New Life exists to help people find and follow Jesus. Everything the church does flows from the Great Commission. New Life wants to reach people who are far from God with the gospel and form disciples who grow in Christlikeness.
For the Pastor of Worship, this means worship should serve both evangelism and discipleship. Worship at New Life should help people find Jesus, and it should help believers follow Jesus more faithfully. Every song, prayer, reading, transition, and worship moment should invite people to respond to Jesus with faith, surrender, joy, and obedience.
New Life’s 10-year vision is “500 Baptized. 50 Sent.” This vision represents lives transformed through salvation and public profession of faith, as well as leaders, church planters, missionaries, and ministry leaders released for Kingdom impact beyond the walls of New Life. The Pastor of Worship will help keep this vision before the church by creating worship environments that celebrate salvation, make room for response, highlight baptism, and remind the congregation that gathered worship leads to scattered mission.
New Life’s discipleship pathway is Gather, Group, Serve, and Send.
Gather means worshiping together around Scripture, prayer, song, and the presence of God. The Pastor of Worship plays a central role in helping the gathered church respond to the gospel with joy and faith.
Group means life in authentic community where discipleship happens in the natural rhythms of life. Worship should encourage people toward deeper connection, not isolated attendance.
Serve means every believer has a part to play in the body of Christ. The worship ministry should model this by developing volunteers who use their gifts with humility, excellence, and joy.
Send means living on mission in Asheville and beyond. Worship should not end with a song. It should send people into the world as disciples of Jesus.
New Life’s leadership values shape the kind of culture the staff seeks to build:
Walk with Jesus: The Pastor of Worship must lead from personal communion with Christ. Private worship matters before public worship.
Believe the Best: This leader should build trust, assume positive intent, and help create a healthy team culture.
Whatever It Takes: Worship ministry requires flexibility, preparation, sacrifice, and a willingness to serve the mission above personal preference.
Love What You Do: Joy matters. The Pastor of Worship should bring visible gladness, energy, and gratitude to the work.
Make It Better: New Life values ongoing improvement. The Pastor of Worship should be able to evaluate services, coach teams, refine systems, and pursue excellence.
Honor One Another: This leader should honor volunteers, staff, elders, and the congregation through humility, respect, and clear communication.
Laugh Together: New Life values joy and relational warmth. Worship ministry should be serious about the mission, but never joyless.
New Life’s staff culture is marked by passion for the church, commitment to ministry excellence, and a shared desire for health. The staff includes full-time, part-time, and intern-level ministry leaders who serve across worship, local and global missions, kids, students, discipleship, communications, operations, and other key ministry areas.
The next Pastor of Worship should be excited to join a collaborative environment where ministry leaders work together to help people find and follow Jesus. This leader should value team health, spiritual maturity, clear communication, joy, and shared mission.
This role needs someone who brings joy to the team. The right leader will love what they do, believe the best about others, honor teammates, and bring energy into the room. Worship leadership at New Life should be marked by spiritual seriousness and visible gladness.
The Pastor of Worship should be organized enough to lead well, relational enough to shepherd people, and flexible enough to serve in a fast-moving ministry environment.
Lead worship with pastoral presence and musical excellence.;
- The Pastor of Worship will regularly lead Sunday worship services with warmth, confidence, humility, and spiritual depth. This leader should guide the congregation into worship in a way that feels natural, joyful, and focused on Jesus.
- New Life needs a leader who can create a celebrative worship atmosphere without turning worship into a performance. The worship culture should be energetic, gospel-centered, and deeply congregational. People should feel invited to sing, pray, respond, rejoice, and surrender.
Shape a celebrative worship culture:
- The Pastor of Worship will help shape a worship culture marked by joy, freedom, theological clarity, and congregational participation. Worship at New Life should feel alive because the gospel is alive. It should be thoughtful without feeling stiff, excellent without feeling distant, and celebrative without becoming shallow.
- This leader will help the church sing songs that are biblically faithful, emotionally honest, and accessible to the congregation. The worship culture should help people celebrate the grace of God, confess their need for Christ, remember the cross, rejoice in the resurrection, respond to the Word, and live sent into the world.
