Helpful[?] tips for worship leaders

The worship leaders I know are a very mixed lot – varying in their strengths, weaknesses, preferences, influences and so forth. They’re as unique and diverse as the churches they serve. One thing that binds them unilaterally is that they face many challenges when it comes to writing their own stuff. For some of them, the problem is their own mentality – the laundry list of excuses which they believe exonerates them from the guilt they should feel for making their church sing a Chris Tomlin song for the eighteen thousandth time. Other leaders are willing to write but feel limited in the creative process.

Here are a few of the dilemmas that I, or people I know, have faced, and some advice on how to get over the hump.

Seven hang-ups to worship songwriting:

1. The overwhelming feeling of making statements about God. If you ever want to get a sense of God’s grandeur and ineffable complexity, try to write an entire song about Him! Not only will your words feel like such a shortcoming, but even your chords and melody will seem to not do justice to who God is and what He’s like. The solution? Admit it – your words do fall short of grasping and capturing a wild God. You can wallow in the inadequacy of your words or you can suck it up and create anyway. Your lyrics don’t need to be exhaustive treatises. Each song should be focused on providing lively imagery to a specific concept.

2. Other songs are already out there. Yes, it’s true – five or ten “worship celebrities” keep pumping the jams. Some of their stuff is useful, and there is some value in using a “stock” worship song now and then – it connects you to the modern global Church (or at least the Western Church) just like older hymns connect you to the historic Church. But keep this in mind: those commercial worship leaders do not know your particular church; you do. You’re the one who’s in place to pastor and shepherd your community through music and the arts. Study your church – where it is and where it’s going – and write out of your particular church’s experience and expression. If nothing else, it’s an extra excuse to grab coffee with the people in your church and hear about their stories.

3. Writing verses can be a pain. It’s true that for almost any musical genre the chorus is the easiest part of the song to write. Even bad musicians write decent choruses. But when it comes to creating a verse, the melody often gets super forced or contrived, the lyrics lack theme and flow, and chord selection is completely bland. If you can, start by writing the verse of your song. Or, if you have a chorus in place, make at least three or four different verse possibilities before you begin to really edit the song – before you start considering it solidified to any extent.

4. You’re in love with a particular strumming pattern. You want to know why everything you write sounds the same? It could be that your strumming pattern is one irrevocable stream of dull rhythm. How do you flee from the boredom? Try doing your chord changes at less-than-obvious places – you might start to hear new ideas.

I’ve learned that if I’m working on a song for worship, listening to the typical commercial worship songs is the absolute worst thing I can do. Instead I search through my music and find bands whose musical integrity I respect and whose stuff is also quite “singalongable,” because that accessibility is so key to what I’m making. Basically, just ease toward the poppy end of whatever music you respect.

5. You ran out of “biblical” language. Good. I was hoping you’d stop cramming words like “righteousness” and “omnipotent” into your songs anyway. David thought for himself. Paul thought for himself. You can too. You’re free to take ancient concepts and put them into language that makes sense to people today. You’re writing with your church in mind, so write with language that has a fighting chance of conjuring exciting thoughts of God in the minds and hearts of your church community. Don’t equate outdated language with reverence.

6. You wrote a song last year and it still works okay. Really? You’re that lazy? This connects to the previous point in that language changes. Phrases grow tired. Metaphor is limited – one is never enough. If Charles Wesley can write thousands of hymns (his goal was one a day) and Sufjan Stevens can write entire albums about individual states, I think you can muster up a song each month at the very least. Remember how God is so huge that it can be intimidating to write about Him? Yeah, that also means He’s immense. So you’ve got a lot to work with. Plus, the more you write, the easier it becomes.

7. The songs are finished, but they don’t seem like irreplaceable timeless capsules of majesty. What were you expecting? Most songs aren’t timeless. My iTunes is filled with songs I was excited about for a few months; I go back to them here and there after the honeymoon period, but their role in my song library changes dramatically after a couple months (there are rare exceptions, but this applies to at least 97% of songs I own).

Why would worship be different? Words about God are still words about God. Not only do you need to keep creating for language’s sake, but you need to do this for your own sake (you’re a musician, after all) and for the sake of your church. Your church is different than it was eight months ago, and it’ll be different again in another eight months. If your songs are going to tell their story, you’ll need to be narrating their evolution each step of the way.

