Ministering to the Worship Leader

October 8, 2007

LEADERSHIP TOOLS 

Hugh Ballou, Editor

Download the PDF of this week's MME

Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. 
Hebrews 12:1-2 (NRSV)

PRAYER

This is the second in the series of Leadership Tools as a part of the MME. Multiple contributions from many writers will provide a variety of perspectives and many resources for the leaders seeking to transform the organizations they are called to lead. Ralph Vaughan Williams is reported to have said, "Music did not reveal all of its secrets to just one person." That perspective can be applied to most any topic and certianly to the subject of leadership.

Over the next months and years the subjects covered will address the following areas:

•    Transformational Leadership Tools
•    Tools for Leading Teams
•    Conflict Management Tools
•    Personal Care Tools
•    Planning Tools

This Leadership Tools edition of MME will be presented in the following format:

          Foundations
              Preparing yourself for leadership

Balance
      Strategies for spiritual, physical and mental centering

Relationships
      Strengthening the connections with people we serve

Quotes
      Words of wisdom and encouragement

Tips
      Wisdom from our readers

**********

Breathe: Confessions of a Sister on the Journey

Strapping myself and my young child into our seats in the 747 that was to take us home, I listened, as if for the first time, to the flight attendant's instructions:

"You have got to be kidding", I said to myself indignantly. "There is no way I am going to put the mask on myself before I put it on my child! What kind of mother would do that?"

I played out the scene in my over-active imagination. I could see myself frantically moving about the cabin, tending not only to my child's oxygen mask but to all those around me until, much to my horror, I saw myself collapse in the aisle--out of oxygen!

Sometimes ministry is like that.

To survive in ministry, we need to give ourselves permission to take the time we need-- before we address the needs of others--to breathe in the life-giving breath of God. When we make this a daily practice, we will be able to meet the challenge of caring for those whom God has entrusted to us. Not to do so may have life threatening consequences.

Here is a breath prayer that has been a life-line for me. I share it in hopes that you will find a renewal of life and ministry in it also.  
 
Sarum Prayer as Breath Prayer

Remain in this relaxed state and simply experience and/or ponder what it means for your body, mind and spirit to be filled with God, what it means to have Divine Love as the filter through with all of your senses perceive life. Open your eyes when you are ready and rub your hands or face gently as you come back to awareness of your body.

Tip: To make this practice your own, choose lines of scripture or hymns whose message you want to plant deep within your heart and pray those with your breath. Here's a website with 100 prayers to choose from: http://www.prayingeachday.org/100Prayers.pdf

Leigh Anne Taylor is a Deacon in Full Connection, serving the Blacksburg United Methodist Church as Minister of Music.  She grew up in the loving arms of White Memorial UMC in Shawsville, Virginia.  She earned a Bachelor of Music Education at James Madison University and a Master in Music in Choral Conducting and a Master of Sacred Music at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.  In her 23rd year of music ministry, she has served churches in Texas, Kansas and Virginia.  She has served the Roanoke District, the Virginia Conference and the Southeastern Jursidiction of the UMC in the areas of music and worship.  Currently, she is the Design Team Chair of Music and Liturgical Arts Week at Lake Junaluska, NC sponsored by The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts.  She is married to Hugh Ballou and is the mother of two talented teenagers, ages 13 and 15.  In the few hours a week that she is not working at church, she enjoys walking in the mountains, family life and her husband's excellent cooking.

Building Your Team

Hugh Ballou

Learn to be the leader

Leadership skills you employ in this area are important to the transformation of volunteers into workers, critics into advocates, and detractors into supporters. Learn to define, recruit, delegate, support, nurture, and facilitate. The Servant Leadership model enables leaders to get the right people, tell them what is needed, let people complete their tasks, and celebrate the results. After all, professional leaders lead. If we did everything, we would be called professional doers. Leaders lead. This means getting out of the way.

If you have lots of volunteers, then learn to limit your time with those who are not as productive and give more to those who produce. Here’s a chance to use the 80/20 rule.  Spend 80% of your volunteer support time with the 20% of the people who produce 80% of the results. Gather the remaining 80% of the volunteers who produce 20% of the results into groups. Support them as a group, not individually. This will give you a major bounce on your results and free up enormous amounts of time. (This is the “Pareto Principle” named after the nineteenth-century economist who developed the 80/20 rule for business.)

