Philosophy of Ministry

The following is from a series of articles I wrote for Living Water, the choir I directed at Valley Church (Cupertino, CA) from 1987-2003, and at First Presbyterian Church (Mountain View, CA) from 2003-2011. While Living Water is no longer in action, the ideas I had the opportunity to present are just as valid now as then.

I became a Tom Peters fan in the Eighties when he wrote “In Search of Excellence.” The book is a great analysis of the principles which make successful organizations successful. And as I had just become a choir director and wanted to lead a unified group, this was an eye-opener because of the basic concepts it provided.

I had a fair amount of time on my hands one week in 1984, so I set myself the task of building a set of central concepts for our choir ministry. Much of this was gathering the key ideas which I had worked for me over the years and recording them, but some additional synthesis also was required because of the nature of what I was doing. In particular, it was necessary to keep the key concepts to a very small number so that they could be remembered and applied.

Not surprisingly, I ended up with a statement of my own philosophy of ministry, and found that by constructing it without mentioning music in it I could make it applicable at all times. Since this philosophy is therefore transportable, I gave it to Living Water at the onset of our ministry, and later included it in a series of letters.

Part 1

I wanted to share my philosophy of ministry with you. The reason for this is that I’d like you all to know where my heart is concerning Christian service in general and Living Water specifically. I’m hoping that the Lord will use this to bind us together in a God-glorifying ministry. The first item, then, is that we must serve in a ministry which is unified throughout. This is achieved through unity in our purpose for ministry: “To glorify God and to cause others to do the same.”

This is well-expressed throughout Scripture (I have a list of about a hundred Scripture references on the topic). Jesus, in glorifying God through His life, caused the multitudes to praise God. Peter and John glorified God in healing the lame beggar at the temple gate, and the healed man glorified God because of their ministry. Paul expressed this idea in II Timothy 2:2 “and the things which you heard from me in the presence of many faithful witnesses, the same commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” A Christian ministry just isn’t complete unless you can be used by the Lord to move others to glorify God with the same exuberance and vision!

This is especially important in music ministry because our service is directed outward as well as upward. Since those who listen to us don’t usually sing with us, our responsibility is to draw them to praise the Lord through our praise. There’s a deeper-level application too: when God uses us to cause them to praise Him, then He’ll use them to cause others to praise Him, and so on (forever and ever). In computer terms, this is called “recursion.” The perfect definition of this term is: “Recursion: see recursion.”

I encourage each of you to determine whether your own ministry is recursion-oriented. After all, you and I are only single links in a chain of Christian service which extends from Jesus Christ to eternity future. See whether new links are following you — if you can’t see any, look for ways to add them so that your ministry will continue even beyond your limits. After all, it’s not we who minister, but God who ministers through us! Does He deserve less than service which reflects His attribute of eternity?

This is the perfect time to continue my exposition on philosophy of ministry. (This segment of the original presentation on philosophy of ministry appeared in the Living Water letters after  an in-house discussion on where we were heading and how we were planning to get there… we were having some difficulties in preparing for a particular performance.) I was planning to talk about Vision and Values, but the events surrounding the aforementioned concert have prompted me to address the issue of commitment. Please note that this isn’t intended to be a guilt trip, so please read this all the way through before rendering your personal verdict on it.

The prompting came as a result of the phone calls I made. Some of you are of the opinion that I should be more stringent as a director, e.g. tighten attendance requirements, be tougher during rehearsals. While there’s a place to be tough and mean, I personally am uncomfortable with that as a primary modus operandi in a ministry. The reason for this is that I’m aiming not just to prepare music for each performance, but even more to prepare each of you for all of life. In addition, I’m trying to lead as I would like to be led. And so my style is based on fuzzier, more elusive elements than you might expect because my building blocks are people, not performances or rules.

My key premise is that commitment should originate from within. It can be elicited either through fear of punishment of through development of loyalty and trust. The former assumes that people have to be coerced to produce results (“Theory X”); the latter assumes that they will work willingly (“Theory Y”). There also is an extension of Theory Y called Theory Z (what else?) which approaches an egalitarian organization in which leaders essentially are group members with some added special responsibilities.

