Upper and Lowercase Vision

For an introduction to this series, check out my article The Preferred Future (or Why I Get up at 5am) at WorshipMinistry.com

I want to make a distinction between two kinds of vision. (And this distinction is somewhere between "thinking out loud" and a working hypothesis. So if you don't agree, that's OK. In six months, I may not either.)

When it comes to vision, I think there’s the big, almost "capital-V vision" that gets put in the hearts of people by God. Nehemiah’s vision of rebuilding the wall would be an example of that. That kind of Big-V vision is something that I can’t act on right away or it’d be ruined. It needs be developed and refined. I need be developed and refined. Andy Stanley’s book Visioneering* will help guide you through the process of a Big-V vision.

Then there’s what I would call the "lowercase-v vision" that simply sees a problem and sees a solution to that problem. (And the people without vision see problems to solutions– but that’s an issue for later.) A lot of the building blocks spelled out in Visioneering are the same for little-v vision – just on a smaller scale. And it seems like, for me, operating within this realm of small-v that God starts to instill a Big-V vision.

Vision, big or small, at its most basic definition, is a preferred future. And the path between vision and our current reality is one part strategy and planning, one part “continual course-correction,” and two parts getting off our keisters and moving towards it.

Speaking of keisters, yours might feel like it’s being kicked right now. Some people are not future or vision oriented. That’s OK. Some people are so big-picture/future oriented that they can hardly function in the real world. Some are so tied to the practicality of real world that it’s difficult to see the big picture. The good news is we need all of us to make this work. (Of course, the bad news is, we need all of us to make this work.) If you have a hard time seeing thinking about vision and future and you’re not sure why, spend $15 and buy StrengthsFinder 2.0* book and take the assessment. It will show you your top five strengths and explain them in way that lightbulbs will be going on all over your brain. It will also help you understand what areas are NOT your strengths and how to work with people who have those.

In the next post in this series, we'll use a simple exercise to start developing a vision for our worship team.

*Full disclosure - affiliate links for Amazon.

Canceling MySpace

I just canceled my MySpace account. Did you feel the earth tremble?

No, I didn’t either.

I hadn’t logged in for at least a year. Every so often I’d get an email telling me some doorknob from a “cutting-edge” hip-hop/emo/jazz/metal band wanted to be my friend. Other than that, it was off my radar. I initially created a Myspace back when it was THE thing for musicians and bands. But since then, I’ve shifted my focus and Myspace tanked - the perfect combination to warrant an exit.

There are a couple good principles here:

1. What’s tanked in your worship ministry that needs to be cut loose?
The choir? Certain songs? Someone’s attitude? Some conference you go to year after year?  Every earthly thing will deliver ‘diminishing returns’ eventually. Who’da thought we could ever get sick of Shout to the Lord when it first came out? The diehard proponents of tanking things are emotionally invested, so that makes change tough. But at some point, everything needs to be tweaked, overhauled or dumped.

2. Has your focus shifted right, but your practice still to the left?
To give you an example from my own life: at one point, I tried to focus on pursuing professional songwriting, blogging/writing, teaching and developing seminars/workshops, dabbling in some graphic design, teaching private guitar lessons and being a gigging musician. Oh, and a worship pastor and husband/father.

Outside of my family and ministry job, I decided to shift my focus to only blogging/writing and seminar/workshops. It’s been tough to say ‘no’ to the things I like to do. And when I have a “moment of weak-yes” to the other stuff, I get twitchy in the middle of those projects as I realize how much time I’m robbing from my primary objectives.

So much of being able focus and find success isn’t in working harder. It’s in ruthless eliminating the bottom two-thirds of our “What’s Important” list. Just make sure the right stuff lands in the top third.

(This post first ran in the newsletter. If you'd like to keep up with articles like this and new resources, sign up for the e-updates here.)

8th Grade Odor and Sucking Out Loud: 17 Ways to Build a Better Youth Band, 3

Read Part 1
Read Part 2

11. Make it fun. Recently, I became the subject of the youth band’s joking – actually, my mother did. Somehow ‘your mom’ jokes started flying and stuck to me. Soon a theme song emerged: “Jon’s mom is greater, Jon’s mom is stronger…”. I’m not sure if Chris Tomlin intended that song to be used in such a way, but it made for great bonding.

12. Create a community. Beyond 'your mom' jokes and having fun at rehearsal, create a sense of belonging (without malignant exclusivity). Start and maintain a Facebook page, Google+ circle/hangout, etc. Post pics and videos of rehearsals and worship times. Go hear local bands together. Watch a U2 concert DVD some night with lots of junk food on hand.

