Good enough is not good enough. I posted recently about making sure that the desire for excellence doesn’t go too far and turn into destructive perfectionism. However, just as often – if not more so – I’ve seen services that are less than stellar. The reason is that they are built on leftovers – by people giving their leftover time and leftover efforts in churches often funded by leftover money. That’s not OK.
We are representing God. Representing Him to a world that is predisposed to be skeptical, if not downright hostile – conditioned by self-centeredness and apathy, and continually fed distorted views of their Creator by twisted media. They look at us, searching for signs of hypocrisy – not believing what we say, because our actions don’t match our words. Think about it – if you meet someone who is passionate about something, you can see it in their eyes. In the way they talk. In the way they spend their time. In the effort they give.
I am the first to admit that we will fail many times, regardless of our passion. It’s OK to fail because we are human. It’s not OK to fail because we don’t try… “Sacrifice the art, and you guarantee the message will be heard only by those who, because they already support it, are tolerant of any effort on it’s behalf.” – John Fischer
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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