Pastors, We Need To Stop Expecting Worship Leaders To Do Our Job For Us

There are two interesting, but conflicting conversations happening among church leaders right now. Especially, but not exclusively, on social media. On the one hand, people are decrying the supposed shallowness of today's worship songs. On the other hand, there's a push to keep sermons under 20 minutes long. It's not always the same people saying both of those things, but I have noticed a surprising amount of overlap. Does anyone else see the irony here? At the same time that many are encouraging shorter sermons, we're also wanting deep theology from three-minute songs. Pastors, if the theology being presented in our churches isn't deep enough, it's not the worship leader's responsibility to make it deeper. That's our job, our calling and our mandate. A mandate that can't always be done in 20 minutes or less.

July 23, 2017

by Karl Vaters

On the one hand, people are decrying the supposed shallowness of today’s worship songs. On the other hand, there’s a push to keep sermons under 20 minutes long.

At the same time that many are encouraging shorter sermons, we’re also wanting deep theology from three-minute songs.

Pastors, if the theology being presented in our churches isn’t deep enough, it’s not the worship leader’s responsibility to make it deeper. That’s our job, our calling and our mandate.

A mandate that can’t always be done in 20 minutes or less.

Author

Karl Vaters

Karl produces resources for Helping Small Churches Thrive at KarlVaters.com.
He's the author of five books on church leadership, including his newest, De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What's Next. His other books include The Grasshopper Myth and Small Church Essentials.
Karl also hosts a bi-weekly podcast,The Church Lobby: Conversations on Faith & Ministry, featuring in-depth interviews about topics that concern pastors, especially those who minister in a small church context.
Karl has served in small-church ministry for over 40 years, so he speaks and writes from decades of hands-on pastoral experience. He and his wife, Shelley have three children and two grandkids.

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