Sunday, January 29, 2012

Jason Chollar and Cedarhome’s worship band lead the congregation in singing with the following songs:

• Shout it out (G)
• Furious (C)
• Lord, reign in me (C)
• Wonderful Maker (G)
• O come let us adore Him (G)

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/. All the chordcharts are available at www.cedarhome.org/chordcharts.  Help us support the artist by buying the original tracks on iTunes!  Thanks!

Wednesday, January 18 2012

JAM and Worship Practice are canceled today due to snow.  Stay safe and warm!

Sunday, January 8th

Pastor Mitch brings us a message called “Riding out the Storm” from Mark 6:45-62.

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2012/010812message.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/

Sunday, January 1st 2012

Cedarhome starts the year off right with looking at a whole bunch of verses and reasons for “Trusting God for What’s Ahead”.   Listen as Pastor Mitch brings it!

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2012/010112message.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/

Jason Chollar and the band take us through a few songs full of rich meaning, prayers of love and praise to our wonderful Savior.  Listen and sing along!

1. Yes to You (D) by Jason Chollar
2. Your voice (Awesome God) by Vicky Beeching (G)
3. How he loves (C) by John Mark McMillan
4. Jesus loves me (C)

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2012/010112music.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/.All the chordcharts are available at www.cedarhome.org/chordcharts.  Help us support the artist by buying the original tracks on iTunes!  Thanks!

I hope you all had a great Christmas. Thanks to all of you who worked so hard to make Christmas services happen.

I have decided it would be good for all of us to take a break for a week, so no JAM, Dinner or Worship Practice tomorrow, Wednesday Dec 28th 2011.

Also, remember that we have just 1 service on Sunday, so you get to sleep in for an hour! If you are requested to come, just come on down at 8:30 for soundcheck and final run through. It will be cool to have everyone mixing from both services!

May God’s blessings be upon you!

Thanks,

Jason Chollar
Cedarhome Baptist Church

If you are having trouble being creative, try challenging yourself with some limitations.  Write a song with only 4 notes.  Or do an arrangement with just violin and cajon.  Often we think that creativity is spurred on by having all the possibilities at our disposal, but science has shown the opposite to be true.

Read this fascinating article:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/need-to-create-get-a-constraint/

How does this apply in church?  Write an amazing song that is actually singable by the congregation!  Work within your budget!  Write your own songs instead of learning others.  Make your own charts instead of buying them.  Make your own artwork from inexpensive supplies.  Challenge yourself! Who knows what you may come up with!

Are you fighting the room you are worshipping in?  I think of the room I am in as one of the instruments.

You can see a great TED talk about how architecture effects music:

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_byrne_how_architecture_helped_music_evolve.html

I have a friend who says they removed some panels which really helped the congregation hear themselves sing … and it’s made a big difference.   I know the room we used to meet in was better for congregation because they could hear themselves.  Many rooms are very difficult to do loud rock music in, … drums are loud in and of themselves … especially if you want the congregation to be able to hear themselves.

We are currently meeting in a temporary space that will eventually become the lobby … so there’s only so much we can do now… At first I was worried about it being too reverberant, too live … but now I see that I wish it was MORE live.  I’m trying to brainstorm to see if there’s anything inexpensive that I can do about it… and even more importantly, what I can do once we build out the new room.  I am thinking of possibly a clamshell front wall that reflects the sound of the congregation singing back at them. …. It’ll be a multipurpose room that will function as a basketball court too.  Can that work?

What do you say?  What spaces have you been in that were ideal for congregational singing with a modern rock band?  How did they achieve that?

Give me some feedback with some pictures!

Here’s a picture of our current sanctuary…

We were lead by the worship team in the

There’s no One like our God (G) Vicky Beeching
Furious (A) Jeremy Riddle
You Love Me (C) Cedarhome Worship Team
Jesus Loves Me (C) Kids Song

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2011/110611Music.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/.All the chordcharts are available at www.cedarhome.org/chordcharts.  Help us support the artist by clicking on their names and buying the original tracks on iTunes!  Thanks!

I believe we need to make a LOUD noise in church.  Instead of the typical complaint that music is “too loud” at church, I think sometimes we need some people to stand up and complain that it should be LOUDER!

What makes me say that?

The Bible tells me so!

Psalm  98:4 (KJV) “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.”

or how about

Psalm 33:3 (ESV) “Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.”

Feel free to check out those versions in your own favorite translation… it might say “shout” instead of “loud” but shouting kind of implies loudness, don’t you think?

Why does God want us to shout?  Shouting indicates passion and conviction!

The other side….the quiet side…

I know some churches are quite comfortable being silent before the Lord, and that is certainly a good thing at the right time.  It is good to have awe and respect and reverence for the Lord at the right times, and I think some churches definitely need to spend some time being quiet more often. There is a time for silence that is purposeful.  If you are uncomfortable being quiet before the Lord, it may well be that you are trying to avoid hearing his still small voice.

Back to the Loud side….

However, if the only expression of worship that you are comfortable with is being still, … you and your congregation may well be missing out on some of the blessings that come from being fully, passionately obedient to the scriptures.

Here’s another one, just in case you think I’m exaggerating:

Psalm 47:1 (NIV1984) “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.”

Can we be too extreme?  Can we be fake?

Yes, certainly.  We don’t want to damage people’s hearing.  Most of our churches are FAR from that.  And external expression can be a lie.  It doesn’t necessarily give an accurate representation of what is going on internally.  However, if you say you are passionate about Jesus and your external worship never reflects that … is it really true?  God wants us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.  Get your emotions involved.  Get your body involved.  Sing it like you mean it!  Use your mind and the very depths of your soul too.  I believe you will be rewarded!

So, now that I have talked to all of us as leaders and congregation, let me speak for a moment to my musicians and sound engineers:

On a music theory note, one of the main questions we ask when examining music is:  How Loud? (When? What? How Loud?)

Band and singers: How are you flowing with the dynamics of the music on Sunday morning?  Are you really conscious of them?  They can be a huge tool in helping to express emotion musically.  Please pay attention!  A great thing to do is to take a chord or a short progression and practice moving the dynamics up and down, following the leader.

Sound techs:  Don’t over-compress!

