Michael's Notes - Thoughts On Worship, Leadership & Fitness

Preparing for Worship: God sings so should we?

“For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” NLT

• God is living among us…that is something to celebrate.
• God is our Mighty savior…that is something to celebrate.
• God delights in us…that is something to celebrate.
• God’s love will calm our fears…that is something to celebrate.
• God rejoices over us with song…that is something to celebrate.

It is hard for me to understand how people go to church on Sunday and just stand there and not participate, not engage in the conversation of worship. God has made it possible for us to gather in groups to celebrate who He is and what He has done for us.  That is something to celebrate.

It is rare that we witness celebrations where people just stand. If it is a true celebration there is usually buy-in with those involved. It should be the same each week in corporate worship.

Because of doctor’s orders I went through a time this year when I was not allowed to sing. When I attended worship events during that time it was tremendously difficult to be engaged. I have a new appreciation for singing and other acts of worship that demand participation. That is why I just don’t get how people come to worship and stand.

A.W. Tozer wrote concerning this subject in a number of his books and sermons. The following paragraph is taken from chapter 10 of his book The Attributes of God Volume 2. He is making reference to Zephaniah 3:17.

That’s why I want our congregations to sing. I don’t require that they sing on pitch – just that they sing with joy and enthusiasm. I don’t mind if the piano is out of tune, or if one fellow is singing a little step behind the next fellow – that doesn’t bother me. But the lack of warmth and enthusiasm makes me question the experiential life of Christians. The Christian Church has God in it and wherever God is, God will joy over His people with singing. The singing Church reflects the great God singing among His people.

Thousands of congregations will gather tomorrow for worship, will it be a celebration with buy-in from those who attend. If we have a relationship with God how can we just stand there and not sing; God is singing over us.

What are you dreaming?

We often dream about the future, well at least I do. I guess it has to do with my personality. Ask my assistant and she will tell you I don’t sit behind my desk for any long length of time. I have to get up and move, move on to the next thing or just get up and see what is going on.  The same is true with life in general; I am always dreaming about what is next.

 

It is okay to dream and in fact God let’s us in on stories of some great dreamers in His story the Bible.

 

One prayer that has been stuck in my head the last few weeks is: God let my dreams (desires) be Your dreams (desires.) Does God see what I am dreaming about today or the tomorrows and say: ‘that’s not quite what I want Michael’ or can He say ‘yes that’s it, that’s where I want you to go.’ In 2 Chronicles chapter 6 we find this statement from God about David, a dreamer: ‘…you have done well to have this desire.’ Now that is a pretty cool statement. In the story of my life will God be able to write a few words and include that statement. I sure hope so.

 

So what should we be dreaming about?

 

Here is a statement I heard many years ago: ‘finding God’s will for you life is not a place you arrive to, but the act of searching continually for His will.’ In the context of what I have written today that means that it is okay to dream, but I must search God’s heart and dream His dreams.

 

Isn’t it funny how God can take something that we have done over and over again and change it to help us refocus on His desires. Just recently He has been using the short prayer I mentioned earlier along with the words from the song Hosanna by Brooke Fraser:

 

Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like You have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks Yours

Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause

As I walk from earth into eternity

               

That’s what I want to dream, that’s what I want to be: everything I am for Your Kingdom’s cause…whatever that may be…so I keep dreaming.

Advice for a Young Worship Leader: smile

I can remember as if it were yesterday, when it was actually over thirty years ago. As a high school student my local church asked me to lead worship for the services. I can’t remember if I was given this chance because they recognized some talent or I was their only choice. (It was a very small church.)

 

We were having dinner with some family friends and without fanfare or introduction the lady made a comment about my leading: ‘you need to smile when you lead. Worshiping the Lord is something to smile about.’

 

Today, thirty years later, I am a worship leader at a local church and almost every week I am reminded by that memory the importance of communicating not just through words and melody but with our body language.

 

I know there are songs that don’t call for a smile, but your face and body expression still need to communicate.

 

I am amazed at how many people can make great music and communicate effectively through the words and melody and yet stand motionless without a smile while they sing. Honestly, this is the wrong person to have on stage leading. Being a worship leader means communicating and great communication must include pleasant body language that states I believe what I am singing about and I believe in the God I am singing about.

 

Smiling while singing did not come easy for me, it is something I had to practice. Yes I practiced this. I wanted to make sure that how I presented myself on stage did not hinder someone else from worshipping.

 

Is it time we look at the people who lead or help us lead worship each week? Don’t we need to see how they are communicating? It is more, much more than making beautiful music.

