Consuming Worship - Article Feed

That Look [Articles]

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Jeff Ream

I recently attended a conference for worship pastors. It was an amazing experience and if you haven't ever been to one, you need to go. The worship was incredible. Prominent bands and worship leaders led us in amazing times of worship. The presence of God was so real and so inviting. As I observed worship leaders and their teams during the week I was taken back by the amount of people that had "that look". Have you seen people with "that look"? There is nothing wrong with "that look". There is nothing wrong with having better hair than the average woman or even having a cool earring to sport around. There is nothing bad about chasing "that look". Sure Chris Tomlin and Lincoln Brewster are studs and we all want to look that good leading worship. We wish we were skinny dudes with tight jeans and culturally relevant threads. Come on, be honest with yourself. These guys are cool with a capital "C". They look the part.

Let me ask you something and please don't think that I am coming down on all you cool guys. Who are you? Who are you aspiring to be? Who did God create you to be? Although I am making light of trying to have "that look" and trying to be cool, we do it. I do it. My second year of being a worship pastor someone talked me into getting my ear pierced. I was fortunate enough to make sure that the piercing was in the correct heterosexual ear. I wouldn't want to send the wrong message about that area of my life. Regardless, I started out wanting to be something. That something isn't bad. That something just might not be who God has called me to be.

My point with all this is simple. God has created you in His image and likeness to be you. There was an old children's song that Joni Erickson-Tada used to sing that says "I've got to be me, uniquely me". I have known that God wants me to be something and that He has called me to do something. I believe with all my heart that I am in the middle of God's will for my life. I have stopped trying to be someone else and have begun to focus on what God desires me to be.

While at the National Worship Leader's Conference this year Don Moen made an incredible statement that is burned into my brain. "God does not anoint who you want to be...He anoints who you are." Read that statement again. It was at that very moment that I felt as if God was wrapping His loving arms of affirmation around me. God anoints who you are. Are you leading worship today or this week? He is anointing what you are doing right now for His glory. Your preparation for Sunday is anointed. Your practices are anointed. (Some of you are saying, "'You haven't been to one of my practices lately.") Your interactions with your team are anointed. Right now you are reading my words and this time you are investing in yourself is anointed.

I think a side note is needed here. Never feel guilty for investing in yourself! You need to recharge. You need to do everything you can to be your very best for what God has called you to do.

I am sure that there are some of you that do not think the things you are doing preparing for worship are anointed. Maybe you are getting bored with the mundane, but is there nothing holy about entering your lyrics into Media Shout or Pro-presenter? Is there nothing holy in putting those backgrounds in? Is there nothing holy in getting a sound check? Is there nothing holy about setting up your gear for the worship service? In Exodus 40 we find Moses in the tabernacle as he is preparing for worship. Although his worship service was different than yours and mine, it still had preparation. It still had the mundane. It still had the boring. It still had the same old preparation for every sacrifice he made. Read what Moses is doing. He is anointing every single thing in the tabernacle (v. 9) -- every piece of furniture, every utensil, every item in the tabernacle -- in order that they might be completely holy.

The preparation did not stop there. They went on to wash Aaron and his sons in order to consecrate them "in order to serve me as priests". When I read this section of the passage I see that just as important as it is for everything to be anointed and consecrated, is the need for those who serve along side you in your ministry to also be anointed and consecrated holy.

It is our job as worship leaders and pastors to make sure that we are challenging our people unto holiness. It is my desire that my entire team be anointed and consecrated as holy. For it's not the hair, it's not the shoes; it's not the cool factor of the worship leader that will accomplish the purposes of our art. The reason we do what we do is found later in Exodus 40:34 "Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle and the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle."

That is the goal of our preparation for worship. Dear brothers and sisters we are to anoint everything that we do. It is the anointing that we should be chasing. It is the holiness we should be craving. Instead of a look or an identity we must pursue righteousness. We must pursue Holiness. As my friend David Edwards writes about in his book Encountering God, we must consistently cultivate the ground of our hearts. A tender heart is the "look" that God desires for you. "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.'" - 1 Samuel 16:7

Sharpen the Axe [Articles]

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Jeff Ream

As I write this I am less than a week away from Christmas. In the next week I will lead three worship services, four Christmas services, have one last dress rehearsal, Celebrate Christmas with my family, and finally have a few days to catch my breath. As you sit here reading this you may or may not be in a busy season of life. Regardless of your schedule and your stress level there is a ministry principle that is imperative to learn and live out in your daily life. I refer to this principle as the "Axe Principle".

We recently had a guest pastor come to one of our staff meetings to speak to our team about this very principle. It has challenged me and caused me to re-examine everything I do not only in ministry but in life.

The principle is not some new self help technique but rather is found in Ecclesiastes 10:10 "Using a dull axe requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That's the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed."

Picture for a moment two lumberjacks. Now let's imagine that these two lumberjacks were having a contest to see how many trees they each could cut down in one day. Instead of using a chainsaw our two lumberjacks are using identical axe's. Lumberjack A begins cutting trees down as fast as he can. Without any preparation he starts going all out swinging his axe. At the end of one hour lumber jack A has a huge lead on Lumberjack B. Lumberjack B spent almost his entire first hour sharpening his axe. By the end of the day even though lumberjack A had a huge lead, he has cut down almost half of what lumberjack B has cut down. I know this is starting to sound like one your fifth grade word problems but stick with me.

Why is it that lumberjack A worked longer and just as hard as Lumberjack B but cut down so much less? The answer is that lumberjack B took time several times during the competition to stop and sharpen his Axe. Lumberjack A may have swung the Axe harder and longer than Lumberjack B, but he did not have the much needed preparation time that was required to do the job.

Can I ask you a personal question? How are you daily preparing for ministry? Even more importantly, how are you preparing for life? I'm no lumberjack but I do know that I had better sharpen my axe if I am going to be doing some tree cutting or wood chopping. Yet everyday many of us do not take time out of our schedules to prepare our hearts for the job we are doing. We are busy trying to make everyone else get right with God yet he has become a stranger to us. It is necessary to be passionate about others and their spiritual needs, but it is a tragedy if we lose sight of our own walks. Can I get dangerously personal? You might be the best worship leader or pastor in the world but if you fail with your family, you fail period. Our families must be prioritized over our ministries. And our preparation for ministry begins by allowing ourselves to be sharpened.

Let me give you a short list of things that you can utilize in order to be sharpened.

Obviously time in the word of God is vital. (Do a word search sometime in your favorite Bible software and type in "Word Of God" and see the benefits of being in the word, the consequences of not being in it, and the characteristics of the very words God speaks.) As worship leaders we are supposed to be seeking out the voice of God, how can we hear him if we are not listening to him through the Living Word of God? I cannot stress this enough. Take time out of your daily schedule to spend in the Word and I promise you that you will hear from Him. This is not an option, it is mandatory!

Personal Worship Times: I am saddened to say that when ministry gets busy this is one of the first areas that I let slip away. If you lead from an instrument as I do practice is always needed. It is part of my schedule. Am I playing the songs only for practice or am I worshiping? Here is the point. In order for me to lead people into the presence of God I must know how to get there. When we lead people into worship we are in sense are saying "Follow me into the presence of God." How can we lead people somewhere we have not been? You may be the best guitarist or pianist in the world but if you do not know how to usher in the presence of God, you my friend have failed as a leader. Do not take this as a scorning but take it as an encouraging word. Get alone in the word and sing and play. If you are able to usher in His presence in the quietness of your office, you will be able to successfully usher in the presence of God with those in your services. The presence of God does not just appear, it is ushered in by those who know how to get there.

Accountability: Proverbs 27:17 (NIV) "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Let me add this; if you are not honest in your relationships you will never be sharpened in areas that need addressed.

Read books even if you hate to read. Books can be a great teaching tool.

Fast regularly for your ministry team, congregation, family etc.

Take time to pray even when your task list seems endless. The other day I had a task list up on my computer screen that seemed I would never get through. It was also a Friday which meant I was trying to tie up all the loose ends as well as put all the final touches on our media & video. Over the office intercom system came the announcement that we were going to pull together and spend some time praying for the weekend services. My first thought was not one of righteousness. I think it was something like "I do not have time for this today..." As we sat down to pray I tried to calm myself by saying "this won't take that long." We then proceeded to have each one of us pray. (All 10 of us) I was getting more and more agitated and I knew my attitude was wrong. My turn was only two people away when I knew I needed to confess quickly. My attitude closely resembles the attitude of Martha found in Luke 10:38-42 Check it out: 40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, "Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me." 41 But the Lord said to her, "My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her."

Ouch!! That stings a little huh? It is too easy for us to be like Martha and become overly distracted by the melodious meal we are working on for our services. We get worried and upset about all the details and forget about the one we are doing it for. Isn't it for Jesus? Yeah, but spending time with Jesus is more important than all other details of life and ministry. Spending time with him is what will ultimately allow you and I to be able to deliver the meal on Sunday. So go ahead and sharpen your Axe.

Effective Rehearsals [Articles]

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Andy Chamberlain

The key to rehearsing is to look at it as a time to build arrangements and to get the band to gel with a song. Rehearsing is different from personal practice times. I always try to get my band members to learn chords, parts, lyrics and melodies well before they come to rehearse. Try to create a culture where set lists, charts, MP3s, etc. are e-mailed to the band a few days before the rehearsal, and it really will speed up the creative process on the day. This also allows musicians to bring a worshipful offering of a part they have thought through.

Offer Direction
It's very unusual for a band to operate efficiently as a democracy, so have a leader or musical director for your rehearsals. That person doesn't necessarily have to be the worship leader, but they do need to have a broad understanding of each instrument's role and some creative directional ability. Most great pop music has been made in teams, so you should welcome and be able to integrate creative input from other musicians.

Can you see each other?
Bands often rehearse facing a fictitious audience, but for developing arrangements, physically arrange your team where they can see each other, even facing each other, perhaps in a circle. Communication is much easier when you can see everyone and read their expressions.

Very often musicians may not have played at all for a week, or two, so start off with a fast familiar song for a couple of minutes that allows everyone to warm up, show off their latest chops, turn the amps up to 11, pretend they are Eddie Van Halen. Afterwards they should be much more docile.

Set Up Success
Whatever ability level your musicians are at, the key to a great sound is to work on playing simple stuff well. Lock down a rhythm that everyone can add parts to. Work on timing and use a metronome if necessary. Practice changing dynamics without changing tempo. Many inexperienced bands slow down for softer song parts and speed up for louder sections. Listen to a good contemporary album, in most songs the actual tempo doesn't change at all. However, by getting your band to practice--playing a song really loud then really soft over a metronome--you can create huge shifts in its feel. This can be very beautiful especially when it matches the expression in the lyrics.

Encourage your musicians not to twiddle between songs, it wastes time, distracts others and generally means they are not paying attention. Try to minimize chat and leave as much time for playing as possible, but don't be afraid to stop a song if a section goes wrong. Loop it around three or four times for everyone to get it into muscle memory and then go back and play it from the top. Repetition is the key to building memory pathways.

Lock It In
Remember there are three ways to arrange: before you play the song, as you play the song and to correct the mistakes after you've played the song. For worship music I prefer to spend less time arranging complex forms as they may well change once the congregation interacts. Many musicians can't remember lots of complex arrangements unless they are charted out or the leader heavily conducts, so a great way to arrange as you play the song is to work on musical listening skills, communication and expressing parts to support the lyrics and melody.

Make sure the musicians look around at musical junctions so they don't miss direction changes and communicate two bars ahead at key transition points. As long as they are looking, you can conduct so much verbally, bodily or even just with your eyes. Lastly, what do those lyrics make you want to do? Bow down, shout, laugh, cry, dance? If you can interpret those expressions on your instrument, it's a very powerful tool to help others engage in worship, too.

Andy Chamberlain is a founder of Musicademy, the UK music college specializing in courses for church based musicians. Musicademy has developed series of worship training DVDs in vocals, guitar and keyboards available from www.musicademy.co.uk. Andy was involved with the Soul Survivor movement for a number of years and has played lead guitar with Matt Redman, Brenton Brown, Tim Hughes, Vicky Beeching and other well known worship leaders.

Reprinted with permission from Worship Leader Magazine (May 2007 issue, vol.16, no.3, Andy Chamberlain)

www.songdiscovery.com
www.worshipleader.com

Stage Aesthetics [Articles]

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Kent Morris
A Look at Several Types of Facilities

"Gymatoriums" also known as "sanctinariums" were, only a few years ago, the only common non-traditional worship spaces. Today, churches meet in storefronts, movie theaters, school cafeterias and renovated older church facilities. In any worship environment, however, two questions arise as soon as the topic of gear emerges. First, "How do we make it sound right?" and second, "How do we make it look right?"

Silver Screen Teams:
Tips for the church that meets in the local Cineplex

By design, a movie theater is at odds with traditional church architecture. While a theater blocks natural light, a church invites it. A church is reverberant while a theater is muted. Therefore, holding a traditional worship service in a movie theater is fraught with difficulties. On the other hand, a movie theater is an excellent venue for post-modern events and intense stage productions. The acoustically treated walls, plush seating and cool temperature create an ambience of anticipation for sensory stimuli.

Naturally, the main feature of a theater is its large screen. Instead of ignoring it or trying to mask it with a black drape, use it as a gigantic backdrop. In the photo on the opposite page, Ridgestone Church, under the leadership of lead pastor Gary Lamb and worship leader Tim May, makes the most of the stark white fabric with Chauvet TFX-1550CM color washes shining on the center of the screen and dual Panasonic video projectors mounted atop a 40 foot Applied truss system held up by L-16M mobile bases aimed at the sides. The projectors' images are set far enough apart to prevent bleed from the washes but close enough to keep the congregation's focus on the stage proceedings. In the same photo, notice the speaker stacks on each side of the stage. Instead of trying to mount speakers along the walls or overhead, Ridgestone is using an EV Cobra ground stackable line array to make it sound right. The line array principle reduces energy lost to the room by close placement of the vertical drivers. The Cobra system is one of only a few speaker designs capable of line array performance in a stage stackable box. The Cobra's connectivity is a study in simplicity, with one power outlet and two speaker feeds emanating from the factory configured amp rack.

A Little Polish
Onstage, the band is segmented to present an asymmetrical appearance. The drums are upstage left, the keyboards, downstage right. Tim, as worship leader, is set downstage left next to the bassist who doubles on vocals. The physical orientation is designed to create a "scattered" look with just enough cohesion provided by the symmetrical projector images. Candles, area rugs and random art objects temper the tech-laden layout while illumination is tightly controlled to mask unsightly hardware.

Conventional Amendment:
Mainline update to the church built in the 70s or 80s

In mainline denominations, tradition holds the day. For Hickory Road Baptist Church, the needed tech improvements took a back seat to aesthetics. However, some creative planning paid off, especially in the "sounding right" arena. The church's curved ceiling made a line array speaker system the clear choice to prevent room inclusion on the audio signature. The committee, however, rejected the plan out of hand. In place of two rows of six speakers, the installation team mounted a single Renkus-Heinz CE-153/12K speaker to handle the audio chores for the five hundred-seat rooms. While not as capable as the line array would have been, the single box is adequate for the church's blended worship style and as a bonus, is tonally neutral. On stage, the committee insisted the mic cables be hidden, so all input plates were mounted on the rear of the choir modesty rail. For video, a single remotely retractable Draper nine-by-twelve screen was mounted in the molding above the baptistery. It is lowered only during the song service and then recalled for the sermon.

Hoops to Hallelujahs:
Church in a Gymnasium

School gyms and cafeterias are built for function, not beauty. Their concrete floors, flat steel ceilings and cinder block walls turn ordinary speech into a sonic maelstrom. However, Bridgepointe Church has managed to overcome these limitations with yards of acoustic pipe and drape. While portable churches commonly use thin black sheets to dress out school walls, there are better, heavier materials available from Da-Lite designed as acoustic treatment panels. In conjunction with Auralex bass cube traps, Bridgepointe was able to tame the cafeteria acoustic and its aestethic problems with one product. To improve the visual element onstage, Jeffrey Mel-vin, Bridgepointe's creative arts pastor, bought reams of Transformit, a Span-dex based material with reinforced side seams and insertable grommets for ten-sioning. Akin to sails, the form factors are a visual hit and can be easily washed with color from PAR cans as well as Fresnels. He pulls them into position with stage trussing mounted vertically and held in place with sandbags.

True Blue Update:
How to update the old country church with respect for its history

Unlike Bridgepointe, Bethel Assembly of God is in a decades-old fixed location. This small country church had survived the years but needed an update. Pastor Clint Williams tried to introduce projected images but found the only suitable surface was a portable tripod screen. Sensing the congregation's wariness of the venture, he turned for help to a design team. Their initial plan called for a video screen on the rear wall. Unfortunately, the plan had to be changed to meet the demands of a parishioner who wanted the American flag left in its original position on the rear wall. Thus, the team had to cut out a section of the drywall ceiling in order to mount a retractable screen above the stage with enough clearance for the pastor to stand unhindered at the podium. Proper sound was an easier task, as the church felt side mounted speakers were adequate for their needs.

Starting Over:
Keeping the ultramodern church looking and sounding right

Sometimes, it is easier to remove an existing facility than to renovate it to modern standards. However, the downtime, schedule disruption and desire to cling to the past often prevent a wholesale replacement. Rose Heights Church of God faced such a dilemma when its membership voted to upgrade their fifteen hundred-seat auditorium to accommodate concerts and dramas. The church wanted to start and end with a clean slate, meaning they wanted the new stage free of obstacles. To meet their request, the installers placed Ace Backstage floor pockets in multiple locations with redundant connection points for all critical signals. To eradicate permanent floor monitors, they installed an Aviom personal monitoring system and Sennheiser ew300IEM-G2 wireless in-ears. For backup, extremely low-profile EV QRX112 speakers were modified for monitor duty and placed overhead in the lighting grid as well. The stage is now nothing but hardwood flooring.

Rose Heights preferred a single video output for the congregation in place of the more common three-screen set-up. To deliver the imagery from a single point, the installers chose an RGB Spectrum V4 combiner to convey I-Mag, lyrics and moving backgrounds on one display. With a Christie Digital SK projector out front, the imagery was clear and bright, leaving plenty of room on the upstage walls for a cluster of downward firing Giotto and Duccio three cell fifteen hundred watt cyc (cyclorama) lights to bathe the area in pleasing shades of color. The results are nothing short of amazing, especially in light of the room's origin as a 1970s shag and plaid showcase.

Stage aesthetics can be made to work with the competing need for accurate sound reproduction and visual communication if time is taken to determine where each of the three can be compromised and through creative use of existing technology.

Kent Morris delivers a bridge-building perspective to the technical arena. He is a live sound engineer for Tommy Walker, Paul Baloche, Don Moen, and Israel Houghton and served as a senior pastor for a decade. Currently, he is an audio/video system designer with Cornerstone Media, whose clients include Mt. Paran Church of God and In Touch Ministries.

Reprinted with permission from Worship Leader Magazine (June 2007 issue, vol. 16 no. 4, Kent Morris)

www.worshipleader.com
www.songdiscovery.com

WORSHIP HOSPITALITY [Articles]

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Pastor Randy Phillips
YOUR ROLE BEYOND THE MUSIC

As worship leaders, we are all constantly growing, constantly reaching for the ultimate goal of how to eliminate as many distractions as possible and make it easy for people to connect with God. And as the host of the service of worship, there are many skills worship leaders can learn. Here Randy Phillips, Brian Doerksen, Carlton Dillard and Paul Baloche offer insights to the role of the worship leader.

One of my favorite restaurants in Austin is a steak house called Sullivan's. Yes, I love the food, the ambience, the warm breads and real butter and attentive staff. But something else keeps me coming back, time after time--Jonathan. Jonathan is the maitre d' who understands this amazing principle: I am not in the food business; I'm in the people business.

If you work in a church, for a church, as worship leader, church musician or a band director--you are in the people business, not the music business.
Too often worship leaders think their sole purpose is to sing, direct the band, train the choir/worship singers, arrange the music, create a worshipful atmosphere. Oh yeah, try to figure out what the senior pastor will do next. Sure all those things are critical, but above all, you're in the people business. Say it with me, "I'm - In - The - People - Business."

According to Jonathan, he has to make sure that his customer has an impacting and positive experience from the time they walk through his door till the time they leave. How much more should we who serve the Bread of Life be maitre d's who happen to worship? People Business. So here are five lessons I've learned from Jonathan that would be good for all church leaders to be mindful of. And it's all about the senses.

The 5-Sense Test
Taste, smell, hearing, sight, touch--you want your customer to feel like they belong.

