Dynamics

I have had the opportunity to lead in many different settings. Large churches, and small churches. Higher church liturgy, and lower church spontaneity. I have served with professional musicians, and those who had only recently picked up an instrument. One of the things that I have observed as having the biggest impact on the quality of the musical production regardless of the location or skill level is the intentionality of dynamics.

I believe that it is not what we play or sing, but what we do not play or sing that makes the dynamic difference.

A musician will play. A vocalist will sing. What I have noticed among worship teams is that people often feel confused, or not useful if they do not play and sing from the very start to the very end of a song.

As worship leaders, we need to be able to coach our teams to understand how to lead in silence as much as in their playing. Our teams can lead in their silence by learning to lead off the platform, but also in their presence and posture when it is not their ‘part.’ Encourage your team to sing along, be at worship, listen intentionally as the worship leader guides and directs the congregation. I have often felt more intentionally led by musicians and vocalists leading in their silences than by the primary worship leader.

But what about leading in our playing and singing? How do we create movement, tension and release, builds and drops, particularly for those churches who are serving with smaller, or less experienced teams? Percentages. One of the sound guys at my church was a band director in a former career. He started suggesting to me that instead of saying ‘build and drop,’ or ‘big and quiet,’ or even using the classical musical terms, we started coaching our team in percentages. If we want the bridge to be the loudest part of the song, that would be 90% or 100%, and the chorus being the second loudest part of the song would need to be in the 70% to 80% range. If we are looking to incorporate a dynamic drop without going completely acapella, maybe the band goes to 10%. This kind of language has been so helpful for our team in being able to identify the higher dynamics in contrast to the lower dynamics both within a song, but also across the setlist.

If you’re struggling with every song sounding the same, and no movement in dynamic range, try using percentages as a way to lead your team to listen for dynamics. Much of this will begin with the worship leader thoughtfully and intentionally leading the team through rehearsal. Here are some ideas on how to run a rehearsal.

Competition

Have you ever felt envious or jealous of someone else’s gifts?

Perhaps they seemed to naturally possess that for which you had to labor?

Or do they exude a confidence and charisma that easily engaged the congregation when they served?

Maybe they had more visible, prominent, or frequent opportunities to lead?

We are prone to comparison. Especially when roles are visible, and gifts are similar. Just because we are followers of Jesus, does not mean that we are free from the trap of comparison and competition. Just because we seek to employ the gifts that God has given for His glory and the good of His people does not mean that our motives are always God-honoring and pure.

If jealousy or envy has surprised or saddened you as they ran hot through your body, you are not alone. Whether serving in the same church, city, or across the internet, we are all tempted to compete by comparison. In the parable of the talents we see that in God’s kindness, providence, and grace, some of us have been given little, and others much. But each is called to invest our talents ‘according to his ability’ (Matthew 25:15). Here are some ways that I am attempting to shepherd my own heart in those moments:

Thank God. For the individual with whom I feel jealous. For their gifts. Their skill. The way that they are using their God-given gifts, and the way that reveals the generosity, and beauty of our Creator.

Confess. To God and to others the natural inclination of my heart is to devalue that which is entrusted to me, to covet what is not.

Practice Gratitude. In confession, I realize that I do not value what God has given. In practicing gratitude, I learn to value what God has given.

Pray. For those with whom I feel jealous, and for myself. All we do is give back to God what always has been His. May we be open-handed toward the one who gives and takes away.

How about you? What are the ways God is teaching you to celebrate the gifts, skills, talent, and opportunities of others? What are the ways that you are learning to grow in contentment, and practicing gratitude for the talents God has entrusted to you?

Two books that I have found so helpful in putting language to the kind of Jesus-follower and leader I want to be are The Prisoner in the Third Cell, and A Tale of Three Kings, both by Gene Edwards. If this short post resonated with you, and you’d like to dig deeper, I highly recommend these books to you.

Easter Recovery

You made it.

Whether your Easter celebrations went exactly as planned, or you would prefer a redo - you made it. Although there can often be additional time, energy, and effort that is spent on Easter, the truth is that every Sunday is a mini Resurrection Sunday.

Every Sunday we remember and rehearse the truth that Jesus is alive, and that Satan, sin, and death have been defeated.

As you recover physically, mentally, and emotionally from your Easter celebrations, don’t let this coming week be just another Sunday - let your heart be steadfast as you view all things in light of the resurrection of Christ. Lead your team and congregation toward the Hope of the Gospel again this week, and the week after that, and the week after that, until we arrive at Resurrection Sunday once more.

Good Friday

Who can call Good Friday good?

The betrayal, wrongful conviction, torture, crucifixion, and death of Christ can only be called good in a universe where God is sovereign and in control of all things. A world where all wrongs are made right for God’s glory and our good. Good Friday is only good when viewed in light of Resurrection Sunday when viewed in light of the life that is ours in and through the death of Christ.

