Are you an artist or pastor?
A leader of people or a creator of art?
That’s a tension I live with every day. And I know I’m not alone.
As I see the struggling young adult wander through life without purpose, my heart breaks. I want to be their pastor.
But at other times my introverted self wants to hide away and create – to fulfill my artistic potential.
Who Are You?
At some point in life, everyone must answer a question: Who am I?
In order for your life to reach its potential, some dreams must die in order for others to live.
We simply can’t do everything and truly be effective.
Tiger Woods is the world’s greatest golfer because he has dedicated his life to one thing – the game of golf.
I’m sure he was gifted at other sports or could have done well in another career.
But he made a decision. Of all the options available, he aimed his life in one direction.
And that’s not just true for celebrities. Your grandfather, father, uncle, or aunt may be successful because they made a decision.
We need that sort of laser focus.
It’s ironic, but the more we spread ourselves out, the less impact we make.
It’s OK to keep your options open when you’re young, but eventually certain pursuits steal away from your calling.
What Is Your Decision?
I need your feedback.
What do you think about this intersection of artistry and pastoral ministry? I know there are other worship leaders who live in this tension.
Do you focus your energies on pastoring people, discipling people, and being available? Or do you focus more on your art – writing songs, creating from your core, engaging your artistic nature?
Is it possible to do both well?
Is one better than the other?
Join the discussion in the comments. As always, thanks for contributing to this community!
Yes.. A tension I deal with constantly. I was just talking to my husband about this. How do I meet one-on-one with everyone I want to disciple and mentor and still have quiet time to create and envision? Definitely haven’t found the best answer yet. Right now, it means later nights for meetings and sometimes shorter sessions than I like for creating. I am looking forward to hearing more comments on this post!
Amanda, I feel like many of us are in your situation. Either the creative side suffers or the pastoral side suffers. It’s hard to do both!
how about if we just pastor “creatives” 🙂 j/k
David,
This is a constant tension for me as a Mom/Wife/Worship leader/Songwriter etc. It’s the tension between task and relationships. It’s no different than the one you feel while leading your church an a Sunday morning. You have to keep your focus on your congregation, your team, and most importantly God. You can’t side with one or the other for too long before the balance gets off. You must learn to live in the tension and submit everything to the Holy Spirit as he guides you. That is my life today and everyday. Only by the Grace of God. After having said that though, I believe that it’s always better to choose relationships over tasks.
Thank you for your blog it truly blesses and encourages me.
Great insights, Mindy. Live with the tension. I suppose it comes down to determining what you are called to. If you’re called to creating art full time, one needs to feel OK leaving pastoral duties for that, or vice versa. You know? I think ultimately we each need to decide which area we’re specifically called to.
Mindy, you nailed it with “You must learn to live in the tension and submit everything to the Holy Spirit as he guides you.” Spot on!
This has been an ongoing tension. lately ive been focusing on asking Jesus 2 things. show me who You are. Tell me who i am.
Great question! For me, I’ve come to the decision that I’m pastoral first and foremost. The artist side or part is there to serve the pastoral side. I haven’t always felt this way, as I spent a long time resisting it because, in many ways, it’s a lot more fun to be the purely artistic introvert. But making that decision in my mind has given me freedom from some of the tension, in some small way.
I’m not sure how I feel about the idea of needing laser focus about it- I am wired to be somewhat ADD and I need different roads to travel down at times to stay refreshed. But I know what the main road is.
Joe, it’s cool to see that you’ve defined who you are but still leave room for artistic exploration. How do you make the artistic stuff happen with all the pastoral duties?
I can vouch for Joe as a great pastor. To answer your question, David, about making the artistic stuff happen amidst the duties, I find that I just have to be intentional about it. I carve out time in my schedule two days a week for blogging and song writing. Sometimes it is a real struggle to make that happen, especially when work is piling up and I feel guilty for not attending to it, but I want to stay committed and live intentionally.
So you commit two entire days to blogging and songwriting or just a couple hours a day?
Something i’ve really been struggling with recently myself. My efforts, giftings, and “work”/ministry encompass so many facets of what we do here that i’m noticing I can no longer do anything with complete excellence. Something needs to shift and change but I don’t know what it is, especially because all of “this”… is my job.
Josh
Wow, that’s a tough place to be in. What is your current job responsibility?
I feel your pain Josh. It is so hard to balance the many different things that can take up our time and it becomes difficult to do anything with full passion and focus. I’ve found that often I need the space of nothing to allow the something to have value within myself.
