Category: Leading

Lessons From Lawsuits

1Earlier this week, my church got final word that our long 7+ year legal battle with the Episcopal Church, our former denomination, is over. Completely over. Over over. Stick a fork in it because it’s done over. Even though we had left our former property in May 2012, we had continued our appeals to the Virginia supreme court and then to the United States supreme court, believing that we had a responsibility, particularly to other churches who might not have the same resources as we do, to see it through to the very end. So, we saw it through to the end, and we’re not looking back.

I’ll never forget the Sunday we took the vote in late 2006 to leave our denomination. It was Advent, and as we sang the line from “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” that asks God to “bid Thou our sad divisions cease and be Thyself our King of Peace” I looked out and saw grown men, respectable men, Northern Virginian professional and powerful men, with tears in their eyes. They were in my eyes too.

This coming July I will celebrate my ten-year anniversary of coming on staff here. Over seven of those years were marked by a fairly high degree of uncertainty about where God was leading our congregation, whether we’d win or lose a particular case, whether we’d keep or lose our property, where our new offices would be, where we’d worship, whether we keep this or that piece of equipment, etc. It has been a wild ride. There have been low lows and high highs. We’ve had Sundays where I thought the roof was literally going to lift off, and Sundays when I wondered if the Holy Spirit had taken the Sunday off.

I’ve learned some worship leading lessons through these years of never-ending lawsuits.

First, the Gospel is our song. The songs that have resounded the loudest and longest over these seven years have been the songs that declare the good news of Jesus Christ. Whether we’ve been feeling good about ourselves or discouraged about a bad ruling, declaring the power of the Gospel has always tapped into something powerful. Always.

Second, the songs we sings should rest on the sure victory of Jesus, not on our changing circumstances. We won our first court case in April 2008. In our worship service after hearing that good news, we sang “On Christ, the solid rock, I stand…” We lost our second court case in June 2010. In our worship service after hearing that bad news, we sang “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing…”. We lost (big) our third court case in January 2012. In our worship service after hearing that shocking news, we sang “Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne…”. In our final worship service in our old building, we sang “And as He stands in victory, sin’s curse has lost its grip on me, for I am His, and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ”. We experience changing circumstances but we rest in the victory of our unchanging Savior who was and is worthy of our praise. If we’re singing songs that only “work” if we’re happy and things are going well, then we’re singing the wrong kinds of songs.

Third, people are looking to sing songs that are true. We captured this in our recent live worship album (recorded one year after leaving our former property). People live in an uncertain world, full of harshness, full of law, full of lies, and full of sadness. The faithfulness of God and the power of the Gospel are the source of our joy, our hope, our lives, and our ministry. I’ve never gone wrong choosing songs that help people “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16). God knows they need it.

Fourth, comfort is overrated. I almost wish every church and every worship leader could experience what my church has experienced over the last seven years, especially the last two years since we left our building. It has been good for us. Our idols of comfort and convenience have been exposed. Our weaknesses have come out in the light. The dead branches have become more obvious. It’s hard for a church’s muscles to grow when it’s sleeping on the proverbial couch. We’ve been feeling the burn for a while, and it hurts, but it’s good for us in the long run.

Finally, you can’t manufacture the Holy Spirit (but you can try). A lot of worship leaders don’t realize that they spend a lot of time trying to manufacture the Holy Spirit in their services. Whether it’s by trying to recreate something produced on an album, trying to use certain audio or visual effects to produce your prescribed reaction, trying to bring rapid change in a matter of weeks, or turning the worship knob to 11 every week, worship leaders can easily slip into dangerous territory. Honestly, just relax. Choose songs that point people to Jesus, lead them in a heartfelt and humble way, make sure the music and musicians alongside you are as skillful as possible, and let the Holy Spirit do his job. It’s a beautiful thing to behold the Holy Spirit at work in a congregation.

It’s a tragedy when churches deal with lawsuits and litigation. I hope most churches and worship leaders never have to. But whether you’re in court, or a portable church in a basketball gym, or whether you’re nice and comfortable in your own permanent building, never lose sight of what’s really worth singing, who’s really worth singing to, and who’s really the worship leader (it’s not you).

