Worship Pastor as Counselor

There's been a lot of good ideas that have been floating around in my head for a few years that have finally started to become clear. I'll break them down a bit.

Reality is better than I ever hoped

I grew up in a home where my dad led worship in a Southern Baptist Church (before it was even cool, mind you) and my mom played the piano. This was the picture of marriage I had in my head so I naturally assumed I would marry some sort of musician. Some singer or piano player or something. Instead, I got something WAY better. God put me with a dancing (not charismatic type, but legit ballet type) theatre buff with a knack for helping people and yes...may have been more charismatic. I am in a semi-constant state of amazment at this woman. She has gotten her master's, her state counseling license and started her own private practice before the age of 30. AND birthed two kids. AND we have one more on the way.
I must admit, after the honeymoon phase passed us and we settled in to that long-term, deep, rich love that comes with time (coming up on 9 years married and 13 together) we stopped dreaming about doing ministry together. We just lovingly support one another as I lead worship and she counsels people. We pray for our kids and read them Bible stories. We talk about Jesus. We never really thought of what we do vocationally as very similar. Well... not until recently.

A worship problem

We are fundamentally broken. We go about our days living a style of life for which we were not intended. We wrap our lives around everything that makes us feel good, bad, pretty, wealthy, strong, weak, thin, fat, comfortable, adrenalized, or...just...whatever. We worship things we make...or were made in Japan maybe. What's more is that we will sacrifice on the altar of what we worship. You worship sex, you sacrifice time, health, relationships, money on the altar of sex. You worship food, you sacrifice belt notches, health, money, buttons that snap off (i hear...you know...not that it's happened to me or anything) on the altar of the Burger King or Queen Wendy. Sin is a symptom of our core issue which is worship. A mentor once told me after i confessed habitual sin that I didn't have a sin problem, I had a worship problem. He was right. Now I recognize sin in my life for what it is; an idol to be killed, not an "issue" to be managed like some sort of ill-tempered employee.
Our father, Adam, bought the lie that we could be like God. All sin is a manifestaion of this lie. All sin is rooted in the lie that we should worship ourselves rather than God.

You Need Help

As my wife and I have come to understand this truth, we've slowly begun to realize that our jobs are very similar. As a Christian counselor, my wife's job is to help those who come to her put the right God in the right place. As a worship pastor, my job is to lead the church to do that corporately. This means killing the god of self and allowing Creator God to reign over us both personally and corporately. Putting the Righteous One in the right place. Allowing the Right God His rightful place in us. So counseling isn't really just for "those people". It's not just for addicts and marriages hanging by a thread. It's for anyone who wants to kill the idols in their hearts. If you don't think you have any idols that need a good slaughtering, you should be first in line. You need help. We all do.

Worship Pastor as Counselor

My job as a worship pastor of this place now encompasses far more than I ever thought it would. My title will soon become "Honor Pastor". The purpose of this job is to teach and equip the church to honor God both personally and corporately. This means teaching, leading, and equipping the people to honor God in their home, their workplace or school, their relationships, and their thoughts. Then when we come together, we are coming from a place of worshipping God in all we say and do to a place of vocalizing that with hundreds of other believers. The role of a worship pastor is that of a counselor on a larger scale. We are lifting up the Righteous God to His rightful place, then equipping the saints to do that while at their desk on monday.


So, just to recap in a very basic way.

THE problem= we worship the wrong god (self, money, sex, food, little gold people, etc. )
THE Solution= Jesus in His rightful place.

This is the call of the biblical counselor AND the worship pastor. Teach, equip, and lead people to allow King Jesus His rightful place in our lives, in our churches. It's a simple concept that's quite difficult to carry out.

When I republish this at some point, I'll put in all the scripture references. There are a lot of them. I just had to get these thoughts down while they're fresh.

So where does that leave my marriage? Well...look for the Olive House at some point in the not too distant future...well maybe kind of distant. We're all about this concept in marriage now.