Update

I just got back yesterday afternoon from a two day all-staff retreat with the people I serve alongside at my church. Good fellowship, bad karaoke, and an embarrassing attempt on my part to play ultimate frisbee. Because of that, this blog has been more quiet than usual this week, and might be a bit quiet next week as well as I’m taking a week-long seminary class at Reformed Theological Seminary’s Washington D.C. campus.

I thought it might be helpful to give you a brief update on what’s going on in my life these days.

Starting seminary
I have felt a strong call over the last few years to pursue theological training, and so starting next week I’ll begin a Master of Arts in Religion degree from RTS. I plan on remaining in full-time ministry at The Falls Church (or as close to full-time as I can realistically manage) while taking one or two classes on the side per semester. I’m really excited.

My prayer is that through my studies over these next few years I’ll be more equipped to serve the Church and that my heart will be more and more a heart after God’s. I’d be grateful for your prayers!

Ministry
Next month will be my six year anniversary at The Falls Church. Time has flown by. God has been incredibly gracious in giving me the chance to make mistakes, grow and mature, work with incredibly humble people, serve under a godly pastor, encounter various “trials of many kinds”, and have a lot of fun at the same time. There have been incredibly difficult moments, but over all it has been a wonderful season. I’m thrilled to see what God has in store in the coming years.

A couple of things I’m looking forward to are:

  • Partnering in ministry with Simon Dixon. Simon has been on staff at Holy Trinity Brompton for 21 years, where he has been instrumental in developing a culture of Christ-centered, Spirit-filled corporate worship, a member of the worship team, an organist, choir director, a leader in prayer ministry, and lately a participant in leading some Worship Central events. In September, he will be joining the staff of TFC as our Director of Worship and Music. He is a godly, humble man, and I’m incredibly grateful to God for bringing him to TFC. You’ll meet him through this blog in the coming months.
  • This blog. I started this blog about a year ago out of a response to the Lord’s leading. My goal has been to “help worship leaders lead better”, and it’s been a joy to “meet” many godly, humble, and gracious worship leaders who have found the blog helpful. Every post I write is just as much for me as it is for anyone else, so if no one has benefited from the blog other than me, it’s been worth it. I’m excited to keep writing, sharing resources, expanding the types of resources, re-tooling the layout, and learning.

Family
God has blessed me with two wonderfully beautiful ladies in my life. My wife, Catherine, is a precious gift and support to me, and Megan is a daily source of smiles, squeals, snuggles, and joy. She’s 8 1/2 months old now and we love her more every day.

And as you can tell from the picture to the right – loving her is not hard at all. This was her first time in a swimming pool and the cold water didn’t bother her one bit.

Our heavenly Father loves us infinitely more. What a joy to be his child and worship him. And what a privilege to lead others in doing the same.

When People Don’t (And Won’t) Sing Along

One of the most fascinating events in American politics is the annual State of the Union address. The pomp and circumstance is higher that night than almost any other night in the nation’s capital.

The president arrives to thunderous applause from both parties, and finally begins his speech when the hoopla dies down. Once he starts, the real fun begins. After every point, the members of congress from his party stand in loyal and heartfelt applause. The opposition party, however, remains seated and firm in their disapproval. Only when the president says something non-partisan or fairly neutral will both parties stand in approval.

Believe it or not, many churches look like this on Sunday morning.

The worship leader stands up to lead some songs. There might be an initial display of unity, but once the songs start, the real “fun” begins. There are those in the room who sing along to every song and do so with enthusiasm. Then there are those who will only sing along if the song meets their criteria. Then there are those who, in protest, won’t even stand.

I’ve seen this up close. In the same church where I encountered an opinionated craft guild ambassador, I also encountered members of the congregation who, for various reasons, refused to stand or sing during the songs I led. It was a not-so-subtle act of protest and was something for which I was completely unprepared.

While not on such a large scale, from time to time I’ll still encounter people who refuse to sing, or just remain seated, or maybe even leave the room. It’s not common, but you see all sorts of things when you’re in ministry. This is a hard one to deal with. Here are just a couple of thoughts:

Remember that building trust takes time
People will follow you if they trust you. Building that trust takes time. For some people in the congregation, it will take them half of the first song to realize they can trust you. For others, it takes longer. You won’t build those people’s trust in you by forcing it, by demanding it, or by showing them your frustration in not having it. It will take weeks, months, and years. Some may never trust you, but that’s why this next point is important:

Don’t make it about you
If you’re leading worship and notice people not singing and/or showing their disapproval, you have to be very careful not to take it personally. Keep leading, press on, don’t get distracted or discouraged, and look at those people with as much love as you can muster. Only God knows what their issues are – whether they’re judging you, will only worship God on their own terms, or maybe they’re just immature – and you can’t allow yourself to get defensive as if it’s all about you. It’s usually not. And even if it is, you’re not the one to do anything about it. You have to keep going, be faithful, and pray.

Go to your pastor
If there people who won’t sing along, and if it’s the same people consistently, you need to mention this to your pastor. The pastor is the main worship leader of the church, and this is something he needs to pray about addressing.

Any president who stands before the Congress for the State of the Union address knows that there will be some people who will be with him the entire hour, and others who won’t be with him at all. The same could be said of worship leaders on Sunday morning, but hopefully with less pomp and circumstance

The big – really big – difference, of course, is that during a State of the Union address, all eyes are on the president. He is analyzed, examined, the star of the show, and the one everyone is coming to see. When and whether people stand up, sit down, applaud, or protest, is all up to him.

Thank God that I am not the star of the show on Sunday morning. My job is to help people fix their eyes on the Lamb who was slain, the Savior of the world, the image of the invisible God, and the one before whom one day we will all bow our knees. But here on earth, and on Sunday mornings, when and whether people stand up, sit down, applaud, or protest, is not up to me.

Song Sheets Can Be Your Friend

A lot of worship leaders are under the impression that in order for people to “really worship”, then the words to the songs must be projected. Projecting lyrics can become not only a non-negotiable, but also an idol. PowerPoint will make our service more alive! MediaShout will get people’s hands in the air! Song sheets are the enemy!

I’ve come to learn that sometimes, song sheets can be your friend.

Now don’t get me wrong – I prefer projecting lyrics to printing them for several reasons. Here are just a few:

  • It gives me flexibility to make last-minute changes
  • It allows people’s heads and eyes to be lifted up
  • It frees people’s hands to be expressive (as the bible encourages)
  • It saves money by reducing the cost of paper, copying, and ink
  • It makes lyrics easier to disseminate to large numbers of people
  • It prevents waste of un-used paper
  • It avoids the problem of not printing enough copies of the lyrics
  • It helps promote unity in the congregation by physically pointing people in the same direction.

Most worship leaders would agree with those pro’s of projecting lyrics. The problem is when the pro’s of projecting lyrics blind us to the con’s.

The cons range from the practical:

  • The ceiling is too low
  • The church can’t afford a laptop and projector
  • The room is too bright
  • The sight-lines aren’t good
  • You’re leading in an open field

To the pastoral:

  • Some members of the congregation have threatened to leave if a screen ever appears in the general vicinity of the church
  • Projecting lyrics is more of a distraction than an aid

Worship leaders need to be able to be honest and objective enough to know when projecting lyrics would be a hindrance to people singing to God. In those instances, song sheets can be your friend.

In what we call the “main sanctuary” at my church, projecting the lyrics is a no-brainer. The screens, projectors, and computers are all permanently installed in the room and easy to use. But in our “historic church”, a civil-war era colonial-looking building, there aren’t any screens or projectors installed, and until we find a way to do that without disturbing the beauty of the space, projecting lyrics requires a good deal of work. After a couple years of going through all that trouble, I finally realized it was more trouble than it was worth. Deciding to just go ahead and use song sheets has been incredibly freeing.

Sometimes if the song sheet is for a home group, or a staff meeting, or an informal gathering where I’m just leading a couple of songs, I’ll put the songs on one half of a 8 ½ by 11 piece of paper. This way I can get two song sheets out of one piece of paper, and it’s not very big.

Other times, if the song sheet is for something more formal, like a healing service in the historic church, we’ll put a nicer looking heading on top of it so that it feels more official.

Here’s how I format the song sheets to make them not only readable but pleasant to read:

  • 12 or 14-point font
  • A readable font that has a bit more character than Arial or Times New Roman. Not too much character to be distracting, but just a little bit
  • Bold-ed song titles
  • Italicized chorus
  • 8-point font for the copyright information at the bottom of each song
  • One 6 or 8-point line between the sections of the song
  • Two full lines of 12 or 14-point space between each song

It’s totally fine (and understandable) to prefer projecting lyrics to printing them. I certainly do. And I look for ways to make rooms more conducive to doing so, since I think the advantages of projecting lyrics are worth some work. But, from time to time, the advantages of printing the lyrics are too great to overlook.

Good Old Bulletin Bloopers – Pt. 2

You’ve probably seen these before, but I can never get enough of them. Enjoy:

Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

Chili Supper, Money goes to missions. $5 a bowel.

The outreach committee has enlisted 25 visitors to make calls on people who are not afflicted with any church.

Evening massage – 6 p.m.

The Pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday morning.

Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 to 8:30 p.m. Please use the back door.

Ushers will eat latecomers.

For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

The Rev. Merriwether spoke briefly, much to the delight of the audience.

The pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, “Break Forth Into Joy.”

Next Sunday Mrs. Vinson will be soloist for the morning service. The pastor will then speak on “It’s a Terrible Experience.”

Due to the Rector’s illness, Wednesday’s healing services will be discontinued until further notice.

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the church basement on Friday at 7 p.m. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

22 members were present at the church meeting held at the home of Mrs. Marsha Crutchfield last evening. Mrs. Crutchfield and Mrs. Rankin sang a duet, The Lord Knows Why.

A song fest was hell at the Methodist church Wednesday.

Potluck supper: prayer and medication to follow.

Don’t let worry kill you off – let the church help.

Pastor is on vacation. Massages can be given to church secretary.

Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa will be speaking tonight at Calvary Memorial Church in Racine. Come tonight and hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.

The senior choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join the choir.

This afternoon there will be a meeting in the south and north ends of the church. Children will be baptized at both ends.

Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. there will be an Ice Cream Social. All ladies giving milk please come early.

“At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be ‘What is Hell?’ Come early and listen to our choir practice.”

On Sunday, a special collection will be taken to defray the cost of the new carpet. All those wishing to do something on the carpet, please come forward and get a piece of paper. 

This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Johnson to come forward and lay an egg on the Altar.