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For the last twelve months users like you have been logging their votes for the songs they like, with encouraging comments going back to the songwriters. The exciting news is that these statistics are now available, and for each month you can see, and listen through, the top 100 songs that other users enjoyed and would like to recommend to you. We plan to keep developing this, so please check it out, enjoy... and let us know what you think.
As well as being a father to five, an active worship leader, songwriter and full-time Music Pastor, Nathan has recently kicked off Direct Access Publishing to provide quality and anointed praise and worship music to the church via the web. Nathan is currently working with ten or so songwriters, helping them with the administration of ASCAP, BMI, and CCLI.
Below are this month's featured songs. Click here to hear the featured songs (streaming playlist).
And we'll leave you with some thoughts from Rick Muchow of Saddleback on managing your worship team, prayer and volume levels.
Blessings
Marty Kendall ShareSong.org Coordinator
QUESTION: Removal Process? From Rob serving in Canada.
How would you go about removing someone from a vocal team who hasn't lived up to the commitment they made at an audition (learning songs, memorizing words, showing up to rehearsals on time, etc.)?
When we find ourselves in this position, we should first ask ourselves is this a leadership problem or is it really a volunteer problem? Not everybody is easy to work with, and certainly very few people enter the ministry looking like Jesus! There are different personalities and the fact is that we as leaders will not relate equally to every individual. The very creative diversity with which God has created us as individuals insures that we as leaders will be refined through the leadership process as we learn to lead and value the contributions of people whose S.H.A.P.E. (Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences) differs from our own. Some of the most valuable people in my life are those who see and experience things very differently from me.
The most important step in living up to a commitment is knowing what’s expected. Have I as the leader communicated what is expected in a way that the person understands?
Communicating expectations needs to be done clearly and regularly at the audition process and throughout the season of commitment. We must never assume that our expectation is common knowledge.
Once you’ve been consistent in communication, then if there is a problem, lovingly communicate the expectations again. Do all that you can do in your confrontation to lovingly guard the other person’s dignity. After all, the person belongs to God and not to us. Our responsibility is to nurture and care for God’s sheep.
Never do this in front of the group! It’s important not to be political or show favouritism in your leadership. This is an area that individuals will test and challenge you on. Be consistent. Before you pull someone from the team, talk it over with your advisory team or someone you trust who will be confidential and hold you accountable for your decision.
In 24 years, I have not asked anyone to leave a group for any other reason than a moral failure. Upon reflection when I am a situation where a team member is not keeping a commitment, I find that I may not have communicated the expectations “correctly” for that individual. When I addressed the issue directly with the person, and consistently reinforced the expectations with the whole team, I was able to avoid losing a team member.
QUESTION: Prayer? From Danny Graham serving in Keiser, AR
Can you give me some things you pray for during the week or before each service about your leading in worship?
RICK MUCHOW: The Bible is clear that we should pray in all things without ceasing, and yet how easy it is for us to rush through our prayers or pray out of repetition not from our hearts. At any point when we cease to pray during the planning, production and presentation of worship, we are on shaky ground.
I start by praying about what songs to do, who to have serve during that weekend, and the worship flow. This is a Thursday thing for me, 9 days before the first of the weekend services I’m starting to plan through. I work to get connected to my Powersource. I want to be in my place as a branch connected to His Vine.
Next, in preparation for the weekly Tuesday rehearsal, I start with prayer for God’s guidance to help me plan the rehearsal outline which includes every detail and element of the rehearsal: devotion, prayer time, worship, fellowship and learning music.
At Tuesday rehearsal, we begin with prayer, break into prayer teams to pray together in the middle of rehearsal, and end with prayer. The opening prayer is a general covering of the rehearsal with thanksgiving and a dedication of the rehearsal to God. The prayer teams are at most 3-5 choir members praying for each other’s specific needs for about 10 minutes of total time. The ending prayer thanks God for the rehearsal and for each other, asking guidance throughout the week to help us be worshippers beyond the Sunday services.
