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?

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Six Lousy Methods to Get More Musicians, Part 1

Photo: Flickr, kanyjaxx//CC

One of the most often asked question I get as I talk with pastors, worship leaders and volunteers is “How do I grow my team?” What they usually mean is, “How do we find more musicians?” Here’s six ways not to do it:

1. Rely only on Sunday morning announcements.
This is the “shot-gun” approach or the “let’s throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks” method of recruiting. It’s OK to use your church’s forms of “mass marketing” – Sunday morning announcements, bulletins, website – but recognize this type of passive promotion works best to just raise awareness or pique curiosity.
Here are a few tips for using mass-market advertisements to grow your team:

• An Opportunity versus a Need. Announce the desire for more musicians/techs, etc. as openings or opportunities – avoid the needy plea. More on that in a moment...

[read more]

8th Grade Odor and Sucking Out Loud: 17 Ways to Build a Better Youth Band, 4

Read Part 1
Read Part 2
Read Part 3

15. Leave them wanting more. Don’t expect a weekly band--especially at first. You don’t want your band burning out or your youth group growing complacent.

16. Foster Creativity. As your kids get to know the songs, they may have ideas for new arrangements. Let them run with it. And consider starting a songwriting group for your teens. You might have the next Chris Tomlin sitting on one of your broken couches just waiting to be encouraged. 

17. Teach bite-size biblical worship. Don’t force the kids to read Piper’s Desiring God. (You should, though.) Instead, teach as you go with small sound-bites. Use memorable phrases backed up by scripture. E.g. “This is not about us” (Psalm 115:1).

Bonus: Demoting Your Adults. The adult leader’s role should start and end with mentor/teacher. While she’s developing the students, she may need to be the lead musician carrying the band, or even the upfront worship leader. But the goal should always be to move them down the ladder to support musician and eventually cheerleader. I know this seems like a no-brainer. But remember, even though these full-grown musicians may look like adults – they’re still “musicians.” That means there’s an 8th grade ego that can emerge from time to time. Just gently remind them of the goal: STUDENT-led.

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.

8th Grade Odor and Sucking Out Loud: 17 Ways to Build a Better Youth Band, 2

Read Part 1 (#1-5)
6. Create a standard form for each song. And don’t deviate from that form (at least until #16 starts to happen). By a standard song form, I mean the order of the verse, chorus, bridge and other parts of the song. Use the original recording arrangement when possible. (And check out www.Transposr.com for changing mp3s to more student-friendly keys.)

7. Practice to improve. This generation of students has epic amounts of confidence infused from helicopter parents and school-sponsored self-esteem programs. You may have to yank some chains occasionally to help them to realize they are NOT yet the legends they think they are. Create the expectation of personal practice and continual improvement. Encourage and love them, but don’t coddle them.

Photo: Flickr by Josh Delsman

8. Rehearse to relate. I have a mantra with my adult team: “Practice is personal. Rehearsal is relational.” Rehearsal is partly about getting better as band. But for a youth band, it’s the perfect chance to make deeper connections with your kids. It also gives your students a greater sense of belonging to and purpose in your ministry.

9. Let them make mistakes. Stress doing things well, but don’t be that perfectionist youth leader. And you’ll have to keep an eye on your mentors/teachers from the adult team. Remind them the goal isn’t to create Jesus Culture-Cleveland or Hillsong Toledo. Also…

10. Encourage the students to make mistakes. The aforementioned self-esteem and confidence also cuts the other way – some students are paralyzed at the thought of making mistakes. I like tell my musicians: “Suck out loud. It’s the only way you’ll get better." 

Cued up for Part 3: Jon's Mom's Band. Stay tuned for that...

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.

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.

