Pastoral Excellence and Christian Worship
What places and moments come to mind when you hear the words “pastoral excellence”?
Over the past several months, I’ve kept this question in mind as I’ve listened to pastors from a variety of denominations in workshops, conferences, seminary classes and informal conversations. Here are some of the places and moments they typically mention:
- A hospital room, as a pastor comforts and prays with a struggling patient;
- A meeting room of a council, session or board, as a pastor offers a well-spoken word in the midst of conflict;
- A grocery store, where a pastors happens to meet a parishioner or a seeker and is immediately attuned to his or her anxieties or hopes in a constructive way;
- A coffee shop, as a pastor graciously counsels a young person about future plans; and
- A retreat house, where a pastor takes time for personal reflection and prays for the needs of his or her congregation or ministry.
This brief list clearly conveys the “24-7” nature of pastoral work. It offers a helpful corrective to any inclination to see the pastor as a mere professional who can set aside pastoral identity when coming home after a busy day.
But this vision is also incomplete.
The Centrality of Worship
Most obviously, this vision misses what is at or near the center of pastoral work in the majority of Christian traditions: the priestly and prophetic role of the pastor as a leader of God’s people in worship. Indeed, some of the most significant locations for the practice of pastoral excellence are at the pulpit, font and table, in the midst of the assembly gathered for worship.
This is true in part because of the fact that worship is such a common and central religious practice. Every week, 100 million people in North America attend worship services. In basement apartments and vast cathedrals, in old village churches and sprawling suburban multiplexes, we join with others to pray, sing, listen to Scripture and preaching, celebrate the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist and — depending on our particular tradition — perhaps also participate in healing rituals, testimonies, foot-washing and other liturgical actions. Despite widespread skepticism about organized religion, public worship services remain one of our most common religious practices. For many if not most Christians, “going to church” means attending a worship service. And pastors themselves spend, on average, between a quarter and a third of their time and energies on worship and preaching (Jackson W. Carroll, God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations).
But much more than a matter of sheer numbers, worship is central to pastoral excellence for much deeper, theological reasons. Worship is the locus of what several Christian traditions identify as the nourishing center of congregation life. The Second Vatican Council identified public worship as the “source and summit” of the Christian life. What many Reformation traditions elevate to the status of “the means of grace” or even the “marks of the church” are essentially liturgical actions: preaching, baptism, the Lord’s Supper. Pentecostal congregations have traditionally drawn on the revival-like qualities of common worship as a key resource for sustaining congregational life and supporting personal spiritual life in times of joy and sorrow. Among evangelical traditions, “inspiring worship” is a non-negotiable ingredient in recipes to grow and sustain congregations.
Each of these traditions in its own unique way stresses the significance of worship — a public event in which the community not only speaks about God, but speaks to God . . . and also listens. These traditions acknowledge that worship both reflects and shapes a community’s faith. It expresses a congregation’s view of God and enacts a congregation’s relationship with God and each other. So whether viewed sociologically or theologically, worship matters.
In this light, it is odd that pastoral excellence should ever be thought of apart from worship.
Pastoral Excellence in Worship
But what does pastoral excellence in worship look like?
In conversations about this question, I have noticed a common pattern. The first responses to the question, whether offered by laypeople or pastors, often focus on the craft or “performative” aspects of worship leadership, as in these comments:
- “An excellent pastor should know how to gesture and where to move.”
- “I love a pastor who is well-spoken.”
- “An excellent pastor in worship is one who has prepared everything carefully ahead of time.”
- “An excellent pastor really knows how fan the flames of enthusiasm through extemporaneous preaching or praying.”
Quite often, the discussion then begins to explore certain pastoral virtues:
- “An excellent pastor conveys such caring and kindness in worship.”
- “An excellent pastor is filled with an authentic and contagious joy.”
- “An excellent pastor is comfortable in the spotlight, but knows how to get out of the center of attention, too.”
In especially rich conversations, however, those two types of comments begin to come together to focus on what we might call “virtues-as-demonstrated-in-performance” or a “craft-that-embodies-godly-dispositions.” Listen for that complexity in these comments:
- “My pastor thinks to pray for those usually forgotten, praying not only for parents, but also those who long to be parents; not only for military personnel in our country, but also for military personnel and victims of our ‘enemies’, not only for those who suffer from Alzheimer’s or cancer, but also for those who tirelessly care for them.”
- “My pastor always seems to notice important things — when a child is first present in worship, when a needy member of church is especially joyful in worship.”
