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Worship Reflections 07.06, 07.13, 07.20

July 21, 2008 //
8

As the worship leader in our church, I like to write occasionally about our Sunday worship experiences.  Having just begun a new worship service schedule & configuration, my musings are multiplying. Exponentially.

In the shift we’ve just made, there are a few interesting factors that have become important in the health of the transition.  Today’s topic: song selection. Here’s what  the ‘contemporary’ side of our new worship world has looked like over the past three weeks:

July 6: band, vocals

  • Sing to the King (Foote)
  • Unchanging (Tomlin)
  • Hallelujah to My King (Brown/Baloche) 

     The message this week encouraged us to take time to worship. So we did:

  • Be Still and Know 
  • Unashamed Love (Ten Shekel Shirt)
  • My Jesus I Love Thee
  • You are My King (Amazing Love) (Foote)

July 13: band, vocals, worship choir

  • Joyful, Joyful:  worship choir arrangement with brass & band
  • Cry Out Your Name (Moore): older, but a solid hook & great theme
  • Hallelujah to My King (Brown/Baloche)
  • Your Name (Packiam/Baloche)
  • I Surrender All: beautiful 4-part accapella vocal arrangement (sung by 8 person ensemble from the back of the room) used as a response to sermon

July 20: band, vocals

  • You Are Good (Houghton)
  • Cry Out Your Name (Moore)
  • You Are (Roach) 
  • How Great is Our God (Tomlin)
  • May the Words of My Mouth (Hughes): great response song

Prior to this transition, about half our congregation attended our contemporary service, and about half attended our ‘blended’ service.  The blended service included a few newer style songs, plus a few traditional style hymns each week.  Because of that, and because of the culture of that service, we did not use the same ‘library’ of new songs as the contemporary service.  Now that we’ve upset the proverbial apple cart, probably 1/3 of the people in the room for each of our contemporary services aren’t familiar with our standard, use-them-whenever, hit-the-ball-out -of-the-park worship songs.  So, two things become important:

  1.  intentionally using 1-2 songs each week that are well-known to everyone (at least for a while)
  2.  thoughtfully choosing the songs that will continue to be used (hopefully, new songs are always thoughtfully chosen…)
Walking the line between familiarity and innovation, comfort and creativity will be the trick over the next month or so.  But that’s ok.  The change in our team’s schedule, how we communicate (thanks to Planning Center, which is quite possibly adding years to my sanity), and even how we are arranged on the platform has energized us and has reminded all of us of our primary directive: we are called to provide opportunities for this church family to worship. I hope we’re doing it with a great amount of sensitivity, as change is not always easy for everyone to embrace.
If you are a part of our church, I’d love to know how you’re responding to this set of changes.
If you are not a part of our church, how do you usually respond to change?  Do your heels dig in, or do your arms embrace it?
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Categories church building, work I do, worship confessional

Worship Transition: All Things New

July 20, 2008 //
6

Three Sundays ago our church leapt into a new worship service schedule. The background of this leap is described in this series of posts.  This is the first chance I’ve had to write about it. Here’s how it’s going:

THE BIG DEAL
Before: 8:30 & 9:45 identical, ‘blended’ worship.  11:15 ‘contemporary’ worship.
Now: 8:30 classic worship.  9:45 & 11:15 identical ‘contemporary’ worship. 

While I’m not a fan of these incredibly non-descriptive words like ‘blended’ and ‘contemporary’, there has to be some way to talk about what’s happening in the room.  So this is where we’ve landed.  Our new ‘classic’ service is truly traditional in nature, and has been very well received across the generations. My long-time co-worker in the worship ministry is doing a great job of planning this service very thoughtfully and including a variety of accomplished musicians. The ‘contemporary’ service will vary from week to week… the music sometimes being very band-driven, sometimes including a worship choir, but the overall atmosphere informal.  

ATTENDANCE  PATTERNS & SEATING
Before:  Attendance in 8:30 + 9:45 = attendance in 11:15, give or take 20-30 people, with the 8:30 service always the least attended.  Room had to be set up to accommodate the 11:15 attendance, so we had 3 huge sections of chairs with 2 long aisles.  With limited ability to rope off parts of the room, the 8:30 service always felt a bit cavernous.

