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!

Things to Keep in Mind When You’re Driving Home On Sunday

Services are finished and you’re on your way home. Maybe you had a great Sunday where everything clicked. Maybe it was a rough Sunday where everything seemed to fall flat. Maybe you’re somewhere in the middle. Whatever the case, it’s Sunday afternoon and you’re pretty tired. Where does your mind turn?

Depending on the Sunday, you might be tempted to discouragement, or pride, or envy, or frustration. I know that, for me, I’m often tempted to replay in my head things I did well over and over, or obsess over things I could have done better.

Every worship leader, after pouring themselves into a service with several days (if not weeks) of planning and rehearsing, struggles with the post-service let-down. Here are some things I’ve found helpful to keep in mind when I’m driving home on Sunday afternoon:

I am very small. God is very big.
Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus “upholds the universe by the word of his power”. So don’t get caught up in yourself. The world revolves around Jesus, not you or your church.

God sees different things than I see
Maybe I’m discouraged because people didn’t “look engaged”. Keep in mind that “…the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7.

The things that frustrate you are good for you
Your drummer can’t keep a beat, your pastor doesn’t sing along, your lyrics operator pulled up last week’s file and didn’t realize until halfway through the second song, no one sang along, your guitar string broke again, etc., etc.

All of these things will make you a better worship leader. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” James 1:2-3.

The church needs more worship leaders who will be joyfully “steadfast” in serving their congregations and worship teams.

A week from now you’ll get another chance
If God is “greatly to be praised”, and if “his greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3), then no single service will ever be too bad or too good to follow-up one week later. It really isn’t about you! This is really, really good news.

God is receiving unceasing worship right now around the throne
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’” (Revelation 7:9-12)

Never forget that when your Sunday service starts, you’re merely joining in. And when your service ends, the praises keep on going and going and going.

Stay humble
I will never forget the day I was taking a walk and lamenting all the “ways” I wasn’t “getting my way”, when God spoke loudly and clearly to me “Lucifer fell because he wanted my glory”. These words still ring in my ears.

When I demonstrate pride, I demonstrate a desire to receive the glory that God alone is due. God warns us clearly that he “opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”. (James 4:6).

Earnestly, actively, intentionally, and brutally attack pride in your heart, especially when you get in your car to drive home after leading worship.

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” (Psalm 115:1).

Questions to Ask When Choosing a Sermon Response Song

The song that follows the sermon, especially if it immediately follows it, is one that should be prayerfully and intentionally chosen. Following up a sermon with a completely unrelated song can distract people from what they just heard, using a song that might actually contradict the sermon can confuse people, and using a song that is just randomly chosen will come across as, well, just random.

Here are some questions I ask every week when I’m trying to choose a sermon response song.

– What is the sermon’s text?
– What is the sermon title?
– Who is preaching?
– In what context is the sermon being preached? Part of a series? On a special day?

For example, I know that this coming Sunday’s sermon text is Hebrews 2:1-8, and Matthew 3:1-11. The sermon title is “Jesus is Supreme: Don’t Neglect His Offer”. Bill Haley is preaching, and it’s part of a year-long study of the book of Hebrews. This is also the first Sunday in Lent.

Once I know this information, I will try as hard as I can to ask the preacher the most important question: “how would you like people to respond in song after hearing your sermon?”

This morning I called Bill and asked him that very question. He let me know that he was going to wrap up his sermon with an illustration from the end of the movie “Saving Private Ryan” when the character played by Tom Hanks, who is about to die, says to Private Ryan “earn this”. His point will be (I think) that the Gospel says something completely different to us. We can’t earn it. It’s been done. We have been given salvation.

So Bill encouraged me to choose a song that people would feel like singing if they were standing at the foot of the cross and wanted to respond to what Jesus had done. I chose “The Power of the Cross” by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty. I might change that before Sunday, but at this point it’s what I’m planning on using.

Here is what a sermon response song doesn’t need to accomplish:
– Summarize every point in the message
– Enable people to sing the sermon back
– Be a perfect fit

It’s usually helpful if the sermon response song enables people to respond to what they’ve just heard. It isn’t a random song or a completely off-topic song. It’s a song chosen after praying and reading through the relevant scripture texts, talking with the preacher, looking at a few options, and then settling on a song you think is the best fit.

Thank You Gary

When my family moved to Fairfax, Virginia in September of 2000, I was a depressed, confused, and lonely high school boy. My dad had taken a job as one of the associate pastors at Truro Church, and our family packed up from the panhandle of Florida and came with him. Sitting in between me and my dad in the front of our moving truck was my brand new Taylor 410-CE acoustic guitar, a gift from my youth group just the night before, on my last night leading worship for them.

One of the first people I met at Truro was a man named Gary Jaskulski. He was the Director of Music and Arts and led a music program that was like none I had ever seen in my limited Episcopal (at that time) experience. After an opening hymn with organ, full choir, strings, brass, and timpani, they segued into the Gloria, still with the organ, full choir, and strings, but now with piano, guitars, drum set, and the pastor (now my bishop) playing his tambourine and shaking his hips. They actually attempted to do “blended” music, as in, do all kinds of styles of music in one service, and they actually pulled it off pretty well.

