Your network matters. Who you hang with is important. The things that spark your creativity and stir you to action are worth noting.
All of us are the product of our experience: yesteryear and yesterday. What we do with those experiences just might jump start or revitalize a worship ministry. Here are a couple of ways that might help you make the most of your networks, your associations and your experiences.
Be aware – familiar even – with the worship ministries of other churches in your town or across the nation, but don't try to copy them. Your congregation has its own personality, its own style. Maybe there are a few ideas you can adapt for your setting. But nobody wins when we try to be something we're not.
Read a few books on creativity in the business or entertainment world. Or better yet, interview the author and get to know them. They're big dreamers who thrive outside their comfort zone. The Church is more of an organism than an organization, but some principles apply to both arenas.
You might be amazed at how reading books on Christian doctrine or theology (books about God) or shorter devotional material might help you think differently about how you plan and lead worship. This is as opposed to reading “how-to” books and articles on worship and worship leading. Those are helpful; just not all there is.
Meet regularly with friends who are not members of your congregation, and even those outside your immediate realm of work and experience. (i.e. Talk with friends who aren't in your choir or who aren't fellow worship leaders) Talk with them about “blue sky” thinking, implementing an “impossible” dream, and working with “impossible” people. Sometimes the sharpest, most focused ideas come from unexpected places.
Above all, remember that you're called to a specific place for a specific season. God has you where you are so that you can edify the Body of Christ in those surroundings. It may not be forever, but it is for now. Your congregation won't look like my congregation. Your ministry won't look like my ministry. You're not called to emulate someone else's apparent success. You're called to be you.
There is no competition between lighthouses.
--Click here for more helpful articles from writer/arranger/director Marty Parks.