People say, "Well, if the music's good, if the Spirit of the Lord touches them, if I choose impacting songs--the rest doesn't matter." But church growth experts tell us that the customer has already made up their mind to return by the time your first song is sung. So it is your business.

Smell
What do your customers smell when they walk in the doors of your church? Everyone knows that smells can trigger memories and vice versa. I can easily recall the musty and stale smell of a particular church where I once sang. When I think of that church, or even hear the name, I can smell it. On the flip side, I can recall walking into church buildings that smelled terrific. I may not recall the specific smell, but it was subconsciously positive.

Jonathan says that a pleasant smelling lobby and dining room is critical to the memory of the customer.

Sight
What does your lobby look like through the eyes of a guest? What about your stage? Is it cluttered-chords going in every direction? Equipment cases showing?

My wife and I went to hear the Austin Symphony, and the music was stunning. But one thing bugged me all night. A bass cellist left his empty case standing in plain view--huge and white. Who should have caught that? The director.

Jonathan often tells me that the eating experience must be pleasing to the eye. Presentation. What about your singers and musicians? Do they look good? Are they dressed in a manner that would be offensive to your audience? What about your graphics department? Are there misspelled words on the screen? Is the selection of font and color eye pleasing? Work with your graphics ministry to get the best look on your screens.

Pay attention to the visual details. Guests notice the details.

Hearing
When I walk in Sullivan's lobby, there is soft ambient music playing in the background. What about your lobby? What about music in the auditorium pre-service? You must select the pre-service music based upon what is pleasing and welcoming to our guests. A great sound system is critical in your presentation. Stress to your senior pastor the importance of a warm sound. A warm sound is created with great equipment and powerful equipment with effects modules. Also, put in your budget the cost of a great sound engineer. We love our volunteers, but not at the risk of a welcoming ambience.

Taste
Is your music selection tasteful? Does it reflect your audience? What about segues between songs? Is it seamless or halting? Is there too much talking? Watch yourself on video/DVD and make some notes. I would also encourage you to get information from Tom Jackson who is a performance coach. He has some incredible ideas about choosing songs and segueing between songs.

Make sure your music includes psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Col. 3:16). You love variety; your audience will, too.

Touch
Not only should your people be friendly and warm, but your music should strike a chord with your audience. Sing songs that touch the soul. To do this, we need to make sure our music selection for the week is steeped in prayer and fasting. Fasting? You mean go without food? Yes. Watch what God will do when you apply these principles to your worship set. You will touch and change hearts.

Touch also has to do with atmosphere. Temperature is critical. Work with your building ministry to make sure the climate is guest friendly. You may have the best worship set ever, but if the auditorium is too hot, people will be looking for a way to get out of there. A cool auditorium must be chilled way in advance of our guests arriving.

Who started the trend that the congregation should stand the whole time during praise and worship? If it's a conference or if everyone is a member this might be a little more admissible, but do you think your guests want to stand for 30 minutes? You think they're weaving back and forth in the Spirit? No, they're leg weary--sit them down. People can worship sitting down.

Transcendent
Why should the 5-senses test be applied to your worship experience? Paul said, "... so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive"(Titus 2:10).

I took Mrs. Phillips on the town for our anniversary--22 years (that girl de-serves a crown). There were so many restaurant selections. I had to think of a place to go where I knew they would take care of us and serve us quality food. I went to see Jonathan. And guess what? Two days after dining at Sullivan's I got a hand written card saying, "Thank you for dining at Sullivan's. I hope your dining experience with us was memorable."

It was because Jonathan knows he's in the people business. You are, too.

As a pastor of Promiseland West in Austin, Texas, and also one third of the Christian music group Phillips, Craig and Dean, Randy Phillips is a teacher and musician with a heart for worship.

Reprinted with permission from Worship Leader Magazine (June 2007 issue, vol. 16 no. 4, Randy Phillips)

www.worshipleader.com
www.songdiscovery.com

Re-centering the House [Articles]

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Chuck Fromm
The True Work of Leaders in the 21st Century

You can find some exiting things happening in churches today. As a result of the dynamic shifts in cultural, sociological and technological trends that happen every day, we've seen unprecedented creativity in churches delivering the gospel message. There are movie nights, Web casts, Podcasts, video loops, television broadcasts, Saturday services, bigger and smaller church groups, post-modern services, even post-post-modern services are starting to take root. The past decade has brought about so much new "stuff," a person walking into a church who hasn't been to a worship service for a few years is likely to feel as bewildered as Dorothy when she stepped from her house into the Land of Oz. Even those of us who work in the churchâit seems, we have to be very intentional about checking the most recent Macintosh computer blogs so we aren't out of the loop the following Sunday. Not only have we left Kansas, we have left the planet and stepped into a, very mercurial, world that covers everything from our forms of communication to, quite simply, the way we interpret life.

The challenging thing about all of this dynamism is that it encourages us to continually discover new forms of communication. And this is a good thing; we should always be students of the language of our communities. However, if we look at much contemporary worship today, I fear we may find that there is very little understanding of the communicational nature of God's house. God's house is a house of prayer. Jesus is the Text, and He is our worship leader. In the attempts to make God's house an exciting and relevant place to the culture, it is possible that God's purpose for His house can be subverted. We may be in danger of a different text being placed at the center, so that we are not preaching, teaching and singing the Text, but rather something else. Maybe you have even seen that in your own church community.

Is there a Text in today's church? If the Church is alive and a vital and part of the living body of Christ, then, you bet there is. There is one Text, who is the Word of the Father, who appeared to us in the flesh, is known to us through the stories preserved in sacred Scripture, and continues to make Himself present to us in worship when we gather in His name. It is He who is the Word, the Text at the center of our community. Other texts maybe informational, but The Text is transformational. Though we can easily get caught up in all the great communication tools available, it is the job of the leader of a church to get caught up in the only transformational Text and keep Him the center of our focus.

We are discovering new forms of communication all the time, but if we look at much contemporary worship today, I fear we may find that there is very little understanding of the communicational nature of God's house. God's house is a house of prayer. Jesus is the Text, our worship leader. In the attempts to make God's house an exciting and relevant place to the culture, is it possible that God's purpose is subverted? We may be in danger of a different text being placed at the center, so that we are not preaching/teaching, singing the Text, but something else.

Is there a Text in today's church? If our church is alive and a vital and part of the living body of Christ, then, you bet there is. There is one Text, who is the Word of the Father, who appeared to us in the flesh, is known to us through the stories preserved in sacred Scripture, and continues to make Himself present to us in worship when we gather in His name. It is He who is the Word, the Text at the center of our community. Other texts maybe informational, but The Text is transformational. Though we can easily get caught up in all the great communication tools available, it is the job of the leader of a church to get caught up in the only transformational Text and keep Him the center of our focus.

The House of Prayer
It wasn't that long ago, November 9, 1989, to be exact, that the Berlin Wall fell. The news reports of the time reported prayer meetings in Berlin, once small groups in homes had grown into much larger groupsâas many as 300,000 were again gathering for prayer in God's house. These were the same structures that the East German government had attempted to convert into museums, a storage place for memories, but nothing alive or powerful in the present. However, the purpose driving God's house is not merely the memoralization of the past. There is one purpose and one purpose only, as stated by the Old Testament prophets and emphatically restated by Jesus Christ. In Matthew 21:13, Jesus enters the temple in Jerusalem and doesn't like what He finds thereâit has become too commercialized. He overturns the tables of the moneychangers and justifies His seemingly radical action by an appeal to Scripture: "It is written, My House will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves."
The text Jesus is quoting here is Isaiah 56:7: "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." And notice how He uses Scripture: to call the people back to the original purpose of prayer and worship and away from those cultural forces that distract them from that purpose.

Jesus is not stating a new purpose for his Father's house. He is taking what has already been said by God regarding the matter of worship and giving it new meaning in the present day. It is the same text, simply a different context. We don't need to think of the "den of thieves" too literally; the thieves and robbers are merely any other agendas that take us away from our full attention towards God. For, at least, while we are in His house, we owe Him His due, which is His full measure of devotion, praise and glory. Nowadays the tables being overturned would not be moneychangers and the merchants of doves and lambs for temple sacrifices, but those who are using God's house of prayer for their own agenda.

To God Alone
As the Torah demonstrates, God had a vision for the meeting place with His people. In God's House, the devotion and prayer was to be to God alone, and not to any cultural idols. We are to love God totally and live in a manner in which this love is made known in deeds and acts. It is a form of prayer that does not cease when leaving the house, but rather changes form.

Music has always been associated with prayer in God's house. The Psalmsâ Israel's WOW songbook representing the best of the best compiled over 1,000 years of historyâmentor us in dialoguing with God in His house. We learn through the praise and crying out found in the Psalms that God is good, and life can be very tough. Regarding what we call hymns of the faith, it is from Augustine that we gain the saying, "He who sings, prays twice." Augustine points out that the text of praise embedded in the music itself is a confession of praise to God. As well, a person who sings is both singing the confession and loving the one to whom he sings. "In praise," Augustine says, "there is the speaking forth of one confessing: in singing the affection of one loving." Thus we can characterize a hymn as an intelligent love song to God. A text that is often directly supplied by Godâstraight from Scripture. Through music, God's speech, embedded in writing, is made alive again via the voices and instruments of the performers.

The Word Is Alive
Recently, I was at a conference in Honolulu sponsored by Hawaiian Island Ministries, which featured a variety of teachers concerning God's house and bringing glory to Him. A delegation of 20 leaders from the church in China was with us as well. At a speaker's luncheon, several members of the group came forward and shared a song from their church. I didn't understand the words, nor could I determine if the music was contemporary or traditional, but I did understand the smiles as the song, directly from God's Word, was sung with gladness.

What made the modern hymn writers like Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley so controversial was that they stepped out of the use of Scripture as the text for song and used their own skills as poets to construct "hymns of human composure." In our era, the text of these writers has achieved the near status of Scripture. The fact is that these poets, and thousands of others that both followed and preceded them, were brilliant interpreters of the text. Their hymns, and the tunes to which they were set, achieved the Augustine standard. As the congregation sang them, they prayed twice.

One wonders what the text of the prayer as the disciples, in obedience to the Lord's command to tarry in Jerusalem until filled with power, could have been. Most certainly they were singing psalms and recounting the stories of Jesus. We are told in Hebrews 8:1-3 that the worship leader in heaven is Jesus. As Jesus told the Pharisees, You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me (John 5:39 NIV).

Going Astray
The point is that in our era, the technology of communication and all the various creative and listening devices has taken center stage. Perhaps even to the point of technology trumping the Text. It is not unheard of for a worship leader to spend 20 hours putting all the editing touches on a 3-minute worship video vignette, or a similar amount of time with pro-tools generating the perfect background music. Becoming media literate takes time and may even draw us away from the Text, or even worse, become the Text. In a strange and tragic twist of irony, the story of Jesus we are sharing becomes a sub-text to the story of the manner we are telling the story. The problem is the audience for our worship is not God, but rather the audience becomes a god. This is a basic distinction between secular forms of entertainment in other houses and the use of performing arts in God's house. In God's house the performing arts work for transparency. The purpose of the music is to serve the community in its active listening and dialogue with God. It is His Speech that generates faith.

Eye on the Ball
There are a lot of books being writÂ¬ten today about God's house. One famous Christian Author and trend prognosticator is predicting the end of God's house. He sees very critical times indeed for Christian communities. Making predictions about the future shapes, sizes and forms of God's house may give us who lead in God's house of prayer a good inventory of what we are presently doing. But the prediction of the end of God's house is a radical postmodern idea. I would even submit that modifying the term "church" with "emergent" or "post-modern"âor contemporary or traditional for that matterâtakes the eye off the ball in terms of the essential purpose to which God's house exists. What is the distinction, one should ask, between an "emergent prayer," or a "traditional prayer" or a "post-modern prayer"? The essential question to ask is not what is the style? The question is who or what is the Text in God's house? Or: Does God's House have a prayer in the 21st century?

Let me warn you that re-centering God's house as a house of prayer is a radical notion. If you are part of an existing Christian community, re-discovering the foundational prayer of your group will bring renewal and reform. There are elders in your community that know the prayer. Your function in devotional arts is to assist them in listening to God. The irony of 21st century technology, and the activity that surrounds its use, is that devices created to enhance our hearing can actually provide more distraction.

As leaders of our communities, we must be careful guards of the Text. It is time to take inventory of the "text" that we are using in the House of God. The "text" includes not only what we are saying but the way we are saying it, as well. We need to understand that some of our "traditions" or "procedural knowledge," often sub-conscious or transparent to us, may be speaking louder than The Text. Jesus re-established the purpose of God's house, and we have the witness of the centuries of believers to the on-going prayer from generation to generation. Those who choose, create, or otherwise adapt and lead the songs of prayer for the Community have a dual responsibility. For those who sing, pray twice!

"For he that singeth praise, not only praiseth, but only praiseth with gladness: he that singeth praise, not only singeth, but also loveth Him of whom he singeth. In praise, there is the speaking forth of one confessing; in singing, the affection of one loving." â St. Augustine

Reprinted with permission from Worship Leader Magazine (May 2006 issue, vol.15, no.3, Chuck Fromm)

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Put Me In Coach [Articles]

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Lin Sexton

He's known at Greece Athena High School in Rochester, New York, as Jay Mac. His full name is Jason McKelway, and he has autism. Jason loves basketball, and during his four years of high school he relished being the team's assistant. The guys loved him, and even though it's common for kids with autism to be distressed by noise, Jason handled it well. There was no one more committed to the team's success than this enthusiastic student.

Coach Jim Johnson honored Jason's endearing zeal by telling him to suit up for the last game of his high school career. Word traveled, and students arrived at the game carrying signs bearing Jason's picture. Then, in the game's final minutes, coach Johnson put him in, and the crowd cheered wildly. "I started to tear up," says the coach. "I said, oh please Lord, just get him a basket."

Jason missed his first shot, but the crowd didn't care. Both the home and visiting teams shouted encouragement. A moment later he shot a three-pointer. The crowd went crazy. When the game was over, Jay Mac had tied a team record, hitting six three-pointers. The crowd exploded onto the court and put Jason on their shoulders.

His victory was their victory. His coach knew he had done the right thing.

Gold Digging
My job as the leader of artists in my church is like that of Jason's coach. Sure, I train and teach, minister and direct. But more basic than those obvious duties are the vital moments when I help bring out the best in people. To do that, I must get to know the people God has placed in the ministry, understanding their strengths and weaknesses. It's my job to know when to put them in the game.

At times, I've been tempted to give roles to performers with great talent, yet who I know struggle with spiritual immaturity, pride, wrong motives or jealousy. It's my duty to watch their responses when they are not put in the game. Then, it's my job to shepherd these sheep in a way that offers them a clear path to maturity, lovingly helping them identify and evict the idols of performance and pride they may have never recognized, but that can be seen through the spiritual eyes of believers. It can be done.

Redemptive Act
Often, experienced performers come to ministry with baggage from their lives in the theatreÃ¢ÂÂa place where pride is admired, temperamental behavior is considered delightfully colorful and self-absorption is the norm. And just as often, new folks with no experience, lots of insecurity but great potential also join the team. In order to level the playing field and create a safe, accepting environment, we spend plenty of time together in God's presence. In preparation for those times, I pray for specific people on the team, asking God to talk with them about the issues they face. All my wisdom and experience can't hold a candle to the Spirit's power as the primary agent of change in a person's life.

It's my responsibility to disciple artists through the very act of creating art. And there is no better place to do that than within a biblical community. Happily, it's that very kind of loving, honest, Christ-centered community that artists crave, and in which they thrive. As a leader, creating and maintaining biblical community is the foundation, requirement and remedy for a healthy arts ministry.

Everyone Plays
Finally, to produce art of great quality as an offering to our Lord may include putting our Jasons in the game. I recall putting a girl with Down syndrome in an elegant, precisely choreographed, highly complex Christmas show. Diane simply pushed a bright red passenger sleigh across the stage and down a ramp through the audience. Luminous in her Victorian costume, this was her moment. She captured the hearts of the audience all ten nights of the run. One night, students from her special education class came to the show. Seeing Diane filled them with wonder, and they gave her a standing ovationÃ¢ÂÂcheering for her as passionately as audiences cheer for opera stars. There wasn't a dry eye in the house, and no theatrical quality was lost by this brief Christmas miracle.

We leaders mentor, encourage and push for excellence. But excellence may not always be perfection. Leaders of artists have a great opportunity to help people of all levels of talent experience victory. Their victories belong to all of us.

Lin Sexton is the Director of Worship Arts at the First Baptist Church of Modesto, California, where she has served for 29 years.

Reprinted with permission from Worship Leader Magazine (May 2006 issue, vol.15, no.3, Lin Sexton)

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ICONS, IDOLS AND THE INCARNATION [Articles]

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Craig Detweiler

What makes movies so moving? Rousing images from The Lord of the Rings and Gladiator are imprinted on our collective memory. Moments from Finding Neverland or Hotel Rwanda can reduce us to tears. Key scenes from The Shawshank Redemption still inspire us, years after first seeing them. What gives images such enduring power? The best films expand our minds, broaden our hearts, and stir our souls. Movies offer direct experiences—feelings as opposed to facts. The most transcendent films contain metaphors that appeal to our noblest instincts. They reveal profound truths about the human condition. Jesus spoke in parables that exploded in audiences' minds as they walked away. Today's leaders are increasingly following Jesus' example, communicating via the iconic power of images.

Given the time constraints of our worship services, movies offer a quick way to establish a mood or set up a sermon. Film clips engage our senses in a trinitarian combination of sight, sound and motion. They capture our attention, providing an emotional jolt. Technology has made big screens and powerful projectors more affordable than ever. Yet, in our effort to embrace an image-saturated society, have we resorted to "using movies" instead of truly understanding how cinema works? Does grafting films into our worship services echo biblical warnings against graven images? Is the power of image something to be feared or harnessed? To sort through the abundance of electronic temptations, we must consider the differences between idols, icons and the Incarnation.

Icons/Idols/Incarnation
Protestants, rooted in the valuable tradition of sola scriptura, are being challenged by our image-driven era. Postmodern pilgrims must navigate a world where style trumps substance and images overwhelm words. Some may even consider filmmaking an advanced form of idolatry. Rabid fans adore movie stars. Shouldn't we oppose such idol making? The more practical pastors will purchase state-of-the-art sound systems and digital projectors for their sanctuaries. Myriad resources have arisen to serve this growing market (see Apply It). We may incorporate the latest technology without realizing how it can undercut the community we're trying to create. (For further reading, check out Shane Hipps, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, 2005). Iconoclastic attacks and uncritical embrace both have their blind spots. How do we grasp the power of images without bowing down to the altar of Imax?

The biblical case for and against images offers competing claims. In Exodus 20:4, idol worship is outlawed as an abomination. Yet, just five chapters later, God gives Moses detailed instructions about how to incorporate images into the Tabernacle furnishings. Exodus 25:20 describes the positioning of cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant. What this seems to say is that images can be an impediment or an enhancement to worship.

The difference resides in our attitude: the distinction between worshiping idols and venerating icons. When we ascribe too much power to objects and things, we create false idols. Images can distract, deceive or overwhelm. Yet, a mature visual faith can transform our worship, giving us a glimpse of God's glory. We don't worship the Bible, but we definitely respect it. We better not worship our pastors, but we can venerate them as teachers and honor them as role models. So, can't we maintain a proper perspective toward images? Why else has God given us eyes to see and not just ears to hear? Can't we redeem our eyesight, especially in an image-driven era?

Repeating History
The abuse of images has led to repeated controversies within Christian communities. In the early Orthodox Church, a controversy arose over the (mis) use of icons. Emperor Leo III felt some Byzantine Christians ascribed too much power to ornate paintings of Jesus, Mary or the Apostles. Leo III condemned icons in 726. The Iconoclast (idol smashing) debate raged for over 100 years. It was settled by pushing past the admonitions of Exodus to the Incarnation. The Greek Orthodox fathers argued that Jesus was the original icon. God decided to become man, to take on human form. He dignified depictions, inhabited matter. Writing On the Divine Images, St. John of Damascus suggested, "It is obvious that when you contemplate God becoming man, then you may depict Him clothed in human form. When the invisible One becomes visible to ﬂesh, you may then draw His likeness. When He who is bodiless and without form, immeasurable in the boundlessness of His own nature, existing in the form of God, empties Himself and takes the form of a servant in substance and in stature and is found in a body of ﬂesh, then you may draw His image and show it to anyone willing to gaze upon it." Jesus' Incarnation allows us to depict the divine in painting, ﬁlm and drama.

