Leader or Manager: The Debate is On

So, if you're a worship arts director are you a leader or a manager?

There are a thousand ways authors have defined the differences between leaders and managers, but let's boil it down to this:

Leader = one who goes first and guides
Manager = one who handles or directs resources

Now which one are you, really? Hmmm....both? Probably. Hopefully.

No wonder you feel like you must be all things to all people. We haven't even touched on the sticky issue of church politics. Oh, and we haven't talked about the differences between right and left brain thinkers, either.

But, if we need to be both a leader and a manager, first we must admit it. (And, I challenge you to effectively argue any other position, because we need both leadership and management to run a healthy arts ministry.)

What I wonder is if you're doing just one of these right now, where are the artists being cheated? Are you cheating them out of leading toward a vision they can give their lives to? Or are you cheating them out great people and resource management that loves on them as artists, so their gifts and talents have a safe place to flourish?

When we do both well, it leads to healthy artistic ministry.