Top Five Friday: Worship Pastor Necessities

When I began leading worship, I had no idea what kind of tools or resources I would need to be successful. I remember writing out charts by hand and creating difficult, tedious Powerpoint presentations every time I had to do a worship set. I had no idea the kind of online resources or computer programs available to make those tasks easier. I also found myself completely ill-equipped for the difficulty of maintaining a healthy worship life once the monotony of singing the same songs begins to take its toll.Now that I've got some years under my belt, I've found a few resources and practices that are invaluable to me as a worship pastor. Here are the top five resources all worship pastors should have:1. Planning Center - Planning Center is an online miracle that let's you schedule services, store chord charts and MP3's, and send out coordinating emails to all involved. No more sending emails with too many attachments. No more flooded inboxes and counting emails to figure out who has responded about playing. Although this service does cost some money (starting at $14/month), it pays for it in time saved.2. Song Select - Before using Song Select through www.ccli.com, I would have to either chart worship songs by ear, or use a bunch of shady lyric and chart websites I found through Google. With this incredible service, I can look up almost any worship song out there and find charts submitted by the artist. Although I still will chart songs on my own from time to time, I always check Song Select first. It's also not free, but a great resource.3. Worship Presentation Software - Powerpoint might be sufficient for preparing book reports in college, but when it comes to archiving and displaying worship songs for a congregation, it really falls short. A few that I have used are ProPresenter, Easy Worship, and Media Shout. Each of these programs allow you to archive songs and scripture and then drag and drop them into a presentation. Lately, I've been using ProPresenter. It's not as user friendly as the others, but it definitely has more options.4. A Good Devotional - Ironically, being a worship pastor has made it very difficult to worship God on a consistent basis through music. I don't know if I'm alone on this, but something that has helped me connect to God (along with a consistent devotional discipline) is having a good devotional. A few of my favorites are The Valley of Vision, Morning and Evening, and My Utmost for His Highest. Thes have helped focus me on Christ and impassion my Spirit when I'm feeling dry. Being passionate about the God we worship is the greatest strength a worship leader can have. These devotionals have helped me immensely.5. Worship Pastor Friends - As a worship pastor who leads every Sunday morning, I don't actually get a chance to go out and see how other worship leaders are helping their congregation connect with God. Without that outside input, it's easy to get in a rut. I've learned so much from my other worship leader friends and have also been able to find a lot of comfort in knowing that we all share similar struggles. If you are a worship leader moving to a new area, take some time to get to know other worship leaders in your area. Their friendship will be priceless.