The idol that today's iconoclasts may need to smash is the fear of images. In A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis wrestles with his tendency to turn God into an idol. He wrote, "Images of the Holy easily become holy images—sacrosanct. My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence? The Incarnation is the supreme example; it leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins…the same thing happens in our private prayers. All reality is iconoclastic." God can be counted on to smash whatever we've made too sacred. Perhaps our fear of images will come tumbling down amidst our efforts to forge a Christ-centered, "reel" spirituality.

A Theology of Moving Images
We must resist the temptation to engage in visual worship wars. Maybe a healthy view of icons can deepen our faith. We desperately need a theology of moving images for our electronic era. As enhanced deﬁnition sharpens our televisions, surely enhanced vision can expand my understanding of God (and our appreciation of ﬁlm). In the beginning was the Word, but Jesus was also the Image of the Invisible God. Simply because our eyes may cause us to sin does not mean we must cut them out of our experience of worship (or ﬁlm going).

Our word-based faith may need to adopt a more sacramental approach to seeing and believing. Protestant theology has been ambivalent toward Orthodox icons. We've wondered why someone would pray to an image or kiss a statue. But signs and symbols enhance Catholic and Orthodox worship, creating an immersive experience. Candles, colors and costumes play important parts in Lutheran and Episcopalian liturgy. Sacramental churches are teaching sermon-centered Protestants how to worship with eyes wide open. This newfound appreciation of church history is resulting in a more mature, global and united Christian community.

The Visual Aesthetic
The rich storytelling of Catholic ﬁlmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola suggest that a profound visual aesthetic resides within our broad Christian tradition. The haunting ﬁlms of Russian Orthodox ﬁlmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky invite us to look through our material world. Christian college grads like Scott Derrickson (Exorcism of Emily Rose) make movies stained by sin, but ripe for redemption. Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox Christians all follow a rabbi who has challenged us to have "eyes to see and ears to hear."

In an effort to deepen our understanding of the Orthodox tradition, Elizabeth Zelensky and Lela Gilbert wrote Windows to Heaven: Introducing Icons to Protestants and Catholics (2005). Iconographers celebrate the divine purpose in their paintings with verbal metaphors. Zelensky and Gilbert note, "An Orthodox iconographer, having prepared by fasting and prayer sets about 'writing' an icon. Iconographers do not paint icons; they write them." Perhaps the perceived gap between Orthodox and Protestant Christian traditions is smaller than imagined. Icons create a sacred space within a church, inviting us to slow down and take our time. As windows to heaven, icons collapse the time/space continuum, dignifying the material world and transporting the viewer to a transcendent realm. We stare at Jesus. He stares back, inviting us into relationship. We commune together, witnessing the power of God across time. Within Orthodox churches, icons are arranged in sequence to tell a story (like a movie). Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection grace the walls (like a cinematic montage). The crowning achievement arrives in the ceiling with Christ as "Pantocrator" -- ruler of all.

Consider the powerful icon from St. Katherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai shown on the cover of the book Windows to Heaven pictured below. (It also graces the cover of the luminous DVD, The Face of Jesus in Art--recommended as a brilliant background to any worship experience). Notice the two distinct sides of Jesus’ face. One is stern. One is gracious. One hand points upward, full of grace and mercy. The other holds the Bible, weighed down by earthly matters. One image communicates two enduring truths -- Jesus is equally loving and judging, Savior and Lord. It captures the mystery of Christ as transcendent and immanent, eternal and present at the same time -- "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" indeed.

Slower = Deeper
A younger generation, raised on smash cuts and musical montage, may serve as our spiritual guides in ﬁlm appreciation and image contemplation. Some may criticize the apparent superﬁciality of our video age. We may assume our church services must move faster to combat shrinking attention spans. But the most resonant films for younger audiences often do the opposite. They are fast and slow, noisy and quiet, transcendent and immanent.

Zach Braff's ﬁlm, Garden State (2004), captivated postmodern audiences with moments of profound stillness. This quirky romantic comedy follows Andrew Largeman back to his New Jersey home for his mother's funeral. Uncertain how to grieve, Largeman retreats to the most visible sign of her departure: a bathroom. Amongst his mom's final accomplishments was redecorating the walls. His aunt crafted a shirt from his mother's leftover material. The scene pays off in a visual joke.

Staring in the mirror at his shirt, blending in with the wallpaper, his existential crisis appears in sharp relief. Where does he fit in a universe that made not sense even prior to his mom's death? As the icons of the Orthodoxy offer access to a transcendent reality, this brief shot from Garden State offers a window into Largeman's tortured should. He'd desperately like to escape this mortal coil. But in the meantime, he reconnects with his deceased mother, experiencing oneness with the wallpaper, the shirt and his mom.

As he stares at us through the mirror, the audience stares at him, through the movie screen. One iconic image "writes" a thousand words about dysfunction and family dynamics.

Room to Reﬂect
Garden State is full of quiet moments, where Andrew gazes at the audience, breaking the fourth wall. These centered shots create the same ﬂat space as icons. They invite us to enter the scene, to get involved by feeling what he feels. But Largeman also enters our space, looking at us, challenging our lives. His blank stare seems to ask, "Are you so different? Slow down long enough to consider my plight."

Action films with MTV style editing don't give viewers a choice. They yank us from scene to scene before we know what hit us. Substance is supplanted by technique. Yet, Garden State proves that bigger, louder and faster may not be better when it comes to movies (or worship services). The important films create room to reﬂect, a space for the characters (and audiences) to slow down and go deep. We're invited to enter into a shared space of genuine communion. We stare at Him; He stares at us.

A Foretaste of Glory
Why do movies move us? The best films combine formal technique with visceral thrills. They are exhilarating and humanizing at the same time. Enduring movies combine big ideas with tangible realities; they're transcendent and immanent. Life-altering worship experiences offer a foretaste of glory divine and open us up to loving and serving God today. Like the most impactful movies, transformative worship offers moments of wild exhilaration and quiet meditation.

The same ethical questions confront ﬁlmmakers and media ministers. Is our job effective manipulation through ﬂashy technique or creating room for people to enter into a story? How much do we want to control people's responses? Are we making people feel things or are we allowing them to discover things? Is there room for spontaneity, for the Spirit to move in our media? Do we have faith that God and our congregations will sort it out? Perhaps, slow and steady will win in the technological race.

We must resist the temptation to overwhelm with technique. We must respect audiences and leave room for the Spirit. The finest movies and ministries are not frenetic but authentic. As the Russian Orthodox theologian, Paul Evdokimov understood, the most compelling images transcend words: "The icon is a doxology, it ﬂows with joy and sings the glory of God in its own way. True beauty does not need proof. The icon does not prove anything. It shows."

About the Author
Craig Detweiler co-directs the Reel Spirituality Institute for The Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts at Fuller Seminary (www.brehmcenter.org). He's a screenwriter and the co-author of A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture.

Reprinted with permission from Worship Leader Magazine (Jan/Feb 2007 issue, vol. 16 no. 1, Craig Detweiler)

www.worshipleader.com
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The Current [Articles]

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Chuck Fromm

"Without the gifts of the Holy Spirit teaching us and bringing us into union with Himself, our PowerPoints, videos, praise music, bands, emails, Internet-chats, blogs—and all of the rest of the digitized revolution we discover ourselves swimming in today—are simply flickering plasma screens and failed Google searches."

Those of us who grew up in the "Baby Boom" generation remember the debates that raged over the advent of the television. Our parents worried over the "vast wasteland" of T.V., a term coined by Newton Minow, and debated whether it would put movies out of business or rot the brains of youngsters who would lose the desire to read and the ability to study or spell. There was even talk that it could be the end of democracy itself. But television, for better or worse (actually, for better and worse) is now an established factor in even our political world. The republic still stands, and TV has made our elected officials more accountable in a multitude of ways.

New worries
There is little doubt that the new communications media are transforming our culture. The inventions of the last two decades—Internet, wireless connections, cell phones, text messaging, personal media devices—present a bewildering array of communication technologies. And with their impact on society, some questions must be asked: What do these developments portend for the Church? How will the pastors of today and the immediate future learn to talk to the new generation and, in time, learn to use the new media effectively in worship and evangelization?

Taking these questions seriously means a paradigm shift in our ideas of leadership and education. We need to realize that the new media technologies, which tend to favor image over text, constitute nothing less than a new vernacular—a new mode of common speech. Just as Luther had to translate the Bible from Latin into German in order to carry his Reformation forward, Christian leaders of today and tomorrow will have to use the new vernacular of cinema, Internet, text messages and all the rest in communicating God's Word. In short, Christian preachers, educators and worship leaders will have to embrace a new conception of literacy, which goes beyond print—that being multimedia literacy.

Yet in doing this, we must always remember that it is God who first initiated communication in the Word. Without the gifts of the Holy Spirit teaching us and bringing us into union with Himself, our PowerPoints, videos, praise music, bands, e-mails, Internet-chats, blogs—and all of the rest of the digitized revolution we discover ourselves swimming in today— are simply ﬂickering plasma screens and failed Google searches.

Nothing new
The development of Christianity has always been intimately linked to changes in communication media. And with the changes there have always been those who resisted. The Catholic authorities of Luther's time resisted the translation of the Bible into vernacular tongues, trying vainly to maintain their monopoly over the presentation and interpretation of God's Word. But their attempt was shortsighted and went against the tide of history. Believing that Scripture is the common property and God-given inheritance of all people, not only of church authorities, Christian reformers went on to translate the Bible into a thousand tongues and carried the new, vernacular Bibles to the ends of the earth.

Examining the Assumptions
So, what does it mean to be a literate person in our present, media-saturated culture? The attempt to answer this question and to redeﬁne the way we think about literacy has brought the University of Southern California to go so far as to change their core curriculum requirements. For the first time at a major research university (but surely not the last), multimedia-literacy courses have been added to the required classes that students must pass in order to obtain their diploma. Dr. Elizabeth Daley, Dean of USC's School of Cinema and Director of its Center for Multimedia Literacy, reminds us that, "To most people, literacy means the ability to read and write, to understand information and to express ideas both concretely and abstractly. The unstated assumption is that ‘to read and write' means to read and write text." This assumption needs to be critically examined.

Arguing that the multimedia language of television, film and the Internet has become "the current vernacular," and that this language—which relies heavily on images—is capable of "constructing complex meanings independent of text," Daley has spearheaded her university's attempt to restructure its curriculum in recognition of the changing media environment. The college students who will be affected by this change are used to gathering information and making decisions about issues in many ways—not just reading text, but processing complex collages and juxtapositions of images. The text-messages that they send on their cell phones are often constructed in a grammar that bears little resemblance to Strunk and White's Elements of Style, but they do get the message across.

Christians will, in the coming decades, have to face the same issues that are now coming to the forefront for those who seek to plan the education of the young at all levels: in universities, high schools, grammar schools and even preschools. What good is Sunday school at any church if those who teach the young cannot speak their language? How much time will be wasted by those who teach Christian principles to young people who cannot help but see their teachers and instructors in faith as irrelevant, simply because of their inability to comprehend, let alone communicate in, the language of today's multimedia environments?

Multimedia Is Not a New Concept
Though current technological developments in this area require our attention, multimedia—understood in the broadest sense—has always been integral to worship. Christians have used visual images along with Scripture since the earliest days of the Church, and the singing of hymns, which fuse words with music, has always been a powerful source of our group unity.

The heart of the good news we preach is the story of incarnate communication. It is a dramatic narrative in which our God, creator of heaven and earth, in the form of Jesus Christ, takes on human form and becomes the ultimate sacriﬁce required to reestablish communication between God and man. The completion is the great Amen from the cross as Jesus cries, "It is ﬁnished!" And it was all done, as the song says, "in the name of love."

The Extension and the Source
The media guru of the 20th century, Marshall McLuhan taught us that modern electronics has allowed us to "extend" ourselves via technology. "MySpace" has certainly proven that point, and it is not just for the youth of society. Over half of the MySpace consumers are over the age of 35. I personally enjoy the free video technology you can download from MSN messenger. It allows me to connect with my son at Cal Poly or my daughter at UCLA instantaneously. Their visual images are immediately transported along with their voices to my laptop screen. Virtual space allows for virtual family as they extend from their dorm rooms into my ofﬁce.

This can be likened to the connection we have with God through Jesus. He extended from heaven into this world. But Jesus was not simply an extension of God. He was God Himself. McLuhan wrote that Jesus was the only person who ever lived a life in which the medium and the message were the same. There were no gaps, distortions, Ethernet connections, virtual spaces, or inconsistencies between what Jesus said and what He did. He was perfect and blameless. He was, is, and will always be the Word of God.

As we move from the first century sensorium, when Jesus was fully present with His disciples, to our present, we are aware that God's Word has been extended via the medium of language and print. However distant that ancient world may seem, we pray, anticipate and expect our gospel communications to resonate with the same kind of power, authenticity and authority of the first century. When we share the Word with others, it is as if Jesus Christ had spoken it to us at that very same moment. In our communication we actually step into the timeless virtual space. How? Because the same Holy Spirit who initiated the communications revolution on the 50th day after the ascension of Christ into heaven is with us today.

Learn From Mistakes
John Wycliffe, the first translator of the Bible into English, managed to escape Catholic persecution in his lifetime. But the Council of Constance, which met from 1414 to 1418, ordered his remains to be exhumed from an English graveyard and burned—along with his translation of the Bible. The Catholic authorities that burned Wycliffe's bones (and who also commanded the burning of Luther's spiritual ancestor, the Czech reformer John Hus) fought against a historical tide that they ultimately could not reverse. This example shows the strength of the cord that often ties a person's faith, or their understanding of the gospel, to the medium in which they are accustomed to experiencing it. Let us hope that we exhibit more wisdom as we contemplate proposals to translate God's Word into the vernacular tongue of our day—the complex language of words and images that prevails in our contemporary media-saturated world

No one now can foresee what will best serve God's purpose as tomorrow's preachers and teachers choose between— and weave messages that combine—text, speech, song and the visual imagination. But if we do not study and learn from the young, we will certainly have no success in preaching to them.

And one thing is certain: those who attempt to educate this new generation in the principles of the Christian faith without learning to speak in today's multimedia vernacular will fail. If we do not learn to communicate with our youth using images as well as words, we will find, to our regret and to the eternal shame of the Church, that we have no voice at all.

Reprinted with permission from Worship Leader Magazine (May 2006 issue, vol.15, no.3, Chuck Fromm)

www.worshipleader.com
www.songdiscovery.com

How to Arrange Vocal Parts for Worship Choirs [Articles]

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Stan Endicott

Worship choirs are one of the most rewarding ministries in the arts today. How wonderful to hear 20, 30, or 100 singers worshiping the Lord. The great challenge, however, is what notes should they sing? How high, how low, how fast, how slow?

Here are five things I have learned that just might help you figure out what notes to give your worship choir and worship team

Make sure the song is in a good congregational key.
Don’t let male worship leaders decide congregational keys. Just kidding, well kind of, but if you want to be sure that the song is in a good congregational key, test it with a female voice. Male singers will have a tendency to pitch a song in a tenor range which will make it almost impossible for most men and certainly most women to join in. The rule of thumb is don’t let the melody of a song hit an Eb (10 notes above middle C). One exception to this rule is that younger congregations will sing songs higher than a congregation with an older age demographic.
Keep it simple.
If the arrangement is too difficult it will hurt the confidence level of the choir. Don’t hesitate to use unison singing. Unisons are wonderful if sung with energy. There are two kinds of unisons: octave unison—where the men and women sing the melody in their natural octaves—and prime unison—where the men and women sing the melody in the same octave. This is a very strong and hip sound. I have a rule: when teaching new songs to the worship choir, it has to sound good in 15 minutes. You don’t have time to spend an hour on one song during a rehearsal.
Stay away from too much traditional harmony.
Whether you are writing out the harmony parts or if you are teaching by "rote," or by "ear," experiment with different kinds of harmony. The usual approach is for the sopranos to sing the melody, the altos are right under the sopranos
and the tenors are below the altos. This is called mirrored harmony. It’s the kind of harmony we all learned in high school, college, ensemble singing, etc. Mix it up. Use more linear harmony. This is singing a line that is not chasing the same intervals as the melody. Some bluegrass harmonies are good examples. Invert the voicing to allow the altos to sing the melody and have the sopranos above them—if the song is not too high.
Use harmony wisely.
Is it really possible to sing too much harmony in church? Yes, I believe so. Harmony is a wonderful, beautiful thing. But to sing harmony constantly will have a numbing effect on congregational participation. Sing a verse and chorus before adding harmonies. You will notice how wonderful harmonies are if you use them sparsely.
Learn songs quickly—layering is the answer.
If you have four songs to learn during a rehearsal, don’t spend too much time on one song. Layering is the process of spending a little time on the first song, then move on to songs two, three and four and then go back and start on the first song again. Keep repeating the layering process. Your singers will know the music better if you go over each song as many times as possible during a rehearsal.

Stan Endicott is Pastor of Worship at Mariners Church in Irvine, California and Director of Worship choir at Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, California. He is producer of the new Lillenas label, "Consuming Worship" and is part of the slingshotgroup.net consulting team.

Reprinted with permission from Worship Leader Magazine (May 2007 issue, vol.16, no.3)

www.worshipleader.com
www.songdiscovery.com

When Servants Forget [Articles]

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Kent Morris

“A worship team is a complex organization built on the frailties of human cooperation and bound together by the Spirit of God.”

I don’t know what to do. I’m not sure if I am right or if what he’s telling me is true. He seems so knowledgeable but it never works like he says it will.” Her words hung in the room like a hazer. In an all too common scenario, this gifted worship leader was relaying how her worshiptech was undermining her ministry. “The team is afraid to say anything to him for fear he will shut off our mics. He says we are responsible for setting up the sound system. Is that true?” I responded, “No, he is responsible for providing you an operating sound system. You have the authority and the obligation to correct the situation with him or replace him, if necessary. You are a servant, he is a sub-servant and his job is to provide you with an environment conducive to the service of worship.”

A few moments later, a worshiptech raised his hand and began to relay his story. “I work as a volunteer at my church providing the sound and video for the team. Typically, I’m there over twenty hours a week and strive to have everything ready for them before they show up. I’ve never been late and never asked for any help. However, the workload is becoming more than I can bear. A few weeks ago, I finally asked if they would mind assisting me with some of the heavier equipment and they laughed in my face. I’m hurt and don’t know what to do. I feel as though they consider me their janitor.”

Ultimate Privilege
A worship team is a complex organization built on the frailties of human cooperation and bound together by the Spirit of God. While all teams have their issues, one member out of line with the role God has given them can drive the entire team to a new breaking point. No one owns a ministry! It is God’s grace that allows us to be a part of His work on earth. Ministry is a privilege and like all privileges, it can be removed and given to another. Worshiptechs who understand this reality tend to treat their teams with the honor and respect due God’s servants. Naturally, spiritually mature teams reciprocate with love for the worshiptech. A healthy relationship between the stage and the booth is not only possible, but should be the norm, which is modeled throughout the service of worship.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, Paul establishes his authority to correct issues within the Church. He could have laid out his educational achievements, the fact that he had personally met Jesus, or his apostolic position. Instead, he chose to remind them of how he had behaved when he was with them. His behavior serves as a model for us as we seek to develop functional worship teams.

He sought to please God, not man. Worship teams who hunger after human approval will be disappointed when the approval fails to materialize.
He was entrusted with the gospel. Whether before five or 5,000, Paul clung to the eternity of the souls he encountered.
He sought no earthly glory. He did not need his name to be highlighted on the video screen.
He was a burden lifter. Paul asked how he could help others.
He was a gentle nurturer. He uses a nursing mother’s care for her newborn child as an example to describe the love we are to have for the drummer.
He labored night and day. He didn’t complain about a 6:00 a.m. call time to help load in the gear for the portable church service.
Paul treated each person as a father treats his own child. He didn’t favor the keyboardist over the guitarist simply because the guitarist wanted to change the set list.

One Accord
A willingness to abide by these principles will help bring restoration to our teams and renew our spirits. God longs for us to live in harmony and demonstrate unity while leading our communities in worship. One key element in a healthy team is mutual respect for the dignity of each person and their role. In Paul’s classic analogy of the Church as the parts of the body, he emphasizes the equal value each part holds to the body’s functions. In a worship team, the vocalists are not superior to the bassist, they are simply a flowering of the root built by the rhythm section.

The congregation will seldom notice a perfectly executed modulation, but they are somehow keenly aware of strife within the team. It is better to have peace in the band with improvable players than to have a house full of ringers with their own kingdoms.