Part of the typical makeup of a sound engineer is that he/she wants to control.   You certainly want to avoid feedback. You also definitely want to make sure the words don’t get lost and people can’t understand what is being said.  And no one likes to hear complaints about how everything is “too loud”.  However, if you take away all dynamics in a song, you very well might be counteracting the exact effect that the leader and the band is purposefully trying to have.  The whole start of this article I am writing came from this CNET piece about how a lot of modern music is being ruined by over compression:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20128489-47/is-music-too-loud/?tag=cnetRiver

Sound engineers and musicians, please check it out and then let me know what you think.

Here are more great articles on “How loud is too loud” in church:

http://www.experiencingworship.com/articles/sound/2001-9-How-Loud-is.html

http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/sometimes_its_hard_to_be_quiet/

http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/safety_first_how_loud_is_too_loud/

Question for everyone: tell me about times when the music was too loud or too soft or too flat.  What is it like it your (our) church?  How can we find a better balance?

Feedback please!

Last week I had a chance to do a teaching session at Adelphia School of the Bible, ConvergNW‘s brand new one year bible certificate program at Lake Retreat in Ravensdale WA.  21 College students in the class and the questions burning on my mind were these: Why do we worship? What is worship? What does the Bible have to say about worship?

Here are my notes!

Theology of Worship and Music

What is Worship Theology?

-Theology [Theos        Logos]

“God”  “Word/Teaching”

-Worship  [Wor          Ship]

“Worth”   “Scribe”

narrow and broad definition: use words, music, art AND life (both/and, not either/or)

Worship is the natural response to God revealing himself to us.

Worship Service (who are we serving and worshipping?)

Why do we worship God?

Because his fragile ego needs it?  Because his pride needs it?  Because He needs it? NO!

1. God is Most worthy, more worthy than anything else, it is RIGHT to praise him
2. Communication is a natural, essential part of loving relationship
3. Worship is natural response (think every contact with Angels, God, …) to coming into contact with God
4. We are forgetful.  We need worship to help us remember, to remind us of who God is
5. Evangelism (great commission: tell others about God)
6. Infinite (Can constantly explore who God is: mountain illustration)
7. Worship Changes us (moses, disciples, …)
8. Battle: Spiritual Warfare (Jehoshaphat)
9. We are made in the image of God: Creative (Gen 1)
10. He tells us to! (throughout the Psalms, Eph, Col, …)

We use music to help us worship God by: 

1.Remembering God
2.Expressing emotions
3.Celebrating who he is
4.With all our Hearts, Soul, Mind, Strength together in unity!

 Key Worship Words in the Bible

Hebrew: Shachah (Shaw-kaw)    : to bow down

Greek: -Proskuneo: to kneel, bown, to kiss the royal hand

-Latreuo/Latreia : to serve God

Key Scriptures on Worship:

-Gen 1:1 (creation)

-Gen 3:8 (walk in the garden)

-Deut 5 (10 commandments: have no other gods, no idols, …: worship only God)

-Deut 6:4-6 (Shema – Great commandment: Love)
+ Matt 22, Mark 12, Luke 10:26 …

-Ex 15 (first song: Moses)

- 1 Samuel 16:7 (God looks at the heart)

-II Sam 6 (bringing ark to temple, Uzzah’s death, Michal’s scorn)

-1 Kings 8:10 (Glory of God comes like a cloud at temple dedication)

-2 Chronicles 20 (Jehoshophat sends singers in front of the army)

-Psalm 33:3 (play skillfully!)

-Psalm 69:30-32 (God loves praise more than sacrifices)

-Psalm 150 (let everything that has breath praise the Lord)

-Matthew 18:20 (where 2 or more are gathered…)

-John 4:23-24 (worship in spirit and truth)

-Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16 (psalms, hymns, spiritual songs)

-Hebrews 10:25 (do not give up meeting together …)

-Revelation 4, 5, 7, 19, 20 (worship of creation, creatures, saints, angels, …)

-Rev 21:3-4 (God will dwell with his people, wipe every tear from their eye)

-Rev 22:8-9  (don’t worship angels)

Greatest commandment:

Love God with all that you are  (+ neighbor as yourself)

-Heart

-Soul

-Mind

-Strength

It’s about loving relationships with communication at it’s core:

-Listen (nature, bible, heart to heart, wisdom of elders, …)

-Speak: worship

Director of Crossway International, Dean Chollar, gave the message today on adversity and the passion and plan of Crossway.

102311Message.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/

Jason and the worship team lead us in these songs.

Come, Now is the Time to Worship (D) Brain Doerksen
Strenght and Honor (G) Jason Chollar
Counting on God (B) Jared Anderson
Stand in Awe (G) Jeremy Riddle
He is Lord (D) Johnson, Cloninger, and Fettke

102311Music.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/.All the chordcharts are available at www.cedarhome.org/chordcharts.  Help us support the artist by clicking on their names and buying the original tracks on iTunes!  Thanks!

Cedarhome worship team leads us in the following songs:
Strength and Honor (A) Jason Chollar
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (A)
Mighty To Save (A) Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan
How Great Thou Art (G) Carl Boberg

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2011/100911music.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/.All the chordcharts are available at www.cedarhome.org/chordcharts.  Help us support the artist by clicking on their names and buying the original tracks on iTunes!  Thanks!

This weekend at the Men’s Advance at Lake Retreat we had a great speaker, Dr. Greg Bourgond from Heart of a warrior ministries and He recommended that we focus on the scriptures and greet one another with “Strength and Honor” and that He signs his emails that way “In His Strength, To His Honor” and even has some swords that were presented to him with those saying engraved on them.  So Tory and I decided to write a song, and took some verses directly from Exodus 15 as the verse … so here we go!  It sounds kind of 90s Maranatha Promise Keepers, which is what was going through my mind.  Enjoy!

