Out with a bang

Looks like the End Times Ministries praise team is ending the year on a good note. Sunday we had another rehearsal and are ready to re-introduce a song back into our P&W rotation. We also have our next rehearsal scheduled - the first one for 2015. I couldn't be happier. Well, I could, but baby steps.

Cheers!

How Can It Be - Lauren Daigle

I just found out about this artist a few months ago as a result to listening to K-Love 94.3fm Chicago - big shout out to them! I love, love, love her voice. She's like the Adele of Christian music. So much soul. Her sound is raw yet beautiful and the words of this song are perfect. Everything about this song is perfect. Somebody should buy me her CD for Christmas. (And yes, I still prefer a CD because I spend most of my time in the car and don't like fidgeting with my phone when I'm driving. And because I'm old school like that. :) Enjoy!

Lauren Daigle - Light Of The World (Lyric Video)

Just in time for Christmas... I heard this for the first time yesterday and really like it. Enjoy!

Getting my life in 2015

As the year comes to an end, I like to reflect on how the year went for me. In short, 2014 was not hot!

This year I felt like an old, young church lady. (Huge oxymoron, but I know you feel me on this.) Even though I'm the head worship leader, I also serve as the lead for children's church. Besides the activities we do in our church, I also report to our district and participate in the district activities. This year, I believe we had 2 district youth fellowship days and an over night youth retreat. I attended them all. Now maybe it's just me, but I feel like my entire life centers around church and I don't mean this in a good way. Church activities cannot be my entire life. It shouldn't be my source of "entertainment" or what I do for fun. (At least it's not what I want to do for fun even if it is fun sometimes.) Does this make sense?

I've decided that I am going to find some real hobbies in 2015; hobbies that have nothing to do with church. I'm leaning toward cooking classes, tap dancing lessons (which I've done before), bowling lessons, or singing lessons. I'm interested in learning jazz. Maybe I'll even start back working out. Hence, I already informed the district youth leader that I'm out in 2015.

I've also decided that for 2015, my sole church priority will be, wait for it, being a better P&W leader. I am personally tired of my mom (aka the pastor) pestering nagging encouraging me/us to step it up. So I'm thinking we should take her request seriously and step it up. Hence, my aforementioned goal of adding 12 songs to our repertoire. I'm happy to say we're on our way.


Part of my boring life has to do with having a 2-year-old and no real babysitter. That's gonna change next year. "Momma gotta have a life too!" (In my Baby Boy voice.)

When we get to the end of 2015, I hope to be able to say that the praise team is in much better shape because I made it a priority. And I hope that I'll be leading a more balanced life by carving out time for the things I enjoy and not over-committing to church activities. I am only thirty-ish after all!

Blessings

Martha Munizzi - Come Holy Spirit - LIVE (@marthamunizzi)

I love this simple worship song. Enjoy!

1 down, 11 to go

Praise be to God, we finally sang a new song for P&W this Sunday!

We are now on our way to introducing 12 new/archived songs back into our Sunday song list.

My top 14

I love to make lists at the end of the year.

Here are my 14 favorite P&W songs. (I know as soon as I press the publish button, I'll want to change some of these.)

14. Every Praise - Hezekiah Walker

13. Holiness Take My Life - Micah Stampley

12. It Is To You - Byron Cage

11. As the Deer

10. Give Me a Clean Heart - Fred Hammond

9.  Lift Him Up - Walt Whitman and the Soul Children of Chicago

8.  Smile - Tasha Cobbs

7.  Great and Mighty - Byron Cage

6.  Rain On Us - Earnest Pugh

5. Agnus Dei (Hallelujah For the Lord God Almighty Reigns) - Michael Smith

4.  Free - Kierra Sheard

3.  To Worship You I Live - Israel

2.  Lord I Love You - Youthful Praise feat. JJ Hairston

1.  I Love You Lord and I Lift My Voice

 

What I'm thankful for

It's a miracle: we had 2 rehearsals over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend! Everyone was on time. Everyone was on one accord.

