The Six Hats of the Worship Leader

This very short, four-chapter book offers a helpful way of thinking about the roles of a worship leader in today’s evangelical churches. The big idea is there are hats you as worship leader should wear and hats you should give away. To give them away you need to:• Value developing the people around you• Apply “the pyramid of execution” to your situation• Understand the Six HartsI heartily endorse author Rich Kirkpatrick’s case for developing people. It is hard to share or give away hats if there are not people willing to take the hat—often we must help the people grow into the hat.The Pyramid of Execution acknowledges that the ‘visible” portion of the service where people experience God together is supported by the tools (how and when), the people (who), the process (why and how), and ultimately the foundation (what and why). Instead of defining a one-size fits all answer to “why,” Kirkpatrick rightly suggests local congregations have different foundational values which either consciously or unconsciously drive the rest of the pyramid. He says, “instead of trying to cover or divert an issue, when you find its foundational identifier, lead from a place of strength and health.”The six hats are worship leader (up front face), music director (supervises the “sound” of a service), tech director (both set-up and logistics), service producer (manages details during service), programming director (produces content ahead of time), and pastor (theologian and shepherd).Grab this book and work through it over coffee with someone who is growing as worship leader. It should lead to some helpful dialogue about balancing the roles of a worship leader.

I bought this book as a gift for our worship leader. Having been a worship leader myself for many years I was looking for something that would encourage and inform. What I like best about Six Hats is that the author clearly knows his stuff. The book is about not just about the guy or girl that stands in front of the church and sings, it's about the different roles and how each of them is a part of the worship service. This would be a great read for the whole worship team, tech team, and pastors. I highly recommend. Perfectly giftable!

I was expecting this book to just be about the multiple hats that we should be wearing as worship leaders, but the reality is this book is all about leadership. The Six Hats isn't just about leadership in general, but specifically geared towards worship leaders and creative types.Kirkpatrick aims to give tools and insights into leading other people and making worship ministry a team effort, not just a one-man-show. Let's face it, many of us are 'doers' and find it hard to lead others to do the work at hand. This book aims to show us why it's important for us personally and why it's important for the team as a whole.I'd highly recommend this book to anyone leading a worship ministry. It's a quick read, but you'll find yourself highlighting and underlining great nuggets of information again and again.

Definitely a good resource to pass on to members of one's ministry team as he or she seeks to expand the effectiveness of Program (Sunday sanctuary) ministry.Rich outlines new delineations needed for modern worship contexts that may be very new to some readers. These role definitions can not only help in easing tensions that leaders find a hard time articulating, but give them benchmarks to shoot for in development of future ministry positions.The book was a fast read—probably my greatest criticism too. While there were some specific examples and practical scenarios, they weren't really the scenarios I needed in my own personal situation. As such, I wish there had been more, and that they had been more thoroughly developed in process and application.That being said, what Rich shared is spot on and extremely helpful for those developing worship ministries. The tweetable one liners on leadership development serve as welcome reminders for those of us who've been at this a while.

This book is written for the Worship Leader who is also a musician. For the vocalist Worship Leaders, there is still a lot of great info that we can use. Not a bad book at all and I read it over the course of 3 days. Easy read and a lot to be learned from it. Thanks Rich!

This book has put into words what I’ve been learning the hard way over the past decade. Young starting worship leaders, heed the wisdom and advice in this book. Build teams. Build relationships. Build people. They will last way longer than the music and will grow your church.And you can NOT do it all yourself. You need help. God has placed the right people around you. Go find them and develop them.

Rich is such an intelligent & clear communicator, and this is a GREAT resource for every worship leader — especially for those of us that handle a myriad of responsibilities surrounding our ministry.

As a pastor in the midst of a search for a worship leader, this book helped me to clarify the sort of skills and people for which I should be praying and searching. Easy to read and digest. Talks about things I never think about as a non-musician.