Strength and Honor

Strength and Honor
In His strength, to His Honor
We will live
We choose to live

The LORD is my strength and my song
He has become my salvation
This is my God and I will praise Him

He is my father’s God
And I will exalt Him
The LORD is a warrior
Jehovah is His name

Words & Music by Jason Chollar and Tory Early (cc) 2011
Verse from Exodus 15

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/songs/strengthandhonor.mp3

For the first time today I found the very best new tool for training your band and for most churches, it’s quite affordable.  How affordable?  How about $20 for the program at less than $10 per song!  I’ve used some of the competition in the past and this one blows them all away.  It was designed primarily for churches that don’t have a full band every week, but it is one of the best training tools I have seen.  What am I talking about?

http://www.worshipbackingband.com/

So why do I say it’s one of the best tools for training worship bands?  You can SOLO each of the instruments!  How often have you struggled to figure out exactly what instrument was playing what, how many guitars are going, etc… well, these are top notch recordings and you can solo each instrument.  You can have all the instruments play except yours, or just in one ear so you can hear how your playing stacks up against the original.

They even have tutorial videos for some of the instruments on some songs where you can watch the player walk you through how to play the song.

It’s really, really, cool and I am planning on using it at worship practice for my team this week!

More later!

-jason

Come On (B) Rend Collective Experiment 

Glorious (A) Paul Baloche/John Mark Mcmillan

Adoration (A) Brenton Brown 

We Fall Down (E) Chris Tomlin

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2011/100211Music.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/.All the chordcharts are available at www.cedarhome.org/chordcharts.  Help us support the artist by clicking on their names and buying the original tracks on iTunes!  Thanks!

Our Church Chairman, pastor Dan Olsen continues his series, “A Retrospective in John” with the message, “The Samaritan Women.”

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2011/100211Message.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/

Cedarhome worship team leads us in the following songs:

Crown Him With Many Crowns (C-D) Matthew Bridges
Counting On God (B) Jared Anderson
Blessed Be Your Name (B) Matt Redman
Almighty King (G) Jason Chollar

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2011/092511music.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/.All the chordcharts are available at www.cedarhome.org/chordcharts.  Help us support the artist by clicking on their names and buying the original tracks on iTunes!  Thanks!

For your enjoyment … Select quotes from ….

God’s Answer to Young People’s Problems – A Handbook of Christian Conduct!

by William W. Orr.  (c) ?

Music and “Swing” …

Swing and its older brother, jazz, is a strange new madness in music. Born in the corruption of evil minds, this foul plague has literally swept the world.  The air today is filled with it as radios blare it forth, juke boxes grind it out and dance bands sell it.  Swing is difficult to describe for sometimes it is subtiilly, sensuously sweet, and other times blatant with harsh discord.  But always there is present that underlying beat of lawlessness and unrestraint.  Absent is the nobility and inspiration of true music.  Certainly, this is not God’s music. Shun it.

No one will deny that swing moves in bad company.  Its bosom companions are a well know infamous trio, the dance, the movies and liquor.  Its effect seems to be to promote a frenzy of emotional excitement which with some becomes a delirium.  The jitterbug demonstrations connected with it amount to barbaric shamelessness and the contortions vile and suggestive. Swing is nothing less than a satanic seduction of music for sinful purposes. Those who love their Lord Jesus should have absolutely no part in it.

….

Shall I dance?

Yes, I know quite well that dancing is universally popular and overwhelmingly approved, and that many church people dance.  I know that dances are widely promoted by many character-building organizations and even by some churches.  I am aware that in educational and Christian circles hardly a voice is being raised against it.  But I’m dead in earnest as I tell you the dance is the Devil’s territory and way out of bounds for real lovers of Christ.

There isn’t a shadow of doubt that the root of the dance’s attraction is sex, and its intention to arouse and stimulate passion.  Take away the opportunities for improper physical proximity and you’d kill the dance in a week.  Who would want to dance if girls danced only with girls and boys with boys?  That shows what the dance is built upon.  To the one whose body is the temple of the Holy Spirit of God there need be no other argument.

The companions of the dance are a sorry lot when dragged out into the open.  Usually there is drinking nearby, and smoking and profanity.  The lights are always turned low as if to hide what goes on there. The music strange, jungle music, with the tempo calculated to make the dancer throw off restraint and indulge to the full.  The whole thing reeks of sensuality and lust. Tell me, ought born again Christians to be there?

I know that the dance is almost irresistibly attractive to some young people.  They dearly love to dance.  But please, for Christ’s sake as well as your own, examine carefully the facts of the case.  The dance destroys modesty, promotes impure thinking, soils lives and in many cases causes immorality of the worst sort. The dance crowd is the Devil’s crowd and the worst of bad company for the children of God.

There are those who maintain their ability to dance and remain pure in thought.  Well, if you can … you will certainly be the exception.  What about your companion… is she or he pure minded too?  It’s a real problem.

….

Clothes, Make-up, etc…

One of the most revolting sights of today is the shameless display of the male torso at our bathing beaches. Most observers will instantly and gladly agree that, so far as beauty is concerned, the expanse of hairy chest and protruding abdomen should be fully and forever covered….

One of the mysteries of the modern world is why girls who so earnestly strive after beauty will dress up like a circus and paint up like and Indian on the war path….

When make-up is to be used, the secret is to use it so sparingly and skillfully that no one will be aware of its presence…  Finger nails, too, should be well groomed and neatly polished, but never with screaming colors.

….

Cedarhome worship team leads us in the following songs:

Soon and Very Soon (G) Andrae Crouch
Gods Not Dead (A) Jason Chollar
Glorious (C) Paul Baloche
Stand In Awe (G) Jeremy Riddle

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2011/091111music.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/.All the chordcharts are available at www.cedarhome.org/chordcharts.  Help us support the artist by clicking on their names and buying the original tracks on iTunes!  Thanks!

Last tuesday we all got together and wrote a new song which we sang this past Sunday!

You can hear it at the page now dedicated to it:

http://cedarhome.org/get-involved/worship/cedarhome-original-songs/you-love-me/

Cedarhome worship team leads us in the following songs:
Forever (A) Chris Tomlin
Pouring It Out (G) Jonathan Lee
You Love Me (D) Cedarhome worship team
Yes To You (D) Jason Chollar

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2011/090411music.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/.All the chordcharts are available at www.cedarhome.org/chordcharts.  Help us support the artist by clicking on their names and buying the original tracks on iTunes!  Thanks!

