On the way to my grandmother’s funeral I read Ramesh Richard’s book Soul Passion. It had been sitting on my shelf since the Moody’s Minister Conference two months ago and 11 hours of flight delays provided just the opportunity needed. Although Richards was addressing pastoral ministry, some of his key points also apply to people in worship ministry.
He said that successful, ongoing, sustainable ministry must have deliberate purpose. Purpose contains three overlapping distinctions. These key ingredients are:
Passion: This is where the heart goes. It’s what energizes and unleashes, drives. It’s the underlying purpose.
Mission: This is where the hands and feet go. It’s what you do repeatedly, the daily business, use of time, strategic action, responsibility.
Vision: This is where the mind goes. It’s the impact, difference, change you’re trying to accomplish. Your niche. It’s what you understand to be your unique purpose and how it fits within the overall supreme purpose of God’s plan.
Consider people serving the church through the worship ministry. It doesn’t take long to discover that almost every one has a unique and distinct mix of these three points. Some of us are passionate about the music and its role in congregational worship. Some of us are passionate about our role on the team. Others are passionate about how music expresses our hearts. Some are passionate about those special moments when the team and the congregation are all in unison and God’s presence seems especially tangible. And so on.
The same is true regarding mission and vision. We each have different roles and views of what we are about. And as we add new teams and team members, as we expand even the types of teams to include projection, video, drama, special music and the Lord only knows what else, the differences continue. The fabric’s texture becomes more and more complex.
I’m thankful for this diverse mix of passion, mission and vision to which each of us add. It’s stone soup. The final product is much more interesting than the individual components. Spice. Creation Jesus style in full multi-textured variety.
You
As you approach your role ministering through the creative arts, be deliberate. Discover and fan the flames of your passion. Deliberately approach your ministry to become more effective. Explore your vision. Sharpen your tools. Streamline life to enable effectively partner with the Lord in the areas He has called you to, be it marriage, family, ministry, work…
And also, make room for others to do the same. We’re each approaching our roles with the toolboxes God has developed in our lives. Each approach often reflects the specific blend of passion, mission and vision to which the Lord has called us. Allow others to approach their role differently than you would. They are different and should approach it differently.
But you’ve got to talk about your differences with one another. Differing approaches, gift mixes and resulting attitudes cannot be left as the unspoken elephant in the room. Discussing your differences allows each person to discover where they fit into the overall fabric of the team. It validates the role each person plays and the unique texture each brings to impact the congregation’s worship expressions.
This is the trick to ministry. Blending your passion, mission and vision mix with others so you can accomplish the work together. Unity is not having carbon copy views of passion, mission and vision. Unity isn’t being all the same. Unity is the interweaving together of very different body parts called together into a strong, functioning, breathing, living whole.
The benefits of communicating these things with your team build that unity. It also allows team leaders to make objective decisions by comparing new possibilities to what they know the team to be about. It helps the team remain untainted from distracting rabbit trails. It builds a sense of peace and stability within the team. The team clarifies overall team identity and each person’s role leading to “mission accomplished.” in short, they function as a body.
And that’s glorifying to God.
WLCC Worship 
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