happy worship songs

have you ever noticed that many or most of our worship songs seem to be happy?  right from the beginning let me say i think that’s a great thing.  we should be coming before our lord and creator with praise and adulation, which certainly creates a happy, positive vibe.

however, have you ever read the psalms? there are laments and psalms questioning god and wondering when he will come through for them. 

-where are these things today?
-why are they not showing up in our worship services?
-are they just not popular?
-where are the songs of confession?
-are we scared?

i personally think this last question is the one that kind of sums it all up.  it seems as though we are probably scared of upsetting god.  we are scared of church attendance dwindling if we aren’t singing and playing the most uplifting of songs (yes, ouch, this one hurts to read). we are scared to wear our questions on our sleeve.  we are scared to show that we don’t have it all figured out.

we need to be allowed the freedom to wonder. to question. to be confused. to struggle. to live. to learn. to make mistakes. to wallow in the depths. to figure things out. to doubt. to not be sure.

not only do we need to be allowed to do these things, but i believe god wants us to.  how can we ever be cemented in our faith and christianity if we take it all at face value? 

and so to me, it only makes sense that our worship and our songs would reflect this aspect of the christian struggle.  but from where i sit, that is not happening.  i want to personally invite you to feel free to express the positives and negatives of the christian life.  if you are writing songs, don’t feel pressured to stick with the present day norm of making everything happy. allow your questions to show through in your songs.  if you are planning services, don’t feel forced to make all the prayers, sermons, dramas, scripture readings, etc happy either. 

let me conclude by saying that i love happy songs.  if you know me you know that i wear a happiness on my face just about every moment of every day.  and that smile comes from the joy of the lord.  but, know that i have my moments and days and weeks where i’m having questions and doubts myself.  in fact i’m working on a song with some friends right now called “now and then” that looks at both side of the coin.

the lyrics so far are:

now and then, i am over you
but that’s okay
cause i am over me too

now and then, i am plagued
with all this doubt
but you come, you come
and work it all out

now and then
i can’t see your face
in anything
so please forgive my unbelief

now and then,
i’m unsure of everything
but you come, you come
and cause my heart to sing

so there ya go.  that’s me on a day when it’s not all perfect and happy.

what are some of your thoughts? written any songs questioning god? what do you do when its not all perfect?

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, don’t be mean to red heads. they are people too. (my friend/roomie chad – he a redhead – told me that just today he was spat upon…i for one do not condone this).

unceasing worship

i have a quote for you to think on this week.  it’s one of those cute little inverted quotes where you switch the places of a couple of the words and it completely changes the meaning but is somehow still insanely profound.  i always wish i could come up with one of those.  but until i do, here is this one:

“it’s not that music and song should lead us into worship, but our worship should lead us into music and song.”

- from harold best’s “unceasing worship.”

*thanks to my friend Daniel Dabney for turning me onto this quote.  i have thought on it now for several weeks, and it rings very true.  it reveals the backwards nature of our view of what worship is. 

i have other thoughts on the quote but i want you to be able to have your own original thoughts about what this means for you in your worship or in your worship planning.

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, turn some lights off in your house. save some money.

fresh art for the church

here we find ourselves in a new year.  perhaps we could use some fresh thinking in the church.

in the church we have some of the most talented people the earth has to offer.  sadly so much of this seems to go untapped because a worship service only involves preaching and a few songs (and communion and scripture if we are lucky).  i firmly believe that the church is and should be about finding the most artistic and creative ways possible to express our love to our lord and savior.  since he has entrusted creativity and beauty to us we should use it to worship him.

here are some suggestions for possible artistic expressions we could be using in our worship services (and thankfully in some cases we already are!):

- drama (yes it’s already used to an extent. but how could we be more creative with it? integration into the sermon? acted out during songs?)
- painting
- dance
- creative bible/scripture reading
- hearing songs or scripture in different languages
- instrumental solos

these are just a few of many, many possibilities.  what can you think of? what do you do at your church? 

in so many ways, the church has allowed it’s creativity to operate inside of a small box.  perhaps we can reclaim that!

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, be thinking of what art form you can introduce to the church.

nobody’s singing (pt. 4) – the leader needs to lead

here we find ourselves less than a week away from christmas.  are things crazy in your world? i hope not and that your shopping is behind you.  i’m enjoying some time home in georgia with parents and soon the rest of my family.  the sad part is that that does not include my fiance maggie. 

today we explore the fourth (and final) installment of a series of investigating a problem plaguing many churches across the country.  i have personally seen and experienced this as well as heard about it from many other people.  the problem is that people plain and simple are not singing.  why is this?  well here are the first three installments:

part 1: bad keys
part 2: unknown songs
part 3: stick to the melody

today we explore the idea that the leader needs to lead in order for others to follow and sing.  here are some of the problems i have noticed.