We rehearsed 3 of our "archived" songs. 1 of which we'll sing for the first time this Sunday. (Total Praise by Richard Smallwood). I Won't Go Back by William McDowell will need one more rehearsal to make sure we've memorized verse 2. The third song (Hosannah by Kirk Franklin) needs about 2 more rehearsals and a small miracle.

One of the things I'm learning is that we need to just do what works for us. There are some places where 3 part harmony exactly like the original artists is too difficult for us. I'm learning to accept it and just keep going. No need to ditch the entire song because we couldn't get one or 2 lines just right.

Well boys and girls, I'm simply elated that we're on the right track. In the words of my mom when she was younger "Hallelujah pound the glory" (what she was singing instead of the real words hallelujah thine the glory). Or in the words of India Arie, there's hope!

Blessings

P.S. - Where is India Arie?

Recap of tonight's iLead escape with Pastor William Murphy

I am too pumped up that I remembered the iLead escape frontliners call 2 months in a row!

Tonight, Pastor William Murphy was the guest speaker and dropped so much knowledge it was crazy. Here's a recap of what was discussed in case you missed it.

P.S. - Pastor Tasha, you really need to record these calls so people can listen after the initial run. Please and thank you! :)

Acts 3:19

• God is sending a refreshing! (Glorayyyy! - my words, not his.)
• God wants us to update or refresh our old "pages." He wants to do something new, but we need to be open to the new and not continue in the old thing that he established for a previous time or season.
• I have the grace on me to create a tangible, living, abiding presence of God. (#putapraiseonit right there! - my words again.)

Exodus 25:10-22 (the meat of the call)
If you're going to create a tangible, living, abiding presence of God...

• you must be pure inside and out (v. 11)
• this doesn't mean sinless, but rather your spirit has to be pure
• everyone in leadership has great struggles or challenges, but that doesn't mean your spirit subcumbs to every sin.
• you cannot be one-sided (v. 12)
• your worship has to be well rounded, multicultural - not just gospel, not just top 40
• you cannot get in front of God (v.14)
• you going to have to carry it (v. 14)
• Don't be lazy! You have to invest time. (spend time researching new songs, artists, etc.)
• It's going to be inconvenient, it will challenge you.
• you have to be tested because you have to have a real testimony (v. 16)
• you need a personal experience
• you're going to have to be shaped by God (v.18)
• shaped meaning hammered or beaten by God to form you
• you have to guard your ministry relationship (v.19)
• you cannot separate the worshipers from the mercy seat
• you have to be able to face one another
• you have to make the mercy seat a priority (v.21)
• being "right" or "wrong" isn't what's most important
• the visuals or the uniforms are not what's most important
• you have to have God's mind (v.22)

OMGoodness y'all this really encouraged me tonight! Even the Q&A was good!

The points that resonated with me were about having a multicultural sound, investing time to better our P&W, and having a personal testimony. More posts about the latter to come.

I'm truly looking forward to the iLead escape in 2015!

Blessings

Hope for harvest

If you're in Charlotte or the surrounding area, Hope for Harvest should be a good concert for a great cause. All they had to say was VaShawn Mitchell and Anita Wilson for my interest to pique. Others on the lineup include Mali Music, Travis Green Joshua Rogers, and a special, surprise guest. Enjoy!

No excuses

Not to be Debbie Downer, but I'm kind of bummed that we will not be singing any new P&W songs for Thanksgiving! I had it all worked out in my head that we'd have had 2 rehearsals by now and would be on our way to learning those 12 new songs I hoped to add to our arsenal. Wouldn't you know it, but we haven't had 1 rehearsal nor can we agree to a date.

Well, I better tell my team to get it all out now because we're coming up in 2015. No more excuses. Not even a good excuse. None of us work 24/7 so we're going to have to determine a time where we can rehearse.

