The art of life and worship
November 18, 2010 Leave a comment
Here’s a fantastic video for “SMS [Shine]” from David Crowder Band’s Church Music album. This was all done with stop-motion photography. You may need to watch it a couple of times to catch the story. I love this kind of stuff!
For several short segments on how they made the video, search for “The making of “SMS [SHINE]” on youtube.
July 30, 2010 2 Comments
For a long time I have appreciated the ministry of John Piper. He has produced an amazing number of books and resources over the years through his organization, Desiring God. It’s quite amazing that they make so many great resources available for free on their website. I’d encourage you to check it out.
Each year Desiring God hosts conferences, and the promo for their 2010 National Conference looks very cool. Not only do I love the topic, but I love the way it’s creatively presented. Hats off to the folks who brainstormed and created the promo video.
July 20, 2010 Leave a comment
How would you describe the typical artist/musician/worship leader? Aloof? A little strange? Disorganized? An “artsy type”? Even effeminate (only for the guys)? I’ve been involved in worship ministry for around 20 years and have heard all kinds of adjectives used to describe worship leaders. Much of the time it’s been negative. Some of this has been deserved, and I can think of a few worship leaders who have done their part to deserve criticism. (You might even want to check out this hilarious post from Stuff Christians Like, but keep your tongue firmly planted in your cheek.)
But when I think of the many worship leaders I’ve known over the years, the vast majority of them are hard-working, godly people who strive week-to-week to lead their congregations in effective worship. They are committed to their local churches and want to serve their pastor. They are talented, creative, and intelligent. Most of them are also able to preach and teach effectively.
Those creative impulses make artistic types a little different. But those same creative impulses gave us the Mona Lisa, the music of the Beatles, and the great Hagia Sophia. They also give energy and beauty to our worship.
Every ministry has its stereotypes, and those are probably true to an extent. But in my experience, the typical worship leader is a wonderful servant of Christ who sacrifices a lot of time and energy so you and I can worship together each weekend.
May 25, 2010 2 Comments
One of the most important responsibilities of a worship leader is choosing songs for corporate worship. For those not involved in worship ministry, this may seem like a simple task: just throw together a few of your favorite songs and bada-boom, you’re done, right? But it’s not quite that simple. Choosing songs is (or at least should be) an involved process that requires us to ask several important questions. This week I will begin a series highlighting several key questions we should ask about the worship songs we use. We can apply these questions to help select new songs, or to evaluate songs we already use.
Here’s the first question we ought to ask about a worship song: Is it biblical? Does it adhere to, reflect or contain truth found in Scripture? Christians are people “of the book”–we believe the Bible is the revealed Word of God, and that it’s our guide for faith and life. Therefore, the message and meaning of a worship song must align with biblical truth. Read more of this post
May 21, 2010 2 Comments
“Hotel California” is one of the most well-known songs recorded by the Eagles. Released on their 1976 album of the same name, the song tells the story of a traveler who enters a mysterious hotel in the desert, and finds more than he expected. The song has been the subject of controversy because of its cryptic references to what some believe are witchcraft and devil worship. Read more of this post
May 17, 2010 Leave a comment
Here is how I look at music in church: churches are like restaurants, and worship music is like the food they serve. No matter what kind of food your restaurant serves, there will always be someone who doesn’t like it. The problem is that you have to choose something–you can’t satisfy every taste (unless you offer multiple services with different styles).
What happens if you’re a mature Christian who loves your church and wants to support your pastor, but you dislike the music? I have a good friend who hates Chinese food, and I know that if we went to a Chinese place for lunch, he would not enjoy it. What do you do when you’re the person who doesn’t like Chinese food? Here are a few questions for those who want to support their church and would like to deal with this issue in a positive, godly way. (These would apply in a range of situations, whether your church uses a traditional hymn-based style or more modern music.) Read more of this post
May 15, 2010 Leave a comment
UPDATE: James Emery White has a great post with his thoughts about the video and the implications behind it.
Check out this satire video from North Point Ministries. It’s the funniest and most true-to-life thing I’ve seen in a while. It’s not mean-spirited, but is done in a spirit of love and fun. If you would describe your worship style as contemporary or relevant, you will probably see a little bit of yourself here.
May 14, 2010 Leave a comment
The Australian worship band Hillsong United has been around for over a decade, but their popularity has exploded in just the last few years. The band is an outgrowth of the youth ministry of Hillsong Church in Sydney (the church home of another influential worship leader, Darlene Zschech). The band has contributed a great number of songs to modern worship, the most well-known being “Mighty to Save.” Hillsong United’s album Across the Earth: Tear Down the Walls is one of my favorite albums of any style of music. Most churches doing any kind of contemporary music are probably using some songs by Hillsong United. We certainly sing a lot of them in our SLCC Chapel services.
“Hosanna” was written by Brooke Ligertwood (formerly Brooke Fraser) and is included in Hillsong United’s 2007 album All of the Above. It’s a great song because it creatively combines meaningful lyrics with interesting music. I suppose all great songs have both components, but worship songs can be a special challenge because they have to musically and lyrically interesting, able to be learned and sung by the average person, and they have to express a very familiar story in a new, fresh way. That’s a tall order!
