Easy to Enter. Hard to Stay.

I was blessed to listen to a webinar a couple of week ago on the subject of Praise and Worship; specifically on the foundations in growing a worship team. The lecture was great. A lot of good pointers. But there was one point that raised an eyebrow, and caused me to marinate on it for a while. He challenged the Ministers of Music/Worship pastors (whoever is in charge) to make the music ministry “easier to enter and harder to stay.” What this looks like is different from ministry to ministry, but the idea remains. Since I have been thinking on this for a while, I thought I’d talk about it and hopefully see what you think.

There aren’t many churches where if you were to walk in from the streets and wanted to get involved in the music ministry, you can freely do so. For most churches have some type of restrictions; and many are understandable. Maybe you could be apart of the “all comer’s choir”, but don’t expect to just waltz in the studio choir and be expected to sing. You may could sing in the choir, but not praise team. And for some churches, don’t even think you’re coming in with your axe about to sit in. NOT. Now, again I believe restrictions in a ministry are important, and the specifics are and should be up to the ministry and its culture. With that in mind, know that I’m not writing to tell you what your restrictions should be, but I am interested in taking a look at our restrictions.

Let’s go back and talk about what it means to make it “easier to enter”. Some of these examples are my own, some of them come from the lecturer, but for the sake of the blogg I am not agreeing or disagreeing with any examples made.
1. For the simple knowledge of how to get involved you gotta go through this one person.
To explain myself…The person who is interested in getting involved sees you on stage, so they naturally approach you inquiring how to be apart. You’re response is… you will need to talk to this person or that person. Oppose to everyone who is apart of the ministry is able to articulate how to get involved in the arts ministry. This is a subtle way of not welcoming any and everyone into the ministry.

2. You gotta set up a meeting with the Pastor.
3. You must be a member of the church.
4. You must be a member for a certain amount of time.
5. You must be of a certain spiritual maturity to be apart of certain areas of the arts ministries.
6. You must be of a certain musical level
7. You must be saved.


Ok. Now as you take a look at this list, I’m sure you can see your church in there somewhere. Some of you readers could probably add a couple of restrictions that your church practices. As a matter of fact, many of you (as I) can back up some of our restrictions with the word of God, and because of that, some of these restrictions are non-negotiable to many of us. However, a lot of our restrictions have basically co-signed with the sinner who says, “I have to get my stuff together before I go to church.” We are now saying “you have to get your stuff together a little better before you can get involved. “

But think about these restrictions for a moment, and think about what your ministry would look like if these restrictions were not in place. I would argue that your ministry would be in one of two categories; a place with a bunch of confusion, and spiritual mayhem; or it is a place where the worship pastor is really a pastor; where the minister of music is a minister first. In other words, success in an idea of “no restrictions” or “limited restrictions” would come from an environment that makes it difficult for you not to change. A place where you grow or go. It is a place where you are forever growing while the one who does not want to grow is so uncomfortable they just can’t stick around.

So specifically what does this ministry with no restrictions look like? Well the sinner is embraced with love and ministry that challenges the need for Christ in their life. The saved non-member is being loved and embraced within community in such a way that there’s no reason they wouldn’t want to be a member. The talented saved artist who secretly has the “it don’t take all that” attitude about worship, is consistently welcomed in an environment where worship is consistently taught and practiced making it difficult for him not to be affected.

So what do you think? How does this sound to you? It sounds like Uhhhhhh real community to me. It sounds like what we preach church should look like; where we as the body is walking with you to your next place in life. But like I said earlier, it sounds like a place where the Worship Pastor really needs to be a Pastor. Within this idea, the leaders cannot get distracted by the music that needs to be learned, and program that needs to be prepared. In this environment the people that God has trusted us to lead must be first priority. Yes I know, looking for the holiest, most talented artist sure makes life so much easier as a leader. But think about how many people who could have saw you on stage and could relate to you because your similar talents, but never was given an opportunity to allow that thing that connects you to him (the art) to meet.