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Leadership Lessons From Amy Grant

April 2, 2007
Posted by Pastor Tim Smith

I recently attended a conference called Re:Create  at the national capitol of Christian culture, Nashville, Tennessee.  It was a small gathering of “worship & arts” pastors of primarily large churches.  The first night began with a dinner sponsored by a large, CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) record label.  We ate dinner while the label put on a showcase of their latest and greatest “worship” artists.  It was kind like a worship music VH1 Storytellers where each guy told the story of their song and then played it (solo acoustic style of course).  This went on for almost 2 hours. 

As my ADD began to kick in full force I began to feel like the poor kid with the chunky taped together glasses who always gets picked last for the basketball team because he runs the wrong way whenever he gets the ball.  I felt like the only one who just didn’t get it.  As a good Baptist kid, it felt like the first time I went to a Lutheran church; everyone knew the music and when to stand and say, “and also with you,” except me.

But then, out nowhere, my evening was redeemed by a most unlikely savior.  When the modern worship songfest finally concluded the emcee got up and introduced a very special guest:  Amy Grant.  I was shocked to see her as there were less than a hundred of us and, even after her “fall from grace” at her divorce and re-marriage, she is still a very popular singer/songwriter.  She was backed by some top session players from the Nashville scene and they sounded great.  However, more than the music, it was what she had to say and how she carried herself that was most interesting to me.

After she played a couple of songs she exhorted the group not to be discouraged if we do not always see people physically respond in worship.  She said, “you have no idea where your people are coming from.  The girl you see standing still in the front row may have just crawled out of bed with her boyfriend.  Just being there is her act of worship.  Some of your people may be just thinking, “I hope they can’t smell the pot on my coat.’  Lord knows I’ve been there.”

Later on she played a song she had been working on with her band where she put almost all of Ephesians 6 to music.  She said that it was great to see up and coming songwriters creating new music for the church, “all those songs are fine and good but scripture is where the real power is.  There is no substitute for putting scripture to music.”  At this point in her life she said that scripture is pretty much the only thing she cares about and the most exciting thing to her are her efforts to memorize large sections of the bible.

Now I know what you are thinking.  These are not exactly thoughts that are going to change the world.  I am not suggesting that Amy sGrant should write the next great book on how to lead worship that is so Spirit filled that we roll on the ground barking like Scooby Doo while our fillings turn to gold.  What was so refreshing about her was that she was so authentic and real.  It was realness in a Johnny Cash, King Solomon ala Ecclesiasties kind of way.  In effect she said, “Look, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and messed up a lot of things and, when it’s all done, Jesus is still the only thing real to me and his word is all I can depend on.”  It was refreshing and unexpected that Amy Grant would end up talking more about the importance of scripture than almost any other speaker at the conference.

As I have been thinking about my experiences that week the question that keeps coming up in my mind is, “Why was I so surprised to hear these things from Amy Grant?”

If I am honest I have to admit that I have painted the whole CCM scene with a pretty broad brush.  I used to do the same thing with the “Mega Church” scene but now Mars Hill fits that category and I have a number of friends who have been profoundly helpful in my life and ministry that are involved in large churches.  It’s very stylish in our current day to take shots at all aspects of the Christian establishment and I, as well as many others at Mars Hill, are guilty as any.  In many ways Mars Hill was founded as a church for people who don’t think they like churches.  The good news is that, in response to many of our church experiences, we have built Mars Hill with a very indigenous voice unique to Seattle that has bourn much fruit for the gospel.  The bad news is, at times, this has led to self sufficiency and arrogance that has left us isolated.  My experiences in Nashville helped me to see this root of arrogance in my life as I was able to connect with folks in the more mainstream Christian culture and see their hearts.  Over the course of that week, what began with Amy carried on into many other conversations.  I was able to spend some time with Mac Powell and Mark Lee from Third Day and hear their passion for music (both and in and out of the Church), fine wine and the Atlanta Braves.

Do I still believe there is a lot of cheese in the Christian scene?  Absolutely.  I think much of the scene is an ocean of Velveeta but is that any different than the greater mainstream of pop music?   You always have to wade through the cheese to find remarkable music to connect with.

Am I rushing out to get the latest WOW Worship CD so I can get some real “Christian” music into our catalog in time for Easter?  In a word:  NO!  I still think much of the CCM scene, and particularly the current emphasis on “modern worship”, is little more than the record labels waking up to the fact that they have a captive audience Sunday mornings with little musical and theological discernment.  They are serving up corporate worship “your way, right away” and laughing all the way to bank.

However, in the middle of all the commerce, marketing and culture wars, there are some wonderful worshippers of Jesus trying to sort it out like the rest of us.  It is important to me, as we begin a more public dialog on the greater context of worship through this blog, to emphasize that we do not believe that Mars Hill is the only church that figured this stuff out.  We do not have the corner on truth, mission or contextualization.  We certainly do have the corner on coolness which may, truth be told, be one of the biggest idols for the emerging/missional church movement.

My prayer is that God will make us equal to the task of discerning an appropriate response for our particular people in our particular place and time.  I pray that He will give us the courage to call a spade a spade but also to walk in humility knowing that there is much to learn from those who have gone before us and walk with us.  At the end of the day we are in this to see God get glory above ALL else and to see many people see His glory and worship him as their Lord and Savior.  If this is not our primary motivation, then what in the world are we doing???