Catalogs

When worship leaders reach out for guidance or input on their worship ministry, one of the first things I ask about is regarding the use of catalogs.  Most are familiar with the concept but pick songs for their congregation with little attention to frequency, consistency, or breadth.  The top 10 CCM songs are not a thoughtful or even helpful way of choosing songs for Sunday.  Using a catalog is a great tool for worship leaders to balance the "worship diet" of their church.

First let's define the term for our use:
A catalog is a set bank of songs used for a set period of time at a set location that balances the worship diet of your congregation.  For example, we use a catalog that changes every 3 months, of around 25 songs at our Reno location.  Catalogs differ between our 5 churches, and we tend to roll several songs forward each quarter.

Here's a quick rundown on a few of the tested advantages we've seen play out:

1.  It's helpful for your people.
Using a catalog is a great way to ensure a "balanced diet" for your congregation.  The Psalms are full of a breadth of human emotion.  With a catalog in place, it's easier to intentionally have songs in rotation that cover celebration, despair, doubt, gratitude, and confession.  Here is a sample of some of the balances we are striving for in our catalogs:

• a.  Subjective vs. objective (How we feel or respond vs. what is unchanging and true)
• b.  Indicative vs. imperative (Reminding what Christ has done vs. what we do in response)
• c.  Celebrational vs. contemplative (both in lyrical content and in musical mood)
• d.  Individual vs. corporate (I and me vs. us and we)

A warning: many have moralized different categories of songs in recent years, which speaks to both an ignorance of the Psalms as well as church history.  For example, in the hymnals I have collected from the 1800s, the most common first word found in the song titles is "I".  Balance is key.

2.  It's helpful for those you are trying to reach.
Every church has its own culture, and the music is part of that culture.  When a new person walks through your doors they will not know the songs you use, which is to be expected, but you can make it easier for them to join in after a few weeks if you use a catalog to limit the sheer volume of content.  We say, "a guest should recognize several songs if they spend a month with us".

3.  It's helpful for your teaching pastor.
In many churches, the teaching pastor has ten times the theological training that the worship leader does.  This is highly problematic, but that's for another post on another day.  Giving your teaching pastor a voice into the songs you use for Sundays is a great checkpoint, especially if they aren't musically inclined.  Using a catalog can help you work on the worship menu together and gives you a fighting chance at tying in the music with upcoming teaching themes.  It also allows for your teaching pastor to request songs more easily when he has the catalog in hand.  The same can be said for planning services.

4.  It's helpful for you.
Every worship leader knows that you have a certain number of songs you could play at any moment.  There are another group of songs that with a quick glance at a lyric sheet you could pull off.  Still other songs would require the music sheet to be in front of you and several practices.  This is true because depending on many factors, you only have so much memory recall to allocate towards the songs you are playing.

"A guest should recognize several songs if they spend a month with us."

Since a catalog limits the number of songs you play, assuming you go through at least portion of your catalog at practice means you also limit the time that has passed since you have played everything in your catalog.  We play our whole catalog every 3 weeks or so.  That means it's never been more than 2 week since we played a song we are using for this quarter.  I can't overstate how helpful this is.

This saves time previously spent trying to remember that one tune you haven't played for months.  It creates space in practices for praying together, writing and creativity with your band or team, not to mention polishing the songs that need a little extra work.

These are only some of the benefits but it's clear to see that catalogs are a incredibly useful tool for worship leaders.  Type one up yourself or use PCO, but figure out a way to implement a catalog for greater clarity and intentionality in your worship ministry. You can download a sample of one of our catalogs here.

Anything we missed?  Comment below.

Music Theory Lessons for Volunteers

Communicating at your mid-week rehearsal can sometimes feel like you are building the Tower of Babel.  Somewhere between avoiding the key your piano player hates and Nashville numbers, you can feel like everyone is on a different page.

Thankfully "music" is a language that can learned by any musician.  Many people who serve faithfully in the church have no formal music background which can make it hard to talk to them about things such as how capos work, or transpose a song on the fly.  These two theory lessons will help define common musical terms such as whole steps, half steps, major scale, minor scale, using capos, transposing for capos, and common chords in every key.

Our lessons below show how to use "Nashville Numbers" which is very helpful when a a capo-ed guitarist is talking to the rest of the band about what chord he/she is playing or when learning how to transpose.

