Let's Guess

Let's guess how many rehearsals it will take my P&W team to learn Richard Smallwood's Total Praise before we actually roll it out on a Sunday. Right now we are at 2. 

This song is bananas for the altos and tenors. (Technically speaking I should take the "s" off of alto and tenor since there are only 1 of each. Did I mention we are a small praise team?) 

I'm going to guess it's gonna take us 2 more rehearsals. Stay tuned for the final number...

iLead Escape

So did I tell you that I finally attended Tasha Cobb's live P&W teleconference a couple of weeks ago? Man, it was the truth! William Murphy was the guest leader for the night and he brought an awesome word to us all. Here are some of the things I learned from Pastor Murphy:

• You cannot offer up publicly what you have not offered up personally.
• Every hit song you hear on the radio is not for your P&W team. 
• Every song that speaks to you personally is not necessarily what you should sing to the masses.
• The reason there's so much drama in the music ministry is because that's the same area where Satan began his downfall.
• We've got to speak things into existence. And I don't mean speak them in your head. Say them out loud. Profess and proclaim it to yourself and others.
• As the leader, you cannot allow discord and negative people to disrupt the entire team. Nip things in the bud by speaking to that person privately and telling them that they need to get it together or leave the Praise team.
• Be friendly with your P&W members and the audience/saints.

Seriously, y'all. It's hard to sum up how powerful, enlightening and refreshing this call was. It was truly anointed and you should join me on next months' call.  Every first Monday at 9 Eastern. Conference Call #. 559.726.1200. Follow the call on Twitter: @TheiLeadEscape

Impromptu

This Sunday, my praise team did something very different for us. We sang to a new track without rehearsing. Normally I wouldn't suggest this, but I thought we could handle this song because we've been singing it a Capella for years. It went pretty good, I'd say.

Guess I just got tired singing some of our regular songs and wanted to do something different. We will be having rehearsals soon and I'll keep you posted on how our new tracks go.

Happy Monday, Everyone!

Small team doesn't mean small issues

Sunday before last, I was out of town for work and thought I informed my team of my whereabouts. But that Sunday morning, I got a text from the next in command (NIC), that she had to work too. Now I have to call the other member to make sure she didn't have to work and thank goodness she didn't. When the NIC discovered that I wouldn't be there, she changed her plans and went into work after P&W. Totally appreciated it. Not sure if you can call it the P&W team if there's only one person.

Just because you might have a small P&W team, doesn't mean you have small or few issues. Some of our other issues are that we sing to tracks (no live music), our DJ is sometime-y - which means one of the singers might have to operate the music instead of sing, we can't find a good day to rehearse due to our disparate work schedules and 2 of us don't live close to the church.

The singing part usually is not an issue for us and we don't have typical church drama (e.g., Why can't I sing lead? Who said you were in charge? The mic should be in front of me. Why we gotta wear uniforms? Tony is MY man, find your own. etc.) But we have our issues and are working on them. I just pray that God will continue to help us be the best we can be with what we have. And when the day comes that we have a musician, people drama, and mics that work properly, I'll be back to add commentary and reminisce about how good we had it back in the day (i.e., now).

Know where you are

Yesterday's P&W, in my humble opinion, was pretty good. So why, oh, why did my uncle, one of the ministers at my church, have to get up and say that we were quiet?! We totally were NOT quiet. Then I thought about it, he must've forgotten what church he was attending.

My uncle and the rest of my family grew up in a church whose name I will change to 1st Church of All Day Long Worship Center. 1st Church was a loud, lively, and therefore long-winded church. At any given point, a prayer, song, even the announcements could inspire spontaneous outbursts of praise. That's just how they rolled at 1st Church. Fast forward today, our church is a watering hole for newbies to Christ. There isn't a lot of shouting - mostly a lot of teaching/learning.

So the moral of this story is to know where you are. Is your church full of seniors? Don't expect them to run around the church (or stay awake until the end of service). Do you have lots of kids? Don't expect them to sit still for more than 15 minutes without entertainment. Not saying you can't get seniors to stay awake or kids to sit still, but that's your audience and it is what it is.

We may not be loud at End Times Ministries, but yesterday there was definitely participation. I say that's a win.

I know nothing (except that I named this blog appropriately)

Yesterday for P&W, we were down one praise leader, but I knew this would be the case in advance. When I know someone will be missing, I make sure I sing songs that the audience knows well. So I picked the easy, most popular songs and I'm thinking "Hey, we (the Praise team and audience) sound pretty good today, all things considered!"

