I am excited to have my friend Rick Muchow as a guest on Worship MythBusters Podcast, Episode 14. We talk about transition and other fun stuff after he served 24 plus years under Rick Warren at Saddleback Church. Rick is so down to earth and authentic every time I talk to him. Leaders of all stripes should listen to this guy and learn from his attitude.

Also, his book The Worship Answer Book is now available in digital formats.

This past weekend I was honored with the task of guest leading worship for a brand new church plant’s third public worship service. Venia Church is a new church in Murrieta, CA that has been meeting in a pizza parlor. Pastor Tim Thompson used a trash can for a pulpit to deliver the sermon in a room full of local sport team banners and shirts that celebrate the community gathering that takes place in such a locale. If Jesus can be birthed in a barn, I think birthing a church in a pizza place simply rocks!

Right off the bat, this group of people sang. These committed worshippers did not need coaxing to sing. There is nothing fancy here, just people there to worship, so all I had to do was kick off the music. Everyone serving to set up and make the room ready were eager. Sometimes, as a worship leader you have to gently prod or woo to get folks to even pay attention. But, this was not the case. I will not easily forget this sweet time of singing and the memorable message the pastor delivered. If you were there, “Tic Tacs” and the movie “Dumb and Dumber” will actually have a redeemed spiritual connection. If not, excuse the insider lingo.

I had a small team with me: myself on guitars and keys with friends on cajon box and bass guitar. My daughter sang backing vocals and some lead while laying down acoustic guitar. Putting this together was like guerrilla warfare, as is anything to do with church planting. Just for reference, my wife and I have been part of two church start ups over the years. It was fun to see my wife smile in the second row of pizza tables knowing she had that context in her heart and mind. I must mention that the audio guy Taylor was amazing handling what was thrown at him. Worship leaders cannot do their thing effectively without guys like Taylor.

Here are the tunes we sang together:

• Awesome Is The Lord Most High – Chris Tomlin
• Taste And See – Brian and Jenn Johnson
• God Is Able – Hillsong
• Forever Reign – One Sonic Society
• How He Loves – John Mark McMillan
• Beautiful Things – Gungor

Come worship with us next week (May 6). We are actually going to be in a High School auditorium at Vista Murrieta HS. Check here on Venia Church Facebook for details!

How was your worship weekend?

[Set lists from all over the world here! http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/sunday-setlists-197/]

Worship Leader Media is putting on a webinar that I am excited to teach. There are only 50 spots, so get yours while they last. Here is a practical topic that I think will help worship leaders as they work through launch, growth, and maintenance of their teams.

There are six roles or hats that take place in leading the 52 weekend services in worship. Learning what these roles are and staffing them well is the key to growing a team and preventing burnout and frustration. Leading worship is more than just a platform-driven event. There are people to recruit, schedules to keep, projects to manage, and communication to focus. On top of all the “tasks” there is the primary need for spiritual direction of all the people who make up a worship team. Learning how to leverage which of the six you should keep and which you should delegate can be the difference maker in sustaining and growing a team that can weather change.

In a smaller setting, people will surely wear more than one hat and most likely will be all volunteers. As a ministry grows, paid staff comes in to wear the hats that require more time or specialization. Here are the six hats:

• Worship Leader: This individual’s role is the upfront face, and intuitively gifted individual who can engage a congregation.
• Music Director: The details of music are important, so direction of rehearsal, preparation of charts and direction of the “sound” of the worship team.
• Tech Director: This is audio, video, lighting and setup logistics both in detail and vision.
• Service Producer: During the service, the details and flow are managed. (The larger the setting, the more this is needed.)
• Programming Director/Admin: Project manager of the content and details for execution and/or person who keeps the details, scheduling and project in check.
• Pastor/Executive Producer: Theology, the definition of the “win” for a weekend and organizational mission alignment as well as the shepherding issues on a team. This is both spiritual direction as well as organizationally driven.

The webinar would walk through how these all work together and encourage worship leaders to find which they are best to keep and which they are best to delegate and recruit others to take. Knowing these roles makes us “administer the gifts with grace” factoring in people’s shape and how that applies to leading worship.

This live webinar is FREE and limited to 50 attendees.

April 19, 11:00 to 12:00 pm.

Please note that the starting time listed is PST (California time)

REGISTER HERE

Over at my podcast site, WorshipMythbusters.com, Episode 13 is LIVE.

Worship Leader’s Dilemma: Is there a tension between the role we are asked to fill and the call we are meant live? This is an honest conversation about what we think the calling of worship leader is compared to some of the realities faced.

A couple days ago I wrote an Easter song after reflecting on a couple of my favorite old time hymns. The song is “Today A Risen King” and the idea is that in a moment history was changed. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus forever changed the timeline, allowing us access to all the blessings of God. When we accept the gift of grace, our history is changed–in a moment!

My daughter and I quickly made this video in one pass to demonstrate the song to you. There are subtitles for you to sing or follow along and I have attached the lyrics and chords in this post. As we prepare for Easter, today we can experience a risen King. In the darkness, his light came.

 GUITAR CHORDS PDF: Today A Risen King

I suspect that many of my worship leader and creative arts leaders have programmed some memorable and even outrageous moments. Now, these are not super-edgy, but at the time some felt these to be out-of-the-box.

•  I love beach balls, and for a service I decided that dropping several hundred from the catwalks with strobes would do. Each ball represented a decision made to follow Jesus from various mission trips, inner city outreaches and back yard Bible clubs of four sister churches working together.
• Dueling drummers are cool! Ever play a set with two full kits? How about doing this all in a worship service. For my final service as worship pastor at a church I served, the two drummers were very close to me and I had to have them BOTH play. It rocked, but the 113 dB sound pressure level emptied a few seats during the Saturday service. Ouch!
• Wearing a hat in church is fine, unless you are the actual worship leader. I only did a couple times, but wow! It started at a Christmas Eve service where the fedora fit my outfit. One Sunday my alarm failed to wake me so I covered the bedhead and led worship.
•  My son was born on a Saturday, and I slept in the hospital. Of course, being a young worship leader I thought I should still lead worship the next morning. Being near my new son and in the hospital room with him and my wife meant I did not sleep a wink. So, the next morning was a bit rough.
• My very first–and last time–preaching at a former church of mine was when I asked the church members to pull out their cell phones and sign up for Twitter! We then did a poll and made the service interactive. I confess, that I plugged my blog–of course after plugging the lead pastor’s blog, too.
• We had a Saturday night where the unthinkable happened: no drummer was available. This only has happened once to me in nearly two decades, by the way. I grabbed every candle in the building, at home, and what texting and phone calls could muster. We did an acoustic set and the service went off great. As we launched the services I said, “We took every precaution, so the fire marshall should be proud of me.” Well, he was in the congregation that night and not smiling. Oops!

Any outrageous stories of things you did as a worship leader or speaker in church? Please, share your story!

Having traveled a bit and visited many churches this past year, I see a pattern in the modern worship world. In fact, for the past decade I have been in that category as a worship leader. There are twitter feeds sharing set lists of the songs worship leaders choose. People in the pews or theater seats across America experience more of the same on their Sunday morning worship music menu than ever before. This one-size-fits-all thinking might be the death of true creativity. And, as a result it may flatten our ability to connect deeply to our community. 

There are guitar sites, Youtube channels, and businesses built on showing how to paint-by-numbers. This includes the tone, sound and look of the most famous worship bands out there. Even the hipster dress code, as I observe when speaking or attending at worship conferences, conforms to plaid shirts, Tom’s Shoes, and v-necks. The worst offender is the skinny jeans. Seriously, fashion sense is really not a problem and creative people lead in this. But, why so monolithic?

