(from the Walt Disney movie, Meet the Robinsons)
In filling out a worship leader application a few months ago, I was asked, “What’s the most important thing you need from a senior pastor?” My answer: freedom to fail.
It’s important to stay fresh – in our relationships, in our spiritual walk, in our life. For those of us who lead worship, we should also continue to innovate. But here’s the reality of innovation: it’s surrounded by failure. Creativity requires experimentation and any time you experiment, some things turn out to be … not such a great idea after all. The thing is, many times you don’t know until you try. And fail. In front of everyone.
Failure is a necessary part of the innovation process because from failure comes learning, iteration, adaptation, and the building of new conceptual and physical models through an iterative learning process. Almost all innovations are the result of prior learning from failures. – Edward D. Hess, Darden School (from “Creating An Innovation Culture,” Forbes magazine)
People are very sensitive to their beliefs about how worship is “done” and can become very upset if they think we’ve crossed the line. In truth, maybe we do cross the line from time to time and maybe things need to be corrected. That’s OK and is part of life. But show me a pastor who accepts the fact that not everything we try is going to be a home run and who has the worship leader’s back when feather’s are ruffled, and I’ll show you a strong leadership team and innovative worship services.
This also applies to us worship leaders and the musicians under our guidance. If you want your players to step up and step out (musically or spiritually), let ’em know it’s OK if they make a mistake.
Over to you: What was one of the worst ideas you’ve had in leading worship? How do you give others (and yourself!) freedom to fail?
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