What Will You Sacrifice?

(guest post by Ryan Egan)

Jesus’ ministry of coming “not to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45) did not end with him.  We are clearly called by Jesus (Matthew 20:16), Paul (Romans 12:3), Peter (1 Peter 5:3), and James (James 2:1), to serve others willingly and joyfully.  While we can never compare any type of sacrifice we offer to the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus gave for us, we can apply this concept in our ministries.

As those who are tasked to present an accurate picture of who God is in order to worship him rightly, one way we can do that is by demonstrating His character.  What do you need to sacrifice as you head into this new year of ministry that will serve others and allow them to succeed?

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by Ryan Egan

Ten Secrets of Life I Learned While Leading Praise

Worship Leading Lesson #2: Failure is Essential to Success

Reaching back to a prior post where God was really teaching me some good lessons.  There are seasons in ministry life…and this was a time where I needed some good reminders.

Recently I attended a short conference for Worship Leaders and Pastors. It was something I needed personally and really came at an integral time for me.  The conversations there brought back to remembrance the cause I have been called to as a Worship Pastor.  There were great insights and reminders for me, one of them being the need to remember every leader must allow space and openness for failure.

Failing Forward
Since taking on the role of worship leader at our local church some seven – eight years ago, I’ve learned that some things will always be.  There will always be a desire to achieve perfection…and there will always be failure. Balancing these two certainties in ministry can be quite an act. There are a few principles that can help.

Each week there is a review of our weekly services between our Senior Pastor and myself.  We sit down and walk through the most recent worship service talking about anything from reviewing the time, the flow, the technical, the spiritual, the good, the bad, ugly and amazing.  We’ve been doing this for many years now and find it very helpful in our desire to continually improve the worship experience at Grace Church.  One of the factors we understand as being important, is the need to fail.

I’ve had conversations with fellow worship team members, fellow ministry leaders, fellow worship leaders and leaders in general about this topic.  It’s difficult to grasp the importance of allowing failure to happen during a weekend service. Some folks are of the belief that there should NEVER be a mistake made…and if there is one…heads must roll. Not exactly the best environment to thrive in. There are others who believe, “Hey…it’s just the church man….let it ride…it’s not a rock concert”.  This one is not helpful and will ensure disaster week in and week out.  While it’s true church is not a “rock concert”, the attitude of letting the same failure happen each week is not bringing your best before the Lord.  Really both attitudes can be cancerous to any team environment.

A principal that I’ve adopted and truly believe in, is the need to allow team members to “Fail Forward”. Taking a risk by letting a “green” musician step up and fill a gap, even if conventional wisdom might tell you to NEVER allow that person onstage is creating an attitude of “failing forward”.  Taking a risk by allowing a unique stage setting be implemented…even if it means the band will have to readjust how it sees the other band members is creating a culture of “failing forward”.  Or perhaps adding an element to a worship service that might seem out of the ordinary or completely unorthodox to what your church body is used to.  Whatever the case, I’ve learned that an environment of being open to failure is critical. If you don’t take those risks, you might be missing out on something amazing that could become an integral part of your worship time.  Allowing a younger/newer musician on the team to play that solo, or lead that song, gives them that one additional step in their ministry service journey which molds them into a more mature musician…and more importantly, a more mature Christ follower.

When you adopt an attitude of openness to failure, you begin to create an environment on your team that allows people to take risks without the fear of rejection.  I’ve tried hard to communicate to people on our Weekend Service Team (lighting, audio, video, band, stage etc) that it’s ok to fail…just make sure you’re learning from the failure. Make note of the environment surrounding the moment the failure happened.  Asking questions like these:

1. Where did the preperation breakdown happen?
2. What ways can I change the environment around me to influence a more positive experience?
3. What ways can I respond differently to the failure?

I’m sure we could each come up with our own list of questions…these are just a few.  Whatever your questions are, make sure you’re asking yourself something in order to ensure you and your team are “Failing Forward”. If we aren’t failing…we aren’t taking enough risks to improve ourselves and the ministries we lead.

