Painting in Broad Strokes

I have always thought of myself as a detail person. If you have visited my office (either in my church or at the university in my prior life) you would think that I am organized beyond measure. I do like order and I like everything in its place. But I am finding that in the church, there are always those who like order a little better than me. I guess in some ways I have always known this, but I am only now allowing myself to admit that I am a broad strokes painter. Although I am conscientious of detail, my main goal is to make sure the end product is successful, whether this is a musical presentation or a class or whatever. I realized this more fully the other week when I was confronted by a parishioner on Sunday morning (the worst possible time) about an issue that was really insignificant to me at the time. Each Sunday, I arrive at my church about 6:30 a. m. and am fully engaged in preparations and worship ministry until our three services are finished around noon. So, my time is very limited to actually deal with people and their issues. How sad is that? The time when I have the greatest opportunity to make an impact on people, my most significant point of contact with most of my parishioners during the week, I have to worry more about the greater good of the whole than of the one. I guess it is the nature of the beast.

Well, the story goes I really did not have time to deal with the situation, and it really was not important to the full exercise of worship for that Sunday morning. I was frustrated with this person for bringing this non-issue to my attention at my busiest point of the morning, but I realized then and there that there are a lot of things that I do not worry about because they are too small for me to deal with. I think most church leaders tend to be big picture people and we need those in our congregations who remind us of the minutiae, even if we consider these people all too negative in their approaches to our ministries.

I am reminded of a guitar player from a church I was involved in almost ten years ago. I had been asked to visit the church and consider joining the staff as a part-time worship leader. The worship ministry was fairly large with a ten-piece orchestra besides the guitars, drums, and piano of the worship team. This guy was one of those who was always worried about every little detail and at the time I just was not a detail person when it came to worship music. Frankly, I did not think it was very difficult to perform and I did not need very much practice to make my part presentable. When you spend your life making your living from music, your approach to it is very different than if you are not a "professional." And, as you recall, I am a snob and so any music that I do not have to practice is not difficult (to me). That is not to say that I think we should have classical music in all of our services. I mean, how accessible is that? Granted, my choir performs a good bit of classical literature, but this is usually for very special traditional services. I digress.

I think that guitar player hated me because I would always tell him not to worry about this or that. I don't think my words were consoling to him at all. I sure had a lot to learn about leadership and coming along side someone and bringing them along with you. I think I still have a lot to learn about that.

Again, I think it all comes back to broad strokes or the big picture or whatever you want to call it. People in ministry tend to see the whole picture better than most of our congregations, but we have a hard time explaining our vision in a way that others can grab hold of it. I am still working on toning myself down enough that I do not lose people along the way. I have gotten good at this on the traditional side of my musical life (choir anthems and hymns), but I am still working on the "contemporary" side of things. I admit that I get bored quickly with new worship music and need to continue to learn new songs in order for these services to be refreshing to me. But, I also need to remember that it is not all about Dr. Keaton and I have the responsibility to lead my congregation into deeper worship, even if is with the same 20 songs. If they can learn to worship, then the song repertoire does not matter.

Dear Lord, help me to hear your voice, even in the grating sounds of those I do not want to listen to. It may be that your still, small voice comes from the most annoying person I know.

Peace

P.S.:This is Madeline and me in front of the only Del Rancho restaurant in Texas. It made me think happy thoughts about Oklahoma and I very rarely do that, mainly because I have blocked most of it. Props to anyone out there from Oklahoma. Somebody's gotta live there. ;)