Beat it!

One of the biggest challenges in leading church worship is how to get the drummer to fit with the rest of the band in presenting songs.

Of course a rock-style or pop-style song is pretty easy, if it's in 4/4 or 3/4. A 6/8 folky number like Getty/Townend's You're the Word of God the Father is also pretty simple to land.

But what about hymns? Always a challenge to find the right way for the drummer to play along for the hymns. The songs have funny beats, the timing is never even, we keep stopping after each verse. How does the drummer make a meaningful contribution to songs like O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing, or There Is A Fountain?

I think there are 3 points to keep in mind

1. Don't feel that you have to play all the time, or that the beat depends on you. These songs tend to be more melody-driven than the rhythm-driven stuff we're used to playing.
2. Keep it authentic. These songs are written with beautiful music, but from a particular musical palette. Learn to play them like that, instead of trying to force them into the rock/pop mould (or worse, the Funk/Disco mould).
3. Learn to use your drums and cymbals to add colour and texture to songs. An almost 'orchestral' style of playing suits hymns much better. Think in little isolated phrases that place emphasis on certain words, or help to move the song between different levels of energy. If you want to get schooled in this style of playing, listen to Matt Sorum's expert touch on Guns N' Roses November Rain, especially the first few verses before the solo section.

Above all, play musically. Your drum kit is not a drum machine, it's a musical instrument, with limitless possibilities for musical expression. Learn what sounds it is capable of making, and use those for God's glory and to serve the community of God's people you find yourself in.

Electric Guitarists, you have my ears...

Dear Electric Guitarists

If you were to attend a Saturday morning seminar on using the electric guitar in a worship ministry team context,

• what kind of stuff would you like to learn about?
• what kind of stuff would you like to do during the course of the seminar?
• what kind of guitar-related gear would you like to be able to buy, if there was a concession stand from a local retailer?

Share your thoughts with me, and then watch this space...

Cheap Love Songs

Here's a very interesting reflection on the kind of praise songs we sing at church.

http://theresurgence.com/2008/12/10/many-songs-about-gods-love-are-cheap

Squirrel!

A funny thing happened to me the other day whilst I was serving in the music ministry team at church. A lady fainted in the back row during the third song.

Of course, this wasn't funny for her, and huge props must go to her husband who caught her. I'm glad to report that she is okay.

The funny thing was me. This all happened whilst I was leading a song, and what surprised me was how easily I managed to disengage my brain from what I was doing and turn my attention to the mild chaos in the back row. I still carried on singing the song and playing the right chords, but my mind was elsewhere. The people closer to the front may not have even noticed.

This led me to consider two things. As musicians serving in a church, I think it is good to cultivate a certain 'multitaskability', because things are going to happen around us that might throw us off. But for the sake of serving, being able to be aware of what is going on around you in the service and being able to carry on with your ministry is a very good skill to cultivate.

On the other hand, how easily are we distracted when we've been doing this for a long time? Have we gotten to the stage where we know the songs, with the words and the music so well, that it's like hitting 'play' on CD player? Do our hands and voices do their thing whilst we look around, watching the weather outside, look at who's in church today? If we're very good, we might even be able to do this without our faces even giving it away. Of course, you need a very convincing 'worship face' for that!

To serve well in this ministry, we need to engage with the songs we sing first. Once we have engaged, we can lead others and encourage them to engage with them. Our time of singing in church is a special time of praise to God our Father, who has gloriously saved us by his Son Jesus Christ. Let's make it that and try to shut out the distractions.

Worship Leader Magazine - Your Comments Please!

Commercialisation or helpful resource for gospel-centred ministry? Real church, or glossy-paged, celebrity-worshipping quasi-Christian subculture?

Have a read of a free edition http://blog.worshiptogether.com/worshiptogether/2010/10/free-septoct-issue-of-worship-musician-magazine.html

...and have your say here!

Leading Songs

Too easily our song leading in church can become mechanical. The service leader announces the next song, the musicians play the intro, the singing starts the singing ends, and then the service moves on. Box ticked.