Leading a Worship Choir Rehearsal for a Seasonal Choir

Last week I posted the blueprint I use to construct a worship choir rehearsal each week. Since then I have been asked through Twitter, Facebook and comments to this blog how I would implement this plan for a choir that only meets and prepares for special occasions or seasons.  The questions seem to be raised concerning a choir that meets for six consecutive weeks leading up to a series of identical performances.

 

First let me say that the plan posted in the earlier post is what I utilize each week for a worship choir rehearsal preparing that choir for ministry on a weekly basis. Even though that is the case the basic outline can be adapted to the seasonal choir.

 

The backbone of the worship choir rehearsal blueprint is:

• Begin with something familiar
• Put the hard work in the middle
• End with something familiar.

 

Before I get to the specifics of what that might look like, I think there is a more important issue for a seasonal choir: building “team” in a short period of time. To be successful as a worship leading choir I believe there must be a sense of team and shared common goal. The shared common goal is easily presented, even done so during the recruiting process. However, instilling a sense of ‘team’ within the group is much harder. I meet with my group weekly and ‘team’ is one of the hardest things to accomplish, it is hard for me to imagine the difficulty of this task with a seasonal group. Here are some ways I would try to bring the team together:

• During each rehearsal plan a time of fellowship
• During each rehearsal divide the team into groups for prayer, change those groups each week.
• Once or twice during the season plan an extended fellowship time that might include snacks.
• Each rehearsal share the reason for having the choir, communicating expectations for participation and dreams for final product

 

Now on to the rehearsal of the music, remember the basic plan is: familiar, work hard on new stuff, familiar. To accomplish this when all the songs maybe new you might want to go this direction:

 

Here is how I might rehearse a seasonal choir.

Week 1

1. Begin with a worship time of a familiar song.
2. Progress to getting them to sing parts on that familiar song.
3. Begin to introduce ministry songs for the season.
1. Often I use recordings
2. Find a section that is repeated often, work on this section hard so that there is success
4. If there are 5-6 new songs to introduce do not work on all of them the first week, maybe 3 of them.
5. End rehearsal with something familiar, again this could be a worship song. One way to end would be to sing something without any accompaniment so that the group hears how they sound as a team.
6. Before they leave I would provide some type of rehearsal CD so that they can get some work done before the next rehearsal and the things you have taught are not forgotten.

Week 2

1. Begin with a easy sing-a-long
2. Bring back one song from last week that the most was accomplished on. Hit the familiar sections and then push on to another part of the song that needs work.
3. Introduced 1 or 2 new songs here following the plan outlined from week 1.
4. Work on the other two songs that were introduced last week using the plan item #3
5. finish with something familiar, that could be one of the seasonal songs or just another sing-a-long. Often here I use a worship song and finish the night with a time of worship and prayer.
6. final instructions would be to communicate the need to listen to the provided rehearsal recording. (One note on rehearsal recordings, please make sure you obtain permission from the publishers before making the recordings.)

 

For the remainder of the seasonal choir rehearsals I would use the following plan.

1. use a variation of week 2
1. eventually you will have nothing to introduce but you will find there are sections that need more work than others. It is those songs I would place in the middle of the rehearsal.
2. as the basics of each song are learned move toward polishing each song, paying attention to details that make it music not just notes.
3. each week memorize some part of what has been worked on.
4. finish the rehearsal with one or two of the songs that the choir has ready to sing, or a section of those songs.

Related Posts

Worship Choirs, Past and Future

Who Sings In the Choir

Planning a Choir Rehearsal for a Worship Choir

Planning a Choir Rehearsal
It is a task that comes around once a week and has been that way for over 27 years…planning to lead a worship choir rehearsal.

Over these years I have developed a plan that works effectively most weeks.

Information:
•    Worship choir sings every week except holiday weekends and the month of July.
•    Most Sundays the choir presents an ‘impact’ song
•    Rehearsal Length 1 hour and 10 minutes
•    Rehearse each song at least 6 weeks from ministry time.
•    Two choir rehearsals a week: Wednesday and Sunday evenings.
•    Ministry members choose one of the two rehearsals to attend.
•    As hard as I try I can only rehearse six songs in the allotted time.

The Rehearsal
Warm-up: 5 minutes (Often a familiar chorus or hymn in a medium range. Lately a more formalized set of warm-up exercises.)

Song 1: The two week out song.
    Very familiar to the group
    Working on specific sections for refinement
    Sing through the song 1 time

Song 2: Sunday’s Song
    If there are parts that need attention briefly work them.
    Sing through entire song…no books…with projected words on monitors

Song 3: The new song (Six week out song)
    This is the spot to introduce something new.
    This song is often introduced by playing a recording of the song.
    Teach two sections of the song that can be easily accomplished. This gives confidence that the song is attainable.