After we sing the offering was collected, the announcements were read, remarks were had and then the pastor (my mom) gets ready to introduce the speaker and said we (the entire church) were dead. REALLY?! I thought we were pretty alive yesterday! I could actually hear people singing from all parts of audience. That's a rarity.

And this is why this blog is call "What I think I Know About Worship," because clearly I have no clue what's going on from the audience's perspective!

Changing my focus

I could use this post to complain about the person who ended up being our DJ (we sing to tracks so I need to have someone run audio). Or about how most of the audience, who were kids by the way, did not stand when we ask them to stand during P&W. Or how my dad, who is also on the praise team, never has the tambourine out and must cross me while I'm singing to grab 3 tambourines and proceed to pass them out in the audience. But I'm going to focus on the bright side.

P&W must've been on point yesterday because my one year old baby really seemed to be enjoying it. She smiled and danced the entire time. This is more than I can say for the older lay members. Wait, I forgot I was supposed to be focusing on the positive. One of the visitors said I had a nice voice.

Happy Monday!

Don't worry be happy

This past Sunday I woke up in excruciating pain and ended up at Urgent Care. I texted my praise team to let them know I would not be in church and low and behold I heard that they did a great job. So happy.

As the worship leader, I always get nervous when I'm not there because all but one of my praise team works periodically on Sundays. It's a bit of a crap shoot figuring out who will be there and who won't. Ahhh, the joys of living in the 21 Century. (It's still the 21st century, right?)

I think one of the milestones of a praise team is that they can carry on seamlessly when someone isn't in attendance. Obviously this encompasses a few changes. Someone must act as the leader if the leader is out and the team might have to adjust who is singing a certain part. (e.g., someone who is a soprano might need to sing alto) Someone might have to be in charge of song selection if this wasn't worked out before hand. But most of all, the team must work together to keep the praise experience pleasant and usher in God's presence. When the team can do this, you're making major headway!

What I Know I Know

It's been a minutes since I've posted something so I thought I'd get back to it.

I may not know a whole lot about P&W, but there's one thing I do know. As the P&W leader, you've got to be aware of a few things if you want to ensure a good worship experience for the people.

1. Song Selection
1. What type of event is it? This might dictate what type of music is appropriate.
2. Who's in the audience? If your audience is homogenous you may have less room to sing songs certain songs. E.g., if your audience consists mostly of seniors, you might not want to sing more traditional types of songs and fewer songs with strong, hip-hop-like influences.
3. I find it's always best to start or end with a song almost everyone has heard. 
4. Good flow from one song to another is really important.
2. Audience Participation
1. Is the audience singing loudly? If not, you might want to think twice about having the music break and background singers drop out.
2. Can you see mouths singing the lyrics or other signs of worship like hands raised? If not, the song might not be a winner and you should think about cutting it short. The goal is that people are engaged and that is more important than getting all the way through a song.
3. Encourage people to sing, waive their hands, clap, etc. by instructing them to do so with phrases like "Come on, let's sing it out now!"
3. Technical Aspects
1. It's best if you have a technical team deal with PowerPoints/song books, etc. If not, make sure you're prepared before service begins. If you don't have song books or lyrics on display, it might help to pick songs that are easy to catch on to or don't have a bunch of words. 
2. Use spell-check for your lyrics. I've learned this the hard way. E.g. one of my lyrics has "break the yolk..." it should say "break the yoke." Huge difference! Although I'm sure God can break a yolk too. (Note to self - I need to revise that page right away.)
3. Don't make a big deal out of it if the microphones malfunction. Try to be discreet and continue if possible.
4. Have a Back-Up Plan
1. What do you do if the audience isn't feeling the songs you rehearse? Have a cadre of good old stand-byes. These are songs your praise teams knows well and would have no problem singing in a pinch. Suggestions include your praise team warm up song, your Pastor's favorite song that everyone knows, a classic praise song, or a good congregational song.

So that's what I know for sure. It's funny, the more I read and write, the more it sounds like I may know something.  LOL

Blessings!

Chicago Gospelfest

This past weekend was Gospelfest in Chicago. I haven't been in at least 15 years and wasn't going to go this year, but a friend asked if I was going to go and I just grabbed my sister, who is also on our praise team, and went. Here are some of my thoughts on the experience.

Worship is beautiful - Now you may think, "yes, worship is beautiful. I know this." But when you're looking at hundreds of people worshiping God through song, you get a whole new perspective. I was sitting about midpoint in the audience. Hundreds in front and hundreds in back of me. Very different than being at my church of about 30 people who tend to look at me for entertainment. At Gospelfest, we were all in a park and all you could see were hands raised in the air. Black hands, a few white hands, young people, elderly people, hip-hop looking people, and everything in between. Love, love, love it!

Tracks are better than nothing - I always complain about hot difficult it is to lead P&W w/out a live musician, however Tamela Mann sang her set to a track. If she can do it, I suppose I can too. This subject is something I'm sure I'll revisit on many forthcoming posts.

There are some songs that everybody, I mean ERYBODY knows. You can't go wrong opening up a praise set with This is the Day (the old school version - not Fred Hammond's rendition.) I try to make our first song one that everyone enjoys and that helps set the tone. With that in mind, let me ask you guys - what praise/worship songs are oldies but goodies for you? Comment back and let's start a dialogue.

A bunch of random thoughts

Random thought #1 - Yesterday in Sunday school, we talked about worship and our Pastor stated that the reason some of us can't worship God at church is because we don't lead a life of worship outside of church. I get that. But what about the rest of the people who supposedly do? What's their excuse?

Random thought #2 - I'm starting to think that gaps in the sanctuary contribute to our sometimes lackluster P&W. Most people's churches have far more seats than people. Naturally, people spread out all over the sanctuary and sit in their favorite seat. You've got people on the front row, in the back corners, on the side, and at the back door (in case they need to make a speedy getaway, I guess). People everywhere. I think it might do us better if everyone sat a little closer together and let all of the non-worshippers hang out in the back. Just a thought. Has this crossed anyone else's mind?

Random thought #3 - One thing I try to do as the leader is get people to close their eyes during worship.  P&W is not a show. There's nothing to look at except for singers singing, which technically is what everyone is doing. We don't have dance moves (except for one song), praise dancers, or fancy outfits. Might as well close your eyes and tap into your own praise. I know everyone is not a singer so some people refuse to sing aloud (and please don't - I know God loves it, but the rest of us... not so much) however, we can all lift our hands, clap our hands, focus on the words, and let praise exude out of our hearts in our own way.

Yesterday, I forgot to lead our team in prayer before church. Bad P&W leader! Lord help me. Next Sunday will be better... Hey, thought sounds like a good motto.

Distractions

My weakness as a P&W leader is my lack of leadership skills. I know. That's an oxymoron. I don't ad lib well and it's hard to transition from song to song when you're only singing to accompaniment tracks. So this Sunday, inspired by Tasha Cobbs, I attempted to lead a bit more. Of course when you have a goal in mind, things start to pop up.

First, my DJ was late so I had to delegate that task to someone else. Right before church started, my DJ came. I knot you think - that's great. But it's just a distraction to me.

Then, I couldn't find my offering envelope that I made out. The envelope doubles as the list of songs with the page numbers that I use during P&W. I scrambled to find it to no avail, which left me a little flustered. Distraction #2.

Then about mid-way through P&W my eyes became cloudy. I'd like to say that God was revealing something deep and powerful to me. I think He was telling me to throw out those old, dry contact lenses before they disintegrate into my eyes. Distraction #3.

Finally there was one big distraction that really takes the cake. The deadpan congregation. Was it me or did my attempt to be more leader-y go unnoticed? Did they just tune me out as I said "sing from your heart" and "sing it out now?" Great. Tahsa Cobbs I am not. Maybe it was a little dead because attendance was low. Listen, warm weather is not an excuse to stay home or hang out in the streets instead of going to church.

It seems that when you have a goal in sight, the devil will try to stomp it dead before it takes root. He's only doing his job. My job as the P&W leader is to give it another try next Sunday. Stay tuned.

Worship leaders unite

As I was sitting here listening to this Tasha Cobb cd entitled Grace (def check it out), I decided to go to her website and stumbled upon something worth sharing. She has a conference call the first Monday of each month for worship leaders to "refocus, regroup, and refresh". And it's just like me to discover this the day after it happened. lol I'll be sure to blog about it after the call next month.

Click here for the info.

Praise is the phrase (like bird is the word. lol)

Praise and Worship was the topic of the weekend for me.

