Bringing Cultures Together

I look at this part like solving Rubik’s Cube. You’re spinning around old and young, black and white and Asian and whomever else, traditional and contemporary, male and female and trying to make all those things come together somehow in 20 minutes worth of music. It. Is. Hard. It’s next to impossible to bring them all together, and most weeks you can’t. For one, there’s hardly ever enough time. But even more than that, unless you have an hour long show you are not going to make everyone happy. When you spend your time trying to make sure that everyone is happy, you’ll find that know one is. Including you. Your best bet (which is ALWAYS your best bet) is to listen to God’s voice and let him tell you what needs to be conveyed through the music and then you play that. Let the chips fall where they may. Sometimes that’s David Crowder. Sometimes that’s William McDowell. Sometimes it’s Isaac Watts. It’s a wild party in my head, but with every wild party there’s usually good music.

Blending Styles

There are some similarities between this one and the first one, but this applies more to the way a song is arranged. I personally love to mix up the arrangement of a song. That’s one of the easiest ways to make a song accessible to different types of people. Of course, this also one of the more dangerous moves on a weekly basis. Why? Well, I call this one The Sing Off effect. If I haven’t said it before, this is by far my favorite show on all of television. I wish I was on everyday so I could keep getting ideas and hearing what these amazing people can do with their voices. One of my favorite things about the show is the fact that these groups with different styles have to find a way to approach multiple genres of music, sometimes in the same night. I find myself having to do that on a weekly basis to give things some variety. It’s a fun and it allows me to branch out. But there’s a lot of care taken since an arrangement could either really shine or flop. It’s one of those risks you have to take.

Letting Christ Be The Star

You would think this wouldn’t be a big deal to keep in the forefront. However, sometimes as musicians we work really hard on a project or an arrangement and then we take things personally good or bad. If a song goes real well and people give compliments then it can be difficult to step out of that feeling of “yes, I put in a lot of hard work that you would never understand to make this be something that you would enjoy”. Whether you are in a multicultural church where people are looking for variety in almost every chord or straight Sunday morning gospel or the Chris Tomlin Pandora station, this NEEDS to be your major focus. Otherwise you’re a thief and you’re trying to rob the kingdom of the glory that should be headed that way.

Are there any other worship pastors that are leading in my type of situation? What are your thoughts? How much do these thoughts translate to leading in general? What about those of you that aren’t on the stage weekly? How do you gauge what you hear when you go to church?

The Bible uses the word prepare. And it gets used quite a bit from front cover to back. There is a lot of preparation that takes place in the Bible. In the early going the preparation centers quite a bit around sacrifices and preparing the animals for all the different sacrifices that took place in the early Bible times. In the beginning of the New Testament there was a lot of preparation for Jesus to be born and for him to die. After that there’s is talk of preparation as we wait for His return. After you read this, go to a Bible website (I would offer youversion.com) and type the word ‘prepare’ in the search bar. You’ll get quite the list.

So I’ve mentioned all of this to say that there is quite an emphasis in our world on being prepared. Yet, so many times we find ourselves unprepared for the things in our lives. How does that work? I spent some time as a Boy Scout when I was little and the main phrase of the Boy Scouts is ‘Be Prepared’. They then proceed to tell you how being prepared is the key to being a good boy scout and in turn, a good citizen. It seems like there’s great value in this concept of preparation. And again, I don’t think it’s just a worldly concept because it’s all throughout the Bible.

There is such great, almost painstaking detail taken in Scripture to talk about preparation for spending time with the Lord. In the Old Testament, only certain people could make sacrifices and only at certain times. Things had to be done in particular ways otherwise the sacrifices wouldn’t count. Then when Jesus was speaking about His impending fate then return to the Father (John 14) he said that he would go and prepare a place for us in Heaven. He went back to get things ready for the party that will occur when we get to be with Him.

