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“I haven’t practiced, so ya’ll pray for me as I sing.” Insert cringe emoji here.
When we are told that Daniel had a “superior spirit,” that idea is what we would describe as a “spirit of excellence.” It wasn’t arrogance that he had. He had a drive to do everything he did to the best of his ability in an excellent, high-quality manner. He wanted to excel in his performance.
As usual, how you define your terms is important. If you think performance means you cannot minister, you are comparing apples and oranges. Performance is how well you do something. Ministry is attempting to encourage others to draw closer to Jesus. These two things are not mutually exclusive.
A true performance by a master is moving on many levels. As master composer Beethoven said, “Music should strike fire from the heart of man and bring tears from the eyes of woman.”
Performance and ministry are not enemies. Anytime you are in front of a group of people, no matter what size, there are elements of performance involved.
The Academy of Arts Ministries is based in Taylors, South Carolina. They are dedicated to ministering through the dramatic arts. You will not find a more technically excellent group of performers anywhere in Christian or secular circles. They most recently were asked to present one of their dramas at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.
What makes them great? Is it their technique in staging and acting? That’s part of it. It is also that they use the platform of performance to minister. Their ministry would not be as effective without their attention to what we call the “performance” aspects of what they do. They do not minister despite performing. They have more effective ministry because of the quality of their performance.They minister through the performance.
Why is that a bad thing? And yet so many people say they don’t want to be a performer but just minister.
A person who hates the discipline that a good performance requires will often cloak their laziness in spirituality by saying, “I don’t perform: I minister.” Don’t be this way. Let’s be willing to work hard at becoming excellent at whatever it is God has given us to do!
When we set up a tension between performance and ministry, we rob ourselves of excellence that would give us a better avenue of ministry. It shouldn’t be this way.
Legendary martial arts master Bruce Lee had the opinion that one learns technique in order to forget it. He didn’t mean forget in the sense of losing it, but instead making it such a natural part of you that you don’t have to think about it. It just flows naturally.
Performance is the platform from which ministry can occur. Make your platform as excellent as you can.
I learned how to breathe properly so that it became second nature to me and I don’t have to focus on it. I can focus on the message instead. Learning good performance helps me minister. They are not enemies. They are friends if we let them be.
Photo by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/photo/businessman-man-person-arrow-6620420/