Xerox Doesn’t Do Church

As a Worship Pastor, Worship Leader, Music Guy, Service Organizer, or whatever label you can give to my position (I still have trouble getting comfortable with the first two) one of my favorite resources for new ideas are others in my position. I am always looking for good, creative ways to communicate, enhance and/or solidify a particular part of the overall liturgy of our corporate worship services. We as worshipers are equipped with five senses and the more of these that get involved in certain areas of corporate worship the more certain ideas can be driven home. Over the years of leading corporate worship I have seen some great ideas and I have seen some things that make me doubt the salvation of the one responsible for the idea. Situations arise in churches for various reason and creative types usually find a creative way to address a need or communicate an idea. I don’t have the luxury to visit numerous churches and see how they “do” church. I rely on relationships with other worship leaders, conferences, and the creativity of my own creative types for such information.

We all do this in varied forms. We may read a book on leadership and find one little paragraph that fixes a known problem we have training leaders. We hear a sermon that sparks an idea to resolves some great issue in our congregations. One of the great things about the internet is that ability to share this information and use each other as a resource. This is a tremendous opportunity we have to live in such an age, and I for one try not to take it for granted.

However, I think this idea of borrowing from others can and is often taken to far. I received a phone call yesterday from a somewhat distraught individual looking for some wisdom. The 1700 member church he has been involved in for the past year or so has decided to make some changes. This bible-belt church in a medium sized town for the south of 150,000 has become one of the most popular churches in the area. It has been in the process of building its ministries and centering around the word. It’s in an area known for musical talent and this church is no exception. For the past 2 years it has been building a large worship choir and training various talented musicians and really focusing on congregational involvement in its corporate worship setting. The individual who called me was distraught because the leadership, which is one man, has decided to disband the choir, remove the budget for salaries in this ministry, save the worship leader and asked the worship leader to just show up on Sunday and lead music.

Now on some levels this sounds like a dream job. If I got paid for one rehearsal and Sunday mornings then I could sit around and get fat for the next five days. I also don’t fault the leadership for making drastic changes and decisions. At 1700 drastic changes are a necessity and at some point you have to trust the leadership or move on. So in our conversation I initially came down on the side of change. That was until I heard the reasons behind the decisions.

I asked the voice on the other line what was the reason for all of this. They were told, in no uncertain terms, that this church was going to become a copy of North Point Community Church. I think the direct quote was “I want what North Points got”. It was at that point in the conversation when a breakfast meeting with Dr. Al Mohler came flooding back to mind. In a conversation with a few church planters Dr. Mohler made a statement to the effect of “there are no second generation mega-churches.” Basically saying you can’t reproduce what someone else did because you are not them and you don’t live where they live. The Senior Pastor had just returned from a conference and now, as best I can tell with one side of the story, coveted another mans ministry.

More and more I see a trend towards this as many church planters set out to build the next mega church. They read “Purpose Driven Church” or “Confession of a Reformission Rev” and set out to acquire 10,000 people in 8 years in by trying to reach the homeless 24 year old grunge crowd in Selma, AL by singing David Crowder songs and lighting candles, and they are somehow shocked when it doesn’t work.

Those God has called he has called to a specific ministry into a specific area. We serve our Jerusalem, wherever that may be. You can’t plant Saddleback in Wyoming, and Mars Hill will not work in the suburbs of East Texas. You have a unique community with unique problems that can be solved by one common message and that is Jesus Saves. Glean wisdom from men who have been there before you and fought battles you may never face. But minister to the needs of your community and stop trying to get Bubba to sing “Can You Feel It” in his Carhart coveralls with blood on them from the deer he cleaned before he left for church.