Cedarhome worship team leads us in the following songs

My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less (D) Edward Mote
You Shine (E) Brian Doerksen
You Are In Control (E) Scott Underwood
You Won’t Relent (C#m) Misty Edwards

http://cedarhome.org/mp3/2011/082811music.mp3

You can right click the links and choose “save (link/target) as …” to download to your own computer in order to listen to later, to put on your iPod or burn your own CD.  In fact,  you can access our entire library of audio files at www.cedarhome.org/mp3/.All the chordcharts are available at www.cedarhome.org/chordcharts.  Help us support the artist by clicking on their names and buying the original tracks on iTunes!  Thanks!

Why do YOU go to church?

What are you expecting from our worship service and the people here?

When you come on Sunday mornings to our church, what are you expecting?  Local religious themed entertainment? Sing some songs, hopefully in your favorite style.  Listen to some advertisements, … oops I mean announcements.  Throw a few bucks in the plate.  Listen to a lecture that is hopefully not too boring.  Make some light chit chat and then go home and do it again next week.  Is that all?

Or… are you expecting a Life Transforming Encounter with the Living God, with unique opportunities to grow in relationships with other God lovers and show your love for him and others?

What is God expecting?  What is God hoping to see?  We see the answers all through the scriptures including the following …

John 4:30 “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.”

Matt 22:37-38 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Matthew 28:19-20 Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

How are we doing with that as a church?  How are you doing as a follower?

If you are not coming to church expecting to meet with God and be changed, we are not doing our job and you aren’t a part of what God wants for you.  If you are not coming to church hoping to be able to deepen not just your relationship with Him, but with a whole community of other believers, you are missing out.  If you aren’t expecting for God to give you the high honor of serving His Kingdom, impacting a world desperately in need of His love, then you have come to the wrong place.

We all need fellow disciples to share the journey with.  We all need to be discipled by someone, someone to look up to and learn from, submit to and be accountable to.  We should all be inviting someone younger in the faith to follow us and be our disciples.  Otherwise, we are lacking the community and growth opportunities God wants us to have and are not fulfilling the calling and commission we have been given.

Let’s explore these general questions with some more detailed ones so you can see if you are growing up or not.

Are you encountering the Living God?  Are you being transformed?

1. Are you exhibiting more and more the fruit of the Spirit, the character of Jesus and his followers: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control?
2. Are you thinking more and more like Jesus?  Do you know more about God now than a year ago?  Do you understand more about who He made you to be and what your role is than before?  Are you loving him with all of your mind?
3. Are you more emotionally engaged with God than before?  Has He captured your passion and affections so you care more and more about Him and His will and opinion than anyone else’s?  Is it easier for you to weep with the weeping and rejoice with those who are rejoicing?  Are your attitudes changing?  Are you experiencing increased freedom and healing from wounds and bonds of your past? Are you loving God with all of your heart?
4. Is your behavior changing?  Are you more engaged in serving him and others than before?  Are you praying more? Are you more physically engaged than before in worship?  Singing louder and more passionately, raising your hands, clapping, kneeling, showing reverence, …  Are you loving God with all of your strength?

Are you more and more a part of His family?  

Here are some questions to help you find out:  List NAMES of REAL PEOPLE for yourself!

1. Who is discipling you?  Who do you look up to and are you submitting to and allowing to  speak truth and encouragement into your life?  Do you have some spiritual parents?
2. Who are your fellow disciples?  People you are sharing the journey with?  Who are your closest spiritual brothers and sisters?
3. Who are you discipling? Who are your spiritual children?
4. Are you ASKING God to help you find these kinds of relationships and help you to grow in them?

Are you serving?  

Is God using you to impact the world and bring His Kingdom to earth?

1. Do you care about others? Are you praying for them?
2. Do you have more of a heart for the poor and hurting than before?
3. When is the last time you invited someone to church?
4. Are you looking for opportunities to share Jesus with people you come into contact with?
5. Are you giving $ to God’s work?
6. Do you know what God has gifted you to do?
7. Are you spending your time and energy and talents to serve the church and reach the lost and hurting?  How?

Tongue-tied Worship Leaders

If there were two words I could delete from today’s worship leader vocabulary it would be “just” and “continue”.

Have you noticed there seems to be a growing trend of worship leaders who are quite gifted musically yet lack the ability to communicate any coherent thoughts through speech?  This has been a gradual shift from a few decades ago when the worship leader used to be quite eloquent.  His responsibilities used to comprise selecting hymns, starting off each verse on the right note at the right time (as the accompanying instrument would often slow down and hold the note between verses) and perhaps most importantly, to MC the whole event with verbal segue between songs. (For those too young to remember, just listen to the intro of the DC Talk song “Free at Last” to hear an example.)  In today’s setting, the new stereotype for a worship leader seems to be that of the artistic instrumentalist who is very comfortable on an instrument, decent enough to sing out a chorus with backing vocalists and marginal at public speaking.  Whether or not he/she can say anything intelligent between songs seems to be irrelevant.  Oftentimes when they do try to say something or offer up a prayer, it seems very deer-in-headlightish with lots of verbal pauses, ‘ummm’s, ‘just’s, and ‘continue’s.

(e.g. “Ummm.. let’s just.. um.. let’s just really continue to worship God with this next song”)

Upon discussing this with my wife, she quoted the old adage that it’s better to be thought of as a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.  I agree with her in part, but it saddens me to see that the tub seems to contain neither baby nor bathwater anymore.