Song 4: Five Week Out Song
    Here we work hard on sections of this song. I am not a fan of starting at the beginning of each song in rehearsals, but rather a fan of jumping to a part that needs work.  Also I like teaching a section and showing the choir how that section can repeat throughout the song. (If there are variations during the repeats those are pointed out.) By doing so we accomplish a lot of work in a short amount of time.

Song 5: Four Week Out Song
    Four weeks out is really not that far so I feel it important to start to put some of the pieces together. Before doing so I have found there needs to be time dedicated to some of the sections that might be harder to grasp. I have made note of these sections from previous weeks and know what needs to be worked on.

Song 6: Three Week Out Song
    Here we go back to something familiar. First there will be some time spent on reminding the choir of some of the tougher sections and then there is usually a run through of a major portion of the song. If the above plan works correctly the choir has much of this song learned.

The plan outlined above is the blueprint for most of the large group rehearsals I conduct. I have no hard rule that this plan must be followed, but it sure does give me a starting point.

Worship is it rote to us?

Isaiah 29:13  These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote.

 

Oh, my, could God be looking down on me and making the same statement. 

 

I have been leading congregations in the Sunday act of Worship for 28 years; if I have led an average of two services a week that puts me somewhere around 3000 services. Yes, there have been times it has become rote.  God could have very easily written Isaiah 29:13 about me.

 

I can put services together.  I can construct a service with songs that flow and challenge us by their content. Just following what I have learned over the years about putting services together doesn’t mean that is what God wants. I can find fun stuff to add, whether that is music, dramas, film clips or creative light displays…but is that what God wanted.  Does putting stuff in a service thrill God or is even that creativity rote; is that mere human elements (laws)?

 

I can easily settle in on the familiar and safe order of the elements of the service, but is that what God wants?

 

The only way I know to avoid worship becoming rote is to make everyday an act of worship…an open conversation with God. When I keep that conversation alive, the blank piece of paper I face each week becomes much easier to fill, and not be filled, with the rote elements of ritual.

Christ Follower + Worship + Leader Part 3

When we say we are Christ Followers it implies that we follow Him in all we do, not just when we around other believers. That includes our choice, or calling, to a specific vocation. For me the vocation happens to be in a church setting where my main goal is to engage others in meeting God in worship. I am striving to follow Christ in how I carry out those duties.

Leading Worship
I am one of ‘those’ people. You know the ones; went to church for an extended period of time in one church setting and then made a drastic change. For me the shift was from ‘Pentecostal’ to ‘Baptist.’ That history includes growing up, education and serving in one place and education and serving in the other. The years I spent in each worship experience has had a great impact on my life as a ‘worship leader.’

I am also one of those people who have endured the constant change of worship ‘styles’ in the local church. The pendulum has swung over the decades from traditional, to spectator, thematic to expository, no-choirs to choirs and everywhere in between.

It is really not about the swing of the pendulum, but about ‘making God’s glory known.’ The journey of the children of God leaving Egypt through the Red Sea was about making God’s glory known. Christ came to earth to show God’s power, to make God’s glory known. We have been redeemed to make God’s glory known.  Corporate worship is about making God’s glory known, through a conversation of revelation and response.

Sundays come once a week. It doesn’t matter what happens in between, Sundays keep coming. With every future Sunday comes a blank piece of paper.  What determines the elements we as ‘worship leaders’ place on that blank page? How are we deciding to hear and speak to God through revelation and response? 

Depending on your faith background your approach to the blank piece of paper will be different. Over the past years I have chosen to approach worship planning with these questions:

Is everything based on Scripture?

Do the elements chosen communicate and reflect the characteristics of God and the full story of salvation through Christ?

Do the elements of the service help people recognize God's presence and therefore connect people with God?

Is there something familiar to a large group of the congregation in the worship plan? -- Familiarity would be different for different age groups and church backgrounds or absence of a church background.

Does everything we do encourage people to participate? -- Worship is a verb, something to participate in and not to watch.

Do the elements of the service enhance or compromise the message? -- If there is any indication that an element gets in the way of the content then it should not be used.

Throughout the worship service, is time and opportunity given for people to...
-- voice praise?
-- voice thanksgiving?
-- hear God's Word?
-- respond to what they hear?
-- pray to God in a personal and corporate way?

As ‘worship leader’ it is my responsibility and great privilege to encourage the congregation to meet God in conversation. The above list of questions help me to keep that the priority.

Christ Followers, no matter where God has placed you in life there is a call to serve.  What questions are you asking yourself that help you stay focused on that goal?

A July 4th story from Kuwait

One member of the worship choir I lead, Rodney Whaley, is just about to finish a tour of duty with the United States Army in Kuwait.  He keeps us informed of the activities of his deployment by sending regular emails. Today he posted concerning about a 'two day late 4th of July' celebration.

Today one of those spontaneous “once in a lifetime” experiences happened.
 