We're going to learn some new songs! We're going to be on one accord! We're going to be the bomb.com! In Jesus name!
 

The thrill is gone

Remember when I posted that I was so excited to get going on the right track with my P&W team even though it wasn't the new year. Yeahhhhh, about that...

After making 2 attempts to set 2 different dates for rehearsal, my enthusiasm is waning. Everyone is picking up extra or longer hours for work and I can't seem to find a day or time that accommodates our small group. I was hoping we could do something new for Thanksgiving, but that's out.

Perhaps 2015 will be our year.

 

P.S. I'm sticking to my guns; I'm not buy any new tracks until we sing what we already have in our arsenal. Maybe the boredom of the same songs will jump start things.

P.P.S. I can use the above image because I'm from Chicago. Go White Sox! :)

Glorious Unfolding -- Steven Curtis Chapman (Official Music Video)

I wouldn't sing this for P&W, but I'm totally loving this song and thought I'd share.

Shake it off

Last weekend, I was out of state attending a friend's baby shower and thus missed church. I'm gonna keep it 100 and say that the reprieve was totally welcomed. I didn't open my emails and only checked social media at the end of the day. I dared someone to call me wanting anything this weekend. I said to myself, in the words of my father, "Don't callllll my name!" He would always say this if we asked him to do too many things. When I was young, I thought my dad never got tired.

As a mother, wife, professional, youth leader, and the head P&W leader, I now understand what my dad a bit better. I get tired. A lot! Often I don't even know I'm tired until it's time to do something and I'm aggravated by the task. I bet many of you are in the same predicament. You work, sit on other auxiliaries, have social lives, have families to tend to, mentor kids, blog, are in school, participate in extracurricular activities, cook, exercise, attend Bible class, etc. And I bet that many of us have asked God to help us get it all done. Well, not that God needs my help, but I think I will offer it anyway. Something is getting the axe! I don't want to be spread thin. I don't want to loathe the things that I volunteered to do. I don't want to be a piss poor leader. I want to be intentional, fresh, and in a good mood as much as possible.

A weekend away can help us to reset and realize just how much we've been running around. We must recognize we have limits and if we are to be good P&W leaders, we must shed some of the things that are distracting us from doing so. So in the words of Mariah Carrie and more recently Taylor Swift "Shake it off!"

VaShawn Mitchell - Lost

I know I'm probably late to the party, but I just heard this for the first time a few days ago and I absolutely love it. Enjoy!

Just like music... (in my Marvin Gaye voice)

Music is one of those things that has the ability to almost instantly change your mood. Today I experienced this first hand.

My grandmom has been in and out of the hospital for several weeks now and it's been emotionally draining. Today, in spite of this, I wanted to be uplifted and to offer up praises by playing something encouraging and inspirational. Enter my Tasha Cobbs channel on Pandora. Wouldn't you know it - 3 of my favorite songs du jour came on back to back to back and I instantly felt better.

Like music does in general, praise and worship has the ability to transcend a listener beyond his or her current emotions. This experience should not be limited to the praise and worship portion of a church service. Whether it be in the car, playing ambiently in the background at work, or while running the track, we should find ourselves constantly offering up the fruit of our lips. In doing so, I believe that not only will this bless us, but blesses God as well.

Happy Singing!

P.S. You know I couldn't name this post Just Like Music without linking you to Erick Sermon's dope track! It's not gospel, but it's great music. Hip hop at its finest. Enjoy!

Why wait 'til next year?

A few posts ago I mentioned how I wanted to get back on track with our praise team, so last Sunday we had a quick meeting.

I thought eyes would bulge and minds would be blown when I informed them that I wanted us to learn and put 12 new/revisited songs into rotation beginning next month. I even thought I might get some push-back when I mentioned we were going to start with the tracks we already had, but don't sing. Luckily no one looked at me like I was crazy and everyone seemed eager to start. Look at God!