Who can call Good Friday good?

Those who have had their sin removed as far as the East is from the West. Whose sin is buried beneath the ocean of God’s grace, kindness, mercy, and forgiveness. Those who have become the righteousness of God because Christ became our sin. Those who never have to die because Christ died once for all.

Who can call Good Friday good?

The Father, Son, and Spirit can call Good Friday good.

Preparing for Holy Week

We mark days that have marked us. This is why our calendars are filled with holidays celebrating where we have been, how far we have come, and who we’d like to be. As followers of Jesus, the two most significant days on the Church calendar are Christmas and Easter. These are days that change the course of history, and humanity. Quite literally splitting time into two halves - before Christ, and in the Year of our Lord.

We mark the days that have marked us, and we mark the days which have marked history. Following the Church Calendar with its seasons and holidays build meaning and transcendence into our lives. Rather than trying to pack all our meaning and celebration on a single day, the seasons allow us to build anticipation, expectation, and excitement as we approach these holy days. The reflection of Lent gives way to the blip of celebration on Palm Sunday, the days set apart of Holy Week, the gore of Good Friday, the quiet of Holy Saturday, and the triumph of Christ over Satan, sin, and death on Resurrection Sunday.

Holy Week preparation is important practically as well as spiritually. Maybe this year, preparation during Holy Week looks like spending time in the Gospels each day from Palm Sunday through Resurrection Sunday. I have found this overview and timeline from ESV on the Harmony of the Events of Holy Week to be so helpful.

Here is a quick glance:

Friday/Saturday: Jesus arrives in Bethany, is anointed by Mary, and the crowds come to see

Palm Sunday: The triumphal entry

Monday: Jesus curses the fig tree, cleanses the temple, and returns to Bethany

Tuesday: Disciples see the withered fig tree, temple controversies in Jerusalem, Olivet Discourse and return to Bethany

Wednesday: Jesus continues daily temple teachings, Sanhedrin plot to kill Jesus, Begin passover preparation

Maundy Thursday: Passover Meal/Last Supper, Upper Room Discourse, Jesus prays in Gethsemane

Good Friday: Betrayal and arrest, Jewish trial, before Annas, before Caiaphas and part of the Sanhedrin, before full Sanhedrin, Roman trials, before Pilate, before Herod, before Pilate, Crucifixion, Burial

Holy Saturday: Silence, rest on the Sabbatha

Resurrection Sunday: Empty tomb witnesses, and Resurrection appearances

The First 48

They say the odds of solving a murder go down drastically outside of the first 48 hours. Now, as worship leaders, you probably are not having to solve many murders, but one of the things I have found happens best within a 48-hour window is feedback. It is so important to create, establish, and maintain a culture of feedback when serving together.

I have both given and received feedback that was too early as well as too late.

When we give feedback that is too early, often we are reacting rather than responding. It is easy to speak from being held hostage by our emotions, rather than taking a moment to collect ourselves to respond with love, grace, and humility. Waiting a day or two gives us the ability to calm down, and ask ourselves if addressing this is really necessary. It gives us time to consider the individual and their story - is the most loving thing to address this, or simply let it go?

When we give feedback that is too late, we are often remembering our emotions more than the ins and outs of the experience. Bringing something up so far past the time it occurred can begin to seem petty or silly. As though you’ve been holding onto something for the purpose of hurting someone rather than healing what may have been broken.

How can you better love, serve, encourage, and equip your team by finding the sweet spot of feedback?

Grumbling and Complaining

People can be hard.

Ministry can be hard.

And there is something about corporate sung worship that feels personal to those within a church community. Congregations have ownership of songs and singing in unique ways - more so than maybe any other area of ministry. Because of this, songs and singing can often feel precious to the people and can feel tied to people’s experience of God, His Church, and worship.

So how do we deal with grumbling and complaining from the congregation?

Or our team?

Listen. I love how Tim Keller talks about listening for a kernel of truth, even in harsh critique or criticism that seems unfair. What is really being said? Is there a thing under the thing? How can we make sure that people feel heard, rather than ignored or disregarded?

Learn. We must learn our people and context. Is there a history for which we are unaware? Have we inadvertently or carelessly stepped over a line or triggered something? We must be willing to admit that we don’t know everything and that in seeking to lead and serve the people of God our posture must be one of humility and teachability.

Communicate. Some of the best advice I was ever given was - you have thought deeply about what you’re doing and why, you have to help your team see the thought process. In a spirit of humility and gentleness, we must be able to clearly articulate the reason for our decisions. Have you thought deeply about what you are doing and why? Have you taken the time to ‘show your work,’ and lead people through a process of understanding?

