5 Worship Leading Mistakes That Hurt Your Congregation

1. Being practically unprepared to lead
This one is pretty simple: know your music, lyrics and chords, and know it well. And have your music clearly marked with any key changes, etc. If you don’t have it memorized, make sure you have your music organized and easy-to-read in front of you while you’re leading. If you’re fumbling through your chords and lines while leading, your congregation is surely going to be distracted. This will be a hindrance to them in focusing their individual and corporate attention on our God who is most worthy of praise. Avoid drawing any unhelpful attention to yourself. Which brings me to number 2. . .

2. Drawing attention to yourself by dressing inappropriately
In this regard, it’s not necessarily best to let your conscience be your guide. My worship pastor, Mike Cosper, encouraged our team along these lines:

“As worship leaders, you’re a representative face for the church. Your particular visibility communicates a lot about the church and the community. We don’t want to lay out any weird expectations, but we want to make sure that we send the right message visually. “Dressing down” can say that we don’t care about putting our best face forward, and “dressing up” can say, “LOOK AT ME!” What we want to do is dress in such a way that:

• Communicates to the church, “we’re glad you’re here.”
• Honors men and women
• Doesn’t distract from the gospel message of the songs and texts.”

3. Acting like a rock star

Need Help Fighting Email Overload in Internal Church Communications?

Flush multiple all-staff emails down the pipes ...

Email is a good thing. Email is a bad thing. Sometimes, the bigger your church staff gets, the more it can seem like a bad thing. Most of us who work on church staffs have spent entire days doing nothing but reading and answering emails.

Much of this is inevitable, and much of it depends on the personalities and church culture involved (for instance, I prefer email to phone calls).

But what about all those staff-wide emails that each ministry sends out, alerting everyone else on staff of things like:

• Remember to turn in your updated insurance forms by Tuesday.
• All hands on deck for baby dedications this Sunday. Help our Connect Team with crowd control.
• On Tuesday, we’ll be painting in the children’s ministry wing so stay out.
• Welcome _______ to the staff. She is our new Groups administrative assistant.

And on, and on, and on.

At Sojourn, we decided to do away with all the separate emails like the examples above. Now, as Director of Communications, I send one email a week each Wednesday. This email is a collection of need-to-know announcements from the various ministries and our central operations team. I also list the sermon text/topics for the next 6 weeks of our Sunday services, so all staff and interns can stay onboard with where we’re headed as a church.

Enter The Weekly Dump

For the first few months of this experiment, our Director of Administration Jenny Holzer sent out the weekly email. Jenny is on the central operations team, under our Executive Pastor Brian Howard.  Central Opps originally called this email “The Weekly Dump,” perhaps not realizing the toilet bowl connotation. After a couple weeks of heckling, they changed it to “The Weekly.”

Then we decided

True Worship Music Is Gospel Music – Even If It Isn’t Gospel Music

"Gospel" songs don't necessarily sound like Mavis Staples ...

We talk about Colossians 3:16 a lot here at My Song In The Night, because it tells us what kind of songs please God when we assemble together as his church. It has nothing to do with the instruments or the “style” you use, as long as the music aids our ability to sing and understand the lyrics. So in this sense, gospel music — either from the African America spiritual tradition, the bluegrass-country tradition or the quartet shaped-note tradition — need not be the only musical styles we use in our assemblies.

But in the biblical sense of the word “gospel,” songs for congregational worship should be gospel songs. Look at Colossians 3:16 again, this time dwelling on the “word of Christ” that is to dwell richly within us:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (ESV)

In previous posts we’ve talked about how God intends for us to “teach and admonish” each other with our psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, but what do we teach? With what do we admonish? It must be the thing that dwells within us richly: the word of Christ.

But what is the word of Christ? Jesus said a lot of words. He taught a lot of things — none of them contradictory, but still, we should examine what this phrase “word of Christ” means.

Paul, who wrote Colossians, uses the same phrase in Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

The context of this passage, which is all about the need to send out preachers to the lost, makes it clear that this “word of Christ” is the gospel:

Rom. 10:14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

... or the Gaither Vocal Band. It's about gospel-preaching lyrics

So the word of Christ is the gospel, the good news: it is the sum of everything Jesus demonstrated, said and did. Our church, Sojourn, summarizes it like this:

Lent Hymn Sale: Sojourn’s 23 Isaac Watts Hymns For $10 – Listen Here

Kristen singing Isaac Watts hymns with our friend Brooks Ritter and the Sojourn band

I’ve said here that Lent is a good time for reflection, repentance, and a deepening appreciation for the cross of Christ. One of the best ways in which we experience each of those things is through Lenten hymns — songs that focus on the reality of suffering and sin, the need for a savior, and the sacrifice of the only one who could be that savior, Jesus Christ.

