Every church probably has the story of regrets when hiring a staff member that just didn’t mesh with the culture. Making the right hire with a worship pastor will make or break the life of the church. They spend as much, if not more, time on stage than the Senior Pastor. The issue is that the stage is what they are primarily judged by, which can be dangerous. The stage is only 10% of what they do. There is the 90% of building and managing teams, technology (depending on how modern the church is), choosing songs, the system of introducing songs, chemistry with the current band and singers, their spiritual life, and work ethic. Many churches only looked at the 10% and hired someone later to realize their 90% was killing them. Finding a good song leader is easy. Finding a Worship Leader/Pastor is very hard. And to add, finding one that will be there long-term will be even harder. This is why the Worship Pastor interview process must be more than a stage audition followed by a question-and-answer session with a board.
The goal of interview questions is to show a proper chemistry match, undetected character flaws, and ultimately any “Achilles heel” that would hurt the church. It is hard to know exactly what a church is getting from an interview, but with the right questions, they can get a snapshot into the strengths, weaknesses, and even fatal flaws of a Worship Pastor.
Here are 19 interview questions to ask when hiring a Worship Pastor:
1. How would you describe your calling to be a Worship Pastor? Why do you think God is calling you here?
This is the “calling” question. Anytime a church hires someone, they need to be sure they are called. Without this piece, the person may be looking for a career instead of living out a calling.
2. How do you choose the songs for Sundays?
Asking a prospective worship candidate will help determine if there is a strategy for choosing songs or a desire to work in conjunction with a sermon series. A hiring team can also tell if the candidate is just pulling songs from the past or can stay current. This will answer the “chemistry” question. This question may help you understand that the songs that will be chosen will be a terrible match for your congregation.
3. What does your personal, spiritual time with God look like?
A Worship Pastor and any staff member for that matter must be a worshipper. This question will help with determining their “spiritual character.”
4. What has been the most frustrating aspect of being a worship pastor?
Questions like this will alert a team to wounds or past failures that the leader has had in their ministry. There are many questions that can launch off of this one to help understand the issue. The key to this question is to have dialogue and dig.
5. How do you determine skill level to be a part of the team?
Some worship pastors have low standards that can bring down the quality of a team. Others are looking for everyone to be Chris Tomlin or they can’t be on the team. This question will help answer the “chemistry” issue.
6. Share one of the toughest issues with conflict that you have dealt with as a worship pastor. How did you respond, and why?
Conflict is inevitable with ministry. Anyone who has ever served on staff has had to deal with conflict. This question will give a team insight into a worship pastor’s character. If the worship pastor mentions storming off or cursing someone out, there may need to be a pause for concern.
7. What do you do to deal with stress in a healthy way?
Ministry is also loaded with stressors. A worship pastor has to be “on” every Sunday in the eyes of the people. They will deal with team members leaving and scheduling conflicts. Dealing with stress in a healthy way is crucial to the longevity of a staff member.
8. What is your theology of worship in 3 sentences or less?
This question will help in the “calling” department. This will also help the candidate and the team to see if there is a good fit.
9. Can you lead, do melody and harmonize? Can you coach others to do the same?
Having a worship pastor who can’t harmonize or teach others is like a mechanic who can only change the oil. As a worship pastor, they need to be able to not only lead and harmonize but also help coach others. The dialogue that needs to happen here can be furthered by asking, “What do you do with someone who was on the team before you got here but is not good at melody or harmony?”
10. Who are the main worship influences in your life right now?
This question will help a team see if their current influences as a church match with the worship leader’s influences. If a worship pastor is being interviewed and says that Ron Kenoly is their influence, but the church is influenced by Hillsong, it will reveal a huge break in chemistry.
11. Have you built and managed a team before? Explain.
Building a managing a large team is one of the most important parts that separate a song leader from a worship pastor. This question will reveal if they are a worker or a leader. A worker can do the job but has trouble managing others. A leader can build and manage a robust team.
12. How would you describe your relationship with your previous senior pastor?
This question reveals the most important relationship of staffing in a church. If there is a schism in this relationship, then it will hurt the church greatly. There has to be chemistry.
13. Do you experience ministry anxiety? If so, what triggers it? And explain what environments help or hinder this.
The reason this question is so vital is because of the nature of the beast of ministry. Ministry can be anxiety-inducing. And if a leader struggles with anxiety, it is good to know on the front end how to help them.
14. (If they are married) With the demands of ministry, how do keep your marriage fresh and fun? What does a typical date night look like for you? And how often do you do date nights?
This question speaks for itself. It helps show their priority of cultivating a strong marriage.
15. What are your top 3 favorite podcasts?
A hiring team wants to know what they are learning and who they are learning from. This will be very important to the aspect of the chemistry match.
16. What current worship bands/churches do you admire and why?
The hiring team wants to find out if the influences of the leader match the songs or the future direction of the church. This may seem insignificant, but it’s a very important question in the Worship Pastor interview.
17. Are you good at meeting deadlines for getting planning center schedules complete for the team? If you have struggled with meeting these deadlines before, please explain why.
Creative Arts and being the Worship Pastor have a lot of moving parts. It requires scheduling multiple team members and songs each week. They probably have the most meticulous scheduling job compared to other staff. Meeting deadlines is key for their position.
18. How would you describe the importance of online church and worship in our current culture?
There is a possibility the Worship Pastor will help with online church broadcasting. Because of the COVID pandemic, online church is a viable option for attendees, and it will probably be the first church service they attend.
19. What do you believe is the greatest value that the local church adds to the world? If you could change something about the local church and how it operates, what would it be?
Their ecclesiology carries great weight with their interaction with the local church. Their position may be one of the easiest positions to get jaded from when serving the local church. Just like the pastor, they have great pressure to “perform” each week. Over time this can wear down worship pastors and create a cynical view of the corporate worship gathering. This question will also reveal if they have a heart for the local church or are seeking to use it as a platform to travel or pursue other interests.
Since the worship pastor plays such an important role for the church, it is critical for the hiring team/committee to do their due diligence by asking all the right questions. The worship pastor not only spends as much time as the pastor on stage but they have one of the largest and most diverse teams in the church. These questions will help you find the right fit in your Worship Pastor interview.
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