For a recent interview, I (Gary) was asked a really great question:
What’s one thing that pastors and church leaders can do to facilitate a stronger relationship with the artists and creatives under their care?
My answer is easy to say, and complex to enact.
I think pastors need to clearly communicate the scope and the vision of the project to the artists involved.
Scope and vision.
That exact and indefinable thing.
The scope and vision of a project can happen as a result of some executive staff meeting, a brainstorm meeting, or some crazy middle-of-the-night idea. But regardless of its genesis, the pastor needs to communicate the scope and vision PRIOR to the artist picking up pen, paintbrush, or software.
I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to create art (music, video, print pieces, stage elements, lighting, sound, etc.), without knowing the vision or the scope.
Please know this about any great artist – They will throw their hearts and minds and off-days into their art with every new project they’re handed. They can’t help doing that. Creativity isn’t limited to 9 hours during their days.
But for many, they do this based on an educated guess, always knowing that they might be wrong when the first-draft reveal happens. There’s a difference between art that doesn’t meet an artistic standard, and art that’s wrong.
Tweaking something in the revision process is great and expected – it’s needed to create great and collaborative art. I tweak stuff all day, every day for great clients. But changing the scope or vision over and over again is not great, and not expected.
Pastors are creating environments. They cannot help but create environments. My deepest prayer is that their environments are both professionally challenging and spiritually life-giving. The artists I meet are fine with the first part, but really really really need the second part.
