Jamie Brown

“Respond to This”

Last Sunday morning at my church, one of our associate pastors, Bill Haley, preached a message titled “Jesus is Supreme: Don’t Neglect His Offer”. It was based on Hebrews 2:1-4, and was a call “not to neglect so great a salvation”. It was powerful.

As I began thinking and praying about what songs we should sing this weekend (Bill is preaching again, on Hebrews 2:9-18), I really felt strongly that we should spend the first half of our time together continuing to consider and respond to what we heard last week.

I asked Jon Crocker, my friend and brother-in-law, if he would be able to take some audio clips of Bill’s sermon from last week and make a short video with them for us to watch during our opening time of singing. He said if I gave him the audio clips, he’d be happy to do it.

So on Tuesday night I emailed Jon a transcript of what sound bites I wanted him to edit into a three-and-a-half minute long video. In three days, he put this video together, and we showed it at our weekend services:

Are there ways you can use creative gifts in your congregation to do things like this? People are usually glad to help if you ask them.

Are you moving on from last week’s message too quickly? Think about ways you can reinforce and respond to the previous week’s message.

Does your use of media (specifically videos like this) point people to Jesus? Fancy backgrounds, countdowns, lights, set designs, and videos can cost a lost of time and money but have zero lasting effect on people. Integrate media into your services intentionally and prayerfully.

Say No To Just Standing There

At our Monday night meeting, I encouraged my church’s worship team to “say no” to three things: (1) sameness, (2) winging it, and (3) just standing there.

For fun, I made up little stickers and handed them out at the beginning of my talk. It made everyone laugh and (hopefully) helped them remember what I said once they got home.

Here’s what I shared about not “just standing there”.

Fresh, creative, excellent, and well-rehearsed music will never change anyone’s life. Jesus will.

Good mixes, proper speaker placement, in-ear monitors, and skillful lyrics/video operation will never bring anyone salvation. Jesus will.

Our areas of giftedness can so easily become idols: things we look to for comfort, deliverance, help, and companionship. We consider them worthy of substantial time and/or money, and pour our lives out for them. Eventually they leave us empty.

We must never worship at the altar of relevance, freshness, music, technology, arrangements, or creativity. We worship the “Lamb who was slain”, who is worthy “to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:11). “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen!” (Revelation 7:10b, 12).

Your job is not to just run sound. Your job is to lead people in exalting the greatness of God in Jesus Christ.

Your job is not to just play drums. Your job is to lead people in magnifying the one who is “great and greatly to be praised”. (Psalm 145:3)

Your job is not just to sing. Your job is to lead people in encountering the glory of God.

Do we make it clear on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings that our passion is for the glory of God, and that our lives have been changed by the gospel?

When people look at us (and they are looking at us), do they see people who are in their position first and foremost to make much of Jesus? Or do they see people who are in their role just because it kind of seems like that’s where they should be… and they could take it or leave it… and they’re not really into it… and they’ll just let the worship leader do his thing…?

Please, in whatever area you serve during a service, don’t just stand there. Sing along, model physical expressiveness, engage with God, pay close attention to the reading and preaching of God’s Word, and “ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name, bring an offering, and come into his courts!” (Psalm 96:8)

Say No To Winging It

Yesterday I shared a summary of the first thing I pressed my church’s worship team away from at our Monday tune-up night: sameness. The second thing I suggested we should “say no” to is winging it. Here’s a summary of what I said:

Say no to winging it!
The goal is not to be scripted, flawless, flashy, or impressive. The goal is to be ready.

There is a difference between being expectant, open and obedient to the spontaneous direction of the Holy Spirit – and being unprepared, under-rehearsed, and messy. Not being controlled by a script is wise. Not being ready is foolish.

When we “wing it”, we can end up doing things the same way we’ve always done them, sacrificing the level of excellence, raising the risk of distractions, and increasing the amount of stress and anxiety. Sometimes this is unavoidable, and we just have to do our best, humbly and prayerfully. But most of the time, we’re winging it by choice.

