It seems that many local church gatekeepers readily applaud ministry that looks like the successes of other churches rather than champion the indigenous creation from their own people. My friends in the business world do this all the time. One company sells computers successfully, so reverse engineering takes place by competitors.  The idea is to emulate the success and hopefully exceed the level of your competition. In church work, our thinking may actually be similar. 

The thought is this: “If a song is popular on the Christian radio station, then surely it will resonate with people in our worship services.” Instead, creative leadership says this: “We need to worship and lead culturally from who we are and from who spiritually we desire to be.” In the first case, no question is asked and answered about the assets and opportunities existing around you. The second idea starts at home then outside content is validated or dismissed. When you are blind to self-awareness the only option left is to copy another’s identity. However, when you know who you are, you set the stage for creativity. 

Why copy? Cut-and-paste creativity is about efficiency. We can download from the Internet complete sermons, including outlines, small group handouts, and polished graphics. We do this, because it is efficient and looks and feels like the successful church we admire. Learning the process and finding inspiration from these incredible ministries and their leaders is a must. Best practices are mined by competent leaders. But, we should never simply copy without full disclosure. If we champion the need for authenticity, should not that value steer us to create rather than emulate?

Inspiration and mastery calls us to create. Ambition or fear drives us to cut and paste. Most have the best intentions. To reach a community is the heart of most pastors I know, but fear of letting go of the process to reach those people narrows the bandwidth of the local church. What if people not like us actually become leaders and start steering things? That fact is inevitable. Time offers us a shelf-life. Legacy is ours to own or abdicate. Would we want to lose our legacy to the creative energy of leaders who have no personal relationship with us?

Failure has value. When we copy another’s success, we lose our ability to fail with our own creativity. This one fact alone stalls us! Innovation allows mistakes that we choose to make, not that others prescribe for us. The trendy church culture is gullible, fickle and ever-changing. Songs, sermons and personalities are fluid. A church needs to birth from their identity to be a force that lasts. If we pass on anything, it should be who we are. If we do not know how to answer that question, then perhaps passing on is not an issue to us. We live in the now, and worship the god of efficiency.

This post is part of a blog initiative for Leadership Journal’s Conversations. This is a new site and I was invited with some others to contribute to the conversation.

There have been plenty of intense times of spiritual battle. I remember one encounter that was especially powerful. It is not often that specific prayers of spiritual battle are verified after the fact. Most of the time I have prayed against the devil, for protection of people, and when I was scared of the dark. My most intense time of spiritual warfare stands out because it was more than my own experience.  Others were sharing it. And, they were thousands of miles away.

I traveled to Chicago with my wife to interview with a church ministry in regards to a worship pastor position they were soon filling. Besides meeting hospitable midwesterners, experiencing fireflies, and eating authentic bratwurst, not much else from this trip was memorable. This season in my life included several interviews like this one.

I tossed and turned in bed. At first I thought it was the bratwurst influencing this deep pressure and emotional turmoil I felt. It soon became clear to me that I was supposed to get up and pray. A friend from my small group Bible study came to mind. It was as if I could almost see him in my mind.

There were no words heard in my mind, but I knew that my friend at that exact moment was in a spiritual battle and God chose to include me in the fight. I took note of that moment on the clock. With my wife sleeping in our hotel room bed near me, I got up and silently prayed. The few moments of prayer passed and I went back to sleep.

There was a moment when I wondered if it all was really the bratwurst. So, talking to my friend about the experience took some nerve. I asked him what happened at the actual time I woke and prayed for him. The timezone difference made it clear he was not in bed. His response amazed me.

My friend frequented a bookstore coffee shop in Northern California. He purposed to talk to people about his faith. He sat at a table and began a conversation with a man. My friend described something odd happening to him. He could not speak. Some force would not allow him to talk to this man. He said he knew it was a spiritual attack. From Chicago, I fought with my buddy in California.

