Refreshing. That's the one word description I would give my meeting with Brandon from Raytown. While it's awesome to work with guys here at Grace who support you and love being around, it was great to be able to sit down and talk about related issues. Here are some of the things we talked about:
- Change - Something we both dealt with when we began leading worship at our churches. Brandon's church has a generational difference in that most in attendance are around the age of 50. But his role is to help bring in some "younger" music and freshen up the worship while bridging the divide between generations. VERY tough job in my view. When I became worship leader, we were in a similar transition from doing mostly hymns to doing more contemporary music. Then outright changing the sound/style to a more "rock" type feel. We both agreed that the support of your Pastor is HUGE in this regard.
- Pastoral Support - Such a GIANT blessing for me is the support all of my pastors give. These guys have taken many shots for me during our transition from traditional type worship to what we have now. Brandon and I also agreed that you cannot make changes without a visioneering pastor. If the pastor has no vision, then he will ultimately cater to what makes the congregation happy. Where there is no vision...the people perish.
- Leading People - It ain't about the leader. It's the TEAM. Again, something I've been soooo blessed with at Grace is our team. Audio, video, lighting, stage, praise...all the people I get to work with each week are just so giving. They understand the vision, and know that what they do impacts eternity each week. When I was giving Brandon a tour of our new home I realized how good I have it that there are people on our team that take ownership and I don't need to get all the "know how's", (although I need to learn a little more), but it all gets done without me standing over shoulders.
- Comraderie - His reach out was to establish some relationships for support, prayer and fellowship with guys in the same position sharing the same successes, failures and challenges. I would love to continue this and invite other worship leaders.
- Resources - We were able to pass along resources (books, video stuff, etc) to each other. I recommended he read "An Hour on Sunday" by Nancy Beach. He in turn recommended "The Heart of the Artist" by Rory Noland which has actually been sitting in my Amazon wishlist for almost a year now. Both authors are a part of the Willow Creek ministry.
We had a great lunch at Applebee's and plan to meet again soon. I may make the trek over to Raytown next time. Brandon, if you're reading this, thanks for the lunch and great conversation!
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