Doing Worship Ministry Poor

There is perhaps nothing in the church that gets me as passionate about ministry as poor, rural churches doing worship ministry well. After all, its where I got my start in ministry and its one of the few areas my brother and I are forcibly harmonious on.

Certainly, worship ministry has become a focus within the last 50 or so years in the Church at large. There are some that would say, and I'm often tempted to be one of them, that worship ministry is currently in an evolutionary pattern, from something that was not sustainable to something that is sustainable for the future growth of the Church. Without getting into that argument's validity, I think its important to point out that churches across the US have positioned themselves at one step along the path from traditional worship to post-modern worship (what I would call post-contemporary worship). Many churches claim to be blended, but blended often only means that you have one foot in two different places on the path or that you can't do anything well at all. That said, one of the main issues in worship ministry today is quality or, as some would put it, excellence. While this might be a commercial/advertising term in many cases, in its purest form, it is attempting to give of our worship "firstfruits" - giving our best, as a congregation, to the Lord.

I've spent my time in several churches over the years that, like all churches, have had their own unique issues in worship music. I've been yelled at, argued with, praised, chided, cheered for, walked out on, gossiped about and about every response you can have in ministry in the short time I've been leading worship. As I stated in the previous post, however, doing ministry in the Greenville/Belding area is often an exercise in the undone - exploring truly new ways of doing things and being resourceful with what you've been given. Once again, these are not all my thoughts, but have been contributed to by fellow worship pastors. To that end, I truly appreciate the thoughts of Dan, Nate, Scott, Jeff, and Paul. This is a journey we traverse together.

As with Youth Ministry, I very much wish somebody would write a book about doing ministry in a poor, rural environment. If that were not possible, I would settle for a book about either a poor or rural environment. In lieu of a book I am not yet experienced enough to write, here are some thoughts specifically about doing worship ministry poor:

• Shallow Talent Pool: For years, I neglected to consider how lucky I was to have not one, but two Christian colleges in my backyard in Orange City. It is truly amazing how many college students, both male and female, are capable of being phenomenal worship talents. If you don't believe me, check out your local Christian college's worship service. In many small communities, this worship service is the best thought-out, well-equipped service to be found for miles around. This isn't a mistake - its because in every Christian college dorm, there are 20 guitar players and vocalists galore. Even if you're nowhere close to a Christian college, however, living in a city provides so much untapped talent. Within a few blocks of your church's campus, my guess is that you can find hoards of talent in local bars, coffee shops, high school talent shows and lots of other artistic venues. That simply is not a luxury that affords itself to rural America. Artists, by their very nature, are driven away from the rural, the uneducated and the rural, "Redneck" poor. You don't see poetry readings or Jack Johnson concerts or hippie hangouts in small rural America. You also don't find loads of musical talent.
• There is Little Appreciation for the Arts: This point is exhibited by the previous point to some extent, but it should be noted that you cannot prepare an urban worship leader for what they will experience in taking the stage in a town like ours. I've often talked with fellow worship leaders (who are far better musicians than I) about the feeling of disgust and disappointment they feel after walking off the stage of their worship gatherings. In places where the arts are appreciated, musicians on stage are blown away by the energy, passion and sound of the crowd. Here, if you play a musically fantastic or musically defunct service, you get the same response - nothing. In short, there is little motivation for playing well, little motivation for giving your musical "firstfruits" to the Lord. Often, our job as rural worship leaders is to build up and compliment our musicians for a job well done because we know that if we rely on the normal complimentary spirit of the congregation, our musicians will burn out because they feel unsupported.
• Artistic Personality + Power = Trouble: There is a truth about those of us with an artistic persuasion that is true - we are moody. I think most artists and musicians would admit to you that they have weak moments of moodiness - depression, elation, rage and passion. This isn't so much a bad thing - its what fuels the beauty of the arts. However, what happens in many small churches is that it provides an opportunity for the worst parts of an artist's personality to become paramount. Think about every small rural church you know of that does not have paid worship personnel; isn't there one person who has taken over the show, bent it to their own needs and desires, driven many other people away and, even though they may be talented, brought the entire worship ministry down with them? Sadly, this is also true in many churches with staffed worship personnel. The sad reality is that any ministry, when there is a leadership void, will produce a leader who exercises control to their own tune over time. When you multiply this reality with the passionate personality of the artist, this is magnified. It is a sad reality that many worship programs - the most visible aspect of a church's ministry - can be and are being done in one or two people.
• Lack of Balance: It is a sad truth in many rural congregations that there is a lack of balance between outreach-driven attractional ministry and inreach-driven self-service. It is a true fact that all churches need dimensions of outreach and all churches need dimensions of inreach, but many churches are unable to find anything close to this balance. Sadly, many err dramatically on the side of inreaching. Many times this is due to an ugly combination of inexpensive and undesirable leadership, uneducated perspective, stubborn mindset, unintegrated Christian lifestyles and a disjointed view of outreach. This may sound judgmental, but last weekend I watched a church bonfire with one attendee, a corner Baptist protest with signs condemning motorists with KJV fire & brimstone, a hip-hop concert called "Summerfest for Jesus" and a ministry year kick-off with roughly one half of the church attending the one Sunday morning service. There are things that happen in the rural, poor church that are inexplicable, personalities that are disgusting and ideas that are horribly ill-formed. Without a system of accountability, many of these activities happen within our church walls and are branded with the name of Christ.
• Irrational Discussions: I've often heard the comment from younger folks who are working for worship change: "Why should I continue to embrace the other side of this discussion when they are simply tolerating us to our faces and gossiping behind our backs?" It is true that there are many irrational discussions that take place behind the scenes and sometimes on the scene of worship ministry based almost completely on personal preferences that have been misidentified as Biblical norms. We've all seen it on both sides. However, in a poor rural culture that believes email forwards about Barack Obama being a Muslim and the starting petitions to stop the government from charging to use your email, its easy to see how irrational arguments can become stubborn shouting matches
• Burnout: It is not surprising that so many people burn out. For the average church musician in a small town, you might be the only drummer or only guitarist your church has access to. In that case, they want you to play every Sunday, every service. For paid worship staff, this means that the grass looks greener in the city with every passing day and the endless cycle of talented ministry staff fleeing for large, suburban churches is perpetuated once again. It is tiring to run a basic worship ministry in your average suburban church - it is maddeningly exhausting to run one in a poor rural church where you are under-appreciated, often-maligned and tormented for shielding what musicians you do have from church persecution.
• Good Leadership is Hard to Find: If you've worked in a poor, rural church you already know about this one. Whereas in many churches, you'd have a quick short list of people who would be good leaders and point people for areas of worship ministry, doing ministry in this kind of a setting is often a one horse parade. You're happy if one of your musicians listens to Christian radio and knows some of the songs. You're happy if your instrumentalists will commit to showing up every two or three weeks. You're happy if you ever can hold a practice with everyone caring enough to show up. However, if you've worked in a suburban church, even a small one, you know that these pleasantries of the rural church are not enough to base a consistent, quality worship ministry on. They're a start, but they're not everything.
• Under-Resourced: When I came to my current church, the entire area of worship ministry had a budget that was just big enough to buy bulletin stock and communion supplies. Even with a good degree of lobbying on my part, we still are working with lots of equipment that either belongs to our musicians or has been donated from our own personal stashes. We cobble-job electronics all the time, we work EBay and Craig's List so we can buy the bare essentials and have some money left over. We have equipment that's not even legal by Federal Government standards and often times violate copyrights out of necessity. And we're a well-resourced worship ministry in this community. It is amazing to hear stories from other churches about shortcuts they've used, laws they've violated and one-man-band-type performances because they were not given the resources to do what was asked of them. Good worship ministry takes money - even bad worship ministry takes money. Don't take it for granted.

As I said in my previous post, many of the aspects of doing ministry poor can be horribly frustrating. Its no surprise that the most talented staff and church attenders with an artistic barometer head for suburban and urban centers. There are services after which (and during which) I would like to break down and cry or just cancel. One of my fellow pastors said to me that he often feels he could be replaced by a musical chimpanzee with cymbals and the congregation wouldn't bat an eye. But perseverance pays off. Our worship ministry is leading the way in our church in terms of growth and accountability. We're plugging in non-Christians who become part of our community of faith. We're resourcing other churches to help give them a step up (check out the free Worship Arts Retreat). We've become an artistic haven for those who, at the very least, can gain energy from other artists even if they don't feel it from the congregation. We're dedicated to not burning out talent, but home-growing it through the involvement of people without compromising our "firstfruit" excellence. And most of all, we're offering our worship to a worthy God who loves the redneck as much as the white collar, the rural as much as the suburban and the farmer as much as the lawyer. Our labor is not in vain.