It turns out that God has made me a natural Theory Z leader. This explains a lot about why Living Water works the way it does, why we have Student Directors and Student Accompanists, and why the Amoeba Management Experiment is under way. (“Amoeba Management” is a term lifted from Tom Peters’ books on (corporate) leadership. It’s based on the idea of individuals doing what they have to do with a minimum of direct managerial intervention. An interesting example of this is the traffic patterns present in rush hour traffic. Yes, it’s applicable to the choral setting as well. Read “Passion for Excellence” and “Thriving on Chaos” for more information.) My view of our ministry is based on my being one of the members, with a few additional special responsibilities, such as assuming responsibility for everything we do.

Basically, my style of leadership relies heavily on each member’s individualized expression of personal commitment to the purpose and ministry of Living Water. Put in another way, I don’t exert pressure on the group; God does this through your own dedication to Him and His Word. This, to be sure, is an even more fearsome (read “sadistic” if you’re so inclined) kind of pressure than I could ever impose because it places each of you under direct accountability to the Lord, which is the way things ought to be because you’re much, much more accountable to God than to me.

Rules and regulations aren’t my preference for structuring how a group behaves. We need a few, such as the hard limit of six unexcused absences and the requirement to pay for music you lose. Beyond the bare necessities, though, I feel that rule-based leadership falls short of the optimum because it usually tells you only what you shouldn’t do (witness the inability of the Law to make us into godly people!), and the exceptions thereto are usually so tightly focused that they aren’t generally applicable. My answer is value-driven leadership, which is based on a paradigm defining the identity of the group. That’s where our Vision and Values come into play (I’ll get to them in a subsequent letter); I want an atmosphere where each of us contributes to our ministry based on his/her own personal relationship with God.

The commitment I expect is personally determined within the purpose of “Glorifying God and causing others to do the same,” and is refined through our Vision and Values. This is a real-life approach; for each of you, beloved singers, there soon will be a point (in, perhaps, seven or eight years…) at which you’ll be on your own; at that point, your personal relationship with God and your personal commitment to God will be what determines how completely you live for God. My responsibility is to do what I can under His leading to set an example for you which will facilitate that.

I have a quote from Dr. Witold Krassowski, one of the professors at University of Santa Clara. It matches well with what God has made me:

“I believe, you know, that you learn best from those you love. We can teach them through fear; we can teach them through grades and hold all kinds of threats over heads. But the people who will learn the most lavishly will be the people who will learn, simply enough, through love.

Part 2

The latest installment on philosophy of ministry concentrates on the values in our Vision and Values statement. In much the same fashion that we have a cogent definition of our purpose (“to glorify God and to cause others to do the same”), I’ve opted for a compact, positively-oriented statement of how we are to fulfill it. There are four Values:

1. Professional Quality in Service,
2. Open-Ended Achievement,
3. Service In Action, and
4. Unity Of Spirit

Professional Quality in Service is a measure of how good our work is. God loves to see excellence in all aspects of our lives because it’s a measure of how conformed we are to His image. There are many Scripture references which address His excellence. Perhaps the best-known is Psalm 8:1 “How excellent is Thy name, O Lord, in all the earth!” Others speak of His holiness (Isaiah 6:3), His wisdom (I Timothy 1:17), His goodness (Psalm 100:4), His love (John 3:16), and His mercy (Lamentations 3:22-23). It was even said of Jesus that “He has done all things well” (Mark 7:37). Our Lord and God is a lover of excellence; it’s intrinsic in His nature.

He expects the same of us. Matthew 5:48 (“be ye holy, for I am holy”) carries the implication that God demands that believers should model their lives after God’s character, while Romans 12:1-2 shows how He wants to do this. The highlights are that we are unable to be truly godly unless we have trusted on Jesus Christ for our salvation, that we still are unable to achieve this status unless we commit our wills and ways to the direction of the Holy Spirit, and that even in spite of our individual and very personal failings along our Christian path we are still predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.

