In.Motion

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

Round 5 brings up to our next topic: Listen to Outsiders. I think this is the biggest hurdle to get over for most churches in general. The chapter starts with an illustration about car salesmen and how they usually interact with customers. Usually, when you walk onto a car lot, you’re bombarded with several money hungry salesmen looking for the biggest sale. You’re seen as a commodity and a pocketbook and are treated as such. But what if you walked onto a car lot where they were concerned with helping you rather than selling you a car? When the motive changes, the reaction changes.

This is something we can definitely take to heart as the church. Maybe some of the ways we approach visitors at our churches make them feel like they are at a car lot. Do they feel like a commodity? Like they are being bombarded? “But this is how we’ve always done things” or “If we change our approach, people might get upset a leave”. This begs the question: Who are we trying to reach? Let me back up. In churches, or any organization for that matter, there are insiders and outsiders. Insiders have been around and are plugged into the mission of the church. Outsiders are those who aren’t in the church.

“The church is primarily characterized by insiders reaching insiders” & “millions of outsiders see what the church does as being irrelevant, and yet most continue to do business as usual.” That sums up the two biggest problems we face when it comes to outsiders. We keep catering to those who have already committed their lives to Christ. If our mission is to reach the lost for Christ, then they are now a part of the mission rather than the object of the mission. And if we continue to focus on how insiders see things, we will only attract insiders, when it is outsiders we are trying to seek out.

So how does this relate to our worship/creative communities? I think this has great weight when it comes to how we do what we do. I find it to be foolish to ignore our culture when it comes to seeking inspiration for creative elements. Whether it be ideas for videos or for series topics, we should look to what people (outsiders) find interesting or are asking questions about. If we are seeking them out, we should know them. Know what they like. Know what they need (besides a relationship with Christ). This is more important than a “customer/business” relationship, therefore, I think we’ve got to put in the due diligence in understanding the outsiders. Staying “outsider-minded” has got to be a priority when it comes to programming our services.

How can you Listening to Outsiders help in your worship/creative community?

One.Love

cd

This next principle is Teach Less for More. This is focused heavily on curriculum for ministry teaching or for communicators. The idea is that our instinct is to try and impart as much knowledge as possible in the time that we have available. The more information we cram into a talk will result in more receptiveness. This would be the fallacy. This approach is like using a shotgun at a distance. You’re gonna spray the area with information, but you’re probably not going to make a big impact.

What the books suggests is that we should decide what is most important to impart in the given time that you have, and to focus as much as you can on that. The more we whittle down what we want to teach into what the book calls “irreducible minimums”, the better we will be able to reach our target audiences. This would be like using a precise sniper rifle for a distance shot. You’re going to hit exactly what you want exactly how you want to. The point will come across as it needs to.

I’d like to take this down a different road. I feel like this particular idea of Teaching Less for More plagues the worship/creative community in the context of worship leaders. Most worship leaders don’t want to just sing the songs and get off the stage, however most pastors (and others alike) don’t want a second sermon during a worship service. There has to be a happy balance where the worship leader can actually lead through the songs without digressing into a soliloquy.

I think this is were the worship leader needs to begin to develop these “irreducible minimums”. What are some things about worship that you want to teach during worship in a way that isn’t a speech? We need to learn how we can impart these simple, concise truths into the time of worship that bolsters what the songs are doing rather than distracting the congregation. Anything you say should only spur them further into worship and help develop their posture of worship.

I don’t think that worship leaders should keep their mouths shut. I think that using words to explain/give context to songs or to explain truths about the Bible are worship is an extremely valuable asset for a worship leader. However, we need to learn how to dilute our potential sermonettes into simple phrases that we can use again and again to further teach and lead the congregants in worship. It is a skill that you must work on and pursue. To ask a worship leader to can it and stick to the songs, I believe, is to limit their potential to lead worship as best they can. But like I said, it is a craft that must be worked on.

How else could Teach Less for More be used in the worship/creative context?

One.Love

cd