Thursday, February 28, 2013

One Creative Process 14, Refining

Now that we'd created our first draft of 4-6 services (maybe; we may have only finished 2-3), it was time to revisit and refine our design. And it was time to finish planning if it was a longer series.

These meetings also involved more team building exercises and big-picture goal setting.

We would review the services we'd planned, make sure everything still sounded right, and make sure assignments were clear. (This was really important and when I started the team I didn't do it well.)

There were several ways we sought to evaluate the worship gatherings, and this meeting sometimes included those conversations. Other times that took place before brainstorming in session one. We would evaluate ourselves, of course. But we also created a questionnaire that we'd ask a church member to fill out once a month or so. We also tried to listen well in the hallways and corners so we could be aware of what was helping connect the hearts of our congregation with the heart of God. And what wasn't.

One more word about refining. Our team had to be really, really honest. If something didn't work, or, more dangerously, if someONE didn't work, we had to be able to say it. Not to disparage. Not to discount. But to discern. A great deal of our meetings was spent developing ourselves spiritually so we could handle having hard conversations and still cherishing one another and every person who would sit in the worship center every Sunday.

Of course this 4-step process was fluid over the course of 5 years. Sometimes we'd shorten to 3 meetings. Often we did some of what I've described with email conversations. There were times it was hard to get together as much as we wanted to (May, July, December) so flexibility was key.

I mentioned team-building and big-picture. I'm going to start wrapping up this series next time with one of my favorite ideas ever, and one that helped our team immensely. The ROAD TRIP!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

One Creative Process 13, Designing

I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but we found one that worked really well for us.

Remember, by now we knew the over-arching theme, the vibe, the goals of the series and the services, and a good bit of the content.

It was time to pull out the index cards.

Gosh that sounds old school!

I had our ministry assistant make 3x5 cards that had all of the songs we used in our services. Red was up tempo, yellow was medium and blue was slow. The key(s) of the song was on the card too. There were other cards. One each for sermon, baptism, video, communion, song intro, testimony, prayer, scripture reading, offering, and maybe some others I've forgotten.

And there was a large table.

And we went to work.

No givens of order. Sometimes we'd open with a quiet, tender song with lights low and "center" ourselves. Other times we'd open with a bombastic hymn or high energy worship song or video. Really, there were no givens.

The placement of the sermon was key. There were many sermons that lent themselves to an extended time of worship afterwards. The power of song lyrics that express what we've just been confronted with in a sermon is amazing. There were some really great moments after sermons.

Actually, there were really great moments all over the place.

And that's one reason we gave so much care and concern when it came to crafting the order of worship. We wanted to be able to step into and out of those "holy hush" moments intentionally. And so we'd experiment with the cards until we were excited about the order.

And then we'd confirm personnel--who should sing a song, lead a set, share a word, read a passage, etc. This is part of designing worship. Some readers can proclaim joyful truth well, others would do better to share something profound but quiet. This level of crafting was seldom talked about, but it made for some really smooth, fluid, flowing services.

The sense of accomplishment at the end of these meetings was deeply gratifying. Sometimes these meetings lasted forever. And it was worth it.

We learned as we went. We evaluated as we journeyed. More about that next time.


And remember, if you'd like to have some help developing a creative team or developing a team already in place, I'd love to come and do some worship coaching with you. Just shoot me a message or give me a call on my cell phone: 502.229.0114.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

One Creative Process 12, Deciding

This deciding-making step was sometimes easy. Sometimes it was really hard. We usually had 25-30 ideas from which to pick. Now, we had to choose. It was pretty easy to get down to a handful, but it was harder to get to THE idea.

As I mentioned last time, there were some planning cycles where we'd walk into this 2nd meeting knowing what "the" idea for a series was. There were also a few when we'd just sort of start over. But usually we'd just cross off the bad ideas until we were left with 2-5 really viable options.

The voice of our pastor was large in this conversation. If the "packaging" was in any way disconnected from his subject matter, we had to pitch it... even if it would be the coolest thing ever. I'm glad we stuck to our guns there.

