Leadership
You’ve Got to Serve Somebody
My first job in a church was the Worship Leader. While different job titles have come and gone, my role as a Worship Leader has always stuck. As I grow in my knowledge and abilities in, I try to remember why I do it rather than just thinking how all the time. I believe that answer (other than the obvious that God is worthy) is: serving people.
As church creatives, everything we do should be directed by Matthew 20:26-27 where Jesus told His disciples,
“But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave.”
Ultimately, it all comes down to serving people.
Every element of our church creativity should all be driven by a desire to serve God’s people.
Let’s look at a few dimensions of what we church creatives do and how they are tied to serving.
Worship.
This is the area where I am most familiar. I’m involved in the worship team every weekend. I’m also passionate about doing the music well. I figure if we’re going to do it, let’s do it well. However, sometimes I find myself focusing too much on the quality of the music. When I do that I am focusing more on myself and what people think about me rather than how I can serve them. Afterall, my role as a Worship Leader is to lead people in worship, not entertain them. When leading worship and planning services, my goal is first to serve people not to look awesome!
Stage Design.
At our church we design the stage differently for every sermon series we do. I’m very proud of our stage design team; they have come up with and executed some amazing designs over the years. As a team we have learned to continue asking the question: How is our stage design serving the church? We try not let ourselves get carried away on certain details.
For example, a year ago we were planning how we were going to engineer some pieces for the stage. In the conversation we realized that a very small part of this design was quickly becoming very expensive so we asked the question, “is this the best way to serve our congregation?” We determined, for us, it was better to do it cheaper and sacrifice a bit of quality because ultimately it all came from tithe dollars.
Video Production.
While video elements can add to the “cool” factor in a service it’s very easy to go overboard. In the past we have had our pastor approach us with multiple pre produced videos he had found online that he wanted to use for the message that weekend. It was then that we had to ask the question “What’s the best way to serve our congregation?” Sometimes more videos worked. Other times we felt it was too much and may have distracted from the message.
Of course, these are not the only areas to consider when asking how to serve your people better. Everything we do should be focused on serving the Church. Every song. Every transition. Every slide. Every video. As we create and develop we must be doing it out of a love for His people. If not, we run the danger of only serving ourselves.
JOEL VAN MERSBERGEN
Pastor of Worship and Creative Arts
North County Christ the King | Lynden, WA
ncctk.com
Joel was raised in a Christian family and has worked hard to serve Jesus most of his life. He has always loved music, and from the day he bought his first electric guitar Joel has been involved in worship teams. Joel is passionate about communicating the Gospel to people in ways that are engaging, moving, and vibrant. Today, Joel gets to do this by serving as the Pastor of Worship and Creative Arts at North County Christ the King, leading a team of gifted people who are in charge of publications, graphic design, video production, stage production and music.
