Practical Music Ministry

Serving God Through Sight, Sound, and Song

Tag: working as a team

Striving to Grow: Overcoming Obstacles in Music Ministry (part 2 – Mindset)

In keeping with our series on Striving to Grow, we’re looking at ways to overcome obstacles that hinder our ministry’s growth and effectiveness. In our last post, we discussed dealing with stagnant musicianship. Today, we’re going to deal with the mindset of our team’s members.

In ministry, everyone has a role and a function. Different departments or teams, while they each have their own individual functions, all come together for a common purpose. In other words, they act as one machine. The Bible says that, although we all act individually, we all act as one body (1 Corinthians 12). A hand has a different purpose than a foot, an eye serves a different purpose than an ear, and so on. If one person or department doesn’t serve its function, then the entire machine is made less effective. So, we have to facilitate a common mindset amongst our team’s members.

The church often talks about repentance as it pertains to salvation. While it does mean turning from your old ways, the literal translation means “to change one’s mind”. On our ministry teams, must ensure that all of our members have a similar mindset when it comes to excellence, humility, servitude, and self betterment. I was speaking recently with a worship pastor friend about some ways to improve the quality and functionality of his team. After explaining my philosophy on building a ministry team (and the biblical principles behind them), he replied, “but not everyone on the team has the same mindset as you do.” While I’m neither asserting that I have all the answers, nor that my opinion is the Gospel, a team whose members do not share the same vision will not succeed. It’s not even a team. Such division turns a band into a stage full of soloists.

The word says in Romans 12:2,

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

We must be like-minded when it comes to certain questions about our ministry:

How does God expect us to nourish our gifts and talents? (Matthew 25:14-30)
Does God expect my best when it comes to my gift, talent, or service? (Genesis 4:2-5)
Does God expect us to sacrifice our will and wants for the good of His Kingdom? (Mark 1:16-20)
How committed to our calling does God expect us to be? (Luke 9:62)
How committed do we need to be to each member of the group? (1 Thessalonians 5:11-15)
What areas of our life do we need to eliminate to fully serve our calling? (1 Timothy 2:22)

If we can all say that we are in agreement with all those principles, then our mindset is appropriate. If problems arise as mindsets wander, that’s when ministries tend to pull apart. The Word is also very clear as to what our response should be to dissension within a ministry, as in Titus 3:10.

“Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.”

These divisions must be dealt with swiftly and firmly for the good of the ministry as a whole. While it’s hard to make those sorts of decisions, we as a ministry can’t afford to not be unified in our mindset, goals, and direction. It’s much easier to define these principles early on than it is to realign (or remove) members that have been a part of the group for any significant length of time.

How do you ensure your team members are like-minded? Comment and share your thoughts.

See other posts in the series Striving to Grow: Overcoming Obstacles in Music Ministry