This past Sunday I lead worship in the NLC. Well, I really didn’t lead worship this Sunday, the Lord lead and I just kind of helped the people connect with our God. And then it wasn’t even ‘me’ out front doing what we have coined ‘leading worship’. This past Sunday our choir lead with me. Or maybe I should say I lead with them. Talk about a ‘worship leading choir’… Wow, they were really leading this Sunday. Our opening song was a new song for us to sing, I’m Free. I know it’s not a new song and a lot of churches have been singing it for awhile. But it was new for us to use it in our worship services. We will sometimes use our choir to introduce new songs to the congregation. So the song isn’t a ‘stand alone special’. It’s a song that fits into the worship service and most always point to the theme of the day or series. But that’s another blog subject.
Anyway… I moved our choir from the ‘special’ music category to the worship leading side. It’s been a breath of fresh air for me and for our choir also. This is a topic for another blog.
Wow I better get to what I was talking about earlier. The choir started off with I’m Free and then we sang You Never let Go and went straight into When I Think About The Lord. In the middle of that song we had a baptism. During the baptism the piano vamped and then when the baptism was over we back into the song with a key change too. The sermon theme was on sickness and illness and how the Lord can reclaim those times in our life and give us more strength than we could ever imagine and recycle our life back to us in a new way. And that’s exactly what the life story of the guy being baptized was! Talk about powerful.
After the message we sang Trading My Sorrows for a response. Yeah, it’s an oldie but boy did it fit so well into the service.
But now the best part of this whole post is the fact that while we were doing this in the NLC, Eric was up in Cook with a different service order, different music, different size praise team, leading people into the presence of God also. Now I wish I could have been in two places at the same time. To be able to go to both services and see how the Lord works in the different venues would be a wonderful experience. The services had a very different feel to them. They were very different in make up and flow. And it was the Lord leading and guiding and blessing the whole church both in the NLC and in Cook. It wasn’t just the planning and placing of songs, and the readings, the sermon and the producing that created what happened on Sunday. It was placing all of those things in the hands of the Lord and letting Him write the songs, write and live the scriptures that were read, write the sermon, and produced those services that did it. And actually the Lord could have done all those things (as He really did) but if we didn’t allow Him to live and work through us none of that would have happened.
Now to recreate that Sunday after Sunday and not get in the way. That’s what we have to work towards.
As one of our volunteers said about this weekend, “We serve an awesome God and are so blessed to experience His presence in such a mighty way.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Sunday,Vocal Teams and the World
I was so busy getting ready to lead worship in the new venue I forgot to bring my camera on Sunday. I was going to have someone take some pictures from the floor this time to show you what it was like.
It was a great experience. We had three vocalists, Ronnie (alto), George(tenor) and me(lead). And for our instrumentalists we had a bass guitar, Joe, 2 acoustic guitars, Bill and Phil and I played the keyboard. Our percussionist Gary could not make it last week.
Eric scheduled a team for each venue for each week. So, Ronnie, George, Joe, Phil, Gary and me will always be playing together. Bill was playing this week to help Phil out. This was Phil's first time playing with a worship team. Although he does lead and play for our CR groups on Friday nights. I feel that this is going to make a good tight team. The more we play (and sing) together the tighter we will become.
Everyone on the team enjoyed playing together. I am looking forward to being with them every 4th week.
Right now George and his whole family is in China, so please lift them up in your prayers. I believe he said it was a family outing........
TEAMS
One way you can set up teams is to set them up like we have. Create different teams and keep them playing together. It helps them become close to each other. You can look at it like a small group also. In fact this may be one way you can start small groups within your ministry. It's a small group with a purpose. Every small group should have a purpose, but this particular group was created with worship leading in mind. That's the purpose I had in mind. The small group-worship team set up has the advantage of each person getting to know the others n the group better. I've played with Joe and Gary for several years now. I've sung with Ronnie for awhile, she has also been in choir with me. But Phil and George are relatively new to me, so it will be good to get to know them better when we play together.
