The Creative Arts
Ministry Field Guide
by Jim Jensen
NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ON AMAZON!
The Creative Arts Ministry Field Guide is available in digital and paperback form.
The book is a guide for developing a healthy worship arts team and planning process, using three powerful resources: Time, People and Money. Of the three, TIME is the powerful, underrated secret weapon that can be deployed to achieve success in planning and team building.
This book is for all those creative people who think they can’t plan ahead or be organized. If you can master an instrument, write a beautiful song, or edit a powerful video, you already have within you what you need. I can’t wait to share with you how that works!
From the Introduction.
“Creative Arts Ministry in a church today is a combination of artistic output and organizational management. Unless your ministry is fortunate enough to have someone else on staff managing the details, both aspects fall on the same person.
I’ve heard the complaints of lead pastors about creative arts staff, and 9 times out of 10 the complaints are related to organizational management. “They are a great worship leader, but the rehearsals are so unorganized,” or, “The videos are great quality but we never meet deadlines and are always rushing edits at the end of the week.”
But the situation may not be as black and white as the stereotype I’ve presented. I'd like to suggest that artistically minded people actually DO have a handle on organizational management, but that it is expressed best when it comes to their art. Excellent musicianship in western culture is based on the idea that there are just 12 musical tones with which we make great music. A good painter has only 3 primary colors to start with, and a sculptor is limited by the material chosen. The difference between chaos and creativity in artistic expression is organizational management of the medium (tones, colors, materials).
So if the ability is present, why doesn't it manifest itself in other areas, like team building, scheduling, meeting deadlines, and working ahead? One answer is that many people who serve creative arts ministry were never trained to use their organizational ability for these important tasks, so if it doesn't come naturally. Consequently, organization is only seen in the creative endeavors that are the focus of artists. Another possibility is that the culture of the church in which they work doesn't emphasize good organizational management in general. A third possibility is laziness and procrastination- I’m not trying to insult anybody here, but we all know that it's easy to put off what we don't enjoy.
Whatever the reason, I ultimately reject the idea that creative people CAN'T lead healthy, well managed ministries. Anyone who can master an instrument or voice, learn to produce fantastic video, or create a great live mix is intrinsically capable of organizing other areas of their lives.”