Yesterday, I talked about what I look for in a church production staff person when I am hiring. Today, I’ll give the very short version of what I look for in a worship leader. I wrote that I look for 1] Attitude, 2] Volunteer Leadership Skills, 3] Good Interpersonal Interactions and a 4] Good Skillset in production staff. Those are all things I look for in worship pastors, as well.
However, there are two additional traits that I need in all church staff – but ESPECIALLY Worship Pastors. The top trait is integrity. This is a very visible position in the church, and a person lacking in integrity can cause some real damage. Sometimes I have seen churches look the other way with worship staff that were clearly out of control – a lack of Christlike behavior has been chalked up to “artsiness,” and excused because of the talent of the individual. Sadly, some of the most gossipy, snarky, back-biting and straight up dishonest behavior I have seen in churches has been from worship leaders. Moral failures, affairs, etc… are all too common…
The second trait is loyalty. Senior Pastors need to be able to trust that the worship leaders are sold out to the vision of that particular church, and not trying to push their own personal agendas. If not, the worship team can quickly become a breeding ground for the aforementioned snarkiness, back-biting and the like.
The good news is that skilled and loyal worship leaders [with integrity] are out there. In fact, I think most worship leaders start that way, and can walk a good path if they don’t develop a victim mentality and use it as an excuse for their own bad behavior. It’s not easy – Lord knows that I have consistently failed in some areas in my worship leading days and beyond. But it’s what we strive for – beyond that, it’s what we are called to.
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