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)

Please Practice: 8 Tips to Give Your Team

Of all the players that I've had in worship teams, the ones that practiced the most came out of the bar band scene. If any of them came to rehearsals unprepared, they apologized before they even pulled out their guitar. The players with church backgrounds, yeah…not so much. Why is this? That’s fodder for a whole new article series. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they’ve never received guidance on this subject. Here are some practice tips for your team:

Before rehearsal:

• Listen to each song while following the chart. Even if you know the song well, a repeated listening-through will reveal things you missed and further solidify the song in your head.
• Listen to the song again, playing along with it (here’s where the correct key & pitch-shifted recordings comes in handy).
• Do an initial play-through. Without the recording, play the song completely through one time. If any part causes you to stumble, mark it with a pencil and move on.
• Work on bumps. Once you’ve played through and marked the trouble stops, go back and run those spots till you have them down.
• Listen again (and again). Instead of just turning on your car or office radio, put the songs in a playlist on your iPod, mp3 player or computer and listen to it passively throughout the week. The songs will sink in more than you know. On the way to rehearsal, listen to the songs again, thinking about your part.

Between rehearsal and Sunday:

• Work the problem areas. Mark the spots that gave you trouble during rehearsal. Run those until the hiccups go away.
• Focus heavily on any parts that are yours to lead or carry, such as a solo or segues.
• Listen again (and again). Did I mention this one already.

Got anymore tips? Love to hear them. Throw them in the comments or tweet them to me @jonnicol.

This Site is Ugly!

From the start, I’ve wanted Worship Team Coach.com to help pastors, leaders and worship/music teams create great Sunday morning experiences. The only problem: the WorshipTeamCoach.com site is NOT a great experience. There’s plenty of relevant and practical resources there, but it’s spread out over three sites and not easy to navigate. And it’s ugly. I mean, no-date-for-the-prom ugly.

I’m planning a full-out redesign from the ground up. The quality of the container needs to match the quality of the contents. A redesign of this site will bring the Worship Guitar Workshop, the blog and all the resources on the main site together. And all the free articles and resources will be more easily searched (and found). I’ll be able to serve you and your ministries better and expand the reach of WorshipTeamCoach.com.

With this funded through RocketHub, I'll be able to keep 95% of the content free and my live workshops affordable. If we exceed the goal, any extra funds will go into creating more free resources.

If you love what you find here, but aren't in a place to help, just spread the word about www.WorshipTeamCoach.com and www.WorshipGuitarWorkshop.com.

Thanks for stopping by!
~jon

Ox Percussion...

...is what we get when the aux percussionist forgets he's, well auxiliary. Big. Strong. And way too much. A Shetland pony could pull this cart. It doesn't need two yoked bovine.

Auxiliary is defined by M-W.com as

a : offering or providing help b : functioning in a subsidiary capacity

Unfortunately, who do we usually assign to auxiliary percussion?
1. The drummer who can't cut it on set, either because of inexperience or sub-par talent.
2. The person who wants to be on the team but can't play an instrument. Can you clap in time? You're in.

Chances are, both people will overplay.

I don't want to just pick on percussionists here. There's an inverse relationship between the skill/experience/maturity of any musician and the amount he or she plays. Great musicians know how to make fewer notes count for more.

I remember the first time I paid attention to a great percussionist at work. I was actually sitting behind him in the choir loft during a worship conference breakout session at a large church. During the demonstration of a ballad, he couldn't have hit a drum or a cymbal more than a dozen times in the whole song. He just sat for bars and bars waiting for the perfect moment to plink finger cymbals together. Then a light hit on the djembe rim. Then some chimes.

He knew his place. And he loved it.

Each instrument and voice, at some point, must take a subservient role - be the understated dot of icing on beautiful cake. In most songs, the aux percussionist will need to take that role.

This Worship Director video from Gateway* is a great example of a master percussionist in action.


Did you notice he doesn't even touch the congas until 2 minutes in to the song?

All this less is more stuff is important - but worship leaders, we need to remember one thing:

They still need a chance to rock out and shine.