From Wednesday through Saturday, I ask God to direct me as a leader and in working to serve our volunteers, other pastors and staff. I ask God for vision so that I can see how He wants to lead the ministry.
Finally, before we lead at the first of the weekend services, we pray at the sound check, asking God to be the Lord of our lives and we dedicate the services to Him. It’s all about Him, not about us. I ask specifically that many people will come to know Him and that He will use us, the worship team, to help connect the congregation to Him. I have overlooked this prayer before sound check in the past, only to find that we can accomplish so much more with the Spirit’s help than in our/my own strength.
Prayer is a key to team unity and effective worship leading which is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
QUESTION: Sound Level? From Chris serving in FL
How do you get to the right sound levels and how do you manage sound level problems?
RICK MUCHOW: Everyone gets sound complaints. We get complaints every week at Saddleback. I don’t think there has been one week in 17 years when I haven’t had complaints. It seems everyone has an opinion on sound level. Several times during the same service, I’ve had complaints that the sound level at the same time is both “too loud” and “too soft.”
Several years ago, our Senior Pastor, Rick Warren, said from the platform that he likes the music loud, and that it is going to be loud at Saddleback because our audience of baby boomers like to feel their music. Immediately the following week, we still had complaints about the sound, but now they took on a more “spiritual” tone.
Music is just such a very personal preference. It is purely subjective. That’s why there are so many styles of music! Even those God has gifted with musical talent have differing opinions. Think about that for a minute. God could have easily given the gift of music to be executed in only one way, but as we’ve seen throughout creation, God likes variety.
In the Bible, God uses different volume levels for different purposes. Illustrations like the ocean’s roar, thunder claps, and the shaking of the earth and others in the Psalms are filed with different expressions of worship at different volumes. Of course we have to keep in mind Paul’s admonition that without Love, our sound levels are worthless.
Here are a couple of guidelines to aid in the attempt to reach the right sound levels and manage sound level problems:
1) The right level is the one that pleases your target audience, if you are using the Purpose-Driven model. Reach out to your audience. Avoid pleasing yourself. I haven’t heard from God directly on this, so the following are my words not God’s. The sound level that pleases God is the level that gets the attention of His children, both in the church family and the lost He’s trying to reach. My audience is dictated by my Senior Pastor because he carries the vision. My job is to support his philosophy of ministry.
2) Before turning up the PA system, ask the band to turn down.
3) Get a decibel meter. Saddleback runs between 97 and 101 on the weekend. Concert volume peaks at 105 db. A general rule of thumb is that constant exposure for 30 minutes at 100 db will cause damage, but every person can be different. Be sure to check with an audiologist about what sound level and length of exposure will cause damage.
4) Try venues. Venues are multiple services but with different music or affinity audiences. Have a loud room and soft room.
5) Check your worship center space to locate its hot spots and dead spots, so that when someone says the sound is too loud or soft, you can suggest an alternate place to sit.
6) Loud does not equal positive energy. Perception of volume is frequency dependent. A screechy guitar and a soft flute may be at the same volume but will be perceived as being loud vs. soft.
7) Service for general audiences with young and old all together require you to incorporate varied dynamic levels. Some bands play all songs at the same level. It will be immediately helpful for complaints if you do a louder song followed by a softer song.
8) Minimize your stage volume. The louder the stage volume, the more jumbled the house mix is, and a jumbled house mix causes people to perceive the sound as either too loud or too soft. Sometimes when a person says the sound is “too loud” what is really happening is this jumble caused by loud stage volume.
Even after doing your best to create the sound level appropriate for your audience, you will still get complaints. Shepherds love your complainers. Validate the person! Their comment is real for them. Don’t take their comments personally. Be honest. Understand how they feel. If you receive a letter, quickly respond with empathy and explain the strategy. If you can make adjustments, make them. Not every complainer is wrong. Ask for God’s help to ministry to all people. Ask for clarity from your pastor; honest evaluation, and submit yourself to his authority.
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