If you are a part of a congregation, faith community, or serve or volunteer with a nonprofit, you know that it is important to cultivate volunteers or “lay leaders.” You probably also know that when you are building capacity of these volunteers and leaders there will likely be challenges, growth opportunities and growing pains along the way. Perfection won’t always be possible. Perhaps it shouldn’t even be the goal?

A friend of mine recently asked, “In what ways can leaders creatively resist our cultural need for perfection and performance in worship?” This question struck me. 

There is something to be said about resisting an urge for perfection and performance. The larger world and culture demand perfection and demand performance now. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this. The challenge when it comes to worship though is that it seemingly creates a group of people who are the “performers” rather than an idea that all people are important parts of the worship experience, worshiping together.

From what I have seen, the cultural focus on perfection and performance has taken a serious toll on congregations and faith communities. Fewer people, perhaps, sing in worship because they don’t feel they have a gift to sing and join the song. This creates more passivity in worship, and even a sense of consumerism. “They will sing to me and I will listen,” rather than, “we will sing and praise God together.”