So look for songs and sections that can be driven by your aux percussionist. It'll carry him through while he's counting the 88 bars till his next finger cymbal hit.

*by the way - this is one of my new favorite songs. It started its pre-service introduction at my church last week.

Reverse Sound Check

Kent Morris is a rock star. Actually, he's the AV genius behind rock stars. And he was in my neighborhood a month or so ago doing a seminar for Peavey's Sanctuary Series line of sound systems. (Ended up having lunch with him, which was fun. But that's for another blog.)

During the seminar, he suggested we do our sound check backwards. At least - it seemed backwards to me. So that meant it was probably right.

Here's what Kent proposed:

Turn off the wedges. Play through your first song as best as you can, which allows the sound tech to dial in a solid mix. After that, the tech asks, "What's missing? What do you need to keep you on-time and on-pitch?" At that point, we add to the monitors only what's necessary to meet the true need: the basic stuff to keep us on-time and on-pitch.

So we tried it. (My sound guy made me tell the band what we were doing. I didn't blame him...) We played our first song sans monitors and few things happened:
1. We listened to each other. For the first time, ever, I think people in the band were really listening for what the other person was doing.
2. We got a great house mix and a lower stage volume. There was less "more me" - which meant less overall monitor volume.
3. We spent far less time "tweaking" monitors than our usual method.

If this scares you, let me throw a few things at you:
If we're trying to approximate the house mix in our wedges, we're asking too much. Strip it down to what's absolutely necessary to keep us together rhythmically and sonically.

When you take more for yourself on stage - more "me," more piano, more whatever - the more your monitor becomes part of the main mix. Ever heard the backside of a wedge? (Just saying backside of a wedge brings up an unpleasant picture for the sound.)

If our role really is to serve the congregation, we need to put that into practice when it comes to our monitors. And didn't Jesus say something about this backwards sound check?

Taco Bell vs. Chipotle

A burrito as big as your head for $6 or a three pound box of fast-mex food for $5?

The cheapskate in me usually hits Taco Bell. Couple items off the value menu and a water, and I'm full for $2.50. And I do enjoy Taco Bell - probably a little too much. But Chipotle...mmm...it's like Christmas morning when I lean over that stainless steel counter picking out which salsa(s) will top my burrito bowl. And should I splurge for guacamole? Yes, I should.

A secondary draw for me to choose Chipotle over Taco Bell is the simplicity. Here's Taco Bell's indoor menu board:

Here's what you see at the drive-through:


Ever gotten in line behind the uninitiated at Taco Bell? They stare. And they stare. And they're just about to order, but, oh wait, what's a Chalupa? Mafia wise guys get made in less time then these people's burrito decisions. But honestly, who could blame them? My college catalog had less options to choose from.

Now here's the Chipotle menu:

I marvel at the genius of Chipotle every time I go there. You pick one of 5 meats (or a non-meat...). You pick one of 5 ways to contain that meat. You choose a few toppings, add an extra or two. Done.

There's a place for a myriad of choices. I like having lots of options. And Chipotle's menu allows for a thousand options, but within the confines of a few key selections. It's about giving people something great with less. And that 'less' is the key: they do those few things very, very well.

The music and worship ministries I led in the past resembled Taco Bell's menu: 

Lots of choices.
Not so long ago in a church not so far away, I was picking from over a 100 songs for any given week. There was a group of 30 songs that were at the core, but the remaining 70 were fair game. And to accommodate that many songs, I simply pushed as many songs into the service as possible. 

Lots of new menu items.
"Everyone's doing this new Hillsong tune. We've got to do it."
"Jon, I just heard this new song on KLOVE - it's SOOOO awesome. Do you think we can pull it off next next Sunday?" Sure.
"Paul Baloche's new album just came out." Enough said. 

And cheap.
The new songs I picked weren't thought out for how they would fit with the rest of the 'menu.' Or more important, serve those they were meant to feed.

