Pastor/Director of Worship Arts

Opportunity Profile

Cornerstone Church is seeking a gifted Pastor or Director of Worship Arts who will provide overall leadership to Cornerstone’s worship ministry by providing guidance and vision in planning, executing, and evaluating all aspects of the church’s music and worship ministry, including the praise team, production team, and youth worship team.

As an expression of our mission to be a biblical community that loves God, grows people, serves our city, and reaches the world, Cornerstone seeks to facilitate vibrant and energetic worship gatherings that are theologically rich, biblically rooted, musically and programmatically excellent, and culturally relevant.

Our worship services are distinguished by strong biblical teaching and highly participatory congregational involvement led by a variety of instruments, voices, and visuals.

Though we acknowledge that there are many approaches to leading congregational worship, there are several values that will help our next Pastor or Director of Worship Arts be successful.

Awe
A genuine awe of God. A successful applicant must lead with God’s glory as a primary goal. Personal awe of God should inspire the same reverence in others (Ps 33:8).

Relationships
A high value for relationships before corporate worship. Jesus taught this as a priority in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:23–24). A successful applicant must be able to navigate the challenges of ministry that are sometimes messy in ways that build up the body of Christ and value people not just as a means to an end, but as a primary ministry responsibility and goal. Personal discipleship and the discipleship of others must be a high value. The successful applicant must be able to keep short accounts and teach others to do the same.

Excellence
Ability to create an environment of excellence, doing one’s personal best with what God has given so that others want to do their best with what God has given them. This includes equipping artists with what they need to flourish, planning ahead, preparing for rehearsals, being punctual, and leading musically at a high level. Excellence honors God (Col 3:23-24) and inspires people (Ex 35–36). The successful applicant must be excellent in craft and leadership.

Authenticity
A passion to be a lead worshiper before being a worship leader. This means that not only will the pastor or director be engaged in worship as a lifestyle, but also that when leading worship, he or she “enters into” worship even while inviting and equipping others to do the same, appreciating that “(God) will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps 51:16–17). With this, the priority is to disciple the team towards authentic worship over musical excellence, although both are critically important.

Life
An understanding that worship is not limited to the corporate musical experience. The pastor or director is passionate about helping all people, whether or not they are musicians or artists, “to present (their) bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is (their) spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). This means caring for the entire church, not just those who are involved in worship ministry. It also means championing all genuine and biblical expressions of loving God, including those that encourage personal (or private) worship.

Worship Style

Cornerstone embraces its role within the Evangelical Free Church of America as a Bible preaching, evangelical, theologically conservative, culturally relevant, evangelistically minded congregation in a big, small town in rural Central Wisconsin. These traits have bearing on the style of worship that Cornerstone uses to lead its current congregation and those it’s trying to reach.

The following are several stylistic aspects that a successful Pastor or Director of Worship will joyfully employ in leading the congregation.

• Modern worship songs: theologically rich and stylistically current
• Big on substance, low on hype
• Personable and warm
• Energetic and genuine
• Classic/traditional hymns in a modern context
• Occasional traditional elements
• Artistic and liturgical elements that highlight God’s glory and the Gospel
• A modern praise band as the core, complemented by diverse instrumentation

Worship Planning

There are several helpful planning models for worship that churches employ. Cornerstone is not fixed on any one specific model. A successful Pastor or Director of Worship at Cornerstone should be a proficient and creative service planner who is able to fluidly move between several models of worship planning in order to engage the model that best serves the need for any given service. Models might include the following:

• Thematic: where services are planned according to the sermon theme
• Gospel-Centered: where services are planned according to the liturgical arc of creation, fall, redemption, restoration
• Vertical: where the flow of the service has as its goal to lead people to a vertical/ascriptive response to the glory of God in authentic praise

Summary

The successful Pastor or Director of Worship Arts at Cornerstone will have a shepherd’s heart, willing to prioritize the needs of the church and its people. Thus, the successful applicant will:

• Be self-aware, but not selfish
• Demonstrate healthy self-care, but not without the priority of caring for the flock
• Not be afraid to make sacrifices for the ministry, but will neither sacrifice personal health or family to the ministry
• Is a lifelong learner while at the same time embracing the role of exhorter and encourager

All interested applicants should review the job description and send a cover letter, at least two links demonstrating ministry skills (video or otherwise), and a résumé to Pastor Andy Kvernen akvernen@cornerstonemarshfield.com.