This extends to our Christian service since it’s part of our Christian life, and therefore I’ve invoked a further extrapolation which also applies to our ministry, and have couched both within the context of our service to God. The reason for this is that our ministry is just that – a ministry. If we become the best musicians on earth but fail to serve the Lord, we’ll have failed to achieve our purpose.

Nevertheless, God still expects excellence of His children, so I’ve chosen “professional” to modify “quality.” It’s okay that most of us aren’t yet sufficiently skilled to make music ministry our professions, though; my focus is not on great skills, which few of us possess, but on proper attitudes, which all of us can demonstrate. Professional-quality attitude, simply, is giving one hundred percent no matter where you are or what you are doing. Actually, it’s more like the “hundred-and-ten percent” that people so often use in reference to sports. It’s playing with pain, it’s going the extra mile, it’s reaching for the unreachable star. It’s making the attempt to achieve even if the goal appears to be completely out of reach.

I’ll continue this in the next letter. However, you may already have noticed something which I consider to be very important in my philosophy of ministry: As much and as deeply and completely I personally am involved in music ministry, my ministry philosophy deliberately avoids mentioning “music.” The reason for this is that it leaves God in control of where and how I serve Him, and, with respect to recursive ministry, gives me something I can give to each of you no matter what your respective ministries are or become. A philosophy of ministry must begin with God, and must allow for the exercise of His Lordship in all things. In the words of Cat Stevens, “I’m bein’ followed by a moon shadow” — no matter what skills or abilities God gives or takes, I must be oriented to serve Him with the same hope, the same dedication, and the same fervor.

Part 3

You may have noticed that I have a bit of a thing about our “Vision Stars.” For those of you who don’t recognize the term, they’re the service awards which I give during the season. These are tied directly to our Values; they’re awards for Professional Quality in Service, Open-Ended Achievement, Service In Action, and Unity Of Spirit. Recipients of these awards are determined by a ballot cast by the members, which makes them especially precious because the recipient is chosen under the piercingly bright gaze of peer respect. Only one of each type of Vision Award is presented each year, except in the case of ties (when multiple awards are presented), and no one may receive more than one of them in any semester.

I’m writing this because a way to illustrate each of our Values is to share what led Living Water to honor those who have won Vision Stars in the past. In 1989, Living Water designated Janet Somes as the best example of Professional Quality in Service (PQS). She started as our accompanist, but started having problems with her right arm about halfway through the season. So she played left-handed. Then the other arm also went bad, so she moved to the soprano section and finished the season there with us. Furthermore, she memorized all of the songs we sang in the final program of the season. While all of this was tremendous by itself, I believe what really mattered was her attitude through all of it: The only disposition I saw in Janet through the entire experience was a peaceful and joyous one directed completely toward God.

The standard implied by PQS is simple: 100%. By its nature, it’s absolutely rigorous and demanding. Further, it’s keyed to the individual’s dedication to God and His ministry, and is therefore oriented toward expression of self-denial and self-sacrifice in performing that ministry. It has no dependence on how anyone or anything else is doing unless they are also headed toward God.

The Lord Jesus Christ set the PQS standard through His incarnation and humiliation on our behalf. It still astounds me that the One who created everything should deign to assume the form of those He created, and that in so doing He willingly put aside the worship and tribute that was His due. It continues to amaze me that His love coupled with His righteousness, justice, and holiness literally drove Him to become our Savior through the horrible agency of crucifixion. And it reassures me that our salvation is absolutely guaranteed through faith in Him because of the glory of His resurrection, ascension, and promised return and everlasting victory.

The underlying current is that the Lord understood and applied PQS absolutely and perfectly. When He came to earth to be born in a stable, He gave 100%. When He committed Himself to twelve disciples even though He knew Judas Iscariot would be betray Him, He gave 100%. When He paid for our sins through the most agonizing, cruel, and humiliating death, He gave 100%. And in His victory which is ours to partake, He gives 100%. At any time, it was conceivable that He could have turned from the chosen path, yet His character, being that of God, necessarily prevented Him from deviating from His purpose in coming to earth.

