do the same?

I also want to point you to a fantastic perspective and response to this situation at The Worship Community – written by Fred McKinnon.  Please read it and think deeply about what he says.