How to Worship When You're the Pastor

By Rev. Travis Norton, Pinnacle West Associate

How do you worship when you’re leading worship?

One of the challenges of being a pastor is that you don’t get to have the same worship experience as the typical churchgoer. You are in charge and your mind during worship is naturally pre-occupied with what needs to happen next. Yet you also know regular worship connects you with God in a way that is essential to not only your human thriving but also your ability to minister effectively. So how do you worship?

My intern asked me this question recently and my first thought was of the previous Sunday, when out of the corner of my eye I saw her in worship with her daughter. Her daughter was standing on one of the chairs and she was helping her follow the song and worship God. I told her that moment for me was important in that I saw God at work. I felt connected to God simply by seeing a mother teach her daughter how to sing to God. I replayed the other moments from that Sunday… a young man helping his grandmother down the aisle for communion, a conversation I saw between a long-term member and the new couple visiting that day, the tears in the eye of a recently divorced woman, the attentive leaning forward of a teenager during the sermon, the varied contours of hands held out to receive the bread and wine. Each of these moments took me into that place of the Holy, God present, God at work and my heart was moved to worship.

On a Sunday morning when everyone is focused on the main thing happening in front of them, the sermon, the music, the sacrament, Pastors can worship by looking out of the corner of their eye. Pastors can worship by cultivating this attention to how God is working in the periphery of their vision. It helps to replay the morning later in the day and bring all of those moments to God in prayer. 

I’ve often thought of ministry through the lens of the Disciples helping Jesus feed the 5,000 and the detail that after they were finished there were 12 baskets full of leftovers. That’s a reminder… ministers get fed, too, by the Savior. There is plenty, if you know where to look.