The whole, Caring, Sharing, Teaching, Learning, Praying thing happens in groups set up like this. This was the way I set the teams up when I first got here back in '99. Each vocal team was also it's own small group. They met every week whether or not they were on for the coming weekend. They got together to practice and to care for one another. That made for some very strong vocal teams and some very strong bonds that have carried through till this day.
Another way to put teams together is line up your singers by parts and then to just schedule them as you need that part for that particular Sunday. This may not look as strong as the first one, but it does give every a chance to sing and play with everyone else. Everyone gets to meet everyone in the worship team. Now you can treat your worship ministry people as one small/large group. With everyone meeting everyone else a larger fellowship can happen. This is also important. You need to be able to get everyone in your ministry together at some point in the year. They all need to be able to just hang out with each other. Just have some fun and enjoy each others company. Some 'down time' together. We have a Christmas party, an open house for our ministry people (vocal, instrumental, techs, everyone in the Worship Arts Ministry). We also have a banquet for them once a year. It's a special time for us, the staff to tell them how much we appreciate them as volunteers in this ministry. This ministry, the Worship Arts Ministry would not exist without all of them.
There are not individual teams like silos around, but groups of team players that make up one ministry. And then even our ministry is not a 'stand alone' a silo by it's self. We are one of many ministries that make up Mountain Christian Church. And at this level we are not a 'stand alone' church by it's self, we are one church within the whole body of churches, Christ's Bride trying to make a difference not only in Joppa, Harford county, Maryland, USA, but also through the world with our mission outreach ministries.
Wow, from a venue to how to set up a worship team schedule to reaching the world for Christ. Hey isn't that what it's all about anyway!!!!!!!
John
It was a great experience. We had three vocalists, Ronnie (alto), George(tenor) and me(lead). And for our instrumentalists we had a bass guitar, Joe, 2 acoustic guitars, Bill and Phil and I played the keyboard. Our percussionist Gary could not make it last week.
Eric scheduled a team for each venue for each week. So, Ronnie, George, Joe, Phil, Gary and me will always be playing together. Bill was playing this week to help Phil out. This was Phil's first time playing with a worship team. Although he does lead and play for our CR groups on Friday nights. I feel that this is going to make a good tight team. The more we play (and sing) together the tighter we will become.
Everyone on the team enjoyed playing together. I am looking forward to being with them every 4th week.
Right now George and his whole family is in China, so please lift them up in your prayers. I believe he said it was a family outing........
TEAMS
One way you can set up teams is to set them up like we have. Create different teams and keep them playing together. It helps them become close to each other. You can look at it like a small group also. In fact this may be one way you can start small groups within your ministry. It's a small group with a purpose. Every small group should have a purpose, but this particular group was created with worship leading in mind. That's the purpose I had in mind. The small group-worship team set up has the advantage of each person getting to know the others n the group better. I've played with Joe and Gary for several years now. I've sung with Ronnie for awhile, she has also been in choir with me. But Phil and George are relatively new to me, so it will be good to get to know them better when we play together.
The whole, Caring, Sharing, Teaching, Learning, Praying thing happens in groups set up like this. This was the way I set the teams up when I first got here back in '99. Each vocal team was also it's own small group. They met every week whether or not they were on for the coming weekend. They got together to practice and to care for one another. That made for some very strong vocal teams and some very strong bonds that have carried through till this day.
Another way to put teams together is line up your singers by parts and then to just schedule them as you need that part for that particular Sunday. This may not look as strong as the first one, but it does give every a chance to sing and play with everyone else. Everyone gets to meet everyone in the worship team. Now you can treat your worship ministry people as one small/large group. With everyone meeting everyone else a larger fellowship can happen. This is also important. You need to be able to get everyone in your ministry together at some point in the year. They all need to be able to just hang out with each other. Just have some fun and enjoy each others company. Some 'down time' together. We have a Christmas party, an open house for our ministry people (vocal, instrumental, techs, everyone in the Worship Arts Ministry). We also have a banquet for them once a year. It's a special time for us, the staff to tell them how much we appreciate them as volunteers in this ministry. This ministry, the Worship Arts Ministry would not exist without all of them.