Love. Let even the painful interactions be an invitation toward dependence upon the Holy Spirit for the grace necessary to love. To lean away from your own strength and toward the strength and grace of Christ. How might God be using people from your congregation or team to keep you humble and tender? How can you watch over your own heart to not respond in kind? How might you see this person the way that Christ sees them?

Discipleship Without Agenda

Making disciples - without exception, this is the work to which Jesus called every single one of His followers. Go therefore and make disciples…

In America, we love to make things as efficient and productive as possible, and as followers of Jesus, we desire to be obedient to the commands of Christ. So we can be tempted to approach our Christian calling (make disciples) through Western means (pragmatic, efficient, productive). We think if only we can create the right curriculum, and make sure everyone has a mentor and is investing in another, all we need is twelve weeks for a fully formed disciple to emerge! But humans are not machines, or math equations. We can’t simply plug in the right information and expect a neat, tidy, and timely response. Discipleship is messy work.

Discipleship is the work of a lifetime.

Another subtle way our discipleship looks like less Christ and more self-serving is when we make disciples for the purpose of meeting our own needs rather than to fulfill the Great Commission. When we make disciples for the purpose of filling holes in our team, or leadership, rather than encourage, equip, and enable people to be more closely conformed to the image of Christ we are not actually investing in people we are consuming them.


There is a difference between cultivating the people God has placed under our care and exploiting their gifts for selfish gain.

I am learning that real discipleship has no agenda other than to see Christ be more fully formed in an individual. As I can surrender my agenda, and humbly confess my needs and desires to Christ, I am freed to love and give myself away without ulterior motive. I am observing that this keeps my heart tender, my expectations lowered, and my hands open.

Our teams and churches have needs, yes.

We are called to make disciples, yes.

What would it look like if we were obedient to Christ without reservation or agenda? What if we invest our time, energy, blood, sweat, tears, and prayers into someone who takes that investment and serves another church, or another area of ministry, or walks away completely?

No agenda-free investment into people is ever wasted.

Thanks be to God.

Worship As Pastoral Care

I once heard Bob Kauflin comment that if worship leaders were to do any kind of continued education, he would encourage them to study Biblical Counseling. Isn’t that interesting? Not necessarily theology, or music theory, not necessarily Greek, Hebrew, or composition, conducting, or sight-reading. No, Biblical Counseling. The longer I lead worship the more I am convinced that leading worship is primarily a pastoral function before it is a musical one. It is pastoral because we are dealing with real human souls. Souls in all of their brokenness and joy, souls in all of their immaturity and experience, souls in all of their comfort and distress, and we are seeking to guide, instruct, teach, and care for them through liturgy, song, Scripture, prayer, and preparation.

Worship As Pastoral Care by William H. Willimon, was one of the books that helped me continue to put language to the pastoral aspect of leading worship. Willimon says,

The history of pastoral care shows two dimensions of the care of our souls: (1) the preservation of spiritual health through preventive or protective care as well as daily guiding and sustaining care and (2) the restoration of spiritual and emotional health if and when dysfunction occurs…

Liturgy is education.  The question before us… is not whether our people will learn when they worship.  The question is, what will they learn when we lead them in worship?  We sometimes forget that we are engaged in education every time we lead the congregation in prayer or in the Lord’s Supper or in any other occasion of public worship.  Unfortunately, people often learn things when they worship that we may not have intended - but they still learn.

Public worship is always an invitation to the individual to risk communion, to move out from oneself into the larger body…

We are not simply choosing songs, we are forming people. Conviction and comfort is the work of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit will often work through the people of God to voice that conviction or comfort. We must be attentive to the voice of the Spirit in our preparation as well as in our leading. We must choose songs that enable…

The line between work and worship, between the everyday, pedestrian details of the workaday world and the world within the liturgy should be a thin and frequently broken line.

When we see the liturgy and gathering as the people of God as more than something we do once a week, but something we inhabit - something which inhabits us - we are beginning to invite the conviction and comfort of the Holy Spirit more fully into the rhythms of our lives.

Karl Barth says: ‘It is not only in worship that the community is edified and edifies itself.  But it is here first that this continuously takes place.  And if it does not take place here, it does not take place anywhere.’ If the community does not worship, it is not a Christian community.  If worship does not upbuild and sustain the community, it is not Christian worship.

The liturgy is ‘the work of the people,’ it is the action, the yearning, the heartbreak, and the outstretched hands of those who are gathered around the Table and the action, the yearning, the heartbreak, and outstretched hands of the God who deems to meet them in the flesh.

Learning To Lead During COVID-19 (Two Years On)

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote about learning to lead worship during COVID-19. Two years on I am still learning. Maybe you are too. I hope these brief reflections can at least make you feel less alone, and hopefully encourage you to keep going…

I believe that hard things do not change us as much as they expose us. And our hearts and lives have been exposed by COVID-19 in ways that many of us have previously been able to avoid or ignore.