Learn to recruit

The first principle of leadership is having someone to lead. This might seem logical. But it is very difficult for some leaders to ask someone else to do something. Looking back at the previous chapters, remember that relationship comes first. Once you have earned the relationship, then it is easier to ask someone to participate in a program that you lead. It is even easier to ask someone that you do not know yet. This is a wonderful way to develop lasting relationships, if you handle it correctly. So, let’s recruit.

Recruiting is a skill, not a chance roll of the dice. Get to know people--what makes them tick, their skills and talents, and their interests. This sounds like the background work you did to create your vision statement, doesn’t it? Well, it is similar. Recruit people who want to do something worthy. Recruit a person who wants to be invested in something that is consistent with your goals and passions. Don’t recruit people who want to set up a power base and hold on to it! This is critical! Recruit people to help for a specific time and for a specific purpose, and then rotate people and responsibilities. This is a very important principle! This principle will actually help you recruit. People will say yes more readily if they know that they will not get stuck doing the job forever. This is one of the greatest challenges to overcome in recruiting; so clearly define the scope of what you are asking them to do.

Define the task for which you are recruiting. Tell the person how much work is needed, how much you anticipate it taking, and how long the commitment will be. The normal tendency is to downplay the commitment by saying something like “It will only take a little time.”  Don’t cloud your reputation in future efforts by creating the opinion that you are not straight with people or that you are just giving them a “sales job.” Tell it like it is! Be straight! They will appreciate you for that and even work harder than they originally agreed to do.

It is really difficult to take a chance on being turned down when you ask someone for a commitment to help. Assume that people want to help. They deserve an honest description of what they are being asked to do.  And they deserve the chance to say yes or no. Be prepared for a “no” answer. It is better to get that answer than to have an uncommitted volunteer doing a less-than-adequate job.

All this may be difficult for some leaders, especially since the majority of church musicians and pastors end up in the “Introvert” category of Myers-Briggs. That doesn’t mean that you are shy or even that you don’t want to deal with people. It just means that you do well by yourself and are energized alone as opposed to being with a group for energy. People can take your energy. Knowing that fact, if indeed you are an introvert, then use your energy wisely.

The rest of us who are “Extroverts” in the Myers-Briggs, may have another problem. We may find it difficult to give the introverts the space they need to do what we have asked them to do. We extroverts may want to socialize and help. Remember, you are not recruiting a friend. You are recruiting a worker! Figure out their best style of relating and then delegate!

Hugh Ballou  is founder of SynerVision International, Inc., a facilitation, consulting and training practice in Blacksburg, VA. For many years, Hugh has been working with leaders in businesses, schools, churches, non-profit organizations, and community groups, leading project teams to find consensus, even with very difficult decisions. Before his full-time work as facilitator, consultant and executive coach, he served as Director of Worship Ministries, staff strategist and facilitator in churches of up to 12,000 members.

As leaders we motivate, inspire, educate, and most of the time take care of others better than we take care of ourselves. We love our work, and we’d better, because we work hard.  It’s not that we don’t know we should pay attention to our finances. Every day we hear of new and improved ways we can become financially secure. From experience, we know there is no easy fix. Most of us learn that managing our money is hard work.

The solution to your problem may surprise you. Ask yourself this question. What factors may be affecting my ability to succeed? You may wonder what I mean by factors. They are internal and external and you must conquer them before you can implement the strategies for a secure financial future. They are subliminal, and most of the time you are not aware of the impact these factors have on your success. Several could be present, or perhaps just one; until they are addressed, you will again and again feel frustrated with your lack of success.

As a former investment advisor, I would work with my clients helping them master the factors for generating and maintaining wealth. Once I identified these factors, and addressed them with my clients, I saw the statistics change, the success ratio increase. Leaders have strategies for success in every aspect of their lives, looking within yourself is essential to your success. The strategies won’t work until you identify for yourself what factors are interfering with your ability to change. You then have the tools to conquer the factors and implement the strategies. Rocket science it is not...common sense it is!  

I have found that these twelve factors--environment, motivation, attitude, habits, family, budget, education, goals, time, age, needs vs. wants, and risk; were identified while working with my asset management clients.

Let’s look at each factor The Wealth Factors e-book available at www.weight-wealth.com

Environment--What around you is affecting your ability to succeed? It could be your friends, associates, and workplace, or anything around you that either positively or negatively affects your ability to succeed.

