Category Archives: Coaching
Sun Valley Community Church where I am the Exec. Pastor of Creative Arts is part of the Converge Worldwide Conference. Last week 400 pastors and staff from around the nation met in Garden Grove, CA.
Yep. Just down the street from the “Happiest Place on Earth.” Disneyland.
But we didn’t get to spend the week in fantasyland. We got down to what was real and talked about some great subjects within our creative ministries.
As part of the conference, there was a Creative Arts breakout group. We had the opportunity to sit and talk about things that concern Creatives. It was a great discussion and time to “trade secrets.”
There were about 12 specific subjects that we wanted to talk about. We got to a few of them. I’m going to take the next few weeks and give my opinions on these areas of ministry.
Let’s have a conversation. Comment on what I’ve written and let’s have some healthy dialogue. Let’s learn from each other.
I’ll give you the list on Wednesday.
Get ready. I’m ready to talk? You?
A few more details :: As I said on Monday, the merger happened in October 2011. Kim didn’t join the team as worship leader until January. We began having two worship experiences, traditional and modern, the following February. Before then Bethany Community was providing a blended service.
So, for Kim, the only way was up. Everything was new and with that newness came the responsibility of putting together a band for the contemporary service.
Fact :: in the same way Gilbert was very deep in their talent, the opposite was the description of the Tempe team. We didn’t even have one player at each of the needed band positions. It took about six weeks before we had a drummer and a bass player from the church community.
And those musicians we had needed to learn to play well together.
I will have to say, that Kim didn’t hesitate to present to me a plan for growth. Her plan very much included a Music Director (MD). And she had the perfect person to fill that position, Mel.
Mel and Kim had worked together for quite a while. She knew very well his success. And frankly, his success was well know by me too, so it wasn’t a hard decision.
Mel is a professional musician, a bassist, and has played with many very musicians in many genres of music. His skill as a musician was valuable. More valuable, however, was his ability to teach musicians to grow in their skill and in their ability to play well together.
And Kim and Mel’s teamwork has paid off. The band on our Tempe campus is SOLID! VERY! Their continued growth has attracted new players. We need more, but without doubt they are a team that any accomplished musician would want to be on.
And one more important note :: in less than a year, Kim has built a team 2 musicians deep at each band positions. That’s crazy good!
So I brag.
Way to go SV Tempe. You are growing. Can’t wait to see how good you can really become!
I had the opportunity to coach four churches a few weeks ago. Two were local churches here in The Valley. Two were from out of state.
I had the privilege of addressing their main staff leadership (lead pastor, exec. pastor). We talked about the creative process. The good, the bad and the ugly of the processes they currently worked under. And then I got to share with them what a productive creative process should look like.
We had a great time discussing what Pastors need and expect. And Creative too. How these two need to become a team to create impactful weekend worship experiences. Life-changing moments.
What I’ve learned, I will share. Most of what I know I have learned from others–others who didn’t mind sharing what they knew. And the other stuff I know I have learned working along side others–the trial and error method.
Throughout my ministry I have always sought out others that do things better than me– and observed them. I’ve looked for those that do it differently than me. I discovered why they do what they do. I’ve observed how they do it. And I’ve learned.
Now it’s my turn to help those younger in ministry learn to do the same.
Let’s learn from each other.
About a decade ago I moved into a new chapter of my ministry career. I had been a worship leader for 15+ years and then had the opportunity to move into a role where I became the Director of Creative Arts Team.
In some ways I had been in that role during my first 15 years of ministry, but in a blink of an eye, it was officially my responsibility–oversight of talented artists. It was scary at first, but it wasn’t they way for long. It quickly became a joy.
Why am I so happy? Because I have always enjoyed sharing my ministry successes and failures with anyone willing to listen–anyone who wanted to more quickly learn from my experiences. I had done this with volunteers but all of a sudden I was in a position to mentor young artists (both volunteer and staff) and guide them through ministry. I loved it.
And nothing has changed. I still love it.
When I coach others–when I see them grasp a concept they hadn’t known before–when I see their eyes light up with ideas. There’s nothing better.
Wednesday I’ll talk about why coaching is so important to me — and to those I coach.