Now our church worship ministry, Sojourn Music, is offering all 23 songs in our Isaac Watts hymns project for such a good price I had to tell you about it. If you don’t already have both volumes of the Isaac Watts project, Over The Grave and The Water And The Blood, now is the time to buy them.

These worship songs will help you in your personal devotions and your corporate church gatherings during Lent, Passion/Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter. Songs I co-wrote on this Lent music special include “Warrior,” “Living Faith,” “We Are Changed” and “Let Your Blood Plead For Me.” Also, Kristen sings lead on “From Deep Distress” and harmony on “The World Will Know” and “Deep In Our Hearts.”

Listen to many of the songs here, then click buy to download them all for just $10, or get the double-CD set for $12. Or if you’re a vinyl guy, for just $15 you can get a double-LP vinyl package of the second album, and mp3 download of the first:

Here’s a live performance of “Let Your Blood Plead For Me” by Sojourn, during last year’s Good Friday worship service. Our friend Rebecca Dennison sings lead. Kristen sings harmony with Brooks Ritter:

Writers Unite! How To Start A Writing Practice Group

Consider this Chuck Heeke photo to be your first Writing Prompt ...

When we think of writers’ groups, many of us think of critique groups. In a critique group, each person reads or performs their song, poem or prose, then receives critique from the other members. You can learn and grow in such a group, but critique groups aren’t ideal for every writer or every situation.

Sometimes you need a Writing Practice Group. Ask yourself:

1. Am I writing enough?
2. Are the writers around me at a similar level of experience or skill, and ability to provide quality critique?

If the answer to either or both of those questions is “No,” then you probably need a Writing Practice Group more than a Writers’ Critique Group.

So What Is A Writing Practice Group?

A Writing Practice Group is a group that meets to write, for a set amount of time. The group can include people of all levels experience and skill, and even can include members across writing disciplines: essayists, songwriters, fiction writers, preachers and speech writers, poets and other practitioners of the written word.

Although group size and time involvement can vary, a typical group looks something like this:

• 5-10 members
• Meets 1-4 times per month, for 1-2 hours each time.
• Each meeting typically includes 1-3 writing sessions/cycles
• Each cycle lasts around 20 minutes.
• After each cycle, members can perform their work aloud, although they can opt out.

Each writing cycle begins with a Writing Prompt — a word, phrase, sentence or picture that prompts the writers’ imaginations for that cycle. Examples of prompts might be a sentence like “Ethel swore she’d never eat another pancake,” a single word like “harbinger,” a Bible verse or an old photo of a man chopping wood while a boy climbs a tree behind him.

If you come to the Writing Practice Group with an idea or a project,

Discouragement, Praise & the Psalm-Writing Sons of Korah

“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise Him again—my Savior and my God!”

Sometimes we, like the children of Israel enduring brutal slavery to the Egyptians, become too discouraged to listen to what God has said in promising to deliver, redeem and rescue us from our oppressive enemy. (Exodus 6:9)

In Exodus 4, Moses and Aaron first told the Israelite elders of God’s plan to rescue and redeem them. They performed the miraculous signs God had given them so that the Israelites would believe. Then the elders responded with appropriate worship of their God: “When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped” (Ex. 4:31).

But in the next chapter we read that just after they heard and believed God’s promise to save them, just after they bowed down in worship to their compassionate, saving Lord, the oppression intensified and their hearts grew despondent again. After Moses requested that Pharaoh let them go to offer sacrifices to their God in the wilderness, Pharaoh made their slavery even more miserable by requiring them to find their own straw for making bricks, while also requiring them to make as many bricks as they did when he provided the straw. Moses and the Israelites were utterly downcast because they couldn’t see the promise of God’s deliverance fulfilled.

But hear God’s compassionate, gracious, generous response to their despondency, and to ours:

Should Indie Music Artists Deal With Spotify and other Free Services?

Spotify, Noisetrade & other digital music services are battling it out for listeners & songs

To Spotify or not to Spotify?

That is the question, if you’re an independent singer-songwriter or band who is trying to make ends meet and to get discovered. Spotify, to the uninitiated, is the largest mp3 streaming service in the world. And since they launched in the U.S. last year, many artists and music industry professionals have chimed in with whether this (and streaming services in general) is good, bad or ugly. Lots of these artists — particularly indies, who don’t have a major corporation going to bat for them — cried foul. Spotify responded, and the debate raged.

