How To Make Decisions

“The most eternally creative thing you can do is make a decision.” – Dave Miller

Here are a few principles to help you make decisions. Church is two or more gathered [Matthew 18:20] centered around Christ, to acknowledge His authority and presence, discerning and declaring the will of God, making decisions for the Kingdom, declaring those decisions and acting on them corporately.¹ Always start (and complete) the decision making process with our hearts – affections, our minds – attitudes, our souls – ambition, our strength – activity,² centered on Christ. Unless you just want to build your church, instead of His.

Remove fear.

Fear of what people will think, fear of what it will take to do what the decision implies, or fear of making the wrong decision are always bad motivators and will cloud your decision. Fear = Fog. Fear = False Evidence Appearing Real. It will mess you up. Go ahead, imagine what it feels like to make a decision without the weight of “what will they think?” attached to it. I couldn’t help but grin either.

Make sure you clarify what decision you’re making and which ones you are not making.

Decisions always impact other things, but it’s important to not try and make all the decisions that will be affected by a single decision at the same time. It will immobilize you. Just imagine shopping at the grocery store for the next 175 meals in a single shopping trip. Hope you like Spam.

Identify what’s making it a difficult decision

There’s something intoxicating about problem solving that is so detrimental to decision making. Don’t confuse decision making with problem solving.³ Sometimes when I am trying to make a decision, I’ll stop and back up from all the processing I’ve been doing and I’ll listen for the answer that I’ve kinda known God was giving me, but I was mentally debating because I didn’t understand, like, or know how it would work.  If you had to say (ignoring any implications of the decision) what you think God’s saying about the decision…what would it be if you had to make a call right now?

Decide how long of a time frame each decision should take to make. (5 minutes or 5 months?)

Some decisions take time. Some don’t. Some leaders can make decisions quickly. Some can’t. Neither is always right/wrong. Agreeing at the start how long a decision needs to take will help everyone. There’s a freedom in knowing that even though this decision will take 2 months to make, that end date gives hope and forward motion. Never delay a decision that should be made quickly. It’ll be like that email that you didn’t want to respond to right away, that somehow ended up way down in your inbox only to be discovered months later. Never rush a decision that needs time. You can nuke a steak, but it’ll get hard and you’ll feel discomfort in your stomach.

If it’s a complex decision, simplify it by breaking it into several decisions.

It’s the same principle of eating the elephant (How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.)

Filter the decision through your core purpose, your WHY, the big picture.

Every decision. That’s not an overstatement. Every decision should support your WHY. Even if it seems insignificant, or the exception, or your really want it. If it doesn’t support what you’ve decided you’re about, don’t do it. On the contrary, if it does support your WHY, make sure you clearly share that when you communicate the decision.

Congratulations!

So how do you make decisions?

¹Concept from Keith Yoder, Teaching The Word Ministries, ²Verbiage from Myron Augsburger 1968, Faith for a Secular World ³Concept from Doug Fike

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Tools

Every worship leader needs tools...

To keep growing

To be inspired

To develop the band

To pastor the team

To find new songs

To lead well

In some ways, the Worship Fertilizer is a toolbox containing many such tools - articles, resources, training events, etc. I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite tools. I’d love for you to share your tools with me. (Especially folks like Chad Fisher - he’s a tool nut!)

After you read through this, would you simply post a comment to let the rest of us know what your favorite tools are?

Blogs (I subscribe to all of these) 

David Santistevan's blog is very practical and well-written.

Rob Rash gives really great advice, training, and thought leadership.

 

Jon Nicol over at WorshipTeamCoach.com give provocative, compelling, and informative stuff!

Books

Dan Wilt’s book How To Lead Worship is an excellent all-in-one tool to develop your worship leadership. I've never met a leader with the breadth and heart of Dan Wilt. I want every worship ministry to be influenced by his teaching. Scholarly ideas, everyday language. It’s brilliant, really.

Tom Kraeuter is a long-time worship teacher and seminar presenter. His stuff is biblical and simple. Often funny. I know churches that use his book, Becoming a True Worshiper, as required reading as part of the application process to serve in the worship ministry. He also has aworship ministry devotional service for the whole team and a free video series. (he’s prolific!)

Bob Kaufflin’s book Worship Matters (and hisblog) focuses readers on the essentials of God-honoring worship, combining biblical foundations with practical application in a way that works in the real world.

The Heart of the Artist by Rory Nolandis a classic dealing with... (as the title says). Some chapters include: *Servanthood Versus Stardom *Excellence Versus Perfectionism *The Spiritual Disciplines of the Artist *The Artist in Community.

 

3 Word Lessons For Worship Leaders and teams is a collection of simple (and often humorous) ideas meant to inspire you, make you laugh, give you food for thought, and generally help you get better at what you do. Super short, these would be great to use as discussion starters at your weekly rehearsals.

Training

Gateway Worship Trainer is the training program that Gateway Church created to train their leaders. It’s free and there is a whole video curriculum to develop your CORE, CHARACTER, and CRAFT. Wow!

 

WorshipTraining.com is fantastic! Just check out the wealth of courses and training videos available. The deal is that for $299 per year, the whole church gets access to unlimited everything! It’s very, very worth it. (you can even get limited, but worthwhile, access for free!)

 

Rehearsal Coaching. I bet your band is in a rut. Your keyboard player hogs the middle, acoustic player beats the guitar at one volume, bass player is bored, drummer doesn’t signal the sections, electric player noodles, singers all sing melody all the time. And everybody overplays. Well, maybe it’s not that bad. You may not know how to fix what ailing your band, or you may know, but you’re in that spot where you’re so used to a certain player’s bad habits that you feel weird addressing it. We’ve all been there. Whether it’s your worship band, garage band, or touring band, you can have Ad Lib Music come to a rehearsal and get you unstuck! We’ll be gentle.

New Songs

WorshipTogether.com is a great resource for new songs. They created the “New Song Café” that shows videos of the songwriters teaching their song. Subscribe to get a new one about every week.

 

CCLItv is a free source for new songs and training. Browse three Channels: OpenMic - Fresh new worship songs...straight from the churches themselves. Instruct - Brief video workshops covering worship leading, worship teams and musicianship. FirstTake - Great new worship songs from the worship artists, songwriters and companies you trust.

Websites (subscribe for regular updates)

ChurchLeaders.com has lots of regular articles for worship leaders.

 

MinistryMatters.com is a site dedicated to supporting Christian ministry with resources, community and inspiration.

So, what are your favorite tools? (and hey, if you can't quite figure out how to post a comment, shoot me an email at dave@adlibmusic.com)

Why Do We Gather?

Why do we gather each week as a church?

Your answer might be one of the biggest assumptions (and therefore, trickiest set of unspoken expectations) you have when thinking about the weekend service. It affects everything! What to sing. How loud it should be. What kind of songs to sing. Whether or not to use theater lighting. How to preach. How to “do” the offering. How long to go. Who’s allowed to lead. Who to invite. How big of a screen to use. And how many. Really...everything.

Well, let’s keep this discussion somewhat manageable. I’m reminded of some marketing copy I wrote ten years ago for one of the best coffee shops in Lancaster: “When the world is swirling around you, find the way back to a simple & livable life - back to Square One.”

To my ears and heart, this is a great place to start when we’re talking about why we gather. Even though (or maybe because) I get to experience such a wide variety of churches, I find it difficult to call all of us to a single reason (and therefore style) for our gathering. Honestly, this is my attempt to process through writing. I really want this to be a conversation starter.

As a worship leader, I believe my role is to create a space where we can meet with God. (Thanks Dan Wilt for that fantastic verbiage!) It seems to me that there’s a lot of “Re-ing” that goes on when we gather.

 These are some of the things I believe we should do when we gather each week.

Re-Orient

Life is disorienting. There’s lots of things to look at, to want, to have to take care of, to understand. Gathering allows us to once again “Set our faces like a flint.” (Isaiah 50:7) We look to Him and our faces are made radiant. We say “This is what I believe. This is Who I belong to. This is what’s true.”

Re-Imagine

Life is disappointing. Man, it’s sick out there. Hurting, oppressive, ugly. I see the affects of sin in my life and in the world around me. There’s something transforming about meeting with the One who says “go and sin no more,” who shows up where there’s need and switches superb wine for tap water, who feeds half of LCBC with my tuna salad footlong combo meal. He just sees in other dimensions, other realities, with another imagination.

Re-Position

Life is pushy. Usually downward. I’ll never get over the reality that in one moment I was dead in my transgressions, stuck in sticky, smelly muck. And as an 11-year-old on my Noah’s ark bed, the extraordinary happened. I was re-created, a new creature, and suddenly I was home...seated in the heavenlies with Christ. #canyoubelieveit?! We celebrate this.

Re-Define

Life is ridiculous. Why would we work so hard to define who we are by what we do when He’s already named us. It’s like I’m Jarrett all week...except for that 60 minutes on Sunday when I remember I’m actually David. As a son, there’s no earning. Intentionally listening to the Father together powerfully sets us back in the right context.

Re-Connect

Life is frenzied. We rush. Especially on the way to church! We’re over-connected online, under-connected when we’re breathing the same air. Beyond just a shared experience, we get the chance to respond to God and each other in the same room. Touching God-with-skin-on has a similar effect that the Ezekiel-37-dry-bones experienced.

Re-Direct

Life is idolatrous. Our charge as disciples is to bring an offering that is not for us. To acclaim, honor, magnify, worship, bless, praise, extol, love...Him. As Christ followers, we need a place to once again, as a set-apart group, express love and devotion to the Center around which our lives satellite.

Re-Believe

Life is challenging. It should be faith-draining. Or said differently, it should require faith. We need the belief-fuel of faith. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Hearing it in the company of other witnesses emboldens our faith.

Re-Enact

Life is forgetful. We get wrapped up in the latest song, outreach program, and small group system. It’s cool stuff. But the Church has been doing it’s offensive on the gates of hell for a very long time. Sacraments, liturgies, rituals, and ceremonies connect us to the Church throughout history. We need that context. His body broken. His blood poured out.

Re-Interpret

Life is...not always as it seems. When someone has received truth from Truth and gives it to us, our moments are interpreted. The lies that have been thriving in our heads are exposed and shrivel in the Light. It’s beautiful, really. Whether in a sermon, a prophetic prayer, an encouraging word, a song lyric, the power of Truth translated in the language of love always sets us free.

I started out on this written journey, in part, to see if a more “missional” or “attractional” or “believer” or “seeker” or “traditional” or “contemporary” or “blended” or “un-church” gathering was more fitting for “Church circa 2012.” At this mile marker, it seems that if we’re all doing the “Re-ing” the other labels become pretty unimportant when describing why we gather weekly.

But I know there’s more. I’m just one perspective. I need to hear from you. I need the whole picture! Why do we gather?

 

Do You See What I Sing?

When was the last time you took a breath, ready to sing the next line, only to slowly exhale, mumble, or watermelon through the next line because the words weren’t up in time?

Why isn’t everybody singing out at the top of their lungs? [this is, after all, the Almighty we’re praising!]

How often are the lyrics flipping through verse 1…chorus…no, verse 2! to finally land on the right one…only to catch the last 2 lines before the next search begins?

Why is it so hard for our congregation to learn new songs?

Does your church start singing the second verse of “How Great Is Our God” by singing “mmmmm…is in His hands”?

As one who has sat behind the computer and experienced how easy it is to produce imperfection while projecting lyrics, I empathetically want to offer some helpful practices that will significantly improve your church’s worship experience!

1. Speaking of practices, do you need to come to rehearsals?  Absolutely…unless it’s okay for you to rehearse during the service.  If you get your first look at the songs after the call to worship, stop worrying that some words might not be up in time for people to wholeheartedly engage…it’s guaranteed you’re going to miss some!  So what should you do at rehearsals?
1. KNOW the song.  It is as important for you to know the song as it is for the keyboard player to know the song.
2. Get familiar with how the songs will be sung for this particular event
3. Make notes on your copy of the chord charts.  What section are they planning to start on?  If you use the keyboard shortcuts, write them on the sections of the songs for reference.
4. Pick backgrounds that fit the feel and/or message of the song and that flow well from one song to the next.
5. A good idea is to have a blank slide built into each song so that you can switch to it and the background stays the same [rather than going to a blank screen] during instrumental or improvisational times [or if you’re looking for where they are in the song]
6. Check for typos and spelling errors as you go through the songs
7. Make sure the lyrics follow natural breaks in phrasing
8. Recognize the introduction to a song so you can get the song up quickly, especially if the leader goes “off the list.”

2.    What do I do during services?

a.     The GOAL is to have the slide completely on the screen [animation completed] by the time people are taking a breath to sing the first line of that section.  To do this, you may have to guess and sometimes you’ll be wrong, but being occasionally wrong is better than consistently late.

b.     Be alert!  Everyone is intently watching what you’re doing, counting on your ability to make the words easily visible.  If they feel you are not competently at ease, they will tend to be uncomfortable themselves.  In a sense, you are their eyes, and, like eyes, if nobody notices you, you’ve probably done a great job. 

c.     Pretend you’re singing and can’t sing until you see the words on the screen – see things from the congregation’s perspective.

d.     Wait to put the next song up until just before the leader begins to sing it, the team plays the introduction, or the leader asks to see the words.

e.     Worship when you can, but remember it’s a sacrifice you have to make since your first priority is to make the words as consistently quickly readable as possible.

So what do you struggle with in the visual worship world?

Incidentally, the timing of this Fertilizer is inspired by Jon Acuff's latest post on Stuff Christians Like where he discusses his angst with lyrics being missing on the screen during worship, so I hope I've given you some practical help to make sure it doesn't happen where you gather for worship.