Ministry Directors: Make Yourselves Replaceable

I know most of you music ministry directors reading this are incredibly driven to do well—especially when it comes to stewarding your ministry, performing well with your musical talents, and keeping up to date with the latest trends in technology to make worship services top notch. 

You learn all of these things and, over the course of time, become the go-to person for directing bands, tech volunteers, and leading worship services. In fact, much of your daily and weekly responsibilities encompass doing all of these things, especially if you belong to a small or mid-size church.

But what if I told you that mastering all aspects of your craft and using it as the main point-person at your church is actually holding your team back?

The Myth 

I always used to think that the best musician was the best person to be in charge of the music ministry. After all, they had wholly mastered their craft, so who else should be in charge of running the show? 

This may work in smaller settings, but once you experience growth in numbers, a few flaws are bound to show up. The best musician can manage a handful of band members, mostly because that band functions like a tight-nit unit—but what happens when those "units" triple in number? You suddenly have three times as many variables to consider when it comes to schedules, personalities, and abilities, plus there's an increased demand for a larger infrastructure that is "beefier" than what you were working with before. 

It's cases like this where you as the "master musician" must let go—and it's actually a really good thing, albeit a hard one, too.

The myth is this: You, as the top performer, have to continue doing everything yourself with this new growth. After all, it's your effort that got the team to this place, right? 

The truth: You'll burn out, and you'll bum others out by continuing to control the finer details. You'll stay stagnant, or even worse, experience regression in quality of performance and quantity of team members.

Growing Pains

Right now, our church is poised for another growth phase, and it's coming through a lot of transition. Several key folks within the music ministry have either moved on or shifted their capacity to fill in roles, which leaves those roles to be filled by myself and a few other people. 

My natural reaction is to jump in and do all the work myself—and sometimes, it's necessary. (Don't be that guy that says, "That's not in my job description," if you find that something out-of-norm needs to be handled. That's a sure-fire way for people to lose their respect for you and leave you to handle it all anyway—and you've got a new job description to boot!) 

But what I have to tell myself, repeatedly, is that I'm there to "direct," not always "do." Still, work needs to be done, so my energy tends to be taken up with personally taking care of key aspects of our production, along with the help of a few other staff and volunteers. 

Part of this immersion in work has been to gain higher mastery of aspects of modern worship production in which I was weak, mainly in advanced FOH sound, live-streaming, and lighting set-ups. I've now reached a point where I feel comfortable navigating, tweaking, and offering help to others in these areas, but my "old self" inclination would be to keep control of those areas to make sure they were done right, which means by MY hand.

But in reality, NOW is the time to show others how these systems work, all so I can focus on things that "move the needle" for our ministry. 

Taking Steps Forward

Really, a director is there to make sure all team members are doing what they need to do and have the means of doing it. Sure, there are key responsibilities of "doing" that the director can only handle, but they are primarily in place to collaborate on:

1. Realizing the vision of the church leaders (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit). 

2. Communicating that vision into actionable reality for the team. 

Does this mean you ignore your craft? Absolutely not! 

You must continue to take time to "hone your edge," making sure your chops are in shape, that you are aware of technology trends that could improve the experience, and using those skills alongside your team when you're able. This cements your authority by being an ideal of example to follow and imitate, which then creates a team that is poised well to show others how to take on those duties, too. 

But you can't move forward if you continue to hold on to things that weigh you down, chiefly in having a direct hand in implementation, instead of delegating duties out. 

The beauty of delegation is that you free up your time for more focused vision-shaping, looking at what I call the "macro picture" instead of the micro details. These things include:

• Curating song lists and arranging groups.

• Matching artistic and musical elements with teaching and prayer during services.

• Mentoring your team, individually and collectively.

• Investigating ways to bring more efficiency and clarity in how your team does their respective jobs.

• Spending more time in prayer and meditation, rather than only performing tasks.

When you delegate properly, you actually end up inspiring your team to reach for higher goals, and they pass that passion along to the next people who join in the future. 

Reflection

Take some time to REALLY evaluate what you WANT to do, what you NEED to do, and what you ACTUALLY do, and then consider those categories within the following questions:

• Is this task urgent?

• Is this task necessary?

• Is this task more "maintenance?"

• Is this task more "growth?"

When you identify "needs" apart from "wants" and then see if they are actually getting done, along with determining how they work to maintain and grow your ministry, then you achieve greater clarity as to which tasks to personally handle and which ones to delegate. Even further, you can identify things that can be eliminated altogether and brainstorm new ways of stewarding your ministry at a higher level.

Be blessed 👊✌️