Let’s choose to say no to winging it, and step up our pursuit of humble excellence across the board. Here is how this might look:

Before the weekend:
– Musicians: rehearse at home. Once the songs are posted (Thursday night at the latest), make time to listen to them and practice them.
– Sound engineers: listen to the songs (either once they’re posted, or download them somewhere). Get a feel for their arrangements, and if the song is mixed well, let that influence your mixing once the weekend arrives.

Weekend rehearsals:
– Start on time: Rehearsal shouldn’t start 15 minutes after it was scheduled. Technical volunteers should arrive early enough to have equipment set-up, plugged in, and turned on by start time. Musicians should arrive early enough to be able to start making music at start time.
– Start earlier: Unless we give ourselves enough time to rehearse and prepare, we won’t be ready. To avoid “winging it”, we need to have longer rehearsals.

– Rehearse fully: After figuring out arrangements, we’ll aim to run through each song once, with the lyrics operator running lyrics, and sound engineer finalizing the front of house and monitor mixes.

Pursuing a “stepping up” of excellence in all areas – musical and technical – requires a sacrifice of each of us, namely our time.

I always want to honor and value all of the various volunteers by not burning them out or taking their precious time for granted. If either of those things start happening, please let me know! But just as we slide towards sameness without being pressed towards growth – we are also at risk of sliding towards sloppiness without being pressed towards excellence.

Let’s go into our services ready, rehearsed, and prayed up – listening for and responding to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Say No To Sameness

At our tune-up night in October I asked my worship team ten questions, and in November I offered ten challenges, all aimed at pressing us towards vibrancy and maturity as worship leaders, and away from stagnancy and common pitfalls.

Last night I shared some more areas where we all could use some more “pressing”. Here’s the first part of what I shared:

Why all the pressing?

First, because we naturally slide towards stagnancy and complacency as sinful human beings.

Second, because that’s one of the best uses for our monthly meetings. We’re all in one place for an hour and a half, and before we get scattered across a monthly schedule again, it’s good for us to get on the same page.

And thirdly, because the “new car smell” always wears off after a while. We can’t just expect our ministry and services to remain fresh and vibrant on their own. As leaders in the church, it’s our responsibility to ensure our passion for leading the congregation in exalting the greatness of God doesn’t wane over time.

There are three areas in which we could all use some pressing.

First, say no to sameness!

The same songs, the same arrangements, the same volunteers, the same equipment, the same approach, the same mix, the same tune-ups, the same kinds of rehearsals, the same problems, etc. Sunday to Sunday, year to year, nothing really looks all that different.

The same skill level, the same kind of bass technique, the same kind of piano playing, the same vibrato, the same acoustic guitar strumming patterns, the same vocal technique, the same kind of sound engineering, the same electric guitar sounds, the same issues with lyric projection. You get the point.

Do we want our services one year from now to look the same? Do we want our level of musical gifting to be at the same mark? Do we want to be dealing with the same speaker coverage problems? Do we still want to be dreaming about the day we get in-ear monitors or subs? Do we want to be arranging our songs like we’re in the mid-90’s?

Living things grow. Dead things don’t.

So let’s keep growing,

Instrumentalists:
– Keep learning, practicing, improving, refining, and maturing your skill. If your musical technique is frozen in the era in which you first started playing, make an effort to catch up to 2010. Download some new CDs, listen to modern music, and practice at home. Three newer worship CDs I recommend to hear a more “modern” sound are: Matt Redman’s “We Shall Not Be Shaken”, Tim Hughes’ “Happy Day (Live)”, and Paul Baloche’s “Glorious”. Carefully monitor your diet of “secular” music, but intentionally listen to things that will stretch you as a musician and keep you growing.

Singers:
– Whether you’re a singer whose gifting is singing on an individual mic, or a singer who is more gifted to sing in an ensemble setting, are you growing as a vocalist? Do you warm up? Are you blending? Are you controlling your vibrato? Are you making sure you’re not adding “dips” and “scoops” that don’t belong? Are you developing an ear for harmony? Are you working on improving your tone? As vocalists, we can develop bad habits and just go on for years singing the same way.