For more backstory, see Rolling Stone’s The New Economics of the Music Industry: How artists really make money in the cloud — or don’t and Noisetrade founder Derek Webb’s article Giving It Away: How Free Music Makes More Than Sense.

Derek Webb compares the business model of his Noisetrade (which offers free downloads in exchange for submitting your email address and zip code to the artist) with that of Spotify, and concludes that Noisetrade is the better deal for bands (Noisetrade also presents music lovers with an option to “tip” the artist and to give them free promotional support through social media. In addition, the artist receives the email address and zip code of everyone who downloads their product. This helps with email marketing and even tour-planning).

Is he right? Should you do both? How does each compare with the more traditional model of selling downloads for a set price (like through iTunes)? Here is mine and Kristen’s personal scorecard for our modern hymn “My Song In The Night,” which you can download for free from Noisetrade in the column to your right, or stream for free on Spotify:

Chris Vacher On WorshipRises, The National Songwriting Movement

Chris Vacher is more popularly known in many online circles as Chris From Canada, from his blog chrisfromcanada.com. Chris is Director of Worship at Orangeville Baptist Church near Toronto. Not long ago God gave Chris a passion for seeing Canadian worship pastors and songwriters rise up to create original songs for worship. This passion gave birth to the fast growing movement WorshipRises.

You can get the premier Worship Rises EP on iTunes (USA|Canada), Amazon.com, Bandcamp and other digital platforms. These songs are the first fruits of this worship songwriting network.

In this latest chapter in the My Song In The Night interview series, learn how Chris and fellow Canadian worship pastors started and nurtured WorshipRises, and what they continue to do in this burgeoning movement. Perhaps leaders in other parts of the world will learn from WorshipRises, and instill a like-minded desire in songwriters from every every tribe and tongue.

Bobby Gilles: What gave you the idea for Worship Rises?

Chris Vacher: It really came out of a healthy frustration. I was seeing, hearing and playing all these great songs from the US, the UK and Australia but not seeing songs of the same calibre coming out of the Canadian church as a whole. I know how talented Canadian worship leaders are and how many great songwriters we have so I just wanted to be part of creating some kind of platform for songs to be written and shared.

Bobby Gilles: The “finished product” to this point is the Worship Rises EP. Can you tell us what went into that? How did you arrive at those four songs, and what other fruit has this movement yielded so far?

Chris Vacher: Yes, one of the products we’ve put out is the EP which we released last summer. Those songs came out of our first few songwriting days. Since May 2009 we’ve run 15 songwriting days right across Canada and had close to 200 worship songwriters participate. We’ve seen songs from our writing days being sung in over 100 churches and some have been recorded as part of worship records done by artists or local churches.

There’s also been an incredible amount of relational fruit produced by WorshipRises. We weren’t really looking to create a relationship network for Canadian worship leaders but that is exactly what’s happened. Those relationships are having an incredible impact for individual worship leaders as well as for regional networks and gatherings.

Bobby Gilles: What are some of the ways in which you reached out to Canadian worship pastors, directors and songwriters?

How To Build Your Tribe

Learn the #1 tip to building your tribe in just over 30 seconds, via Think TV‘s interview with Bryan Allain:

Bryan has written for Stuff Christians Like, Relevant Magazine and other publications. He is hosting the Killer Tribes Conference on March 31 in Nashville, which will feature speakers like Derek Webb, Sara Mae, Stephen Brewster and many others. Kristen and I will be there, and hope to meet some of you.

Learn about Killer Tribes here, and in the video below:

Why Indie Bands & Singer-Songwriters Can’t Ignore Business & Marketing

Derek Webb at The 930 Art Center, music venue of our church, Sojourn

Most people who know Derek Webb know him as a music artist, both for his role in Caedmon’s Call and as a solo singer-songwriter. But many also know him as the founder of Noisetrade, a site where music lovers can download music for free (they also have the option of leaving a tip). Notice Kristen and I have a Noisetrade music player in the column to your right, where you can get some of our music for free.

The Great Discontent recently published a compelling interview with Derek Webb. Here are a couple quotes that stood out to me as particularly helpful for indie artists who have resisted the need to market their music:

On Being Creative About Marketing & Distribution:

“Part of how you survive in the new music business is to make the connection to be able to apply the same creativity used in making music to the distribution and marketing of your music. We’re creative people; we should be able to be creative about the distributing and marketing of our art.”

On Whether Indie Artists Can Ignore Business Stuff: