Productivity: Forming

I spent about 12 hours Thursday and Friday forming a new team to serve and lead the worship ministry at Sunset. With Julie's resignation and our elder's term up in October it was time for Jay to put together a new team who will meet regularly to shoulder the weight/responsibility of the leadership of the ministry.

There are a couple of new people on the team this fall, Tyler and Ben. Bringing on new blood is so wise because it requires us to rethink patterns we've fallen in to and to be open to new ideas. The simple task of articulating why we do this or that is a really good way of reviewing the value behind an action.

We focused on how the worship & creative arts ministry can align itself with the mission and vision of our church.
Connecting people to Jesus through relevance, discipleship and authenticity.
Our Four Priorities
1. Become externally focused and culturally relevant to the Pacific NW.
2. Continue to emphasize discipleship.
3. Focus on children, youth, the next generation, and young families within the context of a multi-generational ministry.
4. Develop an internal striving for authenticity.

At the 30,000 foot level, how do we create worship gatherings and serve our church and community as real worshippers?
What are we going to do and what are we not going to do anymore?
One thing I've learned is that we have to be ruthlessly exclusive because there's ALOT of good stuff to be done.

A couple of things I'm pretty excited about as we move in to the fall are a concerted emphasis on those serving in our ministry being real, demonstrating leadership, love and grace in our church and our community and redefining "worship" in light of biblical principles vs. musical selection and style.

Have to admit that this past couple of days also gave me a leadership kick in the butt.
First thing is I am the most experienced (worship at Sunset) person on the new team. I am not used to this role and realize i can't shirk it, I have to... put on the coat and wear it. I no longer can look to Julie or Steve, our elder, for lessons learned over many years at Sunset. This reminds me of the PGE learning from the Leadership Summit.

The High Drama of Decision Making- Bill Hybels
Christian leaders make critical decisions with this kind of a framework
1- Does the Bible say anything about this?
2- What would smart advisors, advise me to do? Prov 11:14
3- PGE- Pain of last decisions, gains of wise decisions, what experience do I have that informs me for this next decision. (When you are in the midst of pain it seems like there’s no point)
4- Is the Spirit prompting me? (Make a trial decision and see if it leads to life and peace?)

Then you have to decide and take responsibility for the decision.

Then, maybe an even larger wake up call... somehow I have been moved from a volunteer coordinator to a staff manager. I love volunteer development. (period) I was hit in the face that while I love and respect my staff, I haven't been giving them the same energy and enthusiasm I would give a team of volunteers, I can improve SO much in this arena this year.

So in terms of productivity... the clock was off, but alot of good foundational work got done. Guess that's one key learning for me as i've focused this week on productivity... ministry requires flexibility. Next week goal setting...