Reprinted with permission from Worship Leader Magazine (October 2006 issue, vol.5, no.7, Kent Morris)

Worship Leader Magazine

Song Discovery

What is Worship? [Articles]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Dan Adler

A few years ago, within a few weeks' time, I had the opportunity to speak to students at three different Christian colleges in the Minneapolis area on the subject of worship. Most of these students had grown up in evangelical churches and many were headed toward full-time ministry. I began each class with the same question: "When you go to church, do you go to participate or to listen?" In all of these classes the answer was "Listen." Then I asked, "When you do participate, what do you do?" They said, "Sing." So, I asked, "When you sing, who do you sing to?" In all three classes, no one had an answer. So then I asked, "When you sing, why do you sing?" Again, no one had an answer.

On one hand, I thought those were some pretty shocking responses. But on the other hand, I wasn't surprised at all. I grew up in good, evangelical congregations in a great Christian family. I was in every service our church held. But based on my experiences, my answers would have been the same. My experience, and obviously that of these students, taught us that church was basically intended to be a preaching service with preliminaries. The musical preliminaries were meant to "set up" the sermon. Therefore, songs were picked that fit around the topic of the day and we didn't sing them to anyone in particular. We just sang them because it told us to in the bulletin. The special music or the choir number was meant to "speak to us" or "touch us" or maybe entertain us. Without saying it out loud, we were taught that we were the audience in church. We got the message that the reason we were there was to sit quietly, listen and learn. We thought that if you merely attended anything called a Worship Service, you had worshiped. But even though we got to hear and grow and learn from many wonderful sermons, most of us came away from our church experiences with no idea what it meant to really worship when we came to church.

So, if both these students and I had no idea of what it meant to worship, we shouldn't be surprised if many in our congregations don't either. We shouldn't be surprised if they blankly, passively participate. We shouldn't be surprised when they complain about singing too many songs or fight about what style of music we're using. We also shouldn't be surprised if they think they're worshipping just because they showed up. If we're going to be effective in leading our congregations in worship, we must teach them and help them understand what worship is and what it looks like in the scriptures. We're going to have to change the concept of church into being a time to meet with God - to praise, thank, worship and adore Him and listen to sermons!

One of the things that transformed my music ministry into a worship ministry was having a dictionary definition of worship to work with. If people have no clear definition of what they're supposed to be doing, and if the leadership can't clearly articulate it, all we'll have is confusion and frustration. The dictionary gives this definition of worship: "To ascribe worth to, to bow down to, to give homage to" God. Worship, then, is something we must do. It has a clear object or audience - God. It is not something we merely attend. Worship calls for action and the Psalms are filled with descriptions of what those actions look like. If we're to see real worship renewal in our congregations, we can't continue to let worship be defined by what happened in church last week or the week before, or even what we grew up with. We've got to lay a clear and biblical foundation for worship, calling our people to something new. Many, whose hearts are merely religious and cold, will hate it. But for so many others, their new understanding and experience of worship will feel like fresh air, liberation, intimacy, joy and a renewed passion for the Lord ... and
for going to church.

Dan Adler was minister of music and worship at the Church of the Open Door in Minneapolis, Minnesota for 11 years. He also has served as a part time member of Promise Keepers' ministry. The composer of more than 100 worship songs, Dan, along with his wife Sandy, now leads Heart of the City Ministries, an organization that promotes and leads monthly worship celebrations in the Twin Cities area.

Creativity, You, and the Law [Articles]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Terry Wilhite

Have you ever used somebody else's song or picture on your web site and wondered, "Do I really have permission to use this?!" While we're not here to provide specific legal advice, we can offer you some general guidelines, encourage you to seek specific legal counsel for your projects and point you to some resources to help you stay within the parameters of the law. Let's pull out a few letters from our mailbag and ask Alan Durham to respond to them. He is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama School of Law where he teaches courses in intellectual property.

From the mailbag

Q: On occasion I have put background music on some of the pages of my church web site, using simple MIDI files downloaded from the Internet. I checked with CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) and was told their license has no jurisdiction on the web. I checked with the webmasters of several sites that make these tunes available as MIDI files, and they claimed that there are no legal constraints on the use of the music since the MIDI arrangements are so different from the originals. I'm skeptical of that opinion, but can't find an authoritative answer that isn't in confusing legalese.

Alan Durham: Any kind of complicated copyright issue should be referred to a lawyer - and copyright issues that involve computers very often are complicated! I will say generally, though, that computer users such as web site operators need to be concerned about copyright issues when they are creating their own material from pre-existing materials. Text, photographs, videos, drawings and music are all potentially subject to copyright. Music can be a particular concern, because the song, the arrangement, and the performance may all be the subject of separate copyrights. In other words, even if the song you used is safely in the public domain, the recording you borrowed may not be. There is also more than one way to infringe a copyrighted piece of music. You can infringe by "copying" the music (e.g., downloading it to your own computer without permission), "performing" the music (by making it available on your web site for others to hear), or by creating a "derivative work" (such as your own new arrangement). Some uses for personal enjoyment in a non-profit setting may qualify as "fair use," which the law permits, but this is a very difficult area to define. A non-profit use may still be an infringing use. As for the reader's question, the skepticism here is justified. As long as the MIDI arrangement is "substantially similar" to the copyrighted tune, the arrangement may be an infringement. If you can still recognize the tune, chances are it is similar enough. You would be better off to use public domain tunes (maybe a hymn tune or a piece by Bach), turned into a MIDI arrangement by someone who is willing to give it away.

Q: I've written a song and want to copyright it. What do I need to do to get a copyright?
Alan Durham: Once the song is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression," it is automatically copyrighted. Writing the song down or storing it in a computer should suffice. There are advantages, however, to registering the copyright, such as the ability to bring a suit against an infringement. Registering a copyright requires filling out a form, paying a small fee and depositing a copy or two of your work. You can get the information you need on-line from the U.S Copyright Office (http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright).

Q: I'd like to perform songs written and copyrighted by other people and produce my own CD. Who do I obtain permission from to use these songs?

Alan Durham: Licenses to perform most copyrighted musical works can be obtained from organizations such as ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. Each performance rights organization has its own catalog of available works. BMI, Broadcast Music Incorporated (http://www.bmi.com), licenses more than 3,000,000 musical works in all styles of music. BMI licenses music for radio, television, cable, direct broadcast satellite, pay-per-view services, Internet content providers, web developers, as well as public venues such as restaurants. ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (www.ascap.com), is a similar organization. These organizations typically offer "blanket licenses," which, for a single fee, give the licensee the right to perform all of the works in that organization. Other web sites that may be of value include The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA) (http://www.nmpa.org/hfa.html, an information source, clearinghouse and monitoring service for licensing musical copyrights. Also, The Recording Industry Association of America (http://www.riaa.com/), a trade group for the recorded music that represents the interests of the recording industry. My favorite on-stop shop for help with copyright law is http://www.laderpress.com, where you'll find the book, Multimedia Law and Business Handbook and many other helpful resources.
Used by permission of Technologies for Worship Magazine, www.tfwm.com.

A Call to Worship [Articles]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Dan Whittemore

I am a worship leader and love very much the work God has called me to do. Every week I stand with brass players on my left, rhythm players on my right, singers behind me, a congregation before me and as the call to worship sounds, together we exalt God. Actually, I have the "best seat" in the house; I'm surrounded by glorious praise. And sometimes in the middle of all that's happening, I actually have an authentic worship experience - the kind I pray the congregation is having.

I know that the Lord is present, as He promised, but a personal, spiritual worship experience during a worship service is, for this worship leader, not always the case. Truthfully, some of my greatest worship experiences have not been in the corporate worship service. You see, I live close to the mountains and I love day hikes with my Bible. Invariably, these times of solitude and quiet are a blessing. There are no time limits, no song selection evaluations and no one complaining about the drums being too loud. It's just me and God. While I consider myself an extrovert, more and more I'm realizing my need for solitude with God. Sometimes I take my guitar to the mountains and as I read scripture and pray, a song is born.

A few years ago some friends and I were mountain climbing in northern California. This was a little more than my normal day hikes, but I brought along my Bible and my back-packing guitar and the adventure began. Three days into this fifty mile hike we arrived at my favorite lake. After setting up camp, a friend and I headed up a little higher for a real mountain top experience. Along the way, we became separated and found ourselves on separate peaks of the same mountain. In my attempt to reunite with him, I began descending a small 25 foot cliff, making my way to where he was. In the process, I lost my footing and wound up hanging by my hands over the edge of the cliff!

As I hung in the perilous predicament, the Psalm I had read that very morning flashed through my mind and echoed in my spirit: To You, O Lord, will I lift up my soul; in You I trust, O my God. I actually began laughing, realizing that my last experience on earth was to be a call to worship! God's word took melody in my heart and in time I was able to climb slowly back on top of the ridge, find my way back to camp, retrieve my guitar and finish a song of praise that was born of real life experience. This was God's call to worship for me and He was reminding me that worship is a way of life and can happen at any moment. Show me Your ways, O Lord, I thought. Teach me Your paths. I am a worship leader, but I think I enjoy being a worship follower even better.

The Online Church Musician - Internet Technology and Worship [Articles]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Larry Marchese

Internet technology, usually considered a great way to communicate with friends, and find product information, is changing the way to find, evaluate, buy, and even listen to music for praise and worship. Affordable and easy-to-use music software for creating and posting music online, along with advances in file streaming and increasing availability of high speed Internet connections allow anyone to make their music available to the world. This allows you to share your music with anyone with Internet access, and lets others share with you. Publishing companies have taken advantage of this as well.

The growth of music on the Internet has been prodigious, including music for worship. Hundreds of sites feature songs and sheet music for listening, viewing and downloading. Recent technologies allow the secure distribution of scores, giving worship leaders and church musicians more resources than ever before. Publishing sheet music on the Internet is not a new development. For several years, church musicians have posted scores as graphic or PDF files, often with accompanying sound files. This is an effective way to distribute sheet music, but standard PDFs and graphic files are static images and can require considerable storage space. The file formats themselves are not secure -- anyone can freely download and distribute them. Publishers and composers concerned about copyright protection cannot use these formats for publishing their music.

Over the last few years, music notation software and digital rights management companies have developed viewer/player formats that are interactive AND offer file security. Several different programs are freely available from companies such as Sibelius, Igor and Sunhawk. These new programs offer plug-ins that easily install in Internet browsers and offer end-users more control over music viewing and playback. For example, Sibelius' Scorch plug-in allows the user to change playback options, browse through the score, slow down or speed up the tempo, transpose the piece to another key, change a solo instrument and print the music. Most importantly for publishers, the format is secure - the user never gets a digital copy of the score, only a print-out that is authorized by the publisher's server.

Music publishers, distributors and retailers are now using online distribution to supplement their traditional "hard copy" sales. Publishers are finding that digital delivery is ideal for several types of music, especially guitar and vocal song sheets, handbell music, keyboard music, choral works and instrument parts. Publishers are also realizing significant economic advantages -- the costs of production, storage and distribution are a fraction of traditional publishing's costs. These savings can be handed down to the musicians and worship leaders who purchase the music. Church musicians and publishers also benefit from expanded catalogs and increased availability of music. Once a score is created and posted it will probably never go out-of-print. Publishers can increase their offerings by publishing music online that would be too expensive (or risky) to print traditionally. Music for niche markets, special occasions and seasonal events can be instantly available anywhere in the world.

As catalogs of digitized scores and lyrics increase, publishers and distributors are making it easier and faster for worship leaders to find good music. Search engines enable anyone to locate music for any group, style or service. Music ministers can search for music according to the liturgical calendar, the requirements or skill level of a particular ensemble, a particular Biblical passage or a lyric. (For an example, see Church Music Now's search engine on their new website, www.churchmusicnow.com.) Once a piece is located, it may be transposed to the singer's favorite key before being purchased and printed. Or if a particular instrument is not available, another one may be instantly substituted.

Internet publishing is not just for publishers -- individual church musicians and worship leaders are also taking advantage of online distribution. David McKay, a worship leader and writer in Franklin, TN, uses Internet technologies to exchange files and share scores with eleven other worship leaders at Belmont Church in Nashville. Their scores can be instantly available to one another as well as to the community at large. Several composers and arrangers post their music on their websites, send parts to other musicians and share songs for worship worldwide. If a church or music minister does not have a web site, they can take advantage of free sites on the Internet to publish their music. Some of the most popular hosts allow anyone to create their own website and post scores to sell or give away for free. For example, Sibelius Software offers free websites at SibeliusMusic.com, where there are over 3,350 scores in the "Church and Religious" category. (www.sibeliusmusic.com/genres/church_and_religious/) In addition to distributing scores and parts online, music ministers and worship leaders are using Internet publishing to prepare singers and musicians for services. Practice scores can be customized for instrumental parts or sections and posted on a website. Members of a choir can listen to an entire piece, or practice their section with other voices. For an example, see Worship Today's "virtual rehearsal room" at www.worshiptoday.com/sibelius/rehearsal_select_song.asp. Online publishing is an ideal use of the Internet - it makes resources available and affordable to the greatest number of people. Church musicians are grasping this new technology, using it in innovative ways to "Sing His Praises" and spread music for worship.

Used by permission of Technologies for Worship Magazine, www.tfwm.com

Jesus' Model for Team Building [Articles]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Jesus developed His disciples into a highly effective force for righteousness that changed the world forever. From Jesus' first calls for the disciples to join Him until the last frightening good-byes on the Mount of Transfiguration, He used the events and time they shared together to build these men into a leadership team for the Early Church—a leadership team that impacted the world.

Jesus drafted ordinary people. He developed them beyond their fondest dreams and produced some of the most effective leaders the Church has ever known.

Jesus called the disciples to an incredible goal. He wanted them to win their world, a goal that required them to be in top shape spiritually. To get them ready for their incredible conquest, Jesus kindled a team spirit inside them that would not quit, even when they fumbled the ball.

Jesus helped the disciples grow through Christian service. His disciples increased their impact on the world when they stopped watching from the sidelines and actually went onto the field to participate in the action. He showed them and us that when team members leave the stands and move onto the playing field, they automatically create positive peer pressure that keeps them and others at the task.

Jesus gave the disciples intense on-the-job training. Each day Jesus put His disciples through strenuous spiritual workouts. Their conditioning took place in a mobile training camp. Their classrooms included hillsides, roadways, and seashores-once they were in a boat in the middle of a lake. Jesus frequently used the Old Testament as their playbook. To get them in shape, our Lord drilled them on the fundamentals of love, forgiveness, transformation, dependence on God, and holy living. Jesus shaped their perspectives and stretched their souls for effective service.

Serving on a church decision-making team can radically change a person!

How to Use Creativity to Increase Effectiveness [Articles]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

How to Use Creativity to Increase Effectiveness
   Many pastors have given up on creativity, thinking it is a special gift for the talented few. Not true. Everyone has some creative power and it can be increased by using what you have. Besides, the Holy Spirit—creative agent without rival—is eager to help you find new ways to gain the Gospel a hearing! Consider these approaches:
   1. Look everywhere for ideas that will work in ministry. It was said of Peter Drucker that he saw connections between ideas in many fields that he used in management.
   2. Share a need or problem with a colleague—ask what they would do if they were you.
   3. Ask yourself what would happen if you turned existing practices upside down.
   4. Conventional practice should not be rejected just because it is conventional. New ideas should not be accepted just because they are new. Can the two be merged?
   5. Innovate by translating the new ideas of others into your unique setting. Many new ideas don ’t work because we don’t work them.
   6. Consider the unusual. With a bit of refinement, ideas that at first seem outlandish can provide ideal solutions.
   Creativity is not rocket science, it’s fitting ideas together in news ways. That's something we all can do!

The Other Half of Being a Worship Leader [Articles]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Steve Bowersox

One half of being a worship leader is being a leader. If you’re like most, however, you’ve spent most of your time perfecting the musical gifts that God has given you. As you’ve done that, you’ve been promoted and now find yourself leading not just worship, but the congregation and the music team as well. The good news is that leadership skills can be learned, and God’s Word has much to say about how to lead.

As a fellow worship leader, one of my favorite leadership verses is found in Titus 2:15 - Thus speak, exhort, reprove with all impressiveness. Let no one make light of your authority (Weymouth Modern Translation). Paul was writing to one of his young leaders when he penned those words, and they hold some important principles as you work to become the worship leader God wants you to be.

Let’s examine these principles.
1) Speak – Communicate your goals with the choir, orchestra, ensemble and music team. But you can’t communicate your goals for the worship ministry if you have none. Ask yourself what you want to accomplish this year. How many new songs will you introduce? What instruments do you want to add to the team? Who do you want to train to fill in for you when you’re absent?

Then solicit input and vision from your pastor. Find out what upcoming ministry topics will be explored and try to introduce songs that will flow with the pastor’s direction. From all this, develop some clear goals and spell them out for your team. Then let your team members share with you what their goals are. Discover who has a goal to lead worship, to write new songs for the congregation, or to lead the choir. This will take you to the second principle found in Titus 2:15. . .

2) Exhort - In his book The One Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard stressed the need to catch employees doing something good and to encourage them. The same holds true for the worship leader. Exhort your team by encouraging them profusely and regularly. Ed Cole has taught that words either build up or tear down; there is no in between.

I’ve found that fear and intimidation hold back many musicians as well as congregational
worshipers. Help them work through that fear so they can minister effectively. Paul told Timothy to stir up the gifts within you ( 2 Timothy 1:6). As leaders, that’s part of our job. Leaders are only leaders because people follow them. And people tend to follow those who encourage them, making room for them and their gifts. If we encourage them, we forfeit some of our leadership. If we’re afraid to get involved and exhort, then we’re also going to avoid the final principle Paul shared with Titus. . .

3) Reprove-- You probably lead some gifted people. But lack of integrity or faithfulness will in the long run undermine their gifts. We need to reprove those we work with without fear of losing them. If we build meaningful relationships with them, this process will be much easier because they will know for certain that we love them.

Once a young man on my worship team was a great bass guitar player, though habitually late. I had to make a decision: Would I look the other way and hope he would improve? Or would I get involved and reprove him? I chose the latter option and sat down with him for a heart-to-heart talk. Then I bought him a watch, set it fifteen minutes fast and asked him to follow it. He clearly understood that his continued tardiness was hampering our effectiveness and would ultimately cost him a place on the team. This young man improved so much that when he met a special young lady some time later, she shared with us that one of the things she appreciated most about him was his punctuality! Today he leads a band of his own. Worship leadership is complete when those we work with are changed.

I urge you to follow the example Paul laid out for Titus: speak, exhort and reprove. Improve your people skills as you endeavor to lead God’s people into His presence. As you do, your gifts and your skills will work together to make you an effective worship leader for the Kingdom of God.

Steve Bowersox is the founding executive director of Worship International and the Bowersox Institute of Music. He is associate pastor and worship leader at Christ the Redeemer Church in Jacksonville, Florida. Steve travels around the world teaching on worship as a lifestyle, leadership, and musical excellence.

Essential Qualities of Leadership [Articles]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Oswald J. Sanders

Oswald Sanders, in his classic book, Spiritual Leadership, offers this mind-stretching sentence . . . "God prepares leaders with a specific place and task in mind." A specific task and place? Doesn’t that sound like you and your church? Why not think of creative ways to apply this list to you and your church board?

•         Discipline—A leader is a person who has learned to obey a discipline imposed from without, and then has taken on a more rigorous discipline from within. Those who rebel against authority and scorn self-discipline—who shirk from the rigors and turn from sacrifices—do not qualify to lead (p. 52).

•         Vision—Those who have most powerfully and permanently influenced their generation have been "seers"—people who have seen more and farther than others—persons of faith, for faith is vision. A leader must be able to see the end results of the policies and methods he or she advocates (p. 56).

•         Wisdom—If knowledge is the accumulation of facts, and intelligence the development of reason, wisdom is heavenly discernment. It is insight into the heart of things. Wisdom involves knowing God and the subtleties of the human heart ( p. 57).

•         Decision—When all the facts are in, swift and clear decision is the mark of a true leader. A visionary may see, but a leader must decide (p. 58).

•         Courage—God calls leaders to be of good courage and not to capitulate to fear. Courage is that quality of mind which enables people to encounter danger or difficulty firmly, without fear or discouragement (p. 59).

•         Humility—Christ told his disciples to turn away from the pompous attitudes of the oriental despots, and instead take on the lowly bearing of a servant. The spiritual leader will choose the hidden path of sacrificial service and approval of the Lord over the flamboyant self-advertising of the world (p. 61).

•         Integrity and Sincerity—God wants His people to show a transparent character, open and innocent of guile. Paul spoke of his failures and successes with an openness few of us are prepared to copy (p. 62).

