Worship Leader Pitfalls #1 - Lack of CT

[twc_admin]

Hey Everyone -

I've just posted my first entry in a "Worship Leader Pitfalls" series, entitled "Lack of CT" - for "Creative Time".

The entire article is posted on my blog here - and I'll paste it below as well - look forward to your dialog.

For the Kingdom,
Fred

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Hey Everyone -
Welcome to the 1st entry in my "Worship Leader Pitfalls" series. This series was created to discuss common mistakes that we can easily make as Worship Leaders, Music Ministers (or other leaders). These aren't posted in a specific order, so it's not a real "ranked" list - just my thoughts on various issues that can hinder us from being as productive and effective as we could be. I look forward to dialog about it on the "Comments" section and I'll be posting this series on The Worship Community as well.


Pitfall #1 - Lack of Creative Time (CT)

This pitfall can be a huge issue with both part-time Worship Leaders and Full-Time Worship Leaders. Personally, I struggle immensely with this. "Creative Time" is time that is dedicated to the creative process. I'm assuming that as a worship leader, you are a musician, singer, performer, artist ... someone who comes from the "creative" mold. God has given us creative abilities to sing, play, arrange, produce, write, and lead.


In my experience, I've found that we can often fall into the trap of spending the majority of our time on administrative and social tasks such as scheduling, filing, and relationship building. These tasks are important and necessary - we have to schedule our bands and singers, music needs to be filed, chord charts need to be created, and we need to maintain a pastoral/shepherding role with those who are serving in music ministry under our leadership. At the same time, we can become very frustrated when these tasks consume much of our time and we've not spent time in the "creative" zone.


What are some examples of what I'd consider "creative time"?

• Alone time to just play your instrument in worship.
• Group time (outside of structured rehearsal) to jam with your other musicians. (this pays HUGE dividends)
• Alone time to compose songs. (great worship songs usually don't come from desk time)
• Writing time to journal, express your thoughts, blog, etc. (a river that is dammed up with no outflow becomes stagnant)
• Devotional time (this will overlap with "Quality Time", a separate entry), but so often, creative time is inspired by devotional time.
• Restoration/Recreation Time (I was discussing this pitfall with another musician/artist/worship leader who said "Fred, sometimes the best thing an artist can do is leave the office and take a walk on the beach"!) ... what inspires you?

For example, in my role as Worship Director I have several objectives and tasks that must be accomplished every week. For example, I need to have my lyrics and arrangements entered into ProPresenter and the .plist file uploaded to the projection team by Wednesday at 4:00 PM. Our team rehearses on Tuesday evenings, so all the arrangements, charts, and rehearsal CDs must be prepared prior to this. I also have staff meeting times, evaluation meeting times, etc. (case in point - today, spent about 2 hours meeting with the Youth Pastor and our Associate Worship Director on some vision casting and practical brainstorming ideas for band rehearsals, mentoring musicians, expectations, etc).


Yesterday, I finished up my "desk jobs" and "tasks" and knowing I had some other meetings this morning and afternoon, I left my office and came back to my home office/studio for some "creative time". I was able to get my lappie setup on top of the piano, fired up MasterWriter, and finally got to work on a new praise song that was inspired by a passage in Nehemiah that I'd bookmarked weeks ago. I was charged and refreshed afterwards and excited that with some more work and CT (Creative Time), I'll be ready to arrange/demo/ and teach this song to our congregation and potentially share it with the world.


I'm blessed to be in a position where I can pursue my creative talents while "on the clock", of course with the understanding that I have measurable goals. I'm accountable to my "direct report" (in my case, it's the Senior Pastor) and I certainly hope and pray that there is a measurable "overflow" in the anointing on my ministry and leadership to my local church and to the overall Body of Christ as a result of CT.


