Here’s a post for my fellow pastors/church workers. At some point, you will be judged unfairly. Probably at many points. People – the very people you are there to serve – will treat you with disrespect. They will be rude. They will accuse. They will insinuate. They will misjudge and misunderstand. Deal with it. If you let it affect you, and you make “victim” your identity, then the you have allowed that criticism to do permanent damage to you. Notice that I didn’t say “they” did it to you. You did it to you.
Remember, your job is to pastor people. To serve. To lead. To provide hope. Your job is not to be universally liked. I always resonated with the description of the church as a hospital for sinners. People are going to come to you broken, and some will lash out, just like injured people sometimes lash out at the doctors or emergency workers who are trying to help them. Most of the time, they are not lashing out because they hate you. They are lashing out because they are hurt and scared, with their lives spinning out of control. Take the hits [within reason] and do your best to help them to become whole – even those who don’t deserve it [which is actually every one of us]. #creativeworshipideas
Hmmm - well, let's see...
I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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