All of my Chicago readers might be familiar with Angela Martin from the John Hannah and Angela Martin morning show on 1390 am. She has a women's prayer the first Saturday of each month that is absolutely to die for... Ok, don't die for it, but it's really an awesome meeting. She offered a few words that I appreciated as a P&W leader. (The quotes are not verbatim.)

"I love praise and worship, but that's not my ministry!" 
Girl, I feel you! Maybe I shouldn't share that sentiment since I am the leader, but I know what she means. She went on to say she feels our pain when we are trying to get people into the spirit of praise and they are texting, looking at us with straight faces, etc. Who hasn't experienced that?

"When we get to heaven, there won't be any P&W leaders, so you better practice now!" 
I heard that! 

"I would hate for some of y'all to get to heaven, see Jesus face to face and not know what to do."
Based on how some of us act during P&W, this would be sad, but not unfathomable. That's why we need to learn how to offer thanks and praise on our own. 

Even my uncle, who thinks he should sing at all times, but sounds like the horn on an old tug boat, had something to say about P&W.

"I have a problem with people who don't like praise and worship. Don't you know that's all we're gonna be doing in heaven?!" 
Preach, preacher! (insert shouting music here)

So there you have it, "praise" was the phrase this weekend. I guess one word can't be a phrase, but it's catchy so take it and run.

The Blame Game

Praise and Worship this Sunday was ok. With no major snafus, we had average participation with a few people who really appeared to be getting into it.

At the very least, we prayed as a team before service began. This was actually one of the suggestions from my members who did not make it in time for P&W. I'm sure you're wondering why we hadn't been doing it already. I'll blame that on Sunday School.

If SS lets out on time, we'd have 15 minutes between then and Sunday Morning Worship. That's not a lot of time to use the restroom, have a snack, pray, and get back into the sanctuary - even for a church as small as ours. One of my members also helps set-up and breakdown the refreshments. I'm sure you're wondering why someone who is on the Praise Team is also on refreshments. I'll blame that on our church being small.

If we had more members I'd ask that Praise Team members would not be on breakdown of the morning refreshments. But since we don't have more members, I can't exactly do that. I'm sure you're wondering why we don't have more members. I'll blame that on... well, all of us, since sheep beget sheep.

Let me clarify and say that we have people who attend, but most of them are babes in Christ. I'm happy for the lay members and regulars that we have. I remember the days when it was just my immediate family...

This Sunday, we announced that we would start having P&W rehearsal after service beginning in June. So, next month, I should have plenty of updates. Let's just hope that when we do have rehearsal, we all stay focused, pick up the songs well, and that nobody runs out the door when they see their grandchild came to visit, like my mother-in-law did when she was practicing with her praise team. Sorry Tanya, you were out of order! I guess we can blame that on Zoe.

The set-up

It's very rare that I meander around on the internet - mostly because I lose interest before I can get to anything good. However, today I found out that there's a whole convention especially for Worship Leaders. My mind was blown. What's more is that this convention takes place in 3 different cities across the U.S.

Now perhaps you think I should've assumed that there was something like this out there, but honestly, it never even crossed my mind. A little more searching and I found there's even a Worship magazine. Who knew?! Apparently not me.

Based on my experience, I know little about leading a Praise&Worship (P&W) team. I was thrown into the position by my pastor (who's also my mom) when the previous leaders (first my aunt and then my sister) went away for various reasons (marriage and school, respectively.) Since I was recently back home from school myself I was forced into landed the job. Thanks, mom! (In my sarcastic voice.) I've been doing it a few years now.

Our church is small and urban. Most of the people who attend aren't "church" people like most church-goer are. They weren't always in church all of their lives. They're people transitioning from street life to Christianity, so it's very different. As an all-my-life church goer myself, trust me when I say the vibe at my church is not traditional. That said, most of the audience grew familiar with the songs we sing for P&W from hearing our praise team sing them - not because they'd heard them before. In general, audience participation ranges from people giving us the side-eye to people singing in a drunken (and I do mean literally drunk from alcohol consumption) stupor. Which led me to start this blog.

You can expect updates on how Sunday's Praise and Worship portion of the service goes, updates on our rehearsals and how new songs go over, my Praise Team's dynamics, and what I've learned in general. I'm going to guess that 90% of this will be very funny. Hopefully it'll show that we're all in this together. (And by "we" I'm speaking in the future sense of the word because no one is following this blog right now.)

Welcome!