Jamie Brown

Don’t Give Me That Look

I had a good conversation with a singer on the worship team at my church a few days ago when she asked me whether I want singers on the team to (a) close their eyes, (b) keep their eyes open, or (c) look people in the eye as they’re singing up front. She had heard different thoughts on this from different people and wanted to know what I thought.

If there’s one thing that really bugs me about most worship teams that I watch on the internet these days, it’s when they have a front line of 5 – 10 singers, and each one seems to be some sort of Disney robot. No offense, of course. I’m sure they’re nice people who love to sing. But they stand there and look straight out at people, smiling and pointing and nodding their heads, making direct eye contact (I’ve even seen some of these singers wink) and I can’t understand what this is supposed to accomplish.

My answer to the singer from my worship team was to (a) be engaged with God in heartfelt worship and (b) be aware of the people you’re standing before. This does NOT mean working the crowd, making direct eye contact, smiling at people and employing cheerleading tactics.

When I look out on the congregation when I’m leading worship, I’m looking out as if I’m looking through a periscope on a submarine. I’m scoping out what’s happening but I’m not staring directly at people. I am confidently cocooned inside of myself, worshipping God, aware of my surroundings and my fellow musicians, and I make sure to regularly scan the room with the goal of seeing what’s going on.

I’m trying to make this as uncomplicated as I can. So I’ll try to phrase it differently.

Worship leaders/singers/musicians should avoid the kind of eye contact that performers are taught to employ. This is what I mean when I describe a Disney robot. It’s an uber-happy, I-am-singing-right-at-you-right-now, are-you-feeling-good-too?, disingenuous, direct eye contact.

Instead, we (a) should definitely avoid squeezing our eyes closed the entire time, (b) open them regularly, and (c) when we do open them, scan the room broadly, continuing to engage with God, not the people, and adjust our leading if necessary.

It’s a subtle but important distinction. We are seeking to model engagement with God. If we model engagement with the congregation, it changes the whole dynamic and makes people feel like they’re an audience at a show. So definitely open your eyes, but don’t try so hard to engage with people directly. Hope this is helpful.

What I Learned From Recording a Live CD

Last week my church recorded a live worship CD. It was the most exhausting/rewarding/fun musical experience of my life. I’m really excited about the CD and would be thrilled if you pre-ordered it, but wanted to share some things I learned after several days of rehearsals and recordings.

The value of laughter
Three of the musicians (Carl Albrecht on drums, Luke Moseley on piano, and Russell Crain on electric) were guests. We had never met each other, led worship together, or rehearsed. So there wasn’t a ton of chemistry that first morning at an 8:30am breakfast. It didn’t take long, though. After our Student Ministry Director got us laughing at Chuck Norris facts, the rest is history. We had great times of laughter, and that really helped the team grow together.

The value of good food and drink
We had volunteers delivering huge breakfasts with Starbucks coffee, afternoon snacks, cookies and milk, and plenty of water. We had good lunches and dinners around town. There was always something close-by to eat or drink. This kept us going. (I wrote a post on this topic a while ago here.)

The need for breaks
We did a good job most of the time taking 15 or 20 minute breaks every hour and a half or so. When things would start to drag we’d take a break and get a rest. On the Friday, however, we didn’t leave ourselves enough time after the 2^nd full run-through to take a long break before the evening recording. So we all felt a bit frazzled and worn out that night. Lesson learned. We should have planned better for a long break.

Don’t make your congregation anxious
Before our first recording on Friday night, I went through little sections of each song that I thought might be new to the congregation, or I thought they might sing wrong. On one hand, it was good because it broke the ice and make people laugh. But on the other hand, I received feedback that it made the congregation feel anxious and afraid to mess up. So on Saturday night I scrapped the whole idea and just encouraged people to sing out. We were all much more relaxed.

