In.Motion

I was in Hebrews 5 today, and a line stuck out to me.

Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.

Two things stand out to me here:

1. Jesus was the son of God, but he still learned obedience. It wasn’t inherent. This makes me feel better about my inability to obey sometimes. The more I learn about Jesus, the more hope I see for myself, only because of Him. I do think that the word “learned” here should be read, like in the original language, as “to acquire the habit” or “be accustomed to”, rather than like a child learning to read.

2. Suffering yields obedience. I believe that the circumstances of your suffering will determine who/what you are obedient to. Jesus suffered for something He believed in and He finished His suffering, so He “learned” to be obedient to God. The kind of suffering that brings complete obedience includes complete endurance of the suffering. No quitting. No letting up. We have to finish.

This is definitely a time of year that lots of people begin programs or make promises that lead to sacrifices and ultimately some suffering. Diets, exercise plans, and Bible reading plans. You know what I’m talking about.

As we suffer through the hunger pangs or sore joints, remember that if we see it through, we will learn to be obedient to ourselves or maybe Someone greater than us. However, this all begs the question . . .

Suffering yields obedience, but are we willing to endure?

One.Love

cd

Well, a trip to California and a Graduation later, it looks like we’ve come to the end of this little mini series inside the DNA of an Effective Creative Ministry. Our final principle is Work On It. Work On It is all about the concept of self-evaluation. No matter how great of a musician you are or how great of a designer you are, you can always look to improve and hone your craft and skills. Even the great athletes and artists of our day have people who coach, mentor, & critique them. This is nothing new, but it is something that must be done intentionally.

Because we are human, and because humans are prone to settle into routines and possible ruts, we will never naturally evaluate ourselves and our processes. We need to place time in our schedules that we intentionally evaluate our programs and our systems to ensure that we are in line with our mission and values. Sometimes, unless things are pointed out to us, we don’t even realize the actuality of a situation. Here’s an illustration that might help:

A man walks in on Monday morning to find that his office is being painted. As he walks down the hall to his office, he begins to smell the fumes. You know, the fumes that burn your nose and make you feel a little light headed. The man decides to duck in, grab a few things and get out. As he enters, one of the painters initiates some small talk. After a few words, the man says to the painter, “So, don’t you mind the fumes?” To which the painter replied, “What fumes?”

Sometimes we don’t notice the funk around us because we’ve been knee deep in it for so long.

I think this relates to Creative ministry very well. However, I think it is fair to admit that most creative types don’t like critique. They don’t like to be told that the thing they poured their heart and soul into, whether it be a song or a painting or a program, could have been better. Therefore, when it comes to working with creative types, such as ourselves, it is good to know how to enter into this conversation of evaluation. The key factor here is trust. There must be the foundation of trust beneath the team and the assumption that we are all working toward glorifying God through our ministry, not towards our own personal agendas.

When we fail to Work On It, we fail to steward and shepherd the ministries we’ve been allowed to lead, and that is not a place I want to find myself. Personally, this is one of my favorite principles. I’m huge on self evaluation, and I’ve had the benefit of having people in my life that I trusted to always give it to me straight, so that I could develop myself and continue to grow as a person, musician, and leader. If you don’t have these people around you or don’t find this type of discussion beneficial or valuable, I would encourage you to seek them out and to start to develop this type of culture in your group.

So, are you Working On It?
How?

One.Love

cd

Replacing Yourself seems to be the easiest to grasp yet hardest to implement in our own ministries. Replacing yourself in ministry means that you choose to embrace the truth that you will not always be leading in the way you are leading. The bottom line is that, as a leader, you only have two choices:

1. You can desperately hold on to your position until someone inevitably replaces you.

or

2. You can prepare someone to do what you do and strategically replace yourself.

The chapter talks about John Maxwell’s concept of “Leadership Lids”. Lids are anything that keeps a leader from growing. It could be an inability to let others into your creative process, not letting others give input on your system, or even getting possessive about your ideas. The writer expands this concept into “Leadership Walls”, which are things that keep future leaders out of your ministry.

I think that this practice is especially hard for us creative types. We tend to get quite attached to our visions or projects, which can lead us to being blind to other leaders or ideas. However, the truth is that if we don’t purposefully seek out others who are gifted leaders and volunteers and help cultivate their talent and leadership, the ministry will die off along with the natural life cycle of a leader. It may not be comfortable to talk about, but when you look at your ministry through the lens of the Kingdom, the need for replacing yourself becomes so much more evident.

When it comes to Worship and Creative communities, we have to be open and willing to welcome in and help develop young and upcoming leaders. Rather than fighting and holding onto whatever we “do”, we have got to embrace these people and build them up to eventually take over. This is how healthy ministries are built over time. It could be in a year or it could be in twenty, but either way, we need to start looking out for those who are to replace us today.

Have you been thinking about how to Replace Yourself?

One.Love

cd