politics and christianinty

[diverse379]

it seems that the bigger your churh the more politricks you have to be aware of.

I had a girlfriend who taught me much about communication she worked her way up to director of a large agency by the age of 28 so you know she knew the game

but as i stepped into my first second large church i noticed some things.

first as a M.Om.

new in the church your first concern is to establish a relation ship with the pastor

i played at a church where in the course of 3 months i spoke to the pastor maybe two times
it was no surprise that i was relieved of my duties at that church. 
your pastor should be able to communicate with the MOM because they work so closely together on sunday morning. 

If you have no relation ship with your pastor then you cannot really be effective. as a team
my church has no pastor yet so the deacons are in charge and you have to read between the lines when they speak to you for example three of them came to me saying hey we appreciate the fact that you play the keyboard (roland fantom)
but I think you should concentrate on the pipe organ and the piano and the hammond organ

they all said this at different times but do you think they are on a united front  of course.

the united front is what you will find at any well run organization
and even though i dont like the pipe organ and think i can get prettier music out of the fantom

I believe that they have my best interest at heart do you think they will take the time to help me be more effective unless they wanted me to work out?

or maybe they are saying what they are saying because they have heard things from the congregation

even though you are at your church to serve God that service includes helping the people praise and experience the spirit so it is important that you meet the people where they are?

the other thing choir presidents I have 7 choirs i have the phone numbers of all my choir presidents i speak to them all a couple of times a month i touch base with them on everything from song selection to how are the members feeling how did they feel about the songs sung previous sunday

the presidens are your link to motivating and moving the choir to your  vision (the vision which is supposed to be in alignment with the pastor) 

what about the haters?
as you grow in your ability to work with the people the haters will begin to reveal themselves more.

when I got to my church i was nervous at first and when i am nervous i play lousy
but as i got more settled i began to open up
so in the beginniing there were those who were saying i cant play
but after a couple of months the whole church began to see I play pretty decently

so now i notice the haters trying to suggest what i should play trying to get me to play beneath my level

you must gaurd against such people
stay to your course

the balance must be struck between following the lead of the spirit and knowing when you are hearing from spirit led people.

i could be wrong i have only been doing this for 6 years so if you have any othe suggestions or comments on this subject let me know.

[nessalynn77]

Good stuff, diverse.

[MrSparrow]

Unfortunately, Diverse that's how things are done...

I know you can't change things but I can't see why any church needs 7 choirs...

You only have 4 Sundays in a month with a 5th Sunday every 3 or 4 months out...

Just the thought of 7 different choir presidents made my head hurt...

If the church you're at wants pipe organ or piano but you want your keyboard, try playing pipe organ sounds on your keyboard or set up your keyboard right beside the organ or piano and play both...

At the church I'm at now, I had to fire the drummer b/c he was not on time, he did the no show/no call/no nothing thing very frequently to me and even after several conversations he did not change his ways. He had to change his position because I fired him.
I replaced that drummer with a high school senior who was due to graduate in 3 months. He was a few weeks away from being 18.

There was a rule at this church that the musicians had to be adults to get paid. The reason was because there were two drummers that wanted to fill in for the adult drummer that quit. They were both in high school at the time and instead of hiring one or the other they put that nonsense rule in. When the deacons called me in the Pastor's office to tell me that I couldn't hire my current drummer because he was still in high school I let them HAVE IT.

They had the nerve to tell me that my guitar player could play the drums (barely and his gifting is one lead guitar AND his attendance record was pretty bad even as a volunteer) and he should play the drums.

I told them that they have no business telling me who can and can not play in my band. I told them that rule was pretty DUMB and if they had that rule in place when I was growing up, I would have never learned how to play. In the end, the two high school drummers were soooo mad that they couldn't play that both of them left the church...

Now they are coming back around but they have graduated from high school now and one of them are now married with a child...

I understand what you're talking about with that politics crap...

MrSparrow

[diverse379]

Just the thought of 7 different choir presidents made my head hurt...

that was funny i dont much mind the church is cathedral size and two choirs sing on each sunday except for youth sunday

i am really not complaing i am just commenting on the dynamics that take place at large churches

but your situation is really crazy are you the M.O.M 
you probably are. 
it sounds like it is that situation with the middle management

the more layers of middle management you have the more red tape that gets created

middle managers are like middle men
they carry out the directives of the leadership

small organizations
have leaders
 and followers or doers

mid size organizations have
leaders
facilitators or middle managers
doers
large organizations
have leaders
senior managers
middle managers

when your church has an assistant pastor that is functioning
and people who are over the music departtment other then the m.OM 
like deacon of the music department
or music department chair
that is middle management
and that is a sure sign of red tape
often people in these positions take a lot of time justifiying their existence hence the red tape and the crazy rules that make no sense.

 
doers s

[sjonathan02]

I am so glad not to have to deal with any of that at my church.