A metronome really helps
Obviously, since we were making a recording, we had to play to a metronome in our ears. Carl controlled this and was an invaluable help. I learned that the difference between the right feel and the wrong feel can often be just one or two beats per minute. It took the pressure off our shoulders and helped keep us all more together. This isn’t realistic for every team or every song or every Sunday, but we’ve actually started to use a click in our ears on Sundays and so far we’re actually (mostly) enjoying it.

People in your congregation want to volunteer
Two weeks ago I sent an email to our worship team/choir/others with 15-20 different needs I had (airport pick-ups/drop-offs, meals, rides, etc). Within 24 hours, all the slots were filled, and many were double-booked. I should take time more often to ask people for help.

Our congregation loves to worship
For years, people have been asking me when we were going to have an evening of extended worship. After seeing the response this past weekend, I don’t know what took me so long.

Rigorous rehearsal doesn’t have to mean perfection
We rehearsed the recording’s 14 songs more than I’ve ever rehearsed any songs. But we never tried to get them perfect. Our goal was to get comfortable and confident enough with them that we could lead them with excellence. But we still held loosely to them and left space for God’s leading. The goal of rehearsal should never be perfection, even for a live CD.

Pre-order The Falls Church’s LIVE Worship CD

As I’ve mentioned in two previous posts (here and here), we’re recording a live worship CD this weekend at my church. We’re about to lose our building (you can read more about why here), and will know the exact date tomorrow after the judge signs the “final order”, but we know it will be soon and wanted to capture a sense of corporate worship in our space before it’s too late.

We’re going to be singing 14 songs – a combination of re-worked hymns, some songs that might be familiar to you, and some original songs as well. We’re using some musicians from my church and also bringing in some gifted musicians from elsewhere. You might recognize Carl Albrecht, playing drums with us, who’s played on a ton of worship stuff from Paul Baloche and Integrity Music through the years.

My church has never done something like this before, so this is exciting. It’s also a bit risky. While a generous couple in our church is paying for all the initial costs related to the recording, we are counting on donations and pre-orders to provide the funds we need to get it edited, mixed, mastered, and packaged professionally. We’re hoping to raise enough funds to get it mixed and mastered in Nashville by the folks who have done many of Sovereign Grace Music’s latest albums.

So if you’d like to help us out by pre-ordering a copy, we’d be really grateful. You won’t get your CD for a while, but your donation will help make it come sooner.

Usually you wait until you can hear a CD to decide if you want to buy it or not. If you’re open to buying it in faith, and help our church make this CD while moving out of our campus, then visit www.tfcmusic.org and you can pre-order it today.

Ten Ways to Make it Hard for People to Follow You

This past Saturday morning we had a breakfast at my church for a bunch of volunteer worship leaders. After we shared about ourselves, I shared on how important it is as a worship leader to be easy for people to follow. I did this by modeling and talking about 10 ways to make it hard for people to follow you. I’ve listed them below.

1. Be timid
Timidity begets timidity. Confidence begets confidence. If you’re timid, unsure of yourself, and insecure, the people in the room are going to feel sorry for you, want to help you, think you were put up front too soon, and will pull back. As my old professor Steve Brown says, do some self-talk before you get up front and say to yourself, “I have been commissioned by the High King of Heaven…” and lead with boldness.

2. Play too much
If you overplay, you come across like you’re angry. If people in the room sense that you’re angry or intense, their defense mechanism is going to be to want to protect themselves and they won’t let themselves trust you. Don’t play too much. And back to the first point, don’t play too little. Find the right balance.

3. Sing the wrong melody
I once sat in a church full of people while the worship leader sang the wrong melody (on purpose) for every line of the chorus of “How Great is Our God”. This was ironic since the chorus says “…sing with me…”. They couldn’t sing with him because he wasn’t making it easy. We want to make it easy for people to sing along with us. Sing the melody, sing the right melody, and sing it consistently throughout the song. If you veer into harmony, you must (1) make sure someone else has taken clear leadership of the song from you, and (2) use a different “voice” (i.e. breathier, softer, back from the mic). (I wrote a post on this a while ago here.)