How to Approach Guest Worship Leading

1This coming Sunday I’ll have the privilege of filling in for a friend who’s the worship director at a local church. He’s on vacation and asked me to be the guest worship leader. Since he’s filled in for me in the past, and it was easy for me to find a sub at my own church, I said yes. It will be kind of fun.

I wanted to share how I approach serving as a guest worship leader for a church that isn’t my own. This kind of opportunity pops up for me 3 or 4 times a year, and I’ve made enough mistakes and learned a few lessons that I thought sharing them might be helpful.

1. Approach it as a servant. You are not a celebrity.

2. Don’t just come in and do your own thing, in your own way, with your own songs, and your own personality on display. You’ll know you’ve succeeded when some people in the congregation didn’t really notice that you were there.

3. Ask as many questions as possible about what they’re used to. Have them walk through a normal rehearsal, and a normal service with you. Once you’ve settled on a song list, ask them if they do any of those songs differently from how you do them. Get lots of details.

4. Collaborate on a song list. You want to pick songs that the congregation knows really well. You’re a guest, so it’s OK if you err on the side of really familiar songs. Ask what songs they might suggest you lead.

5. Come alongside their musicians. Get a feel ahead of time about the skill level of the musicians you’ll be working with. Tailor your song choices to them. Come to the rehearsals and services with a lighthearted, humorous, and humble spirit, and the musicians will look forward to when/if you come back.

6. Lower your demands. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made when serving as a guest worship leader somewhere was, in essence, insisting on my own hotel room, when a room at a home was available to me not very far away. The budget was already very tight for this group, and I was extremely insensitive to this. It wasn’t worth it and I handled it poorly and fairly arrogantly. Don’t have a big list of demands. Know what you’ll need, and graciously accept whatever hospitality they are able to extend, but don’t demand special treatment.

7. Arrange all the technical stuff in advance. One time I traveled all the way to San Diego to lead worship for a conference at a church, and when I arrived I realized they had no cable or direct box for my guitar. They assumed I’d be bringing my own. I led worship for the whole conference with a lapel mic strapped to the front of my guitar. Arrange these kinds of things in advance.

8. Make sure the lyrics have been checked. When you say you want to do “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” and they say “great! We know that one!” it doesn’t mean they do the same verses with the same wording as you. Make sure there aren’t any awkward surprises on Sunday morning. This

9. Try to be low-maintenance. It’s a lot of work for a church to bring in a guest worship leader. Once they secure one, they have to worry about travel details, accommodations, honorarium, rides, meals, all the correspondence in advance, getting them up to speed, etc. You think it’s a lot of work for you to fill in? It’s more work for them to make it all work. Do what you can to make it easy on them.

10. Preach the gospel. I’ve been asked to lead worship occasionally for conferences or retreats for groups that are Christian in their statement of faith, but in reality have members from all over the spiritual, theological, and political map. When this is the case, it’s even more important to choose songs that focus on and preach the good news of Jesus Christ. It’s good to do this at a normal Sunday morning service too, of course, but you’ll find yourself seeing and depending on the power of the gospel even more when you find yourself guest leading for a diverse group that isn’t usually assembled together. Even if no one is really “into it”, you’re still accomplishing quite a lot.

The role of a guest worship leader is not to come in and perform and leave his mark. The role of a guest worship is to sneak in and point people to Jesus and then go back home. Of course there are more details to work out, but it really is that simple.

Now Just Wait A Minute

1For some reason when I was in college I signed up for an elective called “Marketing 101”. One of the marketing concepts that we discussed was the “innovation adoption lifecycle” (are you impressed?) which breaks down customers into different categories based on when, in a product/innovation’s lifecycle, customers choose to adopt it.

Innovators adopt a new product at the very beginning. They’re the first in line, and they don’t wait to read reviews. Not very many people fall into this category.

Early adopters wait a little while to make sure the new product is dependable and then they quickly jump on it. There are more early adopters than there are innovators.