Before I go any further, allow me to confess that I have been the incoherent, deer-in-headlight, ‘ummm-ing’ worship leader myself.  A few years ago I recognized it to be an area of weakness and by God’s grace have found helpful ways of improving.  Here are a few lessons that I have gathered along the way:

1. Have something useful to say.
   I believe leading worship is more than just being a musician.  By speaking you not only welcome people, but you show them who you are and that you mean what you sing.  People will have a deeper trust and be able to connect with you, with the team, with the music, and – the ultimate goal – with God.  If you have nothing to say at all, you will remain an unknown to people and it will feel shallow.  Can’t think of anything?  You’re probably not reading enough or having enough stimulating conversations with godly friends.  There’s your problem.  Fix that and you will find yourself having to pick which of several exciting thoughts you really want to share with the church.
2. Limit how often you speak, as well as for how long.
   Everybody’s had to sit through the 5 sermonettes in between songs and then sit through the sermon at some point or another.  Too much of a good thing.  As a rule of thumb, I usually only speak once to welcome people, once to focus their attention on the content of the worship time (at a strategic point in the music), and once as a prayer at the end.  In many churches the welcome and the prayer are handled by other people (elders, pastor, etc).  In those cases, I only speak once for the whole service, so I make sure it counts.
3. Prepare your thoughts in advance.
   Just because some people are good at off-the-cuff improv, doesn’t mean it’s the best way for everyone.  Better to have a prepared thought come across as a bit less than spontaneous than to not even prepare and sound like you have no idea what to say.  With practice delivering prepared ideas, you’ll actually develop the ability to articulate a thought without preparation.  It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but true nonetheless.
4. Practice what you want to say – out loud, preferably in front of someone you trust. 
   You might find that the one cool thought you had isn’t quite as easy to explain as it sounded in your mind.  Or maybe trying to tell that story about what happened to you during the week would end up really making you sound like a motard, or worse yet – offend someone.  (“So the waitress at Hooters turns to me and says..”)
5. In execution, focus on what it is you want to say, not on the fact that EVERYBODY is staring at you.
   They want you to succeed.  If you’re comfortable up there, they can relax too.

(I could tell stories to explain each one of these little lessons.  Some involved me while others are things I have had the misfortune to endure as a pew-warmer.)

Well delivered, thoughtful words, observations and prayers can make a big difference in a worship experience.  It’s a part of the craft that often gets overlooked.  Putting in some effort can yield great results to the budding worship leader.

Now let’s just continue to lead God’s people in worship that is befitting the King of Glory!

Micah

Modern Church Orchestration Evolution and what it means for you: too many vocalists! …

Quick overview:

Why do we even have a band?  Because the scriptures tell us to be creative (made in God’s image Gen 1) and gives us freedom to use every instrument at our disposal for His praise (Psalm 150) and to accompany the people as they sing.

What musical style/language should we use?  Since music is a language and we are someday going to worship God in every language and tongue and therefore musical style, we are free to use any one we want, whichever is most useful, most likely the one that is our own natural tongue (think reasoning for using modern translations in church).  This philosophy of missional outreach is clearly seen in the scriptures.  Every time God interacts with humans, he does so in their own language so they can understand, wanting to be close to them, not expecting them to learn some angelic language to communicate with him.  The incarnation of Jesus as an ordinary Jewish human, speaking the local language and relating his message to fishing with the fisherman, sowing with the farmers, … and his disciples like Paul relating to their philosophers’ teachings, their statues to the unknown God, and 1 Corinthians 9:22b, here’s a little snippet “ I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” That was a huge part of the reformation: translate the truth of scriptures into the local vernacular language and have the services in that same language, not in Latin, which no one spoke anymore outside of church.  Our little church had to make that same decision, to speak Swedish like they had always done, or shift to English as the culture around them shifted that way, in order to stay relevant.  Either we bring the gospel and our services in a way that people can relate to, or we lose our ability to connect people to God and become irrelevant because we are holding onto a language that makes God seem foreign, antiquated, out of touch, cheesy, …  God is the great I am, not the Great I was.  We are free to use any language we want, but we must be thinking about leaving the 99 to go out and rescue the 1 that is lost! Is it hard for church families to change with the times?  Yep.  Is it a necessary sacrifice to make sure that the REAL heritage that we pass on is the GOSPEL and not our little particular language and stylistic preferences?  Yep. Should it be a constant shift and balancing act?  Yep.  At least that is my take.

Historically, changes in orchestration have changed from time to time, which leads to controversy in the church.  Currently we are moving from pop/rock band with vocalist ensemble of 4-8 to just lead vocal with maybe 1 or 2 backup singers at times.  This shift is causing lots of relational stress in many churches at the moment and needs to be understood in a broader historical and philosophical context to minimize the inevitable conflict that all transitions cause. Think of it similar to moving from KJV to more modern translations, or churches moving from Bus ministry picking up kids, to more modern children’s ministry, or from large pageant style theatrical christmas dinner productions to feeding the homeless dinner instead or some other ministry.  There are always those clinging on to former ways of doing ministry and have a hard time with job retraining as the market shifts.

Old Testament worship

Worship with instruments in the Bible starts off in Genesis 4 with Jubal who “the first of all who play the harp and flute.”  Moses mentions tamborines and dancing in Exodus as they celebrate the victory at the Red Sea.  Then in the days of David and Solomon at the height of temple worship, they had choirs, ram horn (shofar) blowers, cymbal bangers, tamborines and various other percussionists and some stringed instruments (fore-runners to guitars like the lyre, ….) at the temple for celebrations of worship.  It was probably very loud, and quite dissonant to our ears. And when people complain about the loud drums, besides the Psalm 150:5 “Praise him with the loud/clashing cymbals” you can check out 1 Chronicles 15 and 16 and notice that King David put Asaph in charge of the worship music and his instrument was… the cymbals?  Why? Pragmatic of course: the cymbals are louder and more rhythmic of all the instruments, so it is the most logical for helping to keep the band in time!  This orchestration lasted for many years, depending on the state of the temple.  See Nehemiah 12 for a description and remember every time you read “trumpet” that you are talking about a shofar, not a modern finely tuned diatonic instrument.  Psalm 150 makes it clear that we are free to use all the instruments we can find to worship God with.

New Testament Worship

I am honestly not that familiar with the instrumentation accompanying typical synagogue singing, but once the temple was destroyed and the church went underground, there was obviously not a whole lot of instrumentation and people met in secret, in their houses and catacombs and such.

Singing in Cathedrals

Once the church came back into public acceptability and people started building these massive buildings to honor God with, pointing to his majesty and his divine nature with their most modern architecture, using the top technology of the day, singing by large groups of monks and nons was the order of the day.  In order to really bring this to unity and highest beauty, the musical notation staff that we all know today started being developed while they had this new fancy singing style that we name after the pope of the day: Gregorian chant.  It was similar to the way the scriptures and prayers were chanted in the Jewish synagogue, but more modern, eventually allowing for multiple octaves and shock of shocks, harmonies!