What do we value?

Whose lives matter?

Are masks a sign of fear, and going maskless a sign of faith?

Are vaccines helpful and useful, or reckless and untested?

Are there only ever two sides and two options?

Is everything black or white?

What is selfish and self-serving, what is foolish and careless?

Can I be friends with people who think and believe differently than me, or must we now become enemies?

Are we going to be discipled by culture and politics or by the Gospel?

The ugliness of my heart has been exposed in the pandemic: my tendency to judge other people, other followers of Jesus against myself and my own decisions. To look for specs through a log.

When I am attentive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit within rather than an outward condemnation of the pharisee within, I can see these places of friction as opportunities for repentance and prayer.

If we are willing these are opportunities for iron to sharpen iron. For the Church to truly be what we already are - one people, one body, made up of every tribe, tongue, nation, and language. This is an opportunity for us to image to the world our unity not through ideology, politics, or socioeconomic brackets, but by the unifying blood of Jesus.

This truly could be an opportunity to display the beauty of the Gospel.

To make obvious our adoption as sons and daughters of God.

My prayer as I look out on the faces of the congregation,

as I run into people as they stumble over why they have not been serving or attending,

as I field questions about why we are doing this, and why we are not doing that,

as we wrestle with what it looks like to love and honor God and care well for His people,

as we stumble forward,

and as I become more aware of my own sin, is:

God give me Your eyes to see these people. Let me grieve over my sin more than over the differences of my brothers and sisters. Keep me close to You, and tender toward especially those who are loud, vocal, and combative in the opposite direction from my own convictions. Give me the compassion of Christ, who ‘When He saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’ (Matthew 9:36).

May our divisions be an opportunity for repentance. May our divisions turn us to Christ, the One who has torn down the dividing wall of hostility between God and man, who has reconciled us to become people of reconciliation, who has comforted us to be people of comfort. Amen and amen.

Lent Preparation

Lent is a season of preparation. From Ash Wednesday the following forty days (excluding Sundays), we fast and pray as we ready our hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits to treasure Christ in all things - the gore of Good Friday and the glory of Resurrection Sunday. Even if your church does not follow or celebrate the seasons of the church calendar outside of Easter and Christmas, I believe there is still benefit in personal preparation, and leading our teams to prepare as well.

Easter and Christmas are some of the busiest times in the life of any church. If we do not prepare practically we run the risk of being scattered and frantic. If we do not prepare spiritually our lives are emptied of opportunity for meaning and significance. And that is why we prepare. Because preparation builds meaning and significance into our lives. Because preparation is never about the preparation itself, but making space for something else. We exercise not for the sake of exercise but for making space for a healthy body. We study not for study's sake, but to make space for learning and becoming. Preparation creates space for us to focus on the right things. So as we spend time fasting and praying, turning inward with the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts and lives, and turning outward toward Christ in repentance and faith we are preparing our hearts not just for another Sunday, but for deeper levels of gratitude and thanksgiving for the cross and resurrection.

Whether it is adding a spiritual discipline in this season (like fasting, or silence) or spending more time in prayer and Scripture, how might you prepare your own heart for Easter this Lenten season? Whether it is pulling back on the production of your team, doing fewer upbeat songs, leading a Lenten devotional, or giving your team the opportunity for prayer and silence during rehearsals, how might you prepare your team for Easter this Lenten season? Whether it is through a weekly corporate confession, changing the visuals on the platform, or simply acknowledging and encouraging people to spend the next forty days in preparation for Easter, how might you prepare the congregation for Easter this Lenten season?

Plural Pronouns

We live in a pronoun-obsessed culture.

But rarely do we make conscious decisions about pronouns in our corporate gathering when it comes to songs, readings, and prayers.

In the West, we have often emphasized having a personal relationship with Jesus, at the expense of understanding that we are not just saved to be an individual, but saved to be a people, a part of the family, the body of Christ, His Church. As a result, we see lots of language in our corporate worship songs that emphasize the individual: I, me, my, mine.

But when we gather as the people of God we are once again reminded of the corporate nature of our identity as followers of Jesus. We are the Body of Christ.

When we intentionally choose songs, prayers, and readings that use plural pronouns we are simultaneously reinforcing our truer identity as a people. And countering the dominant narrative and understanding that our Christian faith is merely an individual pursuit.

We need individual pronouns as well. We want to make space for individual praise, confession, repentance, and response. But we need plural pronouns to rightly form what the culture has deformed in the life of every follower of Jesus.

Words matter. So let us think intentionally about how language shapes our understanding of who we are and who we are becoming.