There are not individual teams like silos around, but groups of team players that make up one ministry. And then even our ministry is not a 'stand alone' a silo by it's self. We are one of many ministries that make up Mountain Christian Church. And at this level we are not a 'stand alone' church by it's self, we are one church within the whole body of churches, Christ's Bride trying to make a difference not only in Joppa, Harford county, Maryland, USA, but also through the world with our mission outreach ministries.
Wow, from a venue to how to set up a worship team schedule to reaching the world for Christ. Hey isn't that what it's all about anyway!!!!!!!
John
Thursday, September 13, 2007
venue pic's
Here are a couple of pictures in Cook auditorium during our first Sunday of venues .
This one was taken from the balcony where all the tech equipment is operated. The center picture of Ben is the one of him on the FOH screen that everyone is looking at. The other two are of him on monitors in the balcony. The bottom one is of our Easy Worship screen.
This one is of the congregation and the worship team in the front. The only person missing from the photo is our percussionist. He's off to the left just out of sight. As you can see we will be using a much smaller worship team to better fit the venue. We did try different decorations also. The worship set up on stage, we also tried to give a face-lift to the auditorium, the lighting - all are done so in order to make Cook look and feel different then our WAC (Worship Activity Center) in the NLC.
Right now one of the most critical things we have to do and keep on doing, is to evaluate both venues each week and make sure we are always moving in a positive direction. We now have two of everything and everybody. So if something goes wrong let’s say, in the signal from the NLC to Cook, the problem could be coming from the NLC or it could be in Cook. Lots of little details still to take care of.
Each week is an adventure for us. But we are encouraged by what has happened so far and we are also feeling a little tired. Although it may be wearing us out a little right now, we know that this is what we need to be doing. We have more volunteers than before which is a good thing! But we are still the ones who feel a lot of the work and responsibility right now. As the weeks progress and we get a feel of how each venue is going we’ll be much more encouraged then we are now.
John
This one was taken from the balcony where all the tech equipment is operated. The center picture of Ben is the one of him on the FOH screen that everyone is looking at. The other two are of him on monitors in the balcony. The bottom one is of our Easy Worship screen.
This one is of the congregation and the worship team in the front. The only person missing from the photo is our percussionist. He's off to the left just out of sight. As you can see we will be using a much smaller worship team to better fit the venue. We did try different decorations also. The worship set up on stage, we also tried to give a face-lift to the auditorium, the lighting - all are done so in order to make Cook look and feel different then our WAC (Worship Activity Center) in the NLC.Right now one of the most critical things we have to do and keep on doing, is to evaluate both venues each week and make sure we are always moving in a positive direction. We now have two of everything and everybody. So if something goes wrong let’s say, in the signal from the NLC to Cook, the problem could be coming from the NLC or it could be in Cook. Lots of little details still to take care of.
Each week is an adventure for us. But we are encouraged by what has happened so far and we are also feeling a little tired. Although it may be wearing us out a little right now, we know that this is what we need to be doing. We have more volunteers than before which is a good thing! But we are still the ones who feel a lot of the work and responsibility right now. As the weeks progress and we get a feel of how each venue is going we’ll be much more encouraged then we are now.
John
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Venues, Volunteers and Leading Worship
Well, this past week we finally did it. We had our new venue kick off. Eric was up in Cook auditorium leading worship while I was leading worship in the NLC.
It was very exciting to know that while we were singing songs of praise in the NLC, Eric was in cook leading the same songs with another group of worshippers and we were all on the Mountain campus.
I really haven’t lead worship here at Mountain in awhile. With Eric here leading I usually play keys and every once-in-awhile sing on a praise team. And then also being gone for almost three months it all feels a bit new to me again. I have to say I was a bit nervous about leading worship again. Several reasons for this feeling I think. On Thursday (our rehearsal night) I only got to work with the vocalists for about 30 minutes before I had to leave for choir rehearsal. Then add to that that our keyboard player got sick and I had to call in a sub (April) at the last minute. She came to rehearsal not knowing what we were going to play until she picked up the music that night. (Oh, and she did a great job playing!) My electric guitar player couldn't make rehearsal either due to Back-to-school-night and sickness in the family. But I do have a great group of people to work with.