13. Multiply/subdivide as soon as possible. I know, I just said create a community. But your band can only get so big. And students (like their adult worship team counterparts) will get possessive of their spot. Your team won’t grow if you don’t open it up and shake it out a little. Here are a couple ideas:

• Create two or three teams. Combine your best players for a once-a-month, A-team band blow-off-the-doors worship time. Then create one or more teams with less experienced players, supplemented and led by your A team players. But don’t call them your A-team, B-team, etc. Create fun names for them – like “Jon’s Mom’s Band” or something.
• Create a middle school farm team. They might not be ready to actually take the stage, but invest time with them. Encourage your high school players to mentor them. Jr. high kids with loud amplifiers and drums? Yeah, it’ll suck at times and you won’t see immediate pay-off. But you’ll be happy you did all this in two or three years. 

14. Consider your space. 20 kids singing in the 200-seat sanctuary = crickets. 20 kids crammed in a classroom = awesome energy (and jr.high boy-odor, but you’re gonna have that anyway). And for what it’s worth, electronic drums stink. But when it comes to a youth band and smaller rooms, even a cheap electronic set will make life much more bearable.

Next up - leave them wanting more and demote your adults.

Getting Kicked in the Teeth?

A month or two ago, I wrote a piece here at WorshipMinistry.com called How to Dump Your Worship Pastor. It was my (therapeutic) response to another Dear Jon email I had just received from a team member (a drummer, no less – it always hurts more when it’s a drummer. Amen?). Apparently, you’ve had those emails/phone calls too. To date it was the most response I’ve received on a post here at WorshipMinistry.com.

We’ve been talking about current reality these last few posts. The “I’m outta here” email is an example of how, at any moment, our current reality changes–often trying to kick us in the teeth.

We seem to have two responses that naturally occur: complaining or fantasizing...[read more at Jon's WorshipMinistry.com column. This article includes a free download of a Current Reality Assessment Tool.]

Remove

I'm in the middle of an interesting read: Untitled: Thoughts on the Creative Process* by Blaine Hogan. Blaine is a professional actor and the Creative Director at Willow Creek. I bought the book because, a) I like anything about the creative process and b) it was only a few bucks on my Kindle.**

Early in the book Blaine talks about restraint in art. He says this:

The tendency when trying to explain ourselves (through words or art) is to add instead of subtract. Instead of adding more words, or images, or lines or verses to clear things up, we should be thinking about what can we remove.

Blaine goes on,

Subtract until you have only the pieces necessary to tell your story. Remove everything but the essential bits.

The idea behind restraint confronts the age old phrase, "bigger isn't always better" - a phrase which, for me, is incomplete.

Bigger is what people expect, and bigger doesn't always surprise.
Why? Because it's obvious.

Subtract until you have only the pieces necessary to tell your story. How often do we tell our story on Sunday morning with every instrument playing every beat of every measure of every song?

Try this. At your next rehearsal, pick a song and play the intro with the entire band. Then start removing one instrument at a time. Try different combinations of two instruments. Three instruments. No instruments. Encourage players to vary their rhythms. Play single notes at times instead of chords. Get your team in on suggesting what combination or removal you should try next. And listen. Really listen to the different story each adaptation tells. (By the way, if you get pushback from your team, tell your band it's an exercise you read about from a worship blogger. Blame me. Call me an idiot if it doesn't work.)

Keep going and try it on the verse. Then the chorus. And figure out when to add more. When to get big. When to reign it in after getting big. A phrase I use a lot with my team is "don't give it all away until...". I learned to add the until, because my teams would often hold back the whole time, even in the parts that call for us to let it loose.

The only way for us and our team to learn restraint is to practice it intentionally. Do this with one song each week, and after a while, you'll notice your team is starting to implement it on their own in on other songs.

**From what I can tell, it's only a Kindle release at the moment. But don't let that stop you. Download the Kindle app to your computer and read this book if you don't own a Kindle. Better yet, buy a Kindle.

*Full honest-Abe disclosure: this, and the Kindle link, are affiliate links. That means if you buy it after clicking through this link, I will be able to buy my private island. Of course, you'd need to buy 348,000,000 copies. But I'm ok with that.

28 Ways to Create Great Segues - #26

Connecting to the Message, Part 2

A few segues ago, we talked about the ins and outs, literally, of using videos. In that case, the clip was the service element we were transitioning to and from. But now we’re using a video to get us to the next thing: the message.

Since the decisions for this segue are up to the preaching/teaching pastor, I’m going to direct my comments directly to the him. The rest of you can listen in. (And you may want to remind him of a few things as you’re planning next week’s service. Just a suggestion…) There are a few different kinds of videos you could use to transition:

The Movie Clip – hopefully you’re showing this because it illustrates a main point or application of your message. Remember, only youth pastors have the luxury of showing movie clips that are completely unrelated to their talks. (But at least you get the chance to show movie clips. The only videos worship pastors get to use are swirly motion backgrounds behind the song lyrics.)

For this to be a true segue to the message, you’ll need to run it between your message and the preceding element. You might need to set it up, but sometimes it’s better if you don’t. Keep us guessing while we watch it. It’s creates a little positive tension and anticipation.

