We talk much about consumerism and worship in the church at the moment. And rightly so. Our churches are increasingly full of people who expect their worship served up in the same way as their coffee. It’s a demand problem. Good people expecting a certain standard of music, a certain mix of songs, a certain quality of voice.

All these things are important.

But not that important in the big scheme of things.

The main thing that will always make the worship flow, rock, lift – or whatever the ‘in’ word is at the moment – is the desire of the congregation to sing out. Take that away and we are just re-arranging deck chairs…Once our congregations stop demanding something of their worship leader and start to demand something of their own soul, then worship will change – forever (this isn’t a disgruntled worship leader whinge though…)

But if consumerism is the greatest danger to the continuation of the passionate corporate worship IN the church, then individualism is the greatest threat to the continuation of the vibrant, creative community OF the church.

I was at a conference in our church this week, and the one main thing I came away with was a renewed commitment to being CORPORATE at every level in my leadership, ministry, work (or whatever is the in word at the moment).

Gary Best – from the vineyard in Canada – talked a lot about how we all tend to call out for more of God for ourselves (as individuals) and pull back on calling out for more of God for our community (as church). At first I sort of didn’t get that. But after a while I sort of did.

I was reminded again of some of the main things that I have always tried to operate in as a worship pastor: the desire to gather lots of people into worship ministry alongside me; the desire to see new worship leaders rise up and grow in leadership themselves; the desire to share the stage I have been given with other leaders through co-leading, through co-writing, through joint recording projects. I’m not sure I do them very well, but they are at the core of the way I want to operate.

In short, the desire to retreat from individualism in ministry.

And in a season of extreme busyness and pressure as I have been through recently, I know that such things are the first to be laid aside. And this last week has reminded me of the need to keep pursuing them.

Unfortunately, individualism is as rife in the wider church today as consumerism. And it stops people growing in ministry. It’s a supply problem. Individuals control supply by controlling what is ‘creative’, by controlling what is ‘authentic’, controlling what is ‘right’ and above all, controlling what is ‘God’. It’s not normally intentional.

It just kind of creeps up on us when we’re not expecting it.

Worship ministry, just like any high profile ministry, can lead us in to individualism. We can get to the place where – for all the best reasons – we can present a view of ministry that is far too tied in with ourselves. We do events and conferences and tours where we only sing our own songs, sell our own cds, promote our own books and DVDs and, in that way. present a very one-dimensional view of ministry.

Of course the question that we end up asking is this: is it possible to be a good leader, or even a great leader, whilst not embracing individualism?

It’s a good question, because for many of us in leadership there are occasionally, even often, those times when we have to forge ahead with what we believe God has laid on our hearts for our teams or congregations. Often that leads us to a lonely place, a place of isolation where our security in God is tested to the limit. And often it can lead us to be accused of being individualistic, of being self serving or out of touch.

I always remember some of the stories of John Wimber and how he was so intent on avoiding such things. I hear the stories of how he used to leave meetings when the Spirit was moving powerfully so that other leaders could walk the walk around him and ‘get to play’ at ministry. It seemed that he was so secure in what he was doing that he purposefully walked out of the limelight every now and then so that others could succeed too. It seemed that there was only one hero in his eyes: Jesus.

And so the main thing to counteract individualism I think is this: always point people to Jesus. If we are always pointing people towards Jesus then we will move away from individualism and move towards community.

Who are you pointing people towards?

Neil Bennetts