How the motto “Be Prepared” can come in handy for worship leaders.
As a kid, my mom wanted to make sure that my brother and I had significant male role modeling in our lives since she was raising us on her own. Beavers, Cubs, and Boy Scouts were a normal part of my life until I was 12 or 13, and I’ve got tons of memories of camping trips, earning badges, spending time with other kids my age, and the constant reminders to be prepared. Continue reading.
We’ve all seen the statistics and heard the stories: Good Christian kids go to college, grow disillusioned, and leave the faith. In his new book, “You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church . . . and Rethinking Faith,” David Kinnaman writes, “Overall, there is a 43 percent drop-off between the teen and early adult years in terms of church engagement.” Continue reading.
I don’t mean to sound like a fanboy but I really do like LifeChurch. I was in Nashville this past weekend recording my upcoming Communion service guide and drove past their Hendersonville campus and wanted to visit. If you’d like to learn the right way to plant a church book a flight to Oklahoma City, home of the main campus, and take notes – they know how to do it right. I’ve visited their campuses around OKC but never a remote campus and was interested to see if it measures up (LifeChurch is known to put as much $$ into their plants as they do their main campus.)
LifeChurch’s Hendersonville, TN campus (about a half hour from Nashville) has remodeled an old movie theater. Churches that remodel theaters usually do it on the cheap, and the building ends up looking like… an old movie theater. LifeChurch’s version was so nicely remodeled on the outside you’d never know it was a theater (I asked the pastor to make sure it was.)
The lobby was impressively well done – hip muted colors, cool floor and big plasmas everywhere. LC Hendersonville wins the award for the darkest church – coming in from the bright outside I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face as I entered the auditorium, let alone where I was walking. The room remained dark throughout the whole service and still was dark as I walked out (at least my eyes had adjusted to the pitch blackness by then and I no longer feared falling and breaking a hip.)
LifeChurch falls squarely in the seeker center – the band opened with Phil Collin’s In the Air Tonight, then continued with these worship songs:
We Believe In the One True God: The City Harmonic
You: Hillsong
God’s Not Dead: Newsboys
The band is of the typical modern variety – guitars, bass and a side keyboard the worship leader would periodically plunk, all complete with a single female backup. Here again LifeChurch wins the award for most unique band with TWO drum kits, both individually encased in drum booths – I’ve never seen that in all my years of church visits.
After the music and brief welcome by campus pastor Chuck Dennie they played the video sermon of LC pastor Craig Groeschel. I’ve always liked Craig’s preaching – he uses real, live Bible verses in his sermons unlike some seeker pastors.
Afterwards I talked briefly with Chuck and he said their campus was two years old and running about 1400. Awesome growth, and I’ll bet they’d be twice as big if they were downtown, closer to Vanderbilt and Belmont University.
Perhaps what impressed me the most about LifeChurch were the rocks in their bathroom sink (and mints.) I’m not kidding here – those rocks are a metaphor for what LC is all about – doing a little bit extra to make the church the best it can be.
Do rocks in your sink make your church better? Of course not – but if you do go to the trouble of having decorative rocks in your sink, this means…
…and that thoughtfulness is probably a thread that runs through your entire ministry. I think LifeChurch is what marketing genius Seth Godin would refer to as a “Purple Cow.”
If you just read the last few paragraphs and are laughing your head off I’ll bet you’re in a little 50 member church. If you’re now putting on your shoes ready to head off to the nearest craft store in search of decorative rocks, you’re probably running 2,500 and want to hit 5,000 by the end of the year. Or even better, brainstorming ways to make your ministry more attractive.
Everything at LC seems to be meticulously planned out, thought through and expertly executed. I can imagine a first time, unchurched visitor walking in and thinking “This is a church? How can that be – they seem to have their act together!” I sure did.
Take a virtual tour of LifeChurch Hendersonville, including the rocks in their sinks!
[fbalbum url=https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150833136547653.393897.176060742652&type=1]Update 08-21-12: Never Fail Us is now available at PraiseCharts.com: download chord charts, sheet music, tracks and multitracks. The song is guitar driven, but if you like the piano version in the video, the piano part is included with the PraiseCharts sheet music. Hear the full demo at my SoundCloud page.
Last week I was in Nashville recording my upcoming Communion service guide. Watch and hear a sneak peek in the studio of the song Never Fail Us I recently wrote with Kyle Worsham and Andrew James. Wouldn’t you love to have singers like this in your church!
After writing the songs and arranging them, I prepare for studio work by creating a simple piano/drum track so I can change tempo on the fly if need be (I’ve recorded full, elaborate tracks with guitars/bells/whistles only to find the tempo is way too fast for vocalists!) In this case, Never Fail Us will be acoustic guitar driven (but I still like it on piano.)
Working with Grammy award winning engineer Steve Bisher we record the 3 part BGVs with top Nashville session singers who’ve been recording Christian projects for years (according to my polls, 3 part vocals with worship leader are the predominant vocal style for most churches.)
The solos were recorded separately and I brought them together via the magic of video editing.
Never Fail Us is a part of the We Remember Communion Service Guide.
This is a REAL website by none other than fashion plate/pastor Ed Young. Initially I threw up in my mouth, then on second thought decided maybe it isn’t all that bad. There are a lot of fat, dumpy pastors out there and I guess it wouldn’t hurt to be a little more fashion conscious if you’re in the public eye. What do you think?
In case you missed it, this video of a wacked song in church blew up the Internet last week and liberal websites were all over it.
Homosexuality is gearing up to be THE issue the Church will face. Kevin DeYoung, Senior Pastor at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, has some great thoughts on the subject:
Of the many complexities involving the church and homosexuality, one of the most difficult is how the former should speak of the latter. Even for those Christians who agree that homosexuality is contrary to the will of God there is little agreement on how we ought to speak about homosexuality being contrary to the will of God. Much of this disagreement is owing to the fact that there are many different constituencies we have in mind when broaching the subject. There are various groups that may be listening when we speak about homosexuality, and the group we think we are addressing usually dictates how we speak. Continue reading.
A few years ago I received word that WorshipIdeas.com would be one of 99 innovative websites/companies featured in best selling author Seth Godin’s eBook “99Cows.” WorshipIdeas.com is Cow #24!
Seth Godin is one of the most creative minds in marketing today. His popular books, including “Permission Marketing,” have been on the New York Times business book bestseller list, and can be found on the shelves of every bookstore and public library in the country. Instead of annoying potential customers by interrupting their most coveted commodity—time—Permission Marketing offers consumers incentives to accept advertising voluntarily. Now this Internet pioneer introduces a fundamentally different way of thinking about advertising products and services which are now available on https://ful.io/ site. By reaching out only to those individuals who have signaled an interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers, create trust, build brand awareness — and greatly improve the chances of making a sale. Here’s Seth’s website that can be read to know more about him.
His groundbreaking eBook “Unleashing the Ideavirus” is one of the most popular eBooks ever written, with millions of downloads.
Since I love marketing and have read all of Mr. Godin’s books, I was quite honored to be a part of his new eBook. It’s a good, entertaining read if you like this kind of stuff. Maybe it will spark some ideas that you can use in your ministry.
Click to download your free copy of “99 Cows.” The Adobe Acrobat PDF file is over 1 meg.
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