1. lead worshipers (and bands) not worshiping themselves.  don’t hear me wrong.  i’m not saying that the worship leader should worship him or herself.  i’m rather saying that this person themself should be worshiping.  why would anyone in a congregation worship if the people they see on stage are not doing the same?  this scenario would feel…

2. …more like a concert.  worship leaders should not just be standing on stage singing.  this puts more emphasis on everything else around.  the lights and other things take center stage.  god is the one who should be taking center stage. 

3. i personally believe that a worship leader should be leading with eyes open.  it is fine and beautiful for a person to worship with their eyes closed.  however, i think a worship leader should be making eye contact with the people they are leading.  this opens yourself up to people and invites rather than the closed off feeling you receive from an eyes closed worship leader.

i don’t care if you are the best singer or the worst singer.  i don’t care if you can make a guitar paint a picture or don’t even know what one looks like.  these things make no difference.  at the end of the day, if you can find ways to get people to sing along and worship then you can be a worship leader.

i hope these investigations into why people aren’t singing have been helpful and insightful for you.  what things are happening at your churches to help people sing? if you are a worship leader, what is your experience with having people sing?  is it like pulling teeth or do people dive right in? 

what other issues would you like me to investigate?

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, invite an old friend to coffee and spend some time catching up.  encourage them in their life’s pursuits.

nobody’s singing (pt. 3) – stick to the melody

 all righty…here we find ourselves on a crazy sunday afternoon.  i traveled to lubbock, texas with my finace’s family to see her brother at his home.  it was 70 degrees.  by the time we got back to amarillo it was 30.  literally a 40 degree drop in a matter of 120 miles.  nuts.

anyway, this is the third part in a series of discussing ideas about why people don’t sing at church or other such settings.  if you would like to check out the first two parts you can read them here:
part 1 – bad keys
part 2 – people don\’t know the songs 

so here’s today’s installment.  the reason we will explore today is that people will often not sing because the worship leader is not staying with the melody well enough for the congregation to sing along. 

in my estimation there are a few reasons to this.

1. worship leaders think that since they have a really nice voice (or at least think they do) they need to showcase it and show it off. not true

2. worship leaders think it looks more worshipful to throw random new melodies in as though they are singing more spiritually or something. 

3. people are put off and think that the worship leader feels like the whole thing is a concert.

4. often times, worship leaders are merely trying to copy what they have heard on a recording where an artist has done some embellishment the second time through the verse or chorus or something.  this is a for a recording, and in no way needs to be mimicked in a corporate setting. 

okay here are my thoughts.  what people need from the worship or song leader is someone who can simply stay with the main melody of the song.  stick to the basic notes. sing what is intended to be sung so that the people trying to follow you can actually follow you.  that is what being a leader means: allowing the followers to follow.  the position is not called “worship soloist” so that’s what we don’t need.

that’s why you have other singers on stage with you.  they can sing beautiful harmonies.  they can embellish on the melody.  they can show off their pipes.  you as the worship leader need to be content to not be in the spotlight (even though you already are).  people already think you can sing well or you would not be on stage doing it.

again, you are called a “worship leader” not a “worship soloist.”  please i beg you, act like it.

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, take someone you don’t know very well out for coffee and get the skinny on their life.

nobody’s singing (pt. 2) – unknown songs

the is the second installment of a series of trying to figure out why people aren’t singing in our congregations.  in the first post we discussed that songs need to be sung in a good key in order to help everyone sing comfortably. 

today we will discuss the possiblity that people aren’t singing because they don’t know the songs very well.  some of the blame for this falls on both parties.  often times, people in the congregation don’t put in the effort to learn songs.  but the bigger onus is on us as worship leaders to do a better job teaching new songs. 

here are some contributing factors:

1. in the days of hymn books, you didn’t really have to know a song.  all you had to do was use the book and it took you through the melody and the words.  even if you weren’t good at singing off of sheet music you could at least tell if the next note was higher or lower than the one you just sang.  you even knew which syllables went where.  today most hymn books are collecting dust in a dark corner of the choir room.  the only help we typically have is the projected words. 

2. lack of intentionality.  it often seems like many worship leaders do not have a solid plan for introducing new material.  it is simply said, “here’s a new song for you” and the band is into it (and sometimes you don’t even get that short heads up).  later in this post we will examine some ways to improve our intentionality with introducing new songs. 

