Six Lousy Methods to Get More Musicians, Part 2

Read part 1

Photo: Kandyjaxx, Flickr

The third lousy way to get more musicians…

3. Let Your Non-Musical Pastor do the Recruiting.
Senior pastor to me, the worship leader: “Say, Jon, there’s a new family that just started attending and I heard that the wife played piano and sang at their last church. Incidentally, they sat behind us last week, and she does sing nicely. During the greeting time I told you REALLY needed people for the team. She acted excited. I told her you’d call her this week.”

Where’s a cliff I can jump off?

[Read more]

They Need Me, They Really Need Me...

They need me every hour, most gracious Lord
To lose talent like mine, the team can't afford

They need me, O they need me
Every service they need me
I'll bless them with my presence
Until eternity

I think this bastardized hymn sings in the brain of every worship leader - full-time, part-time, volunteer - it doesn't matter.

I tweeted on Saturday: A first - not scheduled to play or lead worship this Sunday. Not sure I remember how to sit still in church...

I had taken two weeks off and decided to schedule myself off at both campuses for the third Sunday as well. I was returning late in the week and didn't want to have to rush back to leading. I figured I'd just jump on electric guitar at our Lex campus. But then this still small voice cut through my inner song of self-delusion: they don't need you.

Sure they do.

No. They don't.

But I'm just going to play electric guitar. I'm not taking over or anything.

Electric guitar would be nice. But do you really think you need to be there?

Aw, crud.

Too often worship leaders, especially us "professionals," only give up leadership when we're on vacation. It's a disorder called LIDs. "Leadership Insecurity Disorder" makes us think we're indispensable. Don't get me wrong, working towards indispensability should be the goal. But am I indispensable because I work to make the team better, stronger and deeper (musically, relationally and spiritually)? Or because I'm the only one who can quarterback? And don't make me mad, because I'll just leave and take the ball with me.

So figure out a way to take a week off without being gone. The perspective from the pew will recalibrate your leadership.

By the way, the team did great without me. And while not leading or playing guitar in a worship service was a little weird, I think I could get used to it. Once a month. Maybe. (I might not be entirely sanctified in this area yet...)

###
What would it take for you to NOT lead/play on in your situation?

What has been your experience when you have delegated leadership?

Leave comments here, or tweet them to me @jonnicol.

28 Ways to Create Great Segues - #17 - 20

Segues #17 - 20: The Pre-Service, Part 1

Photo from stock.xchng 

I look at the pre-service time as one big segue: it's a sequence of elements used to transition people into corporate worship. The issue with most churches in American culture is this: the majority of people don’t actually come into the service until right at the start time, or likely a few minutes later. We can use a few segue elements to help move them into the flow of worship. But honestly, none of these techniques will change the culture of lateness in your church, or mine. But these transition elements can help. And while each can be standalone tools, they’ll likely work better when creatively combined with other elements.

#17 - The Countdown Video. This won’t really help if only 15% of that week's attendees are in the worship center when the last 30-seconds tick off. Consider running a feed to a monitor in the foyer or the kid ministry drop-off area. If running video feeds isn’t in the budget right now, just run a countdown off of an independent monitor in the high traffic areas outside the sanctuary.

#18 - Lighting. You know what will get people’s attention? Flipping the foyer lights on and off like they do at the end of intermission at the theater. OK, that's a little crass for our setting. Save the flicking to cue the pray for the potluck or to start the next congregational meeting.

But subtle lighting changes can be an effective way to move people from pre-service chit-chat to worship. Most often, house lights (the lights above the seating area of the worship center) are bright during the pre-service time and then are dimmed noticeably as the service begins. Inversely, the stage lights brighten and bring attention to the beginning of the service. Even if all you have for lighting controls are the switches on the back wall, you’ve got someone in your church who’d love to serve as lighting tech.

# 19 - Pre-service Music. Play a CD or iPod during the pre-service time. Make sure you create a CD mix or playlist that fits the mood you’re trying to create. And don’t be afraid to push up the volume. Just keep it comfortable to talk over. Most people won’t even be thinking about the music, until you fade it down quickly. That will grab people’s ear and help move their attention to the front.

Couple the music fade-down with a lighting change and you’ve got a strong transitional element to draw people’s attention. Some will still ignore it and keep talking. They need to be shunned like a poker-playing Amish woman.

#20 – Video Element. Dropping the lights and starting a video will move people in. Most don’t want to miss a good video. It could be a funny sketch from the Skit Guys, a thought provoking vignette that will tie in with the theme of the opening worship song, or a fun promotional video for a ministry or event.

In the next two installments we'll look at two more pre-service segues.

28 Ways to Make Great Segues: Segue #16: Vision & Mission

Vision and mission are two big buzz words that keep buzzing. They sometimes take on new forms or variation, like "missional" and "purpose". And they all get attached to a "statement." At worst, a church's vision/mission/purpose statement is ripped off from another church and then slapped on a banner or bulletin cover. At their best, these statements offer clarity about and direction towards the heartbeat of the church.

This post won't deal with the differences of mission, vision and all that. What I want to say about it is this: If you got it, flaunt it. And here's a place to flaunt it: segues.

If you're moving towards the offering, say something like, "Here at [insert some trendy metaphor] Community Church, we believe God has called us to [rattle off mission/vision statement, without sounding canned]. The money you give helps us fund [name one or two specific ministries/events/initiatives, etc.]. Thanks for giving to help change lives.

If you're inviting people to stand and worship - something in your statement likely points towards worshiping God with our whole heart and life. At a previous church, we had simple mission statement - "love God, love others, live to serve." So inviting people into our corporate worship would go something like this, "One of our primary missions is to love God. Through worshiping Him and experiencing His love, we are able to love and serve others."


