Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday. Today’s blog is a dialogue, what do you want to see or hear in your church to make it feel like something is different?
Archive for Ministry
Calling All Angels…
Do you believe in Angels? I do. They play a leading part in the story of my life. One of my favorite bands is the contemporary rock group “Train”. They released the song “Calling All Angels” on their album, titled “My Private Nation”. Today, I had yet another encounter with Angels, the real ones. Some may know them as guardian angels. If you know me well, you know that I had a terrible high speed accident at age 16 while driving home from summer school. I have shared since that day that there is no doubt in my mind that the Lord is indeed watching over me, and that He constantly has His angels surrounding me. Angels are scriptural, just look up Colossians 1:16 for more detail.
Last night I had been confrontational with my youngest son over homework. When it came time for him to go to bed, he pulled out the guardian angel prayer he made at our church’s faith formation program, and he asked me to pray it with him. We have never prayed this specific prayer together.
Today’s encounter with Angels found me finishing the preparation for my basement remodel. The space is unfinished, and I am finally ready to greet the drywall contractor tomorrow morning. It’s an exciting time, because once the space is done, I will finally have my recording studio setup in a permanent home. I’m a planner, and wanted to make sure that I have enough wired internet and cable outlets throughout the new space. It’s much easier to run cable before the walls are covered in sheetrock! I take my cordless drill and place a new hole right next to the low voltage holes my electrician installed this past weekend. I run my cat5 cable through the hole and across the basement to my router location. No problem. I return to the outside of the home, and as I am drilling my second hole, I receive a brief sensation of resistance and then a loud bang, flash of light, and the smell of burning material. I had drilled into the 240 Amp line that supplies all the electricity for my home.
I was stunned and scared, but was physically okay. My wife works from home, and she heard the explosion and came rushing out to see that I was alright. My dad was standing next to me during this entire thing. The loud bang and pop came from the 200 Amp exterior breaker mounted on the wall next to me. I called my electrician, Jerry, who came rushing across town to get the situation inspected and repaired. When he arrived here, he was stunned to see that he had also grazed the plastic sheath on the main line (remember, I drilled my holes right next to his). After he patched everything up, we both talked for a little while about how blessed we are to not have been killed by our actions. My drill bit went across the hot and the neutral wires. Here is a picture of the melted drill bit…
Jerry’s drill had just opened up the insulation and grazed one of the cables. If our drill bit was 1\4 inch lower, the results could have been fatal. If I had caught the cable through a different part of it’s winding, the results could have been catastrophic. There are more “If’s” than I am even aware of, all could have led me to great injury, death, or my home catching on fire, but not today. The Lord, and His Angels, all had by back.
The Lord is kind and merciful. Angels are real. I am blessed.
Where have you seen Angels working in your life?
Linus has a blanket, you have one too…
This blog and website is a resource for church musicians. It is my hope that it provides useful insight into the practical matters of music ministry, a “how-to” site, if you will. I encourage you to share your thoughts and comments, and if you find the information here useful, that you share it with your teams, twitter tweeple, and facebook friends…
Growing up, we all spent time in front of the family television watching the great Peanuts holiday comics come to life. Classics like “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”, or, who could forget the loveable Linus van Pelt in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. He confidently walks out onto the stage, requests “light’s please”, and then delivers my one of my favorite passages of scripture detailing the birth of Jesus. Go ahead and take a minute to relive this great moment…
Last weekend I was serving my parish on their yearly confirmation retreat. We brought a large lighting and audio rig to get the job done in a room of 125 people. There I was, guitar in hand, amps on, with an extremely bright intelligent light in my face. This very cool light completely blinded me and rendered my security blanket absolutely useless. My security blanket? A MUSIC STAND!
How many of us operate with a music stand? Let’s look at what this security blanket does to us as music ministers…
- It is a mini wall between you and the people you are serving
- It beckons the attention of our eye, thus taking our eyes off the people we are serving, the ministry team, and the room
- It causes us to look down while we are singing/playing
- It creates a distraction of page turning, and interrupts the flow of spontaneous worship
- It looks unprofessional, and…
- It’s one more thing to pack and carry (boo!)
