Worship Teams
Getting Priorities Straight & Christmas w/ Phil Wickham
Phil Wickham joined Matt McCoy on the WorshipFuel Podcast to talk about worship leading during Christmas, getting your priorities straight and his new album Hallelujah! It’s Christmas!
Worship Leading During Christmas
[Matt] Christmas time can be a hectic time for worship leaders. How would you encourage them to approach this season?
[Phil] I grew up watching my dad on staff at church, and there’s lots of pressure on him and lots of people looking him to lead big teams, choose the songs, etc. Seeing his faithfulness and willingness to serve, I just want to say thank you to everyone out there who is in my dad’s shoes. You’re hearing the beautiful things, but you’re hearing the complaints. Every week you’re choosing the sets and at the same time trying to teach a dentist [for example] to play bass. Sometimes it can feel like a grind.
It’s crazy that we can have something so beautiful and sacred to sing and talk about, but if I’m not intentional about keeping the sacred in my life, then it so quickly becomes a checklist and source of dread. It’s such a cliché, but when I take time by myself in prayer and in the word, thinking on the stuff I’m going to be singing about, it’s really that ‘secret place’ stuff that keeps the stuff on stage as something that I’m so excited to do and can pastor to people’s hearts.
I know it’s a hectic time for worship leaders, but I would encourage you to have your 15 minutes. Even today. Read the account of the Christmas story and ask God to make it alive to you in a fresh way. If I don’t take a moment to really sink in, I miss it completely. And I can’t lead people there if I’ve missed it.
Getting Your Priorities Straight
[Matt] You are staying so busy! You did a summer tour with Brandon Lake, new music, a documentary, you have a family, how are you keeping it all together?
[Phil] I’ve always felt like I’ve been good at keeping things well balanced. But I would say at the end of this last summer it all kind of caught up. It was such an amazing summer, the ministry is beautiful. But at the end of the tour I felt so empty. I realized I was not striking a balance at home, was the first thing. There were so many great opportunities that me and my wife agreed were so good. It was like, “How can we say no to this?” For years I had FOMO of missing out on so much, but I realized it would have been healthy and okay for me to say no to some things. There is a balancing act.
My first ministry is me and Jesus, second ministry me and my wife, third ministry me and my children, fourth ministry is me and the church, and fifth ministry is me and the world. If decisions are made with those in mind, it’s a lot healthier situation. My wife and I were trying to figure out why we felt so spent and it took us a few weeks of talking and praying. We realized we think we overdid it and are going to rethink how we do the next few years.
I think the biggest thing on my heart was that I can get so caught up in the “doing” of ministry and it’s a false sense of security, spiritually speaking, where I can say “look at the fruit”. You make a list of all of the things you did. But I realized I was spinning so much and not being with the Lord. I wasn’t totally neglecting my relationship with Him, but I wasn’t running to Him. I’m so thankful for getting to that place, but I don’t want to get there again. That was new for me. I know that’s going to relate to a lot of worship leaders. When we’re just checking ministry boxes, we start running to the wrong things. Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these other things will take care, became my theme the last couple of months.
To hear more tips from Phil Wickham on how to get your priorities straight and approach the Christmas season, watch the full interview below!
Get the charts & lyrics on SongSelect, and the multitracks on LoopCommunity.com, to lead Phil’s latest Christmas album Hallelujah! It’s Christmas! at your church.