Motivation--What would motivate you to be successful: less stress, self-esteem, having more discretionary income, personal satisfaction, or fear of failure? Each of you will have a different motivation; think about your driving force.

Attitude--When you identify your attitude toward your money, you will find it will be positive or negative. It’s important to know that your attitude is one thing you can control.

Habits--Your habits will influence how you structure your finances.  Remember you first must identify your money habits good or bad; build on the good change the bad.
 
Family--What is surprising to me is that we don’t connect our early childhood experiences with how we deal with our money (saving and investing) as adults. Our childhood experiences, coupled with our current lifestyle, connect with the way we deal with our money.

Budget--It is not about what we earn it is about what we do with what we earn. It is the simple process of the choices we make.

Education--We live in the information age. Open a magazine, read a newspaper, watch television, listen to the radio.  With so much information readily available, how do we know what is true or false? As prudent consumers, we have to get as much information as possible, learn, and then make good decisions based on the information.

Goals--When you are starting any financial plan, you should have certain realistic goals.  What is right for one person is not necessarily right for the next. Set your goals short, intermediate and long term, based on assessing what it is you want to accomplish.

Time--Everyone wants to get wealthy, but few want to allow themselves the time to achieve their goals. It seems we are always looking for that “quick fix”, rather than allowing enough time to manage our wealth sensibly. Time plays an important role in the wealth management process.  Give yourself the gift of time.

Age--As you know, age plays an important role in any financial plan. We all know managing your money is hard work. The idea that it gets harder as we get older is depressing, but true. Take it from me--it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. However, I am living proof that it can be done.

Needs versus Wants--Are you in the habit of asking yourself whether you need to spend your money on that item or do you want to buy it, it is all about choices.  

Risk--Risk in wealth management is very real, and it is all about choices. Many people try to get wealthy too quickly and in an unsafe manner, without seeking financial advice.  Americans today want instant gratification. The results can not only be damaging to their wealth but could be devastating. Remember; always consult your financial advisor when starting any financial plan.

I hope, when going forward, you will be thinking about which factors will get in the way of your ability achieve financial security, acknowledge those factors, and master them. Then you will see a positive move to change.

Angie Hollerich CEP, CCA is a noted author, entrepreneur and professional speaker. She is the author of eight financial books and e-books. Angie can be reached at (614) - 337-2204 by email at angieh@brassringpro.com or visit her web sites at www.weight-wealth.com - www.brassringpro.com

Esther Burroughs is founder of Esther Burroughs Ministries: Treasures of the Heart, and is the beloved author of Engraved by Grace, Splash the Living Water, Treasures of a Grandmother’s Heart, A Garden Path to Mentoring and Empowered. She has addressed tens of thousands of women from small group retreats to arena events, and understands the thirst of today’s Christian woman for intimacy with God. Esther previously served with the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) promoting strategies of evangelism for women. She travels extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada speaking to women’s groups. Esther and Bob, her husband of 47 years, reside in South Carolina. They have two adult children and five grandchildren. Web site: http://www.estherbministries.com

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. Carl Sandburg

 

Foundations
      Preparing yourself for leadership

Be the leader God has called and equipped for ministry. You have been given a duty that will be your delight as it is fulfilled. Proceed to accomplish that vision now. You do not have to know every step of your process. Keep God's vision for transformation in mind and God will bless your journey. Be willing to be transformed and God will use you to transform others.

Please send me your questions on leaders issues, confilct management, planning for success and building high performance teams. This leadership tools edition of MME is designed to address your problems and give strategies for success. Please send me your requests and I will give you resources for action.

  
Hugh Ballou

**********

E•Z BOCK'S BEST, Ten Piano Arrangements, Volume #5, Arr. Fred Bock, Adapted by Lloyd Larson, Fred Bock Music Company, #BGK1038, $12.95, Distributed by Hal Leonard Music Co

Last week, we listed an incorrect web address to secure the special package just for MME readers--thanks to Fred Bock Music Company!

If you go to  http://www.fredbock.com/promo.asp?page=306 - you may purchase all five (5) of the E-Z Bock’s Best volumes and you can get a 15% discount (which will be a $10 savings). This only applies only to the purchase of all 5 books. When you get into the shopping cart for the site, just enter the special code for MME readers: Bock5

© 2007 Creator Magazine