Sometimes an idea would be something we'd prefer to do but we just didn't have the time, the personnel, or the money to do it. But these were few and far between. I had the most amazingly resourceful people on my teams. We almost never had money to spend, but we all had basements, garages and friends with the same.

This meeting was also a key part of our creative process because we started putting flesh and bones on the skeletal idea. Song ideas would emerge. If drama was a part of the vision, we would spend some time fleshing out story lines. This is the meeting where we'd determine if we wanted to invite a guest artist--painter, sculptor, potter, etc.

If you've ever created anything on your own, you can imagine the delight in this stage. It isn't just an idea anymore but it is starting to take on substance. In child development I'd think of this stage like when a baby starts to have personality. It's just fun!

I'd also say this was the most difficult stage to get through. It felt like work. It wasn't as filled with hilarity as brainstorming or as gratifying as design. But our first glimpses of the God-activity we would envision often emerged here too.

I may be projecting a bit. By personality, I'm not fond of decision-making. I like gathering input and generating ideas more than making decisions. But they needed to be made and I am grateful for teams that helped me decide well.

There it is... another reason to work in teams. 

Next time? The nuts and bolts start coming together.

Monday, February 25, 2013

One Creative Process 11, Brainstorming

Our typical rhythm of planning a worship/sermon series involved four meetings.
   Brainstorming
   Deciding
   Designing
   Refining

Today I'd like to provide a peek into the beginning of the process.

These were the most fun meetings I've ever experienced in church-world! Ever. There were many times we laughed until we cried.

And that's reason enough to work for creativity in the church.

There is Godly joy in reflecting the image of God.

I was not brought up in a church that valued creativity, especially in worship. I wasn't taught how to tap creativity in my days at Georgetown College or at Southern Seminary, at least not in this sense. Musical creativity, perhaps. And some of my seminary profs would certainly encourage thinking creatively about music and worship. But not on the scale I've been describing.

The reason I bring this up to you is that I had to change, to grow, to learn. So I read a good deal about leadership and creativity. One really great book, and one I'd commend to any leader striving for creativity is Orbiting the Giant Hairball. Great stuff!

But now, back to our process.

This is essential: We started with the scripture passage being preached/taught. Most of the time we'd know that passage before we met and I'd send it with the agenda ahead of time. I would often include it in a less familiar translation (The Message or NLT or Amplified). We would talk about the passage and our pastor would share key thoughts from his sermon.

If any of the creativity pointed to itself instead of to Jesus, we wanted to scrap it.

So we started with scripture, then sermon, and then the only rule was that we couldn't evaluate ideas, only generate them.

And generate them we did!

Sometimes I'd have to start--prime the pump, so to speak--but not often. I would be at the whiteboard, marker in hand. And they'd talk, laugh, suggest, laugh, forget about the evaluating rule, be reminded, laugh, suggest, develop an idea a little too much, be reminded, laugh, and suggest.

Another key for this process was that we not try to figure out IF we could do something before we decided that it was a viable option. There were lots and lots of things that when we first imagined them, we didn't know if we could pull it off or not. But we couldn't get stuck there. We had to keep generating ideas. That's why it is a brainSTORM. It's messy. It's a flurry of mental activity.

And then we'd stop. Sounds odd, does it? Well, we needed to let those ideas rest. I sometimes refer to it as being on the back burner on simmer. Just let all of them simmer for a few days, then come back. We usually had really helpful clarity after doing this. Sometimes we'd just start over, but probably only a couple of times a year. Sometimes we'd run right to THE idea, probably three times a year. Usually we narrowed it to 3-4 ideas and then talk them out a bit. But I'm getting into the next step with is actually the next post.

I'm curious, what have you found to be most helpful when brainstorming?

Thursday, February 21, 2013

One Creative Process 10, Recap

So you've "met" the team. I left most of the names out on purpose because these positions had more than one person who served in that capacity. But I want to show you the big picture of the model itself.