A definition of “professional” which I’ve used often is “good enough to make a living at it.” The definition fits our Lord in a slightly different perspective: He became mortal to give us eternal life and became sin for us so that we might be the righteousness of God in Him. He was and is and will always be good — and perfect, and holy, and righteous, and faithful, and loving, and true — enough to make a living at it: He did so be giving 100% so that He could make our living a reality. That’s why He is the prototype of Professional Quality in Service.

Professional Quality in Service isn’t restricted to the few people who actually succeed in establishing a profession via their talent. The rest of us are in the cliffhanger situation where growth is full of struggle and often painful. We have to claw our way across the scarps and tors of life, clinging to fingernail-width handholds. But “Professional Quality in Service” is never out of reach. Once again, that’s because it’s an attitude rather than a hereditary possession. While it’s true that people have differing degrees of musical talent, it’s still possible for anyone to possess, manifest, and exercise a professional attitude.

Part 4

“Open-Ended Achievement” is the second Value. It refers to the kind of development each of us should be undergoing as we minister together. When you take a good, hard look at anything you do, there’s always some aspect (usually many aspects) which can be improved; there’s always room for growth. Music is peculiar in this respect because of its natural open-endedness; there is no lowest or highest note, no limits to volume, no limit to intonational or rhythmic precision. No matter how well your efforts approximate perfection, there is always some additional step which will improve matters.

There are also quantum leaps; the Student Director and Student Accompanist programs are demonstrations thereof, and of course there are those occasional scintillating flashes of inspiration which open broad new vistas of understanding. But the greatest amounts of development are seen in those who grow a little every day. It’s not being a thousand times better all in one shot — it’s being a little better a thousand different times which makes the difference. Put another way, growth takes time and effort. Open-Ended Achievement is the continuous expression of a conscious effort to improve and to deepen your facility and effectiveness in serving God.

This is the second of the Living Water Values because of the importance of our learning in and through our ministry. It’s listed after Professional Quality in Service because it’s a logical consequence of developing a professional attitude; Open-Ended Achievement is a description of what it takes to achieve professional results. Example: On a very strange whim, I gave nicknames to the members of the choir at my previous church. One of the guys was a pragmatist; his nickname was “Get It Done.” His perfectionist brother was “Get It Right.” Jenny was called “I’ll Try.” Her nickname was particularly apt. She joined us with no musical experience, and in two years was singing soprano and alto, had learned to sight-sing, and had won her Director’s and Accompanist’s Stars. It’s no wonder that the choir chose her to receive our first OEA Star.

Part 5

The third Value of my philosophy of ministry is “Service In Action.” It’s based on the importance of maintaining the correct focus as we serve God. Our purpose, once again, is to “glorify God and to cause others to do the same,” and it’s directed properly through serving God and others. It’s a value which isn’t just modeled in our singing, but which is an outward manifestation of an inward attitude. If we’re filled with the Holy Spirit, we’ll have a servant heart, and will seek to be used by God to fulfill the needs of others. “Service in Action” means that we seek to serve with all our actions, not just while we’re rehearsing or performing. It’s a lifetime commitment to the Lord.

Kathy, one of the sopranos in the adult choir at Valley Church, sets a good example here. She’s no Sandi Patti (but then, who is?), but she gets the job done. Her special ministry is that if she’s able to come to rehearsal, she usually arrives an hour early and makes coffee and hot water for us. This might not sound like much, but if you’ve been through a long rehearsal on a cold evening when you’re dead tired from working all day, you really, really appreciate that warm cup of tea that’s waiting for you in the choir room.

Get the idea? “Service In Action” isn’t the Pharisee praying on the corner, nor is it the rich man tossing a bag of gold into the offering. It’s Zaccheus repenting and having the Lord and His disciples over for dinner. It’s the widow dropping her last two half-cents into the treasury. It’s doing things behind the scenes which make it easier for others to do their ministries.

Would that we’d all think like this! Service, when truly given, is the most joyous and wonderful act in which we can participate. How can we learn to serve? The answer is simple: Practice, practice, practice.