The early majority is just what it sounds like. The largest bloc of customers who adopt a product fall into this category. They get in on something just before it’s no longer new.

The late adopters aren’t too far behind. They didn’t need to prove anything and they knew how to control their impulses. This considerable population of consumers waits until the novelty wears off.

The last category of people have the unfortunate title of “laggards“. They’re the ones who are just now buying a cell phone and it’s 2014.

OK, so why all the marketing talk from a worship leader who majored in Psychology? Because I think far too many worship leaders can fall into the first couple of categories listed above.

Too many worship leaders try (or think they have to try) to be innovators or early adopters. Up on all the new fads. Incorporating all the new songs. Buying new equipment or new keyboard patches or new software or new albums. It’s a never-ending hunt for novelty which significantly increases the risk that they’ll unknowingly adopt a product or an innovation which has significant weaknesses.

There is wisdom is waiting. There is something to be said for taking a deep breath, taking a step back, gaining perspective, analyzing something, considering its integrity, and thinking carefully before adopting something new. It’s better to wait and see whether or not a new song is really worth singing, or if a new piece equipment is really the one your church needs to buy, or if that new church member who’s an awesome bass player is really committed to your church before putting them on the platform.

It’s not that being an innovator or an early adopter is always bad. The problem is when your quest is to always be an innovator or always be an early adopter, so much so that you can’t make yourself wait, discern, and consider whether you’re making the right decision or not. Novelty often covers up weakness. So wait until the novelty wears off.

But just like it’s unwise to be an impulsive, knee-jerk innovator who will find himself having adopted a new product full of problems, it’s also unwise to be a laggard. Laggards miss out, plain and simple. They bury their heads in the sands of security and miss out on opportunity after opportunity to participate in the life going on all around them.

Worship leaders shouldn’t miss out on the life, the songs, the movements, and the innovations that God is stirring up around them. Use whatever you can, whenever you can, for the glory of God. But worship leaders shouldn’t rush to always be the first in line to adopt what’s being stirred up. Some of what’s being stirred up is good, and some of it is weak.

So just wait a minute and learn a lesson from Marketing 101: it’s better to wait and be happy then to rush and regret it.

Three Common Worship Leading Errors

1It can be dangerous when the role of a worship leader is over exaggerated. If we’re not careful, the worship leader can be elevated to the role of an Old Testament High Priest. Likewise, it can be dangerous when the role of a worship leader is under valued. If we’re not careful, the worship leader can be diminished to the role of a church jukebox: you put some money in it and tell it which songs to play.

Worship leaders are not high priests and they’re not jukeboxes. They’re pastoral servants, called by God to preach the message of the Gospel through song, and to serve a church’s musicians and congregation by helping them make much of the greatness of God. The role of a worship leader is crucial. When they get off track consistently (over months and years), they can get a congregation off track too.

Here are three common worship leading errors that can have a detrimental impact on the churches they serve:

1. The primary focus is on the wrong person’s surrender
In a laudable attempt to help their congregations worship God from the heart, many worship leaders put the primary focus of their leadership and songs on how much they’re surrendering. Their heart is in the right place. It’s their focus that needs to be shifted.

When the primary focus shifts from us and our surrendering to the cross and Jesus’ surrendering, then a congregation’s heart begins to be warmed and freed and affected by the shout from the cross that “it is finished” rather than the shout from the worship leader to “sing it louder”. Heartfelt worship springs from the gospel.

2. There is no primary focus
The worship leader without a focus is like a broken clock. He’s right sometimes but not on purpose.

This song is about that, and that anthem is about this, and this Sunday we’re singing these kinds of songs, and that woman is singing this kind of solo, and this group is leading that kind of music, and all your congregation can say is “huh”?

What makes you tick? Anything? If nothing, then you’re a broken clock. Not terribly helpful. But when the gospel makes you tick, then you start pointing to the right things whenever people look at you.

