Your Left-Overs Might Be Useful to Someone

A few weeks ago I left my house for work and passed a discarded kid’s basketball hoop on the side of the road. You can see a picture of it above. It was in great shape except for the fact that it was missing its hoop and a little dirty. It was in front of a nice house, and the owners had put it on the curb to be picked up by the garbage truck. I got it before they did and I took it home for my little girls to enjoy.

For the people in the nice house, this basketball hoop was a left-over, useless thing that belonged in the trash. For my girls it was a fun new toy.

This made me think about what things I consider useless that might actually bless someone else. And I remembered how, a month ago, I had a surprising experience:

The healing ministry at my church was having a weekend retreat about an hour away from here. I had asked about 12 different volunteers if they could lead worship for the retreat, and all of them had said no. I finally just told the healing ministry team that I would just record myself leading 4 short sets of worship songs, give it to them on a CD, and they could play it through the sound system at the retreat center. This was not an ideal solution but it was our only option.

So one afternoon I quickly recorded myself leading these 4 sets and burned a CD for them. It didn’t sound very good but it was the best I could do in a short amount of time. I gave them the CD, apologizing that I couldn’t find them a real-life worship leader, and off they went for their retreat.

I was surprised at how many people came up to me after that retreat and told me how much the worship at the retreat had blessed them. They said it was just the right fit. They said it didn’t feel artificial at all. They said it sounded wonderful. I was shocked. Were they really talking about my little thrown-together recording? Yes they were.

If God has placed you in a worship leading role, whether it’s paid, volunteer, up-front,

behind the scenes, regular, or seldom, let me encourage you to never consider the gifts God has given you as useless. You never know how God will use you to bless people. Look for places to serve, look for ways to give of yourself, and don’t be afraid to offer what you have. What’s the worst thing that can happen?

Rehearsing Anywhere

Over the 8 years I’ve been serving at my church, I’ve learned by trial and error, but mostly by necessity, that it’s possible for a worship team to rehearse (a) anywhere, and (b) with very little time, and still be prepared.

Of course there’s the ideal: a dedicated time, a regular time, in a dedicated space, preferably with all your equipment, even more preferably with the same equipment you’ll use for the service, in the same room where the service will be, with the equipment cooperating and being run by experienced people.

If you can have that ideal, then God bless you.

But if you can’t have that ideal, then welcome to my world.

Especially now, since my church has lost our building, and we’re worshipping off-site at schools on Sunday for the foreseeable future. We usually can’t get into these spaces until Sunday morning, and can’t rehearse much in that space because our first service has different musicians (more traditional), so we look for a band room or choir room or something with a piano and some chairs.

This past Sunday we were at a Catholic High School which had promised us the use of their band room, but alas it was locked. We had to improvise. So we found their chapel. No piano, no instruments, no anything, but we had to make it work, and so we did.

I think a lot of worship leaders/teams think that in order to have a good rehearsal they have to run through every song twice, do the entire length of that song, have a protracted time of discussion and/or chaos in between songs, and go past everyone’s bedtime so everyone leaves tired.

I’ve learned a few things over the years thanks to not having “the ideal” that I think have helped me and the worship teams at my church learn to have short rehearsals without all the equipment or conveniences.

Step one: Talk your team through the songs. Take charge. Communicate clearly from top to bottom how you want the song to go. Tell your instrumentalists and singers what you’d like for them to do. Don’t boss them around, but do give them direction. You don’t have all day. Before you play a note of the song, talk through it. Say “here’s what we’re going to do…” and lay it out. Go through the whole song list like this. Talk through all the songs in sequence.

Step two: Play through the songs. Don’t have all your instruments? That’s OK. Your drummer can play drums with his hand on a chair. Your guitarists can bring their guitars in unplugged. Just have someone give you the right key to the song and lead them vocally. If you have some instruments, make sure everyone plays quietly so everyone can be heard. Before you play through the songs, recap what you said earlier when you talked through them. Then play through it. Then review it. Was that good? What wasn’t? People aren’t idiots. They know when something isn’t working.

Let me just pause here and say that you don’t need to rehearse the entire song. Rehearse what needs to be rehearsed. You can save time on some songs by singing the first half of verse 1 and then skipping to the second half of verse 2. Or just stop the song and say “OK, now let’s pretend we’re all the way through the song and let’s practice the accents on the last chorus”. People will go with you and thank you for saving them time.

Step three: Stop and pray. Not-ideal rehearsals are a priceless opportunity to remind your team how much they need the Holy Spirit’s help. So, first, stop. Don’t drag out the rehearsal. Stop it when things are good enough. Then pray. Everyone in a circle. Then you’re done!

