Pastor, “My preferences matter more than the mission” is keeping people away.

Picture two pastors in the front row on a Sunday. The band starts a song neither of them would ever put on their own playlist. One folds his arms and waits it out. The other lifts his hands and sings, because the room is full of people who need Jesus and they’re all watching him. Same song. Different belief. Different future. The first pastor is living an old story: “My preferences matter more than the mission.” Let’s name it, count the cost, and trade it for something better.

The old story: “My preferences matter more than the mission”

Nobody says it that plainly. It sounds like, “This is the way I want to do church, and that’s how we’re going to do it.” Or, “I don’t really care if it bothers new people. This is important to me.”

Usually the thing we’re defending isn’t the gospel. It’s a third-tier, fifth-tier, seventh-tier issue. A pet thing. It feels like conviction, but it’s really taste.

What it costs

I visited a small church once, and in the middle of the service someone grabbed a ram’s horn, a shofar, and blew it as loud as he could. The pastor was really into the Old Testament, so this was his thing, and nobody was willing to change it.

Here’s what it did: it freaked out new people. People new to Christ were thinking, “This is weird.” Normal people don’t want a shofar in their ear. Honestly, neither do most twenty-year Christians. A seventh-tier preference was keeping people away from a first-tier gospel.

That’s the cost. Our preferences can become hindrances. We get stuck in a decade, stuck in a style, while God is saying, “I am doing a new thing. Do you not perceive it?”

Breaking the old story

Let’s talk about the convicting one: music. There’s music I love. But there are songs I love that the church doesn’t need to sing anymore. Scripture keeps telling us to sing a new song to the Lord. I’m not going to let my musical taste become more important than the mission of God reaching people in my city.

And here’s why it matters so much for you specifically. As the lead pastor, you are the number one worship leader in your church. It doesn’t matter what’s happening on stage. People are looking at you in the front row. If you’re engaged, raising your hands, loving the music, they’ll follow. If you’ve got an attitude, they’ll follow that too.

I can take care of my preferences at home. I’ve got my own playlist and my own streaming queue. But on Sunday, it’s about the mission of God in the local church, and the next generation finding, following, and serving Jesus.

When I was in my twenties, I was part of a brand-new church plant with thousands of people coming and lots of people getting saved. Almost everyone was under 30. But my pastoral studies professor, Dr. Watson, was there too, and he was in his sixties. I asked him, “Why are you here, when everybody is two or three decades younger than you?”

He said, “I love to be where babies are being born.”

He meant people coming to faith. His preferences were old school. He used to walk into class singing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” That was his playlist. But at church, his preferences didn’t matter. Today is the day of salvation, and people were being saved. He loved being around the energy of young people giving their lives to Christ.

The new belief: I put the mission ahead of my preferences

If my preferences, weird ones or nice ones, get in the way of reaching people, I’ll let them go. That frees me to try new things, adjust, and remove hindrances so people can come to know Jesus.

Let it be said of us as we get older that our commitment to the mission gets stronger, not weaker. Like Dr. Watson, I want to be where babies are being born.

What to do this week

1. List the things you do mainly because you like them. Service elements, songs, rhythms, traditions. Be honest about which ones are conviction and which ones are taste.
2. Ask which of those keep normal people away. Walk through a Sunday as if you were 22 and new to Christ. What would make you think, “This is weird”?
3. Retire one song or habit the church no longer needs. Then stand in the front row and sing the new song with everything you’ve got.

Your playlist can stay at home. The mission comes first, the gospel comes first, and I want to see this next generation saved in Jesus’ name.