The amount of time I spent preparing was low.

The cost to be on the team wasn't very high.

In the past several years, I've tried to have more of a Chipotle-menu model for ministry: a few really great choices, well prepared, at a price that's, well, not cheap.

I try to limit the number of songs I choose from. I've created a "Current Rotation System" that, while imperfect, keeps my song choices for any given month around 30-40 songs. This allows both the worship team and the congregation to know and internalize the songs better. It also gives me a system for introducing new songs, and retiring the tired ones.

I could add another song to the service on any given week. But I think we can create a better environment for worship with four well-prepared songs than seven seat-of-my-pants songs. Not longer, but better.

We cheapen our worship fare a number of ways. Choosing songs without considering how they fit the over all 'menu.' Creating song sets without regard for where they are leading people. Expecting too little of ourselves and others in the way of preparation. Those are just a few ways.


Last thing: at Chipotle, ever notice there's no...
...drive thru? Chipotle demands more. Come in and invest.

...meals you can order by number? You have to create it.

...happy meals? They aren't trying to please everyone.

28 Ways to Make Great Segues: Segue #15 - The Offering (part 1)

"We'll be taking the offering in a few moments." [hint to ushers: please come to the front]

Some off the cuff announcements, then, "And now, as the ushers come forward, we'll be giving our tithes and offering." [hint to ushers, PLEASE come to the front].

Pause. The pastor looks back to see the one usher give the sideways head jerk to two other ushers still in their seats.

"Alright, AS THE USHERS COME FORWARD, let's prayer for our tithes and offerings." [a slightly stronger hint.]

Pause. As the ushers come forward.

They've arrived. The pastor's chest starts to untighten just a little. "Let's pray."

For each person a segue depends upon to flow smoothly, the chance for a derailment increases. Exponentially. The segue to the offering is one of those transitions. Here are all the potential people involved:

• The music/worship leader ending the song
• The pastor or elder stepping up to pray for the offering
• The worship tech turning on the pulpit mic or pastor's wireless
• The ushers
• Whatever element you're using to fill the time as the plates are passed:
• video - then you have worship techs to depend on
• musical element - soloists, band, accompaniment tracks to cue

With all those moving parts, it's no wonder that, for so many churches, this is the segment that grinds momentum to a halt. Here are some ideas to create smoother movement in and out of the offering:

1. Script out your services. 
Don't just make a list of the service elements in the order they occur. Plan out the details of how we're getting there and who is getting us there. A few thoughts about scripts:

• The act of writing it out is at least 75% of it. It forces you to think through all the details.
• Get other eyes on it before finalizing. Forgot to put in the "dismissal for kids church"? Your kids' ministry leader or a mother of preschoolers would've caught it.
• Put it in the hands of everyone involved. And put their names in the area for which they are responsible.

2. Keep a musical bed going throughout.
Rather than stop playing at the end of the song, the guitar or keys can underscore the verbal transition and prayer to the offering. The musical bed, while hardly noticed by most, will be a constant thread from the previous song, throughout the prayer and prep for the offering and into the next element.

3. Keep comments brief and focused on the offering.
Often pastors and lay leaders will use this time to add or augment announcements. If you want to keep a worshipful flow in to and out of the offering, take the advice Red Leader: Cut the chatter, Red Two. (sorry, inner Star Wars geek leaking out.)

4. Prep your ushers.
These are good guys just waiting to be told what to do, and willing to do it. So don't wait till the prayer before the offering to give them instructions. Also, create a "default mode" for them that will work 99% of the time. For instance, instruct them that they should be getting into place during the song (or whatever the element is) before the offering. As the pastor or leader steps up to pray, they walk forward. No verbal cues needed.

5. Cue up whatever is next.
Whether you're watching a video, singing another worship song, having a special number, etc., make sure that element is ready to launch as soon as the prayer finishes. Again, keeping that musical bed up until this next element will further connect the pieces.