I also had choir rehearsal for a little more than an hour that night starting at 7:30. Only after choir rehearsal was over (8:40) was I able to get onto the stage and practice with everyone. By the time rehearsal ended (9:45) we pretty much had it down. We still needed to practice more on Sunday morning though. But everyone was really cool with the extra practice.
Thursday was a bit of an unusual night anyway. The schedule was set up before the regular worship team schedule was set. So it was kind of an add on, only it was at the beginning not at the end. The schedule from now on doesn't have me trying to be in two places at the same time. That’s a relief.
Sunday went well in both venues. So you know how it works here’s the scoop.
Both venues will have live music, a host, and a campus pastor, a kind of ‘face-for-the-place’ person. We will be DVRing (kind of like TiVo) the message in the NLC. That’s so we don’t have to have the two venues locked into a specific time for both worship teams to be done with the music. In the NLC we will try and get the message started by about 20-25 minutes or so into the service. Then we’ll give Cook another 10 minutes or so before we start playing the message on the screen. So there is some flexibility found in both places.
The NLC praise teams are pretty much the same in size, 5-6 singers and a full band. About the only thing that will be missing will be percussion. In Cook we will have a keyboard, bass, percussion and acoustic guitar with three singers. I’ll be playing keyboard and leading. So you can tell from the size of the group the sound will be a bit different. Because Cook is smaller (just under half the size) we wanted to scale down the worship team to fit the venue. On some weekends we will even do some different music in both venues because of feel of a song might be good for the NLC but would be too big for Cook. The theme or core point will stay the same but the way we package it might be different in both places.
Everyone is very excited for what this means for God's kingdom here at Mountain. But we also know that it means a lot more work for us and a lot more work for our volunteers. Here’s an example of the kind of volunteers we have here at Mountain. On Saturday one of our tech guys Richard was here on his own time to check out some audio lines that were a bit noisy during Thursday night’s rehearsal. He was here making sure that when Sunday worship came the sound would be as clean and as clear as possible. He did it because he understands what excellence means. The sound was going to be the best it could be. No one asked him to do this. No one called him up and told him to do this. He did it because of his understanding of what worship leading is all about. Even though Richard may only be plugging cables in and out and checking the audio lines, he is a worship leader. He is doing his best so that the Lord can be glorified during the Sunday service. He is making sure that the congregation can fully participate without any annoying sound interference. He is helping lead worship. Richard is a worship leader.
The people who set up chairs (and tear them down) each week, run cables, hand out bulletins, greet you as you come in, the ushers, all the techies, the ones that make sure the bathrooms are clean (have you thought of helping out there?) they are all helping to lead worship. They are all Leaders of Worship. They may not get the exposure like the singers or band, (and this is a topic for another blog) but they are leaders of worship in the very truest meaning of the term.
How about you? Are you a worship leader? Are you a leader of worship?
John
PS if I get some pictures of the worship service in Cook I'll post them. And I'll also post pictures of what the NLC (New Life Center) looks like so you can get an idea of what the two venues are like.
It was very exciting to know that while we were singing songs of praise in the NLC, Eric was in cook leading the same songs with another group of worshippers and we were all on the Mountain campus.
I really haven’t lead worship here at Mountain in awhile. With Eric here leading I usually play keys and every once-in-awhile sing on a praise team. And then also being gone for almost three months it all feels a bit new to me again. I have to say I was a bit nervous about leading worship again. Several reasons for this feeling I think. On Thursday (our rehearsal night) I only got to work with the vocalists for about 30 minutes before I had to leave for choir rehearsal. Then add to that that our keyboard player got sick and I had to call in a sub (April) at the last minute. She came to rehearsal not knowing what we were going to play until she picked up the music that night. (Oh, and she did a great job playing!) My electric guitar player couldn't make rehearsal either due to Back-to-school-night and sickness in the family. But I do have a great group of people to work with.
I also had choir rehearsal for a little more than an hour that night starting at 7:30. Only after choir rehearsal was over (8:40) was I able to get onto the stage and practice with everyone. By the time rehearsal ended (9:45) we pretty much had it down. We still needed to practice more on Sunday morning though. But everyone was really cool with the extra practice.
