Pastoring Your Congregation Through Worship: Insights from Ben Haley

At our recent Church Front Conference, we were blessed to have Ben Haley deliver a powerful message on “Pastoring Your Congregation Through Worship.” Ben opened with a moving personal story and went on to share profound insights about worship ministry that resonated deeply with our attendees.

The Lasting Impact of What We Sing

Ben began his talk with a powerful story about his father’s final moments. Despite being on a ventilator and heavily sedated in the ICU, his father began using sign language and eventually started spelling words by drawing letters on his family members’ palms. In those precious final moments, he spelled out, “It is well with my soul.”

This touching illustration highlighted a truth that worship leaders and tech teams need to recognize: what we sing has a profound influence on us. While sermons may fade from memory, songs often remain with us until our final breath. This reality places an enormous responsibility on those who lead worship in our churches.

“If music has that kind of influence on the human heart and on the human mind, then we ought to take some advice from that great sage, Uncle Ben: With great power comes great responsibility.”

Three Essential Foundations for Shepherding Through Worship

Ben outlined three pillars that should form the foundation of our worship ministry if we want to truly shepherd our congregations:

1. Know Your Heart

The first pillar might seem counterintuitive when discussing how to pastor others, but Ben emphasized that we must start with ourselves. Referencing 1 Timothy 4, he reminded us that we must “watch our life and doctrine closely.”

“We have been conditioned by our culture to value competency over character. We prefer platform over piety. We choose hype over holiness, and maybe the scariest thing is how long we can get away with it before it bites us.”

In Ephesians 5:18-19, before Paul mentions singing, he commands believers to “be filled with the Spirit.” Similarly, the psalmist calls others to praise before turning inward: “Praise the Lord, O my soul.” As leaders, we must take our own spiritual medicine first.

Many things can cause us to neglect our hearts: busy schedules, endless task lists, praise from others, or personal struggles with shame, discouragement, or anxiety. But if our ministries are going to truly bless our congregations, they must be led by people who recognize their deep dependency on Jesus.

2. Know Your Bible

Ben highlighted the parallel passages in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, noting how one connects singing to being Spirit-filled while the other connects it to letting “the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”

He candidly addressed what doesn’t make disciples: “Great melodies don’t make disciples. A brighter projector doesn’t make disciples. An online service with better EQ doesn’t make disciples. A click track for your drummer does not make disciples.”

“What truly makes disciples is the Word of God revealed by His Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of His people.”

Since the songs we sing have such profound influence on our congregations, we must ensure they’re teaching God’s Word. “The songbook of a church is an indicator of that church’s maturity,” Ben noted. He then illustrated how biblically rich lyrics can minister to people in their moments of grief, shame, or cultural confusion.

He offered practical advice for worship leaders:

• Choose songs that use biblical language and themes
• Ensure songs are singable for the congregation
• Find creative ways to incorporate Scripture into worship times

Ben emphasized that he wasn’t advocating for any particular style, age, or complexity of music. The key is ensuring that when people are moved by a melody, they’re singing something worth remembering from God’s Word.

3. Know Your People

Returning to Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, Ben highlighted how both passages mention singing “to one another.” Worship isn’t just vertical—it’s also horizontal.

“Church music is not a one-way street from an individual to God. It’s also something we do with each other and for each other.”

This communal aspect of worship is vital because we all experience Sundays when we don’t feel like singing—whether due to conflict, discouragement, depression, or simple fatigue. In those moments, we need to hear the voices of fellow believers singing truth that we may struggle to sing ourselves.

Ben offered a practical implication: if we’re singing to one another, we need to ensure our music isn’t so loud that we can’t hear each other. The beauty of congregational singing comes from diverse voices joining together—an illustration of how God has designed His church.

The tendency for many ministry leaders is to gravitate toward programs rather than people. But as Ben reminded us, “Church leaders are not leaders of nobody. We are leaders of people.” We can’t effectively shepherd those we don’t know.

Jesus, our ultimate example, “knows his sheep and they know his voice” (John 10). When we cultivate relationships with our congregation, we understand their joys, hopes, fears, and struggles. This knowledge informs everything from song selection to audio levels.

The Ultimate Goal: Show Them God’s Glory

Ben concluded with a powerful encouragement to worship leaders: “Use those instruments, use those melodies, use the soundboards, use the lighting controllers to show off God’s glory, and give your people the kinds of songs that they will sing on their deathbeds.”

Our attempts to reform behavior or conform people to a particular church culture will ultimately fail. Instead, we must win people to the glory of God by showing them His glory.

He closed with a quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones that perfectly captured this vision:

“I can forgive a man for a bad sermon. I can forgive the preacher almost anything if he gives me a sense of God, if he gives me something for my soul. If he gives me the sense that though he is inadequate himself, he is handling something which is very great and very glorious, if he gives me some dim glimpse of the majesty and the glory of God, the love of Christ, my savior, and the magnificence of the gospel. If he does that, I’m his debtor and I am profoundly grateful to him.”

Final Thoughts

Ben Haley’s message was a powerful reminder that worship ministry isn’t primarily about musical excellence, technical proficiency, or stylistic preferences. It’s about shepherding people toward a deeper encounter with God through theologically rich, biblically sound, community-building worship.

For those of us involved in worship and production ministries, his three-fold foundation provides an excellent compass: know your heart, know your Bible, know your people. When these elements are in place, our ministries will truly help shepherd our congregations through worship.

Did you attend the Church Front Conference? What insights from Ben’s talk have you begun implementing in your ministry? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!