More On Arts Ministry Org Charts

The dialogue about ways to best structure leadership for a worship arts ministry has been robust and fascinating to me. I had a conversation with an arts leader yesterday who is not a musician herself, and who is fielding questions from the up front worship leaders about whether it is best for a non-musician to actually be leading the music team (in terms of reporting structure). This is not a new question to me, and yet it still surprises me that a worship leader is very open (usually) to reporting to the pastor, who is often not a musician, but not as open to following a Creative Arts Director or Worship Arts Pastor if that person is not musically gifted. I think the key here is leadership. As we look at the gift mix of each individual, we need to discern what his or her best play is. Also, a non-musician is often better equipped to represent the large percentage of non-musical people in the congregation – and make wise decisions as an advocate for those folks. Sometimes musically gifted people don’t understand that not everyone is quite as “into music” as they are, and not everyone connects with God as a worshipper through the pathway of music. As a result, some worship leaders design long, repetitive worship times with music that is not very accessible for the average person. Those worship leaders and their music teams often look like they are in heaven on stage, and are authentically worshipping themselves. But they lack the instincts and discernment to read the room. Often, especially past the first few rows, the congregation is not as engaged as the worship leader may think they are. For years I’ve been an advocate for expanding our toolbox in worship to include many different art forms and dimensions of communication. Some people respond most to story, or visuals, or video, or drama, or dance – therefore, we must not limit our experience in the gathering to music exclusively. For this reason, a non-musical arts leader may in fact be a great choice for leading the process of designing the Sunday morning experience. What do you think?