Youth ministry leader Chris Durso is honoring the creatives in church that are often forgotten despite all of their contributions to ministry.
In an Instagram post written last week, the youth leader hailing from Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens, N.Y. explained how creatives are often overlooked by the same churches that they help.
“..I’m so grateful for who this group represents. But my heart breaks as I start to think of this demographic that serves week in and week out at their local church and how many of them feel burnt out or unappreciated,” Durso wrote. “This group spends a lot of time at rehearsals, brain storming meetings, production meetings, setting up days or hours before anyone gets to the church or venue, hours after everyone has already left, etc… They sacrifice more than most and are publicly appreciated the least.”
Durso thanked the creatives in the church community and expressed his gratitude. The preacher who created the Misfit NYC youth ministry explained how some of the attitudes that people have toward creatives can lead to them feeling burned out.
“‘Burn Out’ is typically birthed when the vision of why we serve in the first place doesn’t stay on the forefront of our hearts. Often this allows bitterness, resentment and entitlement to set in,” he wrote. “As a result, toxic thoughts and conversations start to happen. They typically sound like: ‘THEY COULDN’T DO THIS WITHOUT ME’, ‘WHEN AM I GOING TO GET PAID (or PAID MORE)’, ‘WHY DIDN’T THE PASTOR THANK ME’ or ‘WHAT THEY THINK IS ‘GOD PRESENCE’ IS ACTUALLY MY ___(Fill in the blank w/ your skill set)__.’”
Durso insisted that people can’t manufacture the presence of God, regardless of how talented they are. He reminded people that they are serving their church in a creative capacity for a reason.
“We don’t serve for ‘OPPORTUNITY,’ ‘RECOGNITION,’ ‘PLATFORM’ or most definitely NOT for a PAYCHECK (it’s not wrong to pay staff at a church but when we make it about the money, that’s a dark place to be). RMBR Jesus paid a price that we couldn’t,” he wrote. “In response to that, we serve with everything we got no matter what it takes! We happily live lives of sacrifice giving God our very best because we don’t deserve what He did for us when He died as us! “THANK YOU’S” are nice, but we don’t do what we do for the “thank you”, we do what we do AS A THANK YOU!”
The preacher ended his lengthy post in prayer.
“Lord, forgive me for making what I do about anything other than honoring you,” he wrote. “Restore to me the Joy of your salvation. Amen.”
(image via screengrab)