Something I've not talked a lot about is what I would love to have seen God do in the 2-3 years after I left Memorial--and that's developing teams around the teams. So as you look at the chart below, recognize that we did a really good job of filling in the "big bubbles." Those smaller bubbles, though, were less organized than it appears. We basically just kept looking for people to help more than we gave structure to how those helpers could form teams.

Below is how the concept first made sense to me. The key/wonderful change we made after this was created was having the Teaching Pastor share the center of the structure with me. And next time? I'll start walking you through the meeting rhythm.

It's about to get fun!



Tuesday, February 19, 2013

One Creative Process 9, Drama & Dance Coordinator

The folks who served in this role played a part in some of the most moving and powerful moments we experienced as a church. Before I get into more of what this was all about, allow me to return to a concept I haven't touched on lately, indigenous worship.

You may know or recall that this is a concept with great connection to missions. The basic idea, which I gave a full blog post to a few months ago, is that we create worship experiences unique to the community in which they take place. Culture. Language. Fashion. More.

When I arrived at Memorial Baptist in 2000, I was immediately aware of what a significant place drama and dance (interpretive movement) had played in the previous years of ministry at the church. There were key leaders from the local "Bluegrass Theater Guild" in the church. There were a couple of young adults who had done "interp" multiple times. The local dance studio is massive, so drama and dance were already both a part of the church and community culture. If that's not the case where you are, it may be unwise to force artistic forms like these into your worship ministry.

When it came to using drama, there were several ways this team member helped. In the creative meetings, they would be thinking about concepts, writers, directors, actors, props, and story lines. Again, because this was IN the creative process--like in the previous post about a tech coordinator--it streamlined the work that took place after our meetings. And some of what this person would do involved lining up those folks. Depending on the specific gifting of the various people who served on the team, some were writers, others creators, others actors, etc. That part didn't matter to me as much as someone who was thinking about spiritual dynamics when it came to how we could use drama to engage the hearts and minds of those gathered for worship.

And when it came to dance, the team member was primarily a coordinator. I'd bring in a choreographer. They would enlist the dancers and coordinate rehearsals.  Of course the music we used was determined in our planning process. More about that in about 3 or 4 posts.

Let me share a glimpse of two times we used these tools effectively.

Our pastor wanted to preach a series about the topics we don't talk about in church, things like abortion, homosexuality, atheism, etc. These hot potatoes the church usually avoids or addresses poorly. So we decided to write a series of 6 drama sketches, one for each of the spoofed characters from Friends--the TV show. Our approach in this particular series was to have the drama sketch be fun, funny, and then really tense. After the cast would raise an issue where everyone was holding their breath to see what would happen we would stop the production and our pastor would step in. He could then say something like, "I'm so glad you have friends struggling with these things because the Bible has some amazing counsel to give. Let's dive into the ancient scriptures and see what God has to say." It was powerful. It was effective. It was engaging. People looked forward to what was coming. It was fun!

My favorite dance story involves a dear friend of mine who was battling depression. This particular friend had a daughter who was in a dance piece we did to "How Great Is Our God." They were standing in the back of the room when the dance troupe performed for a full room. And as one of the dancers was raised up like Jesus--in the form of a cross--God broke through the depression and for the first time in 6 months my friend was free to worship with an open heart and mind.

Both of these things took hours and hours and hours of work from many, many people. And it was worth everything. Every. Thing.

Monday, February 18, 2013

One Creative Process 8, Tech Coordinator

As mentioned in a previous post, I don't particularly like asking people to do things, even things I know they want to do. I'm pretty sure there's some clinical help I could get, but I haven't yet. Anyway, that's a big part of why I originally wanted to have a tech coordinator. But as I'll share below, the benefits were far greater.

Not only did this person handle the scheduling of folks to run sound and screens (and eventually lighting) they also worked as part of the creative team. As I've also mentioned, having sold-out, all-in people around the table was an essential part of our effectiveness.

