Good Ideas Deserve You Saying No To Your Pastor…
…While you’re really saying YES.
As creatives in the church we constantly create for one day.
Sunday.
This bad boy comes every 7 days.
So we rush…
Some of your most creative ideas SHOULD take a long time to create.
Or you will just cheat the idea that God placed inside of you.
Take this stop motion film for example.
NO post production.
They shot 60.000 pictures, developed 9.600 prints and shot over 1.800 pictures again.
NO post production.
They could have just laid one on top of the other and had a great film.
But they went a step beyond.
They believed their product deserved what happens at 2:30 into the film.
A creative 10 seconds that probably took an hour of ladders and string.
And it was magical.
Do you believe what you are creating for deserves this sort of detail?
Or is Sunday getting in the way of your vision?
Take your time.
Say things to your pastor like…”That is an amazing idea. Let’s move that sermon series back 4 months so we can do that like it should be done or use it for another Sunday!”
And stop creating for your Sunday deadlines or once again, death will be what happens to your creativity.
Go create…
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
Wow!
Seriously huh.
Awesome Los. Thanks for sharing.
Yea. I think you should try one…
Bold words man…I like it. Cool video too.
We made some stopmotion gijoe movies when I was a kid. Used to take all day for like 15 seconds worth. No computers then, though…just the the huge camcorders with a vhs tape inside. Remember those?
Only as bold as ones fear is in their boss.
And dude. You should totally upload one of your old ones to YouTube
Great words…let me be bold and ask everyone, some tips to keep pushing leadership to plan further out in order to allow creativity to flow more abundantly?
that’s the million dollar question….
Threaten to quit.
JK.
They must see the big picture.
Must.
Big Picture IS NOT Sunday.
Now THIS HERE is what I was looking for:
“Big Picture IS NOT Sunday.”
I could go off on this and fill up a whole book.
word.
to.
your.
mother.
LOVE this video! Thanks for sharing!
Is it not the stuff? I sweat the whole hang gliding thing was RAD!
Fantastic thoughts and video. Thanks for sharing.
Great video unfortunately I disagree with your thoughts on when you execute for your pastor! We can’t post ourselves up as some super creative worship guy, we are servants and called to a church to serve our pastor , be prepared, create outside of the weekly grind and we must prepare ourselves for times when our Pastor needs our help. I constantly remind myself that I am not the worship pastor at my church my pastor is! Remember what we get to do is not that bad of a gig, beats digging ditches lol. Love the site , love your mission!
I see where you’re coming from mark,but I am one of those guys who has the title pastor and I oversee our worship ministries wand has to disagree with you. I am not sure where to serve, but your description of worship pastor doesn’t describe mine. From preaching to marriage counseling to funeral service officiating as well as other things, I am a pastor to our congregation. There is no one man show here – or should there ever be even when it comes to the biblical idea of pastoring.
Just remember, no one is called to a church to serve a man. I am not sure how your staff functions as a team, but healthy teams fosters healthy push back from all regardless the “title”. Otherwise it isn’t a team. It’s nothing short of a christianized dictatorhip in my personal opinion.
I think it’s both ways. The worship pastor is obligated to serve the senior pastor, and the senior pastor is obligated to serve the worship pastor. At least, that’s what Jesus taught about the Kingdom.
But, Mark…I don’t think “Los” meant you should disrespect your pastor. Just said you should suggest. Big difference.
I think anyone in ministry can benefit from understanding their own limitations and effectively communicating them to the pastor or whoever is tasking them. I was once part of a creative arts ministry and after a couple of times frazzling the whole team with lofty, short notice projects our ministry leaders set boundaries with church leadership. They spelled out that for anything outside of the usual weekly workload, 1 month minimum notice was required, but the more notice the better. After saying no a couple of times, carefully explaining each time why we were saying no, and then demonstrating how well we did with more notice, we got better cooperation and support from leadership. We in turn provided much better creative support.
Very cool. Those guys are obviously geniuses. I wish they would have taken another 30 minutes and found a better song but deadlines are deadlines I guess.
One thing I try to do when I come with a great idea that I can’t pull off in time is just to catalog it. Sometimes a great idea is even better used down the road. Just let it germinate for a while, keep it handy and just trust that another great opportunity may (will almost definitely) come along to use it again. A lot of great ideas I didn’t have time to pull off actually came out better when I used them later if I had used them the first time around.
God knows all of the limitations that we’re under, the types of churches we serve in and the kind of leaders we serve with (mark…I got your back).
The guy is naked! (1:30)
naw… he’s wearing flesh-colored trunks
My pastor told me in a review a couple years ago that it was okay if I told him “no” every once in awhile. I’m starting to get better at that. Being a part of the worship team at my church doesn’t do a whole lot for fostering my creativity. It seems like we’re always trying to do too much too fast… and the upcoming weekend is always the ONLY thing on everyone’s mind… sometimes I wish I could be in an environment that looked ahead a little more.
I like the idea (technically), but it sucks that the guy leaves his family to go find himself and never goes back home. Maybe the story hits a little too close to home.
Love it! My husband Tony said this to me this week about creativity and action. “God’s not impatient. Just because you thought of it doesn’t mean there is an urgency to get it out. There might just be an urgency to plan it out.” I don’t know how many Senior Pastors give their creative teams time to “plan it out,” but I know as a creative, some things are better off not rushed.
I like It very much. You have a very beautiful voice. The truth is always fought. It has been fighting for freedom for thousands of years! The idea is we are saying no to religion and yes to freedom of the spirit of God. Praise God in the highest!!
Great post. Love it!!
Nice… but…
You can only create something like that with the kind of effort and engagement that most of us simply can’t put together more than one or two times a year, if that.
Sorry, but it’s not a great example for your point. I say no to my pastor all the time on big bold ideas because we don’t have time to do them right.
How often am I going to do that before they just can me.