I am a big fan of “best practices.” That means looking at an organization – seeing what they do right and potentially absorbing it – and seeing what they do wrong and hopefully avoiding it. It works. Quite frankly, I’d rather learn from someone else’s mistakes than my own. Where it goes south is when people study a successful church [or company, etc…] and simply copy what they do wholesale. That usually does NOT work.
A better strategy is not just to imitate, but to find out WHY they do what they do, and THEN adapt that thinking [if appropriate] to your situation. Each church is a unique amalgamation of many different things – the history, the people, the location, etc…. all have their impact. Simply importing an idea won’t always work – the senior pastor of that church may have a completely different preaching style or temperament than yours, or your congregation may be different from a socio-economic standpoint [and so have a different set of problems to overcome]. Rather, seek to understand the big picture idea behind a process, and tailor it to your situation.
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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