Hillsong: Aftermath and Expectations

Last week, I took a group of twenty people from LRCC to see Hillsong United. We loaded up three vehicles of teens and members from the worship team and made our way to Conseco Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis.

Now, I have long loved Hillsong’s music. They are one of my “go to” places to look for new worship music for my church. The worship leaders there are simply anointed. God has blessed them with gifts for writing songs with strong melodies and lyrics that connect with today’s generation of worshippers. I was really excited to see them in a live setting.

I wasn’t disappointed.

It was the most authentic and passionate expression of worship I have experienced in a long time. I want you to get a picture of this in your head: Young and old, racially and culturally diverse, standing together with an expectation that God was going to show up. They were EXPECTING Him! For 3 uninterrupted hours, every hand lifted into the air and every voice sang out their offering of worship to the Father. It was an intense, spiritual workout!

The Hillsong United guys made it clear that none of the evening was about the lights or smoke or the heavy guitar riffs; it was about an authentic expression of worship to God. And it was. The band and leaders had such an amazing ability to get out of the way and let the Spirit move.

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And at the end of three hours – no one was ready to go. They wanted more. They wanted to CONTINUE worshipping!

I woke up the next morning still exhausted from a night of worship. Yes, you read that right, exhausted.  I had 3 hours of pouring myself to God! I have never felt like that before.

A series of questions to ponder from the night:

How can we encourage our churches to EXPECT God to show up in our worship assemblies? I am convinced that if people look for Him, they will find Him. Is it a teaching problem? Is it that our churches have become spiritually lethargic or apathetic? Is it because we really don’t expect to encounter Him? Are we too comfortable learning about Him on a Sunday morning and not interested in meeting with Him?

What do you think?

My final take home was this song. If you haven’t heard it, go to iTunes and download it! I posted these lyrics to it below.

Like An Avalanche

Verse 1

Beautiful God, Laying Your majesty aside You reached out in love to show me life Lifted from darkness into light- oh

Verse 2

King for a slave

Trading Your righteousness for shame

Despite all my pride and foolish ways

Caught in Your infinite embrace

Oh

Chorus

And I find myself here on my knees again

Caught up in grace like an avalanche

Nothing compares to this love love love

Burning in my heart

Verse 3

Saviour and Friend

Breathing Your life into my heart

Your word is the lamp unto my path

Forever I’m humbled by Your love

Oh

Bridge

Take my life, take all that I am

With all that I am I will love You

Take my heart, take all that I have

Jesus how I adore You

Chorus

And I find myself here on my knees again

Caught up in grace like an avalanche

Nothing compare to this love love love

The Art Of Worship Flow Part 2

My last blog began the conversation about creating a good worship flow.  All the elements of an assembly should work together to point a person in one direction: the central message. (ATTENTION: What I’m not saying here is that the sermon is the central point of the service. Nor am I saying that up tempo worship songs should be the “opening set up” song to the more important or meaningful ballad!) What I’m saying is this: it all works much like a great story where one word isn’t wasted.

In light of this, I want to share 4 additional tips to help craft a good worship flow.

5) Pay attention to the transition between different elements. A worship leader should not just want to eliminate silence, but to move seamlessly from music to video to sermon to communion to (fill in element here).  For example, you are playing a video with music behind it.  Choose a song in the same key as the background music so you can move seamlessly between the two elements.

LRCC does a meet and greet time every Sunday, which is one of my favorite parts of our services.  It gives our church time to fellowship for a few minutes and/or meet any visitors (I prefer the term “guests”) who are seated near them. However, it is hard to transition back from this brief “social time” into a spirit of celebration or reflection. This Sunday, we are trying something different. We are going to quietly “ooh” the song “I Worship You, Almighty God” followed by a prayer. I believe this will ease us back into a time of reflection without feeling like we just did a 180.

This is where we get to think creatively.  There are several ways to create a flow between these elements.  Are there ones that work better for your church?  What has been successful? What has crashed and burned?

6) Beware of the biggest Worship Flow Killer: ANNOUNCEMENTS.  This element is a struggle at most churches. It is a vital way to communicate special projects, trips, prayer requests, and events to your people. So, where do you put them in your service where everyone hears them? Some opt for the beginning of services; just get them out of the way! Others know that many of their people arrive “fashionably late”, so the beginning isn’t an option.

Some churches place announcements at the end of services. The upside- everyone is in attendance and hears them.  Downside- many have trained themselves to tune them out by the end of services. Church members are turning their phones back on, pulling their things together, and ready to eat lunch.

A third option is to place announcements right smack in the middle services, maybe just before the sermon, to eliminate the problems of both. However, placing them in the middle disrupts the flow of worship.  It gets people thinking about plans and schedules and “How are we gonna pay for this trip?” questions.  It is extremely difficult to find a way to call the congregation into refocusing on the message.

