What’s in this Episode?

In this episode of the Church Tips Podcast, Jeff Deyo (former lead singer of Sonicflood) gives us insight into the nitty gritty life of a worship pastor.

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Show Notes:

Be notified when the Worship Leadership Track by Jeff Deyo is live!
http://leaders.church/worship

PDF’s:
The Pastors Guide to Navigating Generational and Cultural Worship Gaps
The Worship Pastors Guide to Honoring The Lead Pastor

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Read the Transcript

Jonathan Hardy 0:06
Hey friends, it’s great to be with you on this Church Tips Podcast. We are so excited today to be able to talk about the nitty gritty of the worship pastor life. Now, if you’re a worship pastor, I mean, you’re gonna listen to this and say, This is the life I’m in.

Dick Hardy 0:21
Now, actually, we’ve got so much content in this, that we’ve broken this into two podcasts. So this is part one, and then part two will come come across next. But anyway, tell us a little bit about this.

Jonathan Hardy 0:31
Well, and I want to mention too, even if you’re not a worship pastor, but maybe your lead pastor, or another ministry leader of some sort, this would be about beneficial both for the lead pastor, and it’d be beneficial to get into the hands of your worship pastor.

Jonathan Hardy 0:45
So be sure to share this with them, if it doesn’t directly apply to your role, but you can pass it along. Because we want to help the worship ministry to really go to that next level. And that’s why we’re going to be really focusing on that. And that’s why, as you’ve probably heard us talk about, there’s this course coming out that we’re getting ready to release on worship ministry, because we want to help churches go to that next level.

Jonathan Hardy 1:08
Because as you know, you can read the stats, people are making decisions about whether they’re going to come back to a church, before the sermon even comes.

Dick Hardy 1:08
Before you even preach.

Jonathan Hardy 1:16
Exactly. And so those first several minutes into a church service is the determining factor for people. And so that’s why it’s so important for us, as church leaders is to get this worship ministry as solid as possible. Because like it or not, people are making decisions visitors are coming in, they’re making decisions as to whether they’re coming back simply on those first few minutes of the worship service experience. And that’s most often the musical worship component of the service.

Jonathan Hardy 1:46
And so we’re going to be highlighting today, the first three of the six components that relate to the nitty gritty of the worship pastor life. And so our presenter for the Worship Leadership Course that’s coming up is Jeff Deyo.

Jonathan Hardy 2:02
And Jeff is the one that’s going to be sharing in this particular video if you’re watching or if you’re listening. So we’re going to just cut to that here in just a moment. And then we’ll come back and share some additional thoughts as it relates to the stuff that he said. So without further ado, let’s cut to Jeff.

Jeff Deyo 2:20
Well, number one, you will need to enlarge your capacity to organize and schedule. It’s so ironic, right? Because, you know, we think of us creative types. And you know, we’re just free spirits. And we’re just doing whatever we can do, you know, we just want to worship the Lord.

Jeff Deyo 2:38
But then you have this worship pastor worship leader role in a church. And it requires scheduling, and organizing, and all that stuff that we just love so much. Now, I am a little bit of A type personality, so I’m kind of a strange musician in that I do love organization and preparation and schedules and all that stuff, too.

Jeff Deyo 3:01
But probably many of you watching this, that’s not your natural go to. So I want to try to help you process some of these things. Obviously, you know that you’re going to have to deal with some schedules with office hours. Many churches, of course, are asking you to come in regular office hours, which, you know, as a free spirit is someone who might just, you know, be loved to be creative, that might not be a norm for you. But that certainly is going to be something that you’re going to have to deal with.

Jeff Deyo 3:27
And of course, you’re gonna have deadlines. Heaven forbid, right? When it comes to songwriting, and there’s no deadlines, you just write it forever, right? When you worship the Lord, there’s no deadline. Well, there’s going to be deadlines, right? There’s going to be event planning, there’s going to be content creation, all those types of things you’re going to be expected to produce on a timeline at a church. So you have to kind of ready yourself for that.

