You Can Know God

Worship Practice

Last night, I had the opportunity to visit one of the premier churches in the country and sit in on their worship rehearsal.  I took Matt Moody, one of our Oak Leafers and an up and coming worship leader.  We got to sit in and see some of the behind the scenes stuff and that was pretty cool.

They begin with all the musicians and singers eating dinner in the green room and just hanging out. There was some prayer time.  From there, someone talks through the songs for Sunday.  This guy was involved in all the planning meetings with the speaker and creative team, made sure the song charts were ready, and made sure all the players had the songs ahead of time.  Every musician had already listened to the songs in advance (they make sure they follow the letter of the law...distributing their own recordings of the songs).  They listened to each song in the green room, and musicians made notes on their charts.  Very nice.

Then, they went into rehearsal where the worship leader took over.  While setting monitor mixes, he was the only one who spoke to the front of house sound guy...very organized and quick.  Then they played through each song and tweaked things.  Since all the players already knew their stuff, it wasn't a learning time but a gelling time.  Then they played through all the songs one time while they recorded it.  Everybody would take a disc home so they could listen for a couple of days.

This church does this stuff right.  It's done with excellence, and it seems so far away from what we're able to do.  But Matt and I (and the guitar player who plays there who gave us the tour) talked about what is transferrable to our setting.

1.  Professionalism.  We have to set an attainable bar, but it needs to be a stretch.  These guys knew what they were doing.  They were there to rehearse...they were professionals.  They weren't goofing off playing Van Halen tunes during sound check.  Even though these guys knew each other, and prayed with each other, and hung out before and after, they got to work and got it done.

2.  Preparation.  The guys all had the songs in advance.  Practice began on time and everybody was set up and not messing with pedal boards.  Everybody knew what they were about to do, which made it easier to focus on doing it.  I think preparation is so important...for meetings, rehearsals, proposals, etc. 

3. Leadership.  The one guy led everything up to rehearsal time...from picking songs, to preparing charts, to setting up everything.  It was organized and worked on.  It doesn't just happen.  Then the worship leader was the clear leader during the rehearsal.  Other guys, who were clearly excellent at their craft, deferred to him.  He led the sound check.  He listened to the other folks, but made the call.

Anyway, it was a cool experience and I was glad to see it.  It gave me a little glimpse into where we're going.

Worship

I'm really glad Hillsong United is putting some good stuff out there.  I love Passion, but they were really the only major player in my opinion.  Crowder and Tomlin have such a following, and they are great, but it's time for some new people to step up. 

During the last decade, all the Christian artists throwing worship projects out there to jump on the bandwagon...that stuff just wasn't that fresh to me. For a while, and I guess even now, random people were just throwing out worship CD's left and right.  It's was really not that good. 

Even the latest Passion album seems a little like a repeat of stuff I've heard before.  I'm not sure what Charlie Hall is up to there.  There are a few great songs, but I wonder if it's getting a little tired.  It's still good, but it sounds like I've heard it before.

But I'm listening to Hillsong United and there's a lot of creativity and energy there which I think is cool. 

Worshipping Men

In Why Men Hate Going to Church, David Murrow talks about how praise music may be turning men off from corporate church services.  He writes,

"Praise music has accelerated this trend.  Not only are the lyrics of many of these songs quite romantic, but that have the same breathless feel as top forty love songs.

Hold me close, let your love surround me.  Bring me near, draw me to your side.
I'm desparate for you, I'm lost without you.
Let my words be few.  Jesus I am so in love with you.
You're altogether lovely..altogether wonderful to me.
You are beautiful, my sweet, sweet song.

Think of the mental gymnastics that must take place inside a man's subconscious mind as he sings lyrics like these.  He's trying to express his love to Jesus, a man who lives today, using words no man would dare say to another, set to music that sounds like the love songs his wife listens to in the car.  By the way, men never call each other beautiful, lovely, or wonderful."

Good book that will make you think.

10 Reasons I Like Matt Redman

Matt Redman led an extended time of worship after the third general session at the Willow Children's Conference yesterday.  Matt is a great worship leader.  GREAT.  I used to do a little worship leading, so I know just enough to have strong opinions.  Here's why Matt's so great at what he does.  Not all reasons are super-spiritual.