For a righteous man may fall seven times
And rise again,
But the wicked shall fall by calamity.
(Proverbs 24:16)

-Ben Abu Saada

Landing A Record Deal

Yesterday’s post, “Seven Easy Steps to Become A Signed Worship Artist”, generated more visits to our site in one day than any other day in the history of AllAboutWorship.com. I find this fascinating. Does it mean that there is an overwhelming number of worship leaders wanting to learn the secrets of getting a record deal? Were people reading it for the entertainment factor?

I’m not sure what the answer is, but today I wanted to briefly share my thoughts on becoming a signed worship artist. First of all, I am not a signed artist, nor do I have a desire to become one. I personally know many signed artists, great friends with great hearts. Being around and somewhat engaged in the Christian music industry for the past several years, I’ve observed some things. Here are a few myths I’d like to debunk:

1. Getting a record deal will make you happy. I think many worship leaders have a glamorous view of being on a record label. I recently spoke to an artist who said that last year they were on the road, away from their family, for over 250 days. That was with saying “No” to 90% of invites. I could not even imagine being away from my wife and kids that many days.

2. Getting a record deal will make you rich. Another myth of getting signed is that it will make you wealthy (or at least that you will be set financially and won’t have to worry about money). That is the farthest thing from the truth. These days the majority of signed artists don’t make enough money from music sales to support themselves. With the advance of technology that allows people to download CD’s that use to cost $16.99, for only $9.99 with a click of a mouse, the future of the music industry has changed forever.

3. Getting a record deal will make you famous. Although most worship leaders probably would not admit it, one of the factors that attracts us to the idea of becoming a signed artist is the fame and recognition. I believe this is a serious issue today with worship leaders and I believe it goes against what you are called to do if you’re a worship leader. We are not called to attract people to ourselves and gain recognition for ourselves, we are called to point to Christ; to help people recognize Him for who He is and worship Him as a response to that revelation.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with musicians using their talents to write worship songs. It’s the motive behind it that I find issue with at times. Signed or not, I have noticed some songwriters writing songs with the purpose of wanting to get in CCLI’s top 100. They work hard on perfecting a song with the fantasy in the back of their minds of writing the next “Revelation Song” or “How Great is Our God”. All the while, their songs are not inspired by the Holy Spirit, but by greed and envy.

I would like to challenge all of us who are endeavoring to write worship songs to really check our motives. Step back for a moment from all your dreams and aspirations and take a prayerful, sober look at your heart. I believe there is a danger today in our worship shifting from God-focused to personality-focused. Today’s worship culture, with its worship leader focused conferences and products, may encourage that mindset.

Today, I saw an amazing quote on a shirt that said: “Play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.”

I would like to ask you…how can we, as worship leaders, shift our focus from the song (or the songwriter) to the Creator of the universe? From the desire to be recognized for our talents to an unstoppable passion and drive to use our talents and every fiber of our being to point to the Giver of our talents?

Wisdom M.

Don Poythress Interviewed on AllAboutWorship.com

Joe Brookhouse of All About Worship, recently got a chance to interview Don Poythress. Don just received a CMA nomination for “Song of the Year” for one of his country songs… “A Little More Country Than That,” which Easton Corbin recorded.

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Your debut release, “Wash Away”, has a distinct contemporary country flavor; however, much of today’s modern worship music is dominated by a four-on-the-floor rock sound. Why buck the trend?

You know sometimes as a songwriter I do try to write toward a certain trend in the market to reach certain artists or listeners. But for my project, more than anything, I just wanted to write songs that moved me lyrically and melodically and hope that it connected with people. I love all kinds of music, especially modern worship and country, and I hoped that those influences would come together in a fresh way.

As a successful professional songwriter, you are frequently sought out as a co-writer for both country and Christian artists. What does a typical co-writing session look like for you? Does your approach differ based on the intended audience (country vs. worship)?

Co-writing is an interesting experience. I compare it to blind dating because it can feel so natural or SO awkward!  I usually try to spend the first few minutes of a session just getting to know the person, trying to make them feel comfortable and learn their interests. Then we might begin sharing some ideas, lyrical or melodic, or maybe just something we’ve heard that interested us and wonder if it could be turned into a song idea. The birth of a song is a very mysterious thing. Often I look back after finishing a song and think, ‘How in the world did we get here from there!’ Of course, every session is a little different because every writer brings different strengths to the table. If I’m writing with someone that’s an incredible lyric writer I may concentrate more on the melody and let him have the reigns lyrically and the reverse is also true. You learn over time how you write best with certain people.