In reality, by the time I am ready to lead a group of people with a particular song, I’ve already played the tune a few dozen times. Memorizing modern worship songs isn’t rocket science (I have a friend who is a rocket scientist, and we have discussed such matters). This morning I took a look at the CCLI Top 100 list and wasn’t a bit surprised to see that the first 10 songs are all 4 chord songs that repeat the same pattern over and over again. I wasn’t surprised because repetition is the intended delivery of this style of music. These are songs of prayer, so by repeating a chord structure or lyrical passage you are more easily engaging a group into deep worship. So let’s pick a song and dive in… (we will go right to number 1 – Chris Tomlin’s “How Great Is Our God”)…
The original key is C, but that key is a bit of a stretch for my vocal range! The key that works well for my parish is Bb. If I am leading a small group in adoration etc, I will lower further down to A to make it more welcoming for a small group. That being said, if I am leading the song in Bb the chord progression is [Bb-Gm7-Eb-F] or Capo 3 on the guitar and play [G-Em7-C-D] – over and over again. Repeat!
I can easily remember chord progressions. I just hear them and my hands follow where they need to be, kind of like rain man. Lyrics are tougher for me to remember, so I have developed a method of getting them memorized. I try to embed the first line of every pass into my mind instead of memorizing the entire verse. In other words, when my mind can recall the first line of a verse or chorus, my memory fills in the remainder of the verse as I sing. So, with this song I would commit to memory..
- “The splendor of the King……”
- “How great is our God…..”
- “And age to age He stands……”
- “Name above all names…..”
Now, all that being said, those of us that work in liturgy do not have the benefit of a working band that plays the same set of music, every single night, the exact same way. I recognize that if we work in liturgy, the songs on the plan this week are different than the songs from last week. However, your ministry team probably (hopefully) has a seasonal or common group of songs that the entire group knows well, and that your parishioners sing well. In reality, you probably have these songs memorized already. With these types of songs, make a strong effort to not use the chart on the stand, but instead be focused on leading the song and being plugged into what is happening in the liturgical action and engage the room with your eyes and prayer.
So, back to Linus. He walked out on that stage and boldly proclaimed the nativity story. He didn’t need his security blanket, but it was on stage with him. My challenge to you (and to myself), is to ditch the security blanket this year and get rid of the music stand. If your working situation requires you to have one, make a strong effort to spend more time looking over the top of it and less time staring into it. After all, we’re not worshiping the music stand, are we?
If you can’t take the heat, get out the humidifier…
We have had a warmer than usual December here in Atlanta, but word to the wise…If you play an acoustic instrument, your central heating system may be killing your instrument.
In winter months, the central heating system in your home can dramatically reduce the humidity and wreak havock on your acoustic guitar, piano, and other wooden instruments (even drums!). As the furnace in your home burns and circulates the air, it removes the natural humidity that exists in the house and your acoustic instruments need that humidity to maintain their tone and playability.
Don’t let your instruments dry out and incur the damage you’ll see demonstrated in the video’s below. Use dampits on your guitar, and damp chasers on your pianos. If you have a room where all your instruments live, try to make use out of an ordinary humidifier, and you’re shooting for 45% relative humidity in your room.
You spent a fortune on the best gear your money could buy. Take a few minutes each week to make sure you are protecting that investment! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure…
Video #1 – Signs of a dry guitar…
Video #2 – How to correct the problem…
Video #3 – Finish the rescue…
Category: Guitar, Liturgy, Ministry, This and That, Worship |
Tags: #Taylor #Acoustic #Guitar #Piano #Gear
Fire the Missals…
For Catholics in North America, this weekend (1st Sunday of Advent), welcomes the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal after years of prayer, interpretation, and changes. It is now time to pray with the new responses, and sing the new parts.
People in your congregation are going to be looking to you and your pastoral team for assurance. I call this the “Flight Attendant” syndrome (When I fly through rough air, I always look at the flight attendants on my plane to see if they are nervous). When you begin playing your new (or revised) mass settings this weekend, do so with confidence. Lead the parts as if you’ve been singing them since 1974. In addition, I am using familiar hymns and songs this weekend to give the people at Holy Trinity a chance to really focus on the new parts.
Welcome 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal…we are delighted you are here. Lord Jesus, guide your Church through this transition. Maranatha!
Category: Liturgy, Ministry, Worship |
Tags: #Liturgy #GIRM, #Ministry, #Music, #Musicministry, Catholic
10 Essentials To A Healthy Ministry Experience For Your Team…
10 Essentials to a healthy ministry experience for your team…
- Say “Thank you” often. Most ministry teams are formed from people who give freely of their time to serve the Lord. Let them know how much you appreciate them. Say it…write it.