The Sermon Illustration Video. You usually have two choices on these kind of videos. The first is a light-hearted, humorous sketch that gets a point across with some laughs. The second, some sort of emotion-tugging vignette that evokes either guilt or tears (or both) and usually has Casting Crowns playing in the background. Go with the laughs. None of us are ready for “Every Man” right out of the chute.

The "Man on the Street" Interview. Just make sure the question being ask actually applies to your message. Even though you like watching Kirk Cameron going all "Ten Commandments" on some pagan, that really won't segue us to a message on tithing. Unless, you promise to never to show Kirk Cameron videos again. Then we'll put more in the offering.

Testimony/Faith Story Video. This could range from some personal stories in your church, stories from the mission fields you support, or even faith stories are resonating around the country/world. That latter you can find on SermonSpice.com, etc. 

Scripture Video - This might be something produced by one of the worship video production companies, or you can go homemade. Record the scripture read by a good reader. Add some background music and text for visuals. The video part could easily be accomplished by your projection software. And if you don't have a reader, use a clip from an audio Bible - but just not that version that sounds like Vincent Price read it. There's several audio Bibles out there now that have been read by celebrities. So you could actually have Samuel L. Jackson, Brad Paisley's wife or Bo Duke reading your passage for next Sunday.

As with any videos, apply same good practice of fading in/out and setting up the clip (if needed). Go here and here if you don’t remember.

28 Ways to Create Great Segues: #24 - Videos, part 2

In segue #23 - Videos, part 1, we talked about how to keep the beginning and end of video clips from boogering your service. Part two is a discussion on the DOs and DON'Ts of verbally transitioning the video.

DO: If it is a movie clip, give enough background for people to understand the context.

DON'T explain everything they will see—let the clip do the work. And don’t explain the entire plot of the movie. If they like it, they can get it from Netflix.

DO intentionally create anticipation. If you're going to talk about it, find some way to whet people's appetites for what their about to see.

DON'T set the clip up as the “funniest”, “coolest”, “most incredible”, etc., etc. clip they’ll ever see. Because, it just might not be. And make sure you know if it really is a hip, cutting-edge video before saying so. You might just have discovered the Numa Numa kid five years after it went viral.

DO work hard on the verbal segue into and out of your video. A little thought into our talking transitions goes a long way.

DON'T give away the “tie in” or lesson before you show it. People are smart. Most of the time, they’ll connect with the point you’re trying to make before you make it. And if you have to work that hard to explain the connection, is really the right video? Or just something you like and want to sneak in the service? C'mon, admit it...

DO consider not talking at all. A lot of videos won't need a set up.

DON'T forget to tell your tech that you won't be introducing the video. (This is one of those hand-offs we talked about earlier in the series).

Before we move on to other segues, a few parting thoughts about segues to and from videos:

Lighting - If you have the capability to dim your lighting, do so. Sometimes, that's all the cue you need to get people to look up at a screens. Hopefully the same people that dimmed your lights will bring them back up for you. If you have to ask, you've got some work to do this week.

Sound - If you're sound tech is "muter," make sure he/she unmutes the audio channel for the video BEFORE it starts. (Btw, muters are those that mute every possible channel at every possible moment because of an irrational fear that someone may grab a mic and launch the equivalent of a Red Dawn invasion on our service. Relax, I tell them. They don't.)

Simple Seating Segue - If you're finishing a song and going into a video, say something simple like: "You can be seated now as this clip begins." This does a couple things. It seats our people (who, 6 days a week, know how to sit and stand without being told, but somehow we suck that decision-making process from their prefrontal cortex every Sunday). And it gives a not-so-subtle clue to your tech to start the video.

People know what dead air is. We've been trained by our TVs to squirm after 2 seconds of undefined time. The moment we direct people to the screens and nothing happens, they begin to unconsciously disconnect from the journey we've invited on. And of all the ways we hope to encourage people to express worship to God, squirming is not high on the list.

RadioShack Sound Systems & Faith-Infused Realism

Most leaders (volunteer or paid) find it easy to think about what they want to do and have and be after their ministry or organization grows. A preferred future is fun to think about. The current reality, especially for those in small churches, well, not so much. Here was reality at my first church:

• My annual worship budget: less than my current Wii bowling average.
• My band: Me. And occasionally Lori, a pianist who couldn’t read chord charts or leadsheets. So when she played, we had to do everything from the Maranatha! Green Book.*
• My sound system: Two words, squished together–RadioShack.
• My video tech: an 80-year old gentleman who sat 3 feet to my left and moved the transparency up and down (quite rapidly) on the overhead projector.

We can dream and scheme and spreadsheet our preferred future all we want. But no plan for future growth will succeed without faith-infused realism. Here’s what faith infused realism is NOT: [Read the rest at WorshipMinistry.com]

28 Ways To Create Great Segues: #23 - Videos, part 1

At my first full-time ministry job, I was the youth and worship guy at a two-pastor church. By default, that also meant I was the substitute sermon guy. (Have you ever noticed senior pastors aren't into quid pro quo. They never act as the substitute youth-talk guy. Studies show this is actually is a relief 4 out 4 students.)

