Jamie Brown

The Sister Act Syndrome

In 1992, the movie Sister Act was released and became an instant hit. Whoopi Goldberg plays a lounge singer in Reno, Nevada who one evening witnesses her mobster boyfriend murder a Limo driver. She agrees to testify against him, but is placed in protective custody in a convent with a really lousy choir and attached to a really lousy church.

In a matter of months, but more like two hours for those of us watching the movie, she’s transformed the choir, and leads them in singing to a packed church, including the Pope himself! And he even claps!

We love movies like this. We love stories like this. In real life we know that this scenario is completely ludicrous, but it’s nice to have a two-hour respite from reality.

Even though we might know in our heads that it’s impossible to see this kind and this amount of change happen in such a short period of time – whether we’d admit it or not, we still expect to see it in ministry. If Whoopi could do it, then so can we! Right?

This is what I call the Sister Act Syndrome. You look at your worship team, or your congregation, or your pastor, and you see so much change that needs to take place. And you want it all to happen all at once. And you want to be the person to make it happen. Sure, it’s ludicrous. But that’s in every other church! Not yours… This is what’s happening in our minds as we ignore the reality of life and ministry.

Some churches are like canoes. The good thing about canoes is that you can change their direction pretty quickly. The bad thing about them is that they’re pretty easy to flip over and capsize.

Most churches are like aircraft carriers. The good thing about aircraft carriers is that they’re sturdy, have a good amount of activity and life on them, and won’t flip or capsize easily. The bad thing about them is that it takes a lot of time to change their direction.

I’m convinced that far too many worship leaders suffer from the Sister Act Syndrome. They expect to see a lot of change happen really quickly. Then it doesn’t. Then they go to another church. Repeat process.

Your church – and the Church – needs more worship leaders who are patient. Who learn to love their pastor, their congregation, and their worship team, and instead of expecting to see radical change overnight, understand that it’s going to be more like over a decade.

There are a lot of difficult things about waiting this long to see change happen. But there are many good things. One good thing that comes out of waiting is that you’ll come to see that there’s just as much inside of you that needs to change. It’s easy to come into a church and crack the whip and boss people around and demand that everything goes your way. It’s hard to commit yourself to a community and serve them to see God’s purposes work out in his time.

There are times for quick decision making and vision casting and direction changing. But most of the time, 99% of the time, what’s required of us is to do our job faithfully, in the Spirit’s power, and let him move the aircraft carrier however he wants. If he wants to bring a tremendous wave that will re-point it in a matter of minutes, then he can. Maybe he will. But most often it takes a bit longer. It doesn’t make for good movies, but it does make for healthy churches.

Not Hitting People with a Wall of Sound

On most recordings of congregational worship songs that you find these days, every upbeat song starts with the entire band playing all at once. There might be a measure or two of an electric guitar or drummer on his own, but eventually, the whole band kicks in at full blast.

This sounds great on a CD. And it can work well on a Sunday morning. But sometimes it can be compared to hitting your congregation with a wall of sound.

One minute the pastor is welcoming people and opening the service in prayer. Then when he’s done and it’s the worship team’s turn – KABOOM! – the song starts.

I’m not against starting songs this way. But I’ve found that if you’re going to hit people with a wall of sound, it’s not so jarring if you do that kind of introduction when there’s some level of sound (i.e. people talking and fellowshipping) already present. I might start a song like this after we’ve encouraged people to turn around and greet someone they don’t know and then there’s a buzz of noise in the room.

But when you’re coming out of a moment in the service that’s quiet (i.e. the pastor finishing an opening prayer or an 8:00am service) and there’s no sound in the room except for the air conditioner humming or kneelers clomping against the church floor, it might work better to ease your way into the song, and arrange it in such a way that you’re gradually adding more energy and sound before you eventually kick it up the level of KABOOM.

I did this a couple Sundays ago with Tim Hughes and Nick Herbert’s song “Jesus Saves”. We were coming out of an opening prayer, after which there was relative silence in the room. Instead of hitting people with the wall of sound that the recording starts off with, I decided to come into it a bit more gradually.

Here’s how Tim Hughes’ live recording does it, starting a few measures into an electric guitar riff:

And here’s how we adapted it.

When you’re leading your congregation in an upbeat song, think about whether you should come into it full blast or ease your way into it. Get comfortable enough with it that you and your team can make it your own. Move bits and pieces around and experiment with ways to help your congregation engage with God and celebrate, instead of reeling from the sudden onslaught of noise.

Be sensitive to your congregation and to the Holy Spirit’s leading, and if coming in at 100% seems to be the best fit, then go for it. But if you think it might serve them better to start off at 50% and slowly increase power, then I would encourage you to trust your instincts.

