Re: [Worship] Re: Urgent song request

[Dean Thomas <deanthom@mindspring.com>]

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Pacileo wrote:

> I don't read that in the Bible as the role of the pastor.
> [being "submitted to 'the shepherd of the flock'"?]
>
> It irks me when people think that we must deify pastors.

Read a little deeper! "Submit yourselves one to another," says the 
apostle Paul. Do you need any thing more than that? No, not blind 
submission, but mutual submission. This is the same thing that many 
others have already touched on in previous posts.

This is not an issue where we have rights to get huffy, either in the 
pastor's presence or on this list. We're dead in Christ and we have NO 
rights. We are to be servants of EACH OTHER. Pastor serves me, I serve 
pastor. Pretty simple. But when it comes down to it, if we both 
servant-leaders, we have responsibilities to each other to not only make 
each other's service easier, but to tell each other when our dead 
feelings have been hurt and when the requests become impractical, 
impossible or irrational. We have a responsibility to keep each other 
informed as to our perceptions of "how we did", how we handled 
something, or if we are noticing behavior that is abnormal or just flat 
wierd. RELATIONSHIP is the word.

Relationship is a strange thing. It is not a static thing. It changes 
over time and it changes in the moment. Who's in charge? Depends on the 
situation. Pastor is usually not in charge of a worship team rehearsal. 
Not his thing. But if he walks through and notices that something 
strange is going on in the worship leader's behavior or the handling of 
a situation, relationship demands that pastor speak to the issue. 
Likewise, if the worship leader sees bad behavior or bad handling of a 
situation or feelings that are hurt when the sheep doesn't have the guts 
to say so, relationship also dictates that the WL make input into 
pastor's life so that bad attitude, bad tone of voice, improper language 
choices or whatever else that needs addressed can be seen, repented of 
and changed. That's what repentence is about. Apologies are not enough. 
Scripture talks about "fruits of repentence" (different versions treat 
this phrase differently).

Back to the issues. Expectations in a relationship are a dangerous 
thing. Ask any married person! Unreal expectations are worse. 
Expectations cannot be met unless they are voiced and agreed upon. It 
takes great humility to go to pastor and say, "Y'know, I see the value 
of the things that you asked for, and I'll do my best, but this is 
REALLY short notice during a really awkward time. Could we maybe pick 2 
of those 4? My boss was gracious about the urgency of your call, but it 
might be good for you to drop him a card and thank him for allowing the 
disruption of my work that was very important to him and his business." 
 Something like that. It's about learning grace and finding gracious 
ways to correct obvious blunders in behavior. Applause to Steve. 
Standing ovation to Steve's boss. Now it's his pastor's turn...

IMHO.
-- 
Blessings!

Dean Thomas
ZionFire
http://www.ZionFire.com
deanthom@mindspring.com