Titans tower and Jets take off: my Week Seven predictions

I’m coming off a decent week of predictions. Arizona did – as I predicted – knock off the Cowboys. I also picked the Falcons to get by the Bears in a tight one.

There were a couple of moral victories as well. I said that the Giants-Browns game would be close; it wasn’t, but that’s because Cleveland pulled a dramatic upset of the then-undefeated defending Super Bowl champs. San Francisco was my pick to upset Philly, and while they didn’t get the job done, they gave the Eagles a better game than most were expecting.

Of course I also had some really poor picks (Carolina beating Tampa Bay would be one), but I’m not going to call a ton of attention to that.

Week Seven presents its own challenges. Jay Cutler and the Broncos are playing in Foxboro for the Monday Night Football game, while Peyton and his boys are in Lambeau to challenge a Green Bay team that has been consistent in their inconsistency. Toss in a couple of games with horrific blowout potential, and Week Seven gives us plenty to look out for.

San Diego at Buffalo  The Bills are coming off the bye week, while the Chargers probably over-invested themselves into an emotional win against rival New England on national television. So long as Trent Edwards is fully recovered from his concussion, he has every chance to pass for 250 yards and a score or two against San Diego’s overrated secondary. Bills 23, Chargers 20

Pittsburgh at Cincinnati   Willie Parker’s comeback now looks to be further off than originally anticipated. It won’t matter in this game, as the Stillers’ receiving corps is in for a stat-padding extravaganza. Steelers 34, Bengals 16

Minnesota at Chicago   In a game that is frustrating for fantasy football owners of Adrian Peterson and Matt Forte, both teams will be forced to use their passing games, neither of which is outstanding. Ex-Bear Bernard Berrian makes a few key plays in the second half of this one. Vikings 24, Bears 20

Tennessee at Kansas City   It’s Chris Johnson gone wild at Arrowhead on Sunday. A blowout to end all blowouts. Titans 39, Chiefs 10

Dallas at St. Louis   There’s a lot going wrong in Big-D these days. But expect Roy Williams to make a stellar first game day impression, and for freshly demoted Cowboys receivers (Patrick Crayton, Miles Austin) to play with a chip on their shoulders. Marion Barber III builds his case for the Pro Bowl with 130 yards and two scores. Cowboys 31, Rams 17

Baltimore at Miami   Last December, Baltimore supplied Miami with its only win of the season. The much-improved Dolphins are playing tough against the run. Joe Flacco is in for a very tough day. Will the Fins even bother with the Wildcat formation this week, or will they save it for a real game? The guess here is that they’re saving the best wrinkles for their AFC East games. Dolphins 27, Ravens 10

San Francisco at New York Giants   The Niners are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Forget the fact that they’re making the cross-country trip to play in the awkward fall winds of Giants Stadium. They’re coming up against a team that is out to prove that they are who we said they are. Giants 29, 49ers 16

New Orleans at Carolina   This is a rough matchup for the Saints, who are definitely the strongest last-place team in the NFL. Still it’s tough to pick against Drew Brees. It’s his world. NFL defenses are just living in it. Saints 35, Panthers 24

Indianapolis at Green Bay   An interesting battle between two teams that are very much in their respective divisional races but are a bit banged up (Joe Addai for Indy and Aaron Rodgers for the Pack). Regardless of who wins, this one is going into the waning minutes of a scintillating fourth quarter. Packers 23, Colts 20

New York Jets at Oakland   There’s no one left to blame, Al Davis. Brett Favre is going to toy with the Oakland defense. He’ll just throw touchdowns, baby. Jets 42, Raiders 9

Cleveland at Washington   Last year’s surprise team takes on the shocker of ‘08. Cleveland gained quite a bit of momentum off the win against the Giants. Do not underestimate what a healthy Donte Stallworth does for Braylon Edwards in terms of compromising the safeties and creating space downfield. Browns 24, Redskins 21

Detroit at Houston   Remember a couple weeks ago, when Lions coach Rod Marinelli tooted his horn about he’s a strongman and he’d never step down from his post and quit on his team. Here’s a newsflash, coach: when you sign off on a trade that dispatches one of your only offensive weapons, and then place your not-so-injured quarterback on Injured Reserve (essentially ending his season), you are giving up on your team. And continuing to collect paychecks for the mailed-in effort isn’t all that courageous. Texans 31, Lions 6

