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.

Worship Services, what is the real purpose?

For the last few weeks in our worship leadership planning times we have been discussing the meaning of ‘worship.’ Some of the phrases that were presented were:

         Reflect the glory of God

         Ascribe to God honor and glory

         Engage in a conversation with God that includes times of listening and talking

        

If we were to ask the question ‘what is the purpose of a corporate worship celebration?’ many of our answers would be similar and be something like this: Our worship services exist to make God’s glory known and by our actions ascribe worth to him. Or… ‘the public declaration of God and our response to that declaration, done in a gathering of mostly believers and some non-believers in which the believers gain support for their faith and the non-believers witness an outward expression of conversation between the church and its savior.’

 

In February 2007, Starbuck Chairman Howard Schultz sent a memo to his CEO, that somehow found its way onto the Internet. In the memo, Schultz expresses concern that his company has veered from its original charter. He cited a series of internal decisions that eventually led to a dilution of what customers had come to expect from a visit to Starbucks.

 

Have we lost sight of that goal of our corporate worship experiences when we add ‘things’ of culture to make our services ‘relevant’?  W.A. Tozer wrote: The Christian church was never intended to function as a current events forum.

 

There are many things we have added to our corporate gatherings that by themselves have tremendous value, but often take away from the conversation of worship.

 

Do we really need

announcements for up-coming events to take time from the conversation?

 

a movie clip that we think is cute?

 

a special occasion song just because it brings warm memories to our minds?

 

a skit that might have some small link to the theme of the day?

 

recognitions of birthdays or anniversaries?

 

None of the items in this list are bad, but I believe we need to evaluate what we allow to take up time in our services that are not really worship.  What we do need to reserve time for are:

 

         Prayer

         Ascribing to God Worth

         Praise

         God’s spoken Word

         God’s word explained

         Opportunities for response

         Time for reflection

A Comparison God and You

There is a great glimpse of worship found in the book of Isaiah Chapter 6 verses 1 – 8.  The passage is an example of a conversation of worship where God is seen and then the worshipper responds. 

 

In worship services today we use songs and scriptures to see a picture of God. When we look close at His attributes and then look to ourselves for comparison there really is none. Or the comparison is so far at opposite ends of the spectrum that it is hard to compare.  That is exactly the response of the writer of Isaiah 6; he sees a vision of the Lord, Majestic and holy, and then cries out ‘woe is me.’

 

In the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis I found the following statement:

 

In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that – and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison – you do not know God at all. 

 

It is hard to imagine that God who is immeasurable invites us to be a part of His family.

 

It is hard to imagine that God, who is holy, invites us to stand in His presence and worship.

 

He made it so by a gift of love…His Son.

Preparing for Worship: getting beyond the logistics

Every worship leader is faced with a reoccurring blank piece of paper because Sundays come once a week. It is waiting to be filled with an outline of a worship service that will include various items depending on the personality of the local congregation.

I write this post on a Saturday morning meaning the blank piece of paper with tomorrow’s date at the top has been filled between its margins with an outline, and the items that fill the page have been detailed, arranged and rehearsed. We have done all that we can do. The question is: ‘what will the people recognize when they enter the designated place of worship tomorrow?’

In a statement from a sermon in the late 1950’s A.W. Tozer implied he had been asking the same question when he wrote the following:

“Visit some churches, and when you sit down, you are conscious of a Presence. You go into other churches, and when you sit down, you are conscious of the beauty of the music or the stained glass windows, the sonorous tones of the minister, and all the rest, but you are not conscious of the Presence of God necessarily.”

Where we meet you will not find stained glass, but basketball goals; and not beautiful architecture but cement block walls. However the caution for us who plan is that anything we put on stage or plan to use in a service is put there only to help us recognize the very presence of God.

So how do we guard against the items (elements) placed on the blank piece of paper becoming the focus and not God?

•    Ask the question just printed often.
•    Pray that God will take our planning and execution to bring Glory to Him
•    Pray for wisdom and insight to remove anything that could be a distraction
•    Pray: God help me forget about trying to make everything ‘right,’ and forget about being the producer. Instead give me the freedom of mind to worship

Related Posts

Preparing for Worship: A Saturday night to-do list

Preparing for Worship: Am I Too Comfortable

Worship, does it matter what other people think?

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

Preparing for Worship: Let it be real

“In the average church service the most real thing is the shadowy unreality of everything.” A.W. Tozer

 

When we walk into our places of worship tomorrow how can be sure the experience will be real?

 

• Make sure Sunday is not the only day of the week you have a conversation with God.
• Attend the service for the right reasons:
• Celebrate with God’s people
• Make God’s glory known
• Hear an explanation of God’s Word
• Pray for the leaders
• Pray that God will reveal Himself to you
• Pray that you are willing to respond to what you hear

 

Here are some practical things that might help you get engaged in the act of worship.

• Get things ready the night before
• Arrive at the church campus early
• Make it your mission to get to the worship center early
• As a worship leader I know how distracting late-comers are to the people who arrive on time and to the leaders on stage.
• Participate in the acts of worship as if you are the only one in the room.
• Bring a bible to the service
• Take notes

 

How real a worship experience is to you is often how well you are prepared not how well the leaders are prepared.  It is Saturday night and not too late to get things ready so you can meet God in the conversation of worship.

 

Related Links

Worship Is It Rote To Us?

Worship Does It Matter What Other People Think?

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.

Preparing for Worship: one voice together.

I love the scene described in II Chronicles 5: 13-14.

 

Everyone had come together to celebrate God and His faithful love: the singers, the instrumentalists and the priests. In one translation the phrase ‘one voice’ is used to describe the scene.

 

More amazing than the mass of persons participating in this celebration was their response when the very presence of God was recognized: “the priests could not continue their work, as the glorious presence of God, filled the temple.”

 

Tomorrow thousands of places of worship will welcome hundreds of thousands of people through their doors. Will we enter expecting to find the presence of God? If we realize that He is present in our midst what will be our response?

 

The scene at my place of corporate worship tomorrow will be a little like what is described in the mentioned scripture. There will be trumpets, cymbals, woodwinds, singers and the ministers to lead through the service. Honestly, it is a lot of fun to have that many people helping to lead the worship experience, but all of this is useless unless we are doing it for the right reason: ‘together as one voice, helping people to recognize the very presence of God.’

Related Posts:

Preparing for Worship…a Saturday Night to-do list

Preparing for Worship…Am I too Comfortable?

Preparing for Worship…prayer

Preparing for Worship: a Saturday Night to-do list

Here is a to-do list that I will work through before going to bed tonight that I hope will make me better prepared for worship tomorrow.

 

1. think through my early Sunday morning routine, making sure everything is ready
2. read through the scripture passages of the last few weeks’ sermons, remembering the last sermons and what God said to me during those study times.
3. read ahead in the book of the bible we are studying (Genesis) asking God to speak to me as I read
4. pray and ask God to prepare my heart to be ready to receive what He has for me in service tomorrow.
5. look over the worship outline, praying for everyone who will participate
6. pray that God will use me to help lead those who attend into a worship conversation
7. pray specifically for my pastor that God will continue to give him clear direction about tomorrow’s sermon
8. pray for everyone who will attend the service that they will come ready to meet God
9. pray for those who may come to service tomorrow who do not have a personal relationship with God, that their heart would be open to hearing from Him.

 

Do you have a Saturday night routine? How do you prepare for Sunday worship?