Here are a few principles to think about as we lead songs.

• Because we worship in song in response to God's revelation of himself in his Word, the leader should 'lead' the gathered church into the song from God's Word.
• The musical introduction should be part of the journey, setting the appropriate feel and atmosphere, as well as leading into the song musically. Think about the length, musical complexity, and instruments involved in order to do this.
• Mean the words we sing! Communicate this to the gathered church in our facial expressions and body language as we lead.
• Grasp the opportunity provided by musical interludes in songs to reflect on what you're singing, and enjoy praising God.
• Lead out of the song appropriately. Ensure that you put it down gently, and don't drop it! Note that you can even drop an uptempo rocker - you need to bring it to good end in order to move on in the flow of the service.
• After the song, leave space to breathe before moving on in the service.
• Perhaps it is appropriate to pray to God about something the song has raised.

These ideas all serve to ensure that the main thing is kept the main thing - God's people gathered to hear God speak and to worship him together. A good exercise if you are a muso or a service leader is to grab a song from your reportoire and go through these points with that song and see what you come up with. It might change the way you approach your church service!

Good songs and where to find them

It is often very difficult to find good new songs to sing in church. For one, we often don't have the time to trawl the internet for stuff, or buying CD's is costly.

Here are a few good songs that I have found in the last year:

Strength Will Rise (Everlasting God)

This is a driving anthem of a worship song. Written by Brenton Brown (yay for South Africa) and Ken Riley (YFriday) in 2005, it draws heavily on the words of Isaiah 40, reminding us of God's faithfulness and the need for us to trust him completely. A very easy song to play, and there's a nice little riff for your guitarist to learn (just remember the capo on 3). Don't rush it, but keep it driving.

Where to find it:

Songs of Fellowship 4, Kingswayshop.com

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

The best rearranged version of the old John Newton classic that I have heard. (Better even, than singing it to The Lion Sleeps Tonight - ;)) Written by Chris Tomlin and Louis Giglio in 2006 for the movie Amazing Grace. I've had to rewrite it from Gmaj to Emaj to make it more singable. Remember to beat in 4's and not in 3's (like the trad. version), and watch the unusual flow (V1, V2, C, V3, C, V4, rpt last line) and you're there.

Where to find it:

Songs of Fellowship 4, Kingswayshop.com

O Christ Be The Centre

A very repeatable, simple song with three distinct parts. Great to encourage reflection on and commitment to the centrality of Christ in the universe and in our lives. Draws heavily from Colossians 1, and could be just the theme song for your sermon series on Colossians. Written by Charlie Hall and Matt Redman in 2006.

Where to find it:

Songs of Fellowship 4, Kingswayshop.com

God In My Living

Written by Tim Hughes in 2006, this song can seem a bit shallow and repetitive, but I have found that it is a very accessible and thought provoking song for congregations of real people. Like O Christ... it is also inspired by Colossians 1.

Where to find it:

Songs of Fellowship 4, Kingswayshop.com

I Hear the Saviour Say (Jesus Paid It All)

Another classic hymn rearranged. Written by Elvina Hall and John Grape around 1865 (read the story here). Beautiful lyrics about the helplessness of our sinful state and the complete salvation we have in Christ. Various versions have been done by Kristian Stanfill and Aaron Keyes.

Where to find it:

PraiseCharts.com (Stanfill version), Kingswayshop.com (Keyes version)

Behold the Lamb

Another cracker from Getty, Getty and Townend. This is the best communion hymn since Break Thou The Bread of Life. A bit tricky, but don't rush it and you'll be fine.

Where to find it:

Songs of Fellowship 4, Kingswayshop.com

Servant of God Most High

This one's free! Simon Pedley has written some great songs, and this is one of them. As he says: "Isaiah 53 is the culmination of several other 'servant songs', and I wanted to draw in some of the earlier material from chapters 42 and 49, to make the whole song a cry of praise addressed to Jesus." Fairly upbeat and easy to play.