In the next post, we'll continue talking about how to make a great segues in and out of the offering, and even ideas on how to "do the offering" in a way the creates flow.

"Good Music--I Just Hate Looking at the Worship Team..."

I've been talking to my team, especially my vocalists, about stage presence. Team members from secular backgrounds (bar bands, musical theater, etc) bristle at the thought of infusing worship with the kind of "stage presence" they used in performance settings. My thoroughly 'churched' people just give me blank looks.

To find that middle ground, I'm using the terms "worshipful presence" and "worshipful stage presence." There are probably better terms (and I'd love to hear them), but those seems to connect with both the redeemed rock stars and those who cut their teeth on the back of a church pew.

It'd be easy to point to big worship artists and/or cutting edge churches and say, "See it? That's stage presence." But those artists and churches are a bit removed from most of our Sunday-to-Sunday realities.

Let's look instead at our teaching/preaching pastors:

If a pastor delivers great content with no charisma, how engaged are we?

If a pastor seems nervous and/or lacks confidence, it's a long sermon to endure.

If a pastor looks at his notes 85% of the time, we question his preparation (and wonder if he actually cares that we're listening)

If a pastor lacks energy and passion, how convinced are we that he really believes what he's preaching.

Then why is it OK for us musicians to keep our heads buried in our music stands?

Many of us come from backgrounds that relegate emotion and expression to our friends in the charismatic crowd. But if we really cared about what we are singing and playing, shouldn't it be expressed? (Hence, expressive worship.)

So what's the problem? There are several...

#1: Confidence
Remember that test for which you studied your keister off? Something amazing happened: you effortlessly finished it and said to yourself, "I aced this thing!" I remember that feeling well, because I think it only happened once for me. That feeling I had during the test? Confidence. Confidence comes by consciously doing something (badly at first) enough times until I get competent; then I keep doing it till it becomes almost unconscious or effortless. We don't want to sing or play "unconscious" of the what we singing or playing. But when we don't need to concentrate on the execution, we're freer to focus on the Object of our affection.

Fear is also a factor in confidence. If one of your players fears being in front of a crowd, that will diminish her ability to express herself.

#2: Permission.
Team members aren't waiting for a written decree from their leader that says, "Thou shalt show emotion." But they pick up our subtle withholding of permission. In what ways?


We don't model it. Is it our own fear of expressing emotions? Are we just "naturally reserved" people? Maybe we're not putting in the effort that produces confidence. No matter the reasons, if I don't do it my team won't do it. Important caveat: modeling falls short. We can model expressiveness till Jesus returns, but our band and singers will still have the exuberance of tree bark. And here is the more overt way that we withhold permission: 

We don't encourage it. In my vocational ministry experience, I've only had one person take "expressiveness" too far. Rather than deal with that person directly, I avoided encouraging others to be expressive for fear of perpetuating this person's over-zealousness. Dumb move. So encourage your team to let their faces and bodies express what their heart feels.

But that may be the real issue:

#3: The Heart
Jesus confronts the Pharisees in Matthew 15:  

'These people honor me with their lips,
      but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain...'

There are several ways we worship "in vain". Both begin with a heart that is far from God (which is always a result of some sort of sin). One way is that we simply "go through the motions." We sing. We pray (or at least close our eyes and pretend to). We do the actions of worship with little or any emotion attached. This could be why someone on your team is non-expressive. Another, and more insidious way to worship in vain is using emotional expressiveness to mask our "far from God" heart. We could probably all point to examples of this - in my case, it's as close as the nearest mirror. You too?

The fear of hypocritical worship should not deter us from encouraging our team to be expressive. We just need to shepherd (teach/guide/exhort) our people towards a practice of ongoing confession, repentance and surrender. And that is the beginning of the practical steps towards cultivating expressive worship.