I usually write for five or six hours and if we haven’t finished we will book another session. And, I usually try to write five days a week unless I’m out of town.

Yes, I suppose I do approach writing country and Christian songs a little different. Of course it’s the same basic premise: try to start with a great idea. But after that, there are different rules for different genres (all broken at times) that are kept in mind. For instance, every genre has its own language and there’s things you can say in Christian music that you couldn’t say in country music and the reverse is true. I remember when I first started writing Christian songs with my friend Brian White. I would throw out a line and he would say…I like the thought, but we would say it like this or like that. And, the same would be true when we wrote a country song. He might throw out a line that in Christian music would be fine, but in country music might come across preachy and I would say, “What if we said it like this?”

How do you evaluate a new song, whether one you’ve written yourself or one presented to you by another artist? What are some common songwriting pitfalls and how do you avoid them?

I consider a song to be good if something UNIQUE was communicated, or if a truth is communicated UNIQUELY. One of the main pitfalls is losing the focus of the idea. It’s very easy to say so much that you don’t say anything well. You have to settle on your main idea and keep the thread of that idea throughout the song. And, you have to be willing to throw lines away (sometimes good ones) that don’t support that idea or that are redundant.

Your lyrics are straightforward and concise, yet avoid being cliché. How do you avoid “wordiness” and still deliver the message?

I suppose the main way is by keeping the main idea focused in your mind as you write. Also, don’t feel like every line has to be profound. And I know this may sound very mechanical, but being careful a song is not too long will also teach you to write more concise, for obvious reasons. It’s a good exercise to write a lot of songs that are under four minutes, to learn how to communicate an idea in less time.

As a worship leader at Abundant Life Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, how frequently do you lead? Do you play primarily your own music? Which songs are currently “in season” in your congregation?

Yes, I usually lead every weekend I’m in town. I do mix in a few of my own songs, but the majority of songs I use are written by others. “Everlasting God” and “You Never Let Go” have really been ministering to our body lately.

“Wash Away” was released in 2009 and the songs were written from your experiences during the previous year – you’ve referred to “I Will Bless the Lord At All Times” as your life song for that period. What has life brought you since the release? What is your current life song and when will you be sharing that with us?

Wow, great question! Since the CD came out, I’ve gotten married and my father passed way, so there has been a lot of change. Jennie Riddle, Tony Wood and I recently wrote a song called “God Is In Control” and that is what I continually have to remind myself of.

A question we ask at the end of every interview…share with us your most embarrassing moment while leading worship?

Ha! I have had a million embarrassing moments! One that comes to mind for some reason was from a service at my church a couple of years back. Every once in a while during worship I will ask the congregation if there’s a song they want to do. Well, during this worship time there was a really sweet presence of the Lord and I asked if there was a certain hymn someone might want to hear. An elderly lady named Mrs. Anne waved her hand and yelled out, “How about America the Beautiful!!” I was stunned. Not that I’m not patriotic, but I just wasn’t expecting it at that moment. I’m sure I looked like a calf looking at a new gate. Finally, after we all had a good laugh, the piano player kicked it off and we had a beautiful patriotic moment. Gotta be careful what you ask for!!

Worship Planning As A Team

A worship leader has many tasks that need to be done each week, including preparing the music, rehearsing the team, setting up the stage, and the list goes on. However, the weekly worship experience probably starts, in one way or another, the same for each of us – worship planning.  Wouldn’t it be nice if these services planned themselves?  Well, we all know it doesn’t work that way, even though there may be some in the church who may disagree! Countless hours of planning, seeking the Lord’s direction in prayer, tweaking and preparation take place before Sunday morning.

Who is all involved in this worship planning process? Is it just the worship leader, the worship leader and pastor, or a team of people? Well, I’m sure in our various churches all of these combinations are taking place. Over the years in my role as a worship leader, my worship planning experience has taken on all of these forms, as well as some others.  Is there a right way to do it? No, I don’t believe there is. We all have different personalities, resources, leadership styles, people and time available. What works for one may not work at all for another.