It's easy to get to October and think "I'll make this a goal for next year," but I'm not going to give the devil any more time to mess up our plans with the spirit of procrastination. With whomever we have and whatever we have we're going to get started. I even started listening to K-Love 94.3 fm to hear the latest and greatest in contemporary Christian music. Time to put this plan into motion!

Blessings & Encouragement!

Get it right!

Dear Church Folk,

I'm tired of us getting the words to common church songs wrong.

Please note: the correct lyrics are "there's not a friend like the LOWLY Jesus" not "lonely." How can Jesus be lonely if he sits with God the Father?

Please also note that the correct lyrics are "eyes HAVEN'T seen, ears HAVEN'T heard what's recorded in God's word..." not "have have seen, ears have heard..." May I point you to 1 Corinth. 3:9.

That is all for now.

:)

The sound

You know, I'm always amazed when I remember to dial into the iLead Escape Frontliners call. As a full time working mom and wife, my schedule is crazy busy sometimes. Last night Tasha Cobbs's guest led us in prayer.

The call really struck a cord with me for 2 reasons. First, I have become more intentional in praying over the last year or so. I am definitely praying more frequently through out the day and am drawn to various prayer outlets. Have you ever seen so many prayer conference calls and services?! We surely need it as the body of Christ! Second, one of the things she prayed for was that us worship leaders would usher in the sound from heaven. Since I am personally in a season of creating and writing, this was a good prayer for me.

I have been a musical person probably all of my life. I remember playing the tonette (yes, reading music). I unsuccessfully took up piano. (My brothers stole all of the piano genes.) I played the flute and piccolo from fourth grade into college. I love musicals and enjoy attending live opera. I hum and whistle a lot. I'm singing to myself even when the radio is on. But how do you turn this into what we should be doing in P&W?

It seems that the tunes I'm creating are coming to me so fast. (Not a bad problem to have, but it can definitely be distracting.) In creating new music, I feel like there IS a sound from heaven and I know when I've got it right. Parts of the song click right away and when I try to get fancy and all musically interesting I seem to be drifting from the pull of the song. I think the sound of heaven is not a particular genre or trying to create the next "big song." It's the anointing, it's the lyrics, it's the sounds that will lead people into worship or praise. It doesn't matter if the song is a chart topper or a home-brew. It's the heart beat of the song that shifts us closer to God's presence.

Tasha definitely has the sound of heaven, but God is no respector of person. I am trusting and believing that as I continue to pray and create, that my sound will have a similar effect.

Blessings

A new level

All of a sudden out of nowhere, I have written 7.5 songs in 4 days! And these don't sound like your home-made songs with janky lyrics. These are songs with radio-bility. (Yes, I totally made that up.) This is amazing!

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do next. My brother (a professional musician) says that I need to join ASCAP or BMI to get my songs copy-written and become a legit songwriter/publisher. As things progress, I'll blog about my choices and what I learn. I'm sure this will be a whole other level of experiences. Stay tuned.

P.S. I'm taking any and all advice so feel free to comment or email me with your tips and suggestions.

Blessings!

Stepping it up

Boy oh boy, I just realized I'm a huge slacker! Maybe it's because my P&W team is kind of on the rocks right now that I have become lackadaisical in my leading. (Bad leader!) But no excuses... We need to increase the number of songs in our repertoire.

I was reading a blog that said most congregations can successfully learn 20-25 songs a year. 20-25 songs!!! That's like 15 more than we introduce. This is something that I really struggle with. Now, I'm not saying I think our congregation can introduce 25 new songs a year, but we can definitely do better.

One of the challenges is that right now, our team of 3 (we lost one member to an out-of-state job) is more like a team of 1.5 (my father is hit or miss due to his deacon duties). Therefore, it's hard to lead and sing the background vocals for a new song. Actually, it's hard to sing lead and background on old songs, but I digress. Second, maybe it's me, but where are all the good, easy, and upbeat P&W songs?! I need more call & response or songs with a solid chorus. I will be checking out song lists to look for more ideas. Third, we have not established a good routine for rehearsal. We need a regularly designated time and we need to stick to it. Again, this is my fault for not staying on top of it. Fourth, we are limited to singing to accompaniment tracks. There are a ton of songs I'd like to sing where no track is available. That said, we are sitting on about 10+ older tracks, that we do not sing. 

