"I love playing this song!"

This evening we started preparing the carols for this year's Christmas services. This is always a time people enjoy, and the worship team is no exception... although I always seem to find myself playing the role of 'Scrooge' - no, not in a theatrical sense, rather in a 'Bah-humbug-voice-of-reason-and-festive-pessimism' sense.

Those who know me well can testify that I've never been a big fan of playing traditional hymns myself. Saying that, I do love hymns. I love the words. I love the theology, and I adore lots of contemporary versions of classic hymns. (Chris Tomlin's 'Amazing Grace'. Soul Survivor's 'How Marvelous', etc)

My problem, however, is this:

We never seem to break though the 'gimmick' factor when we do Christmas carols.

This isn't through lack of trying. God knows, we try! I think the problem is a little thing I've started calling the 'internal backing track'.

The Internal Backing Track is the disease of the over-enthusiastic musician and occurs when he/she attempts to play a very familiar song. We can play all sorts of stuff, week in, week out, and have a lot of fun playing it. But there can come a point where what we think we're playing and what we are actually playing drift apart. You can be having a great time playing something but in reality it only sounds good because you can hear that amazing album version still ringing in your mind... no-one else can hear it!

This problem can occur on any song, but I find Christmas carols to be worst. It's such a novelty doing carols that we can have really fun time trying to play them. So much so that our internal backing track quickly drowns out the cheesy, gimmicky, dreadful sounding din we're actually making.

Tonight someone in the worship team said "everyone will be singing loudly anyway, so the music doesn't have to be that good". WOW! REALLY?? ... I was speechless. That attitude is wrong on so many levels. We should be pursuing excellence with our worship. Yes, it should be fun as well, but it must sound good!

"Let's do Hark the Herold. We always do Hark the Herold."

"Let's do the middle verse with a big organ sound to make it seem festive."

"Let's do a jazz-funk Away in a Manage. That'll be fun!"

"Can we get a snow machine and all the band can wear Santa hats?"

C'mon people! We're here to celebrate the Saviour of the world becoming flesh. Bring back the awe that we pursue for the other 51 weeks of the year. Please let's stop doing our cheesy festive routines that make us feel warm and fuzzy and full of mince pies. Surely there's a better way.

Take time to decide what you're going to play, and what you want it to sound like. What are you aiming for? What do you want people to experience? How can you achieve it? Be deliberate about the choices you make, and assess your work to see if you have hit your targets.

'Sometimes the songs we have the most fun playing don't necessarily make the best worship songs.' - Tim Hughes.

Our God is not a God of chaos. His Spirit in us is creative, but not by accident. Work at it. Refine your craft and your musicianship. And above all.... listen.

Guitar Hero

Psalm 33:2-3

Use guitars to reinforce your Hallelujahs!

(The Message translation)

'Restore factory settings'... D'oh!

A couple of weeks ago I thought I'd spend a bit of time refining the electric guitar sounds we use in our worship band. Although I rarely play lead guitar on a Sunday the Line 6 board (POD XT Live) our guitarist use is one that I bought five years back. I'd spent a while setting it up a long time ago, but thought it could use a few tweaks. So anyway, I took it home and rigged it all up when, part way through backing up the tones, it wiped itself! Ahhhh! 5 years of setup GONE! We were 'back to factory settings' (head in hands)!

There was nothing I could do. So, after a had a little sulk, I spent the following four hours meticulously and painstakingly creating a fresh set of 12 patches for us to use that Sunday. What a headache!

Over the following couple of weeks we've never had so many comments complimenting the electric guitar! Seriously, God works all things together for good.

What I would say is that it really pays to spend time honing the sounds that we use during worship and listen carefully to the music that we make. It's a vehicle of a lot of our corporate worship, and a precious thing. Worship isn't just the joyful shout, it's the hours spent getting there. Careful preparation and time spent crafting our music is so important. Four hours perfecting delay settings, tremolos and reverb is worship too. God deserves our best in all things.

Lost in wonder?

Sometimes in worship it's easy to get caught up in the wonder and excitement of our awesome God. We worship with all we have, and give everything we can. Often there can be such an overpowering atmosphere that we are called up into the spirit, so consumed by the beauty of the God we worship that we can totally miss what is happening around us.