3. too many new songs.  another problem is that worship ministers might just be trying to pull in too many new songs too quickly.  you don’t want to be singing the same songs every week; but by the same token you don’t want to be teaching a new song every week.  you don’t want so many songs coming at the congregation that even the best musical memories can’t keep up. 

so how can we overcome some of these problems? here are some helpful thoughts:

-have a plan when you introduce a new song.  maybe sing it two weeks in a row, take a week off from it, and then do it again the fourth week.  by then, it should be ingrained enough to be put into the regular rotation.
-be creative with how you introduce new songs.  maybe have someone sing it as special music.  put it in your playlist for pre- and post-service music.  have someone play it instrumentally during communion.
-attack the senses.  human brains attach memory to sensory things.  maybe play a video with the new song as the background music.  be creative with this.
-if you are not a worship leader, but someone in the congregation: i encourage you to give new songs a chance.  don’t immediately tune something out because you don’t like the intro or the first couple lines.  it might take hearing a song 2 or 3 times all the way through before you realize its greatness.  as part of the congregation, help the worship leader out and make an effort.
-perhaps the first time or two you sing a new song you could include sheet music in the bulletin so people will be able to follow along with the melody….
-and on that note…are hymn books so bad? why is no one coming out with hymn books of all the newer songs being done?  maybe the name “hymn book” has a bad connotation.  what if we retitled it “song book” or “worship song book” and filled it with new songs?  maybe you could make a “song book” for your congregation.  this would go a long way!

these are just a few thoughts and suggestions on how to try to cure them. 

what are you doing in your church to address these problems? what are some other reasons that no one is singing that i can discuss in the coming posts?

thanks for checkin in.

until next time, go find a quiet place with no one around. turn on your favorite song, and belt it out at the top of your lungs.

nobody’s singing (pt. 1) – bad keys

one of the biggest complaints i hear from worship ministers is this: “it looked like nobody was singing today.”

my usual response is, “well that’s probably because they weren’t.”

this astounding phenomenon happens for many reasons.  for a few blogs we will examine some of these.

today’s heinous reason for noticing the “no-singers”:  the song leader has pitched the song in a terrible key.  this is a problem taking our churches and conventions and retreats and whatever else by storm (or more accurately, taking them by ”quiet”). 

i was fortunate enough to have a lady at the church i worked at in tennessee (the one and only becky swain), who came to me early in my ministry and said, “isaac, i couldn’t sing a single song today. they were all too low or too high.”  and so from then on, every week becky would tell me if the songs were pitched okay that week, and it greatly benefitted the singing of our church.

some of the problems:

#1. we have men blindly picking songs for groups mostly made up of women singers.  it’s just a fact of life, women are much more likely to sing than men.  yet most of our song leaders are men, who don’t have much of a clue what’s a comfortable range for a woman to sing in.  if you are a male and a song/worship leader; i encourage you to find a woman to bounce ideas off of.  this woman should NOT be an amazing singer.  you just want your average, run of the mill, i-sing-at-church woman.  play something for her and ask if it’s comfortable to sing along with. 

#2. many of these men worship leaders (and women as well) have this notion that they need to show off their pipes.  again, we know you are a good singer from that solo you did during offering last week.  however, this time is about congregational singing and everyone doing it together.  don’t sing at the top of your range just to prove you can do it.  sing in a range that johnny q. churchgoer feels comfortable vocalizing. 

#3. there aren’t enough women song leaders.  what a revelation this could be.  let’s just eliminate the middle (wo)man from problem #1 and have women be the song leaders.  they sure do know what key they can sing in and don’t have to ask anyone.  however if you are a woman worship leader, i encourage you to find a man to bounce ideas off of about where to pitch a song. 

#4. we have too many chris tomlin wannabees.  chris tomlin can get up. plain and simple.  the dude can sing high.  we’re talking bono range.  there is absolutely no point in singing songs congregationally in the same key they are recorded in, unless it’s already manageable.  chris tomlin and all these other guys do that on their albums because they can and that’s what they get paid to travel around the world and do.  so if you want people to sing along, i suggest you don’t try and do “indescribable” in the key of “B” as it’s recorded.  you probably want to bring it down to “G”.

#5. we always have full band music.  have an acoustic week.  people have to sing then.  during a full-out blaring music set no one knows if the voices are missing.  turn the music down and listen.  then people will sing.  no more wondering what happened to the voices. 

all right! we are on are way to no more singless sundays or wednesdays or whenever it is that you gather.  i know you want people to sing along.  so think through what key you will play and sing your songs in the next time you lead a worship service.  or better yet encourage your church’s music leader to think about it (or read this post).

thanks for checkin’ in.

until next time, go learn 5 spanish words.

relieving advent stress at church

this time of advent is a very exciting season of the year for the church!  it’s also a very tiring one for those who are on church staffs.  check out your church’s christmas/advent calendar tomorrow when you are at church.  there seem to be several events happening every week.  you’ve got the hanging of the greens, the kids choir concert, the youth concert, the adult concert, the christmas dinner theater, the christmas eve service, the angel breakfast, angel tree happenings, the sunday school class white elephant gift exchange, and on and on and on.

church staff members are going to be stretched thin staffing events and planning and being there for every one of them. 

i encourage you:

1. if you are a church staff member, find ways to spend extra time with your family.  use the time to be a good leader and practice your delegation skills.  find the people who are your super volunteers and rely on them to play a major role in some of the advent activities.  share the load.  you don’t need to shoulder the whole load.