So when my senior pastor was gone, I'd phone in my youth lessons for a couple weeks while I prepped a message. At that time, only the young, hip preaching pastors used movie clips. I was young and cool, so it was a no-brainer. And since Lord of the Rings was up for canonization just behind the Narnia books, it would have pretty much been a sin NOT to use them. Plus, I figured I had a better chance of escaping church discipline with a title like Return of the King versus Bruce Almighty.

After sermon subbing three or four times, I had an elderly lady approached me and said, "If you keep preaching, I'm going to end up seeing that entire film, aren't I." Point taken. Cue Bruce Almighty.

Fast forward almost a decade and video clips are as common today as bad bulletin clip art was in the 90s. We have video coming out our ears: There are at least a dozen different worship video ministries in the vein of Sermon Spice. Publishers and other ministries crank out promotional clips to hawk everything from Beth Moore Bible studies to building orphanages in Haiti. And don't forget the amateur Spielbergs in our own pews. You might even be one of the churches that have the sermon on video, taped at previous service on a different campus.

Here's one thing to remember: there's nothing so high quality in your service that can't be at least partially ruined by a bad segue.

Videos are no exception. If you ripped the final race scene from Secretariat the moment it hit Netflix, Big Red might as well have lost at Belmont if the transitions in and out booger'd the moment.

If the pictures lurches in or the sound starts at 100 dB, it will take people several seconds to get their mind on what's being shown. The same goes for a poorly executed exit. Whatever point is being made will get bumped from their brains by a bad ending.

So this segue is simple: whenever you pull clips from movies, youtube, or create your own videos, take the extra time and edit a fade to either end of the clip. And make sure you apply it to the audio as well. Windows Movie Maker is about as simple as they come and can get the job done easily. Adobe Premiere Elements will run you the better part of a Benjamin, but it'll give you more editing power than the average church video clip will ever need.

Does video editing freak you out? Here's the best news of the whole post: projection software (like MediaShout, ProPresenter, EasyWorship) can transition your clips to black or crossfade them with the graphics on either side. No editing required. This alone should make it worth upgrading to a projection software. Not to mention that PowerPoint for lyric projection went out with neck-ties for pastors. Just speaking truth in love...

There's one more segue for videos that is worth talking about. And that's talking about them. So that'll be the next installment.

28 Ways to Create Great Segues - #22, Pre-Service: A Preparation Time

I once attended a Sunday evening service at Parkside Church near Cleveland to hear Alistair Begg preach. A Scottish accent always makes a sermon better. It was a typical traditional pre-service time with soft music, dim lights and people chit-chatting with folks they hadn’t seen for at least a week. Pastor Begg got up and said, “It sounds like your voices are in fine shape tonight.” Folks gave the usual polite chuckle. But before the obligatory laughter died down, the Scotsman shot out a firm, “But you'd be better to prepare your hearts before the Lord.” The place got real quiet, real quick.

A quiet preparation time before the service is likely a thing of the past for many churches. But it might not hurt to implement it occasionally. And I say occasionally just because anything that’s done weekly runs the risk of losing its effectiveness.

If you’re church wants to try to create the pre-service preparation time, consider what you need to create that environment.

• A sign outside the worship center encouraging people to enter quietly.
• Doors closed to foyer/lobby. This will create a feeling of “entering in”. It also cuts the noise from the yakkers in the lobby.
• Soft music – it could be canned music or live acoustic guitar/piano playing softly.
• Dim lighting – quiet and reflective times aren’t encouraged by bright overhead lighting.
• Scriptures or short devotional quotes looping on the screen.

Consider other elements that might help create an environment of quiet preparation: candles, pictures of nature or people in prayer/worship, a written “guide” in the bulletin or on-screen to help people know how to use prepare for worship, etc.

Here are a few things that you should consider with a pre-service preparation time:

• You’ll always have the chit-chatters in the foyer, so you’ll still have to figure out how some way to bring them in. (Besides wishful thinking that they're conscientious of the time and care when the service starts.)
• This time could be off-putting to guests, especially non-Christians. But it also might be just what they’ve been looking for. You can’t please everyone. Just be clear about what you want. Don’t try to make it conducive for preparation and chit-chatting. People won’t know what to do. My two cents: if you’re not going for quiet preparation, I’d always go for the other end: a bright and celebratory environment.
• Your service may need to begin differently. Jumping right in with the typical upbeat opener will be a little jarring to those who have been in there. Consider starting with a quieter slower song, and building up. Or sing the chorus of a faster song in a “worshipful” manner. Then build tempo and volume to move people into the song as usual.

As we wrap up the segues that deal with the pre-service time, here's a last thought as you think through this stuff: Whatever you find that works to bring your people in at the beginning will most likely not work next month or even next week. People will start ignoring that countdown after they’ve seen it a few times and the live music will become background noise. That’s just how it is. So it’s up to us to be creative and segue people into worship.

