Several of the members of our congregation gave us some written feedback!
July 21, 2012
"The music and singers are awesome and I think it would be nice to recognize them in the church handout - at least once a month - Techs, musicians, singers - this creates ANOTHER reason to be here!"
July 28, 2012
"What a great praise session today. Really uplifting - waht a way to start the week. Praise God."
"Thanks for great music."
But then, no artist is normal; if he were, he wouldn't be an artist. Normal men don't create works of art. They eat, sleep, hold down routine jobs, and die. You are hypersensitive to life and nature; that's why you are able to interpret for the rest of us. But if you are not careful, that very hypersensitiveness will lead you to your destruction. The strain of it breaks every artist in time.
~ Irving Stone, Lust for Life
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Together We Stand, Divided We Fall
Just because we are all Christians, members of the worship team, and have spiritual gifts, does not mean that everything will be rainbows and unicorns. Unfortunately, our spiritual gifts come with a huge dose of hubris. Hubris is the extreme amount of pride associated with the way we feel we need to do things in order to have our spiritual gifts utilized in their self-perceived "perfect" way. Hubris is an extremely dangerous a double-edged word because it is directly associated with having a very negative outcome. The best metaphor of this is Achilles and his tendon. As artists, we continually have to be evaluating our actions and making sure that hubris is NOT overtaking God's will for our gifts.
In the Heart of the Artist, Roland lists 3 tasks that we need to focus on to make sure that we are using our gifts in the way God intended them:
1. A team player is committed to the the cause of the team
In ministry being committed to the cause of the team means that we put the church's mission above our own agenda. From time to time [we all] hear stories about arts ministries in which the team members aren't all on the same page. The result is musicians, drama people, dancers, etc. all doing their own thing instead of coming together for the common good. For example, a musician who uncompromisingly pushes a favorite style of music, even though it doesn't fit the occasion, is putting his or her own agenda ahead of the team's. (97, Heart of the Artist)
2. A team player encourages and supports his or her teammates
When it comes to the arts in the church, we need to cultivate an environment that is encouraging, life-giving, and supportive. That's part of what it means to nurture artists, especially the artists with whom we serve. Most of us have no difficulty encouraging someone whose gifts pose no threat to our place in the ministry. Our character is truly proven when we can root for those who have the same gifts we have. Can you sincerely encourage and pull for someone who has the same gifts you do? Another test of character some when someone else gets the opportunities we wish we could have. Maybe it's the solo we wanted, the part we wanted to play, or the recording opportunity we wanted. First Corinthians 12:26 (NASB) says that if "one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it." Can you rejoice for someone who gets the opportunities you wanted? (102-103, Heart of the Artist)
3. A team player holds onto to his or her gifts loosely
Every once and a while [we] run into people [or find ourselves saying], "I'm not going to give of my time and talent unless my gift is used exactly how I think it should be used." NBA coach Pat Riley says, "Doing your most for the team will always bring something good for you. It means believing that everything you deserve will eventually come your way. You won't have to grab for it. You won't have to force it. It will simply catch up to you, drawn along in the jetstream, the forward motion of your hard work." Especially if God is in the picture, I think we can say with confidence that good things will come our way if we work hard and don't try to force it. If our talents and abilities are from God, who really owns them? He does. They're on loan to us and we are to faithfully steward them. So we can relax our white-knuckle grip on our gifts and lay them at the feet of Jesus, to be used to edify His church as He sees fit. (104, Heart of the Artist)
Roland's words are powerful, they speak right to "our hearts as artists." Of course we want to participate. Of course we want to share our gifts in the way we think that they should be shared. Of course we want to be an integral part of something that leads people to Christ. Of course we want to be recognized for our gifts. Of course, though, we need to understand that the use of our gifts is up to Him who gave them to us.
Our worship team is blessed with some of the most astounding hidden gifts. It seems like every day a member is stepping up and portraying God's will in remarkable and influential ways. Since we are so gifted in our team, we need to make sure that everyone is allowed the chance to use their gifts in the way that "God intended." This means that a few of us will need to start asking others if they would like to participate before taking on a task by ourselves. It also means that others of us will need to start sharing more about our hidden gifts and look for ways to serve our congregation, our team, and our Father.
