Andy Chamberlain says don’t sing above top “D.”

I can’t help but notice how many worship song album versions aren’t very suitable for small churches. So many songs are either 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 so 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.

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.

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David Murrow says worship has been entertaining for hundreds of years.

Have churches become too entertainment oriented?

Many of my readers have been sharing a blog post titled, “The heresy of worship-tainment” on their Facebook pages. The author writes:

…we should be concerned that so many people in our churches want to be entertained while they worship. We should be concerned when we no longer recognize the difference between the two. And we should be concerned by the growing belief that adding more entertainment value to worship is necessary for the church to accomplish its mission.”

News flash: the church has been in the worship-tainment business for about 1700 years.

Ever since Constantine created the public Christian worship service, churches have entertained their members. By the early fifth century Christians all but abandoned the house-gathering model, in favor of a weekly public meeting patterned after a Greco-Roman stage presentation. Clergy performed up front, while laity watched.

For centuries, church was the best show in town. Christianity democratized the theater, providing rich and poor alike a weekly performance featuring music and ceremony, staged amidst ornate décor and fine sacred artistry.

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Chris Denning shares what he could & should have done differently in his new ministry.

1. You Changed Too Much, Too Soon.
I know, I know. You feel like you’re walking right into a hot mess and that you have to fix it TODAY. Things are probably disorganized or not setup the way you would do them, and that drives you nuts. I’ve been there, and that pressure to make everything right ASAP is a real thing.

Or maybe you’re walking into a situation where you’re taking over for someone who did a great job leading a healthy ministry. Even in this kind of situation, you will probably feel the desire to change things to fit you and your leadership preferences. None of this is bad, but trying to change too much, too fast is a great way to make everyone else uncomfortable and nervous.

Change is not bad itself, but UNMANAGED change can cause some problems for new Worship Leaders. When I think about change, I like to think about a big, big Cruise Ship. Lets say you’re sailing North and you want to go East, a definite change.

If you take the helm of that big Cruise Ship and whip the wheel as hard as you can to the right, you’re going to cause a lot of commotion on the ship. Everything will sway back and forth, and some people may even fall off the boat! Simply put: everyone on that ship is going to FEEL the change.

However, if you take the helm of the ship and gradually turn it over time, you will still get exactly where you want to go, but the change will go MOSTLY UNNOTICED. Just by adding a little bit of time, you’re able to do what you set out to do, but by managing your change well, you bring change in a healthy way.

I believe that there are 3 things that you can do to help ensure that you don’t change too much too soon.

First, talk to as many people that have been around the ministry to get a real history & perspective on the ministry. Taking the time to learn where the ministry has been and what has happened in the past (both good and bad) will help you to better understand what needs to change or maybe why things are the way they currently are.

Second, privately list everything that you think needs to change. This is just to get everything out of your head, on paper, and in front of your eyes. Listing the needed changes will help you to get perspective on your situation.

Third, take that list and prioritize the changes that need to be made. Which changes are not just the most important ones to make, but will impact or help the most people? Be ruthless in prioritizing this list so that you can focus on what is most important first.

Remember: CHANGE is almost always NECESSARY, but taking your TIME will help your change to be EFFECTIVE.

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Brad Bridges notes the seismic shifts sweeping through many different circles.

Increasing Numbers of Mini-Denominations

Many churches have moved in the direction of multi-site, and with this you start to see a trend. In many ways, these churches are functioning as “mini-denominations.” We could say that multi-site is really nothing new, but a rather a slightly altered expression of what has been known as denominationalism in the past.

When one church finds itself growing and decides to add one or more sites, it almost always exports its DNA, systems, etc, to the additional sites; this reproduces what is working well at the original location. Many might think: “Why reinvent the wheel when you know what works?”

Rather than starting multiple autonomous churches or churches overseen by a presbyter, district superintendent, or other denominational overseer, the original site starts the other sites as outposts or additional expressions of the original site. Usually these are still organizationally part of the original church, and the campus pastor doesn’t preach on the majority of Sundays.

Just like a large denomination would export its DNA to hundreds of locations around the country, a growing church might also export its DNA to other sites, maintain control, share common naming, etc, and do so with only a few differences.

I’m not saying that multi-site and denominations are the same thing; however, they have many things in common that are instructive for us. For those who’s knee-jerk reaction to multi-site is a negative, they would be wise to reconsider how their denominational culture also wrestles with many of the same issues that a multi-site movement would deal with.

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Travis Brown shares his research and personal experiences.

Recently my wife, another Millennial, and I endured the long and uncomfortable journey of looking for another home church. During this more than six-month transition, we visited church after church from nearly every local denomination, hoping to find one that felt right for us.

One thing I noticed at many of the great establishments that we visited was that we were their “target audience.” We were the people they wanted in their church. We are young adults, we have a few kids, we have jobs, we are saved, and we are tithers and givers. Although we sensed that people wanted us to join their church (as demonstrated by subtle, not-so-subtle, and sometimes downright tacky antics) there were some things that did not appeal to us.

We are Millennials, not children. We are not easily fooled, and we can tell when something is not right. We want our home church to be authentic. Many churches make the mistake of trying to be so relevant that they forget to be authentic. It is almost offensive to walk into a church and find that everybody from the ushers to the pastor is trying to be hip in an effort to be relevant.

When there is more emphasis on image than on Christ, it’s more gravy than meat. Don’t hide what should give me substance with what should be a complement to the experience. I love gravy, but it’s the meat that satisfies my hunger. Using slang and wearing urban attire in the sanctuary does not make you relevant—it makes you look ridiculous when it is not authentic.

Being authentic not only attracts Millennials to the church, it provides a place for the Holy Spirit to dwell. As a leader, being anything less than authentic in your church in order to gain members is like asking God to bless a lie.

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Dr. Scott Young explains how in-ears work and how they help in worship:

“I can’t hear” is a common theme onstage for all musicians. When worship occurs onstage, musicians struggle with several road blocks outside of just playing their instrument: their voice or instrument causing a physical issue such as losing tune, band members not playing their parts correctly, and the sound from their wedges (Doing what?). So little information is available to our crews on Thursday night rehearsals and Sunday mornings when it all starts for that weekend that too many variables can be violated to create a cacophony of signals that disrupt the presence of God, which is the reason we come to be on the worship team. We all know that the worship team cannot be a soloing stage in which others admire their talent; it is a platform to tap into the heart of God and usher the people in front of His throne room, when they have just been in an early Sunday morning argument with the kids rolling out of bed.

Even if the Worship Pastor has an experienced team overall, he might also have many problems to reconnoiter as to each musician’s fit within the whole. Does the new worship team member, whether he is a Sound Engineer or drummer, understand the function and direction of this church? Is he a clanging gong against the harmonies trying to be created onstage? Or is it that pesky channel upon the sound board that keeps distorting the bass in the 10:30 service? These are all the concepts running through the mind of the Worship Pastor when he or she steps onto the platform, even if his face betrays a calm. Joe Montana, Quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1989 Super Bowl against Cincinnati, exuded that type of bucolic nature noting that the comedian John Candy was in the crowd. Noticing Candy created a chuckle in the huddle for his teammates allowing them to traverse 93 yards to their eventual Super Bowl win. I met a worship leader years ago, Garo Nargiz, who could do that with everything that occurs on stage. There are also factors that can reduce the stress in the whole worship team so that Joe Montana’s calm doesn’t have to be a regular occurrence.

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