However, I can share a few of the benefits I’ve experienced working with a team of people to plan worship services and events.  First, I’m not sure about you, but when I do the same thing over and over again by myself, I tend to easily fall into a rut.  Sure, the songs may be different each week, but there’s a sense of “this is how we always do it” that starts to seep into the worship conversation.  When you work with a team, there’s less of a chance of that happening, just because there is a built-in system of checks and balances there with those who are involved. It is important, though, to make it an intentional goal of the team to keep the services fresh, so everyone is watching out for that danger.

There is also a noticeable synergy that takes place when you’re in a group of people who are all passionate about creating a worship experience that is both creative and honoring to God. Just by someone throwing out a little idea, which might get your mind going, you may come up with a great idea that you may have never thought of if you were planning alone. Brainstorming song ideas, multi-sensory ideas, visual ideas and other elements together can be an exciting time for all involved.

There are probably several of you reading this who are currently working with some kind of team as you plan services. If that’s the case, then please share your experience and ideas below in the comments of how you use a team. Let’s learn from each other! If you’re not already doing this, you may be wondering how you can start to put a team like this together.

Start by asking a lot of questions… “What do I hope to accomplish by putting this team together?”, “Who should be on this team?”, “Will the senior pastor be part of this team?”, “How often will we meet?”, “What will we do in our meetings?” and the list goes on. I would suggest trying to find people who are passionate about different areas of the worship ministry. Find someone who loves to think of worship songs that go along with a theme, someone who knows every song out there on the radio for specials, someone who is really into video production, someone who has a good eye for visual aspects of the service. The danger is to get a lot of people just like you on the team, and while that may be comfortable, it may not yield results that are a lot different than how it is right now.

There are a lot of great resources out there to help you get started in this process, but one that I would recommend is a book called “Designing Worship: Creating and Integrating Powerful God Experiences” (Kim Miller, Group Publishing).  Kim is the Creative Director at Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, Ohio, and she has put together a great resource in this book/DVD set. She walks you through excellent ideas about putting together a worship design team, including how to find great team players, the role of the senior pastor on the team, and who should be involved on the team.

She goes beyond that to talking about the actual planning process, overcoming obstacles to designing worship, great ideas on multi-sensory worship, and even ideas for the message. The included DVD has a lot of neat features as well, including taking you through the planning process of a service all the way from the first meeting to Sunday morning, as well as several examples of creative ideas their team has planned.

This process does not come without its challenges; that is for sure! However, I believe it’s worth the effort, and can help to keep our worship services fresh and filled with the creativity of God!

Barry Westman
All About Worship

Why Did The Worship Leader Cross The Road?

…because God called him to mentor the young guy on the sidewalk with a guitar in his hand.

I am a big believer in mentoring. I believe that every church leader should be mentoring at least one person, but preferably more. Maybe the reason I believe in it so much is that when I was in my pre-teen years, a couple of church leaders took me under their wings and mentored me.

First, it was my youth pastor, who was also the drummer of the church. I was a part of a small Korean church at the time. I had moved to the United States just a few years back. I was still learning English and still felt out of place in the English-speaking youth group. My youth pastor started spending time with me one-on-one, teaching me how to play the drums. It was very exciting for me. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long because he left the church, for reasons I did not know.

Then, there was our choir director. He started taking time with me after school, to teach me how to play the guitar. Not only that, he started teaching me worship songs. He helped me start to come out of my shell and start singing out loud, which I hated to do.

In high school, I picked up the bass guitar and ended up joining a worship band in my senior year. We got invited to many different churches and events to lead worship. I didn’t tell many people at my church (a large, mainly Caucasian church) about my bass playing, but word got around and my youth pastor found out about it. One Sunday morning, he saw me and said, “Hey Wisdom, I just heard that you play the bass! Go in the youth center and play with the team this morning. They’re rehearsing and we have a bass guitar waiting for you on stage!”

