Consuming Worship

RE: Bring back the real drums!!! [Forum]

metalneck — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:36:44 GMT

The big drive to electronic drums was mostly due to being able to control the volume level of the drums....when the drums dominate the live band sound nobody's happy....but, happily, there are ways to bring down volume level of an acoustic set that work quite well....and I believe there are also drum sticks (wiffle sticks?) that maintain the sound and feel of playing an acoustic set but don't have the impact (ie: volume) of regular drum sticks.

[Comments]

metalneck — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:30:37 GMT

This is right on the mark....fits tightly together with a recent editorial piece I wrote that was in The Lutheran....it concerned the various forms of worship and debating the pros and cons of one over the other....the one thing that wasn't brought up, that I spoke to, was taking into account who your trying to reach....one style of worship isn't for everybody.....even the traditional liturgies change from church to church....so, instead of arbitrarily deciding on a worship style and just proclaiming that this is it, do a bit of legwork and find out what will connect with your congregation the best....you quite possibly will be surprised at the renewed energy and vitality of your congregation....and isn't that more important then being unbending concerning worship styles?

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

Have No Fear Ideas? [Reviews]

amyheckman — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:34:19 GMT

Our church is producing "Have No Fear" this Christmas and I was hoping to get some ideas flowing for how your church is planning to perform it. Are you using full band? When is the production scheduled? Have you run into anything you needed to change from the score? I'd love to exchange ideas. We are performing this on Dec 13 and 14 in the evening as special services, with a choir of about 40, a live band and string section, and a wide range of soloists instead of just one worship leader. It seemed to be a popular decision and allows many people to share the load of leading songs, as opposed to just one person. We are also including about 15 children and dance. I was thinking of making an accompaniment DVD with looped worship images, lyrics, and the scriptures to project during the program. Does anyone have any ideas they'd like to share?

hmmm... [Reviews]

andrewirvin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:25:13 GMT

I bought this collection because I was really excited about a modern worship Christmas project. I was at Saddleback on a Sunday when Tim led worship and he led us in "Never Will." So, I ordered the books for my youth choir. I applaud you guys for your guts on this project. I'm not real thrilled about the writing for the choir, though. There's lots and lots of Worship Leader and solo, and not much for my kids to sink their teeth into -- and the tessitura is generally too low for my girls let alone my guys, who are just now singing an E-flat below middle C. I know this wasn't a youth choir project per se, but I don't have lots of choices... if it's 3-parts, and a style that my kids like, I consider it. I'd love for you to zero in on a youth choir project and write for real kids, but with the musical style you brought to this project. Thanks.

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)

www.worshipleader.com
www.songdiscovery.com

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)

www.worshipleader.com
www.songdiscovery.com

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
www.songdiscovery.com

RE: The Shack [Forum]

pjmllyd — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:23:35 GMT

Yes, have read. Looking to converse about it.

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

The Shack [Forum]

crashdummy — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:25:50 GMT

Has anyone here read it?

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

RE: Bring back the real drums!!! [Forum]

pisomojado — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:59:23 GMT

I never thought I would say this, but they both definitely have their pros and cons. As a drummer, I love a good acoustic kit (a "real" drumset) but I have also had opportunity to play an electronic kit, and the ability to program in different sounds just opens up a whole new world. I would also add that I have not been seeing more electronic drum sets lately - Last fall was the first one I have seen in a church in about 7 years.

RE: Bring back the real drums!!! [Forum]

crashdummy — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:33:31 GMT

We have the opposite problem. Our drum set takes up half of our stage (not really, but it seems like it). With a Gibraltar rack, drum shield, two floor monitors, it's huge. Being a sound man, it's been a challenge to get the right mix with the drums if you don't have all of your musicians using sort of in-ear monitor.

[Comments]

rramfam — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:04:50 GMT

So right on target~ My church is going through exactly the same thing.. in fact my father who founded and pastored the church for 30 years passed away last year and we find ourselves now under the new pastor (my brother) and the Lord speaking to us of keeping the same vision but in new wineskins for a new wine. The later happens to be the theme the Lord led us to declare for 2008. So, as I said, reading this article was right on.. like reading a bit of our church history in fact. We're exited about what's to come with all that He's doing and are working on embracing the change that comes with it!

Bring back the real drums!!! [Forum]

gabudell — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:22:20 GMT

Where have all the real drums gone? Most of the churches I've been to lately are using electronic drum pads and they are my pet peeve! (Can you tell that I'm a pianist? I'm not even sure if electronic drum pads is the right term). I'm sure they're much easier to move and much more cost effective. But you lose that sense of being truly enveloped by the vibrations of a real drum set. You lose the experience of being swept up in the music. So if you're considering a change, remember what you're losing when you gain convenience!

Is the "Emergent Church" emergent anymore? [Forum]

gabudell — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:15:03 GMT

Lately, I've been hearing that the term "Emergent" is becoming outdated. That makes me wonder about the emergent church in general. Is "Emergent" just a catch-phrase that means "seeker-sensitive?" Several years into this movement, has it made much of an impact on the church as a whole?

[Comments]

gabudell — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:39:33 GMT

Very true.

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