How serious do you take preparation? Do you throw things together when you have the time? Or do you take the time to get yourself ready for whatever is coming up in your life? If you are a leader, do you take the time to prepare yourself to lead the people that are following you? I have rehearsals tonight with my vocalists and my band for church on Sunday. If I am not prepared to lead them, then that rehearsal won’t be very effective or efficient. But when I take the time to go through music and know what I want to hear, I have a better chance of relaying that message to them when the time comes. On Sunday morning a lot of time we pray that the Lord would prepare the hearts of the people for worship. We want people to come in and be ready for what’s going to happen when they walk in the door. That’s why we have things like prayers to help us clear our minds and get focused on the task at hand.

I don’t know what you do to get ready for things that happen in your life, but I realized that I might not be taking enough time to prepare my heart and mind for the things that I encounter. I will have to look into this some more and see what God has to say to me. This topic may get revisited before the week is out. Here’s the question: How do you prepare for the things you encounter in your daily life? And part B: How do you prepare for the things that are coming up? Answer at will.

Last night while watching the elimination portion of my favorite show, The Sing Off, something popped into my head. One of the groups that was in the last 2 (and the one that ultimately lost) was one that I expected to be there. However, the other part of the duo, I didn’t expect to see there for a while if ever. They are a powerhouse group of female vocalists who can blow the roof off. But in last night’s episode, they broke one of the big rules in music. They didn’t pick a song that they could sing. They changed their approach to the show and it almost cost them. They went for the cute factor and completely left behind the fact that as a group they probably have the strongest voices in the show every time they step on the stage. In a vocal competition that is so strong with a myriad of amazing groups, you have to lay it all on the line on every opportunity. They didn’t do that and they almost were sent packing.

Sunday, during our opener I had an idea that I thought was going to be a good one, but it sort of fell flat because I didn’t go all in and execute it they way I wanted to. I ended up being mad because about it because I thought it could have been a powerful moment that wasn’t because of me. So as I sit in my TMQ chair writing this, I know one of the things that was missing in this week’s service was me giving everything I had. The thing that is hard for me and should be hard for anyone in my situation is because, unlike the girls of Delilah, I didn’t give my all during a church service when I was supposed to be giving my all to the Father. How many times do we go throughout a day or week and not give our all? How many times can you look back and say “Man, this would have been better had I been able to give all to it”? After Sunday, I have decided that I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want to have to look back and say “I wish”. I had almost forgotten about how bad Sunday was until I was reminded during the show last night. Interesting how that works…

I will leave you today with the words of a hymn by Elisha A. Hoffman.

You have longed for sweet peace,
And for faith to increase,
And have earnestly, fervently prayed;
But you cannot have rest,
Or be perfectly blest,
Until all on the altar is laid.

Refrain

Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
Your heart does the Spirit control?
You can only be blest,
And have peace and sweet rest,
As you yield Him your body and soul.

Would you walk with the Lord,
In the light of His Word,
And have peace and contentment alway?
You must do His sweet will,
To be free from all ill,
On the altar your all you must lay.

Refrain

O we never can know
What the Lord will bestow
Of the blessings for which we have prayed,
Till our body and soul
He doth fully control,
And our all on the altar is laid.

Refrain

Who can tell all the love
He will send from above,
And how happy our hearts will be made,
Of the fellowship sweet
We shall share at His feet,
When our all on the altar is laid.

Without thinking about it too much, I guess some would say that they are probably leading the band that plays with them. On Sunday mornings, they are the ones leading the people in the singing of songs. But I ask you, are you receiving any spiritual guidance from the worship pastor at your church? Do you know if you can? Do you even want to? Again, I know that there are different types of situations as I write this. Some of you may attend a large church where the worship person is not quite accessible. Some of you may attend a smaller church where one of the teens leads the singing. Do you feel as if you are being spiritually by the worship pastor? Or do you feel like they are just a name and a face? Do you feel that you could go to the worship pastor on a Tuesday and sit down and talk to him about anything?