So here's my strategy: 1.) I will establish a consistent rehearsal date and will hold to it regardless of how few members we have. 2.)We will start to rehearse and reintroduce the tracks we already have. 3.) I will make a goal of the number of new songs to introduce for next year and will work toward that goal. 4.) I will be more diligent about purchasing new tracks. Give me a few months and I'll report back on how the strategy is going.

Here's to continuous improvement!

Blessings

The great divide

A friend of mine told me me I should do more research about the P&W circuit just for my own personal development as I blog. It was a great suggestion.

What I found is that there is a lot on the Web about the definition of praise and worship and the distinction between the two. There are some P&W blogs out there, but they seemed to be buried or often exist as part of a larger source of information, like a church's Web site. There's a magazine called Worship Leader. I'd heard of it before, but it seems to be the only one of its kind. (I plan to subscribe so stay tuned for future reviews.) Finally, the biggest discovery that I made, and it does not surprise me, is that everything that I saw seems to pin P&W to contemporary Christian music, which by far featured white artists almost exclusively. This wasn't just a U.S. thing, but European as well.

I'm not going to go into the white vs. non-white, Christian vs. Gospel spiel, but I will say this: similar to how I tend to listen to mostly gospel artists, with the exception of the Christian worship songs that cross over, I postulate that white people tend to listen to mostly Christian worship artists, with the exception of the gospel songs that cross over. And I would guess Latinos do the same. I get it. Everyone's got preferences in their musical tastes.

Notwithstanding, I would love to see more diversity represented on public venues and I'm not just talking about race or genre of music. What about the perspective of P&W at a small church like mine, at rural churches, at churches that are very traditional, at liberal churches? What are they singing at each of these places? What are the musical influences found in their P&W? What are the things they love or the challenges experienced in ministry? What's it like writing a worship song and introducing it to a congregation?

Thanks to my friend, I will be looking into the contemporary Christian worship genre more carefully. I bet there are tons of Christian worship artists who I'd love if I were exposed to them.

I believe part of being good at your job is to see what others are doing. If I want to be a good P&W leader, I'm going to have to keep up with what's going on in the industry and expand my horizon. Perhaps we all should do the same.

Blessings

8 good things about having a small P&W team

Rather than use this entry to talk about the same ole experience (me + my dad = P&W team, yet again) I've decided to devote today's post to pointing out the good things about having a small team at a small church.

1. There's usually no discord with so few people.
2. It's easy to find uniforms.
3. It's easy to tell who doesn't know their part.
4. We don't have a big crowd where someone might be inclined to record a "fail" and post it on FB.
5. It's almost like singing at home, except with a microphone, in a slightly larger room, with slightly more people.
6. We don't have to hold auditions and reject people.
7. Nothing has to be fancy - no lighting or elaborate sound checks.
8. The team members let me know in advance if they will not be in attendance. (Man I do not miss singing in a choir where people just don't show and then you can't sing said song because said soloist decided to be a no-show and then you have to try to scramble for a new song list. But I digress...)

I  usually don't quote a lot of scriptures, but I believe it was Paul who talked about learning to be content regardless of the circumstances of a situation. (See, I still didn't quote the scripture!) Or like the songwriter said "whatever my lot thou has taught me to say it is well it is well with my soul." Or like the unofficial black church national anthem proclaims, "I won't complain."

So there you have it. I'm a glass half full type of gal. In all seriousness, I look forward to the day when our congregation is large, the church is fancy, and we have an 8-person P&W team and live band. I bet I'll think back to days like today and say "those were the days!" (In my Edith Bunker voice.)

Blessings