Hello, the title of this post is a little different... It may even seem contradictory. But in a few minutes you will understand where I am coming from in this post.
Yesterday I sat down with an older gentleman in my office to complete a business transaction. In casual conversation I learned he was a Christian and he told me which church he and his wife attend in Houston, TX. He was very animated and excited about his church and I complimented him on this. I always feel it important to convey to others your enthusiasm for your church; this is often the first step in that person wanting to know more about your church. After all if you are excited about going there, your excitement ignites curiosity in their minds to know more.
I continued to discuss this gentleman's church building project, size of the congregation (around two thousand), and many other facets of this work. When I questioned him about his church's music program he explained they only sing acapella and there aren't any instruments utilized in his church. I am familiar with Christian organizations that do not use music in their services so this was not a shock to me. However I was surprised when I asked him their service times. He very happily let me know that his church conducts services seven days per week! I asked him more about this and he explained that in the early church services were held around the clock and sometimes spontaneously - and his congregation feels that by conducting services every day of the week, all members have ample opportunity to be in services. I could only agree to that.
What's the point of me relating this account to you? Here is what I realized and what I've been thinking about the past day or two: this man's church is well-attended, is a huge organization with churches in numerous countries, and does not utilize music in their services. Furthermore they hold services seven days per week. If this man is very excited about his church and is inviting others, maybe us musicians/singers/worship leaders need to step back and realize that not every one of our Sundays must be 'perfect' from a musical standpoint. I know there is a habit to get pulled into the performance mindset for Sunday or midweek services - after all, we only provide much music for one or two services per week and we want everyone in the congregation to feel God's spirit and respond to the Holy Ghost. So we have a tendency sometimes to over think each worship service, each song, every aspect of every service. When you compare all the music we provide for each of our services vs. the Christian who attends a church with no music or very little, and you still see that Christian growing in Biblical knowledge and understanding, you are forced to realize that as minstrels/worship leaders we just need to focus on ushering in the presence of the Lord into our services -- and not be over focused on who sings the verses to this song, or which pianist is playing for this song....
Please understand I am not advocating sloppiness or a lazy approach to our ministry -- only reminding you to realize that God doesn't *need* any one of us to accomplish his work -- we only are allowed to assist in ushering the presence of God into our services. And since this is the case, why be preoccupied with having a perfect studio sound when we should be worshipping and praising God with our whole hearts (not our performance facades) as we sing? After all, God inhabits the praises of His people - let's set the atmosphere for God to show up! Let us refocus on what is important when we minister to our congregations.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Moving My Music Department Forward - Musician / Vocalist Helps
Hello to all my friends out in blogland! Just this past Sunday I called a meeting with my musicians and talked over several things that I feel we could benefit from working on. I believe reading what I am dealing with may benefit you and your approach to your musicians. Or if you are a musician it may give you pause to think about how you interact with the other musicians in your music department.
Here are the topics I covered in this meeting:
1. Musicians - if a singer(s) begin singing in a service and you do not know the song, there is nothing wrong with not playing your instrument during that song. What we were experiencing was well-intentioned musicians jumping in on songs they did not know, and inadvertently creating more musical chaos than positive contribution. Now I do not say this in a negative way, as my musicians all have good intentions (I have a great group I am privileged to work with) and only try to help by supporting the singer(s) with their instrument. However my message to them was this: if you don't know the song, don't play. The only exception I distinguish is the drummer (if your drummer is proficient enough it really helps most songs to have tempo and percussion involved) and the keyboarder (that is me in my department). So in my case I was talking to the bass player, electric guitar player, and saxophonist.
2. Each drummer has an assigned service to play - do not pressure the other drummers to play if it's not your service - this may sound elementary but I deal with young and zealous drummers (I have three of them) and many times they feel the need to play the drums at all times. :0) To solve this situation I have assigned each drummer a service they are the main drummer for. The only reason a drummer should be playing in a service that's not 'theirs' is if the designated drummer for that service is either absent or praying at the altar.