The reflection assignment for this post is somewhat simple:
Identify and post about something that you will now start doing to make sure that other's gifts are celebrated and used better within our team. An example of this may be: "I will recognize that the congregation worships in a multitude of ways and instrumental interludes with electric guitar or drums or harmonica provide an equally beneficial moment for the Lord to do his work as vocal lyrics do."
Sunday, July 22, 2012
The Time Has Come
If each team member owns the responsibility for team unity, that team will be "like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose" (Phil 2:2) (99, Heart of the Artist)
Unity is important to God, and it's not something to be taken lightly. We are to "make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3). That doesn't happen without people working out their differences. It doesn't happen without people putting their egos aside and constantly deferring to one another. When Solomon dedicated the temple, the priests and musicians came forth "regardless of their divisions" (2 Chron. 5:22). They all checked their egos at the door and stood before God not according to status or rank but unified as God's people. They had quite a powerful worship time at this ceremony, and the arts played a major role (vv.12-13). This passage also shows us that unity is a powerful testimony to the presence of God. In fact, the presence of God was so strong at this dedication that people were literally falling down. And it all started with the people being unified. Don't ever think unity is optional. It's required if we're going to do anything together in God's name. (99, Heart of the Artist)
Unity is also a powerful witness to the unchurched. "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!" (Ps 133:1). If there was a colony of Christ-honoring artists who got along with each other and truly loved each other, the world would sit up and take notice, because that kind of thing doesn't happen out there in the world. I tell our church orchestra that we are the most visible witness of team unity that the church has. We are such a diverse collection of ages, ethnic groups, abilities, and backgrounds, and we have to play together and get along with each other. If we can get along, anybody can. Our unity is often a more powerful testimony than our music. (99, Heart of the Artist)
Building unity, for us, comes primarily out of two moments: rehearsals and Sundays. Since we have rotating schedules and are limited in the time that we spend together, we need to be intentional about developing our community when we are together. This means that rehearsal cannot be simply a time of notes, instruments, and structure. We need to allow time to get to know each other, pray for each other, and celebrate together.
The trick to building unity through "socializing" is by developing an understanding of what we want socializing to look like for our worship team. This will allow us to be "like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose" (Phil 2:2).
This is going to be more difficult than it sounds on the surface level. Some of you would love nothing more than to complete our worship practice efficiently with little or no time spent socializing during practice (the time for that is either before or after practice). Then, we have another group of people who believe that socializing throughout the duration of practice makes our worship team a fun place to be.
In order to be like minded, you need to truly think about what level of socializing you would like at practice and comment honestly and thoughtfully. This will allow us to decide what method will work best for our team.
Your assignment:
1. On a scale of 1 to 10, with one being no socializing during practice and 10 being completely full of relational chatting with secondary focus on music, rate how much socializing you would like to see in our practice.
2. Give an example of socializing that you think we should have in our rehearsals, on Sundays, and etc.
3. Give an example of socializing that you think we should not have in our rehearsals, on Sundays, and etc.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Time Flies When...
It seems that nearly everyone in our worship team believes that time management is something that should be a part of our code of ethics and that we are not doing as well as we should at achieving it. Interestingly enough, time management is also a hot topic for Rory Noland. Immediately after his discussion on the "Deadly Four," he discusses time management. He states:
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A team's code of ethics reflects the core values of that team. If rehearsal is an important value, it'll be important for everyone to be on time. Punctuality then becomes a value statement that says in effect, "Rehearsal is a high value to me, so it's important that I show up on time." If respect for others is a high value for team members, punctuality would also be considered a courtesy. It's basically saying, "I don't want to be late, because I don't want to waste everybody else's time by having them wait for me." A team's code of ethics puts forth the level of commitment needed by all team members. It sets the standard for how the team operates. In this way it becomes a change agent of sorts. If you don't model the team's code of ethics, you will change your behavior if you want to stay part of that team. (96, Heart of Worship)
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To Noland, time management is a crucial component for the general ebb and flow of a worship team. He even went as far as to include a list of the 13 most essential "Marks of Professionalism" as a means for establishing good time management for being a part of a worship team:
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1. Be on time for rehearsals
2. Be ready to perform in all aspects (warmed up, instrument mechanically set, all equipment available)
3. Take care of your instrument
4. Bring a pencil to rehearsal
5. Listen to your conductor
6. Mark your music - do not trust memory
7. Constantly listen and adjust pitch and volume while playing
8. Be ready for entrances
9. Sincerely attempt to play the part correctly
10. Play second or third part with as much enthusiasm as the first part
11. Practice music between rehearsals and continually strive to improve
12. Interpret as the conductor wishes
13. Do not miss rehearsals
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It seems particularly interesting to note that not everything on this list is about time management during rehearsals. He alludes to the fact that time management for the whole group begins with a commitment on a personal level.