- Have a plan. Having a written plan prepared a month at a time so your musicians and team can prepare at home and feel ready to walk in and give their best.
- Be open to receive new people. One of the great obstacles in music ministry is to not become “clicky”. Be approachable, and do everything you can to encourage people to participate.
- Show up on time. If you are leading a ministry team, you need to be present well ahead of your team. Show them you respect their time by being a good steward of your own time. You should be there first one there and the last one out.
- Have charts. You need to prepare charts for your group in whatever format works for them. Some people need only a chord chart, some require lead sheets (chords and melody line), and others just need to know what key signature you plan to do a song in. Get them what they need to be effective. Check out great resources like Songselect from CCLI and Worshiptogether.com.
- Delegate. Delegate parts to your group. Look for opportunities for someone in your group to lead a song. You should have an idea of their vocal range and then be able to select them for a particular style or range of song(s).
- Coach. Be specific with your expectations of your team. If you need something specific from a musician, vocalist, or tech team member…use your words and let them know.
- Communicate. You cannot communicate often enough, in any format. Use email, text, twitter, facebook, planning center, etc. Make sure your team knows what they need to know. They cannot read your mind. It’s a fact that you often need to say or write something several times for everyone to register it.
- Encourage. Encourage them to sing. Praise often, and praise specific. Someone nail a part? Praise them for it. Someone obviously did some work on a piece at home? Acknowledge it. Team did an amazing job, tell them before they leave for the day. We all need affirmation. It takes one negative word to tear down, but several to build up.
- Pray. If your team isn’t praying together, it’s not a ministry. The most important thing you can do as a team is to gather in prayer each week. Try different prayer experiences as a team. Break open the weekly scriptures before Mass. Offer intercessions for one another to pray for. Try a weekly challenge of having the entire team fast one morning for the intentions of the other team members, etc. Encourage different people to lead each week.
Writing the essentials could easily become an e-book. These are 10 simple suggestions to start with. Peace and blessings to you…
Let’s get out there…
This past weekend, I wrapped up my fall vacation time by spending both days with my family. We had two fantastic days together. On Saturday, my youngest son played in the regional 9u football superbowl. I flew back from the west coast early to make sure I was there for this big event. They took the lead and won the game with just 45 seconds left on the clock. I am so proud!
The other aspect of my vacation was that it allowed me the rare opportunity to attend mass at a neighboring parish. As a family, we decided to go visit St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Fayetteville GA. As we arrived in the narthex, we were greeted by one of the teens handing out songsheets. We quickly found a place to sit and prepared for mass. I was delighted to see my friend Amy Metzger, Director of Music, up at the front with the music ministry team. I knew from Facebook that she had also been traveling recently, so I wasn’t sure I’d have an opportunity to visit prior to arriving at mass.
I really appreciated the song selections, as there were familiar tunes and two pieces that I had never heard before. I always enjoy the opportunity to learn new pieces and have other ministry teams lead me in worship. The team did a great job presenting the material. Throughout the mass, I felt very welcomed to sing and participate.
Here’s my challenge to you…
Get out there and see what the churches in your area are doing. For many of us that minister in a Life Teen Mass, it can be challenging to visit another Life Teen mass at a neighboring parish as we all tend to have a mutual late afternoon mass time. Don’t let that stop you from visiting other parishes to checkout a morning liturgy, or even a vigil mass nearby.
In our faith lives, we experience, we learn, and we change…in that order. Think about how that formula applies to your faith journey. To continue growing as Christians and ministers, we need to constantly continue moving forward. Working inside “our box” can limit our sight and effectiveness. Get out there and meet some new people, expand your network of friends in the area, and keep growing. The Church is bigger than our home town parish. Thanks be to God!
I Love LA
I arrived in Los Angeles today for the 2011 Taxi Road Rally. I’m here with 2,000 other songwriters, musicians, producers, poets, and dreamers. I’m also here with grammy winning songwriters and producers.
In early spring of this year, I was praying in the church before leaving for the day, and clearly heard the Lord asking me to write songs for the church.
I have all the tools, all the skill, and all the encouragement of my family and friends. Now, all I need is the discipline to get to work…