4. Sing/play impressively
Leading worship requires most of us to set aside most of what we are really capable of doing, for the sake of serving the congregation and serving the song. If every singer and instrumentalist on stage was demonstrating the full scope of their respective skill-sets, it would be a disaster. Your job is to insert yourself into people’s consciousness as seldom as possible during a time of singing. So stay simple.

5. Sing the wrong keys
C to shining C is a good rule of thumb. Guys are mostly comfortable from a low C to middle C. They can dip lower and pop up higher, but do best in that octave range. The same principle applies for women, but up an octave. If you want people to sing with you, you’ll need to think through keys carefully, often taking songs down from where they were recorded, into more singable keys. (I wrote a post on this a while ago here.)

6. Mumble
“What did he/she say?” is one sure way to distract people. Speak slowly and articulate well when you’re speaking. And don’t try to say 4 sentences in the space of 2 measures.

7. Inconsistent tempo
The average person in the room can’t identify specific things/instruments/notes that are “off” during a time of worship. But they can identify that something is off. Tempo is one of those somethings that, if not consistent, and if unpredictable, can make people feel like something is wrong. Set the right tempo for a song either by using a metronome or by singing a quick section of the song in your head before you start to establish the tempo of the song. Once you’ve established it, stick with it.

8. All over the map themes
Songs should connect with each other. Don’t try to pick a song list in 5 minutes. Give yourself time, chew over it, pray over it, consider the scripture passages and sermon theme, and come back to it a few times during the week if you have to. You want your songs to go somewhere – not just all say the same thing, and not all be randomly placed.

9. The worship leader voice
Seriously. Just use your normal voice. Don’t contort your vowels, get growly, get breathy, raise or lower your pitch, or talk differently than you’d talk if you were greeting someone at your door. You might not realize you do this, so ask people who know you. Or record yourself leading and listen back. You might be surprised. People can spot fake-ness from a mile away. (I wrote a post on this a while ago here.)

10. No clear leadership
In the absence of leadership, people don’t feel safe. With too much leadership, people want to shut down. It’s a tricky balance, but it’s really a simple biblical principle. We want to say to people, in the words of David, “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!”. That’s what our role is: to call people and to help people magnify and exalt the name of the Lord together.

Weekend of Worship – March 2 and 3 at The Falls Church

I don’t know how many of the people who read this blog live close enough to Northern Virginia to come to this, but I wanted to share this just in case…

Next weekend at my church we’re going to be having a “weekend of worship”.

First, on Friday, March 2nd and Saturday, March 3rd, in our Main Sanctuary, we will be having two evenings of extended worship and praise while we record a live congregational worship CD. We’ll sing the same songs both nights. We’ll start at 8:00pm and would love to have you. Before God leads us out of our building, we want to capture a sense of corporate, Jesus-exalting worship in that space.

Secondly, on Saturday, March 3rd, from 9:00am – noon, we’ll be offering a FREE worship team/musician workshop for instrumentalists, vocalists, and organists. You’ll get practical demonstration of how to play together as a team, rehearse, arrange, and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Special guests include Carl Albrecht (drummer for Paul Baloche and Integrity Music), Russell Crain (professional electric guitarist and worship leader from L.A.) and Luke Moesley (studio pianist from Nashville). I will host this morning workshop with other musicians from The Falls Church family joining us too. We want to demonstrate what to do, what not to do, and how to do it. I’d love for all of you to come to this if you’re able!

I especially want organists to know they’re welcome to come to all of us – but particularly the Saturday morning workshop. Simon Dixon, our worship director and organist, will be demonstrating how he plays organ in a contemporary worship context.

So, if you’re able, please come next Friday and Saturday nights (the 2nd and 3rd) at 8:00pm for two nights of worship. And come on Saturday morning (the 3rd) for a fun, free, brief workshop from some really good musicians on how we can all grow.