Bedside Manners for Worship Ministers
August 18th, 2006 by Travis Swan | Posted in Ministry Philosophy
(Originally an email to me from my dad, Monte Swan, August 2006. -Travis)
A couple weeks ago at a family reunion in Wisconsin I learned that my grandfather came from Sweden one hundred years ago with three guitars his father had made and a strong beautiful voice. He opened two photography studios in Illinois and ended up exhibiting his water-colored photographs at the World’s Fair, but eventually homesteaded in northern Wisconsin because of his sensitivity to the photographic chemicals. My eleven aunts and uncles have told me that as an expression of his passion for God he played guitar and sang and sang as they grew up, but one day when he was in his fifties he stopped singing—it had something to do with church. I never really knew him or the details of his music ministry story because he died when I was young, but sometimes I wonder if the struggles I’ve experienced mixing art and worship in church are the same struggles he experienced—seems that some things never change. The reigning stereotype of the odd, melancholic, depressed, tortured artist is to a large extent a myth created by Romantic ideology and supported only by evidence from isolated atypical historical periods. And in these cases its not the artists that created this stereotype, but an artistic scene that promised much, gave few rewards, and left nine out of ten artists neglected if not ignored. The Christian community is an accomplice in this crime and theologically skilled at mercilessly perpetrating not only this image, but this condition.
Research indicates that creative people are not typically odd, melancholic, depressed, or tortured, but holistic people who love to make connections with adjacent areas of knowledge. While the bulk of humanity occupies comfortable islands of near conformity, creative people sail the interdisciplinary oceans of ignorance between the islands. They tend to be in principle–caring and sensitive, and remarkable in their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. Complexity characterizes their personalities, causing people to often misunderstand them. They work long hours with intense concentration late into the night, but need extended periods of idleness, rest, and reflection to refuel. They are smart yet naïve and characterized by contrasting poles of wisdom and childishness, playfulness and discipline–you could say “detached attachment.” Creative people are original without being bizarre. The novelty they see is rooted in reality. While psychological research considers extroversion and introversion the most stable personality traits, creative individuals seem to express both traits at the same time. Community is essential to creative individuals. If they don’t kick things around with people, they feel out of it. The truth is that nobody can be anybody without somebody being around. Truly creative individuals are remarkably humble and proud at the same time. They possess the ability to enjoy the creative process for its own sake.
My ministry experience in the arts began in 1967 during the beginning of the current revolution in Christian music. In my grandfather’s day it was sacrilegious to play a guitar in church. In 1967 after my musical group opened the morning worship service for a country church by sing the song “Day By Day” accompanied by a couple guitars and upright bass, the pastor moved by the Spirit of God, cancelled his message, said the benediction and emotionally asked us to close with another song. We sang, “To Be Used by God.”
Emotions over “contemporary” music were all over the map in those days. At first I focused on the music—I was infatuated by it and used people to create new music for ministry. My eyes were on the product, much like a commercial producer would operate—finding the best artists, putting them together, and creating art. I also had little patience for people who didn’t share my vision—especially the ones who didn’t show up on time for whatever reason, or didn’t volunteer just because I announced the start of a new project. I had no time to twist arms and baby sit amateurs or uncommitted lay people. I had great success artistically and even spiritually because the product was excellent and borne out of ministry passion and sincerity, but the path to the product was cluttered with bodies of artists, their still-born art, and burnt bridges. More than one musician drifted away from the faith because they didn’t fit into my vision. I was part of a problem that existed in my grandfather’s day and has continued today—overlooked artists who desire to enter the creative process in their local place of worship.
Fortunately I finally realized that an worship minister’s primary responsibility, besides leading the church in worship, is to facilitate the process of creativity in other people so those people can express their worship through their art not my art. Creating an environment for this to happen is difficult in a large church because of the relatively large number of quality semi-professional artists and because the worship minister does not need to disciple, coach, or mentor or as some would say “babysit”. An adequate number of artists will come to the minister on the minister’s terms and like studio musicians plug in. Churches like this often cause a sense of loss and emptiness in artists who don’t fit into the system. When a Christian artist cannot work they feel isolated and misunderstood.
Small churches are naturally set up to more easily minister to creative and artistic individuals than large churches, because the worship minister is required to exercise a gentle bedside manner, and be flexible in light of the uniqueness and maturity of the artists–there is a much smaller pool to tap into and discipling, coaching and mentoring are required. The rules of ministry end up being more about how a minister can adjust to and work with lay artists than these artists working on the minister’s terms and on his projects.
Ministry literally means “to help” or “to bring aid”. Thus a worship minister’s main role is not to just worship God, but to help people worship God. In the case of artists within the congregation, the minister’s primary role is to facilitate their worship through creation of art by the artists. This enriches the worship of the whole church.
This entry was posted on Friday, August 18th, 2006 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Ministry Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
