Archive for the ‘Church Stuff’ Category
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Leadership is not always about making things happen. Sometimes its getting yourself or obstructions out of the way of what already is happening. Leadership is also about investing in people to reproduce ministry, not just get things done.
Here is a 60 second or so video with more thoughts on this…
So, do you agree with the idea that leadership is passing on and removing things rather than keeping and creating on our own?
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Do we lead worship to impress or engage people to life change? Leading worship is actually part of any pastor’s heart if we look at it that way.
As worship leaders we provide a safe place to meet God. We design experiences that are based biblically on truth, decoding the culture while engaging people in drawing nearer to God.
What do you think: is worship leading pastoring or something else?
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
This is a repost from here…
Ten things that damage a worship ministry and hamper worship in a church
- Church politics: not everyone can or will be “pleased” by the style of worship at a church, no matter how many services, styles, video venues or times for worship. Pleasing people in general is a bad idea, right?
- Biblical illiteracy: a worship ministry that does not commit to biblically presenting a complete Jesus or filter song choice or content biblically will risk teaching the congregation a lessor picture of Jesus.
- Utility over Artistry: a demand to see music, and other expressions of worship as utility and not understand art hurts the ability to actually authentically express. It makes worship a means to something rather than the end.
- Church politics: not everyone has gifts to lead or can be in front all the time. The goal in worship leadership is to serve the church, not your own desire to be leading upfront or showcasing talent. When personalities clamor for the stage, it hurts our worship expression.
- Not letting the kids take over: keeping worship for my generation and not giving the younger mentorship, exposure and leadership opportunities in worship means the church loses the future. Remember, they are not the church of the future, they are the church.
- Worshiping excellence: pushing the worship team to be so non-inclusive that only a small elite become the musicians, singers and tech might hurt the church since losing one of these individuals means a huge hole and loss of excellence.
- Lack of Excellence: if music, lighting, speaking and whatever is available is not done well, the church loses gifted people who would rather not subjugate their gifting to poor planning, execution or leadership. (So, with 6 & 7 there is a sweet spot each church has to find–value doing your best, while not making it a club!)
- Christian subculture: when music selection is limited to only a small group of writers from a couple publishers and there is one radio station in town your veteran church members listen to, we live in a ghetto. The goal is not to keep our worship expression in a bubble but to reach the world. Make worship style indigenous to reach and reflect your community, not the choice of Christian publishers marketing to veteran Christians.
- Church politics: song selection, use of drums, volume, personalities, who gets to play, friends, complaint cards…
- Me, myself and I: the trinity of selfishness perhaps is the root cause of all of these. Worship in a local church is “us” worshiping our God. Even when we feel our personal need to worship is important, gathering with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of worshipers is something special and not about me or you in that moment.
Which of these is the worst offender, you think?
Monday, May 17th, 2010
There are many ways to sink a church. Here are ten ways to be sure you stay submerged.
Top 10 WORST ideas in growing a church…
- Never think about what comes next in making any decision.
- Believe that technology is evil!
- Believe that technology will save you!
- Prayer? What prayer?
- The status quo is preferred to the unknown. Duh!
- People feeling good about each other and themselves is a sign of success. Can we sing “Kumbaya” now?
- Appeasement really seemed like a decent idea at the time. Oops.
- No one ever mentioned that the leaders had to practice what they preached.
- Remember the glory days? Well, they are gone now.
- We don’t need to grow. Numbers are evil and its the “quality” that counts, not reaching new people!
Can any of you can think of one I missed here? Any on the list you agree or disagree with?
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Take Clinton Keith Rd west into the ... 
jason on My favorite spot to think is a waterfall hike…what’s yours? — i don't have a "spot"
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Rick on My favorite spot to think is a waterfall hike…what’s yours? — Oops, looks like your comment section doesn't parse code like that. Here's the url:
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