While this can 'feel' amazing, it can be a challenge for a number of reasons:

- As worshippers and musicians we must always be aware of what we are doing, especially what we are playing. If we're suddenly 'lost in wonder' and overjoyed by the feeling, there is a good chance that we may have left our technical musicianship back down on earth while our hearts are floating about on Cloud 9.

Don't get me wrong; we should feel it when we worship and play, but never at the expense of the music. Remember everyone else is still listening, and our responsibility is to lead everyone to encounter a little bit of heaven. Don't get sloppy. If you're playing, you're playing for a reason (or at least you should be... that's another blog!), so keep your musicianship and skill as much a part of your worship as that warm and fluffy feeling. That way there's more chance the congregation will feel more of what you feel as you lead them into His presence.

- Another reason is that we need to see what God is doing. 'Watch and pray'? hint hint... Open your eyes! Be aware of what the Spirit is doing in the meeting and in the congregation. Don't miss out on a chance to respond directly to what is happening. Sometimes this can be as simple as dropping the music right down to a gentle pad as the Spirit moves to release healing or a fresh intimacy.

Keep an eye on your leaders (pastor, elder, service host) from time to time as well, and submit to their direction. Us worship leaders and musicians can happily enjoy that guitar solo for another half hour, but there may be other things on God's agenda for that day.

Our job is to bring people into His presence. Not just go there ourselves. After all, you don't want to open your eyes after a 45 minute worship set to find everyone back on earth staring that at you like you're an alien because you lost them after the third song! Trust me... been there.

Mind vs Heart

"In worship it's not what you know, but who you know. Information may inform the mind, but revelation sets a heart on fire."
Matt Redman, via Twitter.

Everybody loves breakfast

Another team building activity we've been trying for a few months is 'Worship Team Breakfast'.

We wanted to get the team together on a Sunday morning with enough to set up, sound check, and pray together. It's always a challenge to get everything ready in time and starting the service on time was usually pretty loose.

We decided to start a team breakfast at 8.30 on selected Sunday mornings. I know what you're thinking, 8.30 is pretty hard core for a 10.00am service! But never underestimate the pulling power of a pain au chocolat or the mighty cheese & ham croissant with coffee! We generally get about 70% of the team there for breakfast where we discuss the plan for the day, pray and enjoy breakfast together. Then we set up, get the music in order and sound check (the most valuable time we have with the tech guys!).

Getting together early allows us the time to be fully prepared, prayed up, and even able to start the worship 15 minuets before the main service begins. Unsurprisingly, the worship as people are arriving really helps set the tone for the service, and people feel 'warmed up' and ready to enter into worship by the time we properly open.

Breakfast is another great way to give back to the team and thank them for their commitment. Pretty simple really, considering the food only costs £7 a week! The bigger cost is hauling your ass out of bed a little earlier - but you've got to lead by example, and I'm more than happy to be the one serving my team at breakfast!

Don't miss an opportunity

If there is one thing that helps build a scene of commitment and enthusiasm in your worship team (without spending loads of money on a shiny new drum kit!) it's the occasional, simple word of encouragement or compliment.

"That tag on the end of that song was awesome! It really took it to a new level."

"Mate, that kick pattern was really cool!"

"The mix on the vocals today was spot on. Cheers."

This is something I've been trying to do more and more in the last year. It's so easy to miss an opportunity to build people up, to the point where it's easy to take people on your team for granted. There are some musicians I've played with almost every week for the best part of the 8 years I've been leading worship. These are the people who I can rely on every time we play together, they always come good and they are so valuable (and they're good friends!).

A simple comment to let them know their commitment and skill is something you really value is a must. It's costs so little but makes a huge difference in the team.

A pat on the back. A quick text. A 'thumbs up'. It's all good stuff.
Do this after every worship session or practice and see what happens.

Sacrifice

"let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God"

Hebrews 13v15

If we felt like worshipping all the time, it wouldn't be sacrifice. Sometimes we have to choose to bring Him praise. If we're not feeling it, it doesn't matter... worship anyway, continually offer your sacrifice.