As we’re starting off this new year, I’ve been doing some thinking about Worship Arts Ministry. I haven’t been thinking in terms of what it is or how it functions. I’ve been thinking more in terms of what motivates us to do it.
I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life when I really wanted to be a part of something. In fact, there have been several things. I wasn’t always the popular kid. In fact, for most of my growing up years I was the loser. I was the last kid to be picked, or close to it. I was the kid who tried to find someone to sit with, but didn’t have a group of people to go to. I was usually on the outside of games at recess watching the other kids play, and was met with unkind eyes and unkind words when I tried to join in. I often thought how cool it would feel if I could be a part of that!
That got me thinking about other worship ministries I know of, and how they have more people than they know what to do with. I know one church in the area who has 12 drummers in their church. They can’t even use them all! What is it about them that makes it so desirable that people just have to be a part of it? What is it about Hillsong that makes people want to spend thousands of dollars on a plane ticket and spend even more thousands of dollars to pay them to be a part of their school for a year?
So, I thought, what better way to find out than to ask you? What are you looking for in a worship arts ministry that makes it so desirable that you just have to be a part of it? What is it about anything that draws you in and creates this need in your soul to be a part? I have my ideas, but I want to hear your thoughts & ideas.
As we move into this year, I want to work toward creating a worship arts ministry that is irresistible to artists. That’s my dream for us. I dream of us being a place where artists from all over Vancouver and Clark County gather, and not just gather but when they get here they can’t leave. I’m dreaming of a time when all people who have a gifting in the arts come out of wherever they are hiding because they have to be a part of what’s going on! I’m dreaming of teams of people with relationships so real and deep that they couldn’t imagine missing a weekend because they couldn’t imagine being away from their team! I’m imaging relationships on these teams that last for an eternity, that these are the people we call first when something great happens, that we invite to the hospital that we invite to birthday parties.
How do we create an environment in our Worship Arts Ministry that facilitates this? How do we create an environment that leads to vulnerability? How do we create an environment that leads to trust – an environment that expects that we try new things and encourages us when they don’t work?
What are your ideas? How do I get you to take ownership of this thing we call Worship Arts? How do we get beyond doing things simply to fill slots, because David asked us to? How do we get to the point where we do what we do because we can’t imagine being anywhere else or doing anything else?
Let’s start a conversation that will lead us into the future? Let’s find the key together, and unlock the mountains of potential just waiting behind door number 1.