I’m the creative director for student ministries here at NorthRidge Church. We’re a fast paced ministry and the breadth of my leadership extends over two design interns, pastoring a volunteer team of 14 worship leaders, 50 or so musicians, and around 25 technical artist volunteers. I speak into the creative process for each of our individual ministries as well (middle school, high school, college). At my core i’m a worship leader so I lead worship just about everywhere. When I was hired I was hired as the “student ministry worship director” and over the past 5 years the role has grown as God has given me more leadership and widened my influence. I love it but sometimes I feel like I’m just trying to keep the juggling balls up in the air and wish I could focus on one or two things (like leading worship and more intentionally shaping the culture of worship here).
ok… done ranting. 🙂
You have 14 worship leaders and 50 musicians in your student ministry?! Amazing.
Josh, maybe I could encourage you with something our pastor has been challenging us with lately. I’ve just started to explore a little of this tension, so I don’t have much to say about that. But, maybe at this point in your leadership you need to stop seeing yourself as a “builder” and start seeing yourself as an “architect”. Builders do the work of the ministry. Architects work with the people and make space for the builders to do the work. At a certain point you just can’t do it all or lead all of the people directly. Become a leader of leaders. 🙂
Hey Charity,
Thanks so much for those words! That’s a great metaphor. To be honest with everyone i’m both an architect and a builder. I’ve transitioned from builder to architect over the past two years
The thing that I have had to come to grips with in the past few months is that I am paid to be a pastor. That means that I need to reach my congregation where they are, and not where I want them to be. At least that is my situation right now. The ‘rub’ is when you try and get them to expand their view of worship and to encourage them to ‘go deeper.’ Its sad, but it seems that the church is a place where artistic expression is feared and discouraged.
Well, creativity can come out of ministry. I think this comes from having a heart that is open to listening to God while thinking ‘what am I hearing or doing that is inspiring my creative side’. Paul Baloche talks a lot about this. Some concrete steps to turn this into productive creativity include taking some notes when things inspire you, recording snippets that come to you on Evernote if you are a songwriter, etc. These core elements can help you to create when you do have some time to sit down and apply the craft. Another step I take (since I have a day job that is not music related at all) it to use idle thought time to create. Once I started writing songs this way I became more productive and the song melodies got stronger, an added bonus.
Thanks for mentioning this, Mark. I like how Paul always talks about “having your antennae up”. Even through the busyness of pastoral ministry (or another job), we can allow it to inspire our art.
On some level, to work for a church and ignore the pastoral responsibility of that position is completely wrong. But on another level, to be called into artistic ministry and then ignore the things which feed that fire is also completely wrong. If I do anything I shade toward the pastoral side, but so often I get bogged down in administrative responsibilities that my passion for the art slowly dies. We can’t lose both ends of the responsibilities, to steward the art in us and to be stewards of others through relationships with them.
Well said, Tyler. I’m in the same boat as you. If I don’t schedule my artistic time, there are too many things that take its place. So tough to balance this!
Great question and conversation. This is another paradox of worship ministry.
I think the area of focus may change according to season. What season are you in? Artistic creation or pastoral leadership? Although there are tensions, they are not necessarily exclusive of each other. True, there is only so much time and energy, and you can’t do everything equally well all the time. But that is true across every area of life. Part of the art of living is working it out.
Leading worship is an art form, and creative expression is inherent. However, worship is not “showcase” time or the proper context for realizing your artistic dreams.
If your church role is pastoral leadership, that is why you are on the payroll. That’s what they pay you to do. So it should have priority. Although ministry often can seem 24 – 7- 365 – there are ebbs and flows in church life also. In a perfect world, I’d put more focus on artistic fulfillment during my ministry down times.
Create your art, make your record, whatever, on your own time. ( Is that why there are starving artists? 🙂
Bottom-line, I think you should be true to the fullness of how God has uniquely designed you, and be faithful to following God’s timing in that. Often it’s not the resolution of the tensions that forms our character, but HOW we work it out. Are we faithful in the little things, what God puts before our hands to do?
“Often it’s not the resolution of the tensions that form our character, but how we work it out.” That is brilliant and something I needed to hear, Rob. Pure gold!
I like this quote from the Unleash 2012 conference…
“Worship leaders are gifted to lead worship, but CALLED to serve. Don’t ever put your gifting in front of your calling.”
do with it what you will…
not that everything that goes into “leading worship” isn’t serving…i know the work that goes into it firsthand…
just a thought..
“Call trumps all” Woah! You weren’t ready for that goodness 🙂
This is particularly challenging to bi-vocational leaders/pastors. I currently work three jobs (all of which overlap each other somewhat): 1/4 time worship pastor, private piano instructor (33 students at home and at a local Christian college), and freelance musician. Income from each of these rises and falls depending on the time of the year and the general economy. Add a family to that, and there are a lot of balls in the air.