Where to find it:

Songsfortoday.com

You may notice that I have a preference for Kingsway and Songs of Fellowship 4. They are by far the most useful resources I have found for quality music, singable tunes and theologically correct songs. SoF 4is a particularly good songbook, and if you shop around you may be able to pick up a copy on the January sales.

If you choose to use any of the above songs, please abide by copyright laws by buying a copy of either the songbook it comes from, or by buying a downloadable copy of the music. Your church must also have a valid CCLI License in order to copy the music for your musicians, project or print the words, and sing the song in your church services. Please also include the authors' names with any reproductions of songs or lyrics.

Hymns and Things

What is the mix of songs that your church sings? Do you sing hymns? Modern praise songs? 70's and 80's choruses? Mix of everything? What are your preferences?

When it comes to singing in church, we must always remember what we're doing. We are responding musically to God's revelation of himself in his word. As God speaks to us, and as we know him more, we sing his praises and declare his greatness.

This immediately puts a slant on what we're doing when we sing. We're not a chart show, where we have to keep up with the latest tunes. Neither are we a music museum, where we carefully maintain and preserve historic church music. Nor are we an appreciation group, who holds tightly to a certain era of Christian music because that is what we like.

John Frame very helpfully in his book Worship in Spirit and Truth speaks of peoples' "language of worship". What this means is that in the many and varied people that make up the church, there are found different expressions of sincere worship. For some, the latest Tomlin stuff might be the best way for them to worship God. For others, it was the classic hymns that they learnt as children. And Frame counsels us to be sensitive to this.

After all, God's people are many and varied. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2v19: "So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God."

The solution, then, is to sing everything. Don't create unnecessary categories in your worship. Our faith has a history, which makes older songs relevant, and God is active in the present, which makes modern songs relevant. There is no need to have one category at the expense of the other.

Of course, the difficulties present in this approach are twofold:

1. Though may need to be put into the arrangement of songs in order to make them accessible to a diverse congregation. This may mean playing the hymns in a traditional way, on the piano or organ, and slowing down to a stop after each verse. Or it may mean driving those hymns with a drum-beat and single chords for each bar, while keeping the same recognisable melody and traditional words. Perhaps more modern songs need to be played simpler to make them accessible, or they need to be rocked out. Know the people you're ministering to.
2. Love. This is probably the hardest thing to achieve when ministering to a diverse group of people. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4: "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." We need to love each other, humbly, gently and patiently. We have been joined by God's Spirit, in peace. If you are a musican, serve humbly by playing what is needed, and doing it well, rather than what you like. If you are in the pew and you don't like the songs being played, learn to love those for whom this is their sincere worship of God, and perhaps learn to worship with them, as you expect them to worship with you in the songs that mean something to you.

Jesus has loved us with an immeasurable, unending love. If we have been loved like that, how we can we not show love to those around us? It is a miracle that Jesus loves so many different people. In fact, it is a miracle that Jesus loves you.

Prepping for Worship

Hey there! 

Here's a question: How do you prep for worship on a Sunday?

What about

1. Rehearse songs so everyone is comfortably confident with them
   
2. Tune your guitar!
   
3. Warm up your voice!
   
4. Sound check
   
5. Check with the pastor or service leader that you both know what the other is up to.
   

Obviously those things are all important. But what about what's on the inside? How do you prepare the heart for worship?

Here's my 'Puritan plug' again. These guys were amazing at stripping their faith back to the bare bones and working hard at the simple things - like praying, reading the Bible, and living for God's glory. George Swinnock (1627 - November 10, 1673), was a minister who was ejected from his pulpit for preaching the gospel.  He was one of many who saw the value of spending Saturday night in prayer, Bible reading and examining oneself, and meditating on God's Word in order to prepare the heart for worship the following day. Consider this quote:

"The oven of thine heart thus baked in, as it were, overnight, would be easily heated the next morning; the fire so well raked up when thou wentest to bed, would be sooner kindled when thou shouldst rise. If thou wouldst leave thy heart with God on the Saturday night, thou shouldst find it with him in the Lord's Day morning."

