BabuLife

View From the Stage: 8/28/05

This was a monumental Sunday for the worship team at Grace Church.  We actually...take a deep breath...played a secular song.  Now...exhale.  Actually it was just a very short version of The Who's song "Who are You?".  So short in fact, that it was about 45 seconds in length.  We also changed the words to "Who are We?" to coincide with our current series titled the same. Kudos to Brad who belted this song out like he owned it!  Yeah baby! 

All weekend I kept wondering how the church would react to this and as always...no need for concern or fear.  I think I was most concerned about people understanding why we were singing it since we had no advertising for this series.  This series came about after Tim felt led to take time to visit the vision and mission of Grace Church.  It's going to be a great series.  If you miss any of them over the next four weeks, I encourage you to download and listen from the church website here.

To the people of Grace Church...thanks for "getting it" this past Sunday. 

Little Light

As many of you have noticed, my posts are a little light lately.  Addie and I are selling our home which has me working to get it up to snuff.  Spent most of the day painting.  Thanks to Tom, Doug and Scott for taking some time today to help me out.  You guys were a HUGE help!

By the way, if any of you are looking to buy or sell a home in the Kansas City area, I highly recommend Heather Kays with Reece & Nichols.  She has done way more than any realtor would in order to help us sell our home. I'd be glad to pass her info if you're in the market. Thanks Heather! 

Pat Robertson a Sniper?

If you follow any kind of news you've heard the story about Pat Robertson's endorsement to assasinate the leader of Venezuela.  Check out a post from Church Marketing Sucks here. This is probably NOT a great way to market the church to the world.

Ministry in Gaza

My wife, Addie, has a great post about the work my Dad's been doing over in Gaza.  Man this chick can write!

Life Mission Statement

I've been reading a great book by Phil Hodges and Ken Blanchard who wrote One Minute Manager.  The book is called "The Servant Leader".  I picked this up at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit thinking it'd be a good read.  I'm about half way through and have decided I need a life mission statement.  Now I know some of my friends are saying "duh! How have you made it this far without one?"  To which I would say it's only by the grace of God have I made it this far!

I've done mission statements, vision statements and values for ministries and jobs, but I've never taken the time to do it for my life and my family. Every time I've tried in the past I just get lost, frustrated and disapointed in the results.  This book has inspired me to invest more time in laying out the vision and mission of my life and family.  Having mission, vision and value statements is incredibly helpful in determining what choices to make when forks in the road present themselves.  I also want to give a nod to a close friend who cared enough to help point me in this direction recently.  You know who you are and I want you to know how much I appreciate your friendship and honesty. 

So as I start to think about a mission statement, vision statement and a set of values for my life and family, I'd like to see if anyone out there has the guts to share theirs?  I'm hoping to get a little inspiration/ideas from y'all.  Please drop a comment if you wouldn't mind sharing.  Thanks!

Prayer Update: My Pops

Thanks to all for praying for my Dad.  He is now in Israel.  He's witnessed some terrible things at a very close range this week in Gaza.  The news never tells the full story.  He attempted to cross back into Israel Tuesday and they told him to try the next day.  This was a bit worrisome, but they let him cross over yesterday.  It's really sad to see innocent Palestinians caught in the middle of this war.  They are nothing but pawns to those who hate freedom. 

I have several pictures that he's taken, but he's asked me to not post any right now. I'll post whatever I can sometime soon.  There are some amazing pictures. Thanks again to all for your prayers!

Church Life

Here's something that's been causing a bit of a firestorm in the blog world.  If you head on over to Vintage Faith, you'll find a post called Reality Church?  I found it quite interesting.  Hope you aren't in any of these stages!

Great Worship Illustration

We have GOT to do this sometime at Grace.  Perry Noble had an incredible idea to help illustrate what worship is.  Click here and look for the story "Sorry About Yesterday-OK not really!".  For some reason their link's don't work so you have to scroll down the page to get to the story.

Leadership Summit

Rather than type all the notes I took for this great Willow Creek Leadership Summit, I'll just give you a link to someone who already has.  Click here to see Kem Meyer's notes.

I will say that it was very inspiring and invigorating.  Great reminders on what it means to be a leader in the local church.

Choosing Worship Songs: Letting it Flow

When I started leading worship at Grace Church, I really didn't have a good understanding of what it meant to assemble a "worship set" with good flow between songs.  With Grace Church coming previously from a very traditional, hymn singing style of worship, to integrating "contemporary" worship music was a bit of a challenge.  At the time right before I assumed the role of worship leader, our idea of contemporary was buying a praise and worship book that consisted of old Maranatha songs from the 1970's and 1980's.  That was bold!  Anyway, we've come a long way and so have I.  Making a service flow well from song to song was not even a blip on the radar.  Now I can't stand to have a service without considering it.

Let it Flow

Did you ever sit through a worship service and think, "Man, something about that just didn't seem to feel right"?  Apart from maybe not having the spirit of God there, it's quite possible the set of songs chosen didn't flow well from one to the next.  Here's where the song choosing can get a little technical. 

After the message is determined and some songs have been selected, I then look at the keys of the songs.  It's always easier to get from one song to another if they are in the same key.  Does that mean the whole praise service should be in the same key?  No it doesn't have to be.  I like to think about where we might have a welcome, or a prayer, or announcement between songs and use those opportunities to change keys.  Here's an example of how I might order a song service:

Not to Us (Key of A)

Meet With Me (Key of A)

Speaking: Welcome guests to the service

How Great is Our God (Key of C)

Lord Most High (Key of D)

Speaking: Pray for Offering

Here I Am to Worship (Key of E)

Now there are times when I will move to a song in a different key without a speaking opportunity.  A great technique I've learned through other worship leaders, is making sure to change the key up rather than down.  Example: Moving from a song like "Forever" which is in the key of A to another song, you might pick one that is in the key of B.  A song like "Blessed Be Your Name" is in the key of B.  Of course you always have the liberty to change the key of any song.

If you play an instrument, play a chord progression in the key of A, then move to a chord progression in the key of B.  You'll find that seems to feel pleasant to the ear.  If you move from A to Ab or G, you'll probably hear a difference.  It just doesn't feel right.

I think sometimes when I explain this theory to people, they think I'm over analyzing.  To me, that's just the kind of people the church needs to lead them in worship.  The goal is to not just entertain, but to create the best opportunities for people to worship their God without getting in the way. Bring excellence in all that you do and God will honor it.  Plus it just plain sounds better!  Thanks for listening!

Recommended Tool: Leading Worship-Creating Flow with Paul Baloche