Visiting other churches, part two

It was close to four years ago that I moved back to Oregon from Washington state. I was single at the time, and looking for a new church home. I visited several churches in and around my new/old “home town”. One of the churches I visited  was a newer church, but housed in the same building as the church I was baptised in thirty years ago! I was greeted warmly as I entered the main building, and got a nice firm handshake. Another person asked if I was a coffee drinker, and asked if they could get me a cup. A THIRD person handed me a bulletin, introduced themself, and shook my hand again. Wow! this is going well, I thought to myself.

I made my way into the sanctuary and found a seat. The sanctuary, while not huge, was large enough, painted stark white, with natural wood trim. There were potted plants, and some ficus trees. The church had no pews, opting for plush chairs instead, and they were comfy. As more folks made their way into the sanctuary, the worship team went to the platform. No suits and ties, these guys and gals were wearing  jeans and shirts, casual but clean. being a musician, I pay special attention to this stuff, and watched with interest as they tuned their instruments, and then had a short “huddle ” prayer.

As they started playing, I became very interested, and was very impressed. Two acoustic electric guitar players, a bass player, a drummer, and a keyboard player, and everybody sang. The two guitarists traded lead vocals. One of these was a female. There was also a female playing keyboards. The vocals were very good, and the harmonies were tight. Both guitarists were better than average, and their playing styles complimented each other, and the music. The bass player played a good steady bottom line, but took a fill every so often. The drummer played rock solid, and the keyboardist played solid parts without being too busy.

The service was contemporary, and they played several popular worship songs, and a few that were “radio current”. I was really enjoying myself, and so was the congregation. Transitions between songs were seamless, and there was just the right amount of talking in between a couple of the songs. I had to talk to these people after the service, and find out what they did, because whatever they were doing…it was working!

When the service was over, I made my way up to the platform. I introduced myself to the worship leader, a nice guy named Chad. We chatted for a few minutes, and I asked him point blank how he was able to get the quality that he and the worship team produced. I’ll never forget what he told me.

” We have a lot of fun together” he told me, “we do stuff together away from church, twice a month. We have played together for a while now, and we work hard at what we do – we rehearse twice a week, and then an hour on sunday mornings. Most of us take lessons, because we love this.” He went on to tell me about how they audition prospective team members, and the reasons why they did it the way they did. I was impressed, both because what he said made total sense, AND because he backed up what he said with scripture.

I had another opportunity to visit that same church last year, and was pleasantly surprised to see three of the five musicians I met still on the platform. If anything, these guys had gotten even better!

Love the Lord, love your instrument, learn them both!

Doing the “Shuffle”, Part Three

Why are so many worship teams, at so many churches out there, doing the “shuffle”? Remember, I told you I could asnswer that question with a single word.

Vision. Vision is ALL that separates the majority of worship teams out there, who ARE NOT doing so well, with the minority of worship teams out there, who ARE. Vision, or, more properly, the  lack of it. 

Keep in mind that the vast majority of worship teams are composed of volunteers – people who aren’t getting paid to play, people who nearly always have very full lives, and busy schedules, but who play because they love it, and because they love God. I have nothing but respect for these people, and their desire to worship God and to draw others into that worship. I don’t have such high regard for those who lead them, though. Usually these teams of volunteers are led by a worship leader who is a paid staff member at the church they atend – but sometimes that worship leader is a volunteer as well.  Given this set of circumstances, it is easy to see how the “shuffle” concept comes into play. Many worship leaders simply do not want to rock the boat…any boat…for any reason. They fear pushing their teams toward excellence, even though the scriptural basis for excellence is well documented. If they demand or desire excellence, then they have to be excellent themselves, in order to avoid being called a hypocrit, and the sad fact is that there are just not that many worship leaders out there who are any better than passable on their instrument of choice. There are some, to be sure, but not nearly enough.

Because they are mediocre players, they only require mediocrity from the rest of the team, and that is exactly what they get. Mediocrity. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year.

Guess what? “good enough” ISN’T good enough!

Doing the “shuffle”, Part Two

“We intend to keep one foot in the past, and one foot in the future”. On the surface not a bad sounding statement, right? But what does it mean? Think about the statement for a minute. “One foot in the past, and one foot in the future.” How does that work exactly? I mean, I own a watch, the second hand never stops moving. In other words, the future is getting further and further from the past, every second of every day!

Try this excercise right there, wherever you are at this moment. Stand still, and slowly and steadily move your feet further and further apart. Keep going, I’m trying to prove a point here. How long before you lose your balance, and fall over? Not very long, huh? Point made. “keeping one foot in the past, and the other foot in the future”  is a position, and a philosophy, that is impossible to maintain. Remember what Christ said about serving two masters?  

But wait, there’s more.

“keeping one foot in the past, and the other foot in the future” would seem to imply that where you have been is equally as important as where you are going. Now, before I go any further, I want to say this: Respecting your heritage is right and proper. Learning from past mistakes is natural and beneficial. Paying homage to where you came from, from time to time, is a very good thing to do. However, it is FAR more important to know where you are GOING, than to know where you have BEEN. Need proof? Let me ask you a question. When you drive, do you keep your eyes on the rearview mirror? Of course you don’t! It’s FAR more important – and safer! – to know where you are going, rather than where you have been.

You might be wondering why I chose to call this short series of blogs “doing the shuffle”. The “shuffle” is what I call it when I see a worship team perform at the level that the worship team at the church in question performs at – sub standard. Like they are just shuffling along. No life, no joy, no impact, no spark, no nothing! I have to tell you, the worship team at this church is not the only one doing the shuffle. I have visited many churches in the past few years, and there are many out there just shuffling along. Of course, there are also many out there with a dynamic, growing ministry. Why do some churches succeed where so many others fail? The answer can be summed up in one word.

Vision.

What is this vision? More importantly, how can you find it for yourself?

Stay tuned…