I am currently halfway through my first week officially on staff as a Worship Coordinator and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I haven’t quite figured out what my week-to-week schedule is going to look like, but it is quite apparent that I have what one would call a flexible schedule. Even before this week, I have been considering what big goals I have for my ministry area. I do not intend to pursue them all full-force right away. That would alienate a lot of people. But I do plan to have some conversations in the near future.
Here we go!
- Switch up the flow of our mid-week rehearsal, and maybe even Sunday morning rehearsal. I don’t know exactly what this is going to look like and it will certainly be a collaborative effort between music and tech, but I am interested to see what we can do differently to best serve everyone and respect people’s time better. It will be better, honestly, just to talk about it and hear what is valued by different people.
- Rehearsal room recordings. In my previous position (you’ll find a lot of what I want to examine is connected to things I’ve seen done well in the past), my volunteers got an email of the room recordings later on that night so they could hear what they did and better prepare for Sunday. It’s a win for everyone and if I could give people the gift of better self-awareness, I will be satisfied.
- Evaluation video. Since I accepted my position, I have been receiving a (very prompt, actually) Youtube link to what we did on Sunday. It’s not fancy footage, but it is a helpful tool for evaluation. I don’t want to create a culture of perfectionism, but once again – more awareness is better for everyone. I am hoping that I can extend this link to the volunteers who have served and they can make their own observations. I don’t think I will go right out the gate accompanying the link with feedback, but who knows. I’d like to get us to a place where we crave it. That is a journey. It certainly has been for me individually.
I am looking forward to what the future will bring for my campus and I am cognizant that this will not be a cake walk. Any transfer of leadership has its kinks. I anticipate the bulk of those “kinks” will be personnel-related. In my previous role, I learned the power of a simple “Thanks for letting me know.” Even when the information I have received from someone is terribly frustrating, I know I can give that response and convey what I need to convey, without communicating anything emotion-related.
Anyways, that’s where we stand currently and I look forward to giving an update on our progress.
SARAH HARPER 