The reality of spiritual warfare became much more real to both of us. In our small group Bible study, a friend experienced ritual sacrifices on a his property. In my circle of friends, marriages were under attack, and families were struggling as well. I received a gift to be included in the heavenly intervention of my friend’s attempt to share his faith. Looking for a fight? Spiritual warfare can find us, sometimes.

What is your most intense spiritual warfare experience?

Having traveled a bit and visited many churches this past year, I see a pattern in the modern worship world. In fact, for the past decade I have been in that category as a worship leader. There are twitter feeds sharing set lists of the songs worship leaders choose. People in the pews or theater seats across America experience more of the same on their Sunday morning worship music menu than ever before. This one-size-fits-all thinking might be the death of true creativity. And, as a result it may flatten our ability to connect deeply to our community. 

There are guitar sites, Youtube channels, and businesses built on showing how to paint-by-numbers. This includes the tone, sound and look of the most famous worship bands out there. Even the hipster dress code, as I observe when speaking or attending at worship conferences, conforms to plaid shirts, Tom’s Shoes, and v-necks. The worst offender is the skinny jeans. Seriously, fashion sense is really not a problem and creative people lead in this. But, why so monolithic?

Today’s recipe for success is the “me-too” cover band. Churches echo sermon series and graphics from the popular houses of worship. Everything is downloadable with a click. A local artist recently said this: “Cover bands are where dreams go to die.” After dying in laughter for a few minutes, sadness overcame me when reflecting on our Sunday experiences. The idea of being an “artist” and the calling that God has given artists dies in a cut-and-paste mentality that pervades our Sunday programming. Creativity is really “copy-tivity” in this world. And, it goes beyond music, shaping the sermons preached in our pulpits, graphics on our website banners, and fog machines.

Some will balk at this perspective. They will ask, “if it works, why not use things that are efficient and popular?” “Why reinvent the wheel?” The idea is to measure the ends, not the means. “If a pastor in another town preaches better, why not use his sermon instead of your own?” This is faulty thinking. We create not because creating is our goal, but to create indigenously means the people I serve, the people I am called to reach and the city I live in matter. If we know the people as we should, we should actually be able to connect far better to them than someone else who does not know them.

We should employ good tools. Yes! And, the innovation of some churches challenges us all. Being influenced and inspired is one thing. Copying as a habit is another. We can take the best practices and become better. If we ban innovation, creativity and the skills and work this requires we may lose our voice to the very people we want to reach.

Do we lose our connection with people or increase it by Cut-and-Paste Creativity?

One of the most important reasons to blog is the community aspect of it. Those of us who work as volunteer and staff leaders in churches, as I have over the years, have places to go to discuss, learn and grow. This week I am featured in three blog posts on copyrightcommunity.com where I write a bit about copyrights from the perspective of church leaders.

Go and check out the first one dealing with ethics of copyrights in the church: View from Both Sides of the Table.

This is a repost from September 2009 in my Leadership Series.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Philippians 2:1-11 ESV)

Really, sometimes I wonder if we who lead in any capacity get it at all. Jesus came to serve and lay down His life for His Father’s mission. We want perks for minimal sacrifice! Here is list of five things that you will get instead of your parade:

1. Legacy: whether its a good one or bad one is not the question. What you do will impact and last beyond you. You can be an inspiration, pleasant memory or the fart caught up in a whirlwind.
2. Pushback: even those who are on your side from time to time will press against you. Then, there are those who are competing against your very mission in life. Count on being pushed back–whether friendly fire or not it will come.
3. Loneliness: there will be some decisions, seasons and issues that you have to be the last man (or woman) standing on. Its not lonely at the top, its lonely at the sewer where real leadership happens.
4. Fatigue: I need not say too much here. Its tiring when you are thinking through, praying through leadership of people. Do not think you can coast or be comfortable. Managing fatigue is a major responsibility of leadership.
5. Reward: you may not get your parade this side of heaven nor deserve one. But, what we suffer with Christ as we live His mission will indeed give us reward. You may get reward this side of heaven, actually. But, that is not gonna help you. It may hurt you if you ever feel entitled to it.