This type of conversation about pastoral excellence and worship is instructive. For the performance aspects of worship leadership and a pastor’s internal virtues and dispositions are each indispensable aspects of pastoral excellence. Many wise pastors discover great joy and insight in taking time to lovingly craft a prayer or a spoken introduction to a song, hymn, or anthem. Coaching on how to gesture when leading the Eucharist or baptism, or how to use one’s voice more effectively, can be a tremendous help to a pastor who wants to be more comfortable with the use of his or her own body in worship.
At the same time, many wise pastors have grown in their capacity for worship leadership by working not on their performance skills but on their interior life. They might, for example, include the discipline of personal prayer as part of their preparation for worship. Or they might engage in holy conversations of spiritual accountability about how they can better embody genuine hospitality and lead their congregations to do the same. In the embodied spiritual life that pastors are called to lead among their people, craft and virtue, performance and pastoral dispositions are inextricably intertwined.
Excellence for Worship, but Outside the Sanctuary
Worship-related pastoral excellence, however, is not limited only to what happens during the worship service. It also includes how pastors refer to worship and how they prepare their congregation for worship in every aspect of congregational life. Think of pastors who do the following:
- Use the Scripture readings for a given Sunday in the context of pastoral ministry as the week unfolds, helping a congregation see links between worship and all of life;
- Pause to ask individuals or groups during the week “What should we be praying for in the prayers of the people this next Sunday?” (thus helping to make them truly “prayers of the people”);
- Teach an occasional Sunday school class not only to teach a biblical story or topic, but also to teach about what happens in worship and why; or
- Help a congregation attend to redemptive moments in worship that might otherwise go unnoticed or even be lamented or criticized.
In other words, in the face of widespread cultural pressures to split worship from daily life, wise pastors help congregations make profound connections between worship and life. Part of this work happens when the pastor helps the congregation prepare for, think about and evaluate its worship life. Many congregations today are asking questions about worship, but all too often, their concerns fail to address the deeper issues of worship. Instead, they want to know, for example, how the music could be made more impressive or what the church can do to attract a wider audience. Wise pastors, in contrast, help congregations dig beneath such concerns to deeper questions such as the following, which are much more closely tied to worship’s meaning and purpose:
- How can we pray more honestly and deeply through the words we speak and the music that we sing together?
- How can we proclaim the gospel message more meaningfully through preaching, music, and the arts?
- How can we practice Christian hospitality in worship more intentionally?
- How can we celebrate baptism and the Lord’s Supper in more profound and significant ways?
It is essential that pastors and congregations talk constructively with one another about worship and the many ways they work together to deepen its practice. Such conversations can start an entire process that will enrich a congregation’s worship life, and, in turn, generate new, creative ideas for more vital and faithful practice.
The Mystery and Wonder of God’s Agency
Finally, no discussion of pastoral excellence in worship would be complete without remembering the fundamental importance of the grace-filled divine action that makes worship possible. Indeed, at the center of a Christian understanding of worship is the notion that God is not only the one to whom our worship is addressed, but also an agent in making our worship possible. The Holy Spirit inspires our worship and, when we are unable or do not know how to pray, prays for us and through us. Jesus Christ mediates our worship as the one who “ever lives to pray for us.” This means that the Triune God is active in our worship, receiving, inspiring and perfecting our words, thoughts, gestures, and actions — a beautiful dance that makes our participation in worship not an onerous obligation, but rather a joyful act of participation in mystery beyond our comprehension.
This is good news for pastors as they consider ways to deepen their own capacities for worship leadership and for congregations as they patiently and constructively help their pastors grow in competence and faithfulness. God calls us to grow in grace and knowledge and to cultivate skills, virtues and dispositions of a more excellent way. But God does not leave us to make worship and its leadership a matter of heroic achievement or self-improvement. Rather, God calls us to receive the gifts and fruit of the Spirit which strengthen and sustain our efforts, in worship as in all of life.
May God richly bless all pastors and those in support them in the grace-filled pursuit of pastoral excellence.
John D. Witvliet is director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and professor of music and worship at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary
For more reading:
Gordon Lathrop, Pastor: A Spirituality. Fortress Press, 2006.
L. Gregory Jones and Kevin R. Armstrong, Resurrecting Excellence: Shaping Faithful Christian Ministry. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. See the compelling descriptions of pastoral excellence in worship found on pages 41, 46, 58, 150.
William H. Willimon, Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry. Abingdon, 2002. See especially chapters 3-4.
Gabe Huck, Strong, Loving, and Wise: Presiding in Worship. Liturgical Press, 1983.