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Yet, the time management conundrum is a tricky one because everyone looks at what is a good and bad use of time differently. What may seem as a waste of time to one person may actually seem like a good use of time to another. An example of this that stands out for our worship team is whether or not socializing during the first few minutes of practice takes away from practice time or develops fellowship and camaraderie. Thus, we need to begin the tricky process of figuring out what we collectively think is a good use of rehearsal time and what should be completed outside of worship time.
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Your task for this post is to begin the process of trying to figure out what good time management would look like for our team. When preparing to share your view, think about the following questions that were posed by many of you during the last post and follow up discussion:
1. Do we feel that we should be able to have time to get to know each other and develop interpersonal relationships during practice?
2. Do we feel that we should be absolutely ready to play through our first song right at 6:30 or should we allow time for set up, warm ups, and mic checks?
3. Do we feel that we should set an ending time for practice to help keep us focused? (i.e. practice always ends at 8:30)
4. Do we feel like we should clear our schedules and devote our Thursday evenings strictly to rehearsal with the knowledge that it could be a long or short night depending on the musical and relational needs of the team?
5. Do we need a worship team navigator that runs practice for that Thursday (will rotate every Thursday depending on the talents, skills, and needs of the set)?
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As you mull over the five most strongly questioned viewpoints and try to decipher what good time management should include or omit, feel free to add additional ideas and/or mash the viewpoints together to create something new. On Thursday, we will take a look at everyone's input and begin crafting a better time management strategy.
Friday, July 6, 2012
No Good, Very Bad Habits
In spite of how powerful and meaningful team ministry can be, the task of getting a group of people to interact and perform as a team is a difficult one. Besides the fact that we artists have a propensity to shy away from teams and community, the Evil One does everything he can to disrupt teams. He'll try to sow disunity; he'll try to undermine morale; he'll try to sabotage the cause; he'll try to frustrate plans. Believe me, he'll do everything he can to defeat any and every team that's trying to advance the kingdom of God. So let's begin our study of teams by looking at four things that can kill a team. (93, Heart of the Artist)
1. Selfishness (93, Heart of the Artist)
2. Grumbling and Complaining (93, Heart of the Artist)
3. A competitive Spirit (94, Heart of the Artist)
4. Unresolved Relational Conflict (94, Heart of the Artist)
If we're honest, the four team killing components sting when we read them. The reason? Each of us has contributed to each of the "Deadly Four" and can probably recall a moment when we acted in that way. Since we are all sinful beings in nature, the solution to combating the Deadly Four is to establish, re-establish, or remember our code of ethics. This code of ethics can be written or unwritten, spoken or unspoken (95, Heart of the Artist) as long as it sets up a culture of expectations for how we want our worship team to be.
This leads you into a very tricky assignment. You will need to think and pray about what we can do and are already doing to achieve our best worship team without allowing yourself to be selfish, grumble and complain, have a competitive spirit, and/or bring about unresolved relational conflict. It is important to note that creating a code of ethics is a conversation about creating the best situations and worship culture for the needs of our church, community, and each other. Creating a code of ethics is not about singling out what a person is or is not doing. It is always best to keep Matthew 7:2-5 in mind:
2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Taking heed from Matthew 7:2-5, your reflective assignment is to post about 1) something that you think our team is doing well in meeting our "unspoken" code of ethics and 2) something that you feel we should change/add to our code of ethics.
If you feel uncertain about the message of this post, I truly recommend that you read pages 93-96 in The Heart of the Artist. Rory Noland goes through each of the 4 traits that can kill a team in detail.
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