1.  He knows how to lead the audience.  He doesn't close his eyes and have his own private worship moment on stage.  He's clearly worshipping, but he recognizes the importance of bringing the audience into God's presence.  Great worship leaders understand the healthy tension between worshipping themselves and bringing the people along.  That's leading.
2.  His band is leading as well.  They weren't just playing, they were just as into it.  The drummer was smiling during the fun songs and singing along.
3.  He doesn't talk a lot.  This is huge for me.  He doesn't kill the flow of worship by stopping to introduce songs that really need no introduction.  He kept the energy going or kept the spirit going.
4.  When he does talk, there's music in the background.  No dead time, which just kills the mood and creates rough starts and stops.  His songs flowed into each other.  And he has some freedom to say some things right in the middle of songs.
5.  When he does talk, it's really meaningful, not just pre-song chit-chat.  He gave a great explanation about one of his new songs, which I actually wrote down.  When's the last time you took notes on something a worship leader said?
6.  He's does some theology in some songs.  He's got some deeper lyrics that really get to the heart of the matter.  I love his song writing.  Peple that criticize the modern worship movement because of it's repetiviness or lack of depth should check out some of Matt Redman's stuff.
7.  After a song is over, a couple of times, he did the chorus of some old hymns as transitions into other songs.  I really loved this balance between the old and the new and what that brought to the table.  Hymns can still be cool when done right.
8.  He's a short little guy.  I can relate to that.
9.  He is very talented.  He's good at what he does.  He has written so many of the songs we sing in churches today.
10.  English accents are just flat out cool.  I wish I had an accent.  I think that instead of having to take  a foreigh language in high school or college, you should be able to take a foreigh accent.  You could say the dumbest thing ever, but if you say it with an English accent, people will think you are smarter.

Pretty Funny for a Wednesday

Coming your way via MMI.  Here is a phone call of a church visitor who didn't like a certain member of the praise team. Pretty funny stuff.

Listen to the phone complaint here...

The Making of a Good Worship Leader

I started playing guitar in college so I could sing Lord I Lift Your Name on High with my youth group.  For the past few years, I've led worship in some different places, but I really don't do it much anymore.  I came to a crossroads in my calling and realized that while I love music and enjoy leading worship, I'm not called to do that with my life.  As a way of a disclaimer:  I do not consider myself a good worship leader or an expert on the subject.  That being said, here's my thoughts:

A good worship leader...

1.  Has the ability to lead people.  Leading worship requires leadership skills.  It's not all notes and guitars and chord charts.  A worship leader needs to have people skills in order to lead a band.  He needs to inspire people.   I truly beleive that if a person has the gift of leadership, then he could fill a variety of roles in church.  How can a person lead a church in worship if he can't lead his family or lead a small group, or lead a Bible study, or lead a meeting.  I'm not saying that all these things are required, but leadership isn't just for administrators and pastors.  As we look for a worship leader and explore different avenues, the ability to lead in general will be one of the qualities that rises to the top.

2. Has presence.  Maybe this is the ability to not look dazed and confused in front of people.  You can tell after a few minutes or a few chords if a worship leader has stage presence.  You can work on this to a certain degree, but for the most part, you either have it or you don't.   Worship leaders with presence know how to stand before a crowd and shift the focus onto God.  They make eye contact with people, not just have their own private worship moments on stage.  That's all well and good, but I want our lead worshipper to recognize the responsibility of leading people in worship.  I don't speak with my eyes closed.

3.  Has talent.  I know this won't sound very spiritual but when it comes to leading worship, heart and passion are not enough.  There are a lot of passionate singers and musicians who really want to make a difference who should not be singing and playing in public.  I know everybody has to start somewhere.  I don't expect everybody to be Chris Tomlin.  But good worship leaders posess a certain about of talent.  They learn from other worship leaders,  go to concerts and get ideas, figure out how things are done, and practice.  While it's hard to teach presence, you can grow in this area.  (The same goes for communicators by the way...)

4.  Doesn't talk to much.  This may be a pet peeve of mine, but I also believe it can kill a service.  There are times that a song requires an introduction, or when a worship leader needs to share thoughts on a subject.  But that can't happen before every song and during every break.  Groups have brought me in to speak to a group of students and I pour my heart into a 30 minute message, and when it's done, the worship leader gives 5 more minutes of talking.  For the most part, that's just wasted time because people are checked out.  People can only process so much.  They can only listen to so much talking.  There is a communicator who has put hours and hours into preparing a message.  As a worship leader, you wouldn't like it if the speaker got up to speak, picked up your guitar and launched into a few more worship songs. 

Worship leaders are so crucial in the life of the church.  It's a crucial role.  Some people judge a church by the quality of the music or the personality of the worship leader.  I have more to say on this, but that's probably enough for today.  :) 

Blessings!