I would agree with all of that. I’d also encourage him to read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. While not specifically Christian, I think it gives some great insight into what steps to take when the excitement of the big new idea wears off. Creativity is truly work if not anything else.

So glad you enjoyed Wonder ’09 young sir! Would love to hook up if you’re ever back in town. I work at Willow as a Creative Producer.

I’d say I could have written that letter myself, except I’m from a different part of the world and can only wish I could make it to half the awesome conferences that take place in North America each year.

I know what it is like to have the sense of being called by God to do Technical Arts full time but be looking at closed doors everywhere. I left school and went to Hillsong College in Sydney and my whole world changed. I saw what church can be and the dream was placed in my heart to see the Christian church media landscape leading the world with creativity and skill.

I tried to study at a Christian university but I found that nobody shared my passion. I felt so alone and I dropped out. Now I’m unemployed, broke and don’t know what God has in store. I’d pour all my time into volunteering so I could say “hey, this is only half what I can do” but I need to earn an income and its not coming.

Each morning I pray for God to help me work harder, to get more done, hoping that a door will open. Each night I go to sleep disappointed; disappointed in my own procrastination, disappointed in the lack of support from my family, disappointed in God for not opening doors.

I’d give up everything to see the dream realised, but I’ve got nothing more to give up but my dream. If thats what God wants, I’d give it up too.

I took a “first-timer” to Willow this year and it was great. I knew from experience that when one returns from a week long “mountain top” kind of experience it’s very difficult to cram everything into a short conversation with pastor, worhsip leader or elder. (heck, I could spend a whole session just trying to explain Whitmire’s “artists are like gas” analogy) Even if church leadership is supportive of the arts, they cannot all of a sudden shift their entire focus, dreams, priorities to absorb your newfound enthusiasm. This can be frustrating and suddenly feel as though people don’t “get” you or appropriately “value” you. The fact is it’s not about “you”. If the church has potential and sees a need to “evolve”, it will require a series of short conversations, grab a lunch or two, don’t dump on them, and above all respect and honor those who were called to lead. Get involved in the things that are important to them as well and serve. If this is truly a calling from God, and the church is not oriented to advancing technologies or communications then see if God had another home for you. If the church has expressed some desire or potential, then you have to decide if you can humbly influence and champion the Arts for God’s glory – in God’s timing.

Great response. I’d also echo your encouragement for patience with your local church. When I was a young worship leader, I attended a conference that “messed me up.” Like, forever. God fundamentally changed me, and my understanding of worship and my role as a leader in my local church blew up – well past my previous experience in our fairly traditional, conservative (and Godly) congregation.

When I came back from the conference, I felt as if I had seen the light. I wanted to share this new-found passion with the congregation, and surely they would see it as a move of the Spirit – a new paradigm to be embraced with enthusiasm!

Well, it wasn’t the sweeping instantaneous change that I thought I would experience as a young, firey 20 something. God taught me patience. I was able to influence that church family, and I saw God move people into more and more freedom in expressing their love to Him. (And HE gets all the credit, by the way… I just got to get in on it with Him.) The point of the story is that what I thought people would gladly embrace over the course of that next year took about a decade to realize.

As Tim said, your church is where they are. With rare exceptions, churches are often resistant to large-scale change if it comes with the expectation of a quick time-scale.

I’d ask yourself (1) Is God calling me to invest in THIS church family for the long-haul – to help these good people experience God moments in a new way. (2) Or has God birthed a new zeal in me for technical ministry that I can’t ignore or I’ll die inside, and I won’t be able to do that in my current church.

Don’t answer too quickly. Pray. You may have an oportunity to see your church become something you have never dreamed. But it will take time, and God will need to move your churches leaders to make that happen.

Gary I have to agree with you. I totally understand that I cannot force this upon anyone or any church. My enthusiasm and passion is for the glory of God. The experience at Willow showed me how TOTALLY AWESOME worshiping God can really be. It may be that God has something else entirely in store for me. Bottom line is I gave up my dreams at Willow. I finally said God, I dont want to be the next Stephen Speilberg anymore. I want to be used by you. I prayed the Lord use me however he can even if it means being the janitor at church. Now my feeling is that my passion for a rocking worship service and the talents God has blessed the world with through me give me a thought to the direction, but in the end as long as I can be pleasing to God and be used, thats all I ask.