Jeff Deyo 3:49
Of course, there’s going to be tons of meetings that you have to go to; our favorite thing, right? But hey, this think of this as an opportunity to have community. To be with people, to brainstorm together, iron sharpens iron, all that stuff. You’re going to have your Monday service review, you’re going to have your production meeting, you’re going to have your Thursday staff meeting, or whatever it is, whenever it is. And so you want to lean into those things, of course not dread them, but lean into them as an opportunity to build relationships.

Jeff Deyo 4:16
And of course, you’re gonna have to deal with budgets, right? You have to keep receipts, oh, heaven forbid, all those receipts on the bottom of your car floor. Right, you’re gonna have to organize those and bring those together and turn those in. And you have to do some planning ahead. With your budgets, you’re gonna have to even you know, vie for your department, you’re gonna have to maybe just sell the ideas that God’s put in your heart so that we can add those things to the budget. You’re gonna have to learn how to do that.

Jeff Deyo 4:44
And then you’re gonna have to, of course deal with administration stuff. You know, there’s rarely a creative arts admin in most churches. If you do have one that’s probably a luxury, but even still, you’re going to be involved in all kinds of things, from emails, to texts, to handling Planning Center Online, data entry computer stuff, all these things. So you’re gonna have to get used to all of that organization. So of course, there’s many more things that are part of that. But that’s the first step in growing as a worship leader.

Jeff Deyo 5:16
Number two, you’re going to need to excel in the area of time management. This one really just leapfrogs over this other one here. We’re going to have to organize, but organize with our time. And this may be something that you are used to, or that you aren’t used to, but you’re going to have to prioritize your To Do lists. You’re like, what To Do list, I don’t even have a to do list, I just kind of do it as it comes to me.

Jeff Deyo 5:41
Well, that’s gonna have to change, right? You’re gonna have to get it to do list, I usually put mine in my phone. But then I also have reminders. And I have a to do list that I have on my desk of maybe some long term things, some short term things, try to categorize what I’ve got to do. But we’ve got to learn to prioritize as well, right, not just do the things that we want to do, we’ve got to do some of the things that we don’t want to do and get those over with.

Jeff Deyo 6:05
The way I look at it is one way you can do this is you can get something done that maybe you don’t look forward to doing and then reward yourself with something that is on your to do list, that you do look forward to doing. Don’t do all the ones that you love doing, and then save all the ones you don’t love doing for later. You’re also going to need to discipline yourself right, in ways maybe you haven’t done in the past, you’re going to have to discipline yourself to get things done. You’re going to have to discipline yourself to look and see what needs to be done.

Jeff Deyo 6:34
You’re also going to have to learn to problem solve, right? You’re going to be given tasks by your pastor, by other people. Hey, can you handle this? Can you take care of this? And you’re gonna have to learn how to problem solve. And that’s going to also require you to ask for some advice. Don’t try to fix it all by yourself. Utilize the people around you. They’re going to help you and they’re going to help you in this area of time management, right?

Jeff Deyo 6:59
I’m going to encourage you to be faithful, don’t cut corners or attempt to get away with less office time. Let’s see how little I can do. Let’s see how much I can get away with, you know. Be careful though, at the same time, not to overwork as well, like trying to prove yourself. Like I’m gonna be here 10 hours longer than I need to be or whatever, no, just do what is needed and be faithful. Alright.

Jeff Deyo 7:24
Number three, you’re also going to find yourself leading ministries, believe it or not, that you didn’t sign up for. Like, woah, there’s a revelation, right? You just thought you were coming to sing and lead worship? Well, there’s so much more to this.

Jeff Deyo 7:39
I know many worship pastors who have multiple roles in their churches, right? They might be overseeing the prayer and altar ministry, they might be overseeing the video and website creation, they might be overseeing the production team, they might be overseeing the marketing team or they might be a campus pastor at the same time as being a worship pastor. They might even be overseeing or participating in marriage and ministry, counseling, and so much more.