3. Each musician should be attempting to improve theirself outside of church services - I am working with my bass guitar player to locate an instructor to give him music lessons now. I encouraged my drummers to ask around for someone they may learn from in our community, and I myself have been talking to some musicians from a local church to identify someone I may learn from. Many church musicians make the mistake of thinking they only need to study their instrument during church services. This is fundamentally wrong; does a politician only practice giving speeches while behind the podium addressing a nation? Does the professional baseball player only practice swinging the bat while in a game?
4. During the week prior to a music/singer practice, I email out links to my musicians and singers of the songs we will be covering in our next rehearsal. They are usually Youtube links. I ask each singer and musician to listen to these music links diligently in order to familiarize their selves with the songs. That way by the time they show up to our rehearsal they are already familiar with the songs and possibly have even picked out their vocal parts. The musicians are already familiar with the intros, cuts/breaks, and moving parts to the song. In the past I have emailed out such links only to find my musicians/singers did not even take the time to listen to the songs prior to the rehearsals! This is very frustrating to me, as I put time and effort into distributing this information pre-rehearsal. So in this meeting I kindly asked all singers/musicians to make time to study my emailed song links.... Being a part of this church music department requires time at home (think homework) studying..... We will not just show up to rehearsals or church services and attempt the throw everything together in a sloppy fashion. God deserves our best!
I hope the above topics may benefit you in your music department. Do not be afraid to raise the bar of expectation for your singers and musicians!
Here are the topics I covered in this meeting:
1. Musicians - if a singer(s) begin singing in a service and you do not know the song, there is nothing wrong with not playing your instrument during that song. What we were experiencing was well-intentioned musicians jumping in on songs they did not know, and inadvertently creating more musical chaos than positive contribution. Now I do not say this in a negative way, as my musicians all have good intentions (I have a great group I am privileged to work with) and only try to help by supporting the singer(s) with their instrument. However my message to them was this: if you don't know the song, don't play. The only exception I distinguish is the drummer (if your drummer is proficient enough it really helps most songs to have tempo and percussion involved) and the keyboarder (that is me in my department). So in my case I was talking to the bass player, electric guitar player, and saxophonist.
2. Each drummer has an assigned service to play - do not pressure the other drummers to play if it's not your service - this may sound elementary but I deal with young and zealous drummers (I have three of them) and many times they feel the need to play the drums at all times. :0) To solve this situation I have assigned each drummer a service they are the main drummer for. The only reason a drummer should be playing in a service that's not 'theirs' is if the designated drummer for that service is either absent or praying at the altar.
3. Each musician should be attempting to improve theirself outside of church services - I am working with my bass guitar player to locate an instructor to give him music lessons now. I encouraged my drummers to ask around for someone they may learn from in our community, and I myself have been talking to some musicians from a local church to identify someone I may learn from. Many church musicians make the mistake of thinking they only need to study their instrument during church services. This is fundamentally wrong; does a politician only practice giving speeches while behind the podium addressing a nation? Does the professional baseball player only practice swinging the bat while in a game?
4. During the week prior to a music/singer practice, I email out links to my musicians and singers of the songs we will be covering in our next rehearsal. They are usually Youtube links. I ask each singer and musician to listen to these music links diligently in order to familiarize their selves with the songs. That way by the time they show up to our rehearsal they are already familiar with the songs and possibly have even picked out their vocal parts. The musicians are already familiar with the intros, cuts/breaks, and moving parts to the song. In the past I have emailed out such links only to find my musicians/singers did not even take the time to listen to the songs prior to the rehearsals! This is very frustrating to me, as I put time and effort into distributing this information pre-rehearsal. So in this meeting I kindly asked all singers/musicians to make time to study my emailed song links.... Being a part of this church music department requires time at home (think homework) studying..... We will not just show up to rehearsals or church services and attempt the throw everything together in a sloppy fashion. God deserves our best!
I hope the above topics may benefit you in your music department. Do not be afraid to raise the bar of expectation for your singers and musicians!
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Critique Your Music Ministry Team
Last week I did something that turned out to be very constructive and I would recommend you try it also with your praise team / choir / chorale / musicians. My pastor and I have been discussing how we may increase the spirituality of our music team and be more demonstrative while we minister. One idea we came up with was to video a few of our Sunday services and use that footage as constructive material. I had our sound man take some video footage from the sound booth (I did not tell our music team we were being filmed) and then I had it prepared into a YouTube video.