That was my first Sunday, of many Sundays, as a part of the youth worship team. From there, I became the first student worship leader for the youth service and eventually ended up being in charge of the whole team…(and later became the youth pastor). I also started leading worship for the adult services on a regular basis. I never imagined I would lead 1,000 adults in worship as a young student. It was the grace of God and my youth pastor believing that God can use teenagers.

In my adult life, I’ve been in different leadership roles. I’ve been a youth pastor as well as a worship pastor. In whatever role God entrusted me in, I always believed that one of my main jobs is to mentor others, young and old. Mentoring is not just about age; you don’t have to just mentor those younger than you. I’ve mentored individuals on the worship team twice my age, but spiritually still young.

Worship leaders, if you’re not regularly spending time training up and mentoring others, I encourage you to pray and ask God to bring individuals to mind that He wants you to mentor. Don’t start mentoring someone just because you need someone to fill in when you’re on vacation. Mentor someone because you want to help that person discover and grow in their gifts so they can better serve the Body of Christ. You never know…you could be mentoring the next Matt Redman or Kari Jobe.

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Article written by Wisdom Moon, founder of All About Worship.

Worship Leading Lesson #1: It’s Not Your Ministry

Some of the best lessons I’ve learned in life are through trying, failing, trying, failing, failing, trying and succeeding every once in awhile. I’m not foolish enough to think I’ve got it all figured out, but I do have some things that I hope can be an encouragement to anyone willing to read. These are a few random worship leading lessons God continues to teach me.

Dumping of Gear = Dumping of Pride

In January, 1993 I received Christ as my savior at the age of 18 years old.  Leading up to that moment I found myself getting steeped in music. I had begun playing in bars surrounding myself with influences that would ultimately lead to a lifestyle that could be harmful to my health. Thankfully, God interceded and completely changed my heart.

It didn’t happen overnight.  The salvation happened instantly…but the transformation of someone desiring to be a “rock star”, center of attention….to one who knew he was a child of God didn’t happen instantly.  It came over time.

Soon after I became a Christian, I realized my desires were shifting from pursuing music, to pursuing a relationship with God. I was convicted about where my affections were being drawn to and decided a radical change needed to happen.  I donated all of my electric guitar gear to my local church for a missions cause.  I believe in my walk with God, this was a huge moment of growth.

What I began to learn was nothing I did mattered if I didn’t give it all to the Lord.  That meant my money, my talents, my abilities, my desires….everything.  After a year of not being involved with music, I was invited to be a part of the worship ministry in my College and Career Class I was a part of at the time.  This is where I began cutting my teeth on what it meant to do music for a completely different cause.

It’s Not YOUR Ministry

I love being a part of ministry, especially being able to use the talent God has blessed me with. Every once in a while I need to be reminded that the ministry I’m a part of is not MINE…it’s God’s.  When I hear musicians use the term “my ministry”, it makes me cringe. It’s an indicator for me that communicates the heart of someone who is in it to bring their talent/skill to the team and may not give much care to the other team members or the church-wide vision.  Essentially every Christ follower needs to answer this one question:

Are you willing to give up what you love the most in order to let God make you a true worshiper?

In Psalm 51 we read the story of a repentant David who realizes it makes no difference what sacrifice he brings to the Lord, but that God is simply concerned with a broken heart.  For worship leaders and team members, you may feel that you’re bringing the very best of what you have in your skill to the Lord, but if you don’t have the heart of a true worshiper of God…it doesn’t matter.

Many times we wrap our identities up in the things we do. Whether a job, a ministry we’re a part of, a ministry we lead.  Eventually we begin to place our hope in our skills and in these roles we play. When those roles or that job is gone, we then become hopeless.  God wants our hope and strength to rest completely and solely on Jesus Christ.

So here’s a challenge to you worship leaders and team members.  Redirect your focus. It’s not about YOUR skill, it’s not about YOUR talent. Are you truly worshiping Christ with your talent? Or are you deceiving yourself thinking your sacrifice has been acceptable to the Lord when all along, you’ve been carrying bitterness and a heart that is tainted by an attitude that this is YOUR ministry not God’s?

¹⁶ For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.
Psalm 51:16-17 (NKJV)

-Ben Abu Saada

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