Builder or Maintenance Person?

Would you rather change the oil or design the engine? It isn’t a rhetorical question, so I’m asking you to ask yourself seriously what you’d rather do.

Changing the oil is a routine task. It takes place within known parameters, and there is a predictability to it. But, as they say of the dogs that don’t lead a sled, the view rarely changes…

Designing the engine is mostly conceptual. There are lots of fits and starts, lots of wadding of paper, a lot of trial and error. It takes place in your head, and there is a creative aspect to it. There’s also a lot, I say a LOT of pressure…

In church music and worship ministry, not many of us get to design the engine. Too many of us simply change the oil, metaphorically speaking.

But there is a third option: You can use your creativity to “fine tune” the engine, take care of all the parts — not just the oil, but the filters, the gaskets, the hoses, the belts and the other moving parts. I think that’s real ministry. You have to know — by listening carefully for a tell tale sound, or looking for cracks and wobbles — what is “normal” and what needs immediate attention. And you can’t do it by reading a manual. It is something that takes a lot of paying attention, and learning by observation and asking people who have been “around the block.”

So I ask again? Which do you prefer? Your answer may say a lot about the shape of your ministry…

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

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