DOs & DON'Ts of Being Dumped, Part 2

It’s inevitable. People leave. Whether they move, get mad, get dead or otherwise decide that the worship team is no longer for them, people eventually exit. Handling this well isn’t always easy. Here are some DOs and DON’Ts for when people leave. Let’s pick back up with #4. If you haven’t read the first three, they’re here.

FOUR
DON’T guilt. Is he really leaving the team at the worst possible time? I doubt it. But even if he is, laying on the guilt won’t help—you or him. 

DO grace. Acknowledge and thank him for his contribution. If he is leaving the team in a less-than-stellar manner, take the high road.

FIVE
[Read the rest at WorshipMinistry.com...]

Forget Excellence...

...think "remarkable" instead.

Excellence is subjective and overwhelming.

Remarkable is doable: a small tweak and improvement to the “normal” that surprises people.

The pursuit of excellence feels like a never-ending journey.
     How do we know we've arrived?

The pursuit of remarkable is done in incremental steps.
     Success (and failure) is easily measured.
         Each failed step teaches.
         Each successful step builds momentum and creates a new (and better) normal.

You can pursue excellence and never be remarkable.

A steady pursuit of the right kind of remarkable will always equal excellence.

- - -
Want to know more about being remarkable? Read Purple Cow* by Seth Godin.

Want some practical ideas for pursuing remarkable? Here are ten.**

What's one thing you you've done (or thought about doing) to make your worship gathering more remarkable.

Drop me a note in the comments section or shoot me a quick thought on Twitter (@jonnicol). 
Thanks! ~jon

* Full disclosure: this is an affiliate link, meaning that if you buy it through this link, and I make untold riches (about 85 cents). I only endorse a product that I love and think you might too.

**This one is free!

28 Ways to Create Great Segues - #21: "The Herding Song"

Photo from stock.xchng

We've been talking about the "pre-service." I suggested in the last post that the pre-service time is one big transition time - comprised of several of small segues - that moves people into our worship gatherings.

We can try to spiritualize this time, but let’s just be honest: it's sometimes like herding cats to get our people into worship. We're competing with coffee and chit-chat in the foyer, people catching up at the kid check-in and the culture of the chronically late. Often our opening song feels like a sacrificial lamb—it gives its life to bring people into the worship center. And while changing the culture of lateness in our church might be achievable before Jesus returns, it's not the point of this series. We're dealing with current reality at the moment.

So rather than fight it, or get mopey about the fact that our first song is a musical martyr, let's just re-frame our thinking and call it the herding song - as in, it herds people into the worship center. Here are a few options for the herding song:

The Pre-Service Song: Time this song so it ends right at the beginning of the service time. Make it more of a "sit and listen" song for those already in the service. Also, give people something to look at: put the announcement graphics on the screen, or a countdown (or both, if you've got the technology). The one big issue with the Pre-Service Song is that people are still in your parking lot at "start time." So many aren't even there to be "herded." 

The Opening Song: Again, get over the fact that this is a sacrificial lamb. But don't overlook that there will be people worshiping with this song. So pour everything you've got into this one, but don't throw your "high impact" song here. You know - that song we don't want people to miss. Save that tune for later.

By the time you’re done with this song most everyone will be in except those with pathological tardiness and your youth pastor. I think Celebrate Recovery is developing a program for them - youth pastors, that is. Nothing can be done for the certifiably tardy.

Photo from stock.xchng

The Hybrid – Use a Pre-Service Song, but begin it about 2 minutes before the posted service start time and let it spill into your service. This means your service will actually start 2 – 3 minutes late. (Which actually might be early for some of you.)

"But," you ask, "isn't this enabling lateness?"

You betcha. But remember, we're dealing with current reality.

And this is my church's reality. At some point, we’ll need a course correction. But it will probably require more than moving our pre-service song back a couple minutes. I'm thinking there'll need to be at least one or two good shunnings. At least that’s what I’m voting for.

Before we wrap up this post, let me throw out a few options for your pre-service (or hybrid) song:

• Use a familiar, upbeat song that the worship team can play in its sleep. That way there’s not extra work for the team. Plus they can relax and have fun with it. People will be drawn by that.

• Introduce a new song. When I introduce a new song, I'll run it 3 - 4 weeks in a row as a live pre-service song. This sounds like a lot, but the average church attendee will likely hear it twice. At best. And it gives my team the chance to play/sing it at least once, depending on rotation.

• "Pre-prise": Use a song that you’ll be doing later in the service, especially if it’s a new one. That will help get it in people’s heads. Just don’t do the opening song, or it will feel really long if you play it twice back to back.

Again, each of these pre-service segues are best used in conjunction with others. Try different combinations. And remember what works now, won't work for long. People can become as conditioned to a pre-service song as they are to Muzak in a department store. When's the last time your heard the music in JCPenney?

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.

L.T.W.M. Part 2

There are three myths that get in the way of leaving people to want more. 

