Beyond Sunday Worship

Worship Podcast & Blog

How Close Should Sunday Morning Worship Reflect the Recordings?

Over the years as I’ve talked to many worship leaders, I have encountered different approaches to Sunday morning worship – some who are vehemently opposed to structure and click tracks and arrangments and others who have their entire worship set planned to the ‘T’ without much wiggle room.

One of the questions that has come up time and time again is how close should Sunday morning worship resemble the recordings? I mean if Chris Tomlin, Jesus Culture, and Hillsong do it it’s gotta be from God’s rulebook, right? Well, maybe not God’s rulebook. But it can be helpful to use what others have done.

I like to strike a healthy balance between personal arrangements, recorded arrangements, and the spontaneous.

Here’s my thoughts:

UTILIZING RECORDED ARRANGEMENTS SAVES YOU TIME

As a busy worship leader, this is great. You don’t have to personally and creatively arrange every single song because someone has already done that work. Just listen in, take notes, and teach. It’s nice to use what they’ve done and build upon it.

UTILIZING RECORDED ARRANGEMENTS IS THE BEST WAY TO TRAIN YOUNG MUSICIANS

Young musicians are not typically honest about how bad they are. I don’t know what it is but it’s easy for we musicians to get an inflated view of ourselves. We easily blame external factors (can’t hear, can’t see the music, use the “it’s OK I’ve got it” comment, etc.) for our mistakes. Maturity is learning to admit when you mess up (maybe I should save this for another post :))Holding young musicians accountable to learning and playing their part of a recorded song teaches them a much needed discipline if they want to be good musicians.

ARRANGE, BUT LEAVE SPACE

At my church we typically do four songs for our main worship set. Not all four of those songs are sequenced and perfectly arranged. I usually leave one or one and a half for flowing purposes and ‘see where it goes’. This keeps the worship time from becoming too mechanical. Listen in to the Holy Spirit and follow Him where he is going.

Worship Leaders: what are your thoughts on the “do it like the recording” debate?

REVIVE: A night of worship for young adults

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3GW3KPlpw4

I’m pretty excited about this event we are planning here in Pittsburgh next month. A handful of churches, a handful of worship leaders, a handful of young adults coming together to worship God.

If you are interested in coming or bringing your ministry, feel free to send me an email or leave a comment below.

Come be REVIVED.

How To Practice Better – Acoustic Guitar

*This is another post in a series on “How To Practice Better”. Check out the other posts on worship leading and bass guitar. Subscribe for free to receive regular updates of my posts.

The acoustic guitar is the instrument in the band that is oft-overlooked and rarely practiced.

Why is that?

It’s because most people who aspire to guitar stardom start with an acoustic. They want to be rockstars but they realize it is extremely hard work to be good – to shred, melt faces, blow people’s minds with fingering speeds Jimi Hendrix would envy. So they learn three chords, two strum patterns, and start playing worship songs. They eventually take their bad practicing habits over to their Epiphone Les Paul and digital effects pedals, thinking they have finally made it. Far from it.

But what if you want more than that?

Here are a few tips to help you practice better with your acoustic guitar:

PRACTICE WITH A CLICK

I know I say this a lot, but it’s important. Pull out a metronome and practice those crazy strums in perfect time. Work on that internal clock. Most often the drummer is blamed for bad time, but the acoustic guitar is quite often an offender. Your band will thank you and maybe buy you a new guitar for such dedication.

KNOW WHEN NOT TO STRUM

It drives me crazy when acoustic players strum full force through an entire song. Relax. Sometimes all that is needed is a strum on the downbeats. But not just any strum. The most passionate strum you have ever strummed in the history of strumming. Slow your pick down. Sweep slowly over your strings, covering the entire length of that downbeat. Pour your passion into the simplicity. Play it like it’s the coolest thing you ever played. If you start arguing with your leader that it’s too simple, you may not be on the team much longer 🙂 Great music has space.

