Back when I was on staff at Willow Creek in Chicago, we regularly hosted conferences – including a yearly Arts Conference. One of the sessions was a favorite of mine – the focus was on what it takes to be successful in ministry. The advice actually was good for life in general and dealt with a set of structures that the speaker called Y-BARS:
Y-BARS [Your Basic Adult Responsibilities]
1. Be On Time
2. Write Things Down
3. Do Your Chores
4. Mind Your Money
I thought it was a brilliant and straight-forward way to remember the core elements of what it takes to do our job well – the basic foundation on which experience and eventual expertise can be built. Being on time is simply entry-level professionalism. If you’re perpetually late, you’re sending the message that you feel that your time is more valuable than those you’re meeting with – or that you are unable to schedule your day in a way that makes sense. Writing things down [notes, ideas, meeting times, etc…] keeps you from forgetting. “Doing your chores” refers to making sure what you were hired to do is done – and done first. Minding your money means being able to plan and work within whatever your budgetary restrictions are, and – again – keeping your core areas of responsibility in mind as you spend.
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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