I just finished watching a series of messages from Craig Groeschel called “So You’re Dead…Now What?” and I just wanted to encourage you to check them out. I was really impressed by the boldness with which he approached the very difficult subject of death and the afterlife. They are so well put together that I watched all of them in one sitting.
For my final reflection I have saved the most important thing that I have learned from Worship Ministry.
Musical ability will never be as important as spiritual zeal
Coming from a pretty diverse musical background playing in bars, clubs, festivals, and churches the one thing I knew when I entered worship ministry was that I had to be good. I thought that my musical ability and how well I presented the music would lead people to worship, and while I also see that as an important part I now know that it is not nearly the most important thing.
If a worship minister displays zeal and passion for seeking God and doing whatever it takes to lead people to His feet in worship people, will likely follow. That kind of heart is easy to follow, but when we are only concerned with what the music sounds like and how the set flows, then we are totally missing the point of leading people into worship of God.
Believe me, I’m the first guy to preach quality and excellence in our church’s presentation of worship, the line I walk seeking perfection every week is sometimes a struggle for me, but the day that becomes more important than keeping an ear open to God’s leading is the day that we have missed the point of worship.
Now, I don’t do this very often because I hate it when people give me advice that I didn’t ask for, but here’s some free advice for all you Sr. Ministers out there. When your looking for a worship minister to transform the way your church thinks about worship and take your services to the next level, DON’T HIRE THE GUY YOU THINK HAS THE MOST TALENT! Hire the guy that you think has the most PASSION for seeking God and growing in their relationship with Him. Worship is all about growth and coming to a greater understanding of God, and if the leader ain’t growing, then no one is gonna.
It has been good to reflect, and with these final words I am going to release my involvement in vocational worship ministry for good. I’m okay with that because at Horizon I have a great guy to hand it to. It’s all your B-rye.
The third reflection I would like to offer from my time as a worship minister is this:
Helpful feedback is hard to find
If you are a musician or have ever done anything on a stage at church you might be shaking your head saying, “people are ALWAYS willing to give me feedback. It isn’t hard to find.” So let me reiterate: “HELPFUL feedback is hard to find.”
More so than any other position within a church, EVERYONE thinks they know a little something about how to do the music, and accordingly it seems that everyone is willing to share that with their worship minister. They’ll say things like, “I loved that song, I just wish there were a picture on the screen for me to look at while you sang it.” or “I just don’t like that song, we just sang the same words over and over.”
While most of the time, the feedback received from members of the congregation is meant to help, it just doesn’t. Most people in the church that offer you advice, are really only trying to do one of three things: encourage you, discourage you, or convince you to help them accomplish their own personal agenda. (Notice I said MOST people. There are always exceptions, so please don’t send me an email about how I have tried to lump every church goer in America together.)
For these reasons I believe that it is VERY important that every worship minister find a few people who they can trust to be truly honest with them and ask them to offer regular constructive criticism. The best candidates for this role are often the people that never offer their advice unless it is asked for. It would also be helpful if these people were from outside the church.
The truth is, ministers (no matter what their job is) cannot let all of their feedback come from their general congregation. While it is good to have a grip on how your congregation views your ministry, we must constantly have people making us aware of how we are performing our ministry with an unbiased eye.
The second reflection I would like to offer from my time as a worship minister is this:
People notice how you do your job.
I have always been surprised at how much attention most people paid to how I did my job. Notice I didn’t say how well I did my job, just how I did it. As most of my friends know I am a very anal person. I like things done in a very specific, very neat, and very efficient way. And whether people see that as a positive or negative, they notice it, and they let me know that they notice it.
Team members can tell when you have put 10 hours into planning a service and are prepared for rehearsal, but they also know when you put 2 hours into it and haven’t even run through the songs yet. I don’t care what kind of business you run your people will notice the class and maturity with which you handle your duties. If you are constantly a mess and scrambling to get things done, most people won’t be able to deal with that for long, and you will find yourself with a rotating cast of team members, staff members, or employees. This is an all-to-common situation that most churches find themselves in.
I believe that the mark of any good leader is that he or she is always OVER-prepared to lead their team, and prepared to modify that plan to fit the ever-changing situation.
Today marks my final day as a worship minister. After today I will officially be out of the professional music biz, and because of the impact this job has had on my life over the last 6 years I wanted to share some of the things that I have learned, with you.
Musical style doesn’t matter!
I have been in traditional old churches and contemporary new churches and even though their styles were drastically different I have learned that the type or style of the music we play doesn’t really matter. I believe that every problem person I have ever met, and everyone of my biggest fans would have remained on the same side of the fence no matter what style of music I introduced (within reason of course). Sometimes, people use musical style as an excuse for why they don’t like you, and if you are a worship minister you have to realize that they probably wouldn’t like you no matter what your style was, and you should NEVER let that bother you.