I ask these questions because, as a worship leader, I’m always seeking to make myself better at the job that I do. Like I said before, I wonder what the perception of the worship pastor really is and if there’s a way to change it or justify it. I think that this allure has been created, this glamour status for the worship pastor that makes them almost unapproachable. Sometimes that makes it hard for people to really come to them at any point, Sunday or otherwise. Honestly, I haven’t been on the other side of this coin in a really long time so it’s hard for me to speak from that side as I sit here this morning. What I can say as a worship pastor who is still relatively unknown in his own church, sometimes we know a little bit more than we are given credit for.

We want to be able to share our hearts for worship as well as what has been placed in our minds from what we have heard or read from others. We want to pray for you and with you. We have a heart to see people engaged in true worship that reaches the core of who we are and transforms hearts. You may say, how in the world can that be pulled off in 15-20 minutes on a Sunday morning? Well, it’s not easy but that’s what we are trying to accomplish each and every week. That’s also part of the reason why we craft an entire service behind the scenes. We want to make sure that the message is reinforced from start to finish.

Am I speaking for each and every person that does what I do? Definitely not. Can I know for sure that they all think this way? Not at all. But I know some that share that desire and they are dang good at it. You’d be surprised at what your worship pastor would have to say if you sat down and talked to them. So the question again is, who are these worship leaders leading. The other question could be, are you allowing them to lead you? What are your thoughts? Let me hear them.

So here’s the question to ponder. How many worship pastors feel like they are truly shepherding people? How many church goers feel that they are being shepherded by the worship guy? I would hope that there is spiritual truth being presented in the songs that are being sung in your churches. That is definitely a huge part of people led. But do you know how much or how little that worship pastor is putting into that music? Do you think they are just picking songs? Or do you believe that they are praying over and through worship sets to make sure that what they sing on Sundays brings truth about our Savior? How accessible is the worship leader/pastor at your church? Now I know that some of us attend some pretty big churches and it’s hard to get to some of them. So I guess then this question really is for you as well. Are you being shepherded by them? Or are they just leading the music? Do you attend a church where the worship pastor teaches a class or leads a study? Do you know what books he or she is reading? Do you even care?

So that turned out to be a lot of questions. These are all questions I have as a worship leader. When I was in school I went through all of these classes that talked about where the role of worship leader is today and where it is going from here. It was very insightful for me to see that I should be well versed and read and know my Bible. The question I always come back to is “Does anyone else care about this but us?” That wasn’t to say that we were going through stuff in vain. I just wonder how much people who aren’t worship leaders care about what we know? I guess these are the questions I pose today. Answer at will.

I believe that sometimes us worship leaders we can get confused as to what the focus is when we are on stage. There should be an element of excellence when we step on the stage each Sunday morning. But sometimes we step over the line and it becomes a performance and it becomes more about us and how we sound and what we can do. If I’ve learned NOTHING from being a musician and worship leader is that people can tell when we have switched from worship leader to self promoter. It is at that point when worship stops. That’s when I’m no longer doing my job. That’s when we are no longer doing our jobs.

At the end of the day, I’m talking about ways to help us become more effective worshipers. True worship is contagious. Let’s continue to search for ways to create a worship that others, Christians and non-Christians alike, see and take notice. THAT worship doesn’t just happen inside the walls of the church. Maybe it’s time to write about contagious worship…

Sometimes we try to take the lead in our own lives because we think we know the way. We try to guide the Father around the floor in an uptempo Broadway routine when he really wants to glide us gracefully through a waltz. He has a perfectly crafted plan for you, but you have to let Him lead the way. This is not one of those stories where I tell you that everything will be smooth sailing if you let him lead and all bumps and horror if you try to do it yourself. There are definitely bumps on the road as you follow Christ as well. However, when you are trying to lead and guide yourself then it’s like doing a dance you’ve never done while wearing a blindfold. You will probably fall or bump into something or someone. 