LEARN OPEN CHORD VOICINGS

I can’t stress this enough. I know it’s cool to learn bar chords for the first time. Sorry to disappoint, but they’re not that cool. Especially on an acoustic guitar. The best tones for an acoustic are open chord voicings. The less fingers you use and more open strings you strum, the better it will sound. Sometimes I will even detune my guitar to something like DADGAD in order to utilize more open strings. Also, get to know your capo. When a song is in the key of Ab, don’t play bar chords. Use your capo and get that open sound. I know some guitar players call the capo a “crutch for the weak” but I think THEY are the weak ones! In all seriousness, it’s not a matter of weakness. It’s a matter of good tone.

DON’T PLAY LEADS

I know it’s tempting to show up the lead guitarist with your smooth jazz leads, but just stop it. You are there for rhythm. Learn how to harness what you know and contribute only what the song demands. This goes for all musicians – submit to what a song needs. Don’t show off all you know within the course of a song. Don’t seek to impress, play simply.

Acoustic guitarists, the floor is yours. What is ONE PRACTICE TECHNIQUE that has helped you become better?

Worship: Consume or Be Consumed?

Worship music has become such an industry. It makes money. It dominates Christian radio. We get warm fuzzies when we hear our favorite artist singing our favorite song.

This is can be good, but I also think it spoils us for our local churches. Instead of pursuing God, we listen for our favorite songs. We view the worship time as a  3 song warm-up more than an encounter with the living God. If the worship leader does our favorite song, we will pump our fists and get into it.

But what if it never happens? How do we re-capture the essence of worship in a massive industry of worship consumerism?

I once heard Louie Giglio say that instead of consuming worship, we should be consumed by worship. What if you approached every service at church with an expectation to be consumed by the greatness of God? That may sound scary to you.

All I’m saying is that we be God-centered rather than song-centered; that we approach weekend services with expectation rather than routine. To the congregation’s credit, a good worship leader should skillfully help you do this. But that doesn’t leave you without responsibility.

Come be consumed by worship rather than consuming songs.

Question: how do you prepare your heart for true worship? What are some ways we can re-capture true worship in such a ‘consumer’ industry? I dare you to leave a comment 🙂

The Weekly Wrap-Up

MONDAY

Common Worship Leading Blunders (Part 2)

Vicky Beeching recently wrote an excellent, thorough blog post on dealing with disasters in a worship set. If you’ve been a worship leader for any length of time, you know encountering a disaster is a “when” not an “if”. Vicky gave some great advice for a variety of situations and I suggest you read it. Whereas my last post was on worship leading blunders you should avoid, I wanted to expand on Vicky’s post to include a few more ‘blunders’ that just seem to happen…and how to recover. Here goes:

Read the full post here.

TUESDAY

What I Am Listening To

WEDNESDAY

A Most Powerful Daily Question

A number of weeks ago I wrote a post on contributing and consuming. Whether you like it or not, you are doing one or the other. You are either taking or giving. You are either watching or participating. You are either criticizing or taking your own risks that add value. This concept leaves us with a most powerful daily question: What will I contribute today?

Read the full post here.

THURSDAY

3 Ways Worship Leaders Can Deal With Discouragement

With my recent posts on worship leading blunders, it’s easy to laugh at the mistakes when you’re in hindsight. You can look back, learn, laugh, and grow to become more humble. But in the moment it’s not so funny. Sometimes when we miss the mark, we get discouraged.

Read the full post here.

FRIDAY

How to Get the Most Out of Reading Blogs

Do you read blogs? Obviously you do because you are are reading this right now. I do a lot of reading but when it comes to reading blogs, I prefer the ones that are brief, practical, and teach me new things. I simply don’t want to read a book when I sit down to read blogs. I like to read fast, archive what is helpful, and apply what is practical. That’s why I write a lot of list posts (they can be scanned quickly) and how to’s (practical). Here’s how I would recommend you read blogs:

Read the full post here.

INTERESTING LINKS:

Freedom + Control = Successful Singing by Chris Beatty

Where’s Your Platform? by Seth Godin

Inspiration is for Amateurs by Steven Furtick

7 Powerful Ways to Get Your Blog Post Noticed by ProBlogger