Verse 1 of “Hosanna” contains imagery that is almost prophetic, speaking of the “King of Glory coming on the clouds with fire,” with the whole earth shaking. (It’s reminiscent of scenes from Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4 & 5. Here is a link to the lyrics if you want to have a look.) The chorus is a simple expression of praise, and verse 2 speaks of God’s love and mercy washing over our sin. The bridge is a plea for God to “break my heart for what breaks yours,” and is a call to surrender everything for the cause of God’s kingdom. This is a sort of modern version of “I Surrender All,” except with more electric guitars, and a lot louder.
The blending of the minor key tonality, haunting feel and cryptic imagery complement each other well. The song is also a great example of how to effectively use electric guitars (and digital delay) in modern worship music. Many props to Hillsong for a job well done on this one.
Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle!
Lift up your heads, O gates!
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
he is the King of glory!
(Psalm 24.7-10)
May 9, 2010 3 Comments
This morning in our services on Mother’s Day, one of the guys on our worship team performed a special. (Side note: For those who are wondering, a “special” is a song that is performed, as opposed to songs that are sung by the whole congregation. I have no idea why we call it a “special.” I have heard some specials that were not very special.) About halfway through the song I looked back toward the sound booth and realized the words of the song were projected on the back ceiling. The band could see them, but they were out of the line of sight of the congregation.
This, in short, is a simple yet very effective way to address the problem of having your nose stuck in a music stand on stage.
Back in the old days of contemporary worship (the “old days” meaning just a couple of decades ago), worship teams were tied to a music stand that held paper music that was copied from a songbook or hymnal. If you were a guitar player or worship leader, you might have a chord chart consisting of only words and chords. This is how I led worship for many years in a former ministry: a control sheet (detailed order of service) and a bunch of chord charts sitting on the stand. For a long time I put the chord charts in a notebook and would have to flip the pages every couple of songs. Our worship team vocalists did the same thing.
The problem with being tied to the items on your music stand is that it puts an emotional barrier between you and the congregation. When you’re constantly worried about playing the right chords or singing the right words,you can’t focus on the more important task at hand. You are more concerned about the technicalities of worship leading than the spiritual dynamics of what is happening in the congregation.
I should point out that is a small but important distinction between the worship team and the worship band. The worship consists of the worship leader and the vocalists (or worship choir, if you use one). The worship band, of course, are the instrumentalists. It’s almost inevitable that the band will have some form of sheet music or charts. While they should be well-rehearsed, there’s no critical need for them to memorize their music. (But as a general rule, the better they know their music, the more fully they can enter into worship. The instrumentalists are leading worship through their example.)
The worship leader and vocalists, on the other hand, should try to remove any barriers that keep them from engaging with the congregation and with God. (When the worship leaders aren’t engaged, the people in turn don’t engage in worship very well.) At our church, the vocalists don’t use music stands at all, but we have the words projected on the back wall. (This is a mirror image of what the congregation sees, except in the case of special music as noted above.) It does mean you need to have your vocal parts memorized. But once you do this a few times, it’s no sweat.
Even when I play guitar on the worship team, I do my best to have all the music memorized. I still use a music stand to hold a control sheet and chord charts just in case, but even as an instrumentalist I find it very freeing to not rely on any charts or written music. (This would probably be impossible for instrumentalists that rely on sheet music.)
Even when I’m in situations where there is no projection in the back of the sanctuary, I try to rely on the music as little as possible when I’m leading worship. I have found the extra preparation to be well worth it because I can focus on actually leading worship instead of getting bogged down in musical details. I certainly don’t do it perfectly, but once I started doing this I began to enjoy leading and playing even more.
Questions: How can you help your worship team (and yourself) commit more of their worship set to memory? Has your church considered installing a projector in the back of the sanctuary just for the worship team? If you already do this, how it is working?
May 7, 2010 Leave a comment
Several years ago I was at the library and came across Springsteen’s 2002 album The Rising and checked it out on a whim. I knew he had been around for a while, and the only thing I could remember about his music was his song “Born in the U.S.A.” from the 80′s. Once I started listening to the CD, I was hooked. I have since listened to much more of his music and have a great appreciation for the gritty, real-life music and great storytelling. I put him in the same category as Johnny Cash and John Mellencamp–guitar players who just kind of tell it like it is. After putting out so much great music over the years, it’s easy to see Why Springsteen is called “The Boss.”
“Further On Up the Road” is a great song because of it’s simple yet driving beat, poetic imagery and its allusions to the afterlife. It’s hard to tell exactly where Springsteen is coming from spiritually, but he seems to have a strong belief that there’s “something” out there beyond the grave. This goes right along with the rest of contemporary culture in its interest in the supernatural and afterlife. I’m thankful that as a Christian my hope for the afterlife is secure in Christ.
Here are a couple of versions of this song for your listening pleasure. The first is Springsteen’s album version. He also released another version of the song that has a more Irish feel, but I don’t care for it much. The second clip below is Johnny Cash’s version, which has a totally different feel, but I like equally as well.
And the fact that Mr. Springsteen plays a Telecaster just adds to the coolness…
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4.6-8)
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