Sound engineers:
– Put your collective heads together, under Andrew’s wise and skilled leadership, and come up with a master plan to solve The Falls Church’s AV problems. List the solutions. Prioritize them. Schedule them. Budget for them. Implement them. We have a fairly large AV budget and a large pool of dedicated volunteers. We’ve come a LONG way, but still struggle with the same problems year after year. Let’s keep chipping away at them.

– Make sure you’re growing as a sound engineer and improving in your mixing skills. Go to a conference, read a book, ask for input, listen to modern music and work towards getting as good a mix as possible. Listen back to recordings of services you mixed. What could you have done differently?

Lyrics operators:
– Come early, and when possible come to rehearsal and make sure you’re ready to lead people in worship by ensuring they can sing without distraction. You have a difficult, oftentimes thankless job, that just so happens to be one of the most critical to the skillful leading of the congregation. You are a worship leader – not just a person sitting on a stool. Be encouraged, and be intentional about growing in your role.

More tomorrow.

Getting Ready for Our February Tune-Up Night

Our February worship team tune-up night is tonight at 7:30pm, and I’m looking forward to spending some time with the singers, instrumentalists, sound engineers, and lyric operators who will come.

There’s always some who have to miss for various (sometimes good, sometimes not good) reasons, but I try to remind the team regularly how important it is that they make a priority out of making these evenings. (So important that if a member regularly misses, it might be cause for me to ask them if they need a break from the team until they’re less busy).

Here’s how we’ll spend our time together:

7:30pm – 7:45: Pizza, cookies, veggies, and drinks.
– I’ll order five large Papa John’s pizzas (2 pepperoni, 1 Hawaiian, 1 sausage, and 1 green pepper and onion) and have them delivered around 7:20 for people who come early.
– I run to 7-11 in the afternoon and pick up plates, cups, napkins, cookies, and sodas.
– Some people bring home-cooked and healthy food to contribute.
– I put music on to make the room not feel so empty when the first few people arrive.
– We meet in a fairly small room. This helps it feel more familial and less awkward if there’s a small turnout.

7:45 – 7:50: I welcome people, introduce new members, etc.
– I always thank people for giving up an evening away from home, and for fighting traffic to get to church.
– I give a quick summary of why we have these monthly gatherings: “each person in this room is in a position of leadership in this church. It’s our responsibility to serve this church with humility and skill…”

7:50 – 8:15: Singing and prayer
– I lead from guitar plugged into a small guitar amp so people feel comfortable singing out. There’s a piano in the room, and I bring the djembe in as well. If someone wants to play along, they’re welcome to. It’s pretty loose.
– I have a handful of songs picked out (in my head) that I want us to sing, but we don’t project them or print them out, since I want this to be a time when we practice listening to and responding to the spontaneous leading of the Holy Spirit. If someone wants to share a passage of scripture, lead off on a song, or share an impression from the Lord, I want this to be a time where they feel comfortable stepping out.
– We just stand in a circle and sing and pray for as long as it feels we should. It’s great.

8:15 – 8:25: Announcements.

8:25 – 9:00: Teaching.
– I usually share on some aspect of the practicalities of leading worship. How can we improve? How can we be better musicians? How can we grow in humility? Each month it’s different. It’s just a chance for me to encourage our team towards growth, maturity, and vibrancy.
– Sometimes I’ll bring in a guest speaker.
– When we met in October I shared ten questions for the worship team, and in November I shared ten challenges for the worship team.

9:00 – 9:15: Wrap up.
– We’ll either sing some more, pray some more, or take some time to dialogue about what people think. Keeping it conversational is a great idea, since people will often have good things to add that you wish you had thought about.

9:15 – 9:45. People mingle and slowly filter out.

9:45 – 10:00: Clean up.

10:00: Go home.

If you’re not already, I encourage you to have this kind of regular meeting with your worship team. Yours might look totally different from ours. It’s taken me a few years to figure out the best way to lead and structure these meetings, and it will probably take you some time too. But it’s worth it!