Sometimes it’s not so much a question of ministry and art, as it is “How to pay the bills this month”. This often trumps my designs on getting into that elusive creative space. I do occasionally write songs for our worship services, but I do that on my own time. These songs may eventually find their way into a future CD release of my own. In the meantime, I create when I can, and it’s some of the most rewarding time I get. (In fact, I’ll be releasing a new solo piano CD in the next couple months.) I wish I could do this more, but my family needs to eat, and I do feel called to the ministries of my teaching and my church work.
Working one-on-one with my students has turned into a ministry in itself. Kids suffering through divorce, depressed and even suicidal teens, deaths in families, parents of students who need someone to talk to about their kids and their marriages. I’ve been surprised at what God has brought my way when I didn’t expect it or even want it. Yet He has given strength and wisdom each time.
Being only 1/4 time in “official” ministry also forces me to say no to some aspects of my church work, both creative and pastoral. It has allowed me to zero in on what is truly important in bringing people to Jesus in our times of worship, and the art becomes more specific. I’m finding more beauty in simplicity these days (not in copping out and doing crap, but in finding simpler, more elegant ways to express through worship). The bummer is not being available as much for my team members when they need help, but I do what I can, and get my other full-time colleagues involved when necessary.
In the end, I do feel my first calling is to my family. Knowing this helps me filter the priorities and opportunities as they come my way. I am not able to save the world and meet everyone’s needs. That’s for Jesus. I’d love to be more focused one way or the other, but God hasn’t brought me there, yet. I’m indeed grateful for the opportunities He’s given me, and I’m curious to see what’s next…
(Sorry for the length. Not sure this helps. Just spewing my thoughts…)
Neil, I really appreciate you sharing your story. I’ve talked to a lot of worship pastors who are in your same position. Worship leading is a small part of what they do. I suppose that’s why small business and entrepreneurship is so appealing to creatives. It gives them more time to create. Praying for you, brother. Thanks for sharing.
Some great thoughts here, but the one that stuck out to me is the seasonal nature of our focus. I love that the Lord is the creator of cycles and the kind of ebb and flow that reaches deeply into questions like these. I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to figure out who I am, how I was gifted, my calling, etc…but the truth is the One who made me is constantly at work in me and He can make me anything He wants at anytime. I’m on board with that because it’s all about His good purpose! Flexibility I think is the key to dealing with the seasonal nature of these things for us. That and the refusal to put God and His work in and through us in a box.
David, I see this tension as normal. Ouch.
But, tormenting, too. It is dangerous to be under it for too long.
The issue is how we define pastor and artist, of course. I believe that being an artist and being a pastor are callings, while being a worship leader or a teaching pastor is a ROLE. Role’s change, callings do not.
I believe strongly in the ARTIST-PASTOR as a valid role and calling, and dream for the day when the church allows people who are more prophetic than administrative or teachers to actually help lead on their teams. There is a backlash against INNOVATION. We fear it. Creatives/artists are wired to innovate and create. Institutions are designed to protect themselves and be safe.
Google gives employees 10% time to create and innovate outside of their job descriptions. Most churches over-control their creatives–whether volunteer or staff leaders. The system is so typical. We want a creative result with an administrative process. Not gonna happen. So, worship guys and gals burn out our worse if in this for too long.
And, in personality-driven mega-church models, the only real creative person is the visionary leader at the top. If you cannot dream in that setting as well, as an artist you will shrivel up. Not everything valid in ministry happens as a sermon illustration or worship setlist. God wants to use us to infect and create culture that pervades our cities. And, our gatekeepers are too afraid to give space for that to happen which is why many live in the dilemma you speak of.
RK
“We want a creative result with an administrative process” – love that. There’s a lot of gold here, Rich. So you would say the key is in senior pastors leading the change?
I think you have to be real clear of your calling. If you are a pastor, be it a worship/creative arts pastor or something else, your calling is to lead/disciple/shepherd and serve first.
If there is an over abundance of artistic tension, then it would be good to evaluate your heart and calling or pursue your artistic proddings. Unless of course you can schedule in some creative time and make this a regular creative outlet.
There are many worship pastors, many itinerant worship leaders, and many music/worship artists but rarely is there a balance or mix of any of those.
Not that they can’t coexist, but we are usually stronger in one of those areas and the other areas help round us out. Also, a lot depends on how you define the term artist. I believe that we’re all artists, created and inspired to create… at least in a small way.
It’s possible to do both well, but it probably isn’t a fair question to ask if one is better or more important than the other. Both have a role in the healthy body of Christ.
I suppose a lot of it depends on how God has equipped and called each person in these types of roles. For me, I’ve come to realize that God has called me first to be a pastor that uses music, arts, and creativity to point people to Him and to experience the reality of His love and presence. Helps me to see that my “job” is about more than the corporate gathering and to not get caught up in the details of preparing for Sunday morning (even though those details are often easier and more fun than some of the people/pastoral stuff).