So, with the pros and cons of all the options, which is best? That is something each congregation must decide on its own. We have just recently reevaluated where our announcements go in our church service at LRCC. We have been doing them during the offering while the baskets are being passed (I think this is a good idea), but it was right in the middle of services. We felt the resistance as we pulled them back into a song or two before the lesson.

We have now opted to put them near the end immediately following our prayer time. We have a “Altar Call/ Prayer” song as people respond to the message.  Both our Preaching minister and Involvement minister read through the prayer requests and we pray.  We immediately move into the announcements with our involvement minister. Some of our announcements are about the sick and prayer request related news, so we begin with those. This transition works seamlessly! Then we end with a closing song – one that is a charge to go and live out the message we just heard.

7) Don’t overuse music as transitions. With a cappella churches, we don’t have the luxury of having the key player or pianist play transition music behind everything or during prayers. We have to think creatively about these kind of things. I like the idea of using ooh’s (as we are this Sunday), but I do so with caution.

Two reasons:

a. You have to have a well-trained praise team to do this. I have seen some teams try this and end up overpowering the pray-er or fall apart on tempo. Some teams just aren’t comfortable singing anything but words – and that’s ok.

b. Like bread, it can get stale quickly. So, use it sparingly. Besides, part of the creative process is finding creative ways to make a worship time flow. Let’s not cheapen things by always using the same old ideas.

No matter how much you plan, the Spirit of God is the only One who makes it work. I’ve created and crafted what I thought was the ideal worship flow, only for it to be lackluster and rigid.  There have also been times when I thought: “This Sunday isn’t going to be very good”, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Worship was vibrant and passionate – and it had nothing to do with my planning!

You must remember that the Spirit of God can work through your planning and creative energy.  If I’m reading 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 correctly, He gave that creative energy to you! But realize that He also can take what you feel is your weakest work and breathe life into it.  It is in those times that He is reminding us that we don’t control the Spirit. It isn’t about us – it is all about God! If you take nothing else from this blog, remember this last point as we plan, create, and build better worship flows!

The Art of Worship Flow

Sunday morning services are like telling a story. The “story” takes you on a journey through high points and low points. The plot twists and takes its hearers to unexpected places. A good storyteller can build excitement to set up a major plot point and knows when to add a bit of humor to relieve a tense moment. He or she can paint a scene so vividly that the hearers can actually see the story unfold in front if them. Have you ever been to a church service like that? You could close your eyes and stand alongside the main characters. You could walk around in the scene; drawing new insight as you discover new vantage points to observe the story. You respond to God as if you were that woman at the well or that lame man who realized he could walk again!

As Larry The Cucumber of VeggieTales fame exclaims, “I laughed, I cried. It moved me, Bob.”

Too often Sunday morning reads like a stale novel. It’s predictable. The characters are flat. There’s nothing compelling about it to make you want to turn to the next chapter to keep reading.

Have you ever been to a church service like that?

As a worship leader, it’s our job to put the pieces together to help tell a compelling story. Another way to say this is: it’s our job to create a good worship flow. We have a palate of words, songs, music, videos, readings, prayers, testimonies, the sermon, communion, etc. to work with. All these elements fit together to help clearly communicate the overall message and how we should respond.

You can tell when flow works, right? The hearers lean in and turn their heads a bit to catch every word. Like a sponge, they soak in every phrase sung or spoken. Worship becomes more intense; more personal. I want that kind of worship every Sunday, don’t you?  I’ll be honest, that kind of worship can only come from the work of the Spirit of God. However, I want to share some tips I’ve learned to help eliminate the distractions and allow God to move!

8 tips to create a better worship flow

1) Keep groups of songs in the same key. If you are doing a block of up tempo worship songs, keep them in the same key and sing them straight through. No stopping! You may need to rehearse this with the worship team to nail those transitions, but it is worth the extra effort!

2) Pay attention to tempo. It kills me to see some worship leaders lead fast song/ slow song/ fast song/ slow song. I feel like I am in the car with a new driver who is hitting the brakes every few feet! Are there times when an abrupt and dramatic change in tempo is necessary? Yes. But use those sparingly. If you need to move to a slow set of songs, I would suggest a good medium tempo song as a transition between the two. It just feels right. This can also be achieved with a prayer or a video. The same is true when moving from slow to fast.

3) Let the songs help tell the same story as the teaching time. It is powerful to respond in worship with the same type of language you just received in the message, so choose songs that reflect a similar theme. I realize that you can’t force every song in a service to work in this way. In fact, I would never suggest getting every song to match perfectly. But there does need to be consistency in the message. And if you are struggling to make it all fit together, I believe that straightforward worship songs are always an appropriate choice.

4) Eliminate awkward silences. Unless the silence is intended for personal reflection time, do your best to avoid them. It is easy for people to disengage when these moments occur. Our postmodern brains usually jump to one conclusion: what has gone wrong? One of the worst offenses is this scenario: The last note is sung just before the scripture reading. Then, a few moments of silence. A figure from the back pew arises and begins to move to the closest aisle. Hundreds of eyes are now glued to the person as he or she is casually walks to the stage- ALL IN SILENCE. Do what you can do steer clear of this one.

