True Woship Leader or something else?

[olddrummerdude]

I like this list. Thank you for posting DaveW.

 

[Dave-W]

I like this list. Thank you for posting DaveW.

You are welcome!

 

[olddrummerdude]

I heard from another friend in the same praise band I quit and from an audio tech recently. Those serving under this WL in my previous posts are really having a time of it with this young WL. One very good guitar player who is a good arranger and strong leader has been reduced to almost nothing and has all but quit. The p and w band he once helped lead he's now only occasionally playing in on an "as needed" basis. The audio tech is the same way; volunteering on an "as needed" basis simply because he will not put up with this WL's tremendous ego and "my way or the highway" mentality.

It's really unbelievable what is going on here; the church is suffering. That is why I quit. I simply was not going to put up with egotism or arrogance. It seems others are feeling the same way. To be perfectly honest, if I must deal with someone's large ego or unfounded arrogance I'd rather not play at all.

The entire scenario is a sad one. What once was a vibrant, tight, highly skilled band composed of members who never showed any ego or arrogance at all is now nothing. Gone is the energy, creativity, improvisation, fantastic arrangements, and team spirit.

What has happened here makes me not want to play in another praise and worship band again. Why should I? If all I receive for my hard and dedication is frustration. What exactly are they teaching kids in seminary nowadays? How to be egotistical, arrogant jerks?

 

[Bass4Jesus]

No no no. Don't quit on P&W. That's precisely what Satan's after. I have witnessed first hand Satan entering WLs and making them say and do incredibly stupid, destructive things. Satan could even be using the punk as a vehicle to discourage players in the area and get them to give up serving and instead go back to playing the clubs. This happened to a drummer and a guitar player I used to work with in the same band from time to time. They were both A-listers talent-wise. Both were an absolute joy to play with. One became a DJ; the other I lost track of but last I heard he was sticking to the blues/SRV genre. In each case it was, "That's all. I'm done with this." What a waste. Two huge Kingdom losses, all because of one self-righteous know-it-all bozo and because no one above him ever had the stones to jerk the slack out of his chain. Or was even paying enough attention to know it was needed.

There are no perfect bands or musicians or singers or WLs. They're people like the rest of us. Keep your distance and you'll stop caring (and I mean that in a positive sense). Step One to working in any band: Don't get close. Keep things businesslike. Distance equates to sanity, clear/unemotional thinking, and the ability to stay or move on based on criteria other than hurt feelings or resentment or offense or whatever.

From my quotes archive... they may or may not be accurately attributed:

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. (Sir Winston Churchill.)

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. (Thomas A. Edison.)

This thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. (Mary Pickford.)

You always pass failure on the way to success. (Mickey Rooney.)

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes but don't quit. (Sorry, no source for this one.)

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. (Alexander Graham Bell.)

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. (Henry Ford.)

Bumps in the road are not brick walls. (Me.)

And finally, the most tightly-packed wisdom re. being in a band I've ever heard: "A band without drama is like a unicorn with wings blowing rainbows out its butt." (Dirtdog at Talkbass.)

Best of luck, bud. Hang in there.

 

[Michael Owen Bowling]

Wow - a lot of what I'm reading here sounds like the how the world handles things, not how the body of Christ should. Patience, an attitude of service, humbleness and probably a good dose of discipleship are in order between the older stuck in their ways musicians and the younger know it all kid worship leaders. We should remember that the worship team does not exist so that we get to play on it.