2. if you are not a church staff member, look for ways to help out this season.  don’t just wait around to be asked.  be active.  if you are worried about losing out on time with your family, think about all the time staff members who are missing out on time with their family.  or better yet, how about your whole family helping out together?

this is a great and beautiful time of the year for the church.  it can also be a very stressful one for many reasons.  your church needs you.  be a part of what’s happening!

gifts

welcome back from thanksgiving! i’m back with some nice internet at my fingers once again. i feel halfway relieved and halfway re-enslaved. it’s a vicious cycle and a miserable existence that technology forces us to lead.

anyway, i figured that now that we have turned our attention to christmas and advent, it would be a good time to examine gifts and giftedness.

a few months ago, my friend tim and i were having a discussion about gifts. i think i started the conversation (after a nice trip to mexican buffet…oh how i miss it in the beautiful hills of tennessee) by lamenting the fact that i am in no way a jazz musician. i would love to learn jazz piano or how to wail like wynton marsalis, louis armstrong, or duke ellington.  i wish my fingers could fly across a fret board of a guitar like joe satriani or carlos santana. 

alas i play music in a very specific way.  i can knock chords out of the park.  i can make up some cool little lead parts on piano.  i’m fortunate enough to be able to sing and play at the same time.  but there are many certain things i can’t do that i wish i could.  some things i could probably figure out, but some things i’m probably just not gifted enough to do.

after allow me to wallow in my own little pity party, tim reminded me that there are many people who wish they could do the things i have been gifted to do.  i often fall into this trap.  i allow myself to become so envious of other people and the amazing talents they have been given, i forget that god has designed me very specifically with amazingly neat gifts and abilities. 

what a joy this is!  we are each a beautiful creation.  we have each been given a unique set of tools to work with and each of us owes to our creator to use these tools to create beautiful things for him.

thanks tim for reminding me of this (and for teaching me some of those skills that i have learned!).

this holiday season, i encourage you to think of the gifts you have been given. what are they?
also, take note of the gifts in other people.  tell them what you notice as their gifts.  tell them how important those gifts are.  thank them for allowing god to work through that gift to shine his light for the world to see.

thanks for checking in!

until next time, good luck detoxing from all the tryptophan (that’s the stuff in turkey that makes you sleepy).

are we creating separate congregations?

there is quite a phenomenon among churches today of having separate “contemporary,” “traditional,” and “blended” services.  first of all i’m not really sure what any of that means (the whole matter of making it all about the music is for another day), but i’m pretty sure it’s not a healthy dividing line for our congregations.

let me first say that just about every church i have worshiped in participates in doing this, so i’m looking squarely at myself in the mirror as i write this post. 

here’s the break up:

1. the traditional service
     the trend as we all know is for the older folks of the congregation to migrate towards the “traditional” service, which is code for “we play hymns using a piano and/or organ at this service.” this is usually the early service because the younger people don’t want to be up yet.  usually the worship minister or senior minister will make a comment in the contemporary service about them being more awake or more lively. 

2. the contemporary service
     the younger crowd and hip 30,40, and 50-year-olds meander on in to the “contemporary” service, usually with starbucks in tow.  this service is code for “we play more up to date songs usually written by chris tomlin, david crowder, charlie hall, hillsong, or the best song of any number of artists you could find on air one radio.  sometimes we’ll mix in a hymn, but it will have an extra chorus that someone has written and include some sort of cool guitar riff.” 

3. the blended service
     this is a church’s futile attempt to combine the first two services.  it usually includes sterile praise songs from the 80’s that can merely be tolerated by both groups.  sometimes there will be some hymns. sometimes there will be up to date songs.  usually awkward because you have an organ playing ”here is our king” or a band trying to rock out on “as the deer.”

my question is this: with all these efforts to separate the services according to musical preference, are we creating separate congregations within our church bodies? 

i often find that i don’t know people from the other service that i am not attending.  or perhaps i’ll be talking about someone from another service and the person i’m talking to will say, “oh i don’t know that person, they go to the other service.”  is this okay? isn’t church about community and being known?  it seems to me like we have several churches within one building. 

i must say i’m simply not comfortable with this.  clearly i’m not doing anything to stop it.  i don’t even know what the answer is.  i don’t know if anything needs to be done.  i just know that it doesn’t feel to me like what christ meant the church to be.

what are your thoughts?  how does your church handle this?  i’d love to know what you think!

thanks for checking in!

until next time, go find a fun thanksgiving recipe to make for your friends and family.