Are You In Danger Of Leading Your Team Off A Cliff? Here Are 4 Things You Can Do About It!

by Tim Swanson

The High Point Of The Path

My head was in the clouds, literally. I was with my team, atop the snow caps of the Himalaya mountains. We were 4 days away from civilization, standing at 13,500 ft in elevation. The clouds were like a tall ceiling over our heads, and we looked around in wonder at where our path had brought us. We had arrived at the height of our journey where we looked out over the Pindari glacier and the vast majesty of the surrounding mountains.

After a short photo session, we began to lament the journey back down. Our tour guide smiled, and said he had a surprise for us. He took his pack off and started digging around looking for something. After a couple seconds he pulled out several 50 gallon, Glad, trash bags. He had one for each of us. We were puzzled as he passed them out. Before long, someone spoke up, "what are these for?" Our tour guide gave a mischievous grin and began to show us. He wrapped the bag around his waist, like a towel. Then he reached between his legs and pulled the bottom through so it looked like he was wearing a big black diaper. I thought, "This is ridiculous. What is he doing?" Taking several quick steps toward the snowy mountain slope, he jumped. When he landed on his rear, the trash bag acted like a sled, and he shot down the side of the mountain with incredible speed. The rest of us immediately began unfolding our garbage bags to follow his lead. A couple of my teammates got theirs on before me and let out loud howls as they shot down the mountain after our guide.

I felt like I couldn't get my trash bag on quickly enough. When I had it just right, I ran and jumped onto the slope. It was exhilarating. The cold mountain air blew against my face as I flew down the mountain side. The only things I could hear were my own screams of joy and the sound of the snow shooting up around me. After only seconds I figured out that I could sort of steer by putting my feet down, but what was better was that I could go faster by keeping them up.

The Danger of No Path

After a minute or so of flying down the mountain, I noticed that our guide and a couple of the others ahead of me had stopped. They were getting up and brushing themselves off. I saw them and thought, "what are they doing? There's more snowy slope ahead of us." So I did the only logical thing, I shot straight past them without slowing down. Sure the snow was beginning to thin out, but that didn't bother me.

I didn't get much further before I saw what made the others stop. Less than 50 yards ahead of me, through the snow, stuck up a large patch of jagged black rocks. My eyes grew wide with panic. I was going way too fast to stop myself before hitting the bed of rocks, and my time was running out. So I did my best to judge the depth of the rock bed, which didn't seem to be more than 15ft before breaking up into dirt and small patches of snow. So I kept my feet up, and barreled down the slope. As I came within a few feet of the glistening black rocks, I planted my feet, pushed myself up, and started running as fast as I could. I managed to take several quick stumbling steps, just enough to get over the rock field, before tumbling head over heals for another 40 or so feet. I ended up laying on my back looking up at the sky, patting down my body to make sure nothing was broken. I'm not sure what would have happened if I had hit those rocks going full speed. But being 4 days and 60 miles from a passable road, I imagine it would have turned out badly for me.

This is a little further down the slope after things had evened out a bit. 

If you're like me, you get a rise out of moving forward and growing as a worship leader. Maybe you're about the growth of your team, your church's spiritual growth, consistently finding new engaging music, or making sure your technology is up to date. Whatever it is, nearly every one of us is driven to make progress in one way or another. Unlike people in other professions, we don't do our jobs because we have to. There are certainly easier ways to make a living. We lead because Jesus lives in us, and he put music in us when he crafted us in the womb. That's what makes it or passion. So the desire to progress isn't bad, it's godly. Improvement in the various areas of our ministries means better worship, which means more people connected with God. The danger comes when we strive to take the next step without a plan.

When we began our trek in the Himalayas, we had an end in mind. It was the cloudy snow cap where we could see the Pindari glacier. Our destination informed every step of our path. Knowing where we wanted to end up helped us determine every step we needed to take to get there. We knew which trails to take, how many miles we needed to travel each day, and exactly what we needed to bring to get us to our destination. Our goal helped us determine every move we made.

Adversely, when I was careening down the mountain slope, I had no end game, no destination, no plan. I was focused on having fun by covering as much ground as I could while going as fast as I could. During that adrenaline rush I knew I was covering a lot of ground, but I never considered where I would land. Without a plan, I made a few critical errors. First I ignored the obvious warning signs, my friends stopping. Then I got myself into a situation where I couldn’t stop before totally wiping out.

In ministry, the same dangers exist when we strive to move forward without a plan. As we pursue growth, we ignore the obvious warnings, which may be our team members or ourselves beginning to get burned out. Ultimately, we may find ourselves crashing on the rocks. And the worst part is, this sometimes we don’t even realize it. It’s the blind pursuit of progress that leaves many worship leaders completely focused on performance and looks, while abandoning genuine worship. What’s even worse is I’ve seen some worship leaders land on the rocks, shipwreck their faith, and leave the church as a result of striving for years without having a plan. It can make you feel like you’re spinning your wheels. The best worship leaders I know have learned how temper their pursuit of progress by coming up with a plan that guides the way. Here are several helpful ways to create your worship plan, and give a path to your growth and the growth of your ministry.

1. Pray. If God isn’t driving the bus, it’s time to get off. No plan, no matter how clear and compelling, is worth pursuing if it didn’t come from God. Be sure to soak your process in prayer. This works best when done daily. I tend to try to take things back into my own hands when I don’t continually submit them to God in prayer. So I have to pray frequently.

2. List your priorities. I’ve been working on my own ministry plan lately. During the process, my boss suggested that I list my priorities and then put them in order. It’s a simple step that will help you clarify your values. Then, when you find that you’re over committed, your list of priorities will help you make the necessary simplifications.

3. Create a mission statement for your ministry. At MV Music (the music ministry at Moon Valley Bible Church) we have one simple mission. We want to create a Sunday experiance so good that people want to share it with their friends. That gives a path to our pursuit. When we are trying to figure out which improvements to make to the sound system next, we just ask ourselves, “What will make it so good that people will want to share it?” Then we can even determine our ‘win’ each week. We celebrate when people actually go tell their friends and then bring them to a service at Moon Valley Bible Church.

4. Short term & Long term goals. I like to do one year, three year and five year goals. I like to set goals that will help me accomplish my mission, “Creating a Sunday experiance so good that people want to share it with their friends”. So when I think five years out, I begin contemplating what it will take to do that. That means improvements to our team, stage, spiritual direction, and program. So I plan things like the writing and recording of worship albums. When we play at other churches and give these albums away for donations, my team grow as musicians and believers. That means they are better equipped to lead excellent worship on Sunday morning. Also, the donations we have received from this year’s worship album have increased the music ministry budget by 30%, which means I can make more improvements to our Sunday experience that will make it so good that people want to share it.

The central theme of the Great Commission is progress. Jesus calls us to continually grow the kingdom by creating disciples and growing the church. As worship leaders, our part in the Jesus’ commission is to create God honoring music that connects people with Him. But pursuit without a plan is dangerous. The smaller danger is that you end up spending long periods of time spinning your wheels and going nowhere. The greater danger is that people get burned out and hurt. When that happens, we’re actually doing the opposite of what we’re called to. By beginning to work on your plan today, you’ll be looking out for the best for your team and your congregation, and you’ll be giving yourself something you can’t afford to go on without.