But what I didn't mention yet, and what was incredibly helpful with this particular position, was that every time we started to get into the implementation part of our discussion my tech coordinator was in the room. They were able to start trying to figure out how to make things happen that required technology and personnel. It wasn't up to me to remember and re-articulate a vision; they were part of creating it. The more technologically involved the particular plan was, the more helpful this dynamic was.

There's another angle to the team approach I've not mentioned yet: they helped me administratively. When it came time for creating a budget, each team member would dream about what the necessities and possibilities were. We'd prioritize them together. Of course it was ultimately my call what to turn in, but we had such great synergy that I'd have been a fool to vary significantly from what the team envisioned.

So by now I imagine you're getting a fuller picture of why this was so helpful, especially if you've read all of the posts in the series. The team wasn't just a group of people to carry out tasks, it wasn't just a group of people to imagine and design creative worship gatherings, it wasn't just a team of people to share responsibility and accountability, and it wasn't just a team of people to walk together spiritually. It was all of that and more.

Next time the last position: Drama & Dance Coordinator.


A word about my Worship Coach consulting--the most impact I've seen in the churches I've visited has been with the tech/media/production teams. If you could use some help in that area, let me know. I'd be honored to talk about what I might be able to do that would serve you and your church!

Friday, February 15, 2013

One Creative Process 7, Instrumental Coordinator

So far we've covered teaching pastor, worship pastor, environment, vocals and video. Still to come are tech and drama/dance. Today we tackle the one we struggled most to maximize.

Like some of you, I grew up with a worship model where instrumental music was used before the service (Prelude), after the service (Postlude) in the middle of the service (Offertory) and on occasion near the end of the service (Communion). That's a good chunk of each gathering!

But in more modern services there is recorded music playing before and after, someone usually sings during the offering (or the congregation does, or announcements are made or a video is shown or...) and singing may occupy the time during communion as well.

But I really love listening to beautiful instrumental sounds. I'm especially fond, personally, of piano and acoustic guitar. And flute if it's my wife playing. Alas, I digress.

So I kept encouraging our team, and each of the folks who served in the role of instrumental coordinator, to imagine ways to use as many instruments as we could. There were some really great moments. But I wanted there to be more. Here are a few of the things we did.

1) Invited the drum line of a local high school to come and play their original cadences as "prelude" music, then started that service with an old Vineyard song (He Is Yahweh) with an African drumline-like feel. Having about 10 high school students, some of whom were not connected to Jesus or His church, was a great moment.

2) Invited other guest musicians to play so we could use great charts of songs in worship. My favorite version of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" these days is a jazz chart from Brian Doerksen's Today recording. We didn't always have a trumpet player in the church who could play it, so I'd invite others.

3) We had a string quartet come one Sunday. This was really spectacular. It wasn't something we had ever done, and strings were not a sound the congregation had much experience with. We used Michael W. Smith's Agnus Dei that morning. We did a choir piece with strings. It was fresh. It was beautiful.

4) We tried to identify instrumentalists within the church who could play well enough to be on the platform. I wish we'd had more success here, but I would love to have been able to feature students who were taking lessons and/or were in high school band. There were often times we had a handful of players, though. My wife--a great flute player--was part of just about every Sunday.

5) I'm sure we're all on the lookout for great settings of "Amazing Grace." I invited my friend and mentor Dave Bullock to come and lead worship one weekend. (Actually, same weekend two years in a row.) He played the version you can hear if you click on the title. It was a really great way to feature an instrumentalists (Dave is an amazing violinist) while still involving the choir and congregation. Afterwards, my wife Jackie played the violin part on her flute. (Yep. She's THAT good!)

A general note about using instrumental music in a more modern worship model, I really love having either the text of the song being played (even if just a phrase or a single verse) on the screen. Even better--whether in an interlude of a worship song or an instrumental feature--get some scripture on the screens.

Since I don't feel like our team was able to thrive in this area, I'm especially curious: how have you effectively/powerfully/dynamically used instrumental music recently?

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

One Creative Process 6, Video Designer

I love going to see a good movie. Heck, I love going to see a mediocre movie. I'm just a huge fan of film.

When imagining what this team might look like 9 years ago or so, I knew the world was becoming more video-oriented (youtube was still sort of new) and that if the church was going to communicate in a language the world could understand, film was a key ingredient.

And so in our church of 200-250 people, we would create between 20 and 40 original videos a year depending on the vision for a particular series or service. Here are some of the ways my team members came up with to use video effectively:

1) Original background for songs. When the choir sang "God of Wonders" we created a background that was timed to the music. Then when it became a congregational song, we continued to use it behind the lyrics we sang. Another favorite of mine was "How He Loves." Oh, and "God of This City." Guess I had a lot of favs.

2) Music Videos. Sometimes there was a song we wanted to use but it didn't seem like a good choice for a solo or choir or congregation piece, so we'd buy the song and set video to it. These were often very powerful moments.

3) Drama on Screen. We sometimes wrote original scripts and then, to use locations or to ensure the best performances (you can do multiple takes on video, not in live theatre tho!) we would film the drama and show it before a sermon. I remember one time we did a play on "National Treasure" movies and taught about the incredible value of the Bible. It's one of my favorite examples of this because we sent a team of students on a "treasure hunt" and filmed them all over town. Then, as we watched the video of them walking up to the front of the church building, we stopped the video and they walked in to finish the script live. I absolutely loved the integration of video and live theater. It was really effective!

4) Baptism Videos. Lots of churches do these, and I'm so glad we did them too. The benefits are many, but one of the things I wish we'd done is give each person a copy of their video testimony along with a video of them being baptized. Maybe that's something you're already doing. I just didn't think of it 'til after I'd left. There's no doubt that there are times it serves our faith journey to remember clearly how we were rescued by Jesus. These videos can do that well.

5) Other. I'm not even thinking of another way we used original video, but there probably were others. That's the nature of the creative process. We were not just trying to find ways to make videos. We were trying to find ways to communicate Biblical truth. Video was a servant. If there were other ways we could imagine serving the objective, we'd find a way to make it happen. That's part of the joy of the creative process.

A note, now that we've watched a handful of years go by. The videos available (free or inexpensive) are now myriad. That wasn't the case when we built this team. I go to www.worshiphousemedia.com almost every time I plan a worship gathering. There are other great resources. Be sure to check out a variety of them to see which may resonate with your church best.

But don't sell out to mass-marketed videos completely. There is still something amazing about seeing video that is unique to your church. For example, when we dedicated our refurbished worship space, we used the song "God of This City." There is a guy in that church who flies helicopters for a living. So I grabbed the camera, strapped in to the passenger seat, and we flew over OUR city, OUR church, and when we sang those lyrics with that video in the background... well, you can imagine. By the way, cost of such a project? $3 for the tape and several hours of time on the part of a handful of people. 

I loved what Cara and her folks did with this part of our team!

Monday, February 11, 2013

One Creative Process 5, Vocal Coordinator

I struggled with whether or not to include this position on the team. I'm a vocalist. Been singing/leading worship for decades. So why would I need someone else on my team to coordinate the area of music ministry I'm most adept at doing?

Three reasons:
1) Team is better. As long as we had a manageable size team, I wanted people in every role possible.
2) My own weakness. I don't like asking people to do things. That's a pretty terrible shortcoming for a worship pastor! So out of my weakness, I asked one person to ask lots of people to sing.
3) Developing leaders. I knew I would not serve Memorial Baptist Church for the rest of her history. I wanted to cultivate other folks who could carry on the ministry--or at least provide continuing with whomever would be hired to follow me there.

I'm so glad I did.

Why is team better? In this case, here's just one reason. Other people think of songs I don't. Because of the way we crafted our services, we had weeks to hear, remember, and imagine. So team members would come to our planning meetings with songs in mind that I might not think about. I don't know about you, but I'll bet there have been dozens of times that someone would come to me after a service and say, "You know _________ (song) would have been great in todays' service!" NOW you tell me? Having another voice in the team helped us think of more possibilities.

Why not just buck up and ask people? Well, I did. But the more we play to our strengths and let others play to their strengths, the stronger our ministry. So the things I did well, I did. And then the person on the team could do well what they did well. And then we all excelled. (Not always, of course!) In my observation, most churches do not think this way or build teams with this in mind. Life is better when we do, though. Promise.

Why develop leaders? SO many reasons. In fact, I see a series of blog posts on that topic somewhere down the road. But for now, let me just share with you why it was such a big deal at this church at that time. When I left--actually, it was the reason I left--there were no funds available to hire a replacement, even a significant part-time person. But you know what? The Vocal Coordinator from my Worship Arts Team (Debbie) was an UNPAID servant, and she could keep serving. She knew what to do. She had done it with excellence. And though the model had to adapt to my absence, she was able to stay and lead well after I left. Circumstances at most churches will not mirror my story, I'm sure. But even if someone had been hired shortly after I left, what a treasure to walk into a team with capable leaders already in place!

One more word about this role on the team. We were not only trying to get the best person to sing the best song at the best moment in the service, we would also consider how to stay in touch with and care for those who were a part of the worship ministry. Having someone besides me who was available to those who sing was highly valuable. In this case, it was even someone of another gender. That was certainly a bonus!

Team. Team. Team. It's a better path to meaningful and creative ministry. No doubt.


Remember, for help with developing this kind of ministry in your church, just shoot me a message. I'd love to walk with you as a Worship Coach and unleash the power of teamwork and creativity in ways that work in your place of ministry!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

One Creative Process 4, Stage Design/Environment

Context is key to learning.

What context is to learning, environment is to experience.

Here's how Andy Stanley said it in his recent book, Deep & Wide: "In most communication environments, it's the presentation that determines interest, not the content."

So if we want folks to learn the gospel, to learn the teachings of Jesus, to learn to obey the things he taught, environment can serve that goal in magnificent ways.


This was one of the most creative parts of what we did at Memorial. It was sometimes a very big deal--like when we recreated the Central Perk coffee shop from the TV show Friends--and sometimes a very subtle thing--like when we simply brought the season of fall inside, using bales of hay, mums, and fabric. But it was always to create interest among the folks who chose to attend that day.


You know, there's increasing conversation about environments in church and in education circles. One of the places that has built an entire approach to church on this concept is North Point Community Church near Atlanta, GA. Andy Stanley's Deep & Wide has lots more great stuff about how essential creating an environment is. I commend that book to you highly!


There was a lot of anecdotal evidence that all of the time, effort and money was worthwhile at Memorial. First, it created interest. When people walk into church wondering what might happen, they come with a holy expectancy. Environment helps a great deal with that. 


There were also times, many times, when the setting for worship simply communicated beauty. Which reminds me of one of my favorite--and classic--definitions of worship: "Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion..."


Often, the "set design" was connected to a drama sketch. The most memorable around our town is probably when we recreated Narnia throughout the worship center. I sure wish I had pictures of that!


Sometimes it was a throw-back, like when we did a series we simply called "The Game of Life."



















Of all team members, it was this one that required the most work per series. Thankfully, I had folks on my team who loved what they got to do for God and His church, and they had a blast creating sometimes simple and sometimes complex stage designs. 


One more picture, this one from a special event that happened long after I left the church. But it was in the re-purposed worship space and shows a totally different feel. This part of what we did truly created the context for a worship encounter, it helped us have a sacred space in which the Holy Spirit was invited to do His work. I loved how God manifested His creativity through our teams through our environment!





Wednesday, February 6, 2013

One Creative Process 3, Teaching Pastor

There's no way this whole team-thing could have worked without Chuck. He didn't just assign things to us, he was creative with us. He had a clear and compelling vision for what he wanted the Sunday morning gathering to look like. He planned his sermons really, really well. He was a leader of leaders in that he trusted me/us. He gave of his time, sometimes in ways that were over the top. When our team took 5 day road trips (3 of them) he went along.

Did I mention that we couldn't have done this without him?

Back to the creative process part, though.

First, Chuck came to our brainstorming meetings with a brilliant balance of preparedness and openness. He knew what he wanted to teach, but he also knew he would get valuable input that would help him connect with the congregation. He worked very hard to be able to answer our questions about his content. We would establish goals for each series as well as each service. We got better and better at being able to ask questions Bill Hybels has used for years--what do you want the congregation to know? to feel? to do? Of the many places Chuck did his job well, this was near the top.

Our teaching pastor would use time in November and December to gather ideas and suggestions about what to preach about the following year. Then as Christmas calmed down and before the new year wound up, he would spend time sketching out sermon series for February through January. These were loosely held, but well thought out plans. Sometimes things would change considerably. Other times, there was no need. Most of our series were 4-6 weeks long.

One of the things I admired about Chuck was that he allowed me to lead the Worship Arts Team. And he didn't do it well because it was me, he did it well because he trusted his leaders to lead. All of us. There were some meetings that were 3 hours long and he would only talk for 10 of those minutes. He let us do our work, was informed by what we did, had a blast with us--we laughed so much my abs were sometimes sore--and he was a member of the team led by one of his staff members. This was a fantastic dynamic to be part of. For him, for me, and for the team.

Another thing that really helped was Chuck's ability to think through the end of sermons. How should it end? What does this sermon call for us to do? And given those things, what should we sing/do after the sermon?

When we took our road trips, Chuck was great at learning from effective churches. He didn't emulate them, but while keeping his identity, he continued to learn from others.

Back to our process. He agreed with James McDonald (author of Vertical Church) that the teaching pastor can't delegate the rest of the worship gathering and focus only on the preaching. Instead of delegating, and rather than dictating, Chuck chose participating. It made all the difference.

Next time, Environment/Stage Design. And coming after that, other team members.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

One Creative Process 2, Worship Pastor

Here we are in part 2. if you didn't read "The Creative Process," you might find it helpful as an overview.

The role of Worship Pastor was mine to fill. I could not have done what I did without the tremendous support and trust of my pastor and my friend, Chuck. I'll talk more about that in my next post.

Before most meetings here's what I'd do:
  Coordinate the meeting time. We scheduled each meeting so everyone could be there. I would send out a dozen options that the pastor and I were both available to meet, then ask team members to let me know when they could come. As soon as I'd heard from everyone I would find the best way to spread out our meetings and send the schedule to the team. By doing it this way we had "perfect attendance" at more than 95% of our meetings. This proved to be a huge dynamic as we built the team.

   Prepare for the meetings. Before almost every meeting I would send an email to everyone with a reminder of the time, a summary paragraph of the work we were meeting to do, and an agenda. One of the things we usually did was discuss a book about worship/worship planning. So I'd remind them of their reading assignment. If anyone had tasks they had committed to do, I might remind them of those as well. My goal with this pre-meeting communication was evident: to help everyone succeed.

   Facilitate the meetings. Those first two tasks were just that--tasks. But this one, this was fun! We started with a substantial devotional/prayer time. Max Lucado taught me something profound about prayer and productivity. Peter's sermon at Pentecost didn't take long. It was effective not by the length of the sermon, but the amount of prayer (weeks) that preceded it. In our meetings there was plenty of "work" to do. But invariably, when we prayed as long as we felt like we needed to--sometimes 30 minutes!--the work went faster and better. But there was more.
   We had a blast. We laughed a ton. Every meeting. Belly laughter. It was Godly joy in action. Meetings were almost always focused on one conversation at a time, but it was because no one wanted to miss out on that conversation. We were engaged. We were creating. The details could be worked out after the meetings--that's why the folks on the team were leaders. I trusted them to figure out HOW to implement WHAT we decided together to do. And if they needed help, they knew they could count on me to do everything I could to help them. Oh, and if they wanted the input of the team, they just asked. There was great freedom to speak up and speak out in our meetings. I have learned that this isn't always the case. With a healthy team, it always is. 

   Recap the meetings. Depending on the nature of each conversation, I would send notes, pictures of a whiteboard, and a summary of what needed to happen next. Again, this was to help them succeed, not in any way to micro-manage or control them. If you have any doubts, let me know and I'll give you their names so you can ask. My job as the leader was to serve my team members, to do everything I could do to resource them, to support them, and to cheer them on. I loved being that guy. Loved it.

   Carry out assignments. In our context we each had different tasks depending on the meeting, the services, and the series. I wrote most of our drama sketches. I coordinated a lot of personnel. I prepared music. I contacted those outside the church who might be part of our plans. (guest painter, high school drum line, etc.) And whatever else the creative process demanded. If the unpaid servants on my team needed something done that was a "work day" function, I often did that.

   I can't figure out how to put this in part of the rhythm of what I've written already, but let me add that one of my most enjoyable functions was to be a spiritual coach to these folks. I learned more from them than they did from me, no doubt. But as a member of the pastoral team, this was my team. And I pastored them. I gave biblical counsel. I prayed for them. A lot. I believed in them. A lot. And I trusted them. Completely.

No wonder we had a great time, yes?

Next time I'll talk about the role of my team leader, the Teaching Pastor.

Monday, February 4, 2013

One Creative Process

Creativity is over-rated.

Creativity is under-utilized.

Creativity is too much work.

Creativity is a waste of time.

Creativity is reflecting the creative nature of God.

Creativity is for big churches.

Creativity is for creative types.

Have you heard (or thought) all of those things around your church? I have!

So here's the deal. I think creativity is indeed reflective of our great God. I am convinced it can lead to moments of transformation and wonder, as Nancy Beach sub-titled her great book. I am aware of many times God used a creative expression in worship to touch the soul of someone. (When David played his harp for Saul, for example.) And despite the objections, creativity is worthwhile in our services. It really is.

And it takes work. It takes time. It takes teams.

And it is worth it!

While serving in Frankfort, at Memorial Baptist, we developed a troupe of folks--the Worship Arts Team. We developed a creative process that worked really well for us. 

For us. At Memorial BC in Frankfort.

As with most models, it was developed for the heritage of that church in that town. I wouldn't suggest adopting it, but I sure would encourage adapting it. If it serves you, use it!

I'm going to take the next several blog posts to describe what we did. We sure didn't get it all figured out. And we seldom got all of the pieces to work just the way we wanted. But we had a blast. We worked really hard.

And we saw lives changed.

So I think it's only right for me to share some of what we learned.

Here's how the series will unfold.
   First, the functions of the team members. This is where it all began and what made it work; the team.
   Second, the 4 step pattern we developed to actually create the services.
   Third, a summary of the challenges and rewards of our process.

This will take a while, as of now, 15 posts. But each will stand alone, so you won't have to read for long each day and you can step in and out along the journey. I just hope it serves you to learn some of what we learned!


For help with your church's worship ministry, shoot me a message. It's why I created Worship Coach in the first place! (502.229.0114 cell; RodEEllis@aol.com)

Friday, February 1, 2013

Coming Posts...

Just wanted to share a couple of things with my regular readers--for whom I am very grateful, by the way.

1) Starting next week I will be reducing my posts from 5 a week to 3. I think I will have some additional responsibilities that will take me away from writing quite as much. Follow my personal Facebook page if you'd like to keep up.

2) I have two major themes I'd like explore next. Each will be a series of 10-15 posts. The one I've been developing is an overview of the Creative Process we used effectively at Memorial Baptist. I'll go through the team positions/responsibilities and how that team actually came up with their great ideas and the resulting service designs.

The newer idea is an overview of worship leading. I think it will be called "Lead with Understanding." It just really struck me this morning how vital it is to understand the text so you can communicate the text, to understand the platform team so you can lead that team, the church so you can lead the church, the community so you can be part of transforming it, etc.

So which would you prefer to read first? Creative Process? Lead with Understanding?