Seattle at Tampa Bay   What a waste of a national television time slot. Buccaneers 20, Seahawks 16

Denver at New England   Expect the Pats to put their best foot forward on defense against Jay Cutler. Expect that to fail. With Cutler’s passing attack balanced by a strong dose of Michael Pittman, the Patriots are going to learn what a losing streak feels like. Suddenly the Bills are two games up in the AFC East. Broncos 27, Patriots 17

Reflections on faith and gender

Yesterday I promised to post some of my thoughts pertaining to the Faith and Gender learning conference that Quest Church hosted last weekend. Julie and I had a good time there, hearing from guest Lauren Winner as well as Eugene Cho, who moderated the Q&A portions of the conference. Props to Quest Church for taking an interesting topic like gender and putting it into a format that was both academic and participatory – and for keeping the costs down (only $15 bucks, less for students). On top of all that, Quest is seven blocks from our house, so it was a really convenient weekend for us.

 

Gender and Trinity

Winner’s Friday night talk honed in on what we can learn about an egalitarian community by studying the Trinity. She lamented that the Reformation resulted in a dumbing down (at a church level) of what had been robust Trinitarian theology in church before then, but was relieved to see a resurgence in Trinitarian interest (she noted Karl Barth as an example). (I think the reason why people shy away from talking about the Trinity is because if they demonstrate any flexibility in understanding – be it an Eastern Orthodox view or Paul Young’s view – “orthodox” Christians can blacklist that person by labeling them with any one of their 947 Trinity-related “heresies.” People are very dogmatic about their post-cannonical Trinitarian theology.)

 

By looking at God as community, we deduce some things that are true of us, man and woman, Imago Dei, Winner explained. She pointed to the late Stanley Grenz as a theologian who really invested in this connection between the Trinity and the Imago Dei. Her encouragement was for church communities to practice mutualism as the Trinity is mutualism perfected.

 

The capitalist church

We’ve taken the rules and rhythms of capitalism and applied them to the church, Winner said. We’ve Christianized a secular story when we think of men as “breadwinners,” those who go out to work at the proverbial factory to bring home the bacon, while women are told to be “domestic” and get their Martha Stewart on at home.

 

Before the Industrial Revolution, it was common for husband and wife to both work at home, partnering for some form of business and productive labor (much of which was agricultural). That’s not to say that there weren’t some tasks that were most often handled by the man or by the woman, but both partners were domestic and both partners were earners. Hence partners – in all things. The impact of capitalism changed all of that, and both genders were worse off for it. Women now dealt with a sense of confinement, feeling validated only through perceived success as a “homemaker” while men were confronted with the need to perform all of the family’s earning, validated when their work life was in order – through their career’s income and prestige. Both husband and wife were faced with lengthy separation for most of the week.

 

It’s not difficult to see how the Industrial Revolution has shaped family life today. Whereas economic class standing was once the result of the entire family’s line of work, this distinction is now often associated with the husband alone. It’s all about how many hours a husband can work, how many corners he can cut, how much conniving he can do, in order to not shame the family name into a less than desirable economic status. 

 

A man is no longer measured on his abilities as a husband or father. The only time a man is judged on those familial relationships, it’s related to what he “provides” for them, which has come to always connote financial provision. How can we be shocked to live in a world of money-making dead-beat dads? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how this dynamic contributes to everything from extra-marital affairs to abortion to AIDS to single-parent families.

 

It’s no wonder why this capitalist framing story leaves both men and women feeling helpless, confined, and restricted. Today’s church needs to right injustice in this area. Part of bringing about justice will require rebuking those well-known Christian leaders who knowingly and purposely perpetuate a capitalist framing story over and against the story of Christ’s resurrection. As arrogant as they might be, if they truly understood how their message of men as factory slaves and women as subordinates only goes to support so much brokenness in the world, I believe they would respond to correction and turn from their ways.

 

Good quote

In looking at what we should read into Jesus being a man, Winner said (this is a paraphrase, but it’s close if not perfect), “Let’s sit with the fact that Jesus was Jewish for about one hundred years before we sit with the fact that Jesus was male.” I applauded in my head. 

 

I also think that one reason for Jesus being male is the connection to