It wasn’t long until he cornered me after church and asked me to come by his office later in the week, with my shiny new Taylor, and audition. I wasn’t quite sure what to think – I was used to playing contemporary music with four or five chords, had never worn a choir robe in my life, and had never auditioned for anyone! A few days later I came by his office, we played and sang through a few songs together, and he asked me to play guitar on Sunday mornings. And I had to wear a choir robe.

So for several years I came every Sunday morning and played guitar at Truro Church under Gary’s leadership. It was just what I needed.

It was a place for me to grow and mature as a guitarist. Many Sundays he would put music in front of me with no guitar chords at all. Just a treble clef and a bass clef. I had to figure them out on my own. And many of these songs had more chords than I had ever seen in one song.

It was a place for me to grow in my love for more traditional forms of music. Up until coming to Truro, I might have sneered at what I thought was the irrelevancy of the organ. Now I got to sit under it every Sunday, hear Gary play it with amazing skill, and experience the grandeur of such a beautiful instrument.

It was a place for me to learn how to be comfortable with spontaneity. If Gary wanted me to take a verse of a song, he would just point at me about two measures before the verse started. I had to learn to watch him, to be ready, to be comfortable with making mistakes, and to rehearse just in case I got called on.

It was a place for me to experience multiple styles of music being employed in one service with excellence, humility, and joy. Gary was just as comfortable letting the organ soar on “Glory Be to Jesus” as he was playing gospel-style piano on “Soon and Very Soon”. He loved playing glissandos.

I had no idea when I first arrived at Truro and met Gary what a difference he would make to me as a worship leader and musician. I still try to emulate him on the piano. I’ll probably never come close. He was that good.

But after a year or two of playing under Gary’s leadership, I remember asking myself: “what is it that is so unique about how Gary leads?” I realized what it was. I never left a service thinking about how skilled an organist, pianist, or choir director Gary was. I left more aware of how great God is.

Today Gary stepped into the presence of that great God, after a long battle with cancer. His wife Merillee, son Christian, and daughter Catherine were by his side as he breathed his last breath.

I’m confident that there are pipe organs and pianos in heaven that we cannot even begin to imagine. It won’t be long until Gary has found one of them and is playing and singing “Glory Be to Jesus” with the saints and the angels joining in and falling on their faces in worship.

Gary, I thank God for you, your life, your ministry, and your contagious passion for his glory. Now you get to experience that glory in all its fullness. Enjoy your new robe.

Helping People Wake Up Without Being Annoying

These last couple of weeks have been really weird for people living in the Washington D.C. area.

First, we got hit with 30 inches of snow on Friday, February 5th. Everything shut down that day and the weekend immediately after. Most churches in the area canceled their Sunday services (we had one service with about 175 people), and then on Monday, all local schools, county governments, and the Federal government stayed closed.

After beginning to dig out on Tuesday, we got hit with another blizzard on Wednesday that resulted in schools being closed the entire week, local and federal government closing for two more days, awful road conditions, horrible traffic, bored kids, exhausted parents, and everyone’s schedules being thrown completely off track.

So this past Sunday morning as we began singing “Praise the Lord” by Doug Plank and Bob Kauflin, I was aware that many people were coming in from an exhausting and crazy week and a half, and all of us were feeling like it had been a long time since we had felt like things were back to normal.

It seemed like I needed to help people wake up and “shake off” all the weirdness that had come from two back-to-back snow storms. If I just plowed through the songs without addressing in some way the fact that our lives had all been significantly disrupted over the last ten days, I’d be ignoring a giant elephant in the room.

The first thing we did was start the opening song off in a way designed to help people join in. Instead of hitting them with a wall of sound, we took the first verse and chorus with just a few instruments and voices and then gradually ramped up.

Secondly, I tried to model an enthusiasm and eagerness in my singing and expressiveness. If I had come across as blizzard-beaten or feeling weird, that would have spread into the room.

Thirdly, I took a minute in the middle of the song to welcome people, explain why we were starting off in an upbeat way, invite them to clap with us, and encourage them to “shake off” the snow, the cold, the horrible traffic, and the historically bad commute from the previous Friday morning. It wasn’t the most eloquent thing I’ve ever said, but it seemed to help people relax.

You can listen to how it sounded here:

A few caveats:
– I don’t do this kind of thing every Sunday. If I did, it would get old. Quickly.
– I try to be gentle and confident. I don’t want to boss people around, but I also don’t want to come across as timid.
– I don’t want to be a comedian, but I want to have a tone of good humor in my voice
– My goal isn’t to whip people up into a frenzy, but to break the ice, and help people feel comfortable.
– No one likes waking up with cold water on their face.

If you’re leading worship and you get the feeling that people are a bit sleepy, I’m not suggesting that interrupting the song and telling people to “shake” it off is how you should always handle it. Besides, what does it mean to “shake” something off?

Usually, the best thing to do is just be patient, keep faithfully pointing people to the glory of God, and learn what you can from that experience to show you if there’s something different you can do. It’s not always all that complicated.

But every once in a while, if you do it sparingly and lovingly, just a simple and friendly encouragement can help.