Preparing Your Team for the Worship Service [Articles]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

John Chevalier

Preparation. Sounds simple. Right? We all know that we need to be prepared to lead our congregation in worship; however, when we think of preparation we naturally go to the technical, musical and organizational issues. I have to confess that for years this is exactly how I led our worship ministry. The church referred to us as the "Worship and Music Department" and that's exactly who we were, a department. We were not a ministry, nor a team by definition. We did an excellent job at providing "music" for our services, but what we lacked was a sense of purpose. A cause to live for, or should I say die for! A cause that was worth everything we have. Like the cause that Jesus came for. Jesus came to restore a broken relationship that humanity had with the Almighty Creator of the universe. (That thought still gives me chills!) We didn't have a cause because "I", as the leader, didn't have a cause. I didn't see my job as a facilitator of divine relationships.

I didn't see myself as one who helped people connect with God. I was a music director and I may as well have been working for IBM. The first step in preparing your worship team for your weekly service is being prepared yourself. It all starts right here... The team will not go farther than the leader. This sounds pretty obvious, however it's not a slam-dunk. Our personal preparation as worship leaders is paramount to the success (if I can use that term) of the entire worship experience. Note that I didn't say "service". We can pull off events totally in the flesh. If we're going to be real honest here, most skilled worship leaders don't "need" a lot of personal preparation to pull off an event (the service), however, we are not event coordinators we are servants of the Almighty God. Self-Preparation and Team-Preparation begins with having a sense of mission, a cause, a sense of purpose for being on this earth.

In my early years of worship ministry the majority of my time was spent in conflict resolution and peace keeping (Can any of you Worship Leaders relate to this?). I had accepted the fact that if I was going to lead a church music department, I was destined to be continually fielding complaints from team members, after all they are the creative, artistic, gifted ones and need a lot of extra TLC. I was working very hard and doing pretty much everything in my power to create a community in our worship ministry, but no matter what I did, it wasn't working. I was very successful at creating a musical organization within a local church, but as far as a community was concerned, it didn't look like anything modeled in New Testament Christianity. At one juncture in my ministry, as I did every year, I spent a week in the fall preparing for the next year. This process included looking at various Christmas and Easter programs, putting together the worship department budget, plotting out various dates on the church calendar and in most cases praying about a specific team member (different every year) who was causing me higher than normal blood pressure.

This particular year was different though. This year I was having more than my share of conflict resolution issues on the worship team. I was truly considering resigning, changing careers, and doing something comparatively safe, like disarming explosives. Anyhow, when I began to ask myself, why I was doing what I was doing it became really clear to me that I didn't have a clue why I was doing what I was doing. Yeah, I know Jesus died for me and gave me a musical gift so, as any good Christian would; I was serving Him with it. That's the standard stewardship answer. Give back to God what He has given to you. Well, sounds spiritual and all, but in reality it does nothing for Kingdom building. Jesus said; Go and make disciples of all nations." He said; Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Neither of these had anything to do with music, but those words stirred in my heart. I longed to be a part of the larger vision. Why was I the worship pastor at our church? How did my "job" fit into the larger picture of kingdom building? I didn't know. My passion for serving Jesus was gone, and I couldn't even tell you when it left. In a few short days the use of my musical gifts became clear. I was to use what God had given me to bring people into relationship with the Lord Jesus, Himself. In other words, I was no longer to see myself as a musician, but as a facilitator. Worship Leaders are facilitators in the spiritual realm. We have the same calling on our life as does every other Christian. We are to make disciples. We do that, in part, by bringing people into an interactive worship experience through music. Having this as a baseline, it totally changed how I led our worship team and how we prepared for the service.

Now, before you go throwing out the baby with the bathwater, let's remember that we ARE musicians for the Lord and we need to prepare musically. The charts need to be arranged, planning needs to be done and rehearsals need to take place. The changes that needed to be made were in how we approached our musical planning and preparation. First of all we did a "check up from the neck up". In other words I changed the way our team was mentally prepared for the service. I did this by taking the mission statement of our church and talking with the worship team about it. We talked about what our purpose was and how our ministry added to the disciple-making process. (And while I was doing this, I was fully aware that I was helping the team to be a more effective disciple as well). This little exercise did two things for us, neither of which I expected. First it boosted morale and began to create authentic community within the team. Each member began to take their eyes off of themselves and see us as a unit. A team. Working together. Remember, earlier when I said I worked real hard at trying to create community? What I was unable to do through community building times, God accomplished when I took the time to show the team their purpose, a larger cause and a deeper meaning for what we did each week. The second thing that happened is I no longer had problems with individuals on the team. The ones that were causing me the greatest headaches, either became totally committed to the cause, or they left the team, because they really believed that it was all about music and didn't want a part of the larger vision. Although that wasn't my goal, I certainly allowed them to move on. Secondly, after changing our mental outlook on things we really focused on our own spiritual preparation. After our Sunday morning sound check and rehearsal, we would pull away for prayer.

Many times I find that worship teams pray in such a way to just kill time. We pray because we think that we have to. We seem to believe that saying certain words to God before the service makes all the difference in the world. Well, let's be honest here. God will not be manipulated by vain words and self motivated requests. God meets us in worship only when we are obedient and truly seeking Him out with a pure heart. On a regular basis I would tell our team (just before getting up on the platform); "Rehearsal is over. Now take your gift and worship the Lord with it. Let's give Him an excellent offering. Remember that you are not playing for the people this morning, you are playing for Royalty." With these minor adjustments we were able to build an excellent music ministry while letting go of things such as our pursuit of a smooth service, perfectionism, and wanting to be effective. Even though we really desired all of these things, what I found was that being prepared in the "right way" allowed the Holy Spirit to accomplish the things that needed to be accomplished on His own. It was through this that allowed us, as a team, to not be so focused on the distractions of leading and worrying about how the service would look or sound. I was free to worship, and even more free, to listen to His voice as I led. Taking the main focus off the music allowed us to be open to God's power, open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and through that impart a blessing on the people. The Psalmist wrote; Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24) When our heart is right before the Lord, it's truly amazing what He will do through people. So many times we use a model that eliminates God's power from our main objective. I challenge you to look at how you view both your personal preparation and that of your team and make some adjustments. NASCAR mechanics will tell you that minor adjustment can make the difference between winning and losing a race. Let's run to win, so that the Lord would be real in the lives of the people who attend our worship services.

Used by permission of Technologies for Worship Magazine, www.tfwm.com

Eight Necessities for Growth as a Musician [Articles]

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Rich Severson

Would you like to be a better musician? Don't know how to improve? Through years of teaching I have discovered similar characteristic study habits in myself and other successful students. Here are the basic concepts that seem to set them above the pack. Follow them and you will become a more valuable asset to your worship team. Share them with the other members of your worship team and raise the level of musicianship of the entire team.

PLAN: You know how you'd like to sound so how are you going to get there? Map out a plan for yourself on how to improve your skill, knowledge and creativity. Plan exactly what you are going to work on each day. Decide how much time you will spend practicing fundamentals, theory, songs, licks, writing, etc. Most players fall short of reaching their playing goals not because they don't practice but because they don't practice the right stuff the right way. Find a good teacher or a systematic instruction program (like GuitarCollege.com) that will help you reach your playing goals. Stick with the plan, stay focused and keep on track.

PRACTICE: In order to grow and improve as a musician you must practice on a regular basis or your skills will back slide. Discipline yourself to keep a consistent (key word) schedule of frequent practice sessions. Practice time is when you explore and master new ideas, not play the same things you already know and always play. It's important to find the right material that will take your playing and knowledge to the next level. It should be well organized, thoroughly explained, demonstrated and played for you (at multiple speeds if possible). Too many players learn bits and pieces of a lot of different things but don't know how to put all the information together to make it useable in their playing. It is not important for these practice session to be long, just consistent, frequent and productive. To make the most of your practice times read the ten steps to effective practicing below.

PRINCIPLES AND IDEAS: Open yourself up to new musical ideas and concepts. Make the effort to learn and fully understand essential harmony and theory and how it relates to your instrument. Always listen for something new or different than you're used to, licks, chords, voicings, fingerings, etc. and acquaint yourself with a variety of musical styles like jazz or classical. New ideas keep you in the learning mode, challenge you and fuel your enthusiasm. When you get locked into the same old things over and over you can't learn or grow and you become bored and frustrated. Music is far from boring and at any level there are so many new and exciting things to experience if you just "Keep an open ear".

PERFORMANCE: Learn to apply your developing skills out in the real world of music. You can play for your friends and family, at church, rehearsals, jam sessions, gigs, recording, or wherever else you may have the opportunity to play in front of others. The point is "Use it or lose it!" Try to perform weekly if possible, even if it's just for your family, or if necessary record yourself and play it for friends or co-workers. It makes you accountable for your musical growth and it gives you the motivation to learn something new or improve what you've been working on. You can usually find some place to play even if it's for free. Many libraries, coffee houses, bookstores, music stores, churches, parks, etc. have some sort of an open mic session, showcase or local concert where you can perform. Performing in front of others is where the joy of playing music is at it's highest level.

MAKE MUSICIAN FRIENDS: Musician friends can be a tremendous asset to improving your playing. You have music in common and you can help and encourage each other. This is another great source of accountability for improvement. Make the first move in making music friends; don't wait for someone else to approach you. Many musicians seem snobby at first because they are usually insecure about playing. Break the ice, cut through the bull, ignore the attitude, lay aside your own defenses, offer a sincere compliment and try to make a new friend. You both may benefit greatly from your encounter even if it doesn't turn out to be the music buddy you were looking for. Make as many friends as you can with musicians on both a higher and lower level than yourself. This networking can be a source of future bands, gigs, knowledge, support, accountability and friendship for both of you.

SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE: Not only show others what you know, offer to teach it to them if they ask or are interested. Not just the little things you always play, but your prize licks and tricks that you worked so hard to figure out. Share the secret discoveries you think no one else knows about, the very things that you think set you apart as a player. Clean out the store house and don't be greedy. If they know what you know you'll be hungry to learn more to stay ahead of the pack and you'll need some new "Stuff" to show them next time you meet. Never be stingy with your books, lessons, tapes and knowledge. It will make you feel good to help someone else play a little better and it will inspire you to improve and share more. In turn you'll meet musicians who are willing to share with you and what you share will be returned to you ten fold. Start a guitar or music club at church. Play a little worship and discuss the nuts and bolts of the music, groove, feel scales, chords, or stretch out of your comfort zone and work on some theory.

PERSEVERE: The most successful musicians are not always the most talented. They're the ones who keep at it relentlessly. Don't give up, just remember that at one time your music hero, whomever that might be, played just like you do right now. Don't compare yourself to others. There will always be someone better than you (and worse than you) and who knows more than you. Let them be an inspiration to you, not a stumbling block.

PRAY: Pray that you can play skillfully before the Lord. For all of us this is the most important step of all. We can do all things with God's help; He is our Strength, our Joy and our Song! Be the best you can be to glorify Him more.

Too many players spend a fortune on instruments and equipment hoping that will improve their playing. What a disappointment! If you're serious about being a better player find the right material and get to work.
Used by permission of Technologies for Worship Magazine, www.tfwm.com.

Team Planning: Planning Strategy [Articles]

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Len Wilson

Every Sunday, sports fans all across the country crowd around television sets to watch one of America's favorite past times: professional football. Why it's such an exciting way to spend three hours is unknown. Maybe it's the food, or the fancy uniforms, or maybe it's just the thrill of watching a group of men function as a unit.

Whether in last place or first, no team would dream of taking the field without a plan in place. Players don't wait to decide who's taking what position when they huddle up for the first time on the field. Each role is defined long before the season starts. They train hard together and when they've done their work and know their role, on game day when the whistle blows, each player is free to have fun doing what he does best. Knowing what job to do and how to execute it is what makes teams work.

If your worship design team were about to play the big game, would you know what your position is? What about the others on the team? If your team has no game plan, you may find yourselves running in circles, and most likely finishing with a losing record.

Game plans don't just come together, for football or for worship. They are the result of a group of players, each with defined roles, working out their designs ahead of time. This can be a difficult process. As opposed to the veto power one planner has when creating worship in isolation, working in a group of people is not as easily controlled. Like in every small group, dynamics evolve. Some individuals, more introverted in nature, may stay quiet in the midst of brainstorming and interaction. Others may gravitate toward different functions that suit their giftedness.

Team roles are one of the most important aspects of team development. If you've never taken the time to define roles, this article is for you. Whether putting together a brand new team, or working with one that's been in place a while, roles need to be defined in a way that everyone understands.

Why are roles so important?
For one, if everyone has a vital role to play, then everyone feels ownership for the team. Disgruntled football players are often ones who don't feel their contribution is being acknowledged. They feel they don't have a vital role to play. When everyone feels ownership, individual agendas become team agendas. When individuals are able to drop their own preferences and focus on what is best for the team, the first step to a functioning team occurs.

Roles also help in the creative process. When roles are clearly defined and understood, teams are freed up to focus on creativity and brainstorming, and not on who is doing what for each meeting. In our experience in worship team planning, once roles are defined, there is often a noticeable sentiment of relief felt within the team regarding how the brainstorming will translate to the service being implemented. In other words, no one is worried that all of the creative stuff is going to get lost or forgotten once the meeting is over because each person knows what he or she is responsible for.

Assigning roles in a team is necessary to ensure avoidance of the dreaded "peanut gallery," where some members of the team implement the ideas generated in a planning meeting, and other members get to shoot holes in their creations at the next gathering. We have seen more than one team suffer because of a dynamic where some people have specific roles and others don't.

Avoid Gatekeepers
Be cautious, though, about roles becoming a roadblock to creativity. Every role or area of responsibility must be seen as an area of leadership where others are welcome to give input. People who function in these roles should not act as gatekeepers, making decisions in an area of expertise whether an idea is acceptable or not. The group decisions of the team must supercede individual preferences.

Each role should be assigned to help guide discussion in a particular area, not shut it down, so there can be no gatekeeper mentalities within the team. Musicians, graphic artists, and pastors alike must learn to share their area of expertise when it comes to creative input if the team is to succeed.

This is difficult to accept for many people to accept—particularly, for some reason, musicians. It's been said that the difference between a church music director and a terrorist is that one can negotiate with a terrorist. (Not that we ever said that, of course!)

Veto power only comes in when the team member is unable to create what the team has dreamed together. It is his or her job to honestly assess their ability to create an idea, not whether they want to or not. Regardless of the role, it is the job of every member of the team to represent the team's decisions to the best of his or her ability.

Team Roles
So, what are the roles? The makeup of your team's roles may vary according to your own unique context, but here is a starting point for thinking about the specific needs that must be present in a worship team.

Roles are not people. Some teams can have two or three people filling all of the necessary roles, other teams as many as ten. Brainstorming studies have shown that an ideal creative team has between 4-7 people, each serving at least one of these roles and some serving at least two.

Preacher
Every team needs to have a preacher. This may seem like a no-brainer. But we have witnessed many teams attempt to function without one.

Some preachers, citing other demands on time, will send notes to a meeting in lieu of themselves. One team's preacher did just this, saying that he had an important small group meeting to attend, so the notes would serve as a proxy, of sorts. The team planned as usual, without their pastor's presence, developing concepts that made sense in the context of their brainstorming session. But when the preacher saw the image the team had designed the next Sunday morning on screen, he was confused, saying he had no clue what it meant and couldn't integrate it.

The team tried again the next week without the preacher's presence, and when he saw the image the following weekend he adamantly refused to use it, saying it represented a concept that was directly opposed to his intent.

After two consecutive failures, the team's preacher realized his presence was necessary for the team to function well. He realized that pieces of paper don't talk back. In a brainstorming session, it's necessary for the seed ideas to be represented and healthy dialogue to occur around them, and for the one doing the preaching to be present in order to confirm his or her ability to integrate the concepts into the message.

A team may also consider having a second preacher on the team. Let's assume the first-string preacher doesn't intend to serve 52 Sundays a year. What happens when the back up preacher enters the mix? One without any team knowledge seriously hinders the ability of the team to do its job, but a back up preacher who has been on the team is able to fill the role without too much disruption in the development process.

Bandleader
This person is the head musician and represents all of the music portions of the worship experience. They are an absolutely critical part of any functioning worship team. Since music is such a large and vital part of most worship services, musical choices that don't fit what the team designs can disrupt the entire planning process.

We've seen much resistance from musicians in the past to allow others to participate in the song selection process, but this is an obstacle that must be overcome. Ideally, a creative team designing one cohesive service would choose music that compliments the theme for the day. If the service focuses on purity, then songs of purity (such as "Create in Me a Clean Heart") make more sense than songs of adoration. Utilizing all of the team members in the selection process makes for a wider array of choices.

Note that we intentionally avoid using the term "worship leader," out of a desire to move away from thinking of the music portion of the corporate time as worship, and toward thinking of the entire experience as worship.

Producer
The producer is the most important role in worship development that many teams don't have. The person fulfilling this role is an overseer—the guardian of the theme, if you will. It's worth mentioning again here that no one, including the producer, is to act a gatekeeper for ideas. The producer is the point person and is given the task to provide leadership in every area of worship development, from music to media to preaching, to ensure that the main idea of the service is present and that the various elements fit together into one seamless experience. This may happen in the meeting, but typically happens more so outside the design meeting. In our experience, teams that function well are often managed by the producer (as opposed to the preacher or some other party). It is important that this function is truly about management, not micromanagement. Nothing kills the spirit of the team worse than over-managing every detail of the process.

Outside of the meeting, the producer empowers, equips and coordinates with the various staff and volunteer groups who have a hand in implementing the team's design. He or she may also act as the director of what can be a chaotic scene on the day of worship and manages a variety of tasks from directing the technical rehearsal to touching base with media, altar, music, drama and other groups to help take care of last minute details.

To be the leader of the team is not to be the creative decision maker. While in some situations, creative direction is a necessary part of the role's leadership, it is not the job of the producer to advance a personal creative agenda, but to lead implementation of what the team decided as a group.

Some larger churches have a staff person with the title of "Creative Director," "Worship Arts Pastor," or the like. The person with this title is organizationally an ideal choice for the producer role.

Writer
Themes, metaphors, and other techniques used to integrate the various elements of worship together don't just emerge on their own. They must be intentionally cultivated prior to the live worship setting to make sure they are clear and understood to the congregation. This is where a writer comes in.

Writers pen specific language that helps to bridge metaphors to ideas and makes themes evident. These connections can occur in a call to worship time, within musical sets, during prayer, as a part of a sermon, in drama, and in a variety of other ways. During these times, have specific language prepared for the speaker to use.

Some churches avoid reading pre-written words. If you're a part of such a congregation, having a writer doesn't mean changing your style. Many churches use a writer to create "talking points," then allow the speaker to improvise while at the same time hitting on the key words that keep a worship service cohesive.

Technical Director
The tech director is the team's representative for all things media, including sound, lighting, projector and stage. Because of the technical challenges often associated with planning big ideas on short notice, this person is frequently under much job performance pressure. This can cause some grumpiness in the team meeting, and may also result in taking creative shortcuts. The disgruntled tech director might look for ways to not accomplish the big ideas that are generated if they are approaching burnout. Good communication and plenty of lead-time on major changes will ease the pressure and frustration felt by the tech director.

Additionally, the gatekeeper concern is often present for the person filling this role. The challenge is to stay upbeat and energized to accomplish what is both technically feasible, and sometimes, seemingly impossible.

Creative People
A good team also has a number of people with specific creative skills. These can range from video production to graphic arts, drama, and much more. Len's current team has someone whose creative skill is an incredible knowledge of movies. For any topic this member can name two or three great movie clips. The specific creative talents on your team will be unique and a reflection of your church community. Learn to not worry about talents unavailable to your team and to focus on improving the skills that are available.

New Believer
A role that many teams never consider is that of a new believer. Even without knowing it, many worship planners and pastors infuse a churchy or "Christian-ese" language into the written, spoken and visual Word. This creates a problem for unchurched or slightly churched visitors who are not well versed in this strange tongue.

One visitor remarked that he thought church was going to end with a card game after hearing the pastor say that they would partake in Holy Eucharist later in the service. This of course means communion to those of us who know the language, but for someone new to faith, it can be a confusing concept.

New believers help worship designers put the message into layman's terms. They can help flesh out hard to grasp concepts and they can bring new perspectives that make the message stronger. If there are terms used in the design meeting that don't make sense to the outsider, the new believer can help identify them to be changed, or at the very least to be explained in a new way.

