Artists (“Artists” applies to musicians, singers, painters, graphic designers, actors, dancers, etc) in the church receive a tremendous amount of criticism. Musicians especially seem to have a never-ending stream of complainers. I’ve heard everything from “the music was too loud,” “don’t use that song again–I didn’t like it,” and, one of my personal favorites, “did you know you messed up on that one part?” (As if I was not aware that a train wreck had occurred).
I think there are two kinds of people out there when it comes to criticism. First, there are those who want to point out something that was less than perfect. Whether it’s a song choice they didn’t like or something that was just wrong, they can’t wait to let you know. Most of the time, it seems these people just want to bring you down a peg. Second, there are those who genuinely want to help make things better by offering constructive criticism. These people are on your side and support what you’re doing. They noticed something that could be better, and they want to help you. This post is written to the second group of people. (Let’s face it; the first group doesn’t really care if there’s a better way or not.) I want to help the second group understand how to offer constructive criticism without being a jerk.
First off, two important things to understand about artists:
Their art is an extension of themselves.
For most artists, they can spend hours, days,–even weeks–crafting their art. They pour every ounce of their being into making this art what it is. To criticize or even imply that it could be better in any way can be devastating to them. For me, this used to happen (OK it still does, just not as often) with something as simple as the setlist for Sunday mornings. I would spend hours combing through lyrics and songs to find ones that matched perfectly with the theme. Then, I’d carefully plan out the order of the service so that it flowed nicely. Then, someone would tell me they hated one of those songs, or they didn’t like the selections, and it would be like a kick in the teeth. Sure, it was never meant that way, but when it’s that much a part of you, it’s hard for it not to be taken that way.
Great art is our holy grail.
It’s what we’re all hoping to achieve. We’re big dreamers, and it’s hard even for us to live up to our own dreams. The problem is that we want so badly for our art to be great that we live in constant fear that we’re not going to create great art. The thing we’re most afraid of is not that we’re going to create bad art but that our art will be mediocre. We’d rather create no art than mediocre art.
When you feel the urge to offer criticism, follow these steps to help from coming off as the wrong kind of person.