Encouraging Your Team to Be on Time

On Monday I shared Ten Ways to Make Rehearsals More Fruitful. One way is to not tolerate persistent tardiness. It’s normal for people to be late from time to time, since people have busy lives and traffic gets in the way. But when it’s persistent and not just a problem with one person, it can be helpful to gently remind your worship team that it’s important to be on time.

I recently sent an email to the worship team at my church with the subject “a little bit of gentle prodding…” I thought you might find it helpful to read how I communicated this to my team, so here is what I wrote:

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to send a quick note in the hopes of encouraging all of us to try to make more of an effort at starting our rehearsals and pre-service huddles on time.

I know two things apply to everyone on this list: First, your lives are incredibly full and your schedules are incredibly busy. You have jobs, families, other responsibilities, and unplanned events that spring up. Second, you are at the mercy of Northern Virginia traffic. I don’t need to say any more about that last one!

But I’ve also noticed a gradual trend over recent months that if a rehearsal is scheduled for 3:00pm, we’re not actually ready until 3:20 or later. Or if a pre-service huddle is scheduled for 10:15am, it never really happens. We end up missing out on valuable rehearsal time, prayer time, and preparation time.

Because I know how busy your lives are, I always schedule a rehearsal or pre-service huddle at the latest possible time I’m comfortable with. I’d probably prefer an earlier time, but I want to give you as much time at home as possible, so I pick the latest time I can see working.

I would be incredibly grateful if we could all make a renewed effort at being ready to start rehearsals and meetings on time. This means planning on arriving 10-15 minutes early for rehearsal to set up and tune, and arriving 5 – 10 minutes early for church to park and get to the vesting room in time for us all to be ready at the same time.

This note is just as much for me as it is for anyone else! And please know I understand there are just going to be times you’re running late. I want to be full of grace. But having said that, we can all do a better job of being on time and I hope this little note provides a little bit of gentle prodding for all of us.

Gratefully,

Jamie

The Danger of Trumpeting Your Political Views

Yesterday was a big election day in the United States. You may have heard that the republicans regained control of the house of representatives, gained several seats in the senate, and won several state governorships. The pundits are having a field day over all of this, and I can’t get enough of it. I love following politics and consider myself a news junkie, so elections are pretty exciting for me.

Of course, living in Washington D.C. makes it even more exciting. While I live about a mile west of the beltway, my church is firmly inside it, and you can’t escape the effects of the proximity to power and politics everywhere you turn.

Most people here, whether or not they’re as much of a news and politics junkie as I am, have pretty strong opinions about this stuff. I certainly do. And my guess is that, whether or not you live in a big city with loads of power-players, you and the people in your congregation have strong opinions too. They might not be able to name the republican candidate who lost the primary in Delaware like I can, but they probably identify with one party more than the other and have a preference and/or opinion regarding who sits in the oval office.

I enjoy talking about this stuff with my friends and family – when it seems appropriate and when I think they’re interested (maybe). It’s always a bit tricky to communicate about these things in a non-judgmental and biblically informed way, but I still enjoy it.

I do draw the line, and encourage you to draw this line too, at trumpeting political views and candidate preferences in public and in front of the congregation whom I serve. Here are two reasons why:

You don’t want your congregation to think politics when they see you
Do me a favor and bring to mind a political candidate whose politics you find appalling. It could be anyone. A candidate for president, senator, congressman, or mayor. Now imagine you’re my friend on Facebook and I consistently post status updates and links extolling the virtue of said candidate. Would it be difficult for you to ignore that when you showed up to church and I stood before you to lead worship? Probably.

If, as a worship leader, you’re unabashed in your political views, it won’t bother those who agree with you one bit. But it’s the people who don’t agree with you who you should be worried about. If you’re concerned about helping people see and exalt the greatness of God when they come on Sunday mornings, then you should be concerned about how big a distraction you are. One way to be a distraction is to symbolize a politician they find appalling. It’s not worth it.

Your congregation pays your salary
It’s good to keep in mind that it’s your congregation’s sacrificial giving that enables you to have a job and a leadership position on staff. Particularly for those in the congregation who might share different convictions and political philosophies from you, it can be difficult when church staff use that platform to push a political ideology.

It’s a very good idea to discuss these things, openly and prayerfully, with people who you know and trust. What’s not a good idea is trumpeting your views for all to hear, since it will assuredly result in members of your congregation being more aware of what’s happening now in politics than what has happened for us on the cross. Point them to that, every chance you get.