Other roles may either play an important part of the team or occur outside the planning session, including a scribe (someone gifted at writing down all of the team's ideas and disseminating them to everyone later) and a display guru (someone who creates altar displays each week that reflect the day's theme and metaphor). If you have additional roles that are vital to your team, write us at mail@midnightoilproductions.net and let us know.

Huddle up with your team, determine roles, and pretty soon you'll find your playbook expanding in ways you never knew possible! Roles can make all the difference in the way your team functions and how many successes you achieve.
"Used by permission of Technologies for Worship magazine, www.tfwm.com."

Let God Sell the Gospel [Articles]

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Steven Fry

Every week millions of earnest sales personnel do their best to coax consumers into buying. From the eager, young clerk selling shoes at a mall to the whiz kids of Madison Avenue, they constantly look for new ways to sell a product. Some spend their time designing new ways of presenting their wares, enthused not so much with their product, but rather with the stunning packaging they hope will attract new customers. Others put their energy into dazzling ad campaigns, hoping to arouse interest by creating new spins on the product. Still others spend a great deal of time studying the consumer himself - what kind of atmosphere will put him in the mood to buy; what kind of approaches a sales person should take to secure a purchase; what perks should be offered to increase the chances of a bite.

As a church, we have sometimes approached evangelism and worship in the same way. We've tried 101 ways to repackage the Gospel; we've sponsored snazzy campaigns to arouse interest in our message; we've tried to attract seekers by enhancing our programs and services, from specialized care ministries to the very best in facilities. Surely, these pursuits are right and appropriate. But at the end of the day, what will infuse us with passion to share the Good News is to rediscover the thrill of God himself.

Worship and praise sensitizes us to the presence of the Kingdom of God. Remember, the Kingdom really means Christ's rule. Wherever Jesus is in charge, the Kingdom of God is manifest. In Psalm 22:3 we read, The Lord inhabits the praises of His people. That passage
is better understood, The Lord's rulership is experienced wherever God's people praise Him. Several years ago, as I was conducting evangelism campaigns around the country, I spear-headed an outreach in Washington, DC. With over two hundred kids, we targeted a park riddled with violence. We had been ministering at this park for just a little while when we realized we were confronting very real demonic powers. As many of us attempted to share our faith, we were rebuffed with threats and obscenities. At that point, we felt the Lord directing us to gather the musicians in the center of the park to simply worship Him. As we worshiped, the whole atmosphere of that park dramatically changed. Within a half hour, what had been a bastion of violence became an oasis of peace, as students began to share the love of Christ. Twelve people gave their hearts to Him that afternoon. And we learned a powerful lesson: as we praise the Lord, demonic spirits do indeed flee and the presence of Jesus does come to bear on that locale in that situation for that period of time.

Worship and praise is often the way God garners the "first fruits" of the harvest. For example, 3,000 people were added to the Church on that celebrated Pentecost day recorded in Acts 2. But was it due to the effective preaching of Peter alone? No, for Peter's inspired sermon came on the heels of an explosion of praise and worship. The Holy Spirit had filled the disciples, and they began to speak in other languages declaring the wonders of God! They were worshiping God! The curiosity of many was aroused and Peter's sermon simply threw out the net to catch the fish. Likewise, when Joshua took Jericho, he did it not by his military prowess, but by simply marching around her walls in obedience to God's word. And when, on the seventh day, their march was complete, the Bible says they lifted up a shout. No doubt that shout was an exclamation of praise to God's greatness. The walls collapsed and the victory was won. In both these instances a praising people were central to God's strategy of evangelism. Yes, there were going to be campaigns and crusades calling for detailed planning and conventional tactics, but at the outset in both Acts and Joshua, it was as if God was saying that effective evangelism is not a matter of the panache of our programs or the strength of our skills, but the release of God's power. A lifestyle of worship tethers us to this truth.

Steven Fry is a conference speaker, author, worship leader and songwriter who songs include "Oh, the Glory of Your Presence," "Jesus, You Are My Life," and "Oh, I Want to Know Your More," This article is adapted from the Lighthouse Movement Handbook, compiled by Dr. Cornell Hahn, ©1999. Reprinted by permission of Multnomah Publisher, Inc.

Band In Conflict? [Articles]

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Tom Lane

In seminars and conferences around the world I hear from leaders and band members many of the same ?'s regarding how to deal with conflicts. So I thought I'd spend some lines on the subject.

One thing that should set Christian musicians apart from the rest is how they handle conflict and the attitude they have in general. In past articles I've spoken of how we need to approach all of life and our music as servants-that's what caused Jesus to stand out. If you want to stand out learn how to manage conflicts well! In worship it's not that we can't be human with all our stuff but the bar is higher for those who strive to reflect a humble and Christ-like spirit!

What do you do if...

There's a weak player in the band?

Fire them! No, actually someone make it their personal aim to help them improve and make constructive suggestions in private! If they are in fact a real hindrance or totally incapable of keeping up with the band, the leader should pull them aside privately and speak open and honestly about their weaknesses. Make every possible effort to grow them or direct them to private instruction with a goal to include them later on. You may also want to start a farm team or B team to mentor younger players. Offer alternatives and relationship in a positive and helpful way and don't talk behind their backs or be rude!

There's a performer personality?

We all bring our stuff with us into a band scenario and platform. The good news is that God is aware of it and lovingly deals with us. We aren't heart police but can help encourage those who love the moments in the limelight or in the lead. Whatever you do don't bash them! If you see something that would help them or have advice to give be sure you've prayed and that it comes from a healthy loving place. Then go to them personally and don't take two or three to back you up! As a rule with relational and character issues don't discuss it with others before you go to the person. Always ask how you'd like to be treated!

One member shows up late consistently for rehearsals and arrives just in time to play for the service?

Dock their pay! You mean you're getting paid? That would be one way to expect more from band members and get it but most are not paid in churches! That's a whole other article!! Again commitment to the team is important but you have to build your program based on what the reality is for the entire band. Find the happy medium for schedules, jobs, families, etc. Make clear what expectations are. For leaders that does mean considering and including your band in the process. If members then fail to adhere to requirements and schedules, remind them that everyone agreed when they signed on and it's unfair for some and not all to be faithful. It is an issue of priorities, responsibility, and ultimately character no matter what! It may also take only one band member expressing their frustration and feelings of unfairness or inconsideration with that person to shape them up a bit. There are extenuating circumstances and certainly the worship team isn't more important than family or spouses! Weigh all of your priorities, count the cost before you commit, and be people of your word!

One band member dominates and controls or has a contagiously bad attitude??

There's a new one-give that one a spanking!! It happens and more than it should that one becomes the self appointed critic, judge, opinion, leader, etc... Let's start with this, if you do have a leader then you are responsible to submit to them as unto God and give your best. One thing is certain, the dominating personality can dictate and drive the entire situation and cause more division and frustration among your team if you allow them to. Here again if it's problematic the leader should take initiative one on one to correct that person and be willing to part ways if they don't change their behavior, even if they are the best thing since sliced bread on their instrument! Don't procrastinate whatever you do, deal with it-but lovingly!!

Your leader doesn't allow you much freedom?

That's a tough one! There's always the issue of having to follow and support when you don't like it, that's life. There is a way however for leaders and band members to work together that makes for the best and happiest situations. You first have to choose whether or not you can support your leader. If you can't, find somewhere else to give your talents. If you can don't complain and gripe about those things you don't like! Learn, listen and view this as an opportunity for you to serve and grow. There will be other opportunities for you to lead or express your freedom. Having said that, leaders it's not a bad idea to let your band participate and flow naturally as bands can do! Build on that, discuss ideas, consider their opinions. Try going in different directions and leaving space for exploration in worship. Defer at times to the talents you share the platform with and practice that exploration and feedom in your rehearsals. The more each person feels valued and included the better they will play and serve and the more freedom there will be.

Your leader's style is dated or the music selection is boring?

Bring your ideas and suggestions to your leader and see if they're responsive and open to help or improvement. Sometimes they are not the most gifted but maybe the most willing! Honor them, let them know you do support them and want for their best. Have listening parties with your team and discuss what everyone likes and bring musical selections, CD's, music, new songs, etc. to try. You always play better when you like the material and style. Find the common ground and be flexible. A good leader knows their own limitations and surrounds themselves with those who improve them and are in many cases better. That brings up the issue of humility again, it's hard for some!

In some cases they are the way they are and unwilling to change or just don't know how. You can't always have the most ideal or desirous situation, know your role and be willing to play your part no matter what with a good attitude!

Your leader isn't prepared or disciplined and it costs you time and frustration?

Don't mess with him, he's God's anointed! Well even the anointed need work! First of all, we all lead someone and something in our lives and will grow in those skills mainly when given opportunities to rub elbows with others. That gets messy! We will continuously have to step up to the plate in areas of discipline, communication, and preparation. It is common sense that the leader be able to provide leadership for the band. It's not the hard and fast rule but it sure makes it easier if you have your songs, charts, reference CD's etc. ready for your team. Everything goes better, faster and then you're not pawning off your responsibility by neglect or laziness.

Sometimes it will take you as members sharing truthfully with your leader how important the opportunity and your time are. It's about mutual respect and consideration for both the leader and the team. Once schedules and commitments are made hold each other accountable, even the anointed!!! Say something, don't brew on it till you blow up one night! Leaders don't make excuses and do your best to lead by example!

You have a personal conflict with a bandmate or leader?

The word is a standard even for rock and roll worship bands! Do all things in unity, without grumbling or disputes, speak truthfully in love... Always go right to the source of a problem and don't turn it into family affair! More problems and strife could be avoided if we did that and truly treated others the way we'd want to be treated. The tongue is a fire so be careful not talk too much! Do the responsible albeit difficult thing and confront your conflicts-just leave your anger and attitudes at home! There is a way and it's the High way, choose that way!

You have to dismiss a band member?

Take them to Starbucks first! Coffee covers a multitude of hardships! (1 Tom 1:3) Well it happens and it's no fun. Honesty is a must, kindness and love really help but at some point you have to break the news that it's not working. Offer helpful suggestions and be truthful about the reasons. Build them up as far as you can yet be clear and use fewer words. Don't be confusing or contradicting. Don't use other peoples words as support or ammunition against them- keep it first person! Do your best to maintain good relationship. If they do run off in a huff be sure you've done all you can to be right, Godly, loving and holy in your dealings with them. If it's not a long term dismissal, specify a rest period to evaluate or work on issues, skills, etc.

You have to choose one player over another?

Do so carefully and don't burn the bridge with the other player. Find other ways to include them, or sub them in sometimes, rotate. As a leader you cannot please and include everyone. Just do your best in your situation and aim to win friends! It's also good to avoid having posts which are so carefully guarded or cause competition among your team. Build a team mentality where everyone roots for the other players and supports the whole, that's part of leading and good leadership!

You're in the band and overworked?

I think it's good period to take seasons of rest from the platform where you just engage in worship. The problems are that you may fear losing your spot or not being called. If you can't serve in whatever capacity with your priorities and life in tact it will only lead to bigger issues or burnout! Trust God to work inspite of others expectations, take breaks, and clearly communicate with your leader the reasons. You alone are responsible for what God leads you to do, all others must respect that and deal with it. Just be sure to honor your commitments and your word. Be careful not to over commit yourself or allow yourself to be abused or used by an over zealous or super passionate leader. Better you keep healthy and determine your own boundaries at the start!

Your leader is a controller?

Here again YOU have the choice who you are going to submit to! Good leaders evoke followers without having to control. In my opinion controllers squelch the life of a team. I think we need more faithful friendships which will confront and exhort in love. But it can often mean a parting of ways which prevents many from dealing with it. The leadership giftings in the church are meant to serve and build up not lord over and control. I don't believe we should just accept controlling behavior but the way you confront it is very important! Forming a posse against them is not the right way! You may also have to go to the primary leader of your church if they don't see it or refuse to deal with it but I encourage first going to the person and being honest. Pray for your leader! Ask God to give you a real heart for them. Know what the word says about leadership and hold one another accountable to it. That is our standard, anything else or less is not of God!! Do whatever you do in humility and love! Leaders I greatly encourage you to ask God to reveal any control in you and be willing to face it if it's an issue. See it not just as you've got a problem, but you're a target for that spirit and it has been a primary tool to hinder leaders throughout Church history.

I'll leave you with this, some of the best advice I have heard: (Philippians 2:3-5)

"Do Nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."

"Used by permission of Technologies for Worship magazine, www.tfwm.com."

Exploding Leadership Myths [Articles]

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Neil B. Wiseman

Layer upon layer of old ways of thinking, outdated notions, and impractical practices keep pastors and parishioners from developing a common dream for their future together. If they could communicate openly, many of these issues would evaporate—or at least lose their sting. Why not explode these myths:

Myth 1—Problems get smaller with silence. When you deny problems you are closing your eyes to the symptoms of the disease. Left alone long enough, many diseases can become lethal. Think of what untreated disease can cause.

Myth 2—Your opinion is the truth. Some folks try to control decisions by saying "God told me" or "It's a proven fact . . .” Honestly labeling opinions as opinions helps take the heat out of discussions and allows for strong, productive communication.

Myth 3—Someone must be blamed. When a problem is discovered, the first words spoken are often, “Who caused it?” The most important facet in refusing to play the blame game is for individuals to accept responsibility for their conduct, to own what is rightfully theirs, and then show the same mercy to others that they hope others will show them.

Myth 4—Conflict must be avoided at any cost. All progress requires change for someone. Change often creates resistance, and resistance means conflict. The objective is to manage conflict so it is creative and useful—not destructive.

Myth 5—Nitpickers and perfectionists should not be offended. Sometimes nitpickers need to be confronted with one word, "Stop!" Beyond that, evaluate all criticism to see what is true, then ignore the rest.

Myth 6—What has been must always be. More churches are dying for change than are dying because of it. Traditions are good when they are celebrated but they are deadly when they are worshipped.

Myth 7—My excuses are valid. Excuses are a way we let ourselves off for making service to Christ and the church a low priority. We cannot rationalize our behavior by saying, "I am only a volunteer." After all, who was it that you volunteered to serve?

Myth 8—My experience works in every situation. Saying, "This is how it worked in my other church" isn't necessarily a good argument for trying something where you are presently. No church is like it once was or like the one of our childhood. Lead your church to live in the present moment.

Myth 9—Our pastor should do better. Every church decision-making group would do itself a great favor by regularly affirming the pastor's strengths. Celebrate his/her character, commitments, and competencies. In such an atmosphere of accepting affirmation, many pastors will stretch to be as good as people think they should be. An affirmation groundswell often starts with the pastor affirming the strengths of the laity.

Building Your Worship Team -- Keeping Your Ministry Team Solid [Articles]

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

John Chevalier

Maintenance! This by far can be the hardest part of ministry whether you're in the music end or the technical end. I am reminded of the farmer who, when talking about his dairy, said; "The hardest thing about raising cows is that they don't stay milked!" Ministry is the same way, especially if you are striving for excellence over the long haul. Over the years I have found that if I do a few things right it makes the daily tasks of ministry much easier and keeps those involved in the worship, music, & technical areas on top of their game.

When we talk about keeping the ministry solid it's easy to think about having good rehearsals, choosing the right songs and working on cool arrangements. Although that may be a part of my job in this area it is by far the least important. I (and all pastors) must remember that we are in the people business, not the music business nor the audio/video business. Everything that we do in ministry is connected to people. People are serving in ministry because, for the most part, they want to give something to their church. Jesus modeled the role of a servant and therefore, we naturally follow his example. When we begin following Christ, and sometimes even before we make that commitment, people want to be involved, they want to serve. So at the very beginning of this, remember that we are doing what we are doing as leaders to glorify God, yes, but we minister to people. We are in the people business. With that said, there are some things that we need to consistently be working on to keep out ministry solid.

#1 – COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY:
I must keep lines of communication open and when I communicate I must do it clearly. I begin this by setting clear written guidelines for ministry involvement. Many churches have this for ministry in general but what about the worship team or technical ministries. Once we move into specialized areas we have to expand on those general guidelines a little. If we don’t do this we are either in the position of hiring and then firing workers or we bring people who are not gifted in these areas of ministry on the team and settle for mediocre performance from them. Here are a couple of examples.

One of the guidelines I have for team members is that vocalists must be able to sing on pitch. Sounds basic, but I know many teams that don’t have such a guideline and leave it to the audio engineer to "turn this person off". We must learn to communicate these things honestly and gracefully. Having singers who area constantly out of tune not only effects the overall sound of the worship team, but also can create awkward moments for them personally. I don’t let that happen.

Another guideline for audio folks is that they have a basic understanding of mechanical things. I still remember in my early days as a sound tech having my pastor coming in as I was tearing down after a Sunday service. He picked up a microphone and proceeded to unplug it without pressing the release button tearing all the wires out of the bottom of the unit. Some people are gifted speakers, others are gifted technically. I try to keep the technically gifted in technical ministries and the more creative ones in the creative areas. This requires good communication and these types of things are put in writing. This helps me as we evaluate those who wish to be involved in ministry.

The next thing that I communicate is commitment. I am big on the concept of "TEAM" and believe that those who simply do not show up when scheduled hurt the entire group. I want to know things like; Are they committed to the church? How long have they been attending? Are they willing to take the time to come to extra worship rehearsals when necessary and tech team work nights? Commitment is an important part of keeping your ministry solid. In the most general terms, I want to know that people are committed to the Lord first, our church second, my pastor third and my leadership fourth. These are things that occasionally get overlooked when we enlist workers to serve in our ministries.

The last thing that I make sure to communicate, are the ongoing membership expectations. Many people get burned out in ministry because they don’t know what’s expected of them. Things such as being at rehearsals or occasional team meetings. Oh yes, did I mention being on time? :) How about an apprenticeship period or even a testing period similar to being on probation as a new employee? Both of these are great ways to break new people in and allow them time to explore this area of service. Things such as dress code, being on time and being spiritually prepared as well as physically and mentally prepared are important things to communicate, as well.

#2 – BUILD SOLID RELATIONSHIPS:
If you’ve read anything else that I have ever written, you’ll see this is an underlying principle in most things that I do. It’s important that you as a leader build solid relationships with your team members. Take the time to get to know them as people. One way that I built relationships with my team is that we spend time together socially. At one church where I ministered, we had two morning worship services. The team was required to be in attendance for the entire first service; however the band and vocal team were allowed to leave during the message as long as they were back by the time we had the closing song. On occasion I would take the vocal team or the band to a little Mexican Restaurant that was across the street from the church. We would leave right after the music was finished and were back by the closing song. This was a great way to just spend time together and build relationships.

My favorite relationship building time was several years ago when I noticed that the band, the vocal team and tech ministries seemed to be hanging out with their own groups. I called a mandatory meeting of the entire department. Now the one thing that you have to know is that I rarely used the term "mandatory". So, when I stressed that everyone MUST be at this meeting you can bet they were all there. I had them come into the church auditorium and I shut the door. As I began to speak to them I had a couple of our leaders pull two vans up outside the door. Then I ushered the band, the vocal team and the technical ministries crew out into the vans and we drove to the miniature gold course. Imagine what happened when they realized what we were doing and that I had already assigned teams to make sure that I had members from each ministry on each team. Now, you might think that this is silly and a waste of church resources. However, not only did the team talk about that for months, but they made new friends with other members of the team and that simple exercise helped to keep our ministry solid. Remember that Jesus died to restore a broken relationship between humanity and God. I think that alone is a good enough example for us to be creative and to build solid relationships on our ministry teams. And…. The team had so much fun that I had to create a position of social coordinator to do other events throughout the year.

#3 – ENCOURAGEMENT IS THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL THAT YOU HAVE.
People respond to praise. We need to reward those who are serving. I Thessalonians 5:11 says; “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up……” Give encouragement to your team, and lots of it. As a leader, especially if you have multiple departments or groups under your care, make sure that those leaders are encouraged, but also go out of your way to encourage those in other groups as well. After one particularly great Sunday morning my pastor spent a good part of our staff meeting praising me for the job I had done on Sunday. When the meeting was over, although I knew he was very busy, I asked him if he would take the time to repeat his praises to the entire worship and technical team. He agreed and wrote them a personal letter thanking them for their efforts in serving the people of our congregation. The fact that our team got a personal letter from the pastor was a tremendous encouragement to them, one that they didn’t soon forget.

Encouraging your team means investing in your team. You need to take the time to support them, let them know that you care about them as people. Let me share some practical ways you can give encouragement. First acknowledge them personally. Remember that people serving are not robots who help us carry out our calling. We are there to help them to discover their calling. One way that I do this is that I make a list of everyone’s birthday and anniversary. I include their spouse and their kids on this list. If you set this up right, it becomes a self managing administrative procedure that means a lot. On my monthly calendar I have a note to send birthday and anniversary cards on the first of every month. I have a pile of fairly generic cards in my office and I send them all out at once. Depending on the number of people, this takes anywhere from one half an hour to an hour per month, a small amount of time when I think about the hours that most volunteers put in.