Plan and execute worship services:
- The Pastor of Worship will oversee the planning and execution of Sunday worship services and special worship gatherings. This includes song selection, service flow, transitions, Scripture readings, prayers, creative elements, media needs, and production coordination.
- This leader will work closely with the Lead Pastor, Executive Pastor, ministry staff, worship leaders, and production volunteers to ensure that each service is clear, cohesive, and spiritually meaningful. Worship planning should serve the sermon, support the church calendar, help people respond to the gospel, and create a sense of unity from the opening welcome to the final song.
Ensure gospel-centered and biblically faithful worship:
- The Pastor of Worship will ensure that songs, prayers, readings, and worship moments faithfully teach the gospel and align with New Life’s theological convictions. Worship is one of the primary ways a congregation learns what is true about God, humanity, sin, grace, salvation, the church, and mission.
- This leader should be able to evaluate songs not only for musical quality, but also for theological substance, congregational accessibility, and pastoral appropriateness. The worship ministry should help people sing truth that forms their hearts over time.
Develop worship leaders, musicians, vocalists, and volunteers:
- The Pastor of Worship will recruit, train, shepherd, and develop worship ministry volunteers. This includes musicians, vocalists, worship leaders, and others who serve in visible and behind-the-scenes roles.
- This leader should build a team culture marked by joy, humility, preparation, spiritual health, and excellence. Volunteers should feel cared for, coached, encouraged, and challenged to grow. The goal is not simply to fill a schedule. The goal is to develop worshipers who lead others well.
Lead and strengthen production partnership.
- The Pastor of Worship will work closely with production volunteers and leaders to ensure that audio, visual, lighting, livestream, and media elements support the worship environment. Production should not distract from worship. It should serve the room, support clarity, and help people engage.
- This leader does not need to be the technical expert in every area, but should understand how worship and production work together. The Pastor of Worship should be able to create healthy collaboration between the platform and the booth, build trust among volunteers, clarify expectations, and help teams prepare well.
Collaborate across the staff team:
- The Pastor of Worship will serve as a healthy and engaged member of the broader New Life staff. This leader will collaborate with pastoral staff, Next Gen leaders, communications, operations, and other ministry teams to support the overall mission of the church.
- Because worship is one of the most visible and formative ministries in the church, the Pastor of Worship must lead with humility, emotional maturity, and team-mindedness. This person should welcome feedback, communicate clearly, follow through on details, and contribute to the health of the staff culture.
Support special services and church-wide moments:
- The Pastor of Worship will help plan and lead worship for special services and major church moments. This may include Christmas, Easter, baptisms, communion services, prayer nights, leadership gatherings, family ministry events, and other church-wide opportunities.
- These moments should reflect the same values as Sunday worship: gospel clarity, celebrative tone, thoughtful planning, strong execution, and pastoral sensitivity.
Equip the church for whole-life worship:
- New Life believes worship is more than music and more than Sunday morning. The Pastor of Worship should help the congregation understand worship as the whole-life response of God’s people to the grace of God.
- This includes singing, praying, giving, serving, obeying, gathering, scattering, and living on mission. The Pastor of Worship will help New Life celebrate God in the room and follow Jesus outside the room.
Contribute to the broader pastoral ministry of the church:
- As part of the pastoral team, the Pastor of Worship will model spiritual leadership and a life aligned with the values of New Life Church. This leader will engage fully in the life of the church through worship gatherings, group life, serving, and mission.
- The Pastor of Worship will also contribute to the overall health of the church through shepherding, discipleship, and care. This may include praying with people, encouraging volunteers, supporting families, teaching or leading in appropriate settings, and helping the church respond to God with faith and obedience.
- The ideal candidate will demonstrate spiritual maturity and a life that reflects the character described in 1 Timothy 3. This person should model a growing relationship with Jesus, humility, teachability, integrity, and a commitment to Scripture.
- Qualified candidates should have experience leading contemporary worship in a local church context. They should be able to lead a congregation with confidence and humility, develop worship and production volunteers, plan services with theological and creative intentionality, and collaborate well with a pastoral and ministry staff team.
- The strongest candidates will bring:
- A deep love for Jesus and a gospel-centered approach to worship.
- A clear calling to serve the local church through pastoral worship leadership.
- Strong vocal and musical ability.
- The ability to lead a congregation, not simply perform for a room.