On the way home from church today, Helena and I talked almost the whole way home about this discussion and its ramifications for artists and other ministries within the context of a congregation and beyond.
On the Worship Discussion List that Moe & I are part of (for
how many years now, Moe??), there is a very interesting discussion about similar issues. How do I do the things I'm genuinely called of God to do when this congregation doesn't do those things, when the leadership of the church disapproves of the sort of ministry into which I'm called, or where the leadership has no vision or understanding of just what it is that God has deposited in me.
The critical question for me becomes, just what
is covering, anyhow? That's a hard question to ask, and a hard concept to properly define, I think. As with so many things, it could certainly be viewed differently by different people and by different organizations. What does it mean to
you?
For me, covering is more than a mere title. As visual arts ministers, we are often asked, "Who is your pastor?" or "Who is your covering?" What do those folks really want to know? They want to know if we:<LIST>
-
<LI>
- are submitted to an authority,</LI>
<LI>
- can provide a phone number of someone that knows us well enough to vouch for our capabilities and gifts,</LI>
<LI>
- can do what we say we can do,</LI>
<LI>
- are reliable,</LI>
<LI>
- are plugged into a local expression of the Body of Christ,</LI>
<LI>
- understand the dynamics of the local congregation, and</LI>
<LI>
- can cooperate with the needs of a local pastor for order in his congregation or a conference leader for order in the conference.</LI>
</LIST>and maybe more!
Those asking want to know if we are legitimate or illegitimate children of the Kingdom, if we are productive or if we are flaky, if we are givers or if we are takers. You can put a whole bunch of different phrases in there and still have the gist, I think.
For me, this comes down to covering. We've had all sorts of covering relationships over the nearly 18 years we've been doing this. Pastors who have imposed new rules every week, pastors who have given us a totally free reign (trusted us and what we did in his space), pastors who gave titular cover but who wanted to responsibility in the relationship, pastors who loved and honored us publically and privately, some pastoral staffers who publically dishonored us and the other worship arts ministers from the pulpit! We've had those who were willing to take an active role, others who would not, those who really did understand what we do, others who liked it but did not have a clue!
I've shared on this site about the great worship team retreat that we had with a man who really, really has a firm grip on the pastoral needs (read: COVERING!) of the local worship teams, be they musical, movement, environment, sound, whatever artistic or semi-artistic expression or support of the expressive ministries. He was really good. He talked in terms of true sheep-type shepherds (STS) and related that to us people-type sheep of the worshipping arts persuasion. He got into really personal areas and related that an STS, the responsibility was to be so intimately acquainted with his charges that an STS could tell by the way a sheep walked or moved that something was wrong. He talked about the STS as one who regularly touched each sheep. Mind you, not just patted the sheepy on its head out of affection, but regularly ran his fingers through the wool down to the scalp to see if there were scabs, bugs, or growths that would affect the health and life of that sheepy. Translated to the people shepherd, that means knowing what regular behaviors and responses are, knowing strengths and weaknesses, knowing what happy looks like, what joyous looks like, what sad, wounded, injured looks like and being willing to wade in.
THAT's part of covering. Part, though, not all.
As ministers of the visual or aural arts, we want and need to be in relationship with someone who will be listening and watching what it is that we do, preferably before it's done publically! If the pastor is listening to the rehearsal and says to the music worship leader, "You know, that's a lovely song, but is that what you think we really believe??" AHA, the pastor has identified a song with questionable lyrics that got caught in the "warm-fuzzy" realm instead of in the rock solid truth realm! We've avoided feeding the other sheep baaaaaaad food! As the worship dance leader rehearses a piece for this Sunday's offertory, the pastor looking on says, "That's really powerful. It would be even better, I think, if you did it in a different place in the service." Or "Say, are you going to wear street clothes for that or a special garment? What does that garment look like and what does it say symbolically or physically to the folks?" This is covering. Helping us to be our best, to do things in line with the vision of the house, plugging in and working with the whole team rather than as independent plug-in modules that are all nice and pretty, but have no cohesive function within the congregation.
Dave, imagine for a minute that you have a pastor who sees what you do as valuable to the kingdom, and as a powerful tool in your local body. He recognizes that when you lead in dance, others follow. You've been asked to be part of some conference that is more than just dance, more than just worship. Pastor comes and says, "You know, I've heard about the leaders of that conference. Would you like to hear what I know?" Of course, you're going to be all ears because you know pastor has your absolute best interests in mind, right? If he warns you of something flaky in those conference leaders, but doesn't say "don't go", you're going to be on alert. If he tells you some particular emphasis that those leaders have, you're going to mentally prepare things with that emphasis in mind, right? Conversely, if those leaders call on your pastor, your covering, to find out more about who you are, he can glowingly report on you, and brag on your particulars only if he (she)
knows those particulars. And for a pastor to say to a conference leader, "Yes, Dave is a great leader. He has a particular gift for getting men to participate in ways that they might not otherwise", why what a tremendous gift to the conference leaders and to the kingdom!
I have a lot more to say, but don't want to bloat this blog entry. As others comment, I'll probably add more.
What do
you think??