Now: We anticipated a more evenly dispersed attendance across the three hours, which has proven to be true. The room has been set up in a pattern of smaller sections, which allows for some areas to be roped off for the 8:30. So far, none of the worship services feel too empty, and none feel too full.  I realize attendance patterns will change in the fall, but still believe this configuration will accommodate people more effectively.

MUSICIANS
Before: two different worship bands each week, one in each style of service.  Two different groups of vocalists rotated with these bands. Our adult choir sang nearly every week in the blended services.  Once a month, an orchestra was a part of the blended services.

Now: Two different core bands, and one pool of vocalists,  rotate week to week playing in the contemporary services.  We now have two distinct choirs: one will sing in the classic service 2 times a month, and one will sing in the contemporary service 2 times a month along with the worship team vocalists.  Once every 2-3 months, the orchestra and combined choirs will be a part of all worship services.

REHEARSALS & SOUND CHECKS
Before: 
Wed pm:  6:45-8:00 choir
                8:00-9:00 blended service band
Thur pm:  7:30-9:30ish contemporary service band
Sun am:   7:30 sound check band #1
                8:00 choir
                8:30 1st service
                9:45 2nd service
               10:45 stage re-set: move 2 rows of choir chairs, 3 large platforms, move drums & all other instruments, sound check band #2, talk through set
               11:15 3rd service

Now:
Wed pm: 6:45-8:00 classic choir
               8:00-9:00 contemporary choir
               7:30-9:30ish worship band

Sun am:  8:00 classic service rehearsals
               8:30 1st service
               9:00 band meets in separate room to talk through set, run through songs
               9:15 contemporary choir meets in separate room (if singing)        
               9:30 band moves to stage with minimal re-set, sound check
               9:45 & 11:15 worship services

It’s probably not immediately obvious, but the schedule we’re now keeping is waaaaay more tolerable and sustainable than the previous plan. We used to have 30 minutes to re-set the stage between services,  plug in, talk through the set, and sound check.  This always felt harried to me, although we usually made it.  Now, we have 15 minutes.  But.  The band meets ahead of that time to get our heads into the music and the flow of the set.  We have very little to re-set on the stage, so the 15 minutes can be all about plugging in instruments and doing a quick sound check. Somehow, in the end, it all feels more relaxed.

So??
In quite a lot of words, that is how this transition has affected us so far. What I didn’t write about is what I see happening every week in our church family. I see people gathering to worship, some in the same manner they have for years, some with greater freedom than they have had for a while.  We set out to solve a few logistical issues, knowing that we also had a chance to provide more effective worship environments for our entire congregation, which is no small thing.  I believe God has led us to a great solution for this time, for this church… and for that I am grateful.

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Categories work I do

Progressions 2: A different kind of creative.

May 29, 2008 //
15

In 39 days, the form around the worship at my church will change.  What we’ve been doing for the past year and a half (offering two ‘blended’ style services and one ‘contemporary’ style) has resulted in kids’ ministry taking a fairly brutal hit. And because of that, we’re changing the format of our worship services.  

(Read about the background to this decision here.)

Statistics:

  • attendance at our contemporary service vs. our blended services has been split nearly 50/50
  • style preferences of our congregation (as reported through a survey in 2007): 14% prefer traditional worship, 37% prefer ‘blended’ style, 41% prefer contemporary, and 8% don’t care.
  • the 14% who prefer traditional are never offered worship opportunities in their comfort zone.  Talk about growth and ‘it’s not about you’ all you like, this still matters. 
  • Because of our worship style split, 86% of our kids attend Sunday School at the same time. This amounts to nearly 250 kids.  The goals of kids’ Sunday School had been to adopt a ‘small group’ approach, which is impossible with that number of kids and the configuration of space available.
Solution:
  1. Begin a ‘classic’ service that meets at 8:30. 
  2. Offer 2 identical services later in the morning which, over time, contain elements of both contemporary & blended worship.  We do face a vocabulary issue with how to refer to this service.  We’ve landed at simply ‘contemporary’, although the highly attractive term ‘blendemporary’ has been wryly tossed about. (Tech Director remarked that if we’re going to use that term, there should be an ‘a-palooza’ in there somewhere.) 

 

How is this a creative solution?