Ten Ways to Make Rehearsals Fruitful

Rehearsals are complicated things. No two are ever the same, you can never quite know what to expect, you’re dealing with real people with real personalities, you’re at the mercy of equipment and the operator(s) of that equipment, you’re working with volunteers who (perhaps like you) have other full-time jobs and responsibilities, and you’re trying to accomplish several different goals.

For me, those goals include: chemistry building, musical preparation, spiritual calibration, arrangement tightening, sound checking, monitor mixing, prayer, worship, creativity cultivation, transition smoothening, potential train-wreck spotting, and many more.

Some rehearsals go really well. Some don’t. This will always be the case. But if you’re not intentional, careful, prepared, relaxed and confident, you run the risk of having worship team rehearsals that are ineffective, counter-productive, and draining. They’re incredibly important to your worship team’s effectiveness in serving their congregation.

Here are some practical suggestions for fruitful rehearsals:

Get the songs to your team at least 48 hours ahead of time
Rehearsals are for rehearsals. Practice belongs at home. Get your team the song list, music, and recordings at least two days before rehearsal, or sooner if possible. The more time people have to listen and play through songs at home, the more fruitful your rehearsal will be. (For legal ways to get recordings of music to your worship team, see this post on Worship Matters.)

Pray before and after
J.S. Bach would write “J.J.” (Jesu Juva: “Jesus help!”) on top of each of his works. At the end he would write “S.D.G.” (Soli Deo Gloria: “To God be the glory”). This is a good model for what to pray before and after our rehearsals too.

Keep it moving
No one likes sitting in traffic. People would rather take a longer route if it means they’ll at least be moving. The same principle applies to rehearsals. No one likes a rehearsal that moves slowly or is stop-and-go. Keep it moving and your team will rise and call you blessed.

Know where you want to go
Staying with the car analogy for a moment: Have you ever followed someone in a car who keeps making u-turns and getting a bit lost? You’re willing to grant them a few u-turns, but if it keeps happening, you’d rather not follow them anymore and just follow your own directions. Same for your team.

Have the music ready
Few things will annoy your worship team and limit your rehearsals’ fruitfulness more than not having the music ready when rehearsal starts. If your team brings their music from home, then this burden lies more on them. But if you provide chord chart packets for your team, make sure they’re ready and in order for everyone. And pay attention to the details: are the words right, are the chords right, and are the chords in the right place? This will save you and your team a lot of time at rehearsal.

Make sure everyone can hear each other
If you rehearse in a living room, garage, or some other practice room, spend some time and/or money to ensure things aren’t just going to be loud and messy. Make sure everyone can hear themselves and each other. If you’re practicing in your actual worship space, always have a sound engineer present. If you can’t hear each other, you might as well not rehearse.

Foster a light-hearted atmosphere
People love to laugh. Make little jokes, poke fun at yourself, tease people, and leave space for people to be themselves. While you want to keep things moving, if you allow pressure and anxiety to build, you’ll be working against yourself.

Don’t tolerate persistent tardiness or bad attitudes
Two or three times a year, I send a gentle reminder to the worship team to be on time to rehearsals. This is usually because two or three times a year I notice the worship team is coming late. If, after these reminders, someone continues to come late, you need to talk to them personally. If, after this, nothing improves, you need to give them a break from the worship team and kindly ask them to tell you when they have some more space in their life to honor the time commitment to the worship team. If you choose to keep kicking this can down the road, you choose to limit your team’s effectiveness and growth.

Relax
A year ago I wrote a post called “Loosing Your Cool Isn’t Cool”, and I compared the worship leader’s role to that of a flight attendant. If your flight attendant looks worried, then you should look worried. If they look relaxed, then you won’t mind the bursts of turbulence. Your team is watching you. Stay cool and relaxed even when there is turbulence.

Leave them wanting more
Rehearse only what you need to. New songs, new arrangements, transitions, dynamics, etc. Whatever you and your team feel unsure about. But when you rehearse what you are all comfortable with (i.e. playing through entire songs instead of just a chorus), or rehearse too long (i.e. past 9:30pm) you’re spending energy you’d be better off saving for later. I’ve recently begun giving my team a break after an hour or so. Taking ten minutes to use the restroom, check voicemails, get some water or something small to eat, or just take our instruments off, has been a big positive for our rehearsals.

Never stop evaluating your rehearsals and how you lead them. Look at how other worship teams rehearse and take their good ideas. Ask for input from your team. Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of thinking rehearsal is just a time to get together and play through some songs. It’s not. That’s what a campfire is for. Rehearsals are for the congregation. So make them as efficient and effective as possible, for the sake of your congregation, the health of your team, and all for the glory of God.