Myth #1. Sunday morning is the only chance we get.
Unfortunately, not all myths are false. Our churches are often structured in a way that makes this myth a reality:

Numeric growth of the service. If growing my church means counting nickles and noses on Sunday morning, then I'm going do what I can to get people to come back. And entertainment becomes the focus. (By the way, I do think our services should be entertaining. But there's a difference...that we don't have time to get into...sorry.)

Discipleship. If my church is structured in such a way that growth in people's lives depends on coming to the Sunday service, then this myth is reality for me. I'm going to try way too hard to force feed people.

Evangelism. If my church's only means for evangelism is the off-chance that a non-believer walks in on a Sunday, then the sermon becomes a hard-sell and the closing song is meant to close the deal.

Myth #2. People know what they want.
I used to try to pack the service with elements I knew people like. But (suprise!) I found out that people are fickle. Take for example people's song suggestions. If I did every song that was suggested to me, I'd be singing 19 mid-tempo, soaring anthems every Sunday. In reality, if the average church does a three-song set in the vein of Mighty to Save or Revelation Song, most people will check out from exhaustion. Those powerful tunes lose their punch. And in the same way, if we do special music every week, it's not so special.

There's nothing wrong with special music, big anthems, illustration videos, testimonies or any other service element that people enjoy. It's about creating the right pace in the story. And the right placement (or non-placement) of great elements is key to establishing pace.

#3. Excellence grows a church.
Excellence grows a gathering, but God grows a church. If we want to leave people wanting more, it can't be more of our programs. Or preaching. Or music. We have to leave them wanting more God. Period.

The Mess and the Metaphor

Whenever I go to a large worship conference, there’s always an emerging worship song that dominates. A few years back I went to an integrity conference and Mighty to Save was that song. The early adopters had already been singing it for a year or two, and it was still a year away from those churches that had God of Wonders at the top of their CCLI reports. It was cresting and about to wash over Christendom. Revelation Song was another one a couple years later.

At the CMS conference I went to a few weeks ago at The Chapel in Buffalo, the “it” song was How He Loves. Gungor did it. Kari Jobe did it. All the guys with the acoustic guitars in the lobby did it. And John Mark McMillan was there. So yeah, he did it, too. Sloppy wet kiss and all.

A lot of people have been doing this for a few years and it continues to be picked up by churches. As of this writing, it's number 21 on the CCLI list (still behind Lord I Lift Your Name on High - not lying). But I’m wondering if this song will saturate evangelical churches to the degree that Mighty to Save and Revelation Song has. I hope it does. I think it should. But here’s why I wonder if it will.

The praise chorus became generally acceptable in the 80s/early 90s. So the boundary pushing in worship music in the last 20 years has been more about the musical style of those choruses. The older Boomers and Builders fought against what the Gen Xers and younger Boomers were musically bringing into their churches. Now the Millennials are producing a ton of our worship music. And while their musical styles can still be a sticking point for some, I’m wondering if the real battle will be in lyrical content.

How He Loves is so rich in imagery and metaphor – “I am a tree bending beneath the weight…”. It’s a beautifully vivid lyric, but I’m having a hard time imagining some older folks in my congregation singing that without going, “Huh?” I wouldn’t even want to see what they’d do with “sloppy wet kiss.”

I think this will be a point of conflict between those influenced by the modern era and those who grew up in the highly post-modern world of the last 20 years. Where the Boomers, and even a lot of older Gen-Xers like the neat and clean and literal of the past 20 years of worship songs, the Millennials are so much more at home with the mess and the metaphor. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few years.

And by the way, there will be one thing that will allow How He Loves to be embraced by the older crowd. Once Phillips, Craig and Dean cover the song, forget about it. Grandma’s singing it.

Linchpin or Liability?

When it comes to the worship ministry at your church, are you a linchpin or a liability?

A linchpin is indispensable. Wait, I know. The right answer that’s been drilled in our heads, especially in the church, is this: no one’s indispensible. OK, so the earth might not break its orbit of the sun if you quit the worship team. But would there be a gaping hole and would you be missed for a long, long time? If the answer is yes, then you’re a linchpin. And don’t forget that there are two parts to that question. We’ve all seen people depart who leave a big hole, but weren’t particularly missed.

A linchpin not only does the work, but does it in a way that we want to be around them. To use a quote from a Jack Nicholson movie (that ranks only slightly lower than, “You can’t handle the truth!”), linchpins make us “want to be a better man.” Or woman. If that’s your gender.

On the other side of the spectrum there’s the liability. And a liability is someone who brings the team down either musically or emotionally/spiritually. Unless your team is inordinately dysfunctional, rarely do we have a member who’s both a lousy musician and has a terrible attitude. We often get a not-so-great musician because “he’s such a great person.” His heart outweighs his talents. And, depending on where we’re at in our growth as a team, we’re willing to work with that.

The person who is most often a bona fide liability is the one with the attitude. It might be arrogance. Entitlement. Negativity. Harshness. Whatever it is, talent can only trump toxic for so long.

