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Relationships with Congregation
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The final relationship that Pastor Jolicoeur mentions is that of the worship leader with the congregation. For certain, there are some universal dimensions to worship. No matter where you are, there are elements that are in common.
If you don’t know the people you’re leading, you won’t be able to speak into their lives.”
-Pastor Marc Jolicoeur
However, you are also leading specific people in worship. You are facilitating their worship. Jolicoeur explains that if you do not know the people you are leading, you won’t be able to speak into their lives. Unless the Lord intervenes, you will find it hard to facilitate their connection to God. If part of ministry is helping to plug in a community to the power of the Holy Spirit, it won’t work well if the plug is nowhere to be found.
In what may be a startling revelation, Pastor Jolicoeur also indicates that it can be an obstacle to worship if a congregation does not like you as a worship leader. “If they don’t like you,” he says, “they’re going to have a hard time following you.” Such a disconnect presents friction in worship between them and God.
Marc mentions Matthew 5:23-24 in this context. The passage is not talking about a situation where you have something against someone else but about when someone else has something against you. Jesus instructs his followers to be proactive in seeking reconciliation. So also Pastor Jolicoeur urges the worship leader to foster good relationships with the people he or she is leading.
There can even be a point where a worship leader – or any leader – actually has to step aside because their presence is unnecessarily hindering the proper functioning of worship and ministry. It is sobering to realize that this can happen even when the worship leader has done no wrong. It can simply be that for the greater good of a church, a leader has to step aside because he or she can no longer be effective in that congregation.
All such things call for great wisdom. An individual who is wrestling with what to do should also seek out the wise counsel of others in addition to earnestly seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit.