The Top Ten Things Church Media Ministers Wished That Every Pastor Knew

Posted on January 26th, 2011 by adamdiehl

Several years ago I compiled this list from the church media ministers at www.churchmedia.net. I think some of these guys were venting some frustration about their pastor, but I think its quite revealing and genuine regardless. I thought it might be a useful resource for pastors.

1. When the sound tech says, “Please leave your mic on and I’ll control it from the back,” and you flipped the switch anyhow – please don’t make it look like its our fault. We did everything we could and don’t appreciate 100 eyeballs looking back at us.
2. The feedback, buzz, hum, or other undesirable sound glitch gets to all our ears at the same time. Just because you hear it doesn’t mean we aren’t trying to fix it. It’s embarrassing to draw attention to it.
3. Planning sermons more than a day in advance is good for you, good for me, good for everybody! Please don’t hand us your notes and ask for a PowerPoint on your way up to the platform. [This actually happened to me once, but not by my Pastor].
4. When there is a problem, and there will be problems, please leave the team alone to fix it if you don’t know about it.  The techies have more motivation to fix the problem than you do because they will be held responsible, at least in the eyes of the people.  PLEASE, anticipate the problems by smoothing it over and not drawing attention to it.
5. DO encourage us in our ministry.  Everyone notices us when there’s a mistake.  It would be nice to hear about the things we do right. Appreciate your techies.  Make sure the volunteer gets public recognition!
6. We’re expecting predictability.  If you do something new…try to make it predictable! Planned spontaneity is the best kind of spontaneity. [I think the idea here is if you're throwing a curve ball at the techies, like switching the order of a drama or video, try to switch it predictably so they can follow you and have things cued up].
7. Consider “low price”, “high quality”, and “speed” a triad.  You can have any two of those in the same project, but you can never have all three.  You can have something that’s fast and good, but it will cost you money.  You can have something that’s cheap and good, but it will cost time.  Or you could have something fast and cheap, but it will lack quality.
8. You get what you pay for.  It is worth the extra monetary investment to get good quality equipment the first time around.
9. When you put a sweater over a lapel mic, expect bad things to happen.
10. Never blow into your microphone to see if it is on.

Take a Hint: Battling Blank Stares and Congregational Apathy

Posted on January 21st, 2011 by adamdiehl

In almost all forms of communication – the message is followed by feedback (a response). Sometimes, the feedback is nonverbal. For example, if I told you I had lost my job, you might provide feedback by simply frowning and never saying a word. This form of feedback is most common, especially in churches. Think about the pastor during Sunday morning. Nods, smiles, frowns, and maybe an “Amen” are all forms of feedback that let the pastor know that he’s communicating clearly or not. We don’t think about it often, its just natural. The good communicators pay attention to it.

Imagine being a fourth grade Sunday School teacher, and a bunch of kids in the back room start making fart sounds with their armpits. Yes, those kids need to be corrected and taught how to be respectful, but is there something the teacher can learn from this? I think the Sunday school teacher really ought to take the hint: isn’t it possible that they’re making fart sounds because the teacher didn’t keep their attention? Spice it up!

So what’s that mean for worship leaders?

I believe that our purpose in the church service is to help others experience God. The mission of worship is to encounter God, but the mission of worship leading is to take other people with you. If we’ve gone onto the stage, had a wonderful encounter with God, but failed to lead anyone else towards God, we’ve completely failed the mission by only going halfway.

When you’re leading worship, do you ever get discouraged by many people just standing and staring at you with a blank look – like they have no idea what they’re supposed to be doing? Is it possible that those blank stares are actually nonverbal feedback? Is it possible that wise worship leaders should take a hint from them?

Imagine how absurd it would be for me to lead worship for a Nursing Home’s church service with a full rock band and sing a bunch of Hillsong. Or how insane would I be to start a missions project in the Costa Rican barrios and require everyone to sing worship songs in English. That’s rediculous. If I wanted to help the elderly experience God I would do songs that they could connect with. If I wanted to help the Costa Ricans, I would need to SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE.

If I’m going to be effective, what I like is irrelevant. It’s important, but completely irrelevant.

These examples are exaggerated, but they occur every week in many churches. They happen every single time a worship team or worship leader puts his preferences above what will help the congregation experience God.

If you battle the “blank stares” when you lead worship – start to look for patterns. I think you’ll find that a lot of it has to do with what you’re doing. For me, one of the most fail safe ways to ensure “blank stares” is to keep the volume soft. I’ve watched patterns, and when we have our volume around 90+ dB, our congregation tends to explode with worshipful expression and if its softer than that – it’s dead. Please note I’m not equating raising hands with worship – but when I’m seeing a room filled with blank stares, nose pickings, and looking around the room I think that’s safe to say they’re not worshiping. Also, I’ve noticed that some older songs that we’ve done A LOT can become mindless repetition leading to blank stares (which is why I’m a proponent of new songs, and anything else that makes it fresh). The style also has a lot to do with it. Certain songs I LIKE a lot, but are difficult for the congregation to sing (resulting in blank stares of people who have given up trying). If the style doesn’t resonate worship in my church, I need to keep it far away from the platform.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About New Songs

Posted on January 12th, 2011 by adamdiehl

Maybe its just me, but choosing new songs to introduce to my congregation seems like a monstrous task. And rightfully so. The songs we choose (and how we do them) can establish the style, feel, demographic, theology (sometimes) and mission of your church. Because this is so instrumental in the life of a church, it is vital that we submit all new songs to our senior pastors for approval. I could go on for a few paragraphs about why the senior pastor is essential in the process, but I figure its just easier if you trust me on this so I can stay on subject: new songs.

