WORSHIP. PERIOD.

“Obscurity gives life to exponentially more creativity than popularity does. Don’t fight being ignored. Treat it as a lab” – Jon Acuff (Stuff Christians Like)

30 years ago this week a Canadian hero started his famous run across Canada in support of Cancer research. Thing is, Terry Fox wasn’t a Canadian hero when he started his run.

If you look at some of the old footage and see how little attention and focus Terry’s “Marathon of Hope” was garnering on day one, it almost seems ridiculous given what we know now. Something like 4000+ miles from Newfoundland to Thunder Bay, Ontario and half a billion dollars raised (as part of the annual Terry Fox Runs) later, he’s a household name and a frequent statue. But he didn’t start with any of that, he started with a worthy cause and a truck-load of passion. He was committed to his cause and it didn’t matter who did or didn’t believe and who was or wasn’t watching, he was going to do it. His passion and determination eventually drew the attention we all see today.

This is a reminder some of us worship leaders need from time to time. Ok, maybe it’s just me. I’m going to continue anyway. Sometimes the temperature of the modern worship movement today can make widespread recognition an appealing prospect. Record deals, worship conferences and concerts…it seems like success can be measured by acclaim.

Don’t fall for it. Keep Reading.

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So what are you Easter plans for worship? If you don’t know by now, ya might be in trouble…

This is usually a busy time for worship-types and I just wanted to throw one little thought/reminder in there amid the chaos. Just something I’ve been thinking about as our Good Friday service approaches.

I’m sure many of you have Good Friday services ahead of you, and I wanted to encourage us to make sure our path to the empty tomb (Sunday) goes through the Cross. I know we know the end of the story and the Cross is not the end and we need to rejoice in the resurrection, yeah I get it. That being said I think we need to stop and pay our respects, so to speak, at the foot of the Cross as part of our Easter celebration.

Remember: The joy, celebration and gratitude inspired by the Risen Christ is informed by an understanding of what He gave up and went through to get there. The physical agony….and, as I’m focusing on in my preparation these days, the agony of separation from the Father.

I don’t think it’s a mistake that the sacrifice made by the Godhead involved a Father giving His Son rather than His own life, as it were. I think that image drives home the agony for us as we consider how much easier it would be for us to give our own lives instead of that of our own child. Anyone with a son or a father can slip on those shoes and imagine the cost, I think.

So, as you take the journey and see the sights this Easter, have your people stop at the Cross on this year’s tour. Maybe leave the “and now I am happy all the day”s for Sunday…instead, stop and acknowledge the agony of that God-forsaken Cross…and how do we respond in worship? We look at the characteristic of God that drove Him to do it – His love for us. Acknowledge His sacrifice and enjoy His love in gratitude.

That’ll make Friday Good.

Oh, how He loves you and me,
Oh, how He loves you and me.
He gave His life, what more could He give;
Oh, how He loves you, Oh, how He loves me,
Oh, how He loves you and me.

Jesus to Calv’ry did go,
His love for mankind to show.
What He did there brought hope from despair.
Oh, how He loves you, Oh, how He loves me,
Oh how He loves you and me.

Oh, how He loves you and me,
Oh, how He loves you and me.
He gave His life, what more could He give;
Oh, how He loves you, Oh, how He loves me,
Oh, how He loves you and me.

We’re creative beings as humans.  Afterall, we’re patterned after The Ultimate Creator.  You don’t have to look or listen very far to find examples.  Heck, you should see the systems I come up with to carry laundry downstairs and avoid 2 trips.  Laziness is the mother of creativity, or something like that.

That being said, sometimes we hit a creative wall.  I’m sure you’ve been there.  You sit there with your guitar and all that comes out is  G – D/F# – Em – C  over and over…you keep rhyming “tree”, “me” and “thee” repeatedly until they don’t sound like words anymore…or maybe after “Lost”, “Heroes” and “Grace Anatomy”, you’ve run out of TV shows to rip off for your sermon series branding.  Happens to the best of us.

So what do you do to reignite some creativity?  One humble suggestion I would make is to change your perspective.  We tend to get into ruts and routines that slowly build fences around our creative ability.  For example, my fingers are usually in the shape of a G chord before I even get a hold of the neck – it’s just kind of my default.  Like I alluded to earlier, we tend to fall into patterns that we know, or even more so, rules that we’ve agreed to.  If I start on a G, well the next chords have to either a C, D, Am7, Em, etc.  That’s just how it is.  I’m not saying free yourself by casting off all musical theory and become a improv jazz player or anything.  Just try something to make yourself look at your instrument or creative situation/challenge from a different perspective.  Maybe it means fooling around on an instrument you don’t know how to play.  Chances are you’ll see it in a way that others who are trained on it don’t.  You won’t be stuck with preconceived assumptions of how to use the instrument – you’ll be driven by results…how does it sound?

I’ve got a couple examples of people who look at common things a bit differently.  First up:  Bobby McFerrin.  Remember “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”?  Well, if that’s you’re only experience with this dude, you’re missing out.  Let’s just say when Bobby thinks about singing and the human voice, he thinks about it with an entirely different set of assumptions and rules than I do.  Exhibit A – Check this out (this is all one dude, one voice, one mic, live):

Pretty cool, right?  Something tells me when he started his journey musically, he didn’t think about his voice with the same fences that most of us do.  Sure it likely took decades of trial and error and relentless practice on some counts, but the point is he was willing to try stuff and most importantly must’ve been ok with looking stupid while he experimented.  How often do you let yourself go and risk the ridiculous in your creative process?

