Home Worship & Creative Leaders Articles for Worship & Creative One Thing That Can Mess Up Your Whole Worship Ministry

One Thing That Can Mess Up Your Whole Worship Ministry

One Thing that Can Mess Up Your Whole Worship Ministry

I was working out on the elliptical one day and watching the TV on the wall of the gym. During the news, I was reading the closed captioning and noticed the word “unclear.” If you switch those first two little letters, you get the word “nuclear” …

… and then my mind EXPLODED with thoughts.

How frustrating is it when people, circumstances and life in general are UNCLEAR?

Sometimes, it makes you want to go NUCLEAR!!

I’m a worship leader in a church. That means one of my biggest challenges is the sound system. It’s a challenge every week to hit that sweet spot for all the ears within its path.

One thing I learned from a professional technician years ago was that most of the time when people complain about the sound being too loud, what they’re really saying is that it’s UNCLEAR. This means the mix is bad. It’s frustrating to hear live music with a bad mix. That always means that clarity is lacking.

As a leader, in general, I’ve found that clarity is incredibly vital in leading others.

When I’m UNCLEAR, things tend to get NUCLEAR very quickly.

It’s frustrating to be led by someone who is unclear about what they want from you and unclear about the general direction of things. It leads everyone nowhere and induces eventual chaos … all because of being UNCLEAR.

I’ve learned that most people that have placed themselves under my leadership are totally fine following me, as long as I give clear direction and have a clear purpose and vision.

When things are blurry, morale can drop in a hurry.

So, how can leaders avoid the UNCLEAR/NUCLEAR debacle?

Here are a couple of ideas:

DEDICATION
If you’re a leader, where’s your dedication at right now? Are you as dedicated now as you were when you first surrendered to that call of leadership? Leading successfully takes more and more dedication the longer you lead. As a church leader, I, first and foremost, need to be dedicated to God’s direction for my life and, in turn, to the direction of whatever He’s calling me to lead. I need to be a leader that is more and more focused on my own integrity, especially as success continues. In The Message version, Psalm 19 says,

“The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road.”

This means I need to be looking for God’s signposts over everyone else’s. For me, this means staying dedicated to reading and studying God’s Word on a regular and, ideally, daily basis—a lamp for my feet and a light to my path.