The problem with the original question, “Are you a linchpin or a liability?” is that a person rarely recognizes himself as such. Most people aren’t intentionally toxic. It’s the default they arrive at after being hurt/wounded/disappointed one too many times.

The linchpin, on the other hand, is intentional. If I’m not intentionally trying to create great art within my team, and if I’m not purposely building others up, then I’m probably not a linchpin.

In truth, I’ve been both. And somewhere in the middle. And that’s where most of us are--sitting somewhere on a long line between indispensible and intolerable.

So forget the original question. Here’s a new one: which way are you moving?




*Want to learn more about being  indispensible, buy Seth’s Godin’s book, Linchpin. (affiliate link)

Sloppy Wet Kiss

If you know John Mark McMillan, you know my title.

Last night he performed at Christian Musician Summit in Buffalo. And all of us who knew him were waiting for How He Loves. You've probably heard David Crowder's version, or several other artists who covered him.

The screens projected the words, and when the 2nd verse came up, it said "heaven meets earth like a beautiful kiss." You may have heard "unforeseen" to describe the kiss. But McMillan's original lyrics are "heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss."

One of my team members hates that line. I love it. But I don't fault the other artists or churches for changing that line. I know I'd get quite a few comments at my church if I used that song with those lyrics.

But have you ever been on the receiving end of God's working? A mighty work of God in someone's life sounds great in a "testimony" six months later. Revivals sound almost romantic in the history books. But when the infinite invades the finite, it's not tidy. It's messy. It's sloppy. It's doesn't fit our ideals.

So maybe our worship songs should start to reflect the mess. As long John Mark McMillan is writing them, they will.

Charts Smarts - Serving Your Team with the Right Music

If you're coming across this post without first seeing the WorshipMinistry.com series: Quit Practicing at Rehearsals, you might want to read those first. This post can stand on it's own, but it was designed as a supplemental resource to the WorshipMinistry.com articles. 

When it comes to charts and music, what we provide and how we provide it is a huge opportunity to serve our team and set us up for success.

I used to provide only the kind of charts I liked--and I like leadsheets. They have the melody, the chords and the words - all you need. You can see rhythms, but you don’t have all the extra notes and pages of a piano chart. And it’s not a “dumbed-down” chord sheet with no sense of rhythm or "real" musical markings. That was my not-so-humble opinion.

But I began to see that no matter what I preferred, my team has different learning styles and musical backgrounds. So for one, a leadsheet was overly complicated. For another, it was too simple.

So a few years back, I started to provide music for the “wide middle” whenever possible. So here's what that looks like for my team:

CD and/or mp3
This is a must for everyone, regardless if they play by ear or “only” read. Even the readers need to hear the music as part of learning it. There are a few exceptions that I make to this. If the song is a well-known hymn or chorus, and we aren’t using any particular artist’s arrangement, then I don’t bother providing a recording. If a particular recording doesn’t fit the way I want to do a song, I may still use it as a reference for learning the melody, but I make sure I communicate that to the team. 

Pitch-shifted CD and/or mp3
We really shouldn’t put our congregation through the excruciating experience of having to sing as high as Chris Tomlin and Lincoln Brewster. While those guys do it well, most of the rest of us don’t. Nowadays, it’s easy with SongSelect/CCLI to get charts in new keys.

But if we change keys from the recording, what about our players who learn parts by ear? You’ll be in for a dirty look (or worse) if your guitarist learns the opening riff for a Hillsong tune (from an mp3 you provided), only to find the rest of the band is playing in a different key.

Pitch shifting your music is a worthwhile investment of time. I used to pitch-shift mp3s with my recording software. Once I figured it out, it wasn’t hard—just time consuming. I was thrilled when PlanningCenterOnline.com began to offer Transposr.com. It’s a great tool (and not to mention free—read more about it here). It’s as simple as uploading the mp3, selecting the original key, the desired key and then waiting a minute or two for it be ready to download.

Lead sheet (or leadsheet)
If you’ve not heard this term before, a “lead sheet” contains a treble clef with the notated melody with lyrics and chords symbols. Lead sheets communicate chord changes, time, rhythm and arrangement without being as cumbersome as a full piano score or as simplified as a chord chart.

Most worship songs fit easily on one or two pages. Some of the more complex songs coming from Hillsong, Tomlin and others end up being 5 – 6 pages from CCLI’s SongSelect. I use Sibelius notation software to pare those down to two pages, three at the most.

Using Sibelius, or Finale, or other notation software programs is another way to serve your team. If your arrangement differs greatly from the one you pulled off SongSelect, consider re-charting it so you don’t have to go through 10 minutes of chart scratching before rehearsing the song. 

