Finding Your Worship Voice

I’m talking about finding your musical voice, as an artist. And for me as a church musician, finding my voice to worship with the group I play with.

A lot of churches are emulating the most popular church groups right now, and it’s becoming more and more a case of not just playing their music, but sounding just like them as well.

To be honest, this is lazy of us. Of course we can just purchase a backing track and play along with it. But what about the musicians? We’re stuck learning someone else’s parts, and mimicing someone else’s sound.

The Church has embraced Worship Karaoke: even with the words on the screen.

Continue reading “Finding Your Worship Voice”

New Directions

I feel like God is drawing me into wanting to do music ministry full time. I don’t know what that will look like yet.

I don’t know if that’s something I need to go back to school for, and I’m not really thrilled about that. It would be exciting, but at the same time… I don’t feel like I could do it with my current job.

I really like my current job, but I know it is not my life’s calling. I would much rather teach music and lead worship for a living. But how can I do that? I can’t just quit my job. Not yet, at least.

What would that (going back into music ministry) look like? How could I (understanding it’s not me) make that happen? Why is God showing me this? Why is God giving me a desire to make worship my career, after so many years of me saying “I will never do professional music ministry again”? Can I do that without sacrificing my heart? I want to be pure in motivation. I never want to make money worshipping. But I would love to be able to do that all the time.

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Things of Eternal Impact

Triangulum Galaxy

A while back, I started working through a book titled “The Nine Laws” by Ivan Throne. There’s a lot of philosophical content there, but one of the biggest things I really had to think about was the Third Law of Purpose.

Clearly, my purpose in this world is to worship God. This has been evident in my life for as long as I can remember, though as a child I didn’t know what it was to be used for. Everything I am passionate about, everything I am gifted in, every opportunity I have taken has led me closer to this realization.

I am a worshipper. So why doesn’t my life reflect that singular purpose?

I am distracted by non-essentials. I think one of the greatest crimes of our generation is pushing the idea that nothing has eternal value. And if nothing is eternal, then everything is temporal, and you might as well get whatever you can, right?

But there is so much more to life than “getting the most toys.” As a Christian, we know Jesus (the Ultimate Sensei) was focused on things of Heaven, not of Earth. He knew the mundane things we care about have no lasting impact in the spiritual realm. Repeatedly, He spoke “What is the Kingdom of God like?” because people naturally have no clue.

Which parts of my life have eternal impact? Which parts of your life have eternal impact?

My job? My writing? My music? My prayer life? Where do I see God moving, and where do I want to spend my time?

I’ll be honest, I don’t see God moving much in my job. I work in an office. It’s nice, I like my coworkers, and I like my job. But it’s not a ministry. It’s not serving God as much as it’s serving my family and myself by providing a wage.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing wrong with providing for my family. But despite people telling me “that’s a ministry!” I never feel like it is. It doesn’t fulfill me, it doesn’t provide opportunities to minister, and it doesn’t fulfill my purpose- to be a worshipper.

I don’t know where God wants me to be just yet. But I’m praying that He shows me where I can minister, and what that will look like. I’m okay with going into ministry full time now; but for years I wasn’t. I remember telling God “I will never do worship ministry for money ever again” because I’d been burned so many times.

There’s something to be said for that, though… most churches I’ve been in didn’t have worship ministry as much as they had music ministry. And just because you’re playing music in church does not make it worship. Not even close!

No, I don’t want to be part of “music ministry.” I want to worship with everything I have. No restraints, like King David. Holding nothing back. This is true worship. Most churches have never seen that, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if they did.

But I’ve seen true worship, and it’s changed me. And I’ve discovered it’s an honor to help train other people to be worshippers as well.

This is my life’s purpose: to worship God with complete self abandon, and train up others to do the same.

This is my eternal calling. This is my purpose.

Everything else in my life is secondary: I need to live like it.

Passing The Torch

Sometimes God speaks to you through really weird circumstances. And sometimes He just shows you something that was there all along, but you didn’t really notice.

Last night, I was watching the Pixar movie Cars 3. It was pretty funny, but it dealt with some interesting stuff (for a supposed “kid’s” movie). In it, Lightning McQueen begins losing races to a bunch of new up-and-coming racers who are tech-savvy, strong, and just plain faster than him. And of course, he mopes about it for a while, but then decides to try and beat them at their own game by training like them.

And as can be expected, it doesn’t work for McQueen. In his quest to find his “missing mojo” he runs across Doc Hudson’s old mentor, who informs him that as much as Doc loved racing, his biggest achievement and joy was training McQueen to carry on his legacy and passion for racing.

