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Experience is NOT the Best Teacher – Leadership Lessons for Worship Leaders

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Contrary to popular belief, “Experience is NOT the best teacher.”

This is a lesson I was taught early on in ministry.

Simply going through a difficult challenge doesn’t mean that you learn from it. Doesn’t make you a better leader. Doesn’t prevent you from going through the same difficult experience again.

Like Wile E. Coyote, we’re destined to fall over the cliff again if we haven’t learned from difficult challenges.

No, experience is not the best teacher, but …
Evaluated Experience is.

The principle of evaluated experience reminds us that we must take time to evaluate why this problem occured, what caused it, how could we have acted differently to avoid it, and what can we do going forward to ensure it never happens again.

There are really two ways that we learn any lesson in life.

We either learn through our own successes and failures, or we learn from the successes and failures of others.  I’ve done plenty of both in my more than 10 years of ministry at The Journey.

Both are valuable.  Both help us learn and become better at what we do as worship pastors.  But there is are some important differences between the two…

#1 – Learning on your own costs you time.  When is the last time you had to work through a difficult circumstance alone?  How long did it take to find clarity and make a decision?  If you made a wrong decision, how much time did it take to correct?

Learning from others allows you to internalize any lesson in a fraction of the time because you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  By asking someone else about their experience, you are able to learn from their successes and implement them, and learn from their mistakes and avoid them.

#2 – Learning on your own costs you energy.  It requires a great deal of energy to dig out of a hole, or to even create a system from scratch.  For instance, no one taught me how to create an audition system that would allow our worship team to grow and be healthy so quickly.  It was a long road, and required a great deal of trial and error.

Learning from others allows you to overcome challenges quickly, focusing more energy on your ministry, your family and your life.

#3 – Learning on your own causes you pain.  Not the physical kind, but the kind that goes with having to pay the cost of a hard-life lesson.  Can you recall a time when you just made the wrong call on an important area of your ministry or life? 

Whether it’s a financial mistake, a hiring mistake, a volunteer mistake, or any other major mistake you may make, you can most likely recall the pain of making the wrong decision even to this day.

The greatest insight we can learn in all of this is the simple truth:

It is better to learn from the experience of others, than to learn only from your own!

This has been a guiding principle in my life and ministry.  Always look for ways to learn from others.  Apply what you learn.  And then share with those around you so they can avoid the same traps.

I call this principle “Learn and Return”.  Whatever God gives to me (knowledge, experiences (success and failure), skill, ability, leadership, etc) I want to share that with other worship leaders. I want to help them avoid some of my mistakes and experience some of my successes.

After all — Learning from the success and failures of others is always faster — and usually less painful :-).

That’s exactly why I do what I do here at WorshipLeaderInsights.com.

I don’t have all the answers, but I am a learner and I am a teacher.

I have developed systems (personal growth, worship planning, building teams, leadership, managing time, etc.) that maximize my team, my efficiency and my effectiveness . . . and do the same for many other worship leaders (just ask my coaching alumni).

Whether it’s coaching, resources, emails, free podcasts, free reports . . . I want to always be sharing what I am constantly learning.

So . . . two questions for you . . .

1) Who are you learning from?

2) What are you returning to the kingdom?

Your partner in ministry,

Jason

PS – If you don’t have a mentor in your life that you are learning from, I would be honored to come alongside and coach you.

I want to invite you to join with a group of other top-notch worship leaders for an accelerated course in personal and ministry growth in my new Tele-Coaching Network starting in October.

In the coaching network I will teach you the systems that we have developed here at The Journey Church to help you overcome:

  • The Personal Challenge – How to develop personal leadership growth habits that help you lead at an optimum level
  • The Pastor Challenge – How to give the Lead Pastor exactly what he needs from the Worship Pastor
  • The Planning Challenge – How to plan farther ahead than ever before, and create more impactful services than ever before.
  • The People Challenge – How to maximize the number of people serving on your worship arts team
  • The Provision Challenge – How to make the most of the resources spent on the Sunday service for now and the future
  • The Professionalism Challenge – How to create an atmosphere of excellence for yourself and your volunteers
  • The Production Challenge – How to ensure that every Sunday service is successfully planned for and executed

I will walk alongside of you for a FULL YEAR helping you implement these systems and grow in your leadership. It’s all Step-by-step, and very nuts and bolts.

The Coaching Network is NOT about information . . . it’s about IMPLEMENTATION. We’re on the phone together, and you receive personalized input from me and others on how to create and lead these systems.

There is a monthly investment involved. But it’s less than what you would invest in taking a few key team members with you to a major conference this year.

And here’s the difference…

  • In the Coaching Network you receive a FULL YEAR of hands on ministry training, not 3 days of crash course ideas with no path for implementation
  • In the Coaching Network you receive over $1419 in free ministry and personal growth resources FREE. Try walking out of the resource center at the next big conference with that and see what they say.
  • In the network you receive an mp3 of every session, so even if you miss one, you have all of the content.

You also receive:

  • A proven coaching process that leads to growth and health
  • Unlimited email access to Jason Hatley and the Worship Leader insights (WLI) team
  • A monthly small group environment where everyone is focused on a Kingdom agenda
  • Free attendance at all WLI training events during your network
  • Private “call-in” times with me to have your specific questions answered in more detail.
  • The chance to grow and take your worship ministry to the next level
  • A private weekend meeting in sunny south Florida, exclusively for tele-coaching participants complete with training and a behind the scenes look at a Journey service – a $1500 value!
  • Plus much, much more!

The network begins in October, but if you apply for the network by the Super-Earlybird Deadline of August 15, you will also receive:

  • The Super-Earlybird rate — saving you $600.00 off the total network investment
  • A FREE copy of my SUCCESSFUL WORSHIP LEADER WORKSHOP — a $499.95 value
  • A $100 gift card, my gift to you and your spouse to use as you like, just for applying early
  • An autographed copy of both of my new books, Engage: A Guide to Creating Life-Transforming Worship Services and Revolve: A New Way to See Worship
  • Free Dinner for you and your spouse with me and the WLI team on the night before the 2013 live event in sunny south Florida ($150 Value)

That’s over $1,372.00 in savings and bonuses, just for applying by next Wednesday, August 15.

In these networks which I’ve done for over 6 years now, I’ve seen worship leaders:

  • more than double their worship teams over the course of the network
  • dramatically increase their personal effectiveness,
  • get more done in less time (i.e. go home to spend more time with family and friends)
  • plan their worship services months even a year in advance
  • overcome a major obstacle that was paralyzing them
  • get on the same page with the pastor, plan worship together and get rid of the nagging tension that was under the surface of their working relationship

I can’t promise that all of these things will happen for you – it really depends on you and how seriously you take the network.

But if you are willing to do the work of personal and ministry growth this year, I want you to apply.

But I need you to apply quickly. Learn more and Apply online RIGHT NOW at www.worshipleaderinsights.com/coaching.

Or download the application and either email or fax it back at: https://worshipleaderinsights.com/media/docs/2012-Worship-Pastor-Tele-Coaching-Application.doc

It’s that simple. I hope you will allow me the opportunity to coach you this year!

Jason Hatley
Pastor of Worship Arts
The Journey Church

Founder: WorshipLeaderInsights.com