For the Pastors who read this blog ... especially for the ones who are reading this because their WORSHIP LEADERS sent them here (haha!):
Most Pastors I know understand that a worship leader/musician type ministry is one that flows from creativity. My encouragement to you is to bless your creative team with some liberty to "be creative" on the clock. Have measurable goals, deadlines for administrative tasks, and accountability. Granted, some people have proven to be more responsible with their "creative time" than others and that's why it's important to communicate clearly about what you are accomplishing. BALANCE is the key. If a WL feels confined to a desk from 8-5 all week with a punchlist of administrative tasks and meetings, it's not likely they will be as fresh and creative as you'd want them to be. At the same time, the WL can't just spend all day on the beach "reflecting" on God and "thinking" about worship. They can't be in the studio "playing" all day, and need to be engaged with the staff, the people, and the plans.



Explore some ways that you can engage your creative staff and allow them to flourish.


I've been reading "Built To Last", the prequel to "Good to Great" (which we are reading as a staff). I wish that I would've highlighed or marked it as I can't find which chapter it was in now, but one company had a policy in place where the engineers (maybe they were researchers?) were allowed a certain amount of time to "work on anything they liked" ... something that they could take initiative on and pursue. Well, it's obvious you'd need some parameters around something like that, but I think you get the idea.


WL's ...
If you take an inventory of your work week - how much CT are you experiencing? I recently evaluated this and regretted that I wasn't getting enough. I was ashamed to see how long it had been since I'd really sat down to compose a new instrumental theme, to compose a new praise or worship chorus, etc. As a result, I could tell how easily I could get into a rut of "familiarity" and not challenge myself. If I'm not challenging myself, how can I challenge others?


Your thoughts?
For the Kingdom,
Fred

[MarkSooy]

Fred,

Worship Leaders/planners are certainly not the only ones to experience this kind of stress. This is rampant in our society and culture. There are several very basic ideas to help in this area -- thought basic, not always easy to implement.

First -- Biblical and theological study must be a top priority for a worship leader/planner. It is unfortunate, but true, that many (or should I say "most") individuals who serve in this capacity are not trained as pastors -- although they are filling a pastoral role. (I could spend more time on this point, but Colossians 3 shows this to be the case.) This is the basis for solid planning and leading the Body of Christ.

Second -- Prioritize the priorities. After point one, above, if creative time is important, then it must be planned, scheduled, and enacted. I often say to those around me, "Plan the work, then work the plan." This is difficult for some with certain personality characteristics, yet it is a good discipline.

Third -- Don't try to "top" last week's worship set from week to week. Simplify if needed. Use smaller groups. Use one vocalist. Lead with the piano and one vocal. Lead with a guitar and flute and vocals. You get the idea. By simplifying, it gives interest and variety for the musician and the congregation.

That's all for now, though there is much more.

[twc_admin]

Mark -
Thanks for the reply - I appreciate a lot.

Your first post was right on, and will be one of the points in the series - I referred to it as "Quiet Time" or "Devotional Time", and just like CT, I often shock myself when I add up how much scheduled, intentional "QT" I have. Sheez - I'm the Worship Pastor, right? I mean, I think the WP/WL should be spending a lot of time in study/worship similar on the scale of the Senior Pastor or Teaching Pastor. We typically share as much as 50% of more of the platform time before the people of God, and often have opportunity to exhort or "teach" in between songs (wouldn't recommend too much of that, of course) ...

I'm grateful for your input .. also, Billy Chia frmo TWC left a comment on the blog post - good stuff there, too.

[ckujawa]

Great post Fred! (Not so) ironically it's right in line with what God's been putting on my heart lately.

One idea I heard during an interview with a worship leader not long ago (I do not recall who...but I mentioned it to my pastor) is to throw out a Bible verse to the team and let them go where God leads. I don't recall how the person on the radio did it, but my suggestion to our pastor was to hand out the verse, then allow the team (we're a small church and mostly instrumentalists on the worship team) to explore the verse musically for 15-20 minutes. I'm hoping that this happens soon in our church because I'm pumped to see the results.

Hmm...I wonder what the passage in Acts describing Paul's experience on the road to Damascus would sound like...

[El Ben]

Great point, Freddo. Look at the Psalms. How many of the sub-headings read like: "A psalm of David when he acted mad before Abimilech" or "A psalm of David while he was being pursued by his son Absolom." Even David had to find times in his own difficulties to flow in his giftings, a gift which (according to first and second Samuel was able to soothe the troubled soul).

Isn't it amazing how sometimes we can recharge our own spiritual batteries just by flowing in the giftings that God has given us? It's like one of those "Why are you downcast O my soul, arise and bless the Lord" or "fan into flame the gift of God in you" moments.

[twc_admin]

Thanks, Ben .. and welcome home!

One of the luxuries of this forum - in this case, you and I live on the same island! I appreciate your response all the more because of how many times I've walked into CRCSSI un-announced, and found you in there on the piano worshiping all by yourself! And all the times I've found scraps of paper where you sitting in there writing and worshiping!

[MarkSooy]

Fred,

My thoughts behind biblical/theological study go beyond the typical devotional style of reading. Worship leaders and planners must strive to be educated as Pastors. This means in-depth, seminary level study leading to a deeper understanding of both the biblical material, as well as the theological development of Christian thought and doctrine.

At a very basic level, this will help them weed out the ridiculous amount sub-par theological statements made in songs both new and old. We must protect ourselves from being trapped by busy-ness and missing obvious errors found in many, many songs.

Beyond that, a deeper theological education will help them to actually "pastor" the people they are leading.

[russhutto]

Great post Fred.

Mark, I'm one of those "pastoral" people who doesn't have seminary training. I see where you're coming from, although I don't fully agree. I guess because I see pastoring people more about pastoring people than presenting theological concepts. By that I mean, shepherding people, taking care of their needs, and equipping them to live life as followers of Christ.Not to diminish being well-versed and knowledgable when it comes to scripture. It's the source, the well, the spring from which our life in Christ comes from.

In my opinion, uneducated (haha) as it is, I believe that if at all possible those who wish to pastor would have some sort of Biblical training, if it carries through to the seminary level than great, if not, then God knows.

That's not a cop out. BUT, for centuries, maybe millenia even, God has worked through the ordinary, uneducated just fine. And though there were a few whack jobs along the way, God's plan will unfold, whether it's through a seminary graduate in the States OR a rice farmer in China.

[twc_admin]

Hey Guys -

Also I think that's one of the main purposes of this community ... when we keep our ideas and doctrine all to ourselves, as if we have the full revelation, we're in big trouble. I love the concept of posting our thoughts on worship here on TWC, only to have them challenged or discussed by lots of others from various veins of theology or thoughts .... it's awesome!

[MarkSooy]

We seem to be heading in the same direction with these thoughts. Obviously, seminary education is costly and often not available. Church finances do not often allow for continuing education.

The spirit of my thoughts are that having a "devotional time" as many Christians percieve it to be -- read a couple verses, say a quick prayer and hope for the best -- is certainly not enough for those who are called to pastoral ministry.

I think serious study can be self-directed, as long as it is broad and thorough. It's not enough to read Scripture and draw conclusions from what we read, though reading of Scripture (front to back) is vital. We are ill-served, however, when we distance ourselves from the study of seriuos bible students of the past -- whether that's Tozer and Schaeffer from the 20th Century, or Calvin and Luther from the Reformation, and back to Augustine and Anselm. Many doctrinal mistakes are made simply from the fundamentalist assumption that "me and my bible are enough." Let's not make this mistake which describes much of church leadership in the late 20th Century.

As Francis Schaeffer noted, it is our thoughts that direct our actions. The thinking always comes first, then our actions. Thus our ability to think Christianly must precede our ability to act Christianly. (This is a summary, and I can give the direct quote if desired). Of course, the renewal of the mind is the biblical first step as well (Romans 12:1-2).

Happy 4th!!