Thursday was a bit of an unusual night anyway. The schedule was set up before the regular worship team schedule was set. So it was kind of an add on, only it was at the beginning not at the end. The schedule from now on doesn't have me trying to be in two places at the same time. That’s a relief.
Sunday went well in both venues. So you know how it works here’s the scoop.
Both venues will have live music, a host, and a campus pastor, a kind of ‘face-for-the-place’ person. We will be DVRing (kind of like TiVo) the message in the NLC. That’s so we don’t have to have the two venues locked into a specific time for both worship teams to be done with the music. In the NLC we will try and get the message started by about 20-25 minutes or so into the service. Then we’ll give Cook another 10 minutes or so before we start playing the message on the screen. So there is some flexibility found in both places.
The NLC praise teams are pretty much the same in size, 5-6 singers and a full band. About the only thing that will be missing will be percussion. In Cook we will have a keyboard, bass, percussion and acoustic guitar with three singers. I’ll be playing keyboard and leading. So you can tell from the size of the group the sound will be a bit different. Because Cook is smaller (just under half the size) we wanted to scale down the worship team to fit the venue. On some weekends we will even do some different music in both venues because of feel of a song might be good for the NLC but would be too big for Cook. The theme or core point will stay the same but the way we package it might be different in both places.
Everyone is very excited for what this means for God's kingdom here at Mountain. But we also know that it means a lot more work for us and a lot more work for our volunteers. Here’s an example of the kind of volunteers we have here at Mountain. On Saturday one of our tech guys Richard was here on his own time to check out some audio lines that were a bit noisy during Thursday night’s rehearsal. He was here making sure that when Sunday worship came the sound would be as clean and as clear as possible. He did it because he understands what excellence means. The sound was going to be the best it could be. No one asked him to do this. No one called him up and told him to do this. He did it because of his understanding of what worship leading is all about. Even though Richard may only be plugging cables in and out and checking the audio lines, he is a worship leader. He is doing his best so that the Lord can be glorified during the Sunday service. He is making sure that the congregation can fully participate without any annoying sound interference. He is helping lead worship. Richard is a worship leader.
The people who set up chairs (and tear them down) each week, run cables, hand out bulletins, greet you as you come in, the ushers, all the techies, the ones that make sure the bathrooms are clean (have you thought of helping out there?) they are all helping to lead worship. They are all Leaders of Worship. They may not get the exposure like the singers or band, (and this is a topic for another blog) but they are leaders of worship in the very truest meaning of the term.
How about you? Are you a worship leader? Are you a leader of worship?
John
PS if I get some pictures of the worship service in Cook I'll post them. And I'll also post pictures of what the NLC (New Life Center) looks like so you can get an idea of what the two venues are like.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Venues
This is it. Next Sunday starts our venues. We will have two worship services at 9 and two at 11. One will be in the NLC where we have church now and the other will be in Cook Auditorium where we had worship when Pam and I first came to Mountain 8 years ago.
For the first Sunday Eric will be in Cook and I will be leading in the NLC then we will switch. Sunday's aren't the big problem for me, its Thursday nights. I'm leading the choir and leading a vocal team and leading a praise band and one Thursday a month I'm doing all three not at the same time thank goodness! I'm thinking it's going to be a little on the hectic side. And it's only one Thursday a month because we are canceling one Thursday night choir rehearsal.
This week will be very telling because it's our first week when we have rehearsals going on in both building at the same time.
In another blog I'll go over the details about what it's doing to our worship arts ministry team. (It's all good, but it means some stretching and growing on our part... like I said all good.)
For the first Sunday Eric will be in Cook and I will be leading in the NLC then we will switch. Sunday's aren't the big problem for me, its Thursday nights. I'm leading the choir and leading a vocal team and leading a praise band and one Thursday a month I'm doing all three not at the same time thank goodness! I'm thinking it's going to be a little on the hectic side. And it's only one Thursday a month because we are canceling one Thursday night choir rehearsal.
This week will be very telling because it's our first week when we have rehearsals going on in both building at the same time.
In another blog I'll go over the details about what it's doing to our worship arts ministry team. (It's all good, but it means some stretching and growing on our part... like I said all good.)
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