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Dealing with Creative People

Benjamin Eggers

You are a pastor. You have a growing church. You want to expand your arts ministry, maybe add a worship team or a drama team, but then it seems like everything falls apart. Your worship leader wants the entire service to revolve around the singing and your drama leader can't seem to show up on time for anything and has a bad attitude when you talk to him about it. What do you do? Do you give up the arts altogether and wash your hands of the whole affair? Do you let your arts leaders just do whatever they want and stay out of the way? Do you "beat" your leaders into submission and make them do what you want? It seems like there is no easy solution. Fear not, there are some good ways to deal with creative people.

The first thing that you need to understand in dealing with creatives is that they are wired a little different than your average, say, accountant. All of the things that make them great artists are the same things that can be their achilles heel in dealing with life. As they say: "Your greatest strength is your greatest weakness." Artists may view situations much differently than you and struggle with sins that are not even an issue with you. "The Heart of the Artist" by Rory Noland does a wonderful job of explaining the differences. You can order it here. Selfishness, pride, perfectionism, defensiveness, jealousy, envy, emotional imbalance and lack of discipline are some of the sins that artists are prone to. But the other side of that is that because of the personality trait that can lead to emotional imbalance, artists feel things deeply and can convey a very moving emotion to an audience. In other words; some of these weaknesses are what make them great artists. So, how do you deal with all of this? These three steps will give you a start.

Encourage and Affirm
Artists need encouragement and affirmation. Every time they get up in front of a crowd, it is like they are laying themselves bare and presenting themselves for approval. Many times and artist's art is an extension of themselves, so when they hear negative feedback, they may become very depressed and hurt. Add to this the fact that many artists are perfectionists and it makes for a group of people that have a hard time feeling good about themselves.

Please understand, I am not talking about lying and telling someone that they did a good job when they clearly didn't - an artist will see right through that. I am saying that it is important that you find something about their performance that you can affirm, even when they have royally messed up. For example: If a worship leader starts a song in one key and starts to sing in another and the worship team is never able to get back on track, don't say "Wow, that was really good!" It would be much better to say something like: "I noticed you really struggled on that one song, but I was impressed that you stuck it out and got it back on the next one! Good job on that."

Just make sure when you are giving correction or pointing out mistakes that you affirm who they are as a person. For example: "I don't feel like this drama you wrote really hit home with the people, but I appreciate the time and energy that you put into it. You are really talented." You don't have to pound the message home - remember, most artists are perfectionists, so they are probably beating themselves up for their mistakes already.

Clear Boundaries
Set up artists for success from the beginning and you will save yourself heartache down the line. Before you give someone responsibility for a ministry like a worship team, video ministry, drama or dance team or even sound team, write up the parameters of the position. These should include the vision, the tangible goals and the line of authority of the position. If you feel it is appropriate, you can work through these things with the artist and come up with them together. DO NOT hand over the responsibility of leadership without this in place - it will get messy 99% of the time.

It is very important that you schedule a periodic meeting with the artist to go over progress, problems and spiritual matters. Your vision and goals sheet may look something like this:
    ABC Church Drama Team
    Vision: To illustrate the pastor's messages with applicable, modern skits and
    drama's with the purpose of engaging the audience.
    Goals:
    1. Perform sermon illustration skits twice a month.
    2. Produce and perform a Christmas and Easter Performance.
    3. Form a team of dedicated actors and support staff.
    4. Leader of the ministry will meet with the pastor once a week to discuss plans,
    upcoming sermons and spiritual mentorship.
Whatever form these boundaries take, it is important that there are clear boundaries so that the artist and the leader (pastor) are on the same page.

Mentorship
Artists can tend to be solitary people when it comes to their art. This may be because they feel threatened by other artists or for any number of other reasons. But God made us to live in community, so I strongly suggest that the artist be part of a mentorship program. This may consist of a weekly meeting with the pastor or leader of the arts ministry, but the sole purpose of the meeting should be the artist's spiritual growth. "The Heart of the Artist" (mentioned above) is a great resource to help an artist to grow spiritually. Sometimes artists can get so caught up in practicing and growing in their art that they tend to fall down spiritually. This will help to counteract that.

Artists can be a great blessing to a church and hopefully these three steps will start you down the right road of using our talents to worship a supremely creative God. If you have any questions about this article, or specific situations with your art ministry, email Ben at ben@6ftstudios.com.