Worship leaders like to complain. I know, I was one. However, whenever we gripe and/or speak in a negative sense of our church congregations, we’re simultaneously sinning and lying to ourselves. Stereotyping in general is a bad idea – that’s true when you’re talking about congregations, as well. First off, a congregation isn’t a THING, it’s a group of people. The individuals in that crowd are never 100% anything – for example, some will be committed Christians and some will be still checking everything out. If we treat them like they are a single entity and say things like “The congregation was dead today,” or “The congregation doesn’t sing well,” what we really mean is that we feel threatened by our apparent lack of success in helping all [or the majority] of our congregational members to engage in worship. We’re passing blame on to them to protect ourselves – not cool. It may seem like a minor thing, but words are important, because the words we use both reflect and help to shape our attitudes. Our job is to pastor, support, care for (and potentially correct, if necessary) – not to blame the entire group because a percentage of them don’t live up to our expectations.
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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