Revolution in music: Pipe Organ and Congregational Singing

In the middle ages, pipe organs became more and more common in churches to accompany the choir and fill the room with sound. During the reformation there was a renewed emphasis on congregational singing and the organ helped a lot to allow not just professional clergy to sing, but the congregation to memorize Psalms and scriptures and prayers and really participate more fully in the worship with their own singing.

“The singing of the Genevan psalms was unsuccessful without the organ. Many churches needed the organ to support congre-gational singing so that the people could worship God in spirit and in truth.” (http://www.calvin.edu/meeter/newsletter/news34.htm)

Musically, during the Baroque period we had the culmination of harmonic theory with famous composers like Handel, Pachelbel (canon in D, yes you’ve heard it at a thousand weddings and other things) and probably the most famous of them all: J.S. Bach, of course.  Modern harmony theory still taught in universities today still teaches some of the innovations that Bach developed.

Next Revolution: The Piano(forte)  (Italian for Soft-Loud)

Not just a revolution in church music, but secular music too, the ability to change the dynamics from soft to loud and back so quickly the way a piano uniquely can, led to a lot of the innovations of classical and romantic periods.  Pianos were expensive still compared to organs in smaller churches for a long time, so again in most churches around the world, choir and organ were the mainstays in almost every church until they could afford a piano.  It was the same at our little church in Stanwood, WA.

The Next Revolution (in Secular Music Only)

Big Band Jazz Dance music in the 1920s was not compatible with the church ideals of the day.  Dancing was not allowed and sadly seen as only capable of being used as sexual mating rituals, but that’s for a whole different post.  What’s of note here is that a whole generation of musicians and style of music was not allowed in churches.  Take a look at your hymnal and look for popular songs from the 1920s and beyond.  You probably won’t find many songs.  Look for yourself.  Most of the songs in american hymnals are from the great revivals (+-1750 to +-1850 have the most well known hymns, I’ve graphed it in our own hymnal, but check yours out and you’ll see)

From Big Band to Rock ‘n Roll

Again, not in the church, but with the invention of the microphone (whole ‘nother post again) if you can fill a stadium or burn a record with a full sound with your 5 piece rock band: drums, keys(organ/piano), bass, guitar, voice … instead of a whole orchestra or big band, economically it has become the standard since the late 1950s.  Turn on the radio now and see if you aren’t hearing basically that same orchestration on just about every song: live or programmed drums, live or programmed bass, keys/piano/organ , guitars, voice.  And it is still the same to this day.

The Jesus Freak Revolution = folk praise choruses

In the church, very shortly after the normal hippy revolution a whole generation of believers found Jesus in their search, a revival, and just like every one before it, people started writing new music using the instruments and language that was their mother language.  And so acoustic guitars entered the church with simple camp fire songs like “It only takes a spark” that made their way into churches and even hymnals and eventually simple choruses like Laurie Klein’s “I love you, Lord” from 1978 published by Maranatha music.  Electric guitars in most places were still considered too dangerous and loud and modern, drums too, so bands like Love Song and early pioneer artists like Larry Norman would often be hated by the world for being Christian and hated by many in the church for being too “worldly” and wouldn’t even be allowed to play on a Sunday night in churches.  Over time though, these young hippy believers came into power in the church, and new songs were finally allowed into the official mix.

The Praise Team

If you were brave enough to not just add acoustic guitar, but also drums, and you shrunk the choir down so you could have singers on microphones, …. now you have an interesting ensemble sound that was typical of the new big publishing companies of the era: Maranatha Music (with the southern California Calvary Chapel denomination as place of origin, more at http://maranathamusic.com/about) and Hosanna Integrity label (with Nashville as epicenter) which were both sporting this same basic orchestration:

Rhythm Section: Drums, guitar, bass, piano/keys

Singers: 4-8ish singers kind of like the vocal jazz groups of every high school and college institution, to this day

What is interesting about this hybrid is that you wouldn’t really find it in the secular world.  It was almost an exclusively church “sound” because of the vocal orchestration.  Look in the early 80s to 90s for music  in the secular world that sounds like that and you’ll have a hard time.

Why so many singers?  In moving from a choir there was a desire to keep encouraging people singing all the parts, plus lots of voices up there got lots of people involved, plus the influence from the institutions like I mentioned.

Confusingly, this style was called “contemporary” because it sounded a whole lot more like the style often heard on popular radio stations than the organ music or folk praise that came before, but still … especially the vocals were quite different.

Modern Worship Orchestration and “sound”

If you listen to the most popular “worship artists” of today, you will find that same 5 piece pop rock orchestration noted for the secular music above since the 1950s: drums, bass, piano/keys, guitars, 1 lead vocal plus sometimes 1 or 2 “backup” vocals.

And for the most part that shrinking of the vocals section is often a rub as the shift happens in many churches who used to do “contemporary” for their time but are now moving to the more modern sound with one main vocal lead and then possibly a vocal or 2 at most on some parts of the song.

Too Many Vocalists!

So now we have a bunch of vocalists who have been on the “worship team” for years who aren’t really needed for the backup band and as a matter of fact, make the sound muddier and harder to follow and immediately sound out of sync and foreign to our modern pop rock ears.  Visually too, it has the same muddying effect.  Who am I following?  Who am I supposed to look at?  There are 4 (or worse yet) 8 of them up there!  If we are going to reach the people around us, do we want to speak in a funny accent on purpose, just because it’s the way we’ve always done it?  I don’t think so.  If so, let’s use King James too and forget about these modern translations.

The American Educational Institution effect

The American Idol effect, The High School Musical/Glee effect

Now add all the current talent shows with everyone itching to sing … and add the pop icons of “High School Musical” and “Glee” which again are somewhat reinforcing those same stereotypes, but in actuality with use of autotune it’s not the same and even then, listen to the actual track and the majority of what you are hearing is 1, count it 1 lead vocal for the majority of most songs, …. and suddenly you have even more singers that are vying for the very limited spots.

The Result

The end result is the same in so many congregations that I know: you have ten times the number of vocalist volunteers than you need and have to figure out how to gently help them see the value as singing as part of the congregational choir.

A Note to Pastors: What does this mean for you?

