1 Corinthians 13 for Pastors and Worship Leaders

1 Corinthians 13 for Pastors and Worship Leaders

If I can quote Marva Dawn and Acts 2 passages but do not have love, I am a know-it-all pastor and worship leader full of hot air.  And if I have abilities beyond belief, and lead workshops and write passionately about worship and have much faith in my God-given talents so as to grow ministries, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away my library and hand over all my equipment, yea, even my very self and all the gifts I hold dear, so that I can brag about my selfless giving, even as I am desecrated at Church Council meetings, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

            Love deals kindly and is patient with choirs and congregations who don’t see things my way.  Love doesn’t wish it had another church’s pastor/worship leader or brag about multiple programs or strut about like a peacock when “I” know best worship practices and “you” do not or act ugly.  Love does not rule with an iron scepter and insist on “my way or the high way;” it does not bellyache or hold grudges; it is not glad when feelings get hurt or lies are told or gossip is spread but holds to a higher standard and always acts above board and takes the high road.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

            Love never ends.  Books and best practices will become dated and change; my talents will diminish with age and one day cease.  The knowledge of worship I have in my brain will, also, one day die.  I do not know everything and I will never know everything; but God, alone, does.  My knowledge will come to an end but God’s will last forever.  God is the only one who can change hearts to truly worship, I cannot.  When I was a know-it-all pastor and worship leader, I thought it all rested on my shoulders and that I had all the answers and that I knew what was in my congregation’s and choirs’ hearts and lives, but as I grew spiritually I came to understand that I cannot know fully peoples’ hearts and lives even as I often do not fully know my own.  God alone knows us fully.  That I now understand.  Lord, grant that faith, hope, and love may abide in me and that I may reflect these things to the people of yours you have given me to serve and help me be ever mindful that the greatest of these is love.  Your love.

(I wrote this a few years ago, found it just now when going through some old files, and thought it needed preserving in blog format and sharing).

charis