Is this letter written about you?

"You asked me "what’s up?" "What’s up" is we are about to fire our worship leader/youth pastor. He might survive another year, but I don’t think he will. It is unfortunate. He is a really talented guy. It will really put him in a tailspin I think, and he may even leave the ministry. It’s sad because it is obvious that God has gifted him in music and inspiring people, and now he is about to lose his youth ministry even though that part of his work is OK. What is the problem with this guy? Is our church "too traditional" and "not open to change" (as he told one of his college buddies recently?) Not at all. The problem is with the guy. He is a narrow-minded worship leader who does not know how to serve people, but wants to make everybody else worship like he did back at college. Here is what has ruined him:

He wanted to introduce our people to a "better way" of worship. What was that "better way?" It was simply introducing college student worship to our people. His mind was made up. He knew what worship should be like—it should be like the worship in a college chapel or other student-led worship service. How narrow-minded! He had no idea that churches are not full of nineteen year old adolescents desiring to emote. Rather they are full of people of all ages and cultural histories. He simply insisted in jamming his preferences down the throats of our people. It is killing him! He makes no room for other valid styles of worshipping—except as he considers all other styles as "traditional" and "outdated" and "boring" and his own college-boy worship as the only way to go. A college education is supposed to help a person get more broad-minded. It didn’t help this fellow, but only reinforced his narrow-minded preference for adolescent worship styles. There are millions of people who worship God quite well, thank you, without the self-proclaimed college-boy-wonders introducing "authentic worship" to us as if they invented worship just last year while at college.

How do our colleges graduate students with such a poor view of servant-leadership? Our guy has a totally self-centered view of worship. He simply does not know how to lead the people in worship. All he knows is how to worship himself, his way, with his music, and his instruments, and he thinks everyone else should worship like he does. When he came here two years ago he never even asked us why we worship the way we do. Everything that we have done for years which was excellent worship for us was discarded so he could help us "really worship God in a relevant way." Our guy knows how he likes to worship and is convinced he should get us to adopt his college-style worship. He has no comprehension of servant-leadership. He did not start with us or our worship culture or our tradition. He is, as the saying goes, "a fellow bounded on the north, west, east and south by himself." He started with himself. And it looks like he is going to end up with himself—out of a job.

Worse, he communicates an undercurrent of an attitude dripping with arrogance. "I know what is best and I’m here to help you ignorant people develop relevant worship" was what our people feel he communicates (though of course he never has said that). This guy is more interested in himself than the people—and he’s more interested in himself than God. His so-called "worship revolution" was all about doing college-boy music more than it had anything to do with really helping the people worship God. Like all self-centered adolescents he assumed whatever pleased him was a universal law. If he cared a bit about getting us to really worship better he would have started with us and helped us worship whatever way we best could do it best. Can’t these music-ministry majors learn to start with the people, and their history and their culture, and their preferences, and serve them, helping them worship the best the way they can worship? Maybe our music and ministry students should take more missions