This is a two parter. Stay tuned for tips 5-8!

Nurture Your Creativity

As a creative type person, I naturally find ways to flex my creative muscles in ministry. But, like all jobs, there are weeks in my church schedule when the phone calls, spreadsheets, and administrative elements of work can just take over! It can bog me down; make my creative muscles atrophy if I’m not using them regularly. It is precisely at these times when I need to read this post.

As an artist, musician, designer, writer, you must NURTURE whatever sparks your creativity.  This is vital to keeping your thoughts and ideas fresh. I “attended” (via webcast) the songwriting conference called Song Discovery in the Round last week.  Joel Lindsey’s presentation really got me thinking about some big questions. What puts me in a creative mood?  What really inspires me?

Of all the thoughts and advice he gave, this list of things jumped out at me.  I want to share what I wrote down and received from his talk.

In order to nurture your creativity you need to do 7 things:

1)    You need time to do nothing. You need to pencil in or put on the schedule time to do absolutely NOTHING!  Joel suggests planning a weekend retreat for yourself. No family, no adventures, no cell phones, no internet – just time to think and write. You must find a space to completely unplug.  Get all the world and stress out of your life. He challenged all those who are rolling their eyes at this idea that if getting better at your craft is that important to you, then you CAN’T NOT do this.  Even if you can only block out an entire day – you must get to a space to do nothing.

2)    Pick a place that inspires you. Is it being near water?  Go there.  Is it in the mountains?  Load up your jeep and go.  Maybe you have a quiet place at your church or a park. Maybe you have a room at home that is filled with art and photos of things that spark your creativity. Spend some time looking at those things that stir up passion and ideas in your soul.

3)    Eliminate stress. It seems to be implied from the first two points, but you must get rid of everything that causes you stress.  Does driving stress you out?  Then don’t do it. Hole up somewhere and don’t leave.  If you have to go, then bike!

4)    Read. This point can’t be emphasized enough! “If you are a writer, then you have to be a reader!” (my loose paraphrase of Stephen King). There are words on a page that spark creativity in all kinds of directions in your mind. Keep a notebook, pen, or highlighter with you whenever you read. This can work for movies and music too! You ever tried keeping a notebook and jotting idea in a movie theater?  Try it!

5)    Write. Doesn’t matter what you write at first. It could be in your journal, a letter, or even forced writing.  It may be that all you write down on a page is… “I can’t think of anything to write, so I’m writing these words down until something happens, etc…” It is a discipline like this that helps you break through writer’s block. It stretches those creative muscles that may be a bit weak. You may find that it takes some time before the water begins to trickle, run, and then pour out of you!

6)    Conversation. Every person’s story is a song idea or picture or painting just waiting to happen. Spend lots of time listening to people’s stories and sharing your own. You might be surprised that God works through these moments to give you a special gift!

7)    Surround yourself with what inspires you. Buy and hang art in your office and home, hang photographs whether you bought them or took them yourself.  Surround yourself with things that help you get in a creative place.  Spend time looking at them, drinking them in. Your surroundings will either encourage your creativity or take it away.

Remember, your creativity is not a light switch! It’s not something you can just turn on and off whenever you need it. You must warm up like you are getting ready to run. You must stretch those muscles in order to leap into a creative space. You must give yourself the time to get there. And these disciplines are a great way to engage your creativity and “prime the pump”.

Being Refilled

This last week has been pretty quiet on the blog, primarily because I have been spending time at two different conferences.  Both conferences couldn’t be more different in theme and content!  The first was called Streaming Conference: Biblical Conversations from the Missional Frontier at Rochester College in MI. It was a smaller conference (only about 130 people), but we sat at the feet of amazing theologians and listened to their perspectives and wisdom.  Scot McKnight, Miroslav Volf, Katie Hays, and Doug Pagitt spent 3 days pouring the truth of the book of James in a missional context into ministers and pastors from all over the midwest.  If you haven’t heard of this conference, make plans to attend next year!

The second is a songwriter’s conference in Nashville, TN. It’s called SongDiscovery in the Round. I didn’t have the time to travel down this week, so I paid for an Online Pass and have been watching the main sessions  from my computer. I’ve been filled from presentations from songwriters and musicians such as Charlie Peacock, Joel Lindsey, and Keith Getty. They have stirred my creative juices and inspired me to become a better songwriter.

As church leaders and worship leaders, we do our share of “pouring out”  every week.  I can’t stress enough that we need to take time out of our schedules to refill our own cups. I know too many ministers who feel that they can’t leave their congregations to their own devices on a Sunday. Things may fall apart!  We can be control freaks at times, and it is in these times we remember that God is in control of his church.  It is a great discipline to regularly “unplug”, get out of town, and spend some time being refilled.

How do you get refilled spiritually?  What works best for you?