If someone in your band or team does have formal musical training, encourage them to pass it on in ways that are helpful, not condescending.  Ask for referrals to music teachers in your community that understand the worship environment of a typical church.

You can download for free some of the lessons we use below.  These are targeted to help new musicians understand basic concepts and help you find the short cuts in the musical language without having everyone take a year long college theory class.

Lesson 1: Steps and Scales

Lesson 2: Minor Scales, Chords, Nashville Numbers, and Transposing

If you'd like more lessons, let us know in the comments below!

Band Development Process

Many people have asked me what it looks like to "build a band".

I should preface that at Living Stones Churches, we use the band model at some of our locations, and the team model at others.  Neither is "better" but they both have pros and cons.

When we build a band, we're looking for someone theologically grounded, musically gifted, and spiritually submited to lead it.  I detail that a bit in this piece for the Resurgence.  But building a band is more than just raising up (or finding) a great band leader.  That's why we have a development process.

The process addresses the logistical needs of an efficient practice, establishes their song catalog to ensure theological depth, thematic diversity, and congregational familiarity. 

Download our "Band Development Process" for free here.

If you use part or all this, be sure to comment below with your thoughts.

Feedback Form for Bands/Teams/Leaders

Anyone who has read a leadership book published in the last 50 years knows that feedback loops are essential.  The people you lead need to know what the "win" is.  If you don't define what the "win" is, you can't measure it.

Sadly, most churches only have a vague collection of ideas for what a "win" is on Sunday.  Very few have spelled it out in a way that can be assessed and measured.  We're quick to spiritualize this, and while I agree that no man can know the full extent of what God is doing in the room, there are certainly things we can watch for and assess for growing in our efficacy, leadership, and faithfulness.

Sometimes a worship leader is a little off, and you don't know how to nail down what it is.  Maybe you are the worship leader and you want to get honest feedback from your peers or your lead pastor. 

Asking questions like, "How can I lead better on Sundays?" or "Is there anything I do on stage you wish I would stop doing?" are great discussion starters.  Now, I only recommend these conversations if you actually believe that Jesus loves you, has saved you, and won't let go of you...you know like the songs you sing?  Otherwise any critical feedback will likely send you into a shame spiral.

A good feedback loop that includes critique and praise can be life giving and a way to avoid plateauing in your leadership.

Our "Feedback" document includes forms for band/team leaders as well as the band/team as a whole and is available for free here.

If the feedback document is helpful to you, comment below. 

Worship Application

You know the guy.

He approaches you after a Sunday service and starts talking about how he used to lead worship at a huge church, and he grew up down the street from Switchfoot, and he has a bunch of gear he wants you to know about.

Also, he wants to join your worship ministry.

Where do you start?  What action step do you point to so that he knows what is expected?  We use a printed application as a starting point.  We have them on hand at the church info counter at all times.  Of course we want to really get to know anyone that comes into the worship ministry, both because of it's biblical importance, and the visible nature of anyone serving on stage.  You don't get to know someone filling out a form.

That said, the simple application, actually weeds out some of the folks that might be toxic for the ministry, while getting the folks you want to join a way to think through what they are walking into.  It serves as the first step in the process of getting involved.  It's designed to be just that: a first step.  Not bulletproof, but a helpful tool.

If you find the document useful, be sure to comment below.

Download the "Worship Application" for free here.

Worship Band/Team Audition Kit

I know you probably have more worship leaders and volunteers than you know what to do with.

But most churches I know are struggling to get worship leaders and volunteers identified, recruited, trained, and discipled.  Worship team member recruiting is tough.  It's demanding in terms of time and specific in terms of gifting…and that's not even considering the expectations on a music leader.  In many ways, we are asked to be a theologically trained, public speaking, musically inclined entrepreneur. 

At Living Stones Churches, through years of experimenting and making mistakes left and right, we have a pretty robust and thorough process of getting new worship volunteers and leaders on board and on stage.  We'll be posting several documents we use to train leaders and build bands.  None of this is a replacement for relational discipleship, but it's a good system to get you rolling on developing and assessing what you have now, and clarifying what you want for the future.  They are living documents for sure...they are changing all the time.

If you find this helpful, be sure to leave a comment!

Download the "Worship Band/Team Audition Kit" for no charge here.