During this year of 2011, I've told my team we're looking at improving three "Big Things". One of those things is Expression. So as I continue make progress (or fail miserably), we'll continue to look at ways to cultivate expression in worship (and ways that might not).

LIDs

Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. ~Eric Hoffer

I had the privilege this Sunday to introduce a new worship leader to our congregation. We didn't hire him. Nor did he transfer from another church. He's been here for a while--I just dusted him off and gave him a chance. He's a much better singer than I am. And with his confident yet easy-going stage-presence, I have no doubt that for many in our church he will become a their favorite worship leader.


And I'm stoked about that.

A few years ago it's was easy for me to talk about leadership development. But when faced with it, I found reasons (read: excuses) not to move people beyond a supporting role. I had LIDs. Leadership Insecurity Disorder.* And it does exactly what it spells.

I first heard a worship pastors Nathan LaGrange & Erik Cooper from Lakeview Church (Indianapolis) use the term at a Seminar4Worship at in 2008.
 

After a self-diagnosis of LIDs (which the Holy Spirit likely had something to do with), I was determined develop leaders. Before I made much headway, the financial axe fell and my full-time position had to be eliminated for the church to survive. The worship ministry there hasn't digressed to where it was when I first started. But in a lot of ways, it's close.

While I raised the bar there, I didn't raise a sustainable future. It was my job to grow leaders. Instead I grew my stock--I built a solid musician team, taught new songs, led good worship gatherings. No one wanted to cut me. They liked me--I did a decent job and worked downright cheap. Just not cheap enough for the early days of a recession. God taught me a tough lesson about the real work of the worship pastor.

Christ-centered leadership is about pouring out and giving up. It's good and right to pour my life into developing others. But eventually I need to give up something so they can take the next step.

Step away from my mic so she can lead a verse. 

Watch from sound booth as he leads a rehearsal. 

Let them choose the music. 

I have to give up leadership more often than just when I go on vacation.

Here's the ugly side of LIDs: The more infected I am with it, the more I relish in their failure. Not in a "laughing fiendishly while rubbing my hands together" kind of way. More understated: "They need me. Now, they know that they need me." Sick, isn't it? But true.

I came across the Eric Hoffer quote around the time I was told by my senior pastor in my current ministry that the services went much better when I wasn't the upfront worship leader. That's not a good thing to hear when your job is to lead worship. Talk about a "crisis in self-esteem." But my pastor was right. God had me in a place where, for a number of reasons, I couldn't hold together the band with my guitar and lead the congregation at the same time. What worked in my last church wasn't working here. So couple that revelation with being the sole worship pastor in a multi-campus church and I needed to tear off my LID quick.

I still lead a couple times a month at one campus, but now there are people at the other campus who probably wonder if all I do is play guitar and occasionally nod my head to stop the band. But I'm in a place where the pouring out and giving up gets me excited.

Did I tell you I just introduced a new worship leader at my church on Sunday?

And I'm stoked about that.

worship planning tip #17

worship planning tip #17

Unless you have the same band and vocals week after week, always plan your songs with an eye on the musician* schedule. Look at the range the vocalists who may be taking the lead. Look at the strength of your scheduled band and determine if the song you're planning can be played in it's 'default' arrangement. It might need to be simplified or even saved for another week.

A couple months ago I had to yank an instrumental piece out of our order. During rehearsal the band was just not getting it. After too much rehearsal time wasted, I finally had to admit defeat and said, "let's move on." It was my fault, not the team's. Had I been realistic about the strength of the players that week, I would have never pushed for it. I discouraged a few by setting them up to fail.

It's not a bad thing to chuck someone in the deep end from time to time. But when they start at the bottom of the pool wearing a parka and carrying a mini-fridge, the learning potential is lost to frustration.


btw - when I refer to "musicians", I mean instrumentalists and vocalists. It's scary how many vocalists don't consider themselves musicians. Now, when it comes to including drummers in the musician category, that's a different story. (just a joke, my Vic Furth wielding friends)