You need to understand at least a little of this music history, make an informed decision of the orchestration you want at your church in close cooperation with your worship leader and be prepared to back him up when he has to explain to disappointed vocal volunteer after volunteer that the best place for them to serve is as part of the congregation singing along, not on the platform.

A Note to Vocalists: What does this mean for you?

God wants us all to worship!  That is the most important thing.  God is listening to all of us, not just those on the platform.  If the church leaders in your church have decided on an orchestration that has less vocalists, it is not a personal attack on you, as much as it might feel that way.  It’s just that times are changing and we want a backup band for the congregation that sounds familiar and helps them to sing along.  Too many vocalists can be confusing.  Most people are going to sign the melody.  Those who can hear the harmony parts can and should be encouraged to sing them if they feel so led!  We aren’t going to pass out sheet music to our congregations with SATB parts written on it.  We don’t need SATB example singers up front to model those parts.  I know this transition is difficult, but try not to take it personally and with humility step down and sing with all your might directly to God who hears your humble prayer and LOVES IT!  Who are you really singing for anyway, men or God?  This is one really clear test to find out.  Please don’t attack your worship leader.  He or she is not trying to hurt you, although we know it hurts to have your skill not be needed up front anymore.  God will give you the strength to lay this down.

Notes to Worship Leaders

Once again, this calls you to be right in the middle of dealing with delicate artists feelings in the middle of controversial transition.  Remember your duties to the flock.  You are not just musicians, but have pastoral duties.  LOVE GODS SHEEP!  Be gentle but firm.  Tell the truth in love.  Don’t lie to make it go down easier – it will come back to bite you and is not honoring to God.  Expect to be crucified and misunderstood.  This is part of the suffering you have been called to for Jesus.  Be compassionate and understand how much this hurts.

Stick close to your church leadership on this issue.  Make sure you are in agreement on the necessary transition and the timing.  Feelings are going to get hurt. Make sure you have a tight back to back bond with your lead pastor and row through these troubled waters together!

Communicate Clearly and consider adding a high bar that will help people to understand what you ARE looking for.  I know some worship teams that say up front: we do not have pure vocalists. We have instrumentalists that can sing too.  To be on the worship team, you must play an instrument.  We have enough keyboard players, bass players, guitar players, …. to add the necessary extra vocal parts.  Another possible way is to say that your vocalists must be able to harmonize by ear.  That right there will surely cut your volunteer crew in half.

Don’t just say NO: redirect.  If God isn’t calling person X to sing on the platform, what is their role?  Singing with the congregation?  What about the time they would have dedicated to practicing and coming to mid week rehearsal?  What other ministries are begging for helpers?  How can you redirect this energy and willingness to serve into a different area?

In the end, you will still probably have to turn some people down, which you hate to do, but it is part of leadership. Get ‘er done … in the spirit!  Make sure you are all prayed up before any meeting.

I’m sure there are a ton of you out there with stories to share about this, please do!

Also, if there are any disagreements on the philosophy or history parts, I’d love to hear them. When I’ve explained my little historical view I’ve often seen light bulbs go off, but maybe I am missing something …

Any other words of wisdom you who have walked through this can offer?

-jason

One of the main skills that I think we need to continue to work on as a band and one that I think many worship teams struggle with is learning to vamp and improvise and listen.

One of the comments I often get from beginning players and people coming to play with us from other teams is: how many times are we going to do that part?  How many times are we going to repeat the chorus before we go to the bridge? How long is that intro going to be?  Now I am a big fan of practicing and rehearsing doing it different ways and with beginners I am willing to decide ahead of time what I will do so they don’t get lost.  As soon as possible though, I want to train my worship team to follow me as I make decisions ON THE SPOT, IN THE MOMENT.

One of the big strengths of being somewhere LIVE is that it can adapt to what is going on at that moment.

If it’s just about production, then we should just hire the best band possible, play it nice and loud, mixed by the best sound engineer, have the lights programmed, the sermon brought by a very engaging speaker etc….

Why do we even have LIVE, LOCAL services?  Because God might want to say something slightly differently here in Stanwood than in Chicago? Or maybe He wants even to say the same thing, but has to say it in a different way so we will both get it.  No sense in using fishing illustrations with people who know nothing about fishing.  Get the idea?  God might even want to say something a little different from one church in Stanwood than another.  At some level, the Holy Spirit translates to each heart what He wants to say and what each person needs to hear.  But instead of just watching “the God channel” on TV 24-7 (what language, style of music, etc…. would He pick anyway?) … He told us to gather locally as His people and sing His praises! And it shouldn’t be the same every week.  It should be a NEW Song.  Maybe even so new that it was made up right there on the spot.  Just like our prayers.  We should make up new prayers right on the spot and not always pray something that some “professional” has pre written, even if the “pro” wrote it specifically for us.  If we had a relationship with someone but we couldn’t talk to them directly or without an extensive planning process to make sure we communicated properly, think of how limited that relationship would be.

You can plan out your date as carefully as you want, but at some point, you might need to deviate from the plan to deal with unforeseen circumstances …. like what your date wants, or traffic, or …

It’s just the same with music.  We can all learn to sit on the 1 chord (the key of the song, the chord built on the first note of the scale, …) and make it musically interesting, playing different inversions, playing at different dynamic levels, playing notes that fit the scale the song is in, moving back and forth between the various colors of that chord (2s, 4s, 6s, etc.) so it is alive and interesting, with our without an obvious beat (cymbal swells, snare rolls, tom noises, …) …..  (or on a simple pattern 1-4 for example)    INDEFINITELY ….

while someone we all pray, or while some leader talks to the congregation or reads a verse or prays or we wait for the computer to restart so the words are actually on the screen so it’s not so obvious, or whatever…

until it’s time to start, which we could SEE (watch the leader or the drummer or whoever is going to start the song)

or HEAR (drummer counts us in, click track starts, 4 clicks, drum fill, worship leader starts to sing, makes a sign or noise, …)

that it is time to start on continue the song or move to the next one!

Does everyone know what I am talking about here?  This is a very very important tool in the kit of the modern worship team that is often misunderstood and not well practiced or trained.  Cedarhome worship team and worship camp students: get ready!  We are going to be working this skill pretty hard in the future.  We are going to get really good at it so it comes like 2nd nature.

