In.Motion

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

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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

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Next comes what I believe to be the most important practice of the 7: Narrow the Focus. I feel that if you can’t narrow your focus, then the rest of these practices will be futile in their efforts. Refusing to narrow your focus will dilute your programming and ministries with ideas and programs that don’t work as well as they could when focused.

The book focuses on the two main reasons so seek out narrowing your focus. The first would be growth; the counterintuitive thought about growth and focus is that “You have to do less if you want to grow more”. If you do more, chances are your ministry will not grow. We can’t confuse action/activity for growth. Secondly, we must narrow our focus so that we can attach ourselves to the mission rather than programs. When we cling to programs, we tend to stick to things that are nostalgic rather than what is working. However, when we focus ourselves on the mission of the creative/worship ministry, we can make better programming choices and be more effective in our decisions. “A good leader is always more passionate about the mission than about the program.”

We are wired to just add things on. To make things more and more complicated because that is what is natural. We have to fight for simplicity. We need to seek out to “choose what potentially works best over what is presently working”. In John 15, Jesus talks about the idea of pruning dead things away so that the whole can benefit. He also makes a very wise point that sometimes you need to prune life-bearing parts so that the whole can bear even more fruit. We need to choose what potentially works best over what is presently working.

The book sites four effects of narrowing your focus. The more we narrow our focus for given ministries or environments, the greater the relevance, the better the connection, the higher the quality, & the stronger the impact. When we narrow our focus, our creative elements become more relevant and connect with the congregation better. Also, when we begin to look more closely at our choices for worship environments, the quality will surely increase and the songs will bear more impact. The right song played in the right place can have a great effect rather than just another tune picked for convenience.

What about when it comes to the world of creative and worship ministries? What do we need to “narrow our focus” on? Are we talking about songs or something larger? I think, for me, it comes down more to the programming aspect for different environments. What songs or elements would work best for this particular service? Just taking time to dig into what works best and being as specific as possible without forcing things is how I see myself narrowing the focus.

How can we “narrow our focus” when it comes to Creative & Worship ministries?

One.Love

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