This world has problem people, but I believe that there are more compassionate and caring people than we often let ourselves believe there are. I have, by far, had more fans than foes over the year, and what I have come to realize is that the people who loved me and supported my ministry didn’t do so because of style, they did it because of my heart. They weren’t looking at how well I performed my job duties, they were looking at character, integrity, and class with which I did those duties. I believe that how you do the job is always more important than how well you do the job.
More to come, later this week. Peace out Louisville, KY!
After reading a series of posts on Mike’s blog about the local church I was inspired to take a few minutes out to thank some local churches who have really stepped it up to spread the gospel message to the world. These are churches that are supporting Horizon in our new church efforts. I am very thankful that there are churches out there that share our passion for reaching the lost so much that they have freely given of their financial resources to help Horizon do just that. Check out their websites for more information, and pray for these churches who are steppin’ up to advance the kingdom of God!
This week, a Missouri woman found Jesus in a bag of cheetos. “Cheesus” is what this woman claims to be the perfect likeness of Jesus hanging on the cross made out of a cheetos cheese puff. Read the whole story.
When I first heard this story this morning on the radio I thought, “Some people will do anything to get their 15 minutes of fame!” But the more I thought about what this woman was claiming the more it broke my heart. You see, I came to realize that there are some people in this world who are so desperate to find God in any corner of their life that they are even willing to pretend they see Him in a cheetos bag.
There are people out there that are so desperate to feel the love and acceptance of Christ, but they go looking in all of the wrong places for it. This just makes me want to do whatever it takes to make our churches in America the FIRST place people go when they are seeking to truly meet God. As funny as it sounds I don’t think that most of the public would go directly to the church if they were seeking to find an authentic God, and that’s why they go in so many other directions.
What can we do as members of the Body of Christ to change this?!?!
The other day I was posting on this blog when I noticed that I had inadvertently blown past my 100th post. No big deal, but I think that’s something worth celebrating. For almost two years now I have been sharing my thoughts, hopes, and fears with the world through this blog and like all milestones I think it would be worthwhile to stop and reflect on how I got here and what I learned I the process. Allow me to share.
I have learned to value others’ opinions
If you blog, you know that not everyone is going to agree with everything that you say. There are even some people who will vehemently oppose your viewpoints and will not be shy about letting you know it. But through it all I have learned that you don’t need to agree with someone to learn something from them.
I have learned to be transparent
Something that I have grown into over these last 106 posts is becoming more transparent as a leader. Nobody wants to follow someone who is always right and pretends to have zero problems. Those kind of people aren’t easy to relate to. So, I have tried to be as transparent about my struggles, fears, and opinions as possible on this blog, and I think it has helped people see the real me.
I have learned to be committed to sharing my life with others
Knowing that I should blog two or three times a week, or probably more, has helped me to stay more committed to sharing my life with others. This has even spread to more than just the cyber world for me. Since, I have been blogging I feel like a portal to my life has been opened for all to see, and I have become more willing to share about my life and experiences; something that I have found infinitely useful as a teacher.
I hope I learn as much from the next 107 posts as I did the first.
I’m a simple man. It doesn’t take much to get me excited, and last night was a perfect example. I arrived home at about 9:30pm from Louisville to find two huge boxes waiting at my door. It was the first round of custom printed envelopes and letterhead for Horizon. This wouldn’t normally get someone excited, but I was just tickled. I guess it’s because after over a year this church is becoming more of a reality every day.
Every time we break a small barrier down, or have a simple milestone pass I get excited; much like I do as a father when my son does small yet monumental things. Now just imagine how God feels when we have those small victories in our life. Things that other people might not think are a very big deal, but for your life and situation might be a huge leap of faith or step in the right direction.
I think we should take time in our lives to be proud of even the small steps we take to become closer to God and His will for our lives. Don’t let others dictate what excites you about your progress.
This week I have become Mr. Mom. In transition my wife has started a part time job, that requires a month of full time training. So, I’m adjusting my schedule to become Mr. Mom for the family for the next month. It’s actually been great to spend some extended alone time with my son. I mean until now,there have been very few times where we have been alone together without mommy.
One of the greatest things is that while mom’s gone we get to play and wrestle like REAL men. He was even showing off his new found wrestling skills to our group this weekend when he tackled me and started biting my ankle to force me into submission. Because of this he has found a new favorite game, and I like to call it, “Climb over Daddy”. We’ll sit on the floor together and he will time after time climb over my legs, then turn around and do it again. My thought is that he is proud of the fact that he can easily climb over me and is trying to impress me, and I have to admit he does every time.
As we were playing this game this morning I got to thinking. Don’t some of us try to do this same thing? Sometimes we take on more than we can handle, or try to do impossible things alone just to prove to someone that we can. While I can understand why my son loves this game, I don’t understand why we as adults do this. Even though I have done this very thing before I don’t understand it.
We serve a God who is there to help us, and with His help we are able to do a lot more than we can ourselves. So why do we go it alone so many times?
