The Art of the Handoff

Handing off ministry duties and leadership is a tricky thing to navigate. Just like in football, everything needs to come together just right for the hand off to be successful. If you let go of the ball to soon, the “runner” will never secure the ball. If you let go too late, you’ll run into [...]

Raise, Build and Get Out of the Way

This Sunday I had the chance to experience our worship environment from a different perspective. I wasn’t on stage, I wasn’t at the soundboard, I wasn’t running lights or video…I was simply there. When it comes to running a creative ministry, it really gets no better than watching your team do what they do…and do [...]

A Proud Moment

Well here we are. It’s my 2nd to last Sunday at Vale and pretty much everything in our creative ministry has been transitioned out of my hands and into the hands of a really great team. I’ve always believed that a good leader should be raising up their replacement and this morning I was able [...]

Managing Personalities

One of my favorite things about my job is getting to deal with an incredibly eclectic group of personalities. On one side you have the “artists”…People who tend to be creative, emotional, passionate and yes…at times, irrational. Then you have the “techies”…People who tend to be analytical, detail oriented, task driven and yes…at times, irrational. [...]

To Control or Not to Control

I’ve said it a dozen times on this blog, raising up leaders and delegating some responsibility is the key to a vibrant growing ministry. But what do you do when there’s an area in which that plan isn’t working so well? What do you do when something you’ve delegated begins to faulter? For most of [...]

On the Verge

Have you ever felt like you were on the verge of something incredible? That’s where I’m at right now. I’m not sure I can even put my finger on it, but I can’t help but feel that God is about to do something major in our ministry. In the last 2 years, this ministry has gone from [...]

Knowing When to Let Go

I’m a recovering ”artist hog”…there I said it. I used to hoard my artists. It didn’t matter if you had other giftings, you are an artists and you must serve in this Artistic Ministry. Over the last couple of years, God has really changed my thinking on this. The truth is, sometimes God calls people in different [...]

Leadership in 2008

This coming year is a year to raise up leaders in our Creative Ministry. Over the last year and 1/2, we’ve really started to “push the envelope” creatively. This is great, but it’s not without its side effects. The higher the bar is raised, the more we have to work to sustain what we’re doing. [...]

Creatively Sitting Around

I got to spend a few hours this morning with a new friend. Mark and his family have been coming to Vale for about 3 months and have decided to make this their new church home. Mark and I have managed to grab lunch a couple times since first meeting and have been planning to [...]

Giving Artists a Voice

Great post yesterday on Butch Whitmire’s blog. Check it out here. Artists need a voice, they need an outlet to have their ideas and creativity heard. As creative leaders, it’s our responsibility to create that environment for our artists. Check out Butch’s post and let me know your thoughts.