Few things will burn your team out more than ineffective rehearsals. And few things will burn worship leaders out more than feeling the need to have everything perfect at rehearsals. In a sense, lower your expectations for rehearsal and just make it work. An hour and fifteen minutes should be your max, in my opinion, unless you’re recording a CD or rehearsing multiple song lists or tricky songs. On average, though, 75 minutes is more than enough.

Honestly, most worship songs are about 4 – 5 minutes long. And most churches do about 5 or 6 songs per service. A liberal estimate puts that at 35 minutes of music per church per service. So since you don’t need to rehearse each song full-length, you should technically be able to rehearse for a service in 30 minutes. It’s possible!

What I’ve Been Up To

The first five months of 2012 were absolutely crazy.

January:
– My church gets final word that we are to vacate our property. This was the end of a five year legal battle stemming from our congregation’s decision to leave the Episcopal church in late 2006. We were prepared for this eventuality, but it was a bit like a punch in the gut.
– In addition to preparing to leave, we decide to record a live worship CD in our building before we lose it.

February:
– We work to get everything moved out (that we were legally allowed to keep).
– I work to see if it’s financially feasible for us to record a live CD in the midst of all the craziness. On February 15th we get the final go-ahead. Since our recording will be on March 2nd and 3rd, this gives two weeks to get everything ready.
– Oh, and everything needs to be moved out too, because there’s a chance we won’t be allowed to come into the building on March 1st.

March:
– We record a live worship CD. We have an amazing 2 nights of worship and a morning worship team workshop. We begin the editing process.
– We get word that our last Sunday will be April 29th.
– I fly to California to lead worship for a conference of Anglican’s in Southern California.
– I also help my Mom buy a new car in here somewhere.

April: 
– Easter.
– CD editing and overdubbing.
– Preparing for our last Sunday on the 29th.
– Oh wait, will it really be the 29th? Maybe the judge will let us stay while we appeal. Or maybe he won’t.
– We finally hear that we definitely can not stay. But now May 13th is our last Sunday.

May: 
– All sorts of insanity as we (a) aim to get the CD finished with editing and overdubbing and sent off to Nashville, (b) have our final Sunday services on our property, (c) hold our first off-site worship services on May 20th, and (d) lose our offices and all the conveniences on which we’d become so dependent.

So last Monday morning, Memorial day, I have an idea to take Catherine and the girls to south Florida to visit my family. That day. With no warning. Thanks to ridiculously low rates on JetBlue for a flight leaving in 4 1/2 hours, we throw stuff in suitcases and have a few days to relax with family in sunny Florida. Got back late Friday night and we had a great Sunday yesterday morning.

Next:
– The CD is almost done. I’m really excited about it and proud of it, and I can’t wait for you to hear it. If you’d like to help us out by pre-ordering it or donating at www.tfcmusic.org, we’d be grateful.
– The new normal of off-site worship every Sunday. It’s insane and wonderful all at the same time.
– Seminary classes. Hopefully one or two this summer as I have time (!).
– The pool. Is there anything better than taking two little girls to the pool in the summer? I don’t think so.

It’s been a crazy 2012 so far, but also wonderful in many ways. Here’s a rough video of the opening hymn at my church’s final service in our building. What a joy to lead people in praising the King of Heaven.

My Church

This coming Sunday (May 13th) is my church’s last Sunday on our campus. After a long legal battle with the Episcopal church, a denomination from which 97% of our congregation voted to separate in early 2007, God has made it clear to us that our congregation of 3,000+ members is being led away from our comfortable surroundings into something that will stretch us and grow us and shake us in more ways than we can imagine. We will vacate this campus by midnight on May 15th. After that, it will belong to The Falls Church Episcopal.

I’m a sentimental guy, so it will be hard this Sunday to lead worship for the last time in our Main Sanctuary, and to say goodbye to these worship spaces, offices, and classrooms that hold so many good memories for me. I’ve learned a lot (!) here and seen God work in amazing ways. This has been a second home for me. I’ve gotten engaged, married, and had two little girls while working here.

But I’m really excited to be a part of this. Sure, I won’t have a new office until September. And I’ll now be experiencing what so many of you who read this blog experience every Sunday, and that is the joy of worshipping in rental facilities, and setting up and tearing down equipment week after week after week. But in my (almost) eight years I’ve never experienced this level of freedom and joy in our corporate worship, so if moving out of our campus is what it takes for that to happen, then sign me up.

So, my apologies for, yet again, letting things go very quiet around here.

And also, if you think about it, please pray for The Falls Church (Anglican) as we move out next week, and for The Falls Church (Episcopal) that they would faithfully preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this place.