Today’s recipe for success is the “me-too” cover band. Churches echo sermon series and graphics from the popular houses of worship. Everything is downloadable with a click. A local artist recently said this: “Cover bands are where dreams go to die.” After dying in laughter for a few minutes, sadness overcame me when reflecting on our Sunday experiences. The idea of being an “artist” and the calling that God has given artists dies in a cut-and-paste mentality that pervades our Sunday programming. Creativity is really “copy-tivity” in this world. And, it goes beyond music, shaping the sermons preached in our pulpits, graphics on our website banners, and fog machines.

Some will balk at this perspective. They will ask, “if it works, why not use things that are efficient and popular?” “Why reinvent the wheel?” The idea is to measure the ends, not the means. “If a pastor in another town preaches better, why not use his sermon instead of your own?” This is faulty thinking. We create not because creating is our goal, but to create indigenously means the people I serve, the people I am called to reach and the city I live in matter. If we know the people as we should, we should actually be able to connect far better to them than someone else who does not know them.

We should employ good tools. Yes! And, the innovation of some churches challenges us all. Being influenced and inspired is one thing. Copying as a habit is another. We can take the best practices and become better. If we ban innovation, creativity, and the skills and work this requires, we may lose our voice to the very people we want to reach.

Do we lose our connection with people or increase it by Cut-and-Paste Creativity?

What an honor to be among some very talented and thoughtful bloggers who were also nominated in the category of Worship Blogger.

Here is the list:

• DavidSantistevan.com
• Ragamuffinsoul.com
• RKWeblog.com
• Worshipmatters.com
• RobRash.us
• VickyBeeching.com

Go vote there for this category as well as others such as worship band or favorite worship song. And, thanks to you my readers for continuing the conversation about faith and culture which worship surely encompasses!

RECAP: This past weekend was busy with Emilie singing at a local Temecula event and then her leading worship with me at Chorus Church in French Valley, CA. This was our first time leading at Chorus Church and after partnering with Eric Beeman on the School of Worship last month we were happy to fill in for him as worship leaders. Eric took the Sunday off, by the way, to run in Race for the Cure.

Working with volunteer musicians is always a challenge and always rewarding. The group did a great job preparing and their media guy treated me well, even buying me a Starbucks for the morning. Of ourse, we will not mention how he accidentally spilled it.(Sorry Tim, you are awesome by the way!) Well accidents happen, and when you are renting a school like Chorus Church does you have to be prepared. And, they were!

Dave Reynolds, their pastor, delivered a challenging message out of Nehemiah chapter 2. “In order to give, something’s got to give.” There is a cost, and sometimes it might mean when you follow God you can’t do your other priorities at all. We all hear messages on how we put God first, but not often on how we just put God and nothing else. You will have to download the sermon to fully get the point, I think.

On top of leading worship, Emilie shared her newly recorded song “Turning This Town Upside Down” which is off her new EP. It seemed tie in great with the message.

SET LIST: When you are itinerate as a worship leader, you rely heavily on the host church’s set list. Here is what Eric helped me come up with. Songs are listed with artist/worship leader who recorded the version we used:

• Our God – Chris Tomlin
• Your Love Never Fails – Jesus Culture.
• Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) – Chris Tomlin
• Lead Me To The Cross – Hillsong
• Turning This Town Upside Down – Emilie Kirkpatrick

LINKS:

• Chorus Church Facebook
• Emilie’s EP Release Party Link (She is being hosted by Chorus Church!)
• The Worship Community set lists

How was your worship weekend?

I am grateful to the editors at Worship Leader Magazine for choosing RKWeblog as a “Best of the Best 2011″ Blog with four other bloggers. (StephenBrewster.me, LarryTardy.com, DavidSantistevan.com and LoopCommunity.com/blog). Here is what they said about this blog:

Rich Kirkpatrick is a worship leader and a tech steward. Versed in social networking, music, and leading, this is a perfect place for Web savvy WLs to plug in. Rich’s podcast, Worship Mythbusters is worth a stop on your next walk through the Web, as well.

Check out the other bloggers. I recommend them as well! With so many leaders and worthy sites, it is humbling to be mentioned. Thanks to my readers for participating in the conversation here!