Shared some thoughts on a recent post in FB on worship leaders and the challenge with leadership.

In real life (The one that pays the bills) I am a manager of others. I am also an artist (well, a guitar player) and I am of the belief that the gap between the artist and those in leadership (mostly pastors) can be wide simply because we look at so many things in a different manner.

I think the hurt sometimes comes from a naive believe that just because we might want the same outcome, we should all get along and see the path the same way.

But that is not what happens.

Artists are more sensitive to criticism in a lot of ways because we are the ones baring our emotions and our abilities on the platform so when someone says something that might offend us, deep inside we are incensed because that the person has no clue to the work that went into learning our craft and developing the ability to play an instrument or sing, or the work that went into the service set and all the hours it takes to make it seem “effortless”.

There may be something deep inside that says “How dare they…” or “How could you say that?” or possibly “Why don’t you lead?”… But we keep that inside.

We all want to profess humbleness in these roles, because we are called to be humble, not because it comes naturally. If it did, God would not call that out on us.

So maybe we need to build a better bridge to the people we work for, and those we serve. I can’t think of too many people that are called by a pastor to “come and lead worship how you feel it should be led, even to the point of disregarding what the body of believers who have been going here for years feel about it”. That would be silly… and too may WLs think they can come in and do some quick paradigm shifts with the body and they will eventually get it.

I have a friend who worked several years at slowly changing the culture of how the body worships and it is still not a place where people get the heart of matter. Or maybe they do and it’s a different way of worshiping than what is going on around them.

No easy answers on any of this… it will always have an element of artists “creativity” meeting lay people’s established expectations.

I suppose the answer might be a church filled with musicians and artists!

Wow, what a miserable place that would be… 500 people sitting in the body watching 5 people play on a Sunday and all of them thinking “Why that version?” or “That key is to high” or “That drummer can’t buy a beat” or “My grandma plays a better electric guitar” etc.

There is a creative outlet, and there is a servants duty… how blessed musicians are when these two align (which is not that often sad to say). Until then, press on…