In this walk with Christ there’s only one person who knows the way. When we try to run out ahead of the leader we fall into traps and get stuck in ugly predicaments. I believe that’s the significance of Psalm 119:105 when he says he’s a lamp to our feet and light to our path. We only need to know where to step next. We have to trust that he’s going to lead us the right way. The same with a dance. You have to trust that your partner is leading you to where you both need to be in the dance. If you don’t do that and consequently try to go in a different direction you will find it increasingly more difficult to execute the dance and stay on your feet. If you aren’t aware, falling on a dance floor hurts.

Last night I was drawn to the passage of 1 Peter 5:7, which everyone knows it says “Cast all your cares upon Him for He cares for you”. Today I was enlightened by the scripture before and after that one though. The whole section is about being a leader. Peter is giving leadership training in this passage and he lays it out in a perfect manner. I don’t know why I hadn’t picked up on that before, but again, it is totally what I needed to hear right now. See, I was/am dealing with a leadership situation in my own church where I am trying to do some things and I know I have to step out of a box further than I ever have before. To some degree I feel as if there is only one way to get things done and I’m NOT that person. Now, without going into too much psychobabble (love that word), I’ve been struggling to find a way to get my point across and step into this new phase. It has been wearing me out and causing me to lose sleep. But something awesome happened yesterday. I went into a meeting with a plan and laid things out and came away with the support and approval I needed to move forward in what I felt Christ was calling me to do. I then promptly fell asleep in my office. I had been sleeping but I was nowhere close to resting. I woke up today for the first time in a while feeling somewhat refreshed and ready to attack my day.

I was so ready to find a sense of solace in verse 7 that I was blindsided by the hard truth of verses 5 and 6. I was going into this meeting with my own ideas of what would be said and thought that I had worked myself up into a lather. I was stressed about how things wouldn’t go right or how I wouldn’t be understood. But it wasn’t until I was calmed down by a friend and was able to talk through some things that I gained some perspective and was able to share freely and come to a God honoring resolution. So sure, I need to cast my cares on God. And sure, he cares for me unlike anyone else could. That happens when I am able to step out of the way and stop being proud and thinking that I know what’s going to happen. It’s obvious that I have no idea. I had to see that I will be exalted when God says so, but in the mean time I have to sit back and let Him do His job. Once I’m able to do that, I can give Him everything because he will carefully handle my life. Well played, 200 year old book. Well played.

Worship:REVEALED

Am I being Relevant?

Is the worship Engaging?

Am I being Vulnerable when I’m on stage?

Is the worship Enriching?

Am I being Authentic, or am I just singing because that’s what I do?

Are people feeling Liberated and able to worship freely in service?

Are we creating an Energetic atmosphere?

Is our worship Dynamic? Is it continuing to move and not stay the same all the time?

Over the next couple days I will flesh these out and hopefully you, my readers will give me your thoughts on these.

It seems like an oxymoron to think that we wouldn’t take the time to share what we know or what we’ve learned as musicians and students of the Word. And I’m not saying that worship leaders shouldn’t share things from the stage. But we only get a limited window of time to share and we are given the chance to share through music. The song portion of the service is not the worship leader sermon time. I’ve been in places where we got a worship leader sermon and the pastor’s sermon as well. It felt like a lecture series with music playing in the background. I think what I’m trying to say is that as a worship leader we are in a unique place that, if handled correctly, can really enhance a Sunday morning worship experience. If handled poorly, the flow of a service can be completely manhandled and subsequently deflated.

I was once told by a pretty awesome worship leader and friend that not the job of the worship leader to preach the music. If you want to share your thoughts on worship, teach a class or write a blog. Our job is to lead the people in singing. That was some great advice to me and it has stuck. I believe that people really want to know what you think or feel, they will ask you. I know that from experience. So friends, feel free to share you heart from the stage, just try to do it in 2 minutes or less.