Jeff Deyo 8:07
So you do have to prepare yourself that there are going to be multiple roles, typically what can happen, right, is somebody leaves or decides that they’re called somewhere else. And then they ask you, Hey, can you fill in this role, you know? And sometimes you need to stick to your guns and see if there’s a way for someone else to handle that. Other times, God’s gonna call you to those things for a season. But either way, you’re going to be a lifelong learner. Because you may not have gone to school to do all these things, you may not have learned about how to do it all, but you’re going to learn on the fly and God’s going to help you with that.

Dick Hardy 8:40
Hey, was that great stuff or not? Man, we really appreciate what Jeff has done in putting together the nitty gritty of the worship pastors life.

Dick Hardy 8:48
Let me do a recap here. The three things he talked about that really need to be a focus for the worship pastor, are number one, you’ll need to enlarge your capacity to organize and schedule. Number two, you’ll need to excel in the area of time management. And number three, you’re going to find yourself leading ministries you didn’t sign up for it. Those three are very, very real in the life of the worship pastor.

Jonathan Hardy 9:12
You know, it’s interesting, just as you watch that video or listen to it, how so often when you think about the worship ministry, I mean, we all have the dream of, you know, a full auditorium or sanctuary of people just worshiping God and entering into His presence and, and yet, you know, as Jeff talks about, there’s a whole lot of the behind the scenes stuff that has to happen if you’re ever going to get to that point. And so I just really appreciate the candidness with which He spoke on all these things.

Dick Hardy 9:39
I loved him talking about picking up the receipts off the floor of the car. That is so real for so many people.

Jonathan Hardy 9:46
Yeah. You know, actually I keep my receipts in my my side door, the little pocket there.

Dick Hardy 9:50
Hey, you’re organized.

Jonathan Hardy 9:52
But I bring them in eventually.

Dick Hardy 9:53
You’re organized, but I’m even more organized. Our wives both refer to us as receipts Nazis. But hey, but you know, really going forward here. A couple of things that we want to be sure to mention to you.

Dick Hardy 10:07
We have created a lead magnet, Jeff Deyo crafted this on The Worship Pastors Guide to Honoring their Lead Pastor. And it really is talking about partnering with the lead pastor, serving the lead pastor, and really helping the lead pastor be successful at what he or she does. And this lead magnet you’ll see it in the show notes, just go to Leaders.Church/Honor. And you’ll be able to get that free PDF download. It’s about I don’t know, what is that about 9-10 pages, something like that. Very simple, very simple to read and go through. But we want to make that available to you as part of the entire Worship Leadership Course that’s coming out here in just a few days.

Jonathan Hardy 10:52
Yeah, and I would mention on that, that if you’re a lead pastor watching or listening to this, this PDF that Dick’s talking about is very applicable. Would even be something good to sit down together, and just process with your worship pastor or worship director.

Jonathan Hardy 11:05
And if you are one who leads worship, be sure to grab a copy of this because so often, we can have this relationship with the lead pastor. And yet at times, there can be some tension. And I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced that. But it can happen because we’re wired differently. And that’s why worship pastors are gifted at leading worship, because they’re wired differently than the one who’s leading…

Dick Hardy 11:27
Preaching the Word.

Jonathan Hardy 11:28
Exactly. And so I would encourage you to do that go to Leaders.Church/Honor, it’s a free PDF, you can get that. And then in the next session, we’re going to be picking up where we left off here with Jeff talking about the next three components or points of the nitty gritty of the worship pastor’s life that I think is going to be really, really helpful for you.

Dick Hardy 11:49
Yep, you’re exactly right, Jonathan, Again, if you’re watching this or listening to this, please look forward to part two of The Nitty Gritty of the Worship Pastor’s Life. Hope you enjoy it. Be blessed.

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