Do you have any additions or comments about this list?

This 18-minute video was recommended to me today. I have seen it before, but today it actually hit home. The creative tribe thinks backwards and always is asking “why” and conventional wisdom in leadership circles says this is “backwards” in my personal experience. The speaker, Simon Sinek, clearly lays out the “golden circle” which says why, then how, then what exists. When you live in a world that focuses on the what or how, the creative is against the grain. This video from TedxPuget Sound (Sept 2009) gives some logic to the power of the “why” and contrasts how most focus on what they do, keeping why fuzzy.

For conversation, do you think its normal or backwards to start with “why”?

In our age of marketing, faith seems to act as a commodity like any other product sold. If evangelizing at a large event, good looking athletes and talented performers share the stage with gifted communicators. The lighting is decent. In fact, the production value at a lot of houses of worship of even modest size rivals those of the average club or music venue.

Are we just putting on a venue to market and display Christianity or are we creating a community of faith and simply expressing it? In order to market, our church may have to say basically what they are not and why they are better. This may not be overt in the copy on our website, but of course messages are sent by what we do as well as what we say. In a church leadership vibe today that tries to be too cool, we might be defining ourselves more by what we are not rather than who we are.

A lot of the seeker sensitive church plants of the 80s and 90s were an open protest to not be what everything else was at the time. Now, this was not nor is not an entirely bad thing given how many churches failed to reach their communities. However, that very attitude while spawning some very effective ministries may have also presented a culture we will have a hard time shedding.

It is more than wearing thick dark-rimmed glasses and designer-cut jeans as you deliver a sermon. But, that could be part of it. The classic youth group culture where everything is better for the kids because it is not like what their parents experience is now the norm for everyone in the church. In the youth group, an arguably dying ministry trend, a group is celebrated because they are allowed to be different. They use a fun translation of the Bible. They have their own music. And, if a church can afford the program, they have their own room, building and house band. Sounds like big church today, does it not?

With more than one generation grown up in a youth group, we now have services designed by the level of volume, how many hymns are sung and what kind of coffee will be served. You can get video piped in to a closer location to where you live. I have launched these types of venues, and think there surely is value to them. But, should the goal be to make church so tailored to me that I feel comfortable? After all, Sunday morning is the most racially segregated hour of the week. Why make that issue worse?

In our endeavor to be cool and relevant and hit people with that marketing sweet spot, we need to put marketing in its proper place. It is a tool, not a function of ministry. This is true of our buildings and organizational structures as well. When we let our tools determine our function rather than support who we are we lose church being church to some degree.

Some questions to ponder:

1. If your church were to be hit with a huge natural disaster, what would still survive as far as programming and why? (For instance, would small groups, youth, etc. still exist?)
2. There is a tension between creating a venue for a targeted audience to connect with and calling people to be fully committed disciples of Jesus. How should this tension be managed?
3. It is possible for our tools to overshadow our function to make disciples. How do we keep our passion for the tools from being greater than our passion to be the church?
4. What is better? To pragmatically deal with how people are different in age, race and culture or to try to create a church environment where the tensions of these and other things can exist under one roof? How does one decide which value is best?
5. What do you think about the term “relevant” as is used today in church leadership circles? What ministry value are we proclaiming when we choose to use it or not to use it? (No offense to a magazine with that title, by the way.)

At The Forge Conference in Ocean Grove, New Jersey we recorded a LIVE version of Worship Mythbusters! The panel was made up of worship leaders and speakers from the conference. Episode 10: The Myth of the Happy Clappy.