  1. It really does solve the kids ministry situation.
  2. Starting a traditional service. While we have not experienced the full-force ‘worship wars’ that other churches have, we continue to hear from people who really do value a traditional form of worship.  And after a while, the argument that ‘all forms of worship are pleasing to God’ starts sounding hollow against the assertion that ‘we’re still not going to do anything traditional’.  There’s another vocabulary issue here…. what does ‘traditional’ or ‘classic’ mean?   Are we worshiping in caves? cathedrals?  will there be acolytes and robes? or acappella singing and lots of silence? The history of our denomination is not liturgical… it is a simple service of hymns, scripture, giving offerings, prayer, and a Biblical message.
  3. A new view of contemporary.  Historically, our church has valued choral & orchestral music.  Over the past five years, the love of a more contemporary, informal worship setting has grown as well.  I work alongside a woman who is gifted in her ability to use choral & instrumental music expression for the purposes of congregational worship.  The two of us have created a scenario which includes each style of music that has been a part of our church’s worship.  One week, we may worship through music led by a band with a few vocalists (a typical ‘contemporary’ form).  The next week, there may be a choir leading alongside the band.  The next week, there may be a large choir & orchestra providing music.  Song selection, musical arrangement, configuration of instruments will vary from week to week, which is a greater degree of creative freedom than we’ve had before.
Sometimes sacrifice of preference is a greater act of worship than the perfectly arranged 3-song set.   We’re asking our congregation to sacrifice for a greater good of collaboration, creativity, and variety with the unified goal of providing effective tools for worship.  We have 39 days to prepare for this adjustment.  Stay tuned!
This post is a part of the Creative Chaos at Ragamuffinsoul. Check it out!
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Categories church building, work I do

Progressions 1: questions

January 30, 2008 //
7

A while back I began writing about a significant transition that is taking place in my church which will change how we worship together on the weekends. I’ll be posting about this over the next little while in a series called ‘Progressions’.

Our church’s current transformation comes, of course, out of a history that cannot be ignored. Since the early 90′s, there has been an effort to ‘blend’ styles of music within worship services. What does that mean? For this congregation, it has always been more complicated than simply using a combination of ‘choruses’ and ‘hymns’. People placed a high value on things like choral singing, orchestral instrumentation, and excellent seasonal productions featuring both. The style of music used by these groups was never truly classical, but often what I would call adult contemporary/choral style. Over the years, as the worship movement grew all over the world, we grew toward using a ‘band’ in worship services for the more contemporary congregational songs, while still including organ, piano, choir, and orchestra as well. People who really enjoyed the contemporary style let us know that they loved what was happening; people who didn’t really enjoy it let us know their opinions as well! The trick was to always convey the intent, the heart of worship, while attempting to blend and balance the styles of music.

We didn’t experience full-force ‘worship wars’ during this season, just low rumbles. But as I worked through the various dynamics every week, I began to have questions. Like….

- I believe that God really doesn’t prefer one style of music over another, yet I also can’t get away from the feeling that moving toward contemporary music is forward progress, while staying more traditional feels like moving backwards. So…if that’s true… what are we progressing towards?

- I personally feel closer to God when worshipping through ‘contemporary’ music…. I feel like there is more freedom in worshipping that way. Is that really true, or is it just that I feel that way because of who I am?

- when it comes down to it, there are lots of differences between what we all label ‘contemporary’ and what we label ‘traditional’ …. like the level of formality of a worship environment…. the extent to which the congregation feels comfortable with physical responses in worship…. freedom from time frames and schedules. So if you have a congregation that comes out of the ‘traditional’ mold, and you move toward using new kinds of songs, can you also change those other factors?

- we tell people all the time that it’s not the style of music that matters, but the heart of the worshipers. But I would perish if I had to attend a church for 5 years that was all polka, all the time. So, do my preferences matter?

- along with the above, we love to remind people that ‘worship isn’t about them’. But isn’t it? A little bit? If worship is our response to God, then doesn’t it matter that we occasionally are able to participate in a corporate response that feels ‘native’ to us?

- what if, in the name of progress and reaching younger generations, we create an environment where the older generation among us soon come to church expecting to not ever find tools they can use to worship God? Is there away to hold all that together with integrity?

What I found is that my first attempt at answering some of these usually comes out as de-valuing traditional worship. And to do that, while simultaneously using an argument that ‘all worship is valuable to God’, doesn’t work. So. Help me out…. what do you think about these questions?

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Categories church building, work I do, worship
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