In.Motion

Long title, I know, so my apologies.

I’ve been in a big planning/proactive mood recently, so I’ve been revisiting some old favorite books to glean some more insight and thoughts on what’s been on my mind recently. I started reading Stanley/Joiner/Jones’ “Seven Practices of Effective Ministries” again, and something occurred to me. I’ve always read this as something that a head pastor or someone who made big, path-altering decisions in the church to check out, but what about us creative/worship leader types? What if we looked at it through our lens and tried to see what it would look like to implement some of these practices to make our worship/creative ministries more effective in the practical. In the next couple of posts, I want to take a look at these different practices and try and apply it to these realms.

First up, “Clarify the Win”.

The book defines “Clarifying the Win” as “communicating to your team what is really important and what really matters”. Basically, in your ministry, what are the most important and pressing things you need to be doing? The purpose for this is summed up really well with a quote saying, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”. To be able to make progress and see growth from our actions, we have to first find a way to measure what success looks like in a tangible way.

Do I know what an absolute win looks like in a worship setting? No, but we’ll get to that in a moment. I feel like pushing ourselves to define wins in these conventionally undefinable contexts will allow us to increase the impact of our ministry. When we don’t clarify the win, we force our musicians, leaders, or staff members to guess at what it is, which causes miscommunication. I feel like wins are important to establish because at the core, people (whether volunteers or staff) want to have clarity in what they are trying to accomplish and they do not want to do menial tasks. The want their actions and time to have impact.

Clarifying the win keeps everyone on the same page, which can be very difficult to do when you deal with musicians and the like that don’t usually do well with structure or constraints on vision. It also “creates the potential for positive momentum”, which can be paramount in a suffering or young ministry. “When people know what a win looks like, they are much more likely to win”, which translates into people ultimately & hopefully being lead into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

So, what does it look like to have a “win” in a worship environment? What does it looks like to have a “win” in your creative department? This is something I’ll be digging into in the future, but my first thoughts are they for a worship leader, it must be something we can measure and work at, through prayer and practice, to improve upon. For a creative ministry, I feel like a win has to have to do with whatever creative elements we use being clear in their intent, relevant to the congregation, & always pointing back to the cross and Jesus.

So now I ask you guys:
What does a “win” look like for a worship ministry?
What does a “win” look like for a creative ministry?

One.Love

cd

We’ll always be learning.
I think it’s safe to say that, right? I’ve had a lot of time to process and just kind of take things in recently. I’ve been leading far less and processing a lot more. I think God gives us all times in life where we sit back and take it all in so that He can prepare us for things to come. Here are some thoughts that I’ve been processing through lately:

Time I spend preparing to lead can be far more important than leading.
This has become more evident to me as truth than just a thought. I’m not talking about learning the tunes I’m going to be leading or finding scripture that bolsters the songs. That’s a small part of it, but I’m talking about the amount of time I focus on my relationship with Christ and how honest I am in that relationship. Honest prayer has done so much for my walk and will effect how I lead in the future.

Worship is more than a response to God.
It is also the work of God and His grace in our lives. I’ve heard and talked about how worship isn’t just singing songs as long as I can remember. This guy put it really well so I’ll just quote him, “Grace is God doing for us what we could not and it is God doing in us what we cannot”. I still have a lot of processing left to go to begin to really understand this.

Trusting the Spirit in worship takes all pressure off the worship leader.
Granted, the leader needs to be a good steward of his responsibility and prepare as he should spiritually and musically, but ultimately, if we submit to the Spirit to engage His people in worship, God will be worshiped. And this doesn’t always look like a congregation that is going nuts or being loud. It can be like that, and we’re tempted to expect the Spirit to move in this way most of the time, but the Spirit can move in huge ways in the stillness of hearts or in the contemplation of the mystery of God. When it comes down to it, this is an issue of submission, which I happen to have a difficult time with.

These were just the first things off of my head that I’ve been thinking about. I think it’s spiritually healthy to chew on things that we don’t fully understand sometimes, whether you’re a worship leader or a parking team member (which turns out to be pretty fun). I don’t think I’ll ever fully comprehend the miracle that is grace or what worship fully entails, but I know that I’m ok with that. So, that brings me to you:

What are you processing through right now?

One.Love

cd

“Why do I write my blog?”
This one of many questions a blogger should ask themselves on occasion. If I’m going to invest my time and some creative energy & thought into something, I like to have a clear purpose and focus behind it. I decided to conduct something like a self-interview. So, I cooked up a few questions to guide my thoughts on the What/Who/Why of In.Motion. Here they are . . .

Q: What is this blog about?
A: I want to stay mostly within 5 main categories.
Worship: My thoughts on worship leading and worship music. My general musings on growing as a worship leader.

Faith: My thoughts and observations on how God is moving in my life. This is my attempt to be transparent and open, within reason, with the good and bad of my walk in an effort to spur others to authenticity in their own lives.

Life: My thoughts on what is happening to me, in general. This is more about the day-to-day or interesting things that are going on.

Bible: My thoughts on what I am reading and how it applies in my life. Hopefully, this will encourage others to see how the Bible applies to them as well.

Creativity: My thoughts on any cool things that I’d call creative. Taking time to notice out-of-the-box ideas can lead to creativity of your own.

Q: Who do I write my blog for?
A: I write for believers, worship leaders, and friends.

Q: Why do I write my blog?
A: I write my blog so that I can put my thoughts about worship, life, and my walk into words. Hopefully, what I write can be encouraging and helpful as well as a mean of accountability for myself. I’d like to show how God is moving in my life and how I am being shaped through my circumstances, whether good or bad.

Q: Why In.Motion?
A: In Motion is a way for me to express the fact that no matter our circumstances, no matter where we are in life, we are always in motion. More importantly, God is always moving in our lives. Let me rephrase that: No matter our circumstances, God is always in motion. This can be a source of hope for those who believe because the Bible says in Romans 8:28, “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him”. God moves in the good, God works through the bad, and, undoubtably, God always redeems. That is my hope.

I think that this is going to be a good, fresh restart. I’m hoping that In.Motion can be used to glorify God, to help me grow, and, hopefully, help others grow as well. Also, let me say this: I know I’m not perfect and this is not my attempt to come across as such. I’m going to say dumb things and I might even offend people (I am a sinner). Please know that I write this blog with the intent of building others up and with some degree of foresight. I only want to share how God is working in my life and what I’m learning along the way.

I’d like to invite you along for the ride.

One.Love

cd