3. There is no passion
Passion-less worship leading could be attributed to a whole host of factors: maybe crippling criticism, burnout, pressure, or a lack of any support. If a worship leader experiences any of these things, he’s not likely to throw himself into the ministry or into his role on Sunday mornings. Likewise, a worship leader who feels really safe and comfortable is not likely to want to rock the boat either.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Power. He is the Spirit of Freedom. And he is the pointer to Christ. The absence of passion in a worship leader or in a worship ministry shows an absence of the Spirit’s empowering presence. When the Holy Spirit’s power is at work in a worship leader and in a worship ministry, the result is a passion for the glory of God above all things. And this passion will inevitably result in the boat getting rocked. And so be it.

When worship leaders stay focused on the Gospel and stay dependent on the Spirit, then their congregations will stay well served. May we resist the pull to focus on our meager sacrifices, and instead give ourselves to passionately and consistently point our congregations to the glory of God in Christ, by the power of the Spirit.

How You Can Stifle Your Team

1Working with musicians is a tricky business. Working with church musicians is a particularly tricky business. And working with volunteer church musicians is an especially tricky business.

With personalities, experience levels, spiritual maturity, and a host of other factors all over the map, it takes a careful worship leader to find the right way to give his team enough leadership and direction to draw out their best, while not giving so much leadership and direction that he stifles the gifts and creativity that the members of his team bring to the table.

Here are some ways that you can stifle your team.

Be the mean parent
They’re late to rehearsal. Again. They clearly didn’t practice. At all. Be careful to respond with grace. Yes, deal with what needs to be dealt with, but if you’re a big meanie, you’ll work against yourself, you’ll develop a reputation for being no fun, and you’ll make your team nervous. A scowl at your drummer when he messes up will make him angry, not sorry.

Tell everyone exactly what to play
Yes, give musical direction. Yes, you make the final calls. Yes, arrange the songs like you want to. But don’t direct every single measure. Don’t make all the calls. Don’t arrange every second of every song. Give your instrumentalists and singers room to breathe, improvise, experiment, and worship. Give up a certain degree of quality control for the sake of letting your team members feel like you trust them.

Give them inaccurate music
A misplaced and/or wrong chord will take you 15 seconds to fix before you photocopy it ten times. But once it’s handed out, that one wrong chord will cost you a minute or two (or more) at rehearsal. And it will do more than that. If there’s a consistent pattern of you disseminating inaccurate music, you’re basically communicating a low standard of preparation. If you communicate that, then expect your musicians to take a deep breath and not bring their best to the game.

Embarrass them during the service
Your musicians don’t want to look stupid in front of the congregation. If you go on unrehearsed tangents, or call for an impromptu modulation, or treat an 8:30am service like it’s a stadium rock concert, then no one is going to want to volunteer to back you up.

Choose music that’s too easy for them
Musicians want to be challenged. If you have some gifted musicians on your team, then don’t stifle their creativity by playing it safe all the time.

Choose music that’s too complicated for them
Lead worship with the team that you have, not the team you wish you had. Choose songs that your team can pull off well. Adapt arrangements. Do what you can to bring out the best in your team, not to highlight their weaknesses.

Demand unreasonable hours
Keep rehearsals short. Start them and end them at times that work for the most people. (For example, we’re rehearsing at 8:00pm this coming Saturday to accommodate several dads on the team who will come after they’ve helped their wives put the kids to bed.) Avoid really early mornings. If you expect volunteer musicians to give you too many nights and mornings out of their week, they (and their families) might start to resent you.

Take everything really seriously
If every email, every interaction, every rehearsal, and every service with you is all-serious, all-the-time, then your team is going to have a hard time hitting the joyfulness button all of the sudden when the service starts. It’s hard to fake joy. It’s also hard to hide joy. Encourage a joyful atmosphere on your team, marked by laughter, and that sense of joy will make a difference on the platform.

Every worship team is different, made up of different people with different gifts. Yes, it’s an especially tricky business. But one of the jobs of a worship leader is to draw out, evaluate, and deploy the musical gifts of his or her team for the glory of God. Take care not to stifle the gifts that God has arranged.