Chord Charts (or chord sheets)
Chord charts are simply the lyrics with the chord symbols above them. Even though I referred to them as “dumbed-down” – I don’t think players who use them are dumb. In fact, I was the 'dumb' one for not providing them for my team. Here are three reasons why players like to use chord charts:

1. no formal musical training, so the bars and repeats and rhythms and notes are just gibberish that gets in the way
2. they’re short – usually only one page
3. they provide just enough information for the player who has learned much of the song by ear, but doesn’t have it memorized

Guitar Capo Charts
Another advantage of chord charts is the ability to turning them into “guitar charts.” These charts are specifically for guitarists to capo their way out of “guitar-unfriendly” keys.

For example: Let’s say you’re going to play “You Are God Alone” in the key of Bb.  After you print out the key of Bb chordsheet on SongSelect, print out the keys G and A as well. Make sure you write on top of the chart in big letters – "GUITAR CHART: CAPO 1" on the key of A sheet and “CAPO 3” for G. I learned the hard way to make sure I differentiated chord charts from guitar charts and make sure my players know the difference. More than once I had a bassist playing in a different key. In fact, on my team site, I now name these charts as GUITAR CAPO 2 (or whatever fret they're capo'ing at).

If you've got static charts from other locations and want to transpose them, you can use Transposr.com, listed above. It will transpose your pdf chord charts that are fixed. There’s also a free download called “Chord Chart Wizard” that works pretty well (especially considering it’s free). But with this you need to remake your chart from scratch.

The biggest disadvantage to the chord chart is the complete lack of rhythm notation. There is nothing that shows bars, beat one, etc. The players need to rely on their ear.

There have been some movement towards a hybrid chord charting system that Brian Steckler introduced an article in one of articles Worship Leader Magazine. He simply added bar lines like this | (shift \). If you go this forum page, you can download in a zip file with his ppt notes and examples from a seminar he taught on it. (His post is the third one down. Look for the Charts 2.0 link.)

Only armed with Steckler's article in Worship Leader magazine (I didn't discover his seminar notes till much later) I took his idea and tweaked it using this Chord Chart Wizard (listed above). Where Steckler puts the bar lines up with chords, I opted to put the bar lines between the words. He also used some in-house symbols to show "holds" and "pushes" etc. that I may adopt/adapt, but haven't yet.

If you want to see an example of this type of chord sheet, download this zip file for the song Holy, Holy, Holy. It contains a leadsheet made with Sibelius, chord chart and guitar capo chart made with Chord Chart Wizard and a lyric sheet, which we'll talk about in a moment.

[This is a good place to mention another great tool - a PDF printer like PrimoPDF and some sort of PDF editor. The best route is probably with Adobe Acrobat, but there are less expensive options out there as well. Google it and get one. It'll keep your charts 1st generation nice (as opposed to reXeroxed to sheer ugliness) and allow you to add capo numbers and other notes.]

Lyric Sheets
Lyric sheets are simply that and are used primarily by vocalists. Occasionally, if I know the music of a song, I’ll just use the lyric sheet because I forget words so easily. (It’s been a running joke that I forget the lyrics even on songs I wrote.)

A couple years, I made a modification to lyric sheets: I added in our “standard” song form (v, ch, v, ch, brdg, etc.) in a text box off to the side. Adopting a standard song form is important. It doesn't mean you never change. It just gives you the baseline from which to modify. Your team (especially those who are more "structured") will appreciate this.

Full Piano Scores
I don't like these, but I'll use them occasionally. I have several reasons why I rarely use full piano arrangements. Here are the top three:

1. For classically trained note-readers, these charts don’t have too many pages, But for the rest of us, they are ungodly long.
2. The arrangement is set in stone. This is somewhat true of lead sheets. But to make a change to lead sheet, it requires a little more than drawing a circle here, an X there, and maybe an arrow or two. Making the same pages on a piano chart can be quite involved.
3. Piano scores are often arranged with the idea that the piano is carrying everything - the opening riff, the bass line, the rhythm, etc. In most band settings, these arrangements step all over the rest of the band.

Here’s why your situation might call for piano charts:

• You only have a piano player and few other instruments.
• Your pianist is the “glue” that holds together the band, and he/she cannot read chords or lead sheets.
• It’s a “piano-driven” tune, and you want it to sound as close as possible to the original recording.

I do use piano scores for this last reason if I have a lead sheet version of it that matches it. By the way, PraiseCharts.com is worth the $6 per song because most of their charts come with both the lead sheet and the full piano score.

_____________

So this sounds like a lot of different charts and forms to keep track of. That's because it is. Honestly, I’d love it if I could simply use only a lead sheet. But my team is made of different types of personalities with diverse musical backgrounds AND I have an administrative assistant that helps out. If you’re a volunteer leader, or a paid staff person in a church with no admin help, you need to draw a line in the sand. In my last church, I had to get myself flowers for Secretary’s Day, so serving the team in this way wasn’t feasible. I simply used lead sheets and mp3s.

Find that balance between serving the needs of the team and what you’re realistically able to do. And make sure you communicate why you can’t give the vocalists a lyric only sheet or why you’re requiring the guitarist to transpose his own capo notes. People will have grace (and they just might offer to help out…).