Another way that I support people personally is that I keep track of important events. I remember several years ago when one of my team member’s father passed away. It was a hard time for him. I marked it on my calendar for one year later and on that date I called him just acknowledging that I knew that this might be a hard day for him. Again, this is a simple task that goes a long way in building a solid ministry team. Secondly, support them practically. If anyone on your team has a physical need, you should be the first one to go to bat from them. Years ago we had a single mom who lost her job and went through a period of unemployment. I went to our food pantry ministry and made sure that this person got groceries on a weekly basis during this time. Over the years I have helped people to get clothes, Christmas gifts for their family and auto repairs.

Third, since they are serving in ministry whenever possible invest in them professionally. Get them the ongoing training that they need to do their ministry. Our church purchased our bass player a subscription to Bass Player Magazine and subscribed to Mix Magazine for our Audio Director. We had quarterly meetings for continuing education and made sure that we were constantly putting quality materials in their hands. Another aspect of professional support is to give leaders the authority to carry out their ministry. Whenever you give someone a responsibility, make sure they get the authority to carry it out. Make sure that they get the credit and the praise for a job well done and make sure that YOU as a leader TAKE THE HIT if they make a mistake.

Finally, remember them in prayer. Ultimately everything we have belongs to God and that includes those he puts in our path to serve in ministry together. Pray for them regularly. You know that in most churches we spend more time talking about prayer than we do actually praying. Let’s change that, and let’s begin with lifting up those who are serving with us in ministry. Sorry to get spiritual on you there, but it just makes good sense.

In closing, remember one of the best things that you can do to keep your ministry solid is to continue to learn and grow yourself. Whether you are in worship and music ministry or in technical ministries, a leader who continues to grow and invest in people, is the leader who will ultimately be able to hear those words; "Well done, my good and faithful servant."
"Used by permission of Technologies for Worship magazine, www.tfwm.com

Qualities of a Christlike Leader [Articles]

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

   Need a listing of leadership qualities for training sessions with lay leaders? This list can even function as a checklist for growth for ministers:
   Authentic—dependable, real, faithful, reliable, trustworthy, trusted, credible, believable, veracious, genuine
   Grateful—attentive, inclusive, God-centered, thankful, appreciative, agreeable, refreshing, restful
   Humble—Godly, obedient, modest, broken, gentle, meek of heart, mind, or spirit, reverent, content, peaceful
   Honest—trustworthy, just, fair, conscientious, truthful, courageous, sincere
   Magnanimous in spirit—giving, generous, gracious, courteous, forgiving, merciful, bighearted, fair, kind, philanthropic, self-sacrificing, noble, majestic
   Sensitive—intuitive, perceptive, insightful, responsive, compassionate, understanding, tenderhearted, warm, gentle, discriminating

MP3s: The "Swiss Army Knife" of Audio [Articles]

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Terry Wilhite

One of the most interesting e-mails I've received lately was from a U.S National Guard solider stationed in Kuwait. His note was short. "Terry, I saw your article at www.tfwm.com regarding recording digital audio on a computer. I am looking for a simple way to record myself (as a file on the computer) reading stories to my children and attach it to an email to my wife so she can play it to them. I won't be home for another ten and a half months. Do you have any suggestions how to use this technology?"

Because I have two small kids of my own, who, unlike this warrior, I would be able to see that afternoon, I was extremely touched by his message and felt the urgency to help this dad bridge the gap with his wife and children. It's easy to sit back and recommend fancy computers, expensive microphones and the latest software, but none of these were options in this case. This man was on a battlefield. He had to use what he had, and the solution had to be simple, fast and most importantly, it had to work.

In ministry, while we may not be dodging literal bullets, we're in a battle of our own and we're in the connection-making business. One of the strongest tools in our arsenal is MP3 audio. Whether we use moving music, an inspirational message or interactive media of some sort, an MP3 is a great medium to bridge today's communications gap. Moreover, using MP3s is simple, fast and the best of all, the player software is free.

In the e-mail to Kuwait, I advised my new military friend that there were only two things, besides his computer, that he needed. First, he would need a microphone; Any mic that would plug into his computer would work, in this case. Secondly, he would need some inexpensive MP3 recording software. I recommended a few web sites for software. He told me he did have access to the Internet for downloading, so this greatly helped matters. I explained the process of creating an MP3. "The software will take the sound input from your Mic and convert it instantly to MP3 (compressed) digital audio. Dig around in the software to find how you can reduce the sampling quality. For your purpose, you'll want to record in mono at a KBPS (kilobytes per second) rate that's fairly low. (For reference, 168 is close to CD- like quality).You can piddle around with the setting to test the sound quality. The objective of the game is that the end result is decent-sounding audio at a file size that can be easily e-mailed. In short, basically: a computer, mic, MP3 recording software = mp3 file to e-mail. For your wife, Windows Media Player (comes with Windows OS) back home should play the MP3 file just fine."

IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES
This solider did have one ingredient that I failed to mention that made his effort possible. Imagination! For those of us in ministry, certainly, Sunday's message can be formatted to an MP3, just as national speakers such as Chuck Swindoll, Tony Evans and Dennis Rainey make their messages and shows available on their web sites. But what if we produced a 60 or 30 second "mini-drama" to share the Good News (as creative as the beer company ads)? What if, instead of receiving a letter in the mail, thanking us for visiting the new church last Sunday, we received an e-mail from the pastor with a zany little spot that welcomed us back?

Speaking of great ideas, one of the most valuable things MP3s can bring to the audio booth is a nice way to efficiently archive complete worship service audio. Because the archive is in a digital format, when it comes time to make a copy, the duplicate will be as good as the original.

FORMATTING TIPS
You should keep your MP3 files as MP3s and not convert them to CD audio until you have the need to produce an audio CD. Depending on your sampling rate, that is, the quality which you've made the recording, you can literally archive dozens of messages on a CD and hundreds more on a DVD.

The key for pristine audio is to record digitally by either using your computer, a stand-alone digital audio workstation (DAW), or for small churches with tight budgets, my recommendation is a stand-alone CD recorder like you'd purchase at Best Buy. (Great idea: Press "next track" for every event in your church bulletin.)

Secondly, stay in the digital world throughout any transfer process, meaning that data (not sound) is copied from one place to another. Finally, end digitally. By that I mean the file you hand your audience is on digital media such as CD, DVD or MP3 or made available on-line. (By the way, I hear that automobile manufacturers will begin to eliminate cassette players on the 2005 vehicles, so if you don't have a digital audio plan at your church, you should be working toward one.) As an important note of interest, most CD players will not play CD-RWs nor will typical CD players play native MP3 files burned to CD. They have to be converted to CD audio which happens transparently when you burn MP3 files to an audio CD.

THE IDEAL SET UP
Ideally, unlike my advice to the solider, because you have better resources at hand, you should use the best microphones and recording gear that you can afford. Without debate, you should capture (sample) the digital audio using as high of a sampling rate as you can. The file should be recorded natively as a .wav file (for Windows) or .aiff (for Mac).

Once this is done, when it comes time, you can then convert the file to an MP3. The thinking here is that you can always reduce the resolution of an audio recording, but once recorded, you can't improve it. In most professional caliber audio software, converting a .wav to an MP3 is as easy as choosing "SAVE AS MP3" under the FILE menu.

Copying audio from a CD and converting it to a .wav file or MP3 is called "ripping". Most MP3 software includes that feature. The same software will usually allow you to "burn" MP3 files to create an audio CD. Speaking of MP3 software, if you're curious about what type of software I recommended for the solider, I gave him a "buyer beware" caveat, but pointed him to these sites for some "comparison shopping" on elementary, native MP3 recording:
http://mp3.downloadatoz.com/sound-recorder.html
http://www.mp3-wma-recorder.com/
http://www.mp3-recorder.net

However, I would highly recommend instead that you use professional digital audio recording software.

If you're looking for MP3 player software, I hope you'll take a look at my three top picks - which are all free!
Used by permission of Technologies for Worship Magazine, www.tfwm.com.

What Broadcast Television Can Teach Us About Worship [Articles]

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Jason Moore and Len Wilson

There's no questioning the ubiquity of television in our lives. It's all around us! The cultural presence of the screen has become such that most of us have come to depend on video as our primary form of mass communication. We've even put them in our sanctuaries!

But broadcast television holds more educational value for worship planners than simply a blind appropriation of the medium. Besides understanding that video and image are powerful means to communicate, what else can broadcast TV teach us about worship in our now digital age? Here are some observations:

Worship is a Production of Many Components
High production values are sometimes lost in our current models of "contemporary" worship. Often, that's not because we don't value quality, but because we don't know how to do it effectively with screens involved particularly in the praise and worship tradition, where the entire service consists of 30 minutes of singing (the "worship" time) and 30 minutes of preaching (the "teaching" time). When screens are added to this mix, their primary use becomes backgrounds for song text and sermon points. This alone does not constitute high production value, because it is falls so short of the capabilities of the medium.

Compare worship to a variety show, such as a late-night talk show. Beyond the primary components of the opening monologue interviews, good episodes of late night TV incorporate a variety of other elements such as video clips, sketches and gags (particularly in the "Carson" tradition), musical performances, and much more. Or take a look at children's television programming such as Sesame Street, that combines teaching and creativity with themes that run throughout the show in different mediums. The more variety, the better.

If we expand our view beyond current trends to the rich history of Christian worship, we find many opportunities to interface the screen with worship, from video calls to worship to brief videotaped testimonies to visual prayer experiences, and much more. Begin to think like a worship producer, and expand your repertoire to include a variety of components.

One key to making those components work well together is to practice. A technical rehearsal is a must. You can bet that just about every moment we've ever seen on broadcast television has been delivered with much preparation. Interviews on Leno and Letterman are preceded by a "pre-interview", and even the nightly news is scripted! The Holy Spirit may still move in worship, sometimes away from the predetermined plan, but a tech rehearsal is invaluable.

Metaphor
Watch broadcast television or turn on the radio for more than a few minutes and you're bound to see and hear the presence of metaphor. From radio station names like The Edge and The Rebel to songs like White Flag and Candle in the Wind, metaphor is inescapable. It is the primary form for artistic expression of our day. The movies and television we watch would be drastically different without this creative form of communication. The advertising industry would practically cease to exist.

Every Super Bowl Sunday we see millions of dollars spent on mere seconds of commercial time. Often the best and most memorable spots are heavily wrapped in metaphor. One of the ads that summed up metaphor really well this year was the Sierra Mist commercial that shows a man and his dog dying from the sweltering heat of summer. They find relief by diving feet first from a balcony high above an outdoor restaurant into a small pitcher of water on a tabletop below. The announcer then utters these words" "Yeah it's kinda like that". Metaphor is all about those "kinda like" experiences.

The reason advertisers use these metaphorical images and catchphrases is because they know that it is the glue that makes messages stick in our minds. They're selling dog food and hairspray, yet people buy these products because of how the message is being presented. We should take a page from their creative books and design worship with the same intentionality. It makes the message easier to understand, easier to retain, and most importantly, that's the same way Jesus preached to the "worship gatherings" of his day.

There's A Difference Between TV's Messages and the Gospel
This may seem like a no-brainer but is worth mentioning. Many churches, in an effort to be relevant to people's lives, incorporate pop cultural themes into worship settings. We have seen services, and even entire series, based around irredeemable shows like Survivor, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and even The Osbournes. While it is acceptable, and something we encourage, to make reference to the cultural environment of people's daily experience, the catch from a worship producer's perspective is to redeem these references.

Be careful of trite rip-offs of the culture. If you use the theme of Survivor to talk about love ("Voting people onto the island"), which we have seen, are people likely to remember your message of love, or are they going to simply remember the Survivor weekend? You can't expect to completely reverse the intentions of a show like Temptation Island or a song like George Michaels' "Faith" (both of which are explicitly about sex) in worship either. Even if your intent is to use only the title or the chorus, people will likely remember the source you ripped it from rather than the message you were trying to get across. Some cultural artistic expressions just aren't redeemable. Make your television references point to the Gospel, and make the connections powerful and unique (not trite and simple), and people will comprehend and be changed.

Avoid the sitcom mentality
You know the format: 23 minutes long. Introduction of character. Character experiences conflict. Commercial break. Plot thickens. Commercial break #2. Character resolves conflict in a neat and humorous way. Viewer changes channel.

Sitcoms make innocuous little antidotes to our innate need for story. After a long day of life's issues, we experience the life of another person through television, we worry with them and laugh with them, and when their problems are solved we move on without any more investment in their story. The only problem is, real life is not so neat and humorous. Well, maybe life is humorous, but not in a "ha-ha" sort of way. We have to get up the next morning and return to our own issues.

This lack of resolution is our daily experience. So if we go to worship and are presented the Gospel story in a neat 23-minute "sitcom" package, we often find it to be unfulfilling and trite not "real". So this one is aimed squarely at the preacher: avoid the sitcom mentality. Don't fall into the trap of resolving everything in a neat package at the expense of being authentic.

So, next time you turn on the TV or your radio, take mental notes on the creative forms of communication being employed to reach the world around us. These methods are important for us as a church to understand and use in our communication of the good news of Jesus. We have to break through the noise of the world in a language that our congregations understand to effectively and authentically reach the culture of this present time.
"Used by permission of Technologies for Worship magazine, www.tfwm.com."

Character Affects Competence [Articles]

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Neil B. Wiseman

Character Affects Competence Every congregation needs the pastor to be spiritual and emotionally well, to serve effectively, and to finish well. The Apostle Paul set a noble pace, "I don't know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line." I'm giving it everything I've got. No sloppy living for me! I'm staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself" (1 Corinthians 9:26-27, TM). But how is that to be done?"
1) Be shaped by Scripture—It's easy to allow one's view of ministry to be shaped by tradition, history, culture, peers, or even the testimonies of the latest "winners." A more solid standard for shaping our concepts of ministry and evaluating our character is Scripture. Check what is says about the man or woman of God. What does it say about preaching, teaching, administration, and pastoral care?
2) View ministry as a way of life—Though ministry can and should be viewed as a profession and as a calling, it is actually an immersion of one's life in the work of the gospel. Like parenting, ministry never leaves us—day in and day out, year in and year out. This reality can be accepted happily and creatively or with kicking and screaming, but it is still a fact that has to be built into the way we view ministry.
3) View Christian service as a gift from God—Christian service has three essential foci, something like a three-legged stool. It is something we do for God. It is something we do for another. But it is also something we do for ourselves. So the preacher preaches for God, to help others know God better; but when the minister peaches, the Word seeks him/her out and he/she is better.
4) Check God's perspective of your assignment—If God sends you to a place, He already knows all about that place and He already knows your abilities, background, and potential. Thus when reconsidering an assignment which seemed to be the will of God, ask yourself and God what He has in mind for you to accomplish in this place.
5) Know and use your sources of strength—Those sources are prayer, Scripture, intimacy with God, a coach, or mentor, and a satisfying marriage and family. All should be used to make us stronger and better and more useful for God.
6) Guard and develop the four C's of ministry—They are commitment, character, competence, and content. Nearly every pastor has a need to strengthen one or more of these. Go for the needed improvement and see how much satisfaction it brings you. And watch to see what a difference it makes in the spiritual development of those you serve.

The principle: A minister may be able to develop a Godly character without being competent, but he/she can't be competent as a minister without a Christlike character. —Neil B. Wiseman

Seven Steps to Stagnation [Articles]

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

SEVEN STEPS TO STAGNATION

1. We’ve never done it that way before!

2. We’re not ready for that yet.

3. We’re doing all right without it.

4. We tried it once and it didn’t work.

5. It costs too much.

6. That's not our responsibility.

7. It won’t work.

When the Old Ways Don't Work Anymore [Articles]

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Lee Woolery

Eight years ago I spoke with a retiring pastor whose tenure, long and successful, was ending after several particularly challenging years. I can still hear his comment: "Lee, the programs and approaches I've used in 30 years of ministry no longer work!"

How do we overcome our personal preferences and biases in order to engage in the broader purpose of seeking lost souls? We seem to be struggling with how to connect local churches with a culture that began to change significantly in the 1960s, and now we see changes still zooming toward us at warp speed. Increasingly we face the tough reality that time-honored strategies to reach people for Christ and to draw them into the local church are no longer effective.

This is the challenge. We are culture-bound people. We quickly embrace the need for our churches to be "apart from" the prevailing culture. "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould" (Romans 12:2, PHILLIPS). But it's not enough for us to simply to be on the alert so that we don't get caught in that squeeze. We must consider the whole cultural issue.

Perhaps it's time to uncompromisingly evaluate the culture of the local church. Is this culture one we have developed based on personal preferences? Is it dynamically connected to the mission of the church? Does our church culture drive us to seek and to save those who are lost (Luke 19:10)?

If we really are the holiness people we claim to be, and if the experience of heart cleansing is not just a doctrine but a passion working itself out in real lives, our personal preferences will quickly take a back seat to the issue of how we can reach this culture with the good news of the gospel. That is, after all, Christ's mandate and the reason the Church exists!

Let's bring it closer to home. Our purpose is not just to reach our culture, but also to connect with our own children and grandchildren who ask questions about church that we find increasingly difficult to answer.

The challenge we face goes beyond questions of contemporary or traditional, hymns or choruses. Even what we call "contemporary" is quickly dated. These kinds of issues focus on our preferred church culture and are innately self-centered. We will always face debates over personal preferences in our congregations.

Over time, however, those personal preferences can become brittle wineskins that are ready to burst because they can no longer hold the new wine. Our greatest fear should not be whether our church is being squeezed into the mold of a secular culture. Our fear should be the possibility that our comfortable and predictable church culture has become a brittle wineskin and that we are at risk of losing not only the wineskin, but also the wine.

As a church leader, I am struggling with these issues and trying to get a handle on them for myself as I lead my district. I am a troubled observer as well as an active participant, trying to understand what God is saying to His Church. I see signs of awakening. Efforts are afoot to focus on the revitalization of established churches. But this revolution that is taking place includes significant stresses, with significant costs to the local church. This revolution involves conflict and energy drain from our primary mission, not to mention the consequences for any pastor who would lead such an effort. By and large, we have not trained pastors for this task of developing missionary congregations.

A couple of years ago I spoke with a retired gentleman who had been heavily involved in the church all of his life. He was just one of a mass of deeply committed people who have built the church. He and his wife were part of a congregation facing a significant change in effort to connect with their community and win people to Jesus.

As we discussed this issue of change, style, and culture, he made a statement that impacted me: "Our music and worship is not my personal preference. I'm a Gaither Homecoming person. But when I saw all the young families that started coming, I realized I'm not the target we are aiming to hit. But I sure can be part of the gun aiming at the target."

Maybe we need to spend more time considering who our target is—and what kind of "gun" we are shooting. Perhaps Paul's words can edify us:

"I am not anyone's slave. But I have become a slave to everyone, so that I can win as many people as possible . . . I do everything I can to win everyone I possibly can. I do all this for the good news, because I want to share in its blessings" (1 Corinthians 9:19, 22-23, CEV).

Lee Woolery has been a pastor and now serves as superintendent of the Northwest Indiana District.

