The Unworthy Saint

I had some thoughts, that I hope will be encouraging, a few months ago that I decided to record:

Sometimes when we sing new songs in the Village service I find myself rather irritated.  Inside I say “Why can we not stick to the same songs we know?  Then I can better focus on Christ and worship.”  When I have thoughts like these I am reminded of Lewis’ Screwtape Letters – such a book has pressed me to deal with things I find irritable as though it is probably sin in me.  Because it is sin that I would be irritated at a simple worship song choice, I thought it best to search my heart.

Why am I annoyed with new songs?  Mostly because they take effort to learn.  I must read the words and try to learn the melody.  I cannot simply sing and pray, or sing and meditate on the meaning of the words, rather I must read the words and apply them in song.  What good is that?  It’s not very good.  I don’t feel that it’s as directly worshipful in the moment. Then why do it?

Well, the thought occurred to me – what if the corporate worship we engage in on Sunday morning was not itself fully centered on that particular time.  As in, what if the Sunday worship time had two main points – to glorify God now (in that time) and then (after that time).  It occurs to me that worship songs, the creation and craft of Christ-exalting musicians, are meant to inspire worship.  That is, worship at any moment.  They are to give God’s people a vocabulary with which to praise the Savior.  With every new song, the church’s vocabulary of worship is expanded.

“It Is Well with My Soul” is a wonderful song that leads me to worship.  But that song is not appropriate in every situation.  Rather, other songs are appropriate.  “Jesus Loves Me” might be an appropriate worship song in certain situations, namely those with children or on a particularly depressing day.

All of that to say, my perspective on new worship songs has changed.  I am thankful that our leadership at the Village sees fit to equip the saints with words of worship for every situation.  The service is not merely about worshiping God then, though that part is important, rather the service is also about expanding the church’s vocabulary of worship so that we might praise God in any situation.  And that’s a new idea to me.

I think this is something that came from the E-Myth book, but here are a couple things I’ve noticed/been thinking on relating to management. The book, I think, talks about Entrepreneurs, Managers and Technicians. The concept is that the entrepreneur is the one with the vision, the manager is the one who takes the vision and distributes and oversees its playout and comes up with systems, and the technicians are the ones who carry things out, look for problems, come up with solutions, refine the systems, etc.

It’s important to understand the interplay of personalities between those 3 groups. The entre. with feel stepped on when the technician takes the vision and points out the flaws. The technician will feel the vision is “unmanageable” if it hasn’t been refined and grounded by a manager. The manager has to understand both personality types and know how to interface with both.

On a related note, one of the biggest management obstacles I’ve noticed is that much conflict comes from undefined quality standards – meaning the manager was expecting a quality of work higher than what the technician gives, or the manager was expecting the job to be done quickly (thus neglecting quality) when the technician wanted to make sure the job was done correctly. Much of the frustration can be avoided up front by 1) getting people who see quality as being the same standard and 2) defining that standard in the first place.