This isn't rocket surgery. But a few extra minutes of prep during your worship serving planning can make a difference. Reread "Talking Transitions" for other ideas on how approach a verbal segue.

Andy Stanley says it best: "Vision leaks." You need to keep repeating and reinforcing vision in multiple ways for people to remember it and engage with it. Your worship segues are a great way to do this.

>>>

What are some ways that you've incorporated vision, mission, purpose, core values, etc. into worship segues? Let me know in the comments here, on Twitter (@jonnicol).

How To Dump Your Worship Pastor

Six Options for Quitting the Worship Team
the new WorshipMinistry.com article...

How to break up with your worship pastor/leader:

1. Stop showing up. I’ll eventually get the hint. And let all my phone calls go to voice-mail and emails go unanswered. The longer we delay the follow-up conversation, the less awkward it will be. I promise.

2. Ask a friend on the team to let me know that you won’t be playing/singing anymore. I enjoy this one. It gives me that 7th grade feeling all over again – like when I got a Dear John note from my first girlfriend, delivered by her friend to my friend.

[Read all six]

Unless Chris Tomlin's Your Worship Leader...

...you probably need to lower the key on Chris Tomlin's songs.

You may have one singer who can nail those notes. But most of your team can't. And your congregation REALLY can't.

So you go to Song Select and print out a more congregationally-friendly key. Voila, done! Right?

It's all good till your electric guitarist shows up playing the opening riff of "Our God" in B while the rest of the band is in G.

Go ahead. Be mad at him. Righteous indignation. You gave him the right chart in the right key.

It's just that he's one of those "ear" people who can't read a lick and wouldn't know a key signature from a Florida Key. Would we all like him to know the key by looking at the chart? Yes. Are we setting him up for failure when we hand him a chart in one key and CD in another? YES, and then some. There goes our indignation.

Here's how to solve it: pitch-shift your mp3s.

Pitch what where?

The first time I did this, I used my turn-of-the-century Cakewalk home recording software, imported the mp3 that I wanted to transpose, and then monkeyed with the pitch shift effect till I got it right. After several of times through the process I had it down, but it was still a bit of a pain. Then one day I saw I stumbled upon www.transposr.com. (yes, it's intentionally misspelled - not just he product of a late night blog post).


All you need to do is simply upload your mp3, set the original key and the desired key and, BAM! within a few minutes you're downloading a baritone Tomlin.

Transposr.com is one of my "picks" on at worshipteamcoach.com. Not only does it do the work, but get this - it's FREE. You don't even have to register. So it's easy and free and here's what you get for it:

1. Your "ear" players will love you for giving them the right key. They like learning new songs, but learning the new song in the wrong key - not so much.

2. Your vocalists can 'harmonize' in the right key. That's always a good thing.

3. You can play along with recording during rehearsals and practices.

4. You can make Vicky Beeching sound like Darth Vader.

Last thing - if you're a volunteer or part-time leader with limited time, ask one of your "ear" players to do the work transposing the mp3s at Transposr.com. (Just be sure to write out the original and transposed keys for 'em.) It will give him or her ownership of the ministry and free up your time (and they might learn a little about keys).

So try it out. Now. Before the bean counters over at Planning Center override the marketing geniuses and start charging us.

Try (Tri) Leadership, Part 2

Try (Tri) Leadership

Developing a Workable Model
for Co-Leadership In Worship, Part 2

(read part 1)

So what if you’ve got a good vocalist with a dynamic presence that draws people to worship God, but she can’t lead the band out of a paper bag. That’s OK. This is where the lead musician comes in:

The lead musician works with worship leader to determine form, segues, dynamics and other musical elements of the service. He or she needs to have leadership ability. The lead musicians keeps one eye on the band and the other on the worship leader. In many ministries, the lead musician is called the “music director.” The label doesn’t matter; what does is that the right person is driving the bus.

Don’t confuse the lead musician with the driving instrument. In every song, there is usually a driving instrument. 20 years ago, it was the piano. 10 years ago, the acoustic guitar. Now, you’re more likely to hear the song carried by the electric guitar or the bass and drums (which, if functioning correctly, act as one instrument). In bands with less experienced musicians, the driving instrument will often act as the linchpin. If that instrument drops out, the whole thing comes apart. This is not a good thing – but it’s a subject for another article. If your band is dependent on a linchpin instrumentalist, that person will likely need to serve as the lead musician—but not always.(Btw - don't confuse this negative linchpin metaphor with Seth Godin's Linchpin metaphor. Read it. Twice. Now.)

Currently, I have an instrumentalist that can’t carry the band on his instrument, but he’s a natural leader. Being in a multi-campus church, I can’t rehearse every team. I have found that even in the absence of the campus worship leader, this guy can run the rehearsal. So begin to look at your band members who have leadership ability.

Help your lead musician(s) understand their leadership both on and off stage…

Promptness and preparedness... These two attributes will instill in the team confidence in the lead musician. It also models the kind of behavior expected for the team.

Support for pastor/leaders... Even though I’m the paid worship pastor at my church, I choose to function in a subordinate role of lead musician when one of our vocalists is serving as the worship leader. If he wants to end a song a certain way, add a chorus, insert a scripture, I support him and his vision for the song or that portion of the service.

Development of talents/gifts... The lead musician(s) in a church should be on the lookout for ways to develop the band and other musicians who are emerging. The lead musician should see him/herself as the pastor of the band: shepherd, developer, truth-teller, encourager, etc.

(Concluded in Part 3)