For me, I have three weekend teams that rotate. I can’t just introduce a new song whenever I feel like it and hope the three teams catch on (I can, but its not very pretty). I have to approach it more organizationally than would be natural for most teams, so keep that in mind as I share my process.

Step One: Examine Your Motive

To a persistent degree, this is important. Way too often churches do new songs because they’re trying to become something they are not. If you want to be “cool” – be yourself, don’t try to be something different. Nobody likes that, and we can all tell you’re faking it. Good worship songs are ones that resonate with your church. So if you see some multicultural church go nuts with a hip-hop/urban worship song and you think its “cool” – keep in mind its cool for them. You need to do what’s cool for you. Most importantly – be sure you’re doing new songs in order to make Jesus happy — this is his gig anyhow.

Do do new worship songs if you want a new expression of worship. Do them if you feel like other songs seem stagnate. Introduce new songs if you want to reignite a congregation’s attention to the words they’re singing (I’ve found that a new song will engage the congregation’s minds to the lyrics, even in the older song before and after the new one). Don’t do them if you’re trying to be cool – that’s not how it works.

Step Two: Find Some Songs

So you’ve  got the right attitude. Great. Now for the source of new songs!

Write one! Keep in mind, however, that many worship songs are meant for you or for a small group. Just because you wrote it doesn’t mean your church should sing it. If you write your own, submit it to 2 different types of people – 1) Someone to critique the music, 2) Your senior pastor to critique the theological soundness.

See What’s Working for Others. This morning I sent out a text message to several of my worship leading friends asking them, “Hey what new songs have been resonating with your church?” I also like to check the CCLI Top Ten List to see what songs are resonating the most with churches internationally. The goal in this shouldn’t be to “hop on a bandwagon” and play chameleon but rather to give yourself a jump-start. If such and such song works for so many other churches, it might be a good match for your church as well – its at least worth looking at.

Resources! Buy CDs. Get stuff on iTunes. Worship Leader Magazine has a resource called “Song Discovery” where they send a CD of peer-reviewed new songs every month (or so). Integrity Direct is a service provided by Integrity Worship where they send you all their new CDs and chart books before they’re even available in stores – at a discounted price. Personally, I’m a huge fan of Integrity Worship.

Step Three: Narrow It Down

Currently, I am in this stage of the process. I have 109 songs lined up for me to review. I’m going to get it down to 6-8. This is how I’m going to do it.

First, I do a basic look at the songs. Do they have initial appeal? (Can I dig it or is it kinda “bleh”). I’ll look at the lyrics. I’ll listen for a “hook” in the song. I like to close my eyes and say, “Can I imagine my church singing along with this?” If the answer is no – I CUT IT!

Second, I’ll look at the remaining songs more closely. Is the melody line’s vocal range too extreme? (Generally, an octave range is the sweet spot, but I never go wider than a “Perfect Tenth”) Can my band even play it, or could they play a simplified arrangement of it? Many more songs get cut in this stage.

Third, I’ll look closely at the melody line and chords and choose a better key for the songs for the congregation to sing. I will play through the remaining songs on my own.

Fourth, I’ll take the songs to my worship leadership team, and together, we’ll make the final decisions.

Step Four: Introduce it to the Congregation

First of all, don’t even think about introducing a song to the congregation if the whole team doesn’t already know it inside and out. This requires going over the song together BEFORE Sunday morning sound check, and probably even BEFORE the week’s rehearsal. The team needs time for it to “sink in.” This goes for everyone – but especially the projector/lyric display person. If they bomb, you’re going to have a hard time teaching the congregation a new song. I like to help my projector person help me by giving them a road map of how I’ll go through the song – this is especially important if its a new song, as they’ll have no idea how to anticipate your arrangement.

When I introduce a new song, I always try to start with a simplified version of the song (maybe just my voice and a piano), and then add the band. I feel it just gives the congregation a chance to hear it without all the bells and whistles so they can join in faster. Many modern songs have SIMPLE choruses (the hook), but more complicated verses. I sometimes like to teach the congregation the chorus first, and then bring in the band and go through the “regular” song starting with a verse.

I think the bottom line is not to leave the congregation high and dry when introducing a new song. Remember – we’re here to take them on a worship journey. So don’t leave them hanging. Invite them to come along with you, “Hey I’d like to teach you a new song this morning. The chorus goes like this . . .” . . . “Now try singing it with me . . .” I’ve had much more success introducing new songs with this “come with me” approach.

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Hopefully this helps you introduce a new song in your church. If you have a follow up question about this or something else, please leave a comment or send and email to question@cmiworship.com