Today is July 6th, two days after the 4th of July celebration.  This morning I got up at 0500 (5 a.m.) and proceeded to the gym to get some exercise.  I got there at 0530 and decided I would exercise on the elliptical machine.  The room has several elliptical and stationary bicycles.  We are also provided with television to watch to help the time go by faster.  This morning, the TV was on FOX News.  At 0600, Mike Huckabee came on.  I think it is called Huckabee and Friends.  He stated, as the show came on, that the program would be a tribute to our country with some interviews and some musical entertainment.  Now, keep in mind that what we are watching at 0600 (6 a.m.) is being broadcast on the east coast at 11:00 p.m., Sunday night, 5 July, and in Nashville at 10:00 p.m. Sunday night.  It also appeared to be a re-run from the night before, so it initially ran on the night of the 4th of July in the states.  I think.
 
So here we are, a bunch of soldiers,, mostly older soldiers, working out on these exercise machines, watching Mike Huckabee and his patriotic show.  He first interviewed an author, then had Lee Greenwood and his band sing and play.  Of course in Lee Greenwood tradition, the song was, God Bless the USA.  As the song began, we just continued exercising.  Beside me was this rather large, jolly man with a strong Spanish accent.  He appeared to be Puerto Rican.  When we got to the chorus, this man started singing to the top of his lungs, “I’m proud to be an American . . .” with this strong Spanish accent.  Then he stopped his machine and stood beside it at attention and continued to sing.  Suddenly, others stopped exercising and joined in.  I did too.  Then this big Hispanic soldier puts his arms around my shoulders in a “man’s hug.”  I sang louder.  So did everybody else.  All of the machines had ceased by this time and we all joined together, arms on one another’s shoulders singing, “I’ll proudly stand up, next to you, and defend her still today.”  These are soldiers who truly were “defending her today, this very day” on foreign soil in a combat zone.  The big guy beside me had tears streaming down his face.  So did others.  So did I.  Maybe not big elephant tears, but my eyes were beyond moist.  This room had a big glass front to it.  Across the hall, with a glass front was the weight lifting room.  By the time we hit the last chorus, the folks over there had stopped their weight lifting and were watching this little band of old soldiers, arms around one another’s shoulders, with tears in their eyes singing, “God bless the USA!”
 
When the song was over, we looked at one another like, “What just happened here!”  We got back on our machines, continued our exercise session, and FOX News went to a commercial.  It is a moment I’ll never forget.

Worship, does it matter what other people think?

We have all been there, in a worship service, totally engulfed in the presence of God wanting to respond and then the thought shoots through our mind: “what will the people around me think?”

 

This past weekend at ClearView, the worship ministry led a worship service of songs, scriptures and testimonies.  Throughout the congregation and on the stage people were enjoying the presence of God.  I received a message from one person exclaiming how the worship service had brought her face-to-face with God and there were many times she just wanted to stand and lift her hands, however, she was sitting right in the middle of the audience and was worried what others might think.

 

People express their worship to God in many ways. Those expressions are often filtered through our personalities and our personal church history. They should not be filtered by what we think others may say.

 

This weekend I was so encouraged by how the worship teams surrendered to God in worship…it was amazing.  They did not care who was beside them, who was watching or what others might think. They only cared about the joy of being surrounded by the very presence of God and becoming involved in the conversation of worship.

 

For more observations on the ministry of the worship choir and other teams check out this blog post from ClearView's pastor, Mark Marshall

 

I want to close with these questions:

Does it matter what others think about how we express our worship?

Will there come a time in your life when you approach every opportunity for corporate worship as though you are standing in the very presence of greatness?

 

Related Posts:

Passion for God
Who Sings in the Choir

Worship Songs: It is all about the words

For those who know me you will probably find it hard to believe that at one time in my ministry I was the president of a local chapter of the Hymn Society of America.

 

In the worship tradition in which I was raised a limited number of songs were used.  In that tradition we did not sing Praise to the Lord the Almighty or A Mighty Fortress, or I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say. Those songs are filled with great theology and poetry. These are songs that have survived, and I believe will continue to survive, in churches for generations.  On the other hand, there are other songs from that era and from other past generations that have not survived.

 

Today more worship songs are being written than ever before and these songs, because of technology, are getting to the local congregations faster than ever before. There are some that will come and go and then there are others that will be around for a long time.

 

What makes songs stick? It is all about the text. What is the song saying? How is it being said?  Is it theologically correct?

 

When we choose worship songs, we first read the text.  There could be a moving melody and great arrangement, however, if the text is not worth singing then none of that matters.

 

In the end, song text must line up with God’s Word, which is the ultimate guideline for anything we sing in church. It is God’s Word that should be the guide for any element of the service.