From Lynette Brown serving in Paducah, KY
QUESTION: Pride?
How do you keep the worship team members from becoming "proud" of their spot?
RICK MUCHOW:
This is a common issue for the typical personality type for the person on the stage. Most people struggle with pride. Pride is a mark of spiritual immaturity and something that must be managed intentionally for the rest of our lives.
The mark of an immature thinking Christian is one who is thinking about him or herself. The mark of maturity is thinking of others. In order for talent to be effective in the church, a person needs to be growing spiritually. As we mature spiritually, we think more about others and less about ourselves. Let's face it none of us have arrived in this area. Becoming like Christ is a lifelong goal. We all have room to grow in this area. Speaking and singing pastors need to mature our teams and grow them to become more like Christ. This growth is not going to happen by accident.
It's important not to attack the symptoms of a situation, but to lovingly nurture the whole person so that their pride and ego is addressed by the Holy Spirit through the renewing of their mind. We need to help others to change their autopilot. Without God, our autopilot says that we should be the focus of the attention. When we change our autopilot to God as the focus of the attention, then worship is not about us. It is for God's benefit, as our very lives should be for His benefit. This is the journey of Christian maturity. (See Chapter 18 in Rick Warren's Purpose-Driven© Life.)
It shouldn't be surprising that we have prideful attitudes out of synch with God's purposes. The Bible is clear that "the human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9 NLT) and that we fight and quarrel because of "the whole army of evil desires at war within." (James 4:1b NLT.) As leaders, in our approach we must remember we "are not a judge who can decide whether the law is right or wrong. Your job is to obey it. God alone, who made the law, can rightly judge among us. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to condemn your neighbor?" (James 4 11c-12 NLT.)
Our job is not to judge, but to nurture, to pray and to love. In every rehearsal, cast vision. Remind the team why we do what we do. It's about Him. Ask the team for practical ways we can express that principle. Do not allow prideful actions, attitudes or words to occur without dealing with them directly, quickly, and lovingly with the specific person. Gently say "It looks like…" or "It appears to me that…" There are some things that are just not appropriate on the platform or off, and these may need a formal comment to the individual or the group. To be effective in this, the group needs to be surrounded with affirmation from the director/minister so that when there is a need for an exhortation, it is taken seriously.