Last week we cut our music practice short so we would have time to watch the video and have discussion. Boy was it a learning experience! As singers and musicians, we normally do not have the opportunity or take time to critique ourselves and how we come across to the congregation. While we watched this training video some of our singers and musicians realized they were so focused on hitting the correct notes or playing the correct musical progressions that we were not freely involved in worship. This gave the visual effect to the congregation of us standing on the platform, stock still, hands at our sides, singing and playing instruments. Some of our singers and musicians were embarrassed and even disappointed in themselves as they realized the message they sometimes portray to the congregation. We realized that even though we were singing songs that encouraged the congregation to involve their selves in praise and worship, we weren't doing enough of it ourselves! Now that our team has viewed the video in a group setting once, I am now asking each member to watch it again in the comfort of their home. I ask each team member only to focus on themselves and not worry about what Brother so-and-so or Sister so-and-so is or isn't doing. I asked each member to ask theirself, "Am I praising/worshipping in a manner that represents my God? Would a visitor or church member feel motivated to praise or worship based on my platform behavior?" This is a self-critique exercise that will help us all understand if we are losing sight of the goal in platform music ministry: to usher in the presence of the Lord and help others in the congregation enter into God's presence with us.
I would recommend not alerting your music team when they are being recorded; allow everyone to operate in a normal fashion while you are collecting your video. I could write a whole lot more regarding this exercise and I will in future blogs. My message to you today is this: try this sometime and you will find it really exposes weaknesses in your team as they convey to your congregation. This exercise creates great teaching moments and will help everyone remember we are all one team working towards one goal, and the team needs 100% participation from everyone involved.
Last week we cut our music practice short so we would have time to watch the video and have discussion. Boy was it a learning experience! As singers and musicians, we normally do not have the opportunity or take time to critique ourselves and how we come across to the congregation. While we watched this training video some of our singers and musicians realized they were so focused on hitting the correct notes or playing the correct musical progressions that we were not freely involved in worship. This gave the visual effect to the congregation of us standing on the platform, stock still, hands at our sides, singing and playing instruments. Some of our singers and musicians were embarrassed and even disappointed in themselves as they realized the message they sometimes portray to the congregation. We realized that even though we were singing songs that encouraged the congregation to involve their selves in praise and worship, we weren't doing enough of it ourselves! Now that our team has viewed the video in a group setting once, I am now asking each member to watch it again in the comfort of their home. I ask each team member only to focus on themselves and not worry about what Brother so-and-so or Sister so-and-so is or isn't doing. I asked each member to ask theirself, "Am I praising/worshipping in a manner that represents my God? Would a visitor or church member feel motivated to praise or worship based on my platform behavior?" This is a self-critique exercise that will help us all understand if we are losing sight of the goal in platform music ministry: to usher in the presence of the Lord and help others in the congregation enter into God's presence with us.
I would recommend not alerting your music team when they are being recorded; allow everyone to operate in a normal fashion while you are collecting your video. I could write a whole lot more regarding this exercise and I will in future blogs. My message to you today is this: try this sometime and you will find it really exposes weaknesses in your team as they convey to your congregation. This exercise creates great teaching moments and will help everyone remember we are all one team working towards one goal, and the team needs 100% participation from everyone involved.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Easter Sunday Report
It has been awhile since I posted to my blog and I apologize; I will be back on my regular schedule going forward.
I am so proud of the Family Life Church music department! Sarina and I put together a choir for Easter Sunday and rehearsed three times last week. The song we chose was Donald Lawrence's "Stranger" and the choir did a wonderful job this past Sunday. We baptized eight people at the end of the service - in Jesus name! God is good!
I am so proud of the Family Life Church music department! Sarina and I put together a choir for Easter Sunday and rehearsed three times last week. The song we chose was Donald Lawrence's "Stranger" and the choir did a wonderful job this past Sunday. We baptized eight people at the end of the service - in Jesus name! God is good!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)