Volume 24 | No. 4 by Worship Leader Magazine

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or THREE

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Musical excellence in a small church

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MUSIC

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Paul Baloche

P. 10

Joshua Mohline

P. 22

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Matt. 18:20

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WORSHIP LEADER | JULY/AUGUST | VOL 24 NO 4

CONTENTS 10

THE BLESSINGS OF A SMALL GROWING CHURCH | Paul Baloche

5 SUGGESTIONS FOR FOSTERING PARTICIPATION | Rory Noland

SMALL CHURCH MACGYVERS | David Manner

SONG DISCOVERY SONGWRITER SHOWCASE

THE PLUS SIDE OF SMALL COMMUNITY WORSHIP | Zac Hicks

MUSICAL EXCELLENCE IN A SMALL CHURCH | Joshua Mohline

WORSHIP MINISTRY AS A VOLUNTEER WORSHIP LEADER | Graham Gladstone

THE RIGHT KEY FOR SMALL CHURCH WORSHIP | Andy Chamberlain

THE WORST MONEY YOU’LL EVER SAVE | Michael A. Lee

SMALL CHURCH OUTREACH | Hein Van Wyk

THREE BIG MUSIC PROBLEMS IN SMALL CHURCHES | Daryl Hollinger

5 MYTHS THAT FRUSTRATE SMALL CHURCH WORSHIP LEADERS | Jon Nicol

THE REAL UNITED | Joel Houston

SPECIAL ADVERTISING | Small (and Big) Church Worship Resources

CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN | Brian Smith

ALIGNMENT: APPROPRIATE MEDIA IN THE SMALL CHURCH | Kent Morris

WHAT’S NEW | Andy Toy

GEAR REVIEWS | Andy Toy

8 66

pg 34

Of HObbits and wholeness | JEREMY ARMSTRONG THE GREAT PARTNERSHIP | CHUCK FROMM

ISRAEL HOUGHTON | Featured Review

Music for Leading

Personal Playlist

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J ULY/A UGUST 2015

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W OR SH IP LE A D E R

BY JEREMY ARMSTRONG

OF HOBBITS AND WHOLENESS F

rodo Baggins. We could stop right there, and for some of us, the metaphor could tell the rest of the story. I grew up with that one. My dad read the Tolkien books to us kids before our nightly prayers throughout my childhood, and as a result, a Christianized version of the hobbit theme adhered to the substructure of my life’s purview: God uses us all; small is not a mistake. In The Lord of the Rings, a small, simple-ofspirit, simple-of-ambition hobbit changed the course of Middle Earth. And this occurred not in spite of his small size or the weakness that came with it; it was a result of the qualities endemic to this little creature—his humble heart and overlookable strength of character. Frodo was far from weak, and he had a particular purpose in his world. This truth has enduring relevance. It’s one that has been echoed in many other myths and stories across time, but it’s also one that resonates in this issue. Having worked with people with disabilities for years, you might imagine that I have come across some interesting ideas. One I liked the least, but did occur every now and then was the well-meaning, slightly misguided

prayer warrior. It came at me like this: “Let’s pray for (insert my friend’s name who has Down syndrome), and with faith, God will heal him.” The first time this was suggested to me, I was in my 20s, and as you can probably guess, it really bothered me. I didn’t have a quick response because it had never occurred to me to pray this kind of prayer for the kids I worked with. So I deflected it with a, “Yeah sure, in a minute. Right now I have to gather 40 kids with disabilities into a small room and keep their attention for an hour-and-a-half. If you want to pray for something, let’s start with that little miracle.” After some searching and praying, the lesson from The Lord of the Rings returned to mind. I believe disability in this world exists because we are part of an incomplete, fallen world. But I also believe in a risen savior who came to redeem all of creation. And we actually get to take part in that redemption today. God’s redemption means that what was once broken can now be whole. Later in my ministry, when told that I should pray for the healing of the kids I worked with, my response was, “Our goal is not physical healing; it’s to help them to play

a role in the healing of this broken world—to play their specific, God-given, and beautiful role.” And guess what? Kids with disabilities are profound in their ability to heal the world. It’s one of God’s best-kept secrets. Often the world tells us something needs fixing. And just as often—if we look through the lens of the Cross—we will not find something broken, we will discover a new Creation. Jesus tried to explain this with his descriptions of the kingdom of heaven. Gandalf faced this with his decision to trust a hobbit. You face this in your ministry when the world tells you that you need thousands of people in your congregation. Our prayer for this issue is that we all remember that the world does not make the rules. We are where we are supposed to be. In the light of the kingdom, let’s use our gifting to go out and partner with our Father in the ultimate healing of the world, a world that desperately needs relief. And let’s sing about our great and wonderful God, for all of his complex glory and holy beauty.

– Jeremy Armstrong, managing editor

worshipleader FOUNDER/CEO/PUBLISHER Chuck Fromm, PhD EDITORIAL BOARD Warren Anderson, Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown, J. Robert Clinton, Maggi Dawn, Craig Detweiler, Jeff Deyo, Carlton Dillard, Stan Endicott, Susan Fontaine Godwin, Shaun Groves, Tony Guerrero, Debby Kerner Rettino, Reggie Kidd, Roberta King, Greg Laurie, Hughes Oliphant Old, Andy Park, Matt Redman, Robb Redman, Jason Ritchie, Mark Roberts, Lin Sexton, Martin Smith, Brian Steckler, Laura Story, Rick Warren. SUBMISSIONS See our submission guidelines at worshipleader.com. For all other feedback or inquiries, contact editor@wlmag.com. PERMISSIONS We grant duplication permission for up to 100 copies of any original article for use in a local church. For any other quantity or use, email editor@wlmag.com.

MANAGING EDITOR Jeremy Armstrong GRAPHIC ARTIST Michelle Mifflin DIRECTOR, TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT Suzie Stablein DIRECTOR, SALES & BRAND PARTNERSHIPS Alissa Smith VP, OPERATIONS Nicole Fromm ACCOUNTS MANAGER Judi Coffin ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Samantha Hart

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W OR SH IP LE A D E R

LEADERSHIP BY PAUL BALOCHE

THE BLESSINGS OF A SMALL, GROWING CHURCH I

’m a big fan of small, growing churches. For the past 26 years my wife and I have served at the same local fellowship in East Texas where we have functioned in nearly every capacity—from children’s church, youth ministry, and maintenance to worship pastor, deacon, and elder. In our mid-twenties we said, “We want to find a group of people to grow old with.” Fortunately there were many families from different parts of the country who felt like us. Walking through the seasons of life with people from your community is a rare and priceless thing these days. We live in such a transient society where folks are quick to leave and slow to commit.

Rare Commodity The blessing of commitment gives you support, friendships, accountability, and purpose. Getting to know others and allowing yourself to be known is a dynamic that can only happen in the context of local community—preferably a faith community—where Jesus is the center, the Bible is taught, and worship is expressed through creative, biblical ways. It’s often tempting for a worship team or pastor to wish for bigger, greener pastures with bigger budgets and larger buildings. But oftentimes I hear of the difficulty in larger churches to truly connect with others in ways that go beyond the superficial or “Sundays only.”

Take Your Time Probably the biggest challenges in a smaller-church worship ministry are the limited resources and qualified team members. My advice is to “go slow” when building a team. It’s much harder to undo a team than put one together, patiently, over time. A capable keyboardist or guitar10

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“It’s much harder to undo a team than put one together …” ist with some spiritual maturity is more than enough to lead a small congregation, especially if you add a few gifted singers who are growing in their faith and talents. After finding a base team, stay alert as you get to know the people attending your church. You may be surprised to find a bass player or drummer among your attendees. Invite them to a rehearsal. Get to know them better before asking them to join you on a Sunday morning. I would rather have no drummer than a bad drummer, so don’t be in a rush to fill up the platform. Encourage every member to practice with a metronome, especially drummers. Adopt the Scripture from 1 Chronicles 25:7, “…all of them trained and skilled in music for the LORD” as your team mission statement over the next year. Also, Psalm 33:3, “Sing to him a new song; play skillfully.” Be inspired to bring your best week after week, striving for excellence, not perfection. This requires a vision and a commitment to practice and rehearse often.

Allow for Life When several of our team members were having and raising small children, we would meet up at the church for rehearsals, prayer times, and jam sessions. Our kids were typically running around the sanctuary playing, laughing, spilling sodas, and dropping popcorn on the carpet while we practiced. I know, I know, that sounds terrible, but it was a beautiful chaos—we were like family, and it was fun! I believe our friendships and time spent

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together both at church and in each other’s homes affected our church worship times. There was a trust and camaraderie that was building without us even realizing it or giving it a name. I’m encouraged these days to see so many churches having “team nights” where all the creative types gather to pray, fellowship, rehearse, and get to know each other. This has such an intangible impact on our corporate worship experiences from week to week.

Simple Steps Take stock of who is in your church. Get to know who is attending on a regular basis. Find out what they do and where they came from. Be interested in their lives. Pray for them. Gather your team occasionally after rehearsal and look out over the seats in your sanctuary, praying for those who will be sitting there come Sunday. Get them in your heart. Pray for supernatural empathy for the people and families you get to serve. Ask God to strengthen their faith, bless their relationships, marriages, etc. Always remember what a privilege it is to stand up each week and point your community to the Triune God through songs, prayers, Scripture, and creativity. W

PAUL BALOCHE (leadworship.com, @paulbaloche) has written songs such as “Open the Eyes of My Heart,” and most recently released Live.

LEADERSHIP BY RORY NOLAND

5 SUGGESTIONS FOR FOSTERING PARTICIPATION Question:

What can I do to get our congregation to engage more during worship? Our worship team works hard to prepare, and we throw ourselves into leading every week, but if often feels like we’re pulling teeth trying to get the people to participate. Any suggestions?

Answer: This is actually one of the most common questions I get, so you’re not alone in your frustration. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get people to engage during worship. Part of the problem is cultural. Because of the prominence and popularity of the entertainment industry, modern churchgoers are culturally conditioned to be passive spectators instead of active participants. However, sometimes the problem is our own doing. There are things we worship leaders do (unintentionally of course) that actually inhibit participation. With that in mind, I have five general suggestions.

1.Make sure the music is singable. Congregation members tend to drop out if a song is too complicated rhythmically or melodically or if the key is too high. That may sound obvious, but I continue to see numerous examples where this cardinal rule is blatantly ignored. 2.Feature familiar songs. The people in the pews tend to sing out songs they know, so make sure the majority of the tunes in any given worship set are familiar. As a rule of thumb, most congregations can’t handle more than one new song each week. By “new” song, I 12

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mean one used three times or less. After three outings, the song should be familiar. I would also avoid starting a worship set with a new or unfamiliar song. That tends to get the service off to a weak start from which it is difficult to recover. 3.Encourage your vocalists to sing always. If the congregation sees a group of singers up front, but only one of them is singing, it sends mixed signals as people starting wondering: Are we all supposed to sing, or is this a solo? The current trend toward shared leads brings much-needed variety, but be careful that it doesn’t come off feeling like a concert. Just because one singer is leading out on a verse doesn’t mean all other singers stop worshiping. Instead of completely dropping out, the support vocalists should simply step away from the mic but continue to sing and stay engaged as worshipers. Remember, congregations are notoriously shy. If the people have any doubts as to whether they’re supposed to sing, they won’t. Unless a song is designed to be “presentational,” make sure your singers lead by example and stay engaged throughout. 4.Encourage your instrumentalists to worship while they play. It may not be reasonable to expect instrumentalists to sing every note as they play, but if they can join in on the chorus or the bridge whenever possible, it sends a

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strong message to the congregation that what’s happening on the platform is not meant to be only a performance. It’s gathered worship, so it’s something we all do together, even the band members. 5.Teach about worship. The most effective way to inspire enthusiasm for worship is to teach about it. On occasion, I’ll ask worship leaders, “When was the last time your pastor preached a sermon about worship?” Sadly, the reply I most commonly hear is, “Never.” Teaching about biblical worship from the pulpit goes a long way in creating and sustaining a culture of participation. There are also numerous books about worship available for small group study. Even brief, wellcrafted comments you make between songs as you lead can increase the congregation’s understanding and appreciation of worship. W

RORY NOLAND (heartoftheartist.org) directs

Heart of the Artist Ministries and is the author of Worship on Earth as It Is in Heaven.

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Tedd T. Nashville-based Tedd T. (Mutemath, Newsboys, David Crowder Band) is not the type of producer who’s content to sit behind the console all day. He prefers collaborating with and inspiring artists with new approaches and fresh perspectives to music making. Tedd tells us about his process and what it’s like working on the road with For King & Country:

KING

H o n e s t y, F a i t h , a n d F a m i l y The name is also the mission statement: “It’s an old English battle cry, as they went to fight for what they believed and to stand for something greater than themselves,” says For King & Country’s Joel Smallbone. “For us, doing music for people and for God is one of the main underlying themes of the band.” And the Nashville-based group, fronted by Joel and his brother Luke, takes their mission statement seriously. By turns exultant, introspective, atmospheric, and immediate, For King & Country’s uplifting music is also incredibly honest and authentic. The brothers spent their youth in Australia and cut their musical teeth in the U.S., eventually backing up their sister, Rebecca St. James, on tour. By 2007, they were making musical waves of their own, and by 2013, they had released two well-received albums and received a Dove Award. The band has played hundreds of shows since then — and they’re not slowing down. Their latest, Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong., features their strongest material yet. During a stop on the band’s fall 2014 tour, Joel spoke with us about the importance of family, respect in relationships, recording on the bus, and the always-present role of faith in the band’s music.

What is it like to record, literally, on the road? The great thing about recording on the bus is that every day you wake up in a different city. Plus, you also have access to whatever rooms and venues you find. On the bus, I record with an Apollo DUO and a laptop with a solid-state drive. Mainly, what you’re trying to do is to capture inspiration. The DUO is so compact and does such a great job; it’s fantastic. We’d sit out there on the bus and use a little Akai controller keyboard. And, even confined to two octaves on the keyboard, it’s actually cool because it makes you work really hard on what it is that you’re playing. Plus, when you’re on the road, you’re more in the mindset of creating something great, with less of the pressure you might feel when you go to a big, fancy studio and you know you have to “nail it.”

How did you and Luke get interested in music? Music chose us, I think, more than we chose music. We grew up in a very musical family. Our dad, who is our manager now, was a concert promoter in Australia. He brought over a lot of artists in the ’80s, including Amy Grant. One of my earliest memories in Sydney was looking at vinyl records by my favorite bands or going to shows and plugging my ears. I was a t-shirt model at four years old, standing onstage with the shirt draping all the way to the floor. I remember there were always bands and musicians coming through the house. It was also on one of those tours that things didn’t go as well as projected, and my dad lost a quarter of a million dollars — which ultimately led to us having to sell the house to pay the debt. For years, he’d felt a prompting to move to the U.S., and he found some work over here in the music industry in Nashville.

Today, we’re setting up in a church to record. They have a fantastic old upright and an old M3/Leslie. I wondered if it would work, and sure enough, we got it fired up. Even with a broken key, it sounded great. The church has a soundproofed room for newborns, so we’re setting up in there. That’s a nice surprise. We moved the upright and the M3 in there, and the church has some nice mics they’ve been gracious enough to let us use. So much of the adventure happens when you walk into a new scenario where there are things that inspire art. Do you have a “go-to” mic you’re currently using? The main one is the SM7B. It’s very focused. We also used a Peluso tube mic.

Your move to the States was tumultuous. It was after we got there that he actually lost his job. So, it was to that point about a month in, and we were

Tell us about the software you use. I record everything in Logic. I use a lot of soft synths in Logic. I start with the presets and do a lot of modifying to get the sounds we’re looking for. I’ve got a lot of Logic-based sounds that we used for the record. I use Absynth a lot; I think it sounds really interesting. It’s great for creating textures and backgrounds. I also use Native Instruments Ultimate, and I love the iZotope stuff. And I think Auto-Tune 7 is fantastic.

stuck living in a furniture-less house without a car. And he was just trying to find any kind of semblance of work he could. We really knit together during that time. As a family, we raked leaves, we mowed lawns, cleaned houses along with our oldest sister, Rebecca. We really worked as a team. I remember well: we’d sit in a circle in the living room, and we would just pray. We had nowhere to turn other than upward. We saw pretty miraculous things happen. The first Thanksgiving we were here, we found out about a family who invited pretty much anyone who wanted to join to Thanksgiving dinner. At the end of the night, the father of the house walked up to my mum and said, “I feel like God is prompting me to give you the keys to our minivan.” Also, someone anonymously paid for our little sister to be born in a hospital. The list goes on — just amazing examples of people giving and serving. Do you recall particular musical influences? For Luke, growing up, bands like Switchfoot were very influential. Classic U2 was a big influence on me. I went to a few U2 shows during their 360 tour, and they segued from “Amazing Grace” into “Where the Streets Have No Name.” I was just sitting there flabbergasted at how much of a worship service it felt like, you know? There are other layers of influences too; Luke is a pretty avid reader, and we’ve both been major C. S. Lewis fans since we were kids, so hopefully some of that has rubbed off lyrically. I also love theatrical and cinematic scores. When did you and Luke begin playing live? Our oldest sister began traveling as a musician. Dad needed cheap labor, so he put us brothers to work as the crew: lighting, sound, background vocals. That was when Luke and I really began to see the impact of music. It was toward the end of Rebecca’s career that we started kind of leaning in on our own. We ended up writing over a hundred songs and began doing showcases for labels — and got shut down more times than I want to count. Then, fast-forward to 2009, a gentleman by the name of Mark Bright, who’s primarily a country producer and runs a publishing company, took over our label.

COUNTRY Mark produced Carrie Underwood and Reba McEntire and a lot of country icons. He was a real champion for us and signed us, and we recorded some material under his leadership. How do you approach instrumentation? Neither of us is classically trained. Luke grew up very rhythmic, and I’d say I grew up more melodic. I’d have a laptop and a little keyboard for the demos we’d cook up. I’d like to say I could “play” everything without playing anything. And now, live, Luke and I don’t do any of the heavy lifting, instrumentally. Luke may play some percussion, and I might play a bit on the harmonium or on a few various drums or tubular bells onstage. But it’s all a very ancillary thing that lets us focus on the vocals and the melodies and the message. Tell us about your recording process. We actually have a producer [Tedd T.] out on the road with us right now. We worked with him very closely on several songs on our last album. It’s very collaborative — in sort of a “cyber” way. He and I have a studio setup in the back of the tour bus, with a laptop MIDI controller and a microphone. We’ll build a very rough skeleton of the song and send an MP3 out to the band. Then, they will, respectively, set up their own laptops and will kind of layer in other sounds. Sometimes, we’ll even go into the venue prior to the show and mic up an instrument to get a track. So, you’re assembling both demos and the final product at the same time? Yes. In our opinion, your ears don’t lie. Technical perfection does not match the beauty of a really heartfelt piece. I think basically all the vocals on “Run Wild” were sung on the bus. It’s not a pristine, clean kind of thing, but what we went for was “heart over art.” If it feels right, go. Being so busy and being on tour allowed us to discover this recording process. What about the centrality of faith in your songwriting? I find that it’s hard to separate the song — regardless of its theme — from our faith. We might be writing about someone who is going through a hard time. In fact, Luke was very ill last year. We wrote a couple of songs walking through, almost in journal form, his illness. Inside the song, you can see the spiritual ramifications. And on a song like “Shoulders” from the new album, it’s almost a prayer. Almost a psalm, if you will. Or on “Fix My Eyes,” the lead single, that song was very much built around wanting to be

a good human being and contributing to society, but above all of those things, we want to fix our eyes on Heaven and maintain that focus. Because keeping that focus holds us in good stead — in not making it about ourselves. Family is such a strong element of the band. I honestly feel that, without my wife and Luke’s wife, Courtney and their son [and they very recently had a second son], the strength of the group would be dramatically decreased. You get a balance and a purpose. The heartbeat of For King & Country is family. I’ve mentioned that our dad manages us. Daniel, my oldest brother, does a lot of the lighting and design. Brother Ben does any video work that we do. Mom is out on the road with us right now as well. But even beyond the blood family, the guys onstage with us and the label... there’s a big sense of family. You’ve mentioned the importance of respect and honor in relationships. Our parents have been married for almost 40 years, and we’re a really strongly knit family. And borne out of that was the idea of saying to young ladies — and also to men, but especially to girls — don’t let anyone disrespect you in a relationship. Don’t ever settle for second best. Know what you’re worth; know that you matter. We say to guys that, hey, it’s time to step up. Chivalry is alive and well. You might think that we’d get people who scoff, but the response has been one of overwhelming positivity. Your producers (Tedd T., Seth Mosley, and Matt Hales) are very collaborative with you in the recording process. I can’t speak more highly of them. One of the things in the creative process that I find most stifling is a “we can’t” attitude — versus a “we can” or a “let’s try.” And these guys are so willing to think outside the box... I hesitate to say even that, because I almost think they don’t acknowledge the box. Their approach is music is music; let’s have fun and be creative.

CALL UR FOR YO

For King & Country’s latest album, Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong., is available now. To find out more, go to forKingandCountry.com!

FRSUEEE! IS

What is next for you and the band? After this tour, we’ll do something we’ve never done as a band, which is to take off about a month. Then, we’ll be on an arena tour early in 2015. We will be contributing a song to an upcoming television series, and there’s talk about working on music for a film that’s shooting this year. We’re also thinking about a Christmas EP, and there will be another tour in the fall of 2015.

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Given this approach to recording, how do you manage to get such a cohesive sound? I attribute a lot of that to the guys knowing what they want the music to become. They have a lot of musical input on the parts, and they know what they like. They’re very aware of what’s “them,” and they’re mindful of what’s going on track-wise and arrangement-wise.

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LEADERSHIP

SMALL CHURCH MACGYVERS BY DAVID MANNER

orship is not contingent on the size of our congregation. It is instead, our response to God’s revelation where we live and serve. Every church, no matter how small or large should be developing distinctly and becoming uniquely the congregation God has called them to be. Church statistical information indicates that 95 percent of American churches average 350 or less in worship and 7580 percent of those churches average 150 or less. Smaller churches are not irrelevant or mediocre imitations of larger congregations; they are actually the norm or large majority of churches nationwide. Worship leaders in smaller congregations could learn from MacGyver, the main character in an action-adventure television series that ran for seven seasons beginning in 1985. The show followed secret agent, Angus MacGyver as he solved complex situations with everyday materials at hand. Using common items, MacGyver was able to find clever solutions for seemingly

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“Not only can a small worshiping community have vibrant worship, they are actually set up to thrive as the living body of Christ in ways larger congregations struggle.”

unsolvable problems. So how does a small church create something unbelievable with what is available?

Discover Your Worship Voice It is sometimes easier to imitate the worship habits, methods, styles, presentations, and even attire of other worship leaders or their larger congregations. We often mimic them without considering the calling and abilities of our players, singers, and congregants. And we usually face disappointment when we fail to live up to those unreal expectations. If God has called us to lead worship in our unique context and culture then imitating another can actually marginalize that calling. Stepford is the name of the fictional idyllic community in Ira Levin’s 1972 novel, The Stepford Wives. This satirical thriller portrays the women of the community as animatronic robots. The

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word Stepford has come to denote a person regarded as a bland robotic conformist— one who blindly imitates or mimics another or one who does not behave or think independently. Perhaps smaller congregations need to discover their own worship voice instead of trying to imitate the worship voice of others.¹ Finding the unique worship voice of our congregation is not just following a recipe of observed success elsewhere. Instead, the voice of our congregation is the voice heard and shared as we pray together, eat together, cry together, and rejoice together. It’s the voice heard and shared when we work out our differences, bless our children, bury family members, and sing our songs of love and hope.² Discovering the voice of our congregation is accomplished by leading worship focused on the place God has called us to serve, not the place we wish he had called us

to serve. It is leading with contentment, not comparison. When we discover our worship voice we are then able to plan and lead worship not based on what we see “out there” as successful but instead around who and what we already have “in here.”

Elevate Worship Beyond Music The origin of the idiom “one-trick pony” goes back to the days of the traveling circus. A trained pony or small horse was often used as a main circus attraction. Without any other acts or animals, these small circuses were often criticized as only offering a one-trick pony. The idiom is now used to identify a person or organization that only does one thing and sometimes not very well. When smaller congregations depend on music alone as their only act of worship they are often disappointed. Unrealistic expectations are rarely met when comparing their vocalists and instrumentalists to much larger congregations. Consequently, assumptions are made that their worship is somehow inferior. If music is the solitary worship driver, it will also face the solitary blame when personnel and resources aren’t available. Music is an expression given to us so that we might offer it to God in worship. But it shouldn’t be the only or maybe even primary expression. What follows are a few worship expressions/practices where small churches might even have an advantage over their larger counterparts.

Scripture

Communion

Our churches zealously defend the Bible and yet rarely read its text in our worship services. We often struggle with understanding how to lead worship with our limited musical resources while at the same time minimizing the very foundational text from which our songs must spring forth. Scripture must be foundational to our songs, sermons, prayers, and verbal transitions. It must be frequently and variously read and allowed to stand on its own. And when the biblical text organically pours forth in our songs and sermons, rather than serving as fertilizer for our own contrived language, we will leave worship with the text in our hearts and on our lips for continuous worship out there.

Smaller church worship could be renewed when Communion is fully restored to the place it had in the early centuries— as the central communal Christian act of worship.3 Creating community through musical selections alone is a shallow attempt to manufacture what is already available at the Table. It offers a vertical Communion with Christ as we partake of the elements and a horizontal Communion with other believers as we gather in unity. Infrequent observance of the visual Word at the Communion Table is often voiced out of concern that frequency promotes monotony. And yet, why aren’t the same concerns expressed in response to the verbal Word of a sermon or vocal Word of a song? The frequency argument might have merit if sermons and songs were always offered with the same text in exactly the same manner. Observing Communion more often can remind believers not only of what God has done but what he promised to continue to do. The act of remembering is not just to recall the sorrow of the cross, but also to remember the power of his life and ministry, the joy of his resurrection, and the hope of his return.

Prayer Instead of a profound conversation with the Father as an act of worship, prayer in a larger congregation is often used as a final breath of fresh air before or during a transition, to break up a song set, or to discreetly move the worship band to the platform or choir off the platform. Prayer has been relegated to the role of a worship service utility infielder. It is often plugged into worship service holes as a musical connector rather than a divine conversation that actually gives us a reason to sing our songs. Small church communities have the distinct ability to give common prayer a more significant role in a service of worship.

Arts Small churches that won’t take the risks to provide a venue for creatives to offer their art beyond predictable musical expressions will lose them to other places that will. Our focus on music alone may

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be causing us to miss profound worship opportunities available through other arts and artists already in our church. Leaders must be willing to educate, enlighten, and encourage in order to expand congregational understanding and acceptance of worship art beyond music. Consider some of the following suggestions as a place for your congregation to begin multiplying their artistic expressions: drama, painting, sculpting, drawing, dance, mime, poetry, prose, dramatic readings, photography, film, technology, computer graphics, architecture, sound, lighting, staging, props, and many others. Smallchurch leaders and congregations must be willing to say, “There is more, far more. Be hungry. Be thirsty. Be curious. Be unsatisfied. Go deep. Engage your whole being.”4 Although worship can’t be contained in one artistic expression such as music, it is evident from Scripture that singing and using instruments are indeed significant worship offerings (Ps 63:5; Eph 5:19; Col 3:15-17). So even when we are disappointed with our musical resources, we must still sing and play in addition to these other worship elements. It has the power to remind us of God’s presence, his hope, his assurance, and also his promised eternity. As we sing and play, we must remember that we are never offering our sacred songs alone. The minor prophet Zephaniah wrote, “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph 3:17). And Scripture tells us that Jesus as our high priest sings with us (Heb 8:1-2; 2:12). So even through our musical limitations, the Father is singing over us, and Jesus is singing with us.

Leave the Building Small churches are losing ground when they exhaust all worship resources preparing and leading a church service as worship while neglecting to prepare and lead the church in service as worship. Worship is not only what we do here; it is also who we are out there. When lives are impacted by our worship out there, we can truly say that worship has left the building. Small churches could learn from the prophet Micah’s condemnation of Israel’s dishonest, corrupt, and meaningless worship actions. “He has shown you, O 16

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man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic 6:8).

Act Justly A congregation that acts justly is welcoming. Most can answer affirmatively when asked if their worship welcomes those not like them—all are welcome if or when they come. Being “welcoming,” however, is more than simply saying hello to everyone who walks through the church door. A welcoming community actively embraces those who are not and may never be present. Welcome primarily focuses on the needs of the congregation that occur on Sunday. Welcoming, on the other hand, focuses on the needs of the world that occur every day. Welcoming worship loves, honors, and praises the Father by loving those he loves.

Love Mercy If anyone says, “I love God, [an act worship] yet hates his brother, [also an act of worship] he is a liar” (1 Jn 4:20). Service as worship is when we realize that loving God by loving my neighbor as I love myself is a profound act of worship. Mercy agrees that no stipulation should be required as to whether that neighbor has earned or deserves the right to be loved. Mercy affirms that those people are also made in God’s image and serving them is an act of worship.

Walk Humbly

sermon we have prepared for Sunday may not be the most important act of worship that will occur this week.” Eugene Peterson wrote in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Worship is the primary means for forming us as participants in God’s work, but if the blinds are drawn while we wait for Sunday, we aren’t in touch with the work that God is actually doing.5

Smaller congregations will better understand worship that acts justly, loves mercy, and walks humbly when they begin practicing not only gathered worship but also dispersed worship. The underserved out there aren’t really interested in the size of our congregation or quality of our worship band. So we must never expend all our resources on a weekly event and have nothing left for what should be a daily occurrence. If we save our best worship-leading ideas and resources for the larger church we hope God will call us to next, why would he want to? Offering what we have available even with all its small-church limitations is not settling for mediocrity. Loving the Lord with heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves is never dependent on congregational size or abilities. We obviously still need to regularly pray that God might send stronger singers, better players, and greater opportunities to influence our community and the world through our worship. But like MacGyver, we can’t wait until all of those people and pieces are in place to begin. W

Humility is one of the most difficult qualities to embrace and sustain. Once we think we have it, we no longer do. Walking humbly allows us to enthusiastically say, “The music we have selected and the DR, DAVID MANNER is the associate executive director for the Kansas Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists. His convention responsibilities include worship consultation and leadership development. Before joining the convention staff in 2000, David served for 20 years in music/worship ministry with congregations in Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. David writes for various online and print publications and can be followed on Twitter @dwmanner or on his Worship Evaluation Blog: kncsb.org blogs/dmanner. 1. Constance Cherry, in Terry W. York and C. David Bolin, The Voice of Our Congregation: Seeking and Celebrating God’s Song for Us (Nashville: Abingdon, 2005), 9. 2. York and Bolin, The Voice of Our Congregation, 9. 3. Eleanor Kreider, Communion Shapes Character (Scottdale: Herald, 1997), 15. 4. Harold M. Best, “Authentic Worship and Artistic Action,” an address to the Calvin Institute of Worship, 2005. 5. Eugene H. Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 71.

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ARTISTS FEATURED ON SONG DISCOVERY JULY/AUGUST VOL. 123

SONGWRITER SHOWCASE

ian yates

Charlie hall

Background: I’ve been leading musical worship for around 15

Background: I had been experimenting with writing songs for a

years. I started off leading in my local church with less than 100 people pretty much every week until about two years ago. In the last seven-to-eight years, opportunities have opened up to lead musical worship nationally at different events and conferences, which has been an honor and a privilege. Five years ago I started Elim Sound with three other worship leaders; it’s a national initiative to encourage, resource, equip, and inspire worship leaders within our movement. I’ve also had the amazing opportunity to record three of my own albums and three albums with Elim Sound. I love songwriting; I’m passionate about people encountering God’s love and goodness and for us to really grasp who we are in Christ.

few years, but around 1991, I began really setting my attention and centering on Jesus. I began writing my prayers to music and it wasn’t too long after that I realized people were singing the prayers with me. I honestly didn’t know what was happening because my paradigm for worship was so much more traditional, but the Holy Spirit seemed to land on those moments. As the years went by I began to see other models of worship leading emerge, and I would assimilate pieces of what I was seeing into my leadership until it became part of me. In my early years, I led a passionate group of God-hungry charismatics and eventually became the worship director for that church for around 10 years. As my songwriting and leadership continued to grow I began recording and traveling the states and abroad leading the Church and pointing them to Jesus through music, the gospel, and art. I was/am a part of a movement called Passion which also was an umbrella for the record label sixstepsrecords that I was a part of. I have loved every season of worship leadership I’ve been a part of, but the last five years of life I’ve spent traveling less and pastoring in a local church here in OKC! The gospel swirling with music and art is powerful everywhere, but I’ve loved joining the art of leading with people’s personal pilgrimages inside the local church. Being a part of stadiums of people worshiping is massive and beautiful, but leading the same faces and hearts week after week is a powerful privilege and honor.

elimsound.co.uk | ianyatesmusic.com Song on Song Discovery: Vol. 123, # 1, “The Best Is Yet to Come”

aBout the Song: Elim is a large Pentecostal movement; we have

around 600 churches in the UK and many around the world. 2015 is our centenary year. As part of the centenary we planned to release a new album to celebrate, and as part of the album we wanted to write a song that would be an anthem for us to sing this year. We wanted to be intentional with this, and the picture we had was of thanking God for the last 100 years, for his faithfulness, for the amazing things we’ve seen—honoring yesterday while dreaming great dreams and expectantly looking forward to the future, believing our best days are to come. We want to see a move of God in our nation, and we are anticipating great things.

Frontlinechurch.tv | Charliehall.com Song on Song Discovery: Vol. 123, # 9, “Psalm 139:4-5”

aBout the Song: This was a song written for The Verses Project. Favorite SongS: “Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble,” Deliri-

ous? (amazing, powerful song), “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” Guns N’ Roses (the reason I wanted to play guitar), “Here Is Love Vast as the Ocean” (an Incredible Hymn, I love verse 3)

Its intention is to set Scripture to melody for meditation and memorization. The project was covering all of Psalm 139, you can go to the website now and start singing and meditating (theversesproject.com). Favorite SongS: “Landslide,” Fleetwood Mac, “The Solid Rock,”

Mote & Bradbury, “Cannonball,” Damien Rice,“Blessed Be Your Name,” Matt Redman (real slow though) Songwriters: Have a song you want to share with the Church?

Submit your song at worshipleader.com/submit-a-song 18

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iKE ndolo

From: “Memorial” -Single. Words & Music: Ike Ndolo/Matt Maher. Ezek 37: 1-4/Jn 6:35-68 BONUS TRACK

SCRIPTURE SONG

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9. PsAlm 139:4-5 CharliE hall

From: Psalm 139. Words & Music: Charlie Hall. Ps 139:4-5

JESSiCa BuSBoom

From: Reveal Your Majesty. Words & Music: Jessica Busboom/ Jennie Mahood. 2 Tim 2:13

1. THE bEST IS YET TO COmE

7. POUR IT

elim Sound As heard on: Elim 100. Words & Music: Ian Yates/Stephen Gibson. Visit: elimsound.co.uk

kirk william SauerS As heard on: Always and Forever - EP. Words & Music: Kirk William Sauers/Allie Hays/Esther Faith. Visit: kirkwilliamsauers.bandcamp.com

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WARNING: Reproduction of any song included on this recording by any means, without the express permission of the copyright owner, is a violation of the law. Please consult the digital booklet for this disc for copyright and general information.

July/august 2015 Volume 123

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2. JESUS IS ALIVE

coram deo church As heard on: Swallowed Up Death. Words & Music: Megan Pettipoole/Luke Pettipoole/ David Potter. Visit: cdomaha.com/music

FellowShip creative As heard on: Alive In Us -EP. Words & Music: Fellowship Creative/Jonathan Smith. Visit: fellowshipcreative.com

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LEADERSHIP

THE PLUS SIDE OF SMALL COMMUNITY WORSHIP

BY ZAC HICKS

Everything Is Awesome

I was blessed to help lead a small church We live in a day and age of hype. Every- plant that fluctuated in attendance bething is super-sized. Everything is over tween 50 and 150 people. When God the top and overblown. We throw around called me away from that church, it was superlatives like nobody’s business (“That only in hindsight that I could see the was the most epic song I’ve ever heard!” unique blessings of worshiping in a small“That was the worst taco in the world.”) If er community. In fact, to this day, my wife you have kids as in love with The Lego Movie and I grieve some losses that were simply as mine are, there was a season in the life irretrievable in a larger church context. I of your home not long ago when the only want to highlight some of those blessings. song you heard them sing was the EDMgrooved, “Everything Is Awesome.” It’s true. You Know the Flock, the Flock Knows You Worship is just flat out better for everyEverything around us seems “ginormous.” The world of worship in the West can one involved when the worship leader feel like that, too. I remember once sitting knows the worshipers, and vice versa. in a breakout session at a worship confer- Worship leaders perform a vital pastoral ence where the electric guitarist was giv- role each and every week with the gathing us tips on improving our craft. In a ered body as we place the words of sung nearly laughable moment, he mentioned, and spoken prayers on the lips of the peo“Now, here’s what I like to do when I’ve ple. To perform this function well, a worgot the camera all up in my grill,” and he ship leader needs to be in tune with the proceeded to demonstrate how he would joys, sorrows, triumphs, and fears of the put his left foot up on a monitor and shred flock. There is nothing worse than coming his axe in an aggressive stance complete in to worship with a heavy load of grief with a scrunched-up, bad-boy look on his on your shoulders and having your pain face. On behalf of everyone in the room, utterly ignored by an overly exuberant I thought to myself, Well, what about all 100 worship set. Worship leaders who know percent of the rest of us who don’t serve churches with their people are sensitive to this dynamic in worship planning and leading. on-stage cameramen getting all up in our grill? One of the downsides to the myriad on- The reality is that small worshiping line worship resources out there is that they communities have the upper hand here. In come to us from the “big church” men- a small church, everyone knows everyone tality. This is totally understandable, given else. Worship leaders in these contexts can that small churches usually don’t have the look out on the faces of the congregation capacity to resource other churches. How- and know every name and probably alever, largecommunity “Well, what about all 100 percent of the rest worship resources and of us who don’t serve churches with on-stage p r a c t i c e s cameramen getting all up in our grill?” don’t always translate well to smaller communities, slug- most every story. You can’t keep up with ging it out on the ground with fewer re- what’s going in the lives of 500 people, but you can with 50. Being up-to-date on sources and more simplified approaches. Now, to put all my cards on the table, everyone’s story is an indispensable gift to I serve a big church (not mega, but big). a sensitive, pastoral worship leader. As you I wasn’t always a worship leader in a big sit down to plan a song set or liturgy, you church, though. For five years in Denver, bring the hearts and concerns of everyone 20

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with you. You remember that one family’s eldest son just graduated from college that week. You know that a young woman just miscarried a baby three days ago. You recall that one couple’s marriage is on the rocks and another is celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. This intimate knowledge informs you as you craft the structure of prayer that week. In addition to this, your people know you. As you lead them, you’re not some distanced rock star “up there.” You’re their gifted sister or brother, with whom they shared dinner four nights ago. They know your stresses, pressures, and difficulties. They know your strengths and your weaknesses. And they love you. This kind of knowing and being known forges a greater unity in worship and makes being together sweet and rich. This experience gets much harder to find as a church gets bigger.

Worship Gets Humanized Another plus of small community worship is its humanizing element. Seasoned producers and recording engineers will talk about how some recordings feel more “human” than others. Often what they mean is that there is a level of imprecision to the sound. A truly “human” drummer might play quite tightly, but they will never be perfectly “on the grid” the way a drum machine would. Jazz players, likewise, will tell you that there is a human musicality to be found in the pushes and pulls of music that can’t be replicated by software and pre-programmed loops. So it is with worship. As churches get bigger, layers of polish and sheen tend to become coated onto worship’s surface. Things are a little more tightly “produced.” Technological additions, though smoothing some of worship’s rough edges, may increasingly distance what goes on “up there” versus what is happening in the congregation. All this and more can tend to dehumanize the worship experience. We all shuffle like cattle into a big

room with impressive aesthetic accessories, take our seats, and get wowed by the level of quality. And though this quality isn’t a bad thing, it can tend to distance us from a feeling of connection with what’s going on. The more it looks like a show, the more we feel like passive receptors. Small community worship feels nothing like a show. Maybe the worship leader’s transitions are a bit awkward. Maybe the sound feeds back every week without fail sometime in the worship service. Maybe

unified in conviction about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Nothing embodies this unity like the kind of “all in” participation that we are blessed to witness more visibly in small community gatherings.

Jesus Is More Easily Visible to the World

This last point is a bit more mystical, but I believe it’s no less true. The Scripture calls the Church the “Body of Christ” (1 Cor 12:27). This is more than a nice metaphor. It at least means that when “Understanding our frail humanity the Church gathers in unity and before an unbelievably holy God is doing what the Church should be doing, Christ becomes more is the perfect posture for worship. visible. Add to this Jesus’ famous It’s right where he wants us.” words: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must there’s no cry room for the screaming love one another. By this everyone will baby two seats away from you. Everyknow that you are my disciples, if you thing’s just a bit more raw and real—a love one another” (Jn 13:34-35). Christ bit more, well, human. And this is a good taught us that the world will know and thing. Understanding our frail humansee him best not with fancy programs, ity before an unbelievably holy God is polished music, and slick communicathe perfect posture for worship. It’s right tion, but by how well we love each other. where he wants us. It is a lot easier to display on-the-spot, genuine, authentic love for one another Ownership Is Increased in a small gathering where we all know One of the realities of large community each other. You and I have all witnessed worship is its allowance of anonymous that kind of community somewhere, and worshipers. They slip in and out of worit is nothing short of the glorious, attracship without ever interacting with a tive aroma of Christ (2 Cor 2:15). single soul. Small community worship In an age of hype, where bigger is betvirtually eliminates the possibility of this. ter, small pockets of community that are Everyone is recognizable, and everyone deeply human and surprisingly authentic is, therefore, accountable. have become rare. And, in their scarcity, Small community worship puts a genour cravings for them (and for what Jesus tle pressure on everyone to take ownerhas to offer in them) have increased. This ship of the time. If everyone isn’t pulling means that it just might be the worship their weight, the communal experience of smaller communities that will have a truly suffers. Singing in worship highgreater impact in the 21st century. So let’s lights this reality. In a large worship comall join together in thanking God and praymunity, if many worshipers aren’t singing for a greater visibility of Christ in and ing, there’s still the strong possibility that through the “ordinary faithful,” where the room will be filled with sound either God continues to do extraordinary things. W from everyone else who is singing or from the music coming out of the main speakers. In a small community, it doesn’t work like this. If some aren’t singing, it’s ZAC HICKS very noticeable. You can’t run and hide. Zac Hicks (@zachicks) is Pastor of You can’t be anonymous. Each and every Worship at Coral Ridge Presbyterian worshiper must own participation. Church (Ft. Lauderdale, FL). He writes on worship at zachicks.com, This increased ownership is an incredhas recorded several albums, and is ible gift to the worship experience. There author of The Worship Pastor is something deeply edifying and forma(Zondervan, forthcoming 2016). tive when all worshipers gathered are

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MUSICAL EXCELLENCE IN A SMALL CHURCH I

f you are a worship leader trying to keep up with today’s modern worship sound, you have probably realized that it’s pretty difficult to recreate the epic orchestral, mesmerizing folk, or powerful wall-ofsound qualities that predominate the worship genre. You encounter challenges such as lack of musicians in your church, an underpowered sound system, budget constraints, limited rehearsal time or teammember inconsistency. All of which are valid and difficult obstacles to overcome when trying to build a worship team that sounds great, carries spiritual authority, and operates with unity. It may seem like excellence of sound and spirit is reserved for the megachurches with thousands of members and even larger budgets. However, this is simply not the case. No matter what size of church you’re in, you can have an excellent worship team. Here are a few things to remember as you and your team grow in excellence.

1. Excellence starts from the top down. Probably the most difficult thing for any musician is gaining a realistic perspective of his or her ability. You’re either your own worst critic or your biggest fan. But I encourage you to evaluate yourself objectively. Discover your actual strengths and honest weaknesses, because one of the keys to building a team of excellent members is to be sure that you lead by example. Excellence is not about perfection or being the best. In fact, excellence should never be based on a comparison to others. It’s about confidence, maximizing what you do have, and being willing to learn. 22

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Here are 3 keys to leading excellently:

•Learning. If you’re not incredible at your instrument yet, are you getting into lessons and practicing your craft? Your team does not expect you to be perfect, but they do expect you to grow. A desire to become excellent at your craft and an effort to achieve excellence will attract excellent team members who can help you improve and pursue growth for themselves.

to rehearsal. Also, he will be out of town a couple of Sundays every month. And he’s not totally sold on the whole idea of Christianity. His drumming style is more jazzy and hip-hop than what your team is actually aiming to sound like. But he has incredible skills! This guy doesn’t exactly sound like the greatest fit, does he? Do you think it would be worth using him simply because of how awesome he is at the drums? Too often, worship leaders think an excellent team is made up of rock-star musicians instead of genuine people. Obviously, they need to have some musical inclination to be contributing members of the “worship band.” But more so, find someone who is aligned with your vision as a ministry. Someone who is looking to serve God before serving themselves. Someone who is trustworthy and reliable—someone who will grow with you. In the long run, you will have a band with far superior chemistry, flow, and spiritual authority if you choose this approach, rather than the band full of musical all-stars who play different styles, are not serving the Lord, and have no loyalty to the ministry or team. If this means you have a team that sounds a little shaky, remember what I said about excellence: when your people have confidence, play within their ability, and are teachable, they are winners.

2. Build with the right people, not just the right musicians. Imagine you have access to the best drummer in the world, and he’s willing to play for your team. However, he can’t make it

3. Set goals and take risks. At the core of every individual, there is the desire to be great. Unfortunately, few people have developed a vision for how to achieve greatness or have received the

•Confidence. If you’re a little unsure about your song list for the week, that’s okay. Your team will trust you and give you their best effort if they feel like you’re comfortable and confident with the decision you’ve made. If you are constantly insecure or hesitant about your decisions, your team will sense that and will subsequently reflect your insecurities with poor playing, confusion, and doubt. •Maximization. Know your limitations. Choose songs that fit your range. Keep your melodies simple. Don’t push for notes you can’t hit. If you can maximize the skills that you do have and stay within the boundaries of what you are capable of, you will be able to perform with excellence.

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MUSIC

support to go after it. As Proverbs 29:18 says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” So as a leader who is building a team within a small church, you may not have all the resources to chase after every dream; however, you can have a goal in sight that you can share with your band. Here are a few examples of some goals you and your team could choose: Goal #1: Write original songs. A great starting place is to write and play original songs. Give your team members the excitement of playing their song for the church. Co-write as a team. Build cool arrangements and take risks. Goal #2: Record an album. Don’t promise anything you can’t deliver (like a specific budget or timeline), but if it’s in your heart to record an original worship album as a group, let them know that. Let them be part of your dreaming. Set some achievable markers that can help you realize that dream. Goal #3: Travel opportunities and itinerant ministry. Start small. Play youth retreats and local worship nights. Play for free. Wherever you start will build excitement for the future. It will give your team a vision. It will give them the motivation to become better because they will see their dreams are not as far off as they may have thought. You and your team may never aspire to any of these things and that’s okay, we

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simply want to stress the importance of vision and goals. Always remember, every goal and aspiration of your team should support first and foremost the strength and building of the local church. 4. Play to a click A very simple and practical way to get your worship team to a higher level of excellence is to start playing with a metronome. This one simple step will immediately make your band tighter, more uniform, and help to simplify their parts. If you can’t afford to switch your whole stage to in-ear monitors, you can at least get your drummer on a click using a headphone amplifier in place of a wedge monitor. 5. Use a quality sound engineer There’s an old trick in the live music industry when the headliner isn’t much better than the opening acts: replace the soundman (or woman). A great audio engineer can make a mediocre band sound really good, just as a bad audio engineer can make an awesome band sound awful. It’s all in the mix. Use the same approach to finding a sound engineer that you would use to find a leader, guitarist, drummer, etc. Don’t brush this role off as unimportant. As much as Grandma Jane may want to sit behind the soundboard and serve the ministry, this position requires as much foresight, training, and skill as any other position on the worship team—if not more! Again, you can give someone an

opportunity to grow, but don’t settle for someone unknowledgeable who has no desire to become excellent. 6. Have fun The foundation upon which you must build your worship team is community and camaraderie. Spend time encouraging each other, praying for one another, and laughing together. This principle applies to any form of leadership, but be sure your team knows how much you genuinely care about them. Otherwise, they won’t care how awesome you or your team’s potential is. Be connected. Be loving. Be family. Be a team. The most important ingredient to building a successful worship team is actually being a team. We hope these points help you achieve the impact you would like to have with your worship team. Rehearse a lot. Pray a lot. Take risks. Pursue excellence. You can do it. God will always bring the right people across your path. Be open to building new relationships and discovering the hearts of the people around you. This is going to be fun! W JOSHUA MOHLINE is the director of WorshipU, the online school of worship from Bethel Music. Joshua has a background as a worship leader in worship settings from small to large and has been a part of the Bethel Church worship teams since 2012. Now he facilitates the worship school, as it serves thousands of worship leaders and teams worldwide to become equipped and empowered in their callings.

Worshiping as We iamgoing.org

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MUSIC BY GRAHAM GLADSTONE

WORSHIP MINISTRY AS A VOLUNTEER WORSHIP LEADER

hile many churches employ worship pastors, that’s by no means the norm. There are many churches that gather on Sunday mornings and are led very faithfully in worship by a volunteer worship coordinator or one of a few volunteer worship leaders that lead a team at that church, and of course there are churches where the pastor chooses the music and a pianist plays. If you are a volunteer worship leader, let me encourage you—keep up the hard work! I’m sure that you are doing your very best (possibly with few resources and even less training!). I know that God knows your heart’s desire to honor him. In the absence of a worship pastor, may I present to you a few biblical principles that may help you in your ministry? I have served as a volunteer leader, a worship pastor, and a worship consultant; I recognize now that congregations under my leadership would have benefitted if I had embraced these all along.

1. Work as a team (Proverbs 15:22). In the absence of a worship pastor, make sure that you have a centralized authority that gathers semi-regularly. This may mean having a volunteer coordinator, but even better, have a group of leaders meet fairly regularly to talk about plans and goals for the future and to evaluate as you go. You may be tempted to say, “Well, I’m the only one” or “I know best,” but as you incorporate different perspectives, your ability to meaningfully serve your congregation will increase.

2. You all are leading the congregation together (1 Corinthians 3:7-9). Instead of thinking, “I’m leading my team,” think “Along with the other worship leaders, we are leading the congregation together.” The congregation will learn and engage with music better if it is 24

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used repeatedly and intentionally, so make an effort to choose songs that other leaders will be willing to play. Choose songs together, if you can, in order to build a strong repertoire. If you’re the only leader, solicit feedback from AV people, kids’ ministry leaders; see how your ministries can complement each other.

3. Each leader makes an important contribution (Romans 12:4-5). Your church or worship team may have a default “style” but remember, your congregation is full of people with widely different personality traits and preferences. Your worship leadership team itself is probably made up of thinkers, feelers, advocates, contemplatives, academics, charismatics, traditionalists; remember that God himself has given your people that diversity of gifts, and you would do well to allow each person to use those gifts however unique they may be.

4. Each leader should support the others (Philippians 2:3-4). That being said, each leader should acknowledge the value of the other leaders and be willing to lead music that they may not personally like, instead celebrating that that music edifies someone else. Sometimes someone will propose a song, and I’ll use it, in order to live out this value, even though I find the song uninspiring. It never ceases to amaze me when people approach me after these types of songs (it happens often) and say that they found it moving and “just what they needed to hear.”

5. Ensuring diversity is important (1 Corinthians 14:26). Everyone on your leadership team probably has a different preference in terms of musical style and “heart language”—that same diversity will be reflected in your

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congregation. As you give voice to that variety of preferences, you will be building up everyone in your church.

6. Our choices shape the congregation’s faith (Colossians 3:16). If you work as a volunteer, you may be so busy getting together the weekly order of service that you are unable to comprehend the magnitude of the job you are doing. You are probably planning half of the whole service! And people will often remember a song more than they will a line from a sermon. You are doing a vital work, and people will learn their theology from the songs you choose, so work to ensure that your people are exposed to the full scope of God’s character and actions. An effective worship ministry doesn’t have to have a fulltime worship pastor; that’s certainly the situation that Paul assumed when he wrote 1 Corinthians 12-14. Keep at it. Work as a team. Use the diversity of gifts that God has put in your midst to authentically honor God and effectively build up your people. While this article assumes that it is volunteer worship leaders choosing music, these guidelines may also be helpful for preaching pastors who choose music for Sunday mornings. W

GRAHAM GLADSTONE is an M.Div. holding, long-time worship leader with a passion for seeing the God of the Bible exalted as He deserves. He is now the preaching pastor at Langford Community Church in Southwestern Ontario. Connect with Graham at jbdomusic.com or @gwgladstone.

MUSIC BY ANDY CHAMBERLAIN

THE RIGHT KEY

FOR SMALL CHURCH WORSHIP

can’t help but notice how many album versions of worship songs aren’t very suitable for small churches. So many songs are too rangy for small congregations, with octave leaps that leave either the men or the women stranded. Or when original album keys are too high, I’ve heard many worship leaders change a song into a key that works for their own voice but is still equally unsingable for the majority of the congregation. So here are some tips that may help make those anthemic songs a little more singable.

A Bigger Story When trying to decide a good congregational key, many people say don’t sing notes above a top D, but that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Finding the right key is much more than purely locating the song’s ultimate high and low notes, it’s fundamentally more to do with finding where the power of the song lies and setting the key so that those power notes can be sung more powerfully by more of the people, more of the time. Let’s think of a song in two ways: range and strength. In terms of pure range, as a rule of thumb, if you’re trying to find a workable congregational range I’d suggest using A below middle C on the keyboard as the lowest note, then up to a D above the octave. If you’re a guitarist, the easiest way to visualize that is by using your A string. Played open as the low point up to fret 17 for the top D.

Strongest Points Conversely, thinking about where each gender typically sings with most strength, 26

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the available range then moves further apart. If you take that same range of low A to D above the octave, a stereotypical woman’s voice will be strongest on that low end and best between E and B, so frets 7 to 14, and a typical man’s strong range would start to push nicely at the higher end of the range, between the A on fret 12 and that D on fret 17. As you can see, that means there’s really only a single tone, effectively between A and B on frets 12 and 14 where both gender’s sing at their strongest points. In the real world, many original versions of worship songs sound too high because they need to be recorded around the lead vocalist’s strongest vocal range where there’s most power. Taking a Chris Tomlin or Phil Wickham type of voice, those guys sound very strong above the top end of our congregational range, which is why they regularly hit D, E, F# and G notes—notes beyond most non-pro male vocal abilities, let alone women’s.

General Rule So for a song to be truly congregational, its strongest notes need to be placed across that E to C mid-way fulcrum where both men and women have more of a chance of hitting more of the notes. Higher and lower is fine sometimes but not for the power moments or majority of the song.

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Practically, bringing a Wickham/ Hughes/Tomlin/male Hillsong led song down a minor 3rd so both genders can sing it and bringing some of the femaleled songs up a tone so as to not completely exclude the men does the trick.

More Access For something like “10,000 Reasons,” bringing it down a minor 3rd from G to E works extremely well, as it’s not a very rangy song and the majority of the power notes fall between G# and C#. If you have more women in the congregation, come down another tone to D, and it’ll still be reachable by both genders. Similarly, octave leaps sound great on a record, but in practice will probably result in 50 percent fewer people singing when you get there, so realistically I’d favor dropping the leap and choose a key in the middle of those two octaves. For instance, Matt Redman’s “Here For You” in B and “Cornerstone” in C both drop nicely into G if you drop the jump. W ANDY CHAMBERLAIN is cofounder of Musicademy. com and Worshipbackingband. com that produce instructional DVDs for musicians involved in worship and multitrack backing tracks and software for churches with missing musicians.

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MISSIONAL BY MICHAEL A. LEE

THE WORST MONEY YOU’LL EVER SAVE

hen I was 20, I bought my first real professional keyboard, an 88-key Korg Triton that weighed about eight tons. I was heading out on tour, so I bought a road case to go with it, but since I was a young and dumb starving musician, I opted to save $50 and buy a case that didn’t have wheels. It was, without a doubt, the worst $50 I’ve ever saved. Having served as a worship leader in some smaller churches and church planting ministries, and I know it can be difficult sometimes to get the money together to buy the things you need. We want to be good stewards of the church’s money, of course, and that can sometimes leave us trying to do things as cheaply as possible. I think that generally that’s not a bad thing. There are, however, a few places where saving a few dollars really costs us more in the long run. Here are my 3 bad tips for saving money in your worship ministry:

1. Don’t buy an extra drive to back up your computer. This is at the top of the list for a reason. Ask yourself this question: if my primary working computer crashed, how long would it take me to get back to where I am right now? To reinstall your software, rebuild your lost work, get everything back to where you’re ready to start working 28

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again? If you have a regular backup system, you know the answer is “not long.” If, instead, you’ve decided to save $100 by not buying a backup drive, the answer might be days, weeks, maybe never? That’s a bad $100 to save.

2. Use an older, low-resolution computer monitor. Ok, I’m going to drop some data on you with this one. Researchers at the University of Utah did a study and found that people who moved from an 18” to a 24” monitor worked 52 percent faster (Anderson, 2008 if you want to check it out). Now think about how much time you spend trying to create things on a screen, and ask yourself, “Would it be worth $200 for larger monitor if I could finish in 4 days what now takes me 6?”

projection software, or Microsoft Office, you need to make sure that you use a legally licensed version of the software. Not only does this affect your ability to get support and upgrades, it’s a legal and an ethical issue. Using unlicensed software is just a bad way to save a few bucks. Good stewardship is critical to good ministry, especially when resources are limited in a smaller church. We should always be ready to give an answer for how we’re spending the money in our budget. Along with that, though, we need to be sensitive to when a dollar saved will cost more in the long run, and be prepared to spend the extra money when it matters. Oh, and I used my keyboard case without wheels for exactly one tour. When I tried to get rid of it, I couldn’t even give it away! It turns out, other people are a lot smarter than me. W

3. Use unlicensed software. I know, I know, you would never ever do this, and nobody you know would ever do this, but I’ve heard rumors that there might be some churches out there who (gasp!) may not be totally 100 percent licensed on the software they’re using. This one is actually pretty serious, and I run into it a lot. Whether it’s sample libraries,

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MICHAEL A. LEE is a professional keyboardist, composer, and a professor at Azusa Pacific University. He leads worship at Crossline Church. michaelleemusic.com

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MISSIONAL BY HEIN VAN WYK

SMALL CHURCH OUTREACH I

recently returned from Exponential East conference in Tampa, Florida, where the theme for the entire conference was multiplication—to grasp the church’s calling of making disciples who in turn make more disciples. One speaker summed it up when he said that a church should never become a “lake-church” where believers flow in but never exit. Every church should be a “river-church” where believers flow in, flow out, and start new churches. When a congregation becomes excessive in size, it’s time to rethink the biblical model for church, which promotes a “fisher-of-men” mentality, executed through church-planting.

When Being a Small Church Is Okay When a new church plant takes place, the church starts small. It’s an exciting time where living in faith is paramount as a small leadership team implements a big vision. When a long-standing congregation, however, remains small in number over the years, it calls for urgency. An established church, remaining small in number, with no growth or outreach potential fails to grasp the “fisher-of-men” mandate and falls into the same trap as a megachurch who keeps adding more to it’s numbers. Here are 5 principles to ignite the cause for small-church mentality.

1. Church Planting Is a Must: When your congregation reaches an elaborate size where the church building is unable to house attendees, even with multiple services, it’s time to start a new church plant. It’s a frightening undertaking for many pastors due to the fear of decreased tithing and membership, yet church planting is unparalleled in its gospel out30

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reach potential. Bring church to the community, not the other way around.

2. Small Church Leadership Is Powerful: A megachurch runs the risk of being operated like a business. Sometimes the pastor is less a shepherd and more a CEO. Instead of spiritual elders, the board may be a group of visionary businesspeople. Quick decision making in a megachurch is generally a nightmare. Small church leadership, on the other hand, carries with it an incredible freedom where the entire leadership team, due to its small size and lack of financial stability, often operates in leaps of faith. Adding numbers is less important than changing hearts. It’s an inspiring movement where church goers, experience God’s provision, firsthand. Nothing builds, edifies, and excites more than godly success of a new church movement in a community.

3. Stagnation Is Never an Option: When starting a new church, while small in number, attendees run the risk of becoming too comfortable and stagnating. There is only consuming, and no contribution. The movement of small-church carries incredible outreach potential when the leadership team models the Great Commission and it ripples throughout the lives of the congregation itself. Every church should be started with the aim to equip new believers, and then send them out to start more churches.

4. The Gospel Ignites Through Multiplication: Study the growth of Christianity in persecuted countries, and you’ll find the similar results of ever-expanding small church movements. Why? The gospel was never meant to be kept

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silent. In fact, if the Good News does not fuel a fire in you to share it with others, you may have heard a wrong version of it. Communities are changed, because believers grasp the essence of outreach, through the birth of small communities of faith. Their foundation remains that of disciple-making and edification. Their mandate is always to share the gospel at any cost.

5. A Low Cost of Operation: Phrasing church within the lingo of business is unsettling, but as with any movement, operational costs are present. A small church carries less burden of investing in its facility, equipment, and maintenance than a big or expansive building-driven ministry. This provides the opportunity to push existing funds into community outreach, which holds a higher kingdom return. When the hearts of communities are changed with the gospel, they ignite more movements that carry gospel—igniting outreach on a bigger scale, with less funding. Being a small church or starting a new church plant holds great potential. When the Great Commission becomes the mandate at the core of the movement, congregational size becomes less important and kingdom expansion takes precedence. A duplication and repetition of small church movements then trumps the outreach potential of a single megachurch could ever hope to achieve. W HEIN VAN WYK is the CEO/President of Sharefaith.com where he innovates, leads and spearheads technology solutions for churches.

Visit www.dbu.edu/worship or call 214.333.5242

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SKILL BY DARYL HOLLINGER

THREE BIG MUSIC PROBLEMS IN SMALL CHURCHES I

n my work helping small churches enliven worship with music, I hear three recurring themes that inhibit faithful and vital worship. Congregations often stay on a path that prohibits growth when they proclaim, “We are just too small, if only it was like the good-old days, or we cannot ask that of our musician—she is too old.”

whackers, rainsticks, djembe drums, hand drums, maracas, handchimes, orff instruments, or windchimes. I have a box of my musical toys that I often bring to worship to hand out before a service. The use of these instruments can be participatory, non-threatening, and add a spirit of joy and energy to a service.

1. The Inferiority Complex

2. Using a Model From the Past

Small churches may suffer from looking at the programs of large churches and think they cannot compete with them. They cite these excuses: not enough money, lousy instruments, lack of talented musical leaders, too small for a praise band or a choir, or they can’t offer both a traditional and a contemporary service. “Small is beautiful” is a great mantra and can be a paradigm shift. Small churches must see possibilities rather than limitations. Leaders need to be creative in using resources. It is not necessary to offer multiple services to attract different age groups. As a body of Christ that is made up of diverse ages, tastes, and backgrounds, a small congregation can make a theological statement about the Church. Singing diverse song styles from a different time, place, or tradition, reminds Christians they are part of a larger family of faith. The blending of song styles helps members realize that worship is not just about me, but it is about us being a community. There are many ways to enliven the songs of the people by using simple and inexpensive instruments as accompaniment. Try using some instruments that children, youth, and older adults can easily pick up. Here are just a few: boom32

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Another big music problem that small churches face is using a model from the past. Many small churches think the music program is mainly about the choir or special music that is offered. Some will even go as far as trying to hire singers so that they can have a choir. When we remember that the word liturgy means the work of the people, our emphasis will change from observation or entertainment to participation. This is the heart of worship. Yes, we can still have a small choir, but the primary purpose needs to be about helping worshipers engage in the act of worship. A small choir is a great asset in helping the community learn songs, sing in parts or rounds, or play simple instruments. The old model of a choir singing an anthem every week, with a one-and-ahalf-hour evening rehearsal, rarely works for a small church. I have found people are willing to commit to choir by coming early on Sunday morning to rehearse. The emphasis in this model is on enlivening the congregational song, which may include a simple but dynamic anthem.

3. Poor Musical Leadership The third problem for small churches is leadership that lacks talent and skill for a dynamic music ministry. This may be a

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touchy subject and, while it can be a huge problem, small churches often do not know how to address it. The musician may have served the church for a long time and churches don’t want to hurt her/him. Sometimes it is more comfortable to stay stuck which results in music that lacks vitality. It becomes difficult when musicians are not willing to learn new or diverse music styles. I recommend investing a small amount of money to send your musician(s) to workshops or take classes or lessons to further their musical training. There are many denominational and para-church organizations that offer material and workshops to help musicians refine their skills like the National Worship Leader Conference. When a church musician is unwilling to work on increasing his/her musical proficiency, for the good of the community, it may be best to look for new musical leadership. Some of these ideas are simple and easy to implement. Other concepts are more challenging. The important thing to remember is that good music in a small church is vital for spiritual and numerical growth. Staying stuck is not a viable option. Small churches need to move lovingly and boldly into music ministry that is vibrant, participatory and meaningful. W DARYL HOLLINGER Dr. Daryl Hollinger is a music educator, composer, organist and music and worship consultant. He is the co-author of the book From a Mustard Seed: Enlivening Worship and Music in the Small Church (Alban Institute).

SKILL

5 Myths That Frustrate Small Church Worship Leaders BY JON NICOL

“S

mall churches are small because they’re doing something wrong.” That’s what a pastor told one of my Bible college classmates during his ministry internship. As my classmate repeated this to the other students, I secretly thought, “That sounds about right.” Two years later I was serving in a church of 60 people and discovering that big and small don’t necessarily translate to right and wrong. Over the next few years, I would move from that church to other vocational ministry positions in churches of 90, 120, and eventually on to larger congregations. Looking back at my time spent in small churches, I recognize several lies that I believed about corporate worship. And as I coach with smaller church worship leaders, I see many of them being frustrated by these same myths.

Myth #1: We need a band if we’re going to have “good worship.” Sure, a band would be nice. But one or two musicians creating solid musical accompaniment will do more for your worship than a cobbled-together band. And what if you don’t have any instrumentalists? You still have voices. God likes a cappella as much as any style.

Myth #2: We need to use contemporary worship music. Instead of thinking contemporary music, think contextual music. That is, what works in your context? Think both about the people that are there and the ones you are trying to reach. Those might be two different groups. But there might be a common ground. If you live in a region where bluegrass music is popular, why not infuse some of that into your worship. You may personally enjoy the sound of Hillsong Young & Free, but is that going to resonate with your congregation and community?

Myth #3: We need music. Music is a powerful tool for worship. But it’s not the only container in which we bring our worship before the throne of our King. If you don’t have the resources to provide musical worship each week, explore other ways to worship a few Sundays a month. And even if we do have the means to provide musical worship every Sunday, I believe all worship leaders need to become students of non-musical forms worship. We limit our worship gatherings when we depend solely on music as the vehicle for exalting God.

Myth #4: We need to follow the rules. Malcolm Gladwell makes a great observation in his book David and Goliath. We perceive David as the underdog because of his size, age, and inexperience in battle. But David changed the rules: he went into a hand-to-hand infantry fight with an artillery weapon. In other words, he took a gun to a knife fight. Looking back at my time in smaller churches, I cringe at how I blindly followed “the rules”: • The band is on stage. • The congregation sits in rows. • I lead; they follow. Small churches have the opportunity to worship in ways that big churches can only dream of. What if I had gotten rid of the stage and rows and approached it more like a medium-sized house church gathering? And what if I had invited participation in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 14:26, instead of dictating the content of our worship? Too often, average-sized churches try to have the feel of a big church’s worship gathering. But the dynamics of a few thousand worshipers is inherently different than the dynamics of a few dozen wor-

shipers. It’s not better—it’s just different. So smaller churches need to embrace that difference and quit trying to be scaleddown versions of Hillsong, Elevation, or North Point.

Myth #5: We need to grow bigger to be better. Just like David possessed all he needed to defeat Goliath, I believe God gives our churches everything we need to accomplish what he is calling us to do right now. Rather than wasting time wishing for more, we should be investing and growing what we already possess. In the parable of the talents (Mt 25), when did the Master give his servants more? After they took risks and worked hard—after they invested. So spend time developing your current team members. And intentionally mentor potential musicians and techs, no matter how young or inexperienced. One day that investment will pay big dividends. As worship leaders, it’s easy to fall for these myths. But if we choose to lead intentionally, we’ll overcome these limiting beliefs and build teams that lead and engage our congregations in life-changing worship. To give you some practical help tackling these myths, I have a five-part video training series called “5 Barriers That Block Great Worship.” You can get this resource for free at worshipteamcoach.com/5. W

JON NICOL Jon Nicol loves helping worship leaders build strong teams that lead exceptional worship. He’s a fulltime worship pastor and the founder of WorshipTeamCoach. com. Jon lives in Mansfield, Ohio with his wife, Shannon, and their four kids.

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The

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In a recent interview with Worship Leader, Hillsong United’s Joel Houston explored the mission found in the upcoming major motion picture release, Let Hope Rise. It’s the veneer of celebrity. It’s the assumption we make every day about the people glorified in popular culture, as well as those we respect in the Church. It’s the feeling of intimacy we have with our favorite musicians, our favorite authors, actors, and authority figures. It’s the gaps of their lives that exist separate from the screen, the radio, the pulpit—the gaps we fill with our own expectations, worldviews, and understandings. And none of this is the full story. The live Hillsong United worship experience stays with you. The immediate drum drive becomes palpable as it fills the arena coursing with music and pulsing against every chest. The visuals stun with their beat-driven movements and the emotional sonic ambiance fuels the power of the lyrics that have been the prayers of the worshiping people in their everyday lives, and in their most difficult times. And this is good. United’s version of excellence in worship is an articulately crafted emotional and spiritual experience. But as you certainly know, this is not the whole story. The whole story includes more than what we see on the stage or what we hear in chart-topping radio singles. It’s a story filled with individual lives, committed to the mission of the Church. People, sometimes broken sometimes victorious, but always … simply human. And that story is a lot like all of ours.

and as the co-pastor of Hillsong Church in New York City, took some time to chat about the unseen United narrative and his understanding of what makes the upcoming movie worthwhile.

Broken Images “There were a bunch of pros and a bunch of cons to doing a movie, but the pro that topped it off was the opportunity to break down stereotypes,” says Houston. “It’s something we want to be able to do. In the Church, in Christian culture, in the world—break down the stereotypes around who Jesus is, what church is, and what it means to be a Christian in 2015. So if the movie can do that in any way, shape, or form—if it helps people to see Jesus in a different way—then that’s what it’s all about.” However, for people to see beyond the “rock stars” on a screen and find Jesus, some other stereotypes surrounding the bigger-than-life worship band might need reorganizing. “The reason the movie was appealing to me,” says Houston, “even though I was terrified about it for

attention to ourselves in order to draw attention away from ourselves. It’s weird, and too often either the worship leader can’t deal with the pressure because they have to start putting up a front based on what people expect them to be, or they live in a false humility, continually saying, ‘It’s not about me; it’s all about God.’” Of course, it is human tendency to admire people in the spotlight, and this is as true in the context of local church leadership as it is on the global scale. Houston says, “That’s fine. We should live according to the responsibility that comes with that. But the danger is when people find out that we are just ordinary people, trying to do what we can with what we have. The moment we mess up or become a disappointment, it can lead to condemnation and bitterness. And in the worst case, people leaving the Church and giving up on God because a man of God, in their opinion, was more man and less God. It’s a dangerous place for us to live. “In the midst of that, we have to make sure we are doing what we can within our cultural platform, being transparent in the midst of telling God’s story. If people see the full story of our humanity, it helps point to how amazing God’s grace is. And hopefully empowers others to see that God can use them too.”

“I knew it wasn’t going to end up being a puff piece. I wanted an honest look.”

The Hope The development and production of a major motion picture focused on a church worship band from Sydney, Australia, is, in many ways, culture altering. Let Hope Rise, scheduled to release late in September 2015, has the possibility of rocketing the already hugely influential worship team into the cultural stratosphere. But this is not the hope. Joel Houston, who currently triples his time as the creative director for Hillsong church, as the front for Hillsong United,

Bigger Story so many reasons, is that I have always struggled with people looking at us and thinking that we are extraordinary. Or maybe they think, these guys must be super-Christians, super-anointed, or have some special thing happening to them. But even looking at the early heroes of the faith the people that God used in history and decided to tell us about; these people are very ordinary people. Even Paul. I see him, and I see a really broken guy who had an incredible experience that changed his life. And the way he walked out his story even in pioneering the Church was so human.”

Local Context “Look even at the role of the worship leader,” continues Houston. “It’s a paradox: here we are on a platform, in front of all these people, our job is to draw

For local worship and pastoral leaders, the need for this message is palpable. The cry for authenticity is stronger than ever, both in and outside the Church. People aren’t looking for perfection; they seek reality. Houston explains, “Hillsong’s greatest story is probably the least told: the desire of people to be part of something bigger than themselves. And I think that’s an encouragement for a worship leader on any platform. Some may say, ‘Our church isn’t going to grow if we can’t afford an LED screen and get some moving canned lighting or get that beautiful amplifier or great guitar.’ But that’s not what builds the Church. To me, excellence isn’t whether I play all the notes right or whether or not the lighting was awesome or the graphics were great or that everything was brilliant. Excellence is saying, ‘I want to do the best with what I have—because JU LY /A U G U S T 2 0 1 5

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God is in it, and he uses me in spite of my brokenness.’ “I still haven’t seen the film,” admits Houston. “I don’t know why, but I have a hard time sitting in a theater watching us. I’ve met with the director, and he’s not a Christian. He is an amazing guy. And one of the reasons I was okay with us doing this was actually the fact that it wasn’t going to be a Christian director. I knew it wasn’t going to end up being a puff piece. I wanted an honest look. I mean he’s

connect with Jesus in a way that was real for them. Then God does this. I do think that film is an aspect of culture that we have to begin to step into as the Christian church. But I think it’s just as important that people understand, we didn’t go out and pitch a film about ourselves. It’s quite the opposite.”

understand church or have given up on it, this will hopefully help them see the Church—not for the giant institution but as the living body of people who are just trying to help other people and be true to their faith and calling in an honest and transparent way.”

Unwitting Archetypes

When we asked Houston, ultimately, what Hillsong: Let Hope Rise is about, after a slight hesitation, he said, “It’s a small story

Pitched movie or not, it has become apparent: Hillsong United is a quality

Above All Else

“To me, excellence isn’t whether I play all the notes right or whether or not the lighting was awesome or the graphics were great or that everything was brilliant. Excellence is saying, ‘I want to do the best with what I have—because God is in it, and he uses me in spite of my brokenness.’ ” open and searching, but definitely not a believer. He’s giving his take on what we are about and what we are doing. I felt like that would be a better way to present what we do. It speaks to Christian culture and also it speaks to people who have written church off or written God off because of their past experience. But the good thing is that it definitely doesn’t shy away from Jesus. The story is grace working in our group.”

Faithful in the Small The story of Hillsong United is, in some ways, one of unwitting heroes. It’s an account of a bunch of friends making music, and God using that in unforeseen ways. Before the release of Zion and the worldwide success of the single “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail),” United was happy making music and being peripheral to the main Hillsong side of the Church music. More attention was not their intention. “We didn’t ask for it or chase a movie,” says Houston. “In fact we said, ‘no’ to it for six months. We had no desire to do a movie about ourselves. I think maybe that’s one of the reasons why it’s happening. In the same way, we never had a desire to tour the world and take our church music into arenas—that was never the plan. The plan was to write songs to help our friends 36

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benchmark for church creative teams around the world. Worship leaders play their songs, they replicate their sounds, they emulate their songwriting, and with Let Hope Rise, they will certainly look for ways to incorporate aspects of the movie into their services of worship. “I find that quite burdensome,” says Houston. “People might want to emulate this, and on one hand, I’m all for it. But the danger in it is people seeing the veneer of it all and thinking, that’s what it’s about. I, honestly with all my heart, believe if there is anything great about what we do as Hillsong United or anything great about our production or anything great about the music, it’s that it comes from a pure, desperately broken heart. A heart that desires to fully rely on God’s grace. It’s from that place that we give our absolute best in everything we do. The reason we strive for excellence is not so that we can be fancy or impressive. It comes from excellence of the heart. “The key message of the movie is probably just grace. It doesn’t always make sense, and it’s not perfect. And we don’t have to pretend to be perfect, but at the end of the day we are passionate about the truth and believe in it wholeheartedly. To the skeptics or cynics or people who don’t

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about a bunch of kids who grew up in church and wanted to make church music together.” Then in a telling conclusion, Houston said, “I’ve sat in hundreds of worship services, and the most incredible experience I’ve ever had, even more than our own conferences, was in the Philippines. We walked up to a little tiny church in a small village when we were visiting Compassion International. We walked in, and there were two guitars. One was completely out of tune; the other one only had four strings. There was an out-of-tune piano; there was a drum kit that probably sounded worse than if someone was hitting a trash can with sticks. There were 10 kids dancing—amazing—and these guys were singing these worship songs, and we sat in the front row, and they were putting everything they had into it. And I broke inside. It was absolutely beautiful. ...That’s what it’s all about.” W

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Digital Audio Labs | Livemix personal monitor system

Small (and Big)

Church Worship Resources Whether serving big or small congregations, church leaders are constantly in a search for the resources that can help them steward their time in the most efficient way possible. Here are some options from our ministry partners suited for everyone, but with a special emphasis on small church worship.

Monitors

Price: $4200 digitalaudio.com The Livemix personal monitor system lives up to its promise of being volunteer friendly without sacrificing professional features. The touch LCD screen with mix overview and a dedicated “me” knob makes Livemix simple to use, even for newbies. But that doesn’t limit its functionality. Twenty-four channels with effects, remote mixing so experienced users can help novices, and a foot pedal for hands-free control make Livemix a professional system that sounds great, has robust features, and carries a very reasonable price tag.

Small Church Solution: Small churches often have challenges with excessive noise coming from the stage. The Livemix personal monitor system helps reduce that noise, without being complicated to use. Because each Livemix personal monitor mixer provides two separate personal mixes, the overall system cost is within the budget of most churches. Professionals and experienced users will love that Livemix has 24 channels with EQ and compression, built-in intercom and stereo ambient microphones, reverb and effects on the master output, and remote mixing.

MICS

Alclair Audio | Custom and Universal In-Ear Monitors

AUDIX CORPORATION | MICROBOOM™

Price: $249-$749 alclair.com Alclair hand-makes each custom monitor to order (various colors and custom printing included). Every custom monitor in the line-up comes with the Alclair perfect fit guarantee. The Curve Universal monitor is a “fits nearly every ear” alternative to custom monitors with pro features like detachable cables and outstanding sound quality. Along with being an excellent everyday listening headphone, Curve Universals are perfect for teams who need to share in-ear monitors from week to week.

Price: $510-$730 depending on model audixusa.com An award-winning choir-miking solution, the MicroBoom has earned its place as one of the most innovative and effective choir miking methods ever produced. The MicroBoom (now available in 24", 50", or 84" lengths) is lightweight, portable, and easy to position. They are designed to be used in conjunction with either the M1250B Micros™ series condenser or the higher output M1255B Micros condenser.

Small Church Solution: Many small churches who have switched from overly loud floor monitors to personal monitoring systems and/or wireless in-ears, rely on their teams to bring their own listening devices. Unfortunately, they often bring sub-par ear buds resulting in uninspired performers. In addition to an acclaimed line of custom in-ear monitors, Alclair makes a universal model called the Curve. The Curve’s unique shape fits nearly any ear and sounds stellar. 38

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Small Church Solution: The Audix Microboom choir-miking system is a problem solver for churches of all sizes. Small churches tra ditionally have the challenge of smaller budgets and can have a misconception of what type of investment is required to properly mic a choir. Consequently, it is common to see the wrong mics being used and more mics than are necessary. Just one Audix Microboom can successfully mic a choir of 20-25 singers.

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digital resources Motion Worship | Full Access Subscription Price: $79 (billed annually) motionworship.com Full Access includes over 1,000 worship motion backgrounds, countdowns, and mini-movies in addition to 900+ still images. New mini-movies and motion collections are added monthly, constantly increasing the value of this membership. Altogether, this is $7,000 worth of media for only $79/yr.

Ear Trumpet Labs | Myrtle Price: $599 eartrumpetlabs.com Condenser microphones for live performance hand-built in the US, with distinctive looks and world-class sound quality. With vintage-inspired styling and the best live sound for acoustic music, these microphones are ideal for live vocal performance use or single-miking small ensembles.

Small Church Solution: Motion Worship provides access to the highest quality multimedia in the industry on a limited budget. Geared toward small congregations and international churches, their price point is unbeatable while still maintaining excellence in production value. The recent addition of monthly mini-movies enables the use of regular sermon illustration videos that would otherwise be unaffordable.

Small Church Solution: An Ear Trumpet Labs microphone offers the simplest and best-sounding set-up for small acoustic ensemble performances, with breathtaking visual aesthetics adding an element of beauty to any house of worship.

Sharefaith | Sharefaith Church App

Sharefaith | Sharefaith Church Websites

Price: $49/m Billed Annually (All inclusive) sharefaith.com Sharefaith’s Mobile Church App is a full-featured iOS and Android app that seamlessly integrates with a church’s Sharefaith Website. They only need to publish once, and their sermon, blog posts, videos, and more are all released to their website and mobile app in beautiful synchronicity, making editing and maintaining both a breeze. Plus, the Mobile Church App sends push notifications. It’s never been easier for a church to connect with their congregation instantaneously.

Price: $49/m Billed Annually (All inclusive) sharefaith.com Sharefaith Church Websites is the premier website solution for churches. By enrolling in a Sharefaith Website membership, members have access to over 65 beautiful templates to choose from. In addition, with the Complete plan, they are given all of their church resources in one membership, which includes: Worship Leader’s Best-of-the-Best website editor, a free church app (annual plan), 60,000 worship graphics and print templates, worship presentation software, and they’ll even migrate your old website for free. It’s a no-brainer.

Small Church Solution: In this day and age, smartphones are rapidly progressing and becoming the go-to method by which our society accesses information and connects with each other online. It is absolutely necessary that the church has real estate on the device that their congregation is spending all of their time on. Sharefaith’s Mobile Church App gives the church that real estate in a clean, professional manner that any church member would be happy to have on their phone.

Small Church Solution: With Sharefaith Websites, a church can have their website up and running within a day, and since all of Sharefaith’s templates are professionally designed, it already looks stunning. As the church grows and becomes more complex, their Sharefaith Website grows with them in customization and functionality. Fast, simple, and professional, Sharefaith Church Websites provide the quality that larger churches are used to with the cost and ease-of-use that small churches need.

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gear/accessories Roland Corporation U.S. | RD-800 Stage Piano

Price: $2,499 rolandus.com Roland’s respected RD-series stage pianos are the instruments of choice for the world’s leading artists. The new RD-800 has unmatched sound quality, feel, and versatility, making it ideal for churches of any size or tradition. A variety of authentic vintage electric pianos are on board, plus organs, synths, and many other pro sounds. The ultra-intuitive interface includes a color display, a generous array of controls, and the new Tone Color function for sound manipulation from a single knob.

Small Church Solution: For small churches on a budget, the RD-300NX Digital Piano offers a lower price point (street $1,299) with the same world-famous SuperNATURAL sound and expression of the RD-800. There are five acoustic piano types and 34 variations to choose from, including a new Concert Grand and a newly developed upright piano. The RD800 also offers an enormous variety of additional sounds with over 1,100 tone variations available.

Vu | Vu Family of Products Price: $300 and under vugear.com Quality cables, headphones, microphones, mounts, distribution amplifiers, stands and much more.

Small Church Solution: With thousands of available SKUs and a wide variety of options, Vu can provide your house of worship with audio and video solutions while keeping within your budget. Their products are designed by industry experts and are rigorously tested for quality and performance, ensuring your message is communicated on time, every time. Vu is dedicated to using the latest technology— delivering the performance you need, where and when you need it—making setup and delivery of your sermon worry-free. 40

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Truetone (formerly Visual Sound) | 1 SPOT Pro CS12 Price: $179.95 truetone.com The 1 SPOT Pro CS12 power supply has 12 individually isolated outputs with 5 available voltages (9Vdc, 12Vdc, 18Vdc, variable 4-9Vdc, and 9Vac) for powering virtually any pedal noiselessly. If you don’t have that many pedals or need that many voltage options, the 1 SPOT Pro CS7 has seven isolated outputs with three available voltages (9Vdc, 12Vdc, and 18Vdc). Both power supplies provide two-to-three times more power than the most common power bricks on the market.

Small Church Solution: The 1 SPOT Pro power supplies, along with all Truetone products, were designed by former worship leader Bob Weil, with church musicians in mind. With worship team guitar players using more pedals than ever, the 1 SPOT Pro is a complete solution for powering those pedals and eliminating unwanted noise and interference. Both models fit perfectly under Pedaltrain pedalboards with mounting brackets and cables provided for easy installation.

Yamaha Corporation of America | TF Series Digital Mixing Consoles Price: MSRP $2,950 – 4,200 4wrd.it/TFseries The TF series of digital mixing consoles packs years of experience building world-class audiomixers used in countless high-profile events with the latest multi-touch control surface technologies to get you great sound, quickly. Engineers created presets in the consoles not only for many instrument and vocal needs, but microphone manufacturers Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, and Shure collaborated with Yamaha, so you can select presets based on specific microphone models.

Small Church Solution: It would be great if someone with the experience of doing live sound offered some real presets or starting points, so we could concentrate on getting the band set up and comfortable on stage. Our volunteers are often just starting out, so it needs to be simple to operate as well. I was blown away when the Yamaha TF mixer came out. It was like they heard all our concerns and addressed them!

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worship planning Jubilate Software | ZionWorx 2014 Price: $249 zionworx.com ZionWorx 2014 is a truly fresh perspective on worship presentation software, delivering a high-quality user experience with no fuss. Packed with features yet incredibly easy-to-use, it offers hassle-free video playback with support for motion backgrounds and live video behind text. There’s also a unique integration with BibleGateway.com, providing instant access to popular Bible translations, as well as seamless integration with Microsoft PowerPoint slideshows.

Small Church Solution: Many churches struggle to find “techy” people and money to set up and operate complicated worship-presentation software. Often this leads to churches neglecting technology altogether or resorting to poorly-suited solutions. ZionWorx 2014 provides a user-friendly and affordable software solution for churches of all sizes. By keeping the user interface intuitive and simple to learn, even a technophobe can be shown in minutes how to drive the software and produce great-looking

Worship Design Studio | Online Worship Arts Training, Worship Series Content Price: Free Samples and Subscription Discount worshipdesignstudio.com/freesamples Worship Design Studio is a subscription website that offers over seven years of substantive worship series ideas with resource suggestions for each Sunday (Revised Common and Narrative Lectionaries and Non-Lectionary). It educates volunteer worship-arts teams (visual, verbal, music, media, and dramatic arts) through videos, webinars, and articles. The cloud-based software application helps teams create together by brainstorming ideas, building scripts, and managing tasks.

Small Church Solution: Pastors of small churches wear many hats. Worship planning and sermon preparation often get pushed to the very last minute as so many things come up in the laundry-list of pastoral to-do items every week. Help can often be hard to come by. Dr. Marcia McFee, renowned leader and educator, and her Worship Design Studio become a virtual partner for planning whenever churches need help and ideas for vital, meaningful, and memorable worship.

Planning Center Online | Planning Center Projector Price: $2-$10 per church, monthly planningcenteronline.com/projector Planning Center Projector is an iOS app that connects directly to planningcenteronline.com to turn your videos, lyrics, and slides into presentations. Open Projector, select one of your dates, and slides are created and ready for presentation. Wirelessly stream HD video presentations from your device with simple touch and swipe actions. Link multiple devices together for additional displays, like a confidence monitor for vocalists. Plus, layouts with automatic text resizing let you reflow entire songs or slides with a single tap.

Small Church Solution: Projector was created with simplicity and portability as its primary benefits, perfect for a small church. Set up your presentations on your iPad at home and then run them at church. Training volunteers is almost unnecessary with intuitive touch-based controls, and the ability to present wirelessly is perfect for venues of any size, especially portable churches that set up and tear down each week. Finally, per-church licensing means you can install it on many devices for one low price.

worshipplanning.com | Plan Your Worship Now feature Price: Free trial & various pricing plans worshipplanning.com Worshipplanning.com is a proven online tool that helps small churches facilitate the communication and organization of planning a worship flow.

Small Church Solution: Worshipplanning.com’s new feature makes it easy for small churches to try an online planning service with no obligations. Create your own worship flow in seconds. Worshipplanning.com’s “Plan Your Worship Now!” feature is a no-sign-up/no-commitment offer to create a worship flow that suits your church’s needs. Select from a variety of worship flow templates, edit and move elements and songs, or simply add volunteer notes. Once finished, either save or print your worship flow. For more information, go to worshipplanning.com and click on the “Plan Your Worship Now!” button or call 1-877-399-3342. Plan your service. Simply!

SKILL

CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN BY BRIAN SMITH

f you are a fan of the classic Robin Williams film Dead Poet’s Society, you remember the moving scene when the students stand on their desks, addressing their professor as “Captain, my captain.” Such it is with artists and managers. A manager basically serves as the “captain” of an artist’s ship, overseeing the work of all “crew members” and steering the vessel to reach the soughtafter destination. Managers speak into the various components of an artist’s ministry, including booking and touring; songwriting; record production/A&R; public relations; and when a record label is involved, those operations as well. Serving as an umbrella over these functions, the manager works to see that each role is being performed to maximum benefit, and ultimately, that all efforts are contributing to the artist’s vision for their ministry.

Central Hub “A manager helps with vision-casting and serves as the hub for all elements of an artist’s career,” explains Keith Stancil of Artist Garden Entertainment, whose management clients include Curb recording artist Ryan Corn and singer/ songwriter Holly Starr, among others. “It is the manager’s responsibility to make sure

everything is working to efficiently meet the artist’s goals.” Adds Jonathan Mason, director of Word Worship and former manager of Andy Needham Band, The Gray Havens, and Joe Frey, “At the end of the day, a manager’s job is to help make informative decisions and to use their relationships and networks to sustain and amplify an artist’s career and reach.”

Felt Need So when is an artist ready to pursue management? “The simple answer is they are ready when they actually have things that need to be managed,” says Mason. “An artist will know they need help when there are legitimate inquiries they can’t keep up with and they are not qualified to make informed decisions about.” According to Stancil, the number of dates on the calendar can be indicative of the need for management. “If an artist is so busy playing shows that it becomes difficult to keep up with the other elements of their career then they are probably ready for management. We look to work with artists who are already doing 50 - 75 dates a year. That shows us they are committed to making it work.”

The Faithful Grind In the meantime, there are specific things you as a worship leader and independent artist can do to prepare for the possibility

of someday looking into management. “The most impactful thing an artist can do is to be faithful with what they believe they are called to do and to bloom where they currently are,” says Mason. “The most successful artists I know have been faithful in the daily grind and have continued to refine their craft, for many years. There is wisdom in the adage, ‘Slow and steady wins the race.’” And Stancil adds practical advice, “Artists should learn to book themselves, building a solid touring regimen and strong relationships with churches. And secondly, write, write, write.” As positive as having a manager can be, don’t fall in the trap of believing that role—or any other—is necessary for valid ministry. Mason summarizes, “I believe God calls people to serve on all different levels. Having a manager doesn’t qualify the level of ministry being done.” W BRIAN SMITH is president of Turning Point Media Relations, Inc. with degrees both in journalism and theology from Valparaiso University, he has been involved in publicity efforts for Christian recording artists for 25 years.With substantial experience in radio promotion and PR, he has spearheaded and worked on campaigns for Steven Curtis Chapman, BeBe & CeCe Winans, Keith and Kristyn Getty among many others. Brian is actively involved at Christ Fellowship in Franklin,Tennessee.

PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION BY KENT MORRIS

ALIGNMENT: SITUATION

The temptation for a small church to function as a large-media ministry Audio, video, and lighting technologies have become a center-point of the local church. The worship market is now the premier installation environment within the industry. Large conferences geared toward the church abound and marketspecific ads are the norm. With so many megachurch installations in play, it can appear the only solution is to try and keep pace with the current state of the art. However, while a megachurch will spend $10,000 on just the pastor’s mic and a backup, that sum often represents the entire budget for a small church audio system. Clearly, there must be a better approach to applying technology within the small church.

SOLUTION

Determine the appropriate technology for the application and learn to use it well In the analog past, performance was directly related to price since better components cost more money. However, in the digital age, the baseline performance of lower cost chipsets is generally comparable to premium models and features are based on code, so, to the average user, a modest digital product functions almost as well as

Behringer X32

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APPROPRIATE MEDIA IN THE SMALL CHURCH

a more expensive version. Technology in the small church, then, need not be contemporary, only recent. The ubiquitous Behringer X32 mixing console is the prime example of this trickle-down technology, where the previously avant-garde Midas digital boards have become $2,299 Guitar Center commodities. The small church can also look beyond the accepted specifications for a way to improve performance at lower costs. For instance, Shorewood Church of God in Illinois was in need of a new video projector for their high ambient light environment but could not afford to invest in an 8,000-lumen projector. The solution was found in NEC’s NP-M402H that, despite its modest 4,000-lumen output, boasts an impressive 10,000:1 contrast ratio. This wide contrast ratio allows a lower output projector to have more gradient levels between light and dark and appear to the eye as bright and pleasing. So, for half the price of a larger model, the NEC met Shorewood’s need.

Appropriate Vs. Expensive Appropriate technology can also replace expensive dedicated hardware devices via common platforms available to anyone, such as an iPad. PreSonus has leveraged their skills with software

NEC’s NP-M402H

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to provide multiple points of access for musicians to have control over their individual mixes via iPhone while also allowing the engineer to mix from any location in the room via an iPad remote. The result is a low-cost board with the feature set of a much more expensive console. The fact the StudioLive 24.4.2AI does not have moving faders and a large touchscreen is offset by the mixer’s ability to command numerous external devices at once. Beyond the level of equipment, another advantage large churches have is a trained technical staff. A small church is typically not in a position to pay audio, video, and lighting techs for their efforts, so the ministry is volunteer based. However, volunteer does not necessarily mean less competent, especially in light of the swift changes in digital technology. A teen with programming skills can easily adapt to a PC-based lighting console. For example, Martin Lighting offers the M2GO hardware DMX console for about $7,000, but the PC version is about one-third that price. While there are some differences, the PC version is sufficiently powerful for almost any small church environment. And the PC-based teen will acclimate to it easier than to the old-school hardware variant.

Action Items A worship leader in a small church can use technology effectively when the best match of features and pricing are met through research and the expertise of a trusted resource. If time is spent finding a creative solution to dollar-based problems, the results can be satisfying as the need is met at a price that fits the small church budget. W

KENT MORRIS has mixed with Paul Baloche, Tommy Walker, Israel Houghton, and many more.

WHAT’S NEW: IN GEAR FOR MUSICIANS, MEDIA, AND SOUND TEAMS

Media Team: Projection Software and Backgrounds

large text (such as two lines per slide, four lines per slide, etc) and the software will automatically turn any text into slides. If you’re already a Planning Center Online user, Projector 2.0 is an easy way to create and project media straight from your iPad or iPhone.

Function: Media and Backgrounds for Church Price: TBA What’s New: Worship House Media is a website that provides a variety of media for use in the church. From still and motion backgrounds to mini movies and countdown timers, Worship House Media offers great resources for the church at an extremely reasonable price. Our favorite features from Worship House Media are the bundles of high quality, themed mini movies for holidays such as Father’s Day and Easter.

Sound Tech: Studio Monitors

Worship House Media

Motionworship.com Function: Motion and Still Backgrounds Price: $29-$79 What’s New: Like the name implies, Motionworship.com is an annual subscription service that provides access to over 1,000 motion backgrounds and mini movies. Motionworship.com offers unique backgrounds to fit any part of the service, from subtle, abstract motion to two-and-a-half minute epic mountain flyovers. At just $79 a year for access to all content on the site, Motionworship is one of the best values on the market and a great resource for worship backgrounds.

Planning Center Online Projector 2.0 Function: Projector app for iPad and iPhone Price: $2-$10 What’s New: Projector 2.0 is the newest version of the Projector App for iOS from Planning Center Online. Made specifically for iOS 8, the new Projector App is faster and smoother than its predecessor. New features include full integration with Services LIVE and Smart Layouts for Custom Slides, which lets you choose a layout for

Akai RPM800 Function: Studio Monitors Price: $299 What’s New: The RPM800s are the new studio monitors from Akai, makers of the legendary MPC drum machine. The power of the RPM800 comes in the versatility of the EQ and proximity control. In addition to volume control, high-frequency gain, mid-frequency gain, and low cutoff control let you tailor your monitors to any room. In the sleek black-and-red enclosure, the RPM800s look good and sound great at a great price.

PRODUCTION

finishes. Featuring an 8” woofer and high and low gain control, the Les Paul 8s sound big and transparent, perfect for mixing or mastering in any sized studio.

Musicians: Keyboards and interfaces Nord Stage 2 EX HP76 Function: Stage piano/synth Price: $4,499 What’s New: Nord’s flagship synth now comes in a 76-key version with Nord’s Hammer Action Portable keybed, making it extremely light and easy to carry. With one GB of storage for the piano section, the HP76 can store all the pianos you need at the highest quality. The HP76 also has a dedicated globaleffects section, so you can assign effects to multiple instruments at the same time. At just 27 pounds, the HP76 is significantly lighter than its 88-key predecessor and offers just as much power, making it the perfect portable keyboard.

M-Audio Code 49 MIDI Controller

Function: Desktop/Studio Monitors Price: $699 What’s New: At just over 7” tall, the Eve Audio SC203 might be the cutest studio monitors we’ve seen all year! Featuring a 3” woofer, the SC203 offers a smooth balanced frequency response with low distortion. The SC203 offers both RCA and USB connectors and is perfect for travel or studios where space is limited.

Function: MIDI Controller Price: $349 What’s New: Once again leading the way in MIDI controllers, M-Audio released the new Code 49 semi-weighted MIDI controller. Featuring 16 backlit drum pads and an XY pad, the Code 49 works perfectly with all the major DAWs, so you can program drums, make filter sweeps, trigger Ableton Live clips, as well as use the faders to mix! With both USB and five-pin MIDI, the Code works perfectly with hardware synths and your computer.

Gibson Les Paul 8 Reference Monitors

PreSonus Audiobox iTwo

Eve Audio SC203

Function: Studio Monitors Price: $999 What’s New: Say the name Les Paul and immediately the first thing that comes to mind is the legendary electric guitar, so it’s no surprise that the Les Paul line of reference monitors bear a resemblance in looks and design to the iconic rock guitar. Carved flame-maple front and archtop design make the Les Paul reference monitors some of the most unique looking monitors on the market, and the three color options are, of course, famous Gibson

Function: Audio Interface Price: $159.95 What’s New: The Audiobox iTwo is a two-channel audio interface that works with Mac, PC, or iPad. Sporting two class-A preamps, the iTwo is extremely easy to use. The iTwo comes with Studio One, Presonus’ DAW and works perfectly with Capture, the recording app for iPad. Whether you need a simple interface for recording demos or a backup interface for travel, the iTWO is a great solution.

PRODUCTION BY ANDY TOY

GEAR REVIEWS AKG D5 Overview:

The D5 is a handheld dynamic microphone from AKG. Small and lightweight but built like a tank, the microphone is perfect for the demands of a high volume stage. With a smooth frequency response and sleek looks, the D5 is ideal for both lead and backing vocals.

Sound:

The D5 features a supercardioid polar pattern that makes the microphone extremely directional, rejecting feedback and eliminating ambient noise. The frequency response has a nice lift at 5k, and a gentle rise at 10k, making it perfect for both male and female vocals. Slightly brighter than other dynamic mics in its category, I especially liked the D5 on female lead and background vocals. The D5 feels great in your hand, and its solid build is perfect for every-weekend use.

Church Use:

Perfect for the stage, the D5 is ideal for male

and female vocals.

More: Great mic with a smooth top end at a great price.

Less: Not much. Price: $84

Radial JDV Overview: The JDV is an active Direct Box that provides extremely

accurate and uncolored sound for any instrument. With tons of features and multiple inputs and outputs, the JDV is extremely versatile. Using a 100-percent Class A transformerless circuit, the sound quality of the JDV is unparalleled.

Functions: Sporting two sets of inputs, the JDV has 2 aux outputs, a

through output, a tuner output, as well as a balanced XLR output. On the side of the DI is a low-cut filter, high-cut filter, input select, and drag control impedance control, helpful for acoustic instruments with piezo pickups. Polarity switch, a 15 dB pad and ground lift controls are also included on the JDV. The active design of the JDV provides incredible sound quality and versatility, reproducing the sound of acoustic and electric instruments with clarity and a thick, full sound.

Church Use: If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for an active DI with great sound quality and multiple I/O, the JDV is perfect for you. More: Incredible sound and tons of inputs and outputs. Less: A little pricey for a single channel DI. Price: $399.99 46

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JD-X A Keyboard

Tapestry Audio Bloomery Volume Pedal

Roland JD-XA Keyboard

Overview: Volume pedals are some of the

all-analog synthesizer in today’s age, and even less often you find a synthesizer that’s fully analog and fully digital, but the JD-XA is just that. With its four-part analog section, the Roland JD-XA can function as an 8-oscillator analog synth with filter, amp, and envelope sections, or as a digital synth with a separate four-part digital engine. The best part is that you can combine the two sections to create unbelievably unique sounds using the best parts of both the analog and digital sections of the synth.

Functions: Both versions of the Bloomery

use a potentiometer and a direct shaft drive to give a wide range of motion and smooth volume curve. The active version of the Bloomery gives you a buffer on the input and output while the passive version offers unbuffered I/O. Both options have a tuner output.

Church Use: The Bloomery is perfect for a guitar player who needs a volume pedal with a solid build but a small footprint.

More: Solid build, wide range of motion in a

small package. Less: Only mono versions available. Price: $249

Sound: As you might expect, the analog

section of the JD-XA is warm and fat, with the filters being crisp and gritty and the oscillators sounding huge. The digital section is incredibly diverse, using Roland’s superNATURAL engine to create expressive, natural sounds. One of the coolest features on the JDXA is the microphone-controlled modulation: you can control filter cutoffs and other modulation parameters with your voice, in addition to being a standard vocoder.

Church Use: A great all-around synth with diversity and warm sound for big leads. More: Extremely diverse, unique analog/ digital synth hybrid. Less: Not much. Price: $2,199

most underrated tools on a guitarist’s board, and the Bloomery brings a unique take on the traditional volume pedal. Built out of heavy-duty steel and at just 2” by 7.8”, a small footprint gives you space on your board for other pedals without sacrificing the feel of a bigger volume pedal. The Bloomery comes in two versions, active and passive.

Overview: It’s not often you find a new

and universal The comfort and quality of custom in-ear monitors in a design that fits nearly every ear. Visit alclair.com/worshipleader to find out more about the dual-driver Curve. Email us for group pricing!

FEATURE REVIEW

ISRAEL & NEW BREED Covered: Alive in Asia

RCA Inspiration newbreedmusic.com

ecorded live in Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Jakarta, Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea this past October, Covered: Alive in Asia is Israel & New Breed’s 10th release together. And you would be hard pressed to find an album as filled with joy, energy, grace, skill, and the name of Jesus. Covered is simply everything you could hope for from this globally influential collaboration of artists. Intricately crafted yet unrestrained praise pulses, rushes, and floats in elegance through the notes, sounds, and sung prayers offered here. Modulation abounds, tempo fluctuations are gracefully traversed, and spoken truth is woven into soaring melodies, all with the purpose of bringing honor to Jesus Christ. At once crisp with instrumental prowess and warm with emotional power, Covered is devotional fine art. As the latest installment in their Alive in ... series, Houghton & New Breed remain Christian music’s global conscience, placing the setting of this album in a continent outside of North America. And this profound intentionality gives the entire offering a deeper character and rings true to the quality of the gospel of Christ. But that is just the beginning. The

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music plays out in a flow of gratitude and victory (“Thank You Lord,” “Risen”) to an appropriate life response to the good news of the gospel’s reorientation of the history of the world (“I Will live,” “In Jesus’ Name”) to simple reflection and unadulterated worship through in multifaceted and multi-instrumental declarations of God’s ultimate worth (“Mighty to Save,” “How Awesome Is Our God”). The Synthy EDM anthem of resurrection power, “Risen” is a complete victory song and probably the best option for congregational worship. Taunting death for its lack of power, worshipers are encouraged to sing hallelujah and proclaim the triumph of the resurrected Savior. Later in the setlist, “Covered” brings the tempo down while simultaneously turning up the intensity and holding fast to the Cross of Christ where we find grace, all of our sins are covered, our pasts are redeemed, and no matter what happens, his grace is sufficient for us. “How Awesome Is Our God,” with guest vocalist Yolanda Adams, is a reminder that nothing, no power, no height nor depth can separate us from the love of God—and yes, he is awesome.

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It must be said that Houghton’s song selection, one that brilliantly laughs off cultural boundaries, has become a collective memory device for the global church. We saw it when he brought his attention to such songs as “Here I am to Worship,” “He Knows My Name,” and others. With Covered, the world is given refreshed versions of “One Thing Remains” and “Mighty to Save,” and in both, the result is fresh air sweeping across some of our favorite modern worship songs. If it came across as anything less than excellence in the craft of lifting high the name of Jesus, we would be tempted to call Covered: Alive in Asia audacious. As it is, supported by the effortless charisma that only Houghton can bring to an offering and filled with a mastery of musical narrative, and a rock-solid foundation of worship, we simply have to call it incredible. God is the front, the center, and the surrounding presence of every note—Covered is amongst the best recordings Houghton has ever produced. Sounds like: Houghton has always been able to employ multiple genres in single releases, and here he plies his deft hand to R&B, gospel, congregational worship, Pop/Rock, funk, EDM, Caribbean, and more— basically Israel Houghton & NewBreed at the peak of their collective powers. Top Songs Most singable: “Covered” Strongest biblical content: “How Awesome Is Our God” (Rom 8:3839) The whole package: “Risen” Jeremy Armstrong

IN REVIEW

MUSIC FOR LEADING

Matt Redman Unbroken Praise sixstepsrecords/Sparrow Records mattredman.com Unbroken Praise finds Redman following in the footsteps of his previous release with another stellar set of musical prayers designed to be honest cries of praise—even when the praise is sung in anguish. When I am in the storm The storm is not in me You will be my peace I’ll wait here (“Songs in the Night”) Recorded in possibly the most famous studio in the world (Abby Road Studios), Matt Redman’s Unbroken Praise is an experiment in community and an homage to the power of songs in the hearts of all believers to praise God even when things are going wrong. This is not a new theme for Redman, an artist who seems able to admit that there are both “desert places” alongside times when the sun’s shining down on us. The renewed hymn “It Is Well With My Soul” is a good example of this approach as is the title track, a piano-driven balladturn-anthem that is the standout congregational track as well. Redman’s skill as a prayer-poet is clearly evident in Unbroken Praise—depending on the spiritual/emotional state of your community, you will find songs that will resonate. And each one was designed to flow from the unified hearts of the saints who are also sinners. Most singable: “The Awesome God You Are” Strongest biblical content: “Abide With Me” (Mat 26) The whole package: “Unbroken Praise”

Newport Paradise Provident newportworship.com Some worship albums are aimed more at personal devotions or reflection, where others are more ideally suited for congregational worship or special music. Paradise is one of those rare treasures that is able to serve any or all of the above purposes. Paradise is filled with strong biblical themes, and the majority of the lyrics are inspired directly from Scripture. Songs proclaiming salvation and God’s sovereignty, our thanksgiving expressed toward him, laments and cries for his help, glory and praise to Jesus, commitment to follow him, God’s deliverance, God’s promises, our hope and assurance in him ... the gospel presented vibrantly in song throughout. In terms of breadth of expression, this album has a lot going on—definitely something for everyone. Right off the bat, it passes the anthem test, delivering into the spirit of congregational praise with “Through the Ages.” With “Echo” and “Your Love Has Overcome,” we move into high energy, upbeat electronica with a strong pulse that makes you want to move around. Then on the down-tempo side “You Have My Heart” is a beautifully soft-spoken ballad overflowing with delicate poetry. Worshipers who enjoy Christy Nockels and Kari Jobe will gravitate toward this one. Sounds Like: The music itself is strongly influenced by the Hillsong churches from which Newport was birthed, with obvious flavors of United and Young & Free, but with a strong Southern California vibe. Astute listeners will pick up on the mix of SoCal and Aussie accents, especially in “Eternity.”

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IN REVIEW

Top Songs Most singable: “Every Way” Strongest biblical content: “Through the Ages,” Each line in this song is woven directly from Scripture, tied together in a manner similar to the telling of the gospel in Isaiah 53 (among many other biblical references). The whole package: “God My Rescue” Resources: Lyrics, chord charts, lead sheets, Spotify samples, and links to downloads on iTunes and Amazon music: essentialworship.com/newport/ Brendan Prout

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Hillsong United Empires Hillsong/CMG hillsong.com/united “So, where do we go from here?” It’s easy to imagine this question asked after the stunning success of the genre-defining, chart topping, “Oceans”-bearing stunner of an album, Zion. It seems the answer to that question is, “Forward.” Certainly there is evidence of this in the music itself; however, in a recent interview with United’s Joel Houston, Worship Leader got this insight. “… after a record like Zion, it’s tempting to try to make a record

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that is accepted by the masses. Something that will sell lots of copies. Big songs,” says Houston. “But we have never done that. That’s not our goal. … So before we knew what [Empires] would sound like or what it would be about, we decided we were not going to write a lyric on this record that didn’t come from some personal story or experience. If something is real for me, then it will be real for other people too. If this record doesn’t sell, if it doesn’t meet expectations of what it should be, or do any of the things that the last record did, I can live with it, and I’m proud of it because I know it was honest, and it was real. And that’s enough for me at the end of the day.” It seems what is real for Houston and the rest of the United crew is gut-wrenching cries that desperately hold to the Word of the Lord as the light and salvation of individual lives as well as redemption of the world. Is it as good as Zion? Actually, yes. In many ways Empires is better than their previous release. The creativity is wild. The atmospheric tones are gorgeous and breathe in ways that no Christian release has yet dared—sonic space is as instrumental in the overall effect as the brimming tones and echoing swaths of sound. The lyrics are inspired and inspiring in their connection to the Father and his overwhelming, overarching redemption of the world as expressed in individual lives.

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Looking for a better way to Organize Your Song List?

But it is not as congregational as Zion was. One or two songs could translate to corporate worship (“Heart Like Heaven” and “Touch the Sky”). But what is formulaically accessible around the world in a congregational setting didn’t dictate the musical direction of Hillsong United. And this is why we like them. Thematically, Empires reflects the symbolism of the cover: there is a dichotomy between what makes sense to the world and what makes sense through the lens of the Cross. Pain co-exists with praise. Our savior is a friend of sinners; he is a crucified messiah. It is folly to the world and a scandal to unbelievers. “It makes no sense, but this is grace” (“Here Now [Madness]”). The standout track “Heart Like Heaven” finds holiness not in perfection but in the offering of the broken heart to the Father. It’s a heart and heaven finding fruition in Christ and becoming the new creation, not out of the work of the individual, but because of the ultimate worth of the Father. This is just the beginning.

These paradoxes of faith and God’s greatness resound throughout. And the result is honesty and the beauty of a God that has already done the work of redemption. It’s an album of questioning and striving, but the final answer is one of grace. It’s an upside-down approach to every earthly power structure—an optical illusion to some, but to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, it is the good news. And it changes everything. Top songs Most singable: “Heart Like Heaven” Strongest biblical content: “Empires” (2 Cor 5:16-21) The whole package: “Touch the Sky” Jeremy Armstrong

We FOUND IT. worshipplanning.com makes it easier for churches to plan, schedule and coordinate worship services. • Create and organize multiple services and worship flows • Organize teams and schedule volunteers to serve • Build a library of music with easy access for team members

One name says it all.

Serving with you.

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IN REVIEW

captures and celebrates the powerful work of grace and redemption found in the love of God. Every song on this record is for corporate worship. I want to teach them all to my church next week. Fellowship Creative Alive In Us EP fellowshipcreative.com Fellowship Creative is a collective of artists whose lives have been changed by the power of the gospel. FC is based out of Fellowship Church in Texas, led by Pastor Ed and Lisa Young. Alive in Us is their sixth release offering a total of six tracks, four new songs along with two acoustic arrangements. Each song

Sounds Like: Hillsong Live, Gateway Worship, Elevation Worship Most Singable: “Name of Jesus” Strongest Biblical Content: “Grace on Top of Grace” (Eph. 2:4-6) The Whole Package: “Jesus Is Alive” Resources Available: Chord charts, lyrics, videos, and tracks all available at fellowshipcreative.com. Jay Akins

worshipleader THE APP IS AVAILABLE! NOW YOU CAN BROWSE THE ARCHIVE AND PURCHASE SINGLE ISSUES TO READ ON YOUR iPAD. Single issues and subscription available

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The Neverclaim The Joy Radiate Theneverclaim.com The Neverclaim is back with another heart, soul, and ear pleasing pop-rock album, The Joy. While The Neverclaim’s mission is to help people be transformed by experiencing God and his love, this particular album focuses on the theme of finding joy in the Lord no matter what hardships one faces. Expressions of joy reverberate through each song, from “The Joy” to “Dance With God” and “Go.” Pairing The Neverclaim’s polished radio-friendly style with strong biblical lyrics creates an exciting and uplifting worship experience. The Neverclaim takes their message on the road with around 150 concert dates per year. They have toured with artists such as Newsboys, Sanctus Real, Third Day, Matt Maher, and Kutless and per-

formed at venues such as Disney World’s Night of Joy.

Sounds like: This upbeat, modern pop worship album with encouraging and biblically based lyrics is created from a crisp mix of rock guitar, acoustic guitar, synth loops, and stylistic drumming which combine to make The Neverclaim’s clean, fresh sound.

Top Songs Most Singable: “Dance With God” Strongest Biblical Content: “Our God Wins” (Jn 16:33) The Whole Package: “The Joy” Amanda Furbeck

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PLANETSHAKERS

CHORD CHARTS

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lens on the gospel story that you’ll find in old hymns or the more recent work of artists like Matt Redman and the Gettys, but there is room for growth and good deal of promise in these songs written by students. Still, Hearts on Fire is a good example of contemporary pop worship done well, and songs like “Bless the Lord” and “I Belong to You” would be worthy additions to your church repertoire. Sounds Like: Elevation Church, Hillsong, Gateway Worship NCU Worship Hearts on Fire northcenral.edu From North Central University’s College of Fine Arts come 12 original songs recorded live in chapel worship services. The production expertly captures the passion of these gatherings, as well as the first-rate vocal and instrumental performances. By and large, these songs don’t contain the theological depth or the wide-angle

Top Songs Most singable: “Love of God” Strongest biblical content: “I Belong to You” The whole package: “Bless the Lord”

Jessica Busboom Reveal Your Majesty Ocean’s Edge Music jessicabusboom.wordpress.com New artist Jessica Busboom, from the Ocean’s Edge School of Worship and Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, introduces five new songs in her debut EP. These five original offerings feature Jessica’s strong vocals and provide the Church a fresh batch of songs to

Bobby Gilles

“Love of God”

Worship Leader Song Discovery selection

NEW from

Worship Live and other gifted student singers/songwriters/musicians of North Central University Now on iTunes, Google Play, 56

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and ncufinearts.com

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minneapolis, minnesota

be sung in corporate worship. “Reveal Your Majesty” would make a great call to worship, and “Bones” is another standout song that focuses on a call for revival. Since these songs would work so well in the church, it would be helpful to see some additional resources made available for these songs. Sounds like: Jessica’s rich, low voice is very engaging, reminiscent of Kim Walker-Smith, Amanda Falk, and Meredith Andrews. The overall sound is similar to the female-led songs of Bethel Music or Jesus Culture. Top Songs Most Singable: “Reveal Your Majesty” Strongest Biblical Content: “As the Waters” The Whole Package: “Bones” Barry Westman

Onething Live Shout Your Name Forerunner Music ihopkc.org/onething Shout Your Name is a live recording from International House of Prayer of Kansas City’s annual Onething conference. Reflecting a practice of “soaking worship,” this offering consistently explores the glory of God and the power of his presence with songs such as “In the Presence of Angels,” “For Your glory,” and “So come” being prime examples—beautiful songs written to inspire a sense of God’s immanent magnificence. Musically, this album includes some raw musical and arranging talent (especially on the piano-driven songs) that surpasses many of its peers, and the live recording quality is excellent. At International House of Prayer, this musical prowess and focus on God’s glory and presence represent great strengths; churches that don’t have full-band setups may find it difficult to recapture the power of this recording. The soaking worship focus also means that the songs are heavily related to the human experience of God’s glory—great for response songs but not as helpful in developing all objective facets of God’s character, without defaulting to well-used phrases such as “Jesus, lover of my soul, the One who’s in control” (“I Will Wait”). Shout Your Name offers charismatic churches some useful songs for corporate worship and the larger Church some memorable pieces for personal devotion. Sounds like: Electric-and-chorus-guitar-led arena worship infused with ’80s synth and EDM 4-on-the-floor beats, sprinkled with some good old-fashioned choir, keys, and chimes black gospel. Most Singable: “Shout Your Name” Strongest biblical content: “Hymn (John 1)” The whole package: “So Come,” Great for congregational singing, thoughtful development of 1 Corinthians 1 and Psalm texts that describe God’s great reversal where “the weak become strong.” Graham Gladstone

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Kirk William Sauers Always and Forever kirkwilliamsauers.com Kirk William Sauers is a singer and songwriter out of Nashville, Tennessee; his EP Always and Forever is a collection of reverent worship songs. The title track is a guitar-and-fiddle based ballad that stays close to the country gospel formula with clear beautiful vocals and bridges into the second song on the EP “God Have Mercy” a gospel-folk song. “Join the Song” the most memorable of the collection demonstrates Sauers’ strong songwriting skills while “Pour It” steps up the tempo and showcases this independent artist’s skills. Always and Forever is well produced, and as Kirk continues to develop his songs and writing skills, he will certainly have a broad effect in the pews and across the various media formats. Sounds like: Early Chris Tomlin country gospel with a touch of folk. Top Songs Most singable: “Join the Song” Strongest biblical content: “God Have Mercy” The whole package: “Always and Forever” Darryl Bryant

Kingdom Acoustic Sessions Dream Records worshipwithkingdom.com Kingdom is a Northern Californian worship team whose mission “is to write songs about and for Jesus” and whose hope is that “through our music and through our lives Christ is glorified and people find their hope in him.” Their Acoustic Sessions album, recently released on Dream Records, boldly declares the salvation and hope found in Christ alone and features standout songs like “God of Fire,” “Flood Song,” “Redeemer”, and “Chorus of the Saints.” Acoustic Sessions engages listeners with stripped-down acoustic arrangements, yet doesn’t lack musical energy and lyrical presence. In Acoustic Sessions, the arrangements are simple enough for small teams to master and provide a sound foundation for larger music teams to build on. Strong biblical and cross-centered themes fuel the lyrics and spur the listener to heartily proclaim the praise and glory of Christ the Savior. Sounds Like: Acoustic guitar and drums work together to produce powerful praise arrangements while leaving stripped down space for reflective and responsive worship. Top Songs Most Singable: “God of Fire” Strongest biblical content: “Redeemer” The whole package: “Chorus of the Saints” Kristen Gilles

a ministry of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale

THIS IS OUR CLASSROOM.

WORSHIP LEADERS / ARTISTS / MUSICIANS Learn more at oceansedgeschool.com

REVEAL YOUR MAJESTY JESSICA BUSBOOM AS FEATURED ON VOL 123

JESSICABUSBOOM.COM

Mike Lee All I Need Mike Lee Music mikeleemusic.com Sweet strains of peaceful vocals accompanied by soothing guitar tones with hints of melancholy provide the musical foundation for the theme of Mike Lee’s EP, All I Need. Lee learned first-hand what it means to proclaim that God is all

he needs when his father was diagnosed with stage-4 lung cancer and his wife was pregnant with their second child, all while balancing touring, leading worship in his home church, and working on his other passion as a mixed martial arts trainer. The gentle acoustic feel of All I Need lends itself well to personal times of devotion or congregational worship with its focus on Jesus, biblically-based lyrics, and the theme of God as the fulfillment of all needs. Sounds like: The gentle acoustic pop created by folk-inspired guitar, light percussion, and some soft banjo support Mike Lee’s tender vocals and the EP’s focus on God as our source for everything.

Top 5 Finalist On

“Safe In The Arms of You” Lawrence’s first Christian solo praise and worship CD since America’s Got Talent He uses his rich baritone voice to bring hope and healing to people everywhere. Get ready to be spiritually fed with songs such as: •

Until He Comes Again - The New Hymn

•

I Appreciate You

•

Safe In The Arms of You

•

Hey, Everybody

•

Rapture to My Soul

Lawrence is now available for concerts, tours and appearances internationally Book Him Today! www.LawrenceBeamenMusicMinistry.com

“If you listen to the words of a song as much as the beat, that very song may save you for a life time.” ~ Lawrence B 60

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Top Songs Most Singable: “Awaken Me” Strongest Biblical Content: “Freedom” (Gal 5:1) The Whole Package: “All I Need” Amanda Furbeck

IN REVIEW

PERSONAL PLAYLIST

Dan Bremnes Where The Light Is Sparrow Records danbremnes.com Welcome to a refreshing sound that instantly engages your listening appetite. This is the debut release by Canadian singer/songwriter Dan Bremnes, Where the Light Is. Thoughtprovoking, introspective lyrics join the upbeat, infectious grooves to make this a must have CD for your pop Christian music diet. “Where The Light Is” explores questions that Christians, as well as pre-Christians, can appreci-

ate as Bremnes begs God to “set my heart on fire” and he acoustically proclaims, “I want to live, like I’ve been born again.” The first single, “Beautiful” was featured on the deluxe version of the 2015 Wow Hits package. Where the Light Is is a perfect blend within the pop variety of radio-friendly Christian music. The addition of the acoustic “Born Again” provides a variety that many musicians should emulate for their albums. Production quality was obviously a labor of love as this release rivals Christian artists who have been on the Christian charts for many years. Top Songs Most singable: “Where the Light Is” Strongest biblical content: “Even If” The Whole Package: “Born Again” Resources Available: chord charts for some songs available at praisecharts.com and youtube.com. Randy W. Cross

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Chris McClarney Everything and Nothing Less Bethel Music chrismcclarney.com Chris McClarney, best known for his worship song “Your Love Never Fails,” has released his fourth album, Everything and Nothing Less, which was recorded live at the 2015 Jesus Culture Encounter Conference in Sacramento, California. The powerful passion and booming vocal presence is immediately noticeable on ENL. It’s the kind of music that sweeps you up with the first notes and carries you along in rapt attention throughout. The good news is that this musicality and charisma is directed to God in worship. “Holy Moment” is a callto-worship that places honor and fame on the Father, and prepares hearts to encounter him. While “All Consuming Fire” brings the most anthemic and passionate tone as it proclaims the truth of Hebrews 12:29 in a congregational barnburner. Everything and Nothing Less is only lacking in narrative depth. The emotions are strong and the

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poetry is beautiful, and with a bit more focus on God and a little less on us, McClarney will doubtlessly bring prayers to the lips of thousands of worshipers—with Jesus getting the glory. Sounds like: Soul-brimming vocals are set to anthem-rock in the style of Jesus Culture. McClarney is pretty close to being a male version of Kim Walker-Smith, in all the best ways possible. Top songs: Most singable: “Holy Moment” Strongest biblical content: “On Earth as It Is in Heaven” (Mat 6:9-13) The whole package: “All Consuming Fire” Jeremy Armstrong

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IN REVIEW

Vice & Virtue Jimmy Needham Platinum Pop jimmyneedham.com Veteran artist Jimmy Needham is back with perhaps his most ambitious recording yet, and his risks have paid off, resulting in a superior album that steps into uncharted waters in many ways. Vice & Virtue takes Needham’s R&B, soul-filled music to a new l level, both musically and lyrically. Thematically, Needham explores the concept that despite all our Christian niceties, all we have to bring to God is our sin and brokenness. Needham uses a bit of shock value to point this out with lyrics like “Which is good and which is bad: Crystal meth or a gospel tract? If it’s done for me and not for you, there’s vice in all my virtue.” Also, Needham has a special knack for keen wordplay, which forces the listener to actually digest the lyrics carefully. Sounds like: Musically, this album combines blues (“Jekyll & Hyde”), R&B, upbeat pop dance music, spoken word, and even a little bit of disco thrown in (“Mr. Nice Guy”) resulting in a collection of infectious rhythms, unforgettable melodies, and songs that draw you in and make you want to sing along. Top Songs Most Singable: “Forever and Ever Amen” Strongest Biblical Content: “The Story (A Spoken Word)” The Whole Package: “Momma Didn’t Raise No Fool” Barry Westman

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IN REVIEW

Ryan Day The Sending ryanday.com.au There are some gems on this album that would work well for congregational singing, but that’s not the overall aim, which is heavily weighted toward helping individual believers express adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and seek God for providence. “The King Has Come,” one of the more upbeat songs on the album, has a catchy hook to the melody, a positive feel, and simple biblical truths. “Give You All the Praise” ties together powerful Scripture passages such as Romans 12:1 1, Corinthians 10:31, Psalm 51:17, and a host of others, doing what the title suggests: offering all praise to God while proclaiming commitment to strive for lives worthy of his name. The music itself is strongly influenced by mid-’90s alternative rock: one could imagine Ryan being accompanied by Sarah McLachlan’s band or 10,000 Maniacs. It’s high-quality musicianship arranged in thick layers of electric and acoustic guitar textures with a flawless rhythm section, left with plenty of acoustic space, so it doesn’t become overwhelming. Ryan’s voice goes from tense and brooding in “Lord of All” to smooth as silk in “Hear My Prayer,” taking us along with him in a soulful expression of many songs that could be modern-day psalms and lamentations. Sounds like: Brenton Brown, Nick Sgrosso, Sonic Flood, Steve Fee Top Songs Most singable: “The King Has Come” Strongest biblical content: “King of Calvary” The whole package: “Give You All the Praise” Resources: lyrics, chord charts and links to downloads on iTunes and Amazon music here: ryanday.com.au/media/chord-charts/. Brendan Prout

Unspoken Unplugged Centricity Music unspokenmusic.com Unplugged by Unspoken will do exactly what the second song on the album “un”apologetically proclaims: “Start a Fire!” Unplugged takes the “acoustic” vibe on a journey overflowing with harmony, diversity, and artistry. The group heralds from Maine to the Dominican Republic and weaves in Puerto Rico. Unspoken is comprised of Chad Mattson on lead vocals, Jon Lowry on guitar, Mike Gomez on guitar, and Ariel Munoz on drums and percussions. “Who You Are” breathes as an acoustic centerpiece that will find new listeners beyond the pop version rotating on radio playlists. Threading in and out of the entire project, Mattson’s vocals counter the instrumentation with mesmerizing hooks, and the bass rolls with the piano and blends the percussions in with an authentic passion that challenges the listener to embrace the CD as a rebirth rather than a reissue. Unspoken combines their last two EPs and gives their second “full” album a veteran feel while remaining true to the momentum and growth the band is experiencing. “Broken Man” is a fan favorite, and the unplugged version will not disappoint. “Green Light” is fresh and reflects the band’s touring time with roadworthy Sanctus Real, Big Daddy Weave, and others. What Unplugged brings to Unspoken is a thread that connects all the songs as a unit and not individual tunes, making this project a joy to listen to. Recommendation: after listening to Unplugged, do the right thing and “Tell Somebody”! Sounds like: Tenth Avenue North/Sidewalk Prophets, Unplugged is an acoustic pop collaboration with the right touch of soul that balances island flavors with authentic storytelling. The vocal arrangements, piano, and percussion, not to mention guitar and bass work well throughout the entire album, which is outstanding. Top Songs Most Singable: “Lift My Life Up” Strongest Biblical Content: “The Good Fight” (1 Tim 6:12 and 2 Tim 4:7) The Whole Package: “Start a Fire” Darryl Bryant

RESOURCES Clover Sites Clover 3.0 cloversites.com If you’re not already familiar with Clover, they make amazing websites for churches. What exactly does that mean? Well, they create clean and crisp themes that are specifically oriented to church ministries, with all the intricate and elaborate thought that goes into that, so you don’t have to come up with everything from scratch. But not only that, you are given a site that is so elegant and well designed, it will seem like you have an experienced on-staff coder. And 3.0 is actually a pretty big deal. Clover has switched from Flash to HTML5. In non-nerd language, that means your site will work universally on all devices/desktops, and it will do so for the foreseeable future. For current Clover subscribers, the upgrade is free. The downside is that there will only be five new themes at the time of launch, compared to their current count of 36. But with Clover’s history of vigilance, you know that number will grow rapidly, and with all the attention to detail we are used to. Dragand-drop functionality, section-based editing, mobile responsive themes, are just a few reasons these sites are outstanding. But current subscribers can also rejoice in the addition of embedded video (and new subscribers can be happy about that too). As well, our favorite new feature is the color palette option. With a click here and a click there, your entire website can sport a new and seamless color makeover, plus you can do it with the fonts. And Clover has your back; it’s all pretty much idiot-proof—like having an expert website coder, an Internet Web graphic designer, and a team of people ready to help you out if you get stuck (this is actually a team of people at Clover’s customer assistance), all at your side as you give your church and worship ministry a presence on the Internet that will definitely leave an impression. The cost is $1,000 up front, and $20 per month for hosting/support. A price tag that is worth every penny in our book. Jeremy Armstrong

BY CHUCK FROMM

THE GREAT PARTNERSHIP Small adjective 1. Of a size that is less than normal or usual. 2. Ninety percent of churches in North America have 350 regular attendees or less.

A friend of mine has a great metaphor for church: “All ministry is a partnership. The sign above every sanctuary should read ‘God & Sons (and Daughters)’” I grew up in the faith in what today would be considered a “small” church. We celebrated every Easter—not only because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which the day represented, but because on Easter Sunday we would most likely break our attendance record of 100 in worship. Sometimes we did, and many times we did not. I remember that shrinking feeling as a 12-year-old when we failed to reach our goal. In fact, the whole church felt a bit guilty. Numbers and filled pews were the gold standards for measuring our growth, measuring our health. It was a symbol of our right standing with God measured by the successful accomplishment of our goals.

Separate and Not Equal Where I grew up, in the farming belt of California’s Central Valley, silos pepper the landscape. These silos are large metal towers used to keep grain inside. At the time, our churches had similarities to these silos: keep people inside and keep people from entering the other silos across town. By the grace of God, there were other communities of believers outside of my own “silo” that my parents allowed

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me visit in my early teenage years. Young Life, Campus Crusade, and ultimately the formation of a touring music group allowed me to visit other silos of faith and tradition. This wandering began a life-long curiosity and exploration of the varieties of Christian forms, practices, and expressions of worship: one faith, one gospel, one Jesus, one Lord, but a variety of communities.

Church Connected Peter Drucker once told me, “Chuck, there is not just one right fly … God made 30,000 species of flies and then got on with cockroaches.” And in the Church today, we see something similar— thousands of Christian communities of all shapes and societies, some meeting in convention-center-like facilities such as the beautiful Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, to my bi-weekly Bible study group meeting at Starbucks across from the San Juan Capistrano Mission in Southern California. But beyond the diversity of size and worship expression, something else has changed under our feet, or maybe under our fingertips. The digital revolution has occurred allowing for connection and collaboration across the globe with the swipe of a finger. We no longer have to fixate ourselves on size; we are a global church connected. Maybe we should have always remembered that the least of these would be the greatest in heaven. And thankfully most churches today have taken down those hideous attendance records that reminded us of our lowly stature. And along with those signs, something else is

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being dismantled. The silos are losing their strength. We are globally wired to millions. For better or worse we are all connected. We are app’d, linked, and synced in a multitude of ways. And some of us are even interacting with our physical neighbors.

One in the Lord “Small” church just doesn’t describe our current reality. Church connected does, and by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit we will be united as well— we will be a global partnership with one another as surely as we partner with the Creator of the universe. This, of course, is a key role of the worship leader. As we sing songs of faith, we are connected not just visually but also by sound as we declare a common faith in the work of Jesus Christ. As we sing his Word, the same declarations are being made in every language across the globe. So when you are feeling small, go on YouTube and join your family, find your favorite hymn or praise song, and sing with your brothers and sisters around the globe, pray for them, join with them in a common chorus of praise. And may God make his abundance of love and grace real to you. Let’s continue to lean towards collaboration and away from competitive silos. We can keep our distinctions, but we can’t lose our love for the body of Christ.

Chuck Fromm is CEO/Publisher of Worship Leader magazine.

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