Why?  Because it really helps us as a tool to really take advantage of the LIVE situation that we find ourselves in and it is really honoring to the people when you acknowledge their presence and their input, and also gives obvious space and expectation for God to move and not for us to just plan it all out in our own strength in advance with no input in the moment.

The one danger that I see is that people can become confused and dependent on this wonderful tool.  Just like you don’t need music to worship, you should still in most cases use music to worship with for all sorts of reasons, including, because God tells us to!  In Matt Redman’s church when they stopped doing music for a season, it was because God told them too and because music was becoming an idol.  Eventually though, God gave them permission to do music again.  Same here.  A speaker once said he could tell the Spirit was moving while the band was playing because the fog machine was rolling … and it quit when he walked up, so they must have turned off the Spirit of God now.  (joke joke)  Still, should we not do music well, lights well (which smoke is a part of, but that’s a whole ‘nother post.)  … is this too charismaniac for you?

Any comments?  Cedarhome Team: how well do we do this?  Other church blog readers: how well does your church team vamp?  Can they do it at all?  Are you doing it on purpose?  What are the dangers?  Why do you not do this?  Are you not doing this on purpose?  What is your experience with this?  Has anyone every taught you to do this?  Have you ever practiced it and rehearsed it?  You should try it and let me know how it goes!

Your fellow musical slave of Jesus,

-jason

I just watched a short video clip from Tom Jackson that really got me thinking.  You can read my comments below the article once they are approved:

http://onstagesuccess.com/2011/07/how-about-a-great-rehearsal/comment-page-1/#comment-1554

So… here are my big questions:

1) What does God want from the musical portion of our services?

I would love to hear some of your opinions!  Here are some of my thoughts:

God wants our Love!  He wants us the passionate, honest, sincere, HUMBLE, servants, unafraid, unashamed, God-centered not self centered, … singing from his children!  I could go find verses for all of these, but hopefully many are familiar enough concepts to you to not need them.

It should be submissive to the church leaders.

It should be encouraging to the worship team.

It should primarily be in your most natural mother language (both lyrically and musically) if possible in this diverse world we live in, leaning toward the mother language of those who are the most hurting and newest to the faith, focused on reaching out to those just coming in.

It should be a little diverse so as to recognize that God relates to people of all kinds, from all ages, all walks of life, all cultures, …. every tongue!

It should be accessible to the people there in the room as well.

It should show a heart of reaching out to those who are not yet a part of the service, but whom we would like to include.

It should be creative and fresh and yet accessible and familiar.

It should be repentant. (Psalm 51:17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.)

Musically speaking, how can we accomplish this?  How can we do it better than we do it now?

Very specifically, in our case:

Are we just playing through some popular songs, or are we using music to create an atmosphere that helps people be able to connect with God through some new and some familiar prayers in song form?  Do you see the difference?

On the one hand:

1) God trumps everything.  You can have the least distracting, most inspiring music and not have the blessing of God and it’s pitiful.  You can have the worst music, or no music at all and God can come down and bring his touch to it and it is a GLORIOUS thing!

2) Character and lifestyle are next most important.  If the music isn’t the overflow of what is going on in the rest of your life, it might be disgusting to God.

¹³ And so the Lord says,
“These people say they are mine.
They honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
And their worship of me
is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.^[c]
14 Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites
with amazing wonders.
The wisdom of the wise will pass away,
and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.”

3) Musical skill and preparation do matter though… as long as they are not an idol, and flow out of a lifestyle of love and devotion to God (1 and 2)

So… there are tons of books and blogs about #1 and #2 that are extremely important, but this blog post is more about #3, which although not supreme in importance, is still important …

How can we do a better job of musically engaging the congregation and drawing them in?  How can we be better arrows, pointing people to God?  How can we model all the things we hope they will do in the way we hope they will do them?

What do we want people to do physically?

1) Sing

What is the number one thing we as musicians can do to encourage people to sing?  Sing ourselves!  It doesn’t matter if you are miked or not. If you can learn to sing the words while you are playing your instrument at least most of the time, you should!  Producers, listen up!  Watch and notice if the worship team is singing!  If they are PRAISE THEM, if they aren’t suggest that they start.  Worship team, you have heard me now ask you to sing.  Are you going to do it?  If not, why not?  I know it can be distracting and it’s easier to just focus on playing your instrument.  I know sometimes you just have to concentrate and stop singing.  But there should be LOTS of times when you are sitting back playing a basic groove, power chords, whatever when you can sing.  At LEAST sing then!  Got it? Pretty please?  Do I need to beg?

2) Facial Expressions/Body Language

We want people in the congregation to be thinking about the words they are singing and sing them with passion and sincerity.  If you sing “O happy day” with a bored look on your face, you really aren’t engaging are you?

So… for my worship team, what can you do to help encourage people to do this?  Think about the words of the song and engage physically with your face and your body language too!  If you look bored while playing O Happy Day, you are just as guilty!  If you look like you are concentrating on the music, maybe you should practice some more on your own so you have the music memorized so you don’t stand up there while people are watching you concentrate.  Or else we should move the band to an orchestra pit where people can’t see you. We have you on the platform, so for better or worse, please please engage physically with what is going on.  During times when you aren’t playing especially.  And for many of us, we tend to overplay, so think about some times in the song when you can on purpose not play and instead engage with your body.  Even while you are holding and/or playing your instrument, you can engage your body in such a way that it helps to communicate the emotion and the meaning of the song.  You can physically hold a guitar and play it like you are concentrating, bored …. or you can play it as if you are having the time of your life … You’ve been asked to sing before the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth!  What an honor?  How seriously do you take that?  I don’t care if there are 10 people in the service or 10,000. Are you expressing the truth with all of your heart, soul, mind and STRENGTH, with your whole body to God?  If you are being asked to help the people worship, are you doing everything you can to help them engage?

Let’s move beyond mediocrity to passionate engaging worship as a worship team and see if that doesn’t help us do a better job of LEADING the congregation to follow us and do the same!

Are you with me?

Post or like on facebook or google plus it or something so I know you even read this and care!

Thanks guys!

-jason