worship pastors who are not naturally gifted at raising people up?
[ Darlene ] I’ ll be super honest. As a worship pastor, you must remember that it’ s not about you. I was always surprised that I was the one leading the team and leading the worship. I kept waiting for someone to figure out that I wasn’ t any good at it. I always felt like,“ What on earth am I doing here?” But when you look at the bible, it is full of great people who all felt the same way. David said,“ Who am I?” Moses was the stuttering, reluctant leader. And it just goes on and on with people who couldn’ t believe that God was using them to lead people. I think there’ s a measure of that attitude that is really good for worship pastors, because it keeps us on our knees, and it keeps us hungry for the things of God and recognizing that without Him it’ s all just clanging cymbals and activity without any spiritual transformation.
If you don’ t feel qualified, but you’ ve found yourself in that position, I would say that you’ re among great company and among really great people of God from the bible who found themselves in the same place and feeling the same way.
I would also say that you need to be a secure person. What I mean by that is that you need to be able to make it your job to raise and release; to get yourself out of the way and raise and release. After making a few mistakes early on, I realized that I had to put people in situations where they were doing things for the first time, and in environments where basically they couldn’ t fail. Like bringing up a new worship leader, but always having someone strong right next to them, and a great band all around them, and people who can follow anything. It’ s about trying to set people up to win at every level. With tech and production people, put them next to someone who knows what they’ re doing. Don’ t set people up to fail. You’ ve got to take the time to set people up to win.
Often, people’ s first go at a new thing happens in front of a lot of people. And if they fail, not many people have the ability to just say,“ Oh well, I’ ll just give it another try.” Not many creative people will do that. Creative people feel things deeply, and so when they make a mistake in public, they feel the pain of that so deeply. And often it’ s just a simple musical thing that knocks people out of the game. Not because anyone else beat them up over it, but because they beat themselves up. So... set people up to win! Give them wins! Help build their tenacity in the Spirit.
And lead by example. I will often say to people on my team,“ Just watch what I’ m doing. I don’ t even know how to explain some of this, so just watch what I’ m doing.” Like when you break out into a free song, and suddenly you’ ve got these beautiful young worship leaders with the fire of God in them, but you can see that they’ re a bit nervous. You can see them watching and listening and observing how you’ re leading the band. Give them that example and raise them up and release them to do it themselves. Set them up to win!
[ WM ] You have an incredible voice! What do you do to maintain and develop it?
[ Darlene ] The older I get, the more I have to exercise my voice. It’ s not rocket science. I do warm ups, and I cool down. I have to stay fit, which has been harder after chemo. My voice has suffered a bit after chemo. I used to be able to sing for hours and hours, and I have done that year in and year out, but I don’ t have that kind of stamina now. My voice is a gift, and I have to treat it as such.
For women, as they get older, the tell-tale is in their vibrato. You lose some strength and vocal tone. So I have to work hard at that and use all of the basic exercises. They are probably more
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