Before we begin, I want you all to understand something: I care VERY deeply about your ministry, and the success of it. I will be coming down on some people pretty hard today, and it’s important that you realize that I am doing it because I am 100% committed to YOUR success, and the success of YOUR ministry.
Today’s discussion will be a very candid one, where I will be speaking to church musicians and technical staff who have a hard time understanding one very important concept: We are all on the same team.
WAIT, WHAT?
I know that might be hard to conceptualize on the outset. Being as there are two separate departments, two separate bosses, and a few other “two separates,” it can be difficult to realize that both musical and technical personnel are on the same team. It is absolutely imperative that the musicians and tech staff function together as one cohesive unit, instead of two separate teams competing with one another. How can we worship together, serve God together, and even work together if we are so galvanized by the false perceptions that it’s “us vs. them?”
The reality is, the relationship between tech and musical personnel is symbiotic. We need one another if we want to function at our best. Musicians, you could not be mixed, EQ’d, run through a PA and heard without the audio engineer. That goes for you too, instrumentalists who produce a lot of stage volume. Can you be heard? Sure, but would your bass cab drive the room and drown out the rest of the ensemble? Is that really what you want? Conversely, tech people, you wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for that musician. Can they be heard? Sure, but it wouldn’t come through the PA, and it certainly would not be mixed and engineered in a way that is musically sound.
GET OVER YOURSELF
Seriously. Nobody likes to work with a prideful person. Nobody. Not even you. So don’t be one. Nobody ever expects you to be perfect, to be able to function without error. So do not carry this expectation over onto the rest of your team. Mistakes will happen, and when they do, the best course of action is to use them as a teaching moment. Work through what went wrong so that the problem can be solved and/or prevented from happening again int he future. When you start treating the rest of your team as if they are inferior to you, you have done them a great disservice, and have hurt your ministry as a whole. To be perfectly blunt, not only is that the wrong thing to do as a professional, it’s the wrong thing to do as a believer. When you alienate your team because you can’t see beyond your own abilities, you can cause severe hurt on a personal level. If people are quitting your team, or declining requests to serve when you are, perhaps you should take a hard look at what the common denominator is. It’s you, in case you were wondering.
GET OVER EACH OTHER
Seriously. Everyone makes mistakes, we’ve covered that already. But how we deal with those mistakes and the people that make them will define us as leaders. Are you quick to judge the abilities of a person after they make a mistake? Do you berate or speak to them harshly after they make a mistake? What if that mistake continues? Do you make them feel incompetent, get angry with them, or do you take it so far as to fire them or ask them not to serve any more? Or do you try to correct that mistake so that it doesn’t happen again in the future, and work through what happened as a learning experience so that your team as a whole can grow as a result of the mistake? What about someone’s personality that doesn’t jive with yours? Can you work through that difference, remain professional and cordial, and do your jobs with with honor and respect? Why does that personality conflict with theirs? Have you searched deep down and asked yourself if there is a past hurt that remains because of your failure to forgive and love others as Christ did? Do you hold malice in your heart because of envy?
MIND THE GAP
Seriously. We are all on the same team. When we work through mistakes, work through personal conflicts and issues together as a singular unit, we can overcome just about anything. We need, desperately, to understand and accept the hard truths about ourselves sometimes. And that is a very hard thing to do. But when we do, we can accept our team members and begin to function as a complete unit. We have established the fact here that the team is everybody involved in the ministry, regardless of role or position in which they serve (#heartforthehouse). We really need to understand this, and more than that, we need to own it. Remember that regardless of where you are serving on the team, there isn’t someone there that isn’t in full support of you. Remember that you couldn’t do what you do without the people around you to make it happen. There isn’t one person on your team whose job is more or less important than the next. If you, as a leader, are fully committed to the success of each person on your team individually, your team with grow and thrive beyond measure.
That’s “coming down hard”? (j/k)
Seriously; great article – and a great delivery that helps keep any tense situation in check. In your “Get over yourself” paragraph, I especially latched on to the last couple sentences. It reminds me very much of the quote that states, “The only common denominator in all your failed relationships is ‘you’.”. Getting over each other is difficult as well – especially considering that the other person may be going through difficulties unrelated to the current issue. The tension – I have often seen – is often overflow from an unresolved (or even unrealized) hardship in their own life. If tension between you and your brother or sister in the Lord seems to come from nowhere, I think it’s important to realize that the tension may have nothing to do with the issue on the table. I have found a method that quickly and efficiently disarms that tension. There are various scriptures related to the resolution, but in a nutshell, the birth of reformation is initiated by you. Sitting down with the individual one-on-one and addressing them in this general way tends to disarm satan and opens up the freeway for a much-needed “Collision with Christ.”.
“Fox… I really need your help. I feel this feeling of tension between us and I don’t like it. Not one bit. As my brother, you mean a great deal to me, and I want us to keep working towards the goal that’s in both our hearts. Would you please pray with me – right now – for the Holy Spirit to intercede for both of us? Please pray first, because I’m at a loss at the moment on what to say.”
I pray you are all as blessed by the Spirit’s prompting in Fox’s article as I have just been.