Thriving as an Artist in the Church: Hope and Help for You and Your Ministry Team (Willow Creek Resources)

By Rory Noland

Book Overview

- Great for individual or group use - Includes provocative discussion questions and practical action steps - Features four-color art plates and literary quotes It's not easy being an Artist in the church. But whatever your passion--music, visual art, drama, dance, writing, technical arts--you can not only survive, but thrive. And the rewards far outweigh the pressures of weekly services, artistic differences, and relational conflicts. After all, where else could you consistently make a contribution of eternal significance, experience deep community with other artists, and grow closer to God as a result? Thriving as an Artist in the Church is a practical guide, full of wisdom and pastoral guidance, that will help you surmount the obstacles and flourish in your ministry. It's packed with examples, discussion questions, personal action steps, and mega-doses of encouragement. Most important, it tackles the real-life issues every artist in the church has to deal with: - Sustaining passion - Developing key relational skills - Dealing with rejection and failure - Cultivating confidence - Resolving artistic differences - And much more Written by an artist for artists, this book will help make your ministry experience sustainable and life-giving so you can fall in love with the church all over again. Rory Noland is director of Heart of the Artist Ministries (www.heartoftheartist.org), an organization dedicated to turning teams of church artists into communities of grace. A composer, songwriter, author, and speaker, Rory is a graduate of the Chicago Musical College at Roosevelt University and served for twenty years as music director at Willow Creek Community Church.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0310257328
• ISBN13: 9780310257325
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up

Customer Reviews

Thriving as an Artis in the Church

Book was is good condition and came promptly.

Do you want more success in your ministry and in your relationships?

If you do, than this book is for your team or your life. This book is GREAT for group study or just for personal reading for personal growth. The chapters included: how to keep your passion alive; five relational skills every artist needs; coping with rejection and failure; working through relational conflict; how to develop a genuine "can-do" attitude; cultivating confidence; dealing with your "stuff"; how to survive as a leader in the church; rising above our artistic differences; how to fall in love with your church...and stay there. Each chapter starts out with a scenario of a real life situation and then uses that example throughout the chapter to help illustrate - very effective and engaging. The scenarios alone have provided hours of disucssion amoung our team members, in an out of class. Do you ever find yourself in a confrontational situation and don't know what to say? Do you ever find yourself the victim of harsh criticsm; hurt and fuming about it for months or years? Do you ever just wish you could quit and go somewhere else where there aren't so many "issues?" Are you tired of listening to someone's constant negative and critical attitude? Are you struggling with feeling like you can never be good enough? Are you deeply hurt because you were turned down, yet again, for the part that you really wanted? This book will identify with you, lift you up and help you develop a plan and strategy on what to say and how to act, and most importantly, guide you to scriptures that will keep you going. Even though this book can be well understood in its own standing, the predecessor of this book, "The Heart of the Artist" might be the best place to start. Generally, it defines and teaches on many of the foundational issues relating to character development that cause a lot of the problems described in this book. If you purchase this book, actually read it :) and apply the scriptures it will lead you to, you will NO DOUBT experience greater success and peace in your ministry and in your life in general.

Great for artistic teams

My artistic team is going through this book right now. It has practical insights, discussion questions and personal action steps. The book has helped my team become more of a team while enriching their Christian journey. We also went through Heart of the Artist by the same author. It is equally good. There is not much out there for Christian Artists that is practical. Thanks Mr Noland.