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I recently read a great article I wanted to pass along written by Paul Baloche. It appeared in Integrity’s “Digital Update” magazine that arrives in my inbox from time to time. After reading the article I went and sought out permission to share it with readers here at Worship Period because I thought it was right down the pipe for a lot of the discussions here.

So, check the article out here, and enjoy!

- Jeff

P.S. Thanks to Matt at Integrity for allowing us to share this.

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(Just don’t use it while driving, we don’t want Oprah coming after us.)

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(Or search on your phone’s app store for “W.P.”)

If you’re a guy worship leader, especially of the tenor variety, you’ve likely been complained to about the key of songs and how unreasonable they are for the ladies in the room. If I had my way, I’d do everything in the Tomlin-esque range – the higher end suits my voice. However, as leaders we’re servants first and there has to be some kind of balance struck, right?

I try to keep things as reasonable as I can, key-wise. I try. I also try to defer some songs to one of our strong female singers and give them the melody for a particular song on occasion. There are some great tools out there for helping you transpose chord charts if that’s not your strong suit. I’ll be talking about some of those resources as part of an upcoming post on planning tools.

In the meantime, I thought I’d use this topic to point you toward a resource that speaks directly to it. Worship artist Vicky Beeching has started an online community called The Women in Worship Network, geared towards…well, women in worship. (Well said, Jeff) The site features interviews with other prominent female worship leaders and other pertinent resources.

As an example, check out this post where Vicky talks about options for transposing songs into female-friendly keys. Hope it’s helpful.

- Jeff

I’m sitting in my office, at a desk which I’ve recently moved to the other side of the room.  Funny thing is, this is about where it was when I first moved into this office.  If you’re like me, sometimes you just need a change of scenery.  Every once in a while don’t you just need to do some rearranging?

Well, that’s kind of a weak way to introduce an idea but I needed a way to get the word “rearranging” in there somehow.  Thanks for continuing to read.

Recently when I was preparing an upcoming service, I was going over some song choices.  I found myself thematically drawn towards a certain song that was a great fit lyrically with where we were going.  My first reaction was to dismiss it because of where it would be located in the flow of the service.  “I can’t use that one, it’s a “fast” song and I need something more reflective here.”

Needless to say, I caught myself and gave my head a shake.

Sometimes I think we get bound by an arrangement of a song as we first heard it or learned it.  Or maybe it’s how the song appears on an album.  Whatever it is, how often do you revisit a song’s arrangement with “no holds barred”, so to speak?

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Here’s an interesting Podcast/Sermon/Talk/Whatever I recently listened to by Rob Bell and Troy Hatfield.  They’re discussing something specific about worship – that being the question of “why we sing?”.

Ever thought about that?  Why music, God?  I have.

It’s definitely an interesting and thought-provoking listen with some profound “aha” moments.  I feel like there was an element (or maybe an entire side of a coin) that was left out of the discussion, but I guess you can’t do it all in one talk.  I’ll let you listen and see if you notice the same thing.  Feel free to hit up the comments here and discuss your thoughts about it.

Here’s the link.

- Jeff

Hello readers (and listeners, for people who use that text reader function thingie). I’ve got an article to share with you from my buddy Jamie Cambers. Jamie is a fantastical practitioner of the electric guitar machine (and I don’t just say that cuz he’s been stage-left of me in JSB for many moons). He put together some thoughts on gear for you burgeoning axe-masters out there. I’m going to break them down into a couple of chunks and share them with you over the next little while. First up are some general thoughts and some talk about choosing a guitar (seems like a good place to start). – Jeff

FROM JAMIE: When I went to youth retreats or conferences when I was a youth, I wasn’t very interested in worship. Actually, let me rephrase that. I was interested in music as worship, but not worshiping. In fact, I was always far more interested in what gear the guitar players were using and watching contently on how they were using their instruments. After a service, I would often find myself at the front of the stage to get a closer look at a guitar players’ pedal board to see what they were using. Now, about 10 years later, I find myself on the other end of the spectrum. People often ask me what is on my pedal board, how I get my tone, or what I recommend using for certain sounds or effects. Some of those questions inspired me to share via this blog. Hope it helps in some way.

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There might be no more common link among music and worship folks in churches than a shared frustration and struggle with audio and all things technical. It seems like a pretty common refrain for a lot of us. Whether it’s a shortage of manpower, a shortage of proper gear or a shortage of technical ability and talent, many churches walk with a limp when it comes to sound issues.

Our lead tech is an professional front of house tech with a local production company vocationally, and we’re very fortunate to have him volunteer his time and expertise to the church. That being said, we still face plenty of challenges trying to mix a band in a building that was never designed for it while using whatever gear that a modest church budget can afford (I hope to have Evan, our tech, share some tips and suggestions with Worship Period very soon). Sometimes the sound desk can attract frustrated musicians with a chip on their shoulder, or technically-minded folks with little to no ear for music side of things. Well, at least that’s what the musicians always say…

Sound issues tend to be a bit touchy, and are often misunderstood and even trivialized by those not directly involved. It might seem like a contextually trivial thing. Sure, it may be a tough pill to swallow, the idea of spending a significant chunk of dough on something like sound gear, for a small church budget. But when you consider that part of the role of the worship leader is to manage distraction and minimize it, sound becomes an important piece of that puzzle. I don’t need to natter on in detail about all that, I just thought I’d share some context behind this post to get us started.

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