And as I sat there watching the credits roll, I was reminded of how true this is for anyone who’s getting older, and who feels their dream has eluded them. Like me.

Sometimes, like in King David’s life, God says (I’m paraphrasing) “You’ve served me well, and you’ve been faithful in starting construction of the Temple, but it is not your place to finish it. Your son will complete the Temple.” (This is in David’s speech in 1 Chronicles 28 before he appoints Solomon as the new King.)

I thought about all the years I’ve spent dedicating myself to music ministry, how much I love it, and how much passion I have for worship. How desperately I longed to be able to lead worship for a living. And despite this, God said to me “You may never get the chance to travel the world and play music for a living, but you can train up the next generation to do it.

And truth be told, that means I have to love the act of God being worshiped more than I love to worship God on my own. I need to get over the idea that nobody else can meet that need. I have to want to see younger worship leaders grow- I can’t keep my knowledge and experience to myself. Continue reading “Passing The Torch”

“Formulaic” Is a Four-letter Word

As I’m listening to Praise and Worship radio on Pandora, I’ve noticed a trend. It seems like what 90% of the songs are doing is re-hashing top songs from 3-5 years ago. In the secular music world, you don’t have 5 artists doing the same song on the radio at the same time, do you? Is the Christian music market becoming so formulaic that all you have to do is cover a few songs, speed them up 15 BPM and add a strong drum track with a backbeat? Does that justify a new recording? Are they really doing anything different? To their credit, there are a few artists who are getting airplay that are playing original songs, not in the “Nashville Standard” sounding format.

It thrills my heart to hear people doing new music for God. As much as I like the standards (and a lot of the “new” standards) it shows much more skill, talent, and calling to produce new worship music that doesn’t fit the Nashville radio formula.

Do yourselves a favor, listen to new groups like Starfield, Mali Music, and a slew of others. They are either 1. playing all new worship music, or 2. playing old and new, but with a very unique style.

After a while, even the “tried and true” worship albums get old. You can only listen to so many remakes of “Revelation Song” or “Open the Eyes of My Heart” or “In Christ Alone” or… you get the idea. Those songs are fantastic in their own rights, but let’s be real. The original artists pretty much gave it everything they had, and you’re not going to top that by trying to recreate that performance. If you’re doing a concert somewhere, I can see playing a few songs that everybody knows. But releasing an album of “classics” from less than 10 years ago? No. You’re not doing the original artists or songs justice. You know, at some point, Michael W. Smith was an unknown songwriter. He didn’t start off with “Place in This World”. Chris Tomlin had to sit down and come up with “Indescribable” on his own.

Heck, there are plenty of long-standing groups that don’t re-hash songs. Guys like Steven Curtis Chapman. Even though he’s from the Nashville area, his music never seems formulaic or stale. He’s always writing new stuff, and to top it off, he’s a phenomenal guitarist in his own right. Israel Houghton writes a lot of new music as well, and does it in a way that’s very fresh. Groups like Salvador, Third Day, the O.C. Supertones, and Audio Adrenaline. They all do worship music (and other thematic music) that’s fresh, well done, and unique. You’re hopefully not going to hear weak re-hashes of “Holiness/Take My Life” on their albums (unless it’s a live album).

It seems to me that almost everybody wants to copy Chris Tomlin, and rightly so. He’s one of the most successful CCM artists in the last 10 years or so, even surpassing greats like Michael W. Smith. His band’s sound and musical style is very close to U2, even down to the delay-drenched guitar riffs over soaring vocal refrains. The problem is, Chris Tomlin has already done Chris Tomlin (and, some would argue, so has U2). His “formula” (and even singing his exact songs) isn’t going to work for every new artist that comes along.

And so, I want to end with two thoughts. First, I don’t want to make it seem like all artists are wrong when the redo a Worship song. Usually it’s not even their choice, most of that is decided by the record label (which is a whole other rant). But secondly, I want to encourage you, the listener (and those of you who play music, too) to not just re-hash your worship experience. God is so vast, so incredibly complex and unknowable, there’s no reason to limit your worship of Him to the latest top 10 CCM hits. He is the ultimate in creativity, and as His creation (and followers), we are called to bring Him glory. Re-hashing music to “make it” in the industry isn’t really doing God, or yourself, any favors.

This applies to writers, too. Don’t feel like you ever have to write in a specific formula/genre to “fit in” to the market. Write what God has laid on your heart, and that’s where you will find Him.