When Joel Klampert said I had to come to the New Jersey Shore and help with The Forge Conference, I immediately knew it would be something unique. Joel is unique. I had never met a worship leader from Rhode Island like him! (Actually, he is also the only worship leader I knew from there.) And, the vision of this conference to serve the smaller local church and challenge out-of-box thinking resonated with me and the seasons I have spent in church planting. The diversity of backgrounds from liturgical, charismatic, Messianic, baptist to modern worship stretched the pallet and enriched the environment like no other conference on worship I have ever attended.

Here are some highlights from my perspective:

• I was led in worship by and jammed in the late night worship with a dulcimer player and worship leader Dan Wilt and was moved deeply by Jeremy Dunn and Dan Wilt’s liturgical-yet-modern time of worship.
• Facilitated the WorshipMythbusters.com podcast live with an amazing panel on the topic: The Myth of the Happy Clappy. It seemed this and the other open forum panel encouraged me to continue and hone what I do with my podcast and other teaching settings about worship.
• Taught a WorshipMythbusters.com session in an 1880s chapel where the song “Great is Thy Faithfulness” was first sung. The religious history of Pilgrim Way, the Victorian architecture, the helpful staff of Ocean Grove all were appreciated and made for a terrific setting.
• John Voelz’s talk about indigenous worship hit a chord with me. He and the other Key Note guys were on fire!
• My daughter and I with Joel Klampert and Shannon Lewis lead worship together in a very meaningful session where all the attendees were prayed over and sent out.
• I LOVE people from New England. Their accent and sarcasm is almost as good as some of us from the Left Coast.
• Yes, my daughter Emilie was with me and that made the travel and the conference just that much more meaningful.
• The attendees: The top highlight was how encouraged I was by meeting, chatting and praying with worship leaders as we swapped stories.

I made a decision before I ever was a professional minister in the local church to serve in the church as a family. My parents modeled that, and as I was courting my dear love as a young adult we forged an agreement that we had to learn to do ministry together if we were to marry. That was back when cell phones were coming of age and before Facebook existed.

 Ministry is a family business. From church plants to megachurch employment, my family has always seen it this way. Sometimes it has been on the stage with me in front of thousands singing together, or in quiet places like our living room praying with dear friends. My wife has ran sound and tech in a church plant as well as filled the role of leadership in children’s ministry. She has been the “tentmaker” in lean times, working to pay our bills on top of all of this.

Years ago, a mentor and influencer of mine shared how he kept his family involved in his creative arts ministry. The thinking was since holidays were often times of heavy hours, why not include his wife and kids in the very ministry where he was spending those hours. One could sing, one could paint sets and all of them could be together. I took his advice and never regretted it, even though I knew some could never understand this decision.

People resent talent. There, I said it. When I discovered my own girl could sing I allowed her–as I did any young person with talent–to join our worship team. She grew in the process and people were blessed by her leadership of worship along my side. Of course, some people chose to see this as a threat. Sometimes serving as a family has a down side. We have experienced that first hand.

In other cases, a lead pastor’s spouse is treated either as someone who has to be at every function or banned from any official input. Why not come up with a way institutionally to help facilitate what we all know already exists? Many resent that a spouse has influence they do not possess. Is there not a way to help support the gifts and call of a ministry leader’s spouse and family that neither excludes them from the organizational structure or healthy boundaries?

A healthy situation will see to it that the gifts and call of each member of that ministry family is empowered. Unhealthy situations will make these issues taboo to even mention and use institutional policy and politics to wet blanket God’s unique calling to a family set apart for longterm, vocational service. When a minister’s family misbehaves or things go awry it is pretty messy, too. But, if our institutions are about keeping things smooth and not about the people in them I believe they have failed.

Ministry should be a family business for all of us. Sometimes one of us is out front. Sometimes, not. But, if we are to raise up others for works of service, should that not also include our own spouse and children? This thick tension to live this out as a family exists not because of bad intentions but because of institution-over-people thinking. And, what does being a professional minister mean anyway?