It’s interesting – in American culture today, there seems to be an obsession with other people. Sadly not in who they ARE, but rather in what they HAVE, be it money, talent, power, prestige, position, etc… The word for that is envy, and envy is a highly destructive force. It doesn’t have one of the Ten Commandments addressing it for no reason…
Back in the days before I became a pastor, I was in a job where a coworker won a well-deserved award for innovation and achievement. Another coworker was (publicly) livid because she felt that it was “unfair” that the award-winner was recognized and she wasn’t. In my opinion, this was incredibly immature, but she ramped it up and caused a great deal of stress and bickering on that team as people took sides…
Unfortunately, church volunteer teams are not immune. Part of it is understandable. People want to be acknowledged. Praise is important to any team. But jealousy can rear its ugly head, particularly in more public ministries like worship teams. Envy must be addressed head on – it’s a problem that’s unlikely to simply go away on its own if you ignore it. We’ll talk about how to deal with these situations on Monday…
“For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” – James 3:16
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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