Making Worship a Holy Encounter With God [Articles]

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Inasmuch as the worship service is the main event in most churches, it must be done well. It needs to assist worshippers experience the presence and glory of God. The focus must be on God and always take into account Jesus' instruction to the woman at the well, "Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship"(John 4:23, TM). You might want to try some of these ideas:

Pastoral preparation—Every worship leader must commit to personal spiritual preparation for leading the people of God. "Prayer-fed," Richard Foster's term, applies to leadership of worship as well as preaching.
Focus on God—Contemporary services often talk more about human needs than about God's grace and victory. Get God in your sights and talk to Him and about Him.
Bridge-builder/priest—Worship leaders need to see themselves as the connector or priest that connects the people of God with the Heavenly Father. Credibility for this work comes from effective pastoral care within the congregation. Cheerleaders or masters of ceremony are not good worship leaders. People want to follow a godly pastor into the holy of holies.
Music—Make sure the music is as good as it can be. Does it say anything? If you do not have competent musicians, use creativity and determination to find people who can help you. Digital accompaniment is available for your congregation. Technology can overcome a musical deficit with proper preparation and diligence.
Scripture—Use scripture frequently in every service. Read it together with your people. Use it as a call to worship, responsive reading, theme passage, part of your pastoral prayer, sermon foundation, or benediction.
Logistics—Give attention to logistics such as where you sit, how long it takes you to get to the pulpit from where you sit, where the special singers sit, what the signal is for ushers to get ready to take the offering, how the choir or worship team exits, who helps latecomers find seats, and where the money is taken after it is received. Ten seconds of dead time can ruin the mood of a service.
Consider Kierkegaard's idea—In worship, he believed worshippers are the actors, the leaders are the prompters, and God is the audience. This idea will move worship from being self-centered to God-centered.
Question yourself about every aspect of the service—The main question is, "How can I bring this congregation of people into a more significant relationship with God?"
Library of resources—Build a personal library of worship resources including music, poetry, liturgies, biblical translations, and printed prayers. Printed prayers, if read during the week, will prime the pastor's pump for the pastoral prayer on Sunday.
Pastoral prayer formula—A useful acrostic is ACTS: A=Adoration, C=Confession, T=Thanksgiving, S=Supplication and/or Service. C. S. Lewis shared a great discovery: "Prayer in the sense of asking for things is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine."
Lift people—The elements of worship must be used to inspire, instruct, and challenge. Believers do not need to be scolded or harangued when they come to church. Avoid preaching, teaching, exhorting, flattering, and rebuking in public prayers.
Feed your soul—Read lofty books, read great sermons, acquaint yourself with insightful devotional writers, spend time with the hymnal, and learn to love the language. Building these influences into your soul's reservoir will show in your preaching and praying. Emptiness usually shows.

Stretch for Excellence [Articles]

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Dr. Milo Arnold

Mediocrity is never exciting. The person who is content to be a member of the herd, to do as much as others, or to do only as well as others, will find life getting dull before he runs out of years. The adventure is in excellence. To do more than you thought possible, to take the lead in self-discipline and self-becoming, opens the door to interest. There is more excitement and reward in painting one masterpiece than in painting a room full of dull works. There is more personal fulfillment in preaching a truly excellent sermon than in raising a bed of flowers. There is something really exciting about excelling the norm you had set for yourself, in doing what you thought impossible and exceeding your first expectations.

Observations on Worship [Articles]

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Stan Toler

Newspaper columnist Lori Bergman told of attending a funeral for her daughter's friend in which the mourners ran the gamut from punk to preppy. She said the service concluded with a hymn and the teen friends of the deceased held hands while they struggled to mouth the words of the song, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." Even in grief the assortment of cultures, genders and generations merged around the lyrics that proclaimed God’s care in the midst of their catastrophe.

More than simply a meeting time, worship is a meeting place - a place where people can come in from the cold of their 21st century lives, with its awful anonymity and self-seeking, into the warmth of God’s presence and the welcome of God’s people. For that defining moment, they long to focus on something other than credit card balances, layoffs, auto repairs and test scores. So, I’d like to suggest the obvious: WORSHIP NEEDS PRAYERFUL PLANNING. The goal of any congregational gathering requires clear identification, and especially in worship settings God’s clear direction is a necessity and the needs of the participants warrant consideration. God is, after all, a God of order. The planets in our solar system didn’t just find the first available parking place. Chaos bowed to a plan. If people are going to come together in worship, they really do need a spiritual parking place. As Paul said, "Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way." (I CORINTHIANS 14: 40)

Further, may I remind you that WORSHIP CALLS FOR DILIGENT PREPARATION. Can you imagine Aaron and his Israelite praise team questioning the tabernacle worshippers, "Does anybody have a special they’d like to sing today?" No, Aaron and his associates were leading people into the very presence of Jehovah. Everything was specifically designed and prepared to bring honor to Him. True, we must always be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit at any time and in any place. But often, His leading comes to us as we seek His guidance in the preparation stages of a worship encounter.

And then, as I see it, WORSHIP OUGHT TO BE PLEASANT. By that I mean worship isn’t a time to draw the swords of song style preference, sequence of elements or scripture translations. It’s a time to come together. Worship leaders and planners are required to ask, "How can we enable our people to join hearts as well as voices?" Finally, we must accept that WORSHIP IS, AND RIGHTLY SHOULD BE, POWERFUL. God is in the midst of the praises of His people and, as simple as it sounds, if we don’t acknowledge His presence, we can never say that the sanctuary was really full .... no matter how many are in attendance. I love it when the lights rattle once in a while; when the pew bolts get loose from time to time; and when on occasion we get the power surge we’ve come to expect. Worship is a God thing, and where He walks the heavens thunder and the mountains blow their top! We all come to worship with expectations. The preacher asked the little group on the platform for the children’s sermon what they expected God to do for them. One little fellow raised his hand and stated, "I expect Him to get me out of here by noon!" What do you expect God to do for you, and through you, this week?

Stan Toler is senior pastor of Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Toler has written more than 40 books, including his best-sellers, God Has Never Failed Me, But He Sure Has Scared Me to Death a Few Times and The Five Star Church.

The Two Meanings of Worship [Articles]

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:00:00 GMT

John Oswalt

There are two Hebrew words that are regularly translated "worship" in modern English versions of the Bible. Both of them have important implications for the way we think of the act of worship. The first, and the one that is regularly translated "worship" in the King James Version as well as in the modern versions is hishtahwa, which only occurs in a rare reflexive, causative form. That is, you make yourself do something. The "something" in this case is fall on the ground! This aspect of "bowing down to the ground" is made explicit in Genesis 37:10 where Jacob says to Joseph with some astonishment, "Do you mean that I and your mother and your brothers will bow down to the ground before you?" This speaks of the awe that is central to worship in the Old Testament. To worship God is to "bite the dust." The worshipper recognizes the awesome power and terrible holiness of God and falls on his or her face in terror, wonder and surrender. There is none of the "good buddy" syndrome that sometimes characterizes worship today. On the other hand, there is none of the formalism which sometimes distanced the worshipper from God in the traditional liturgies of the past. God is immediately, frighteningly, wonderfully present and that presence - like a roaring blast furnace - is both terrifying and fascinating.

The second word that is often translated "worship" in modern versions (though not in the KJV) is the word 'abad (pronounced "avad"), which means "to serve."" the Lord (Ex. 7:16). The point here is that the worshipper is the servant of God. We are doing something for Him that is of value to Him. How many of us ever think on a Sunday morning, "I am going to church today to serve the Lord?" Normally, we think of a worship "service" as an event that will somehow serve us! But how in the world do we in the congregation "serve" God? Yes, perhaps the pastor does by leading us in worship and preaching the word, and yes, perhaps the musicians do by lifting our spirits in expressions of awe and joy. But us? Yes, us. We "serve" the Lord as we fall down before Him, lost in wonder, love and praise. We are "working" for God, doing something of value to Him, when we remind ourselves and the watching world who He really is, what life is really about, and what really matters in life. When we declare that He is the supreme value in the universe, we are serving His purposes in the world. But in the prostration and the service, there is almost always an incredible sense of joy. That joy is because of the character of this One who is so terrifyingly other than we. He is love - the love that chose Abraham out of a life of pointlessness; the love that redeemed the descendants of Jacob from the brickpits of Egypt; the love that refused to let Israel go when they had broken their covenant a thousand times. So, Psalm 2:11 encourages us: "Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling." That is what Isaiah experienced. He recognized that he could no more live in the presence of God than a bale of straw could live in a blast furnace. Yet God in His grace cleansed those filthy lips (with fire!) and made it possible for Isaiah to become a "servant" (worshipper) of the Lord. Rejoice before Him with trembling!

John Oswalt is research professor of Old Testament at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, MS. The author of several books, he is a noted authority on Old Testament prophets and recently wrote the 2-volume commentary on the book of Isaiah for the New International Commentary on the Old Testament.

The Forces of Change [Articles]

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:00:00 GMT

David J. Felter

Awakening the forces of change. Sounds innocuous doesn't it? Judging by the responses we received to Lee Woolery's article in the May/June issue of Holiness Today, this awakening may not be without incident or impact. None can doubt that the winds of change are blowing across congregational landscapes. Ratcheted up rhetoric has accompanied convulsions of change from new service times and formats to the use of newer Bible translations in public worship settings.

In a sense, what we've witnessed in some settings is merely the breeze before the really big gusts arrive. We are living in a time when young adults define faithfulness by differing standards and criteria. What seems so "right" in public worship settings is getting fresh evaluation by our children, grandchildren, and new worshipers who are not familiar with the church.

The flip side of this is a heartening expression of spiritual commitment in many congregations. This is often quite radical and demanding. Prayer is getting more attention than ever before. With congregations mounting 24/7 prayer initiatives, it is no wonder that God is moving many young believers toward radical commitment, which is often expressed in a newly energized worship setting. For a generation that grew up on classic rock and roll and other music, worship experiences must move beyond the predictable routines of two hymns, prayer, offertory, special music, and sermon. Worship must involve one's total being and be enriched by instruments essential to that genre of music.

Waiting for revival? Not many of our younger and newer converts know what that is all about. "Waiting" upon the Lord is not understood in the categories of time. Rather, it is understood as a total willingness to meet God's conditions, expecting Him to faithfully respond to His people. While I do not feel there is a good reason to abandon the traditional revival meeting in our local congregations, we must think creatively if we expect anyone under 50 years of age to attend the next one!

What happens on the platform too often has no connection to what our members have stashed on their iPods. Too many services are like a retreat from the real world, so unique and different that an unsaved person would find points of connection few and far between. What we have to offer the sin-ridden, guilt-stricken world is so powerful, so life transforming, we simply can't afford to not risk a little criticism by introducing some change into the way we've always done church.

This issue of Holiness Today contains accounts of Nazarenes around the world—Maya, Kito, Pon, Debbie, and Carlos—who have discovered that powerful transformation. Hans Deventer reminds us that testing the waters where others live might just help us handle change.

—David J. Felter, Editor in chief

Holiness Today, September/October 2006

Holiness Today Article

Worship: The Work of the People [Articles]

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Marva J. Dawn

Good worship takes effort - on the part of planners and participants alike. The first problem we must point out is that because many congregations have turned worship into what pleases people instead of "the work of the people" (leitourgia), they have given in to the consumers' wishes to be merely entertained, lazy, mindless, just like the world, successful, or rebellious against all that the Church has been. I know that I have overstated the case - purposely so because I am intensely troubled that so many church leaders seem to want never to demand anything of worshipers. Of course, I am not advocating the opposite extreme of making everything too hard for the people to participate. It is important, however, in between those two extremes, that congregations do all they can to counteract the present idea that we must do all we can to make worship easy for those who come so that they'll come back again. The best way to ensure that they will come back is to give them such a rich vision of God, with such warm hospitality, that they realize God is exactly whom they need. To learn to listen, to study the Church's worship throughout time and space, to explore new music and forms, to probe Scripture texts deeply, to think theologically, to ask better uestions, to converse together appropriately with others in leadership - these are all part of the effort that must be expended if we are to plan worship well. Once upon a time it was easy, when church denominations specified certain liturgies or the mass was done everywhere the same, but we live in times when great care and faithfulness are required to be in the world and accessible to it, and yet not of the world and indistinguishable from it. Worship uses the tools of cultures (language and music and speech forms) to announce a different culture - that of the Kingdom of God.

EXCERPTED FROM A ROYAL "WASTE" OF TIME, THE SPLENDOR OF WORSHIPING GOD AND BEING CHURCH FOR THE WORLD, BY MARVA J. DAWN; C. 1999; REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY.

Ministry that Lasts a Lifetime [Articles]

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Steven Fry

Many things can motivate us to reach out to others - the desire to see broken people mended, the ache to see our nation morally rejuvenated, the impulse to resist darkness in every sector of our society. But the only motivation for ministry that lasts a lifetime is that which flows out of a passion for God. How can we maintain such passion? How do we cultivate an intimate relationship with God? How can we develop a keen sensitivity to His voice and an understanding of His ways?

By worshipping Him. All effective ministry flows out of an intimate relationship with God, and that relationship is first and foremost cultivated through worshipping Him. Unless we spend time waiting on Him, allowing His Holy Spirit to create within us an appetite to know Him, we will eventually lose our desire to share His love with others. We’ll find our hearts slowly drifting, our vision unclear, our ministries tedious... responding to God more out of duty than desire. We can find ourselves like the church at Ephesus to whom Jesus said, "I know your deeds, your hard work ... Yet, I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love." (REVELATION 2: 2, 4).

Good works, unless they are fueled by a passion for God, can actually generate apathy and burnout. Any real thority in evangelism wanes because there is so little joy within us attracting unbelievers. Worshipping God is a primary key to knowing Him. When the heavens unfolded before Isaiah, he was awestruck by the vision of Divine Majesty and the sound of fiery seraphs exclaiming, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” (ISAIAH 6:3) Think of it! These angelic creatures have repeated this refrain for millennia past counting! What could ever motivate them to worship so? How could anyone, anything, sustain this intensity? Could it be that every time they worship Him, God reveals something of Himself they have never seen? Enrapturing them so that they exalt Him all the more? Which then moves God to reveal even more of Himself? Oh, the knowledge of God is inexhaustible; all the fascinating intricacies of His character and nature never ending! There will always be something to discover about God. No wonder we will worship for eternity! It’s a lifestyle of worship that opens our hearts to know Him, and it’s knowing Him which fuels our passion to make Him known to others.

Worshipping God makes us sensitive to His promptings. That’s why worship is intricately linked with prayer and intercession. Without meaning to, we can find ourselves praying our own agenda, about the things we feel are important. Yet, one of the great secrets to effective intercession is to understand God’s thoughts about a given situation and pray accordingly. Scripture clearly states that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. We need to know His thoughts, and that kind of sensitivity is cultivated in worship. Worship and intercession are inseparable. When breathing, we inhale and we exhale. Intercession is like exhaling. We pray out certain things, believing that God will act according to the prayers He has prompted through us. But if all we do is exhale, we’ll run out of air in a matter of moments. No, there must be a rhythm between exhaling and inhaling. F.B. Mayer once said, "Try breathing out three times without breathing in." Spiritually, we inhale when we worship God. Through the act of worship we receive fresh grace, fresh insights into God’s character and the release of faith to believe Him for His promises. It is that which gives us the ability to exhale in intercession. Attempting to pray without worshipping God will ultimately drain us of enthusiasm for prayer.

STEVEN FRY IS A CONFERENCE SPEAKER, AUTHOR, WORSHIP LEADER AND SONGWRITER WHOSE SONGS INCLUDE "OH, THE GLORY OF YOUR PRESENCE", "JESUS, YOU ARE MY LIFE" AND "OH, I WANT TO KNOW YOU MORE." THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM, "THE LIGHTHOUSE MOVEMENT HANDBOOK", COMPILED BY DR. CORNELL HAHN, © 1999, REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF MULTNOMAH PUBLISHERS, INC.

Guidelines for Maximizing Change While Minimizing Conflict [Articles]

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Facts—Study the issue and get hard facts. Recognize your own preferences and prejudices. Present the issue with scrupulous honesty.

Listen—Get expert opinion. Ask professionals like bankers, lawyers, and school leaders to evaluate the situation. Get input from many sources. Build support from like-minded folks. Be a non-defensive learner.

Fairness—Give everyone a fair hearing. Recognize that reluctance is not always opposition. Maintain pastoral connections with everyone—no withdrawal from those who seem to disagree with you. Assume everybody wants God's best for the church.

Common sense—Never move ahead without a vote of at least 80%. Delay a church board vote if it looks close. Avoid "copy-cat" syndrome of other churches—the benefit for change is often found in the process. Know what you are willing to die for.

Pastoral relationships—Keep being a pastor to people on all sides of the issue. Be sympathetic. Give attention to frustrations that are sure to come in the implementation phase of change. Separate your reactions to ideas from your reactions to people.

Accomplishment—Change should be inspired rather than imposed. Many innovations can be accomplished quickly and with almost no conflict. Planning and budget approval are among the easiest ways to accomplish change.

Details for quick learners—Be ready for surprises. Not everybody who votes for change is for change. Methods and money changes cause more resistance than doctrine or principles. Avoid the "crazies." Chaos is not the same as change. Often what a pastor thinks needs changing may be good the way it is.

http://www.nazarenepastor.org/cms/tabid/151/Default.aspx

Transforming Obstacles Into Opportunities [Articles]

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:00:00 GMT

H.B. London/N.B. Wiseman
Pushing obstacles aside in order to focus on and accomplish a deepened spiritual development.

Take courage from Joshua. When he urged God’s people forward, he faced insurmountable odds. But listen to God’s extravagant promise to Joshua, “I will give you every place where you set your foot. . . . Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. . . . I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:3-5). Who could ask for anything more? The hindrances seemed small compared to the promise.

All of this started my musing about how God can help us transform setbacks into comebacks. Here’s a short list:

Transform apathy into achievement. Sometimes pastors expect people to invest more energy in Christian service than their spiritual life generates. Spiritual strengthening usually results in great achievement for the Kingdom.

Transform hunger into spiritual development. A hollow emptiness exists in every human heart. Point them to Jesus who promises, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).

Transform division into reconciliation. God’s reconciling power is enough to heal old feuds, to eliminate competition between believers, and to quell struggles for control. And with reconciliation much of the spiritual short-circuiting in many churches disappears.

Transform fuzziness into clarity. Fuzzy Bible teaching keeps sinners from salvation and hinders believers from spiritual growth. Current problems of doctrinal and moral confusion can only be solved with crystal-clear biblical preaching and teaching that can be easily understood by common folks.

Here’s a challenge: Take your most frustrating obstacles to God in straightforward prayer. Ask Him to turn them into your greatest blessings for the sake of His Kingdom—and He will.

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Call a Truce to the Worship Wars [Articles]

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Neil B. Wiseman, adapted from They Call Me Pastor
Finding a balance between the old and the new, not alienating already believers, but also welcoming/attracting newcomers

Call a Truce to Worship Wars
The worship war is real, though putting those words together—"worship" and "war"—seems unthinkable. I once found these words written by John Greenleaf Whittier in the front of a hymnal in St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London: "To worship rightly is to love each other, each hymn a smile and each kindly deed a prayer."
But the present state of some churches doesn’t faintly resemble these poetic words. In pastors' conferences and lay leadership retreats, I sometimes ask, "Will you please raise your hand if you church is having a worship war?" The percentage of hands in the air is astoundingly high—maybe 80 percent. These wars dishonor Christ and confuse many good people.
We need a truce, a cease-fire, an armistice. Rather than wounding any more of our troops, we could agree to turn our firepower on the enemy by considering the following issues:
1. Today versus 10 years from now. Those now adamant about a certain kind of music will face their own children in the churches of tomorrow. When this rising generation demands its new music, how will today’s generation react? Will they deny their grandchildren the music they want? If our Lord tarries, it will happen.
2. Check the message of the music. Obviously, modern technology must be used to make sure our message is heard and understood. Most Christians agree that new methods must be used to communicate the changeless gospel. Keeping outdated strategies will cause us to miss the masses, but changing the message is spiritual suicide.
3. Encounter versus entertainment. Church services that merely entertain are not worship. Authentic, corporate worship must produce a holy meeting with God—a unique, awe-inspiring, divine meeting that cannot be found anywhere outside the community of faith.
4. Need-centered preaching versus needed preaching. For years, I have strongly advocated that effective preaching must speak to real needs real people feel. I believe that still. But there is a danger to focus preaching so much on human problem solving that we neglect preaching on more needed themes. Preaching on themes like sin, salvation, holiness, faith, hope, love, and peace is more needed than ever.
5. Our wants versus God’s will. Jesus tells us that God is seeking worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth. When God examines our inner life, I’m sure He looks past the music style to see whether we come to Him humbly, desiring to know Him better and to obey Him more fully. In the glory of the throne room, all that is shallow and peripheral must go. Every worship form must pass the test of being worthy of His approval.
6. Who leads worship. I wonder how anyone can authentically lead worship who has not cared for straying sheep, interceded for the lost, married the young, buried the dead, or carried the people’s burdens to God in prayer.
7. New people versus old saints. Do we possess a shred of evidence that these two groups need something different in worship? Surely, developing seeker-sensitive services does not mean crafting believer-alienating services. Surely, services designed to help believers mature do not repulse seekers. Can anyone conceive of Jesus saying, "If you don’t like what we do in worship, learn to live with it or get out"?
8. Reality versus emptiness. Every worship form can be empty or full, depending on the leader and the worshipers. If we want our worship forms to express our adoration of God, we must seek His guidance in our planning for music and our preparation for the pastoral prayer, and we must ask for His anointing on our preaching. Argument about worship forms usually starts when meaning is missing.
Let’s declare a cease-fire to the worship war. Let us find ways to lead people into the majestic, awesome, life-changing presence of our holy God. His welcome awaits us there.

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