all of our meals together, and we got to talk The impact that comes from these ministries for days about what the Holy Spirit was doing. is not a fluke. You don’ t just decide to work And that was probably as rich and beautiful as harder, faster, bigger, and wider year after year the actual experience of leading that worship after year. As momentum begins to happen, moment in Vatican City. There were all of these great leadership looks at how the people in beautiful people in the choir and the orchestra, the ministry are living their lives, and how are young people, just running up to me; Spirit-filled their children flourishing. Great leadership young people running up to me saying,“ We’ ve asks questions like,“ Are they getting enough got the fire! Thank you for coming! We’ ve had time to write, and yet enough time to live and the fire for years but we didn’ t know what to enough time to play and have fun, and enough do!” It was so good! time to be in God’ s presence?” A great leader evaluates these things to ensure that success I feel sad that some of the church couldn’ t can be sustained. A great leader looks at come to the place that, even if they didn’ t the balances and the actual people of the understand what I was doing there, could still ministry. Everyone else looks at the fruit, but a pray for me and believe that God was going to great leader will be looking at the people and do amazing things, rather than criticizing and concerned with caring for the people while being quite elaborate in their criticism. asking,“ Is this sustainable?” Without the right checks and balances, it is not!
Before I left for Rome I had a little bit of time with Matt Maher, who we all love. And he helped me Go back to the top of these ministries with also to understand about where I was going. impact and you will see some of the greatest The church at large is so beautiful in the ways leaders. Elevation Church is another example. that we help each other understand, and grow, Look at Steven and Holly Furtick; they are and pray. incredible! Look at what The Belonging Company is doing now with releasing all of this I still pinch myself, thinking about standing next beautiful stuff, and you look at the top and see to Andrea! Seriously? A year ago, the doctors Henry and Alex Seeley in the mix and loving told me that I may not even make it, and here I those people. They love the presence of God, am one year later in my beautiful wig( laughs), felling terrible from all of the drugs that I had been taking, and continue to take, and I just felt God saying,“ I’ ve got you.” And it was so beautiful.
[ WM ] You were the worship pastor at Hillsong from 1997 to 2006. What are the ingredients that went into creating the culture that could shoulder that kind of anointing?
[ Darlene ] The pastor at Hillsong in Australia, Brian Houston, is an outstanding leader. You can look at the music and the worship and all of that, but it comes down to leadership, and Brian is a strong leader. When you take a look at Bethel and the impact they are having, you have to look at where the fountain is flowing from, right from the top with Bill Johnson. He is just an outstanding human being.
Darlene with her husband Mark and they really love those people, as pastors and shepherds.
Lots of people want what they see, but they probably don’ t have the ability to do what is coming from the top of those ministries. At Hillsong we give a lot of credit to Brian because he is an exceptional leader. So, that’ s just one thing.
Another thing that is really important is to have a consistent teaching to your teams. Week in and week out at Hillsong, year after year,( and I do it now with the teams at Hope Unlimited), we teach on the theology of worship. We dig into the meaning of worship, like,“ What do these Psalms even mean? What am I actually singing? Do I understand what intercession is? Or spiritual warfare? Or intimacy with God?” We want people to understand why they are there on the teams. Lots of people get caught up in the playing of the songs, but do they really understand why worship is so important? Do they really understand why their unseen life and their seen life must be consistent, and how it will cause problems in their ministry if they are following two different paths? So, the framework and the teaching within the teams is so important for people to understand why it is that they do what they do.
Also, loving the person more than their gifts is another key. When people know that they are loved and valued you get much greater longterm outcome for their life. In the end, we all want to know that if we are missing from the dinner table, we are missed! People are not just replaceable commodities. That drummer on your team isn’ t just a drummer; he or she is a person. Let’ s pastor and shepherd these beautiful people who are just doing their best. We have to let them know that they are more valuable for who they are than for what they do.
[ WM ] More than just being a worship leader or songwriter, you’ ve built a legacy of people whose lives you have sown into and raised up. Can you offer some specific advice for
30 Mar � Apr 2017 WorshipMusician. com