People, in general, aren’t fond of change.  If things have been adequately working for a while, we’re afraid to leave the safety of our rut.  Perhaps we’re afraid of whose feelings may be hurt when the team’s members are pressed for growth and improvement.  Maybe it is the sympathy for those individuals who may get left behind as the team improves.  It could be the fear that certain members may step down, or, equally likely, it may be the fear of having to ask a member to step down.  All of the aforementioned factors are the enemies of growth and improvement, but there’s one, to me, that stands above them all:  not embracing opportunities to learn, grow, and improve.

Learning is the key to growth and improvement, and opportunities for learning are closer than you might think.  Your community college might hold music classes.  The local university may hold guest lectures or seminars on music production.  A larger church might hold a music conference or seminar on a variety of music ministry-related topics.  Your own church may even bring in an expert in the field of sound, production, or music.  Don’t pass up these opportunities to learn! Be observant, and seek out learning opportunities for your team.  Armed with new information, new skills, and new ideas, you’re primed to take your ministry to the next level.

Despite the risk of sounding preachy, I’m going to assert a personal belief here:

Your level of commitment to your ministry determines your growth.

If you want a “tell” of someone who is not committed to his/her ministry, look at whether or not that member embraces opportunities to learn.  Learning leads to new skills.  New skills lead to preparation.  Preparation leads to improvement.  Improvement leads to growth.

Here’s an example.  I was once asked by a church to lead a series of ten two-hour classes, covering topics related to the music ministry (sound, multimedia, team-building, music production, music theory, copyright, etc.).  The church had been saying how they “wanted to take their music ministry to the next level”.  Although the class was also offered to “newbies”, people interested in joining the music team, and other area people from outside that particular church, I still thought it would be the perfect opportunity to share some experience and information that would help that particular church to indeed “take it to the next level”.

While the number of attendees wasn’t terrible for a church that size, I did notice something.  The class was populated mostly by members of other churches and some of my former students.  That church’s own music ministry was practically unrepresented!  When I approached the worship leader about how strange this was to me, his reply is still something I don’t think I’ll ever quite understand.  He said, “I just don’t feel right making attendance mandatory.”  (That comment seemed particularly contradictory, since the church was doing a mandatory leadership training for its volunteers.)

I had no idea what to say.  I was completely floored.  For a team to admittedly desire to “take it to the next level”, yet blow off an easy opportunity to gain valuable experiential information was something I just couldn’t wrap my mind around.  It was just so counter-intuitive.

Now, I’m sure there are some people who would say I was personally offended.  What really offended me had nothing to do with me.  It had everything to do with the fact that people just won’t commit to the ministries they volunteered for.  That’s what offended me.  You simply can’t expect growth if you can’t count on people to commit to, and live up to, what they’re called to do.

I know that embracing learning opportunities, study, practice, and rehearsal is a commitment of time.  I also know people have other things to do.  Still, without these time commitments, how can one expect improvement and growth?  Where people spend (or refuse to spend) their time and money will show you where their commitments lie.  When a man told Jesus that he would follow him after he attended his father’s funeral, Jesus said “Let the dead bury the dead” (Matthew 8:22).  Jesus expects us to live up to our commitments 100 percent, particularly if we volunteered for them.  Jesus also said in Luke 9:62 that if we put our hand to the plow to do his work and even turn to look behind us, we aren’t fit for his kingdom.  That’s commitment.

Are we fully committing ourselves by embracing every opportunity to improve?

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