It will take more time than you know. Thats the great thing I think. For me to move into the Ministry full time will take a few God miracles in my life. I have a heavy load of student loan debt to work through before taking a pay cut (currently work as a pharmacist) to go into ministry full time. I also feel God still has a lot of work to do in me. I asked for a clear path be set before me and after talking with out pastor, he pointed out the needs our church has in childrens ministry. After praying, I feel as if God might have the great things in store, but I may have to learn to grow up in the church all over again. Starting in Childrens Ministry and working up to leading worship or something. My passion is to help reach people far from God using the language and culture they know.
I also would like to see my church worship with energy and enthusiasm. I look around and while we are standing and singing, most of us are doing just that. I feel we need the spirit to move us! I feel the need to dance along with the music (in my pew space, not all over), but I just cant help but want to worship Almighty God by letting his spirit move me, to have some emotional pump, pizzaz, whatever you want to call it. I’m just thankful to be a part of it.

That Willow Conference must have been amazing! I feel like I just read a letter from one of the students that went from our church..maybe it was him:)
It’s hard because as church leaders we often go to conferences and get pumped and motivated to make changes,which is awesome, but it is crucial that we make sure that we are in submission to what our senior pastor’s vision is, and where the Lord is leading Him. I see many people come back and want to change the church, including areas that have not been placed into their hands, and then they get frustrated because changes aren’t taking place. Change is good…really good…but we must be under the authority of our senior pastor and his vision…otherwise we are off base? Make sense? So hang in there…young man (whoever you are), press into your calling…but remember that your calling is to give God glory with your life…and one way of giving him glory is by being in submission to those in leadership:)

I see you have some really enthusiastic visitors on your blog. I would say this alone can count as a huge achievement in your resume. Leadership in church-environment is new to me, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it is needed. Good luck mentoring tomorrow’s leaders!

many times, as we want to bring change and creativity, we’ve got to learn the art (and science) of how to bring change holistically to a church. a helpful book for the church (depending on where you’re church is at in its life cycle) is “Who Stole My Church” by gordon macdonald. he explains the emotions of change in a congregation. two other great books on change management – 1) “The Heart of Change” (John Kotter) and 2) “Managing Transitions” (William Bridges). Both of these have helped me immensely in understanding the dynamics of bringing change into a church. the creativity and change associated with it, especially in terms of worship experience, seems to be the 1/6th of the iceberg that’s above water. the 5/6 below water seems to be more of the core issues that churches faces in change.

I’ve spent a few years in a church position that would not have been my first choice. I’ve loved the position more than I expected to, but more importantly, I earned the respect of church leadership and discovered how these individuals work and think as individuals and as a team.
Over this summer, I’ll be transitioning out of this roll. When this transition is over, I won’t be married to one particular ministry anymore, but I’ll have credibility and knowledge that will help me impact my church…
I think you ought to be up front about your motivations, but also recognize that serving for some time elsewhere within the church could better position to cause the changes your hoping for in the future…

Here’s what I would add: Just ’cause you have an idea doesn’t mean anyone owes you anything to see it realised. Leaders want to see your actions where your words are. They’re not going to make grand promises and offer buy-in without some kind of proof. Nor would you want them to. (You don’t want your church filled to the brim with half-baked ideas, right?)

So if you’ve got an idea you believe in, make it happen. Find the people in your church or your community (which is probably larger than you expect right now) that can help you. Sometimes that help might even be in the form of shrinking the scale of the project to make it feasible. Hey, cool!

Bottom line? Don’t talk about the story. Live it. Don’t tell people about an idea. Show them. You can’t include a video in a worship service if it doesn’t exist. So, create it.

If you can demonstrate ability and reliability, you can be the change you want to see. There is nothing stopping you!

PS You don’t need to leave your church even if they don’t want to implement your ideas in a worship service. Put your ideas on a blog or Youtube, or both. Church was never meant to be confined to a building anyway.

I would just add—continue to check your heart and ask God to clarify and purify that passion. The line “I want to become the Willow Creek or Granger” of our area made me wonder–why?

I’m not questioning your heart–I only know my own heart (in the past) after going to the big conferences. It’s powerful to look at another churches ideas, technology, talent, and quite honestly, even budget. It can be inspiring. But the programming will never get you to “be Willow” or “be Granger”. Understand that all those things are a part of a CULTURE. And that culture, individual to your church and vision God has called your leadership to, must drive your creative decisions.

Above all, glorify God with your gifts, but do it in the context of absolute loyalty to the leaders and vision.