Exploring Christian Worship

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8 Characteristics of a Music Leader of the Future

7/27/2015

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Preparing For the Future 
Recently Baylor hosted the annual Alleluia Church Music Conference which draws several hundred music and worship leaders to the campus each summer for training, inspiration, and enrichment. This summer, in an effort to nurture the next generation of worship leaders, we started a new event – Baylor Worship Lab – in which a dynamic group of high school worship leaders came to our campus to spend three days with David Crowder, Leslie Jordan, Shaun Groves, Robbie Seay, and a talented team of Baylor students. I was asked to speak to the students about worship leaders of the future and I believe the projections I mentioned might be helpful for all of us – young and old. Music leaders of the future will be people who . . .

…value worship diversity – musically, artistically, and culturally. The days of dividing into separate worship services based on style and preference are limited. The church will be seeking out leadership who embrace musical diversity – they love many styles and genres of music and eagerly accept them as good and beautiful. Similarly, they are at home with many artistic expressions, and they will find ways to incorporate them into worship. In the same way, they are open to all cultures, and they will find ways to draw from both world cultures and the varied cultures of their own local context.



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Keeping Your Eyes on the Big Picture in Ministry Leadership

7/6/2015

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Delegating For Success

One of the most important jobs is learning to delegate. Some people are not willing to work through others to accomplish greater ministry. Consequently, these ministers of music may experience burn out; they may not have long-term ministries.

Perhaps ministers of music resist delegation because much of their training is spent in isolation. They may also have an artistic temperment – deep down, no one else can do a job that pleases them! For long-term success, nothing is more critical to effective ministry than the ability to delegate appropriately.

Delegation is the ability to give the job to someone else, define the parameters for accomplishing the job, and granting the authority to get the job done. For many, the most difficult part is giving the job to someone else. Perhaps we are afraid that others will not think we’ re doing our work, or our ego doesn’t want to accept the fact that someone else can do a job well. Whatever the reason for our hesitations, we must learn to delegate some tasks to others. Once the job is delegated, determine the pertinent factors. Then, give the person the authority to make decisions related to the job’s ultimate completion. Without authority, the person to whom you’ve delegated the job will not be empowered and will not fully own the process. You must accept that the job will not be completed as you would have done it. Often the job will be done better!

What Should You Delegate?Generally, you should delegate jobs that (1) someone can do better than you, (2) someone can do instead of you, (3) someone can do with better timing, or (4) will help someone grow and develop as a leader.

Progress in churches, is severely hampered by administrators who keep too much work for themselves. Their need to control outweighs their desire to see the organization make progress. Ultimately, these administrators keep other people from thriving because work gets caught in the system waiting for someone to move it along, and they foster an organization with many undeveloped leaders!



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7 Steps for Dealing with Pain in Leadership, Ministry, and Life

6/1/2015

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Pain is a Pain
The old adage “Pain is inevitable” is often repeated, and as we look around us and listen to our own lives, there is certainly strong evidence to support this claim. A colleague is recovering from brain surgery, the mother of a student had spinal cord surgery day before yesterday, my wife is recovering from a broken toe, and our son from a sprained ankle.

Yet physical pain only tells a part of the pain story – a friend is grieving the estranged relationship between her and her young adult daughter, another is mourning the dream job that he didn’t get, another is in shock over the news that her husband may have only a short time to live, a student is struggling with ongoing wounds of sexual abuse, while another friend wonders if he will ever find ministry a position again after the turmoil that plagued his last post.



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4 Critical Building Blocks of Music Ministry

5/5/2015

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The Music Ministry Quadrilateral

Being a musician of the church has never been more challenging. With an ever growing body of knowledge, skills, and materials, a diverse body of believers to whom to minister, and a complex cultural context, ministers who serve through music need to do, be, know, and understand more than ever before.

At Baylor, our students have given David Music, Terry York, and me, the designations of “Dr. What,” “Dr. Why,” and “Dr. How.” With our new church music colleague, Monique Ingalls, coming on board soon, there’s already been speculation of where her distinctive skills and abilities will fit into this morphing quadrilateral configuration. Speculation is that she might be dubbed “Dr. Who?” These designations by our students, however much in jest they might be intended, have caused me to think about what students should be equipped to know, be able to do, challenged to believe, and empowered to be.



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Four Useful Worship Leadership Options

4/6/2015

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Musicians of the Church Are Artists 
 Musicians of the church are artists, and we value creativity and innovation. We thrive when we minister in congregations that call us to imagine new ways of designing and leading the work of the church – for us, mainly worship.

Artists who serve the church become discouraged when liturgy is locked-in by stifling sameness, lack of permission to experiment, colleagues who fail to search for fresh materials, and congregations who defend lackluster worship participation. However, the good news for music and worship leaders who serve in this time in history is that creativity and innovation is prized and valued.



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  • Home
  • About
  • Publications
    • Christian Worship: It's Theology & Practice
    • From Memory to Imagination: Reforming the Church's Music
    • From Postlude to Prelude: Music Ministry's Other Six Days
  • Blog
  • Media
  • Contact
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