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The Bossypants Guide to Getting Ready for Sunday

Lesson Four: “Television is a visual medium.”

Fey writes, “It basically means, ‘Go to bed. You look tired.’…Your ‘street cred’ with the staff [because you burned obscene hours] won’t help anybody if you look like a cadaver on camera…It’s not vanity, because if you look weird, it will distract from what you’re trying to do. If you look as good as you can, people will be able to pay attention to what you’re actually saying.”

Writers in a show like SNL or 30 Rock work absurd hours, cramming every waking moment they can with writing, rewriting, and re-rewriting. Pastors aren’t much different. In fact, we’re notorious workaholics. We bask in the glory of fawning parishioners who extend their sympathies for how tired we are, how overworked, how stressed.

Richard Foster once said that for some people, the most spiritual thing we can do is take a nap. Pastoring, preaching, leading in worship—they’re all visual. To put it another way, people are watching us, and sometimes, the best thing we could do is get some rest. Being haggard impedes our ministry in more ways than one.

Lesson Five: “Don’t make any big decisions right after the season ends.”

In the church, this can look like the end of a grueling holiday season, a particularly trying counseling case, a building campaign, or any of a myriad of initiatives. It’s wise to give some space and breathing room after such a grueling season before we make any big career or strategic decisions for the church. But as Fey notes, “The most interesting thing about this piece of advice is that no one ever takes it.” (p. 127)

Lesson Six: “Never cut to a closed door.”

Fey says, “This can mean a lot of things: Comedy is about confidence, and the moment an audience senses a slip in confidence, they’re nervous for you” (p. 127).

This is a particularly great tip for worship leaders. Nothing is more distracting than a song ending without a clear transition plan for the next moment in the service. Band members start tuning their instruments, vocalists stare at their shoes, and the congregation gets a tingling feeling of fear. Plan the details of your gathering well, not for the sake of showmanship, but for the sake of leadership. Help people remain confident that their leaders on the platform know where they’re going in the journey that happens on Sunday morning.

Lesson Seven: “Don’t hire anyone you wouldn’t want to run into in the hallway at three in the morning.”

This pretty much speaks for itself. Bill Hybels, in Courageous Leadership, talks about hiring people on the basis of three C’s: Character, Competency, and Chemistry. In this point, Fey is talking about that third element—Chemistry. “If they’re too talkative or needy or angry to deal with in the middle of the night by the printer, steer clear.”

Lesson Eight: “Never tell a crazy person he’s crazy.”

One of the questions I’m often asked about Sojourn Music relates to this. People wonder why so many talented musicians came together in one church, when most churches are struggling to find enough musicians to stay afloat. I often wonder myself—I feel extremely blessed to work with the team I have at Sojourn. Part of my answer to “why” relates to this principle: The same person who suggests nightmarishly bad songs for your Easter service, strange ideas for puppets, or shows up looking like he has never, ever bathed might nonetheless be gifted to serve in ways that deeply bless the congregation. In fact, in my experience, the more talented members of a creative ministry (like music) often display grander and more frightening crazy streaks.

The challenge for a good leader is to skillfully help them feel heard, encouraged, and welcomed in spite of the strange ideas that occasionally bubble to the surface. Lorne Michaels, Fey says, has a unique way of steering those folks in ways that keep them from feeling ashamed or unwelcome, while keeping the crazy streak from shipwrecking the show.

It takes a unique leadership style to put together a show like SNL. Its sustained relevance, creativity, and prestige (with varying degrees) for 35 years, and the window Fey gives us into Michaels’s leadership shows us why. It takes a willingness to make space for creative people to be who they are, while keeping a strong central focus. It means embracing limits like time and sleep and attention to details.

While the parallels between SNL and church ministry are certainly limited, I’ve found these lessons from Michaels incredibly helpful. There’s a culture he’s created that welcomes a certain kind of person, and if our churches want to make room for creatives, there’s a lot to learn.  

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