Part 6

The fourth value of our philosophy of ministry is Unity Of Spirit. There originally were three, not four, Values, and this was due to my failure in configuring our philosophy of ministry with respect to the individual, during which I neglected the essential dimension of body life in my considerations.

Linda Ross, a friend and director of the youth choir at Livermore First Baptist Church (now Cedar Grove Community Church), adopted the original three Values and added this one for her group because of her concern for group unity. Simultaneously, God had used our youth pastor to encourage me to consider a fourth value – this, coupled with the obvious spiritual importance of the matter, seemed to prove that the Lord was leading in this direction, and so we have an additional value.

The basis of Unity Of Spirit is found in Ephesians 4:1-6, where Paul writes of there being a unity in the Church which is to be preserved at all costs. A choir, of course, is a poignant object lesson in this respect: if we fail to have unity, the impact on our ministry is immediate, and can be seen, heard, and felt. It doesn’t take much (just one person off pitch or rhythm a little bit, perhaps, or even just talking too much) to affect our perceived unity, and so we must strive consciously for that oneness which is intended by the Lord to be a mark of His Church.

Unity Of Spirit is more than just a single-application concept, though. Not only must it be manifested in our singing, but it must be evident in our relationships. We’re called by God to demonstrate unity by praying for each other, caring for each other, forgiving each other, and loving each other. All of this adds up to the idea of “walking in a manner worthy of our calling,” that is, living as those who are predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

Part 7

I’ve more or less completed the elucidation of my philosophy of ministry with the exception of a few items which transform it from theory to practice. The first of these items concerns the integration of the Values of Professional Quality in Service, Open-Ended Achievement, Service In Action, and Unity Of Spirit. It’s absolutely necessary to have all four Values acting in concert to fulfill the Vision (“glorifying God and causing others to do the same”):

• Without Professional Quality in Service, we’re left with values which deny the need to attain excellence in our service, and which lack a standard which defines the level of that excellence; we would tend toward mediocrity.
• Without Open-Ended Achievement, we’re left with values which attempt to eliminate the need to continue learning, and would stagnate. “If you’re not learning, you’d better be dead.” (Question: will we continue our education in heaven?)
• Without Service In Action, we’re left with values which potentially lead to our becoming a group of egotistical prima donnas.
• Without Unity of Spirit, we’re left with values which are only self-serving, and which might eventually amount to a mere cover-up of spiritual deficiencies when we lead in worship.

The need to integrate our four Values into a working whole is enforced by their necessary subordination to our purpose of glorifying God and causing others to do the same. Only with the Lord as the object of our devotion and dedication do achieving excellence, learning continually, and serving wholeheartedly make sense. Without Him, there’s nothing worth doing!

The second item is associated with “recursive ministry.” Ultimately, ministry must reproduce itself; if it fails to do so, the line of spiritual descent dies. Observation: Most of us who believe on Christ today have done so because God ensured that there would be an unbroken chain of His people to share the Gospel for the last two millennia. This is the absolute necessity of recursive ministry: reproduce it or lose it.

This means that we have to think in terms beyond just sending the next generation of ministers on their way. We must also ensure that they will also be able to produce the generation which is to follow them. It’s our responsibility to ensure that our ministerial “grandchildren” are alive and well too. It’s no wonder that in Deuteronomy 6:1-2 the Israelites were commanded to teach their children and their grandchildren the Word of God.

The third and final item is “transcendence.” God is transcendent (i.e. far beyond all we can ask, hope, or think), and so our ministry should strive to reach the example He shows in His character. However, since we uniformly fail to reach that perfect experience, our responsibility is to reproduce our ministry in others such that they avoid the mistakes we’ve made. (Hegel: “History teaches us that man learns nothing from history.” Prove this wrong by your life!)

The idea is to minister so that other transcend our example. The basis: I might be able to set an example, but I’m no paragon of virtue. Therefore, part of my ministry is to be used by God to encourage others to achieve greater things than I will. Then God is glorified even more!