We recently hosted the WorshipGod09 conference at Covenant Life Church. The conference was once again planned and led with great care and effectiveness by my good friend Bob Kauflin.

At the conference, Bob asked me to participate in a Q+A with him and to answer questions from Jeff Purswell on the relationship between the pastor and his worship leader. Bob and I have served together for many years, and it was a great opportunity to honor my friend and relive memories (both the successes and failures). You can hear the audio recording of the session here.

The questions allowed us to explore many areas related to worship. One of the questions was on this topic:

What role do tuneless senior pastors play in the direction of corporate worship?

As a pastor with limited or no musical gifting myself, I can speak for the tuneless pastor. The whole area of corporate worship can be very intimidating for a pastor with little musical gifting. And it can be easy to defer leadership of the corporate worship to the more gifted musicians.

But actually, I argued that a senior pastor plays a very important and strategic role regardless of his musical gifting (or in my case, lack thereof). And the reason for this is very simple: Corporate worship in the church is not music driven, it’s theology driven. Musical skill and style are both important, but they are clearly of secondary importance. The priority in corporate worship is the theological content of the songs.

Emphasizing the theological accuracy of the songs is not only the right ordering of priorities. It also reminds the pastor/pastoral team that he/they play an important role in determining the content and direction of the worship ministry in general, and corporate worship on a Sunday morning in particular.

Even tuneless pastors cannot delegate this responsibility.

In the conference interview, Bob and I talk about how we have worked together over the years in planning and leading corporate worship.