Leadership in the church is always a slippery-slope of sorts. Recently, I've received numerous calls and emails from ministers of music from a variety of traditions asking similar, if not exact, questions in regards to the direction that their particular church is moving. Now that first thing that must be emphasized from me is that I do not regard myself as being some kind of authority or whiz on matters of church leadership. However, I have experienced serving in four very different congregations in four very different cities, which at minimum provides me with a level of perspective.

I will generalize some of the various on-going discussions I've been having with some of you readers, because I feel that many of us are going through the same kinds of things, and maybe we can help one another out a bit. And sometimes, just knowing others are walking in your shoes and experiencing some of the same kinds of emotions, etc., is profitable to our souls so we don't feel like we're all alone.

Typically, you enter into the music ministry through volunteering and you gradually begin to elevate in position as you grow in leadership responsibilities or you are hired to fulfill a particular role (i.e. Director of Worship). In either case you evaluate taking on this responsibility because of a variety of things that work together: 1. Agree with the doctrine and structure of the church 2. Like/respect the pastor(s) 3. Excited about the church's potential 3. For musicians, feel you can contribute your gifts in a meaningful way, which goes into style preference.

For many of us that fall into the "missional" movement which includes hymn revision, blended, and pseudo-contextualized worship types of environment, we were actually sought out and encouraged for our particular talents or interests by pastors/church planters because it was a part of their overall vision to reach the particular indigenous culture of the city in which the church is located, or they just wanted something cooler than next door. But...now here's the rub. What happens a couple years later when the church's growth has slowed down? If you're conservative (theologically speaking) you realize you are only going to be able to draw so many "already Christians" into your church via church transfer. So the primary growth you are hoping for is through conversion. Who doesn't want to see souls freed by the gospel? But what if the massive conversion of your city that the leadership longs for doesn't happen overnight, or say, after five years? Finances always come into play and cause problems, of course. When you look across the street and you see Church X growing by leaps and bounds there is always the lure to ask, "What are they doing?"

It turns out the Church X has "High Impact" worship using the latest and greatest from popular CCM star (fill-in the blank). This is what Christians listen to; this is what they like and respond to! In exit polls with recent visitors there has been a constant refrain that it takes a bit to get used to the worship at your church, because it's....well...different. It's so easy and free to shout-out the simple songs at Church X.

In discussion with your leadership you are confronted with: "Don't get us wrong, we love what you're doing, BUT we think that we need to tweak the direction of the music ministry a little so that people feel more comfortable." [or some type of statement carrying the same tenor]. What if you added some songs that are more popular? You don't really feel comfortable with this since this is the exact opposite direction from the one you were originally hired for and it certainly is not your strength, but you also don't want to be devisive and you respect the authority of the elders, so you comply by adding a few of the better tunes you can find. Plus your band can put their own spin on them without altering the melody too much.

Things are going alright, but you start to notice a change in the way the truths of scripture are being preached or taught. Slowly the direction of the church at large is heading toward a course very different from the one you started upon; not necessarily bad...just different. You feel uncomfortable by these changes. Is it you? Maybe you've become enslaved to your own tradition, you ponder? Maybe it's the pastor? He just wants growth at any expense and now it looks like he wants you to become some emotive Christian pop-star? It could be a myriad of things, and you are at a crossroads. What do you do? How do you approach this with grace and wisdom?

Well, friends that's the dilemma many find themselves in. How do we handle this? Fire away. I'll provide some thought or suggestions in a follow-up post. God be with you.