Remember those things I mentioned earlier? How quickly can those things occupy our attention before a church service? When we meet together as a body of believers to hear our God speak and to respond to him, how can we do that if our minds are elsewhere, or only hanging onto the immediate by a thread, ready to be snatched away when some other pressing thought pops up?

I know for myself, that Saturday night is often spent chilling out, or having a good time with friends, then going to bed late. Then I get up early (begrudgingly, because I'm tired), hop into the car and get annoyed with other road users, then stress about the things that need to happen for the church service to run smoothly. I often haven't prayed, or read my Bible, or even stopped to just take stock of why I'm there and what I'm doing.

Just imagine the difference between a church gathering where everyone arrives as I often do, and one where everyone has spent time out with God preparing their hearts for meeting with God's people and responding to His Word. I'm sure the difference would be remarkable, to God's glory.

Why not try this: this Saturday night, ensure that everything that needs to get done is done, then take some time out to sit quietly on your own. Pray to God, thanking him for his blessings, confessing your sins, asking for his help and guidance. Read your Bible, perhaps even the passage that is going to be preached on the next day if you know what it is. Spend some time reflecting on what the passage tells you about God, about Christ and about yourself and others. Reflect on your own life, identifying areas that need God to work on, and recognising your dependence upon God. Pray again, for the gathering the next day, for those who will hear the word, for your interaction with them, and for your response to the Word. If you have someone to talk to, perhaps talk about what you have read and prayed over and what you have examined in your life. 

This is perhaps obeying Jesus' command in Matthew 22v37:

³⁷And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

How can we love God with our whole being unless we work at it? And how can we worship God if our mind or heart or soul are elsewhere on a Sunday?

Church - A Conversation with God?

We live in a fast-paced world, where real communication has been twisted so we no longer really understand it. I had a look recently at the Twitter phenomenon, and thought it was the craziest idea! The video said that Twitter helped you communicate in the space between emails and blogs.

But is this really communicating? It seems more like we all end up knowing a lot about people and them about us, but never really engaging with other humanoids, and our concept of what communication really is ends up blurred.

This isn't a Twitter-bashing session. If you use it and it helps you, great! But what if a distorted perception of communication crept into our churches?

What if as we went to church, we listened to the Bible being read and preached a bit like reading Facebook updates? What if as we prayed and sang, we did it as though we were tweeting on Twitter? What if we confessed our sins a bit like a blog, and then heard a word of encouragement from Scripture a bit like an RSS feed?

What would happen is that a chasm would exist between God and ourselves. God's people would be reduced to anonymous, casual passers-by. And God to us would become impersonal and small. Even the Word of God would become a thought for the day, reduced to whatever hot topic is up for discussion, and would get old in a few hours.

As A.W. Tozer would say, "No! No! No!". This is not what church is. When we come together as a body of believers, God meets with us. He dwells in our hearts by his Spirit. He knows us inside out, better than we know ourselves. And he chooses to reveal himself to us, by his Word and in the form of his Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

In an age of casual communication, where even a phonecall takes effort, this might well be the most real relationship we could ever have - being known completely as God makes himself known to us.

This should inform our understanding of why we're at church. What if we went to church as though we were taking time out to meet up with a special friend and have a conversation? We shut out everything else and prioritise that time, without rushing, and with an aim to give ourselves as we are given to, transparently, without our own agenda.

We would hear God speak and would listen patiently. We would respond in prayer and song and in the way we live our lives. And we would build strong relationships both with our Father and our brothers and sisters. It would be a two-way conversation built on firm foundations, and all the time it would be developing and growing. But note that this is a corporate relationship that is growing - us and our Lord, not me and God - there are no solo Christians.

John Owen was an English pastor in the 17th century, a Puritan who rebelled against the Anglican church to seek to strengthen himself and others in simple faith in our Lord Jesus. He knew only knew communication face to face or in a letter, but he wrote these words:

"What do men come to hear the Word of God for? What do they pray for? What do they expect to receive from him? Do they come unto God as the fountain of living waters? As the God of all grace, peace and consolation? Or do they come unto his worship without any design as unto a dry and empty show?...Or do they think they bring something unto God, but receive nothing from him? To receive anything from him they expect not, nor do ever examine themselves whether they have done so or no?...From hence springs all that luke-warmness, coldness, and indifferancy unto the duties of holy worship, that are growing among us."

Do you aim to have a conversation with God when you go to church?

The Essential Worship Chillout Collection

I thought it would be wise to do some research on the albums I refer to in the previous post. Theses albums are on sale through Kingswaysongs.com. Kingsway do a great job of distributing and selling all sorts of fantastic Christian resources, and I would be quite at a loss without them in ministry. So the problem's not with Kingsway.

If you click here, you will go the page for the Essential Worship Chillout Collection. It was as I suspected. The blurb is as follows

"Our lives are filled with speed and pace, work pressures and family responsibilities, motorway journeys and diary essentials. Finding space to renew, revitalise and relax can seem elusive. We all need to learn to 'chillout', a state of being that has become a new musical style characterised by mellow, atmospheric arrangements with laid back beats and cool grooves."

Listen to the sound samples and tell me what you think. Especially interesting are Here I Am To Worship (Faithless meets Matt Redman, anyone?), and Jesus, Lover of My Soul (I hope heaven is an island paradise!).

Chillout Worship? Do you want fries with that?

This morning in my inbox I received an email about two "chillout worship" albums on sale. Now this got me thinking, "Why on earth do we need to chill out whilst we worship?

This actually follows on from a previous email I received about worship albums that are designed for runners and walkers - the songs are selected and/or remixed to match the approximate tempo of a walking or running cadence so you can stick it on your iPod and 'worship whilst you walk' - you'll never miss a step!

It's great for us to use music to encourage us spiritually in our everyday lives. God's gift of music allows us to call to mind spiritual truths and express ourselves emotionally as we respond to God in worship.

But I believe that there are two fundamental problems with the market for these types of CD's: firstly, it is a symptom of a consumer based culture amongst Christians, and secondly, it is a symptom of faith which holds music as the primary expression of worship. (Perhaps a third issue could be the money that we waste on such things, and even a fourth issue could be the Christian subculture created by such things, but those are perhaps for another post). Both of these are evidence that we have our Christian faith upside-down and inside-out.

In Ezekiel 36 (click here to read it, it's great!), God says to Ezekiel that he is going to deliver Israel from exile and renew and restore their faith and obedience to Him in spite of them and their inability to give him the worship and honour He commands. His reason for this is that 

he wants to glorify His name, and rightly so, because He is God. We must never, ever buy into the myth of the song, "He took the fall and thought of me above all." God's concern is for His holy name, and he shows that by saving people who cannot save themselves. Jesus went to the cross for God's glory, not for our happiness.

Firstly, we must be very careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that 'my Christianity revolves around me'. We should run screaming from anything that supposes to allow us to 'worship' whilst we go on serving ourselves as we chill out or exercise. Let me not be misunderstood, it is great to keep our minds focused on God and the truth of his Word at all times, and to continually praise God (Heb 13v15) - this is the Christian life; but that shouldn't ever fit around other things, other things should fit around our lives of worship.

Secondly, music is not the primary mode of worship. If I could worship God by having 'worship music' on my iPod 24/7 then I'd do it, because it's really easy. Biblical worship is hard. It's hearing God speak through His Word, and then responding appropriately. When God says, "Love one-another" our worship is to put those around us first and put ourselves to one side, with no promise of any return, but only for God's glory. But that has lasting value. It is building with costly materials that won't burn up (1 Cor 3v11-13) when it is tested. I have feeling that a 3min praise tune with the drum-loop at 132bpm will go 'woof' like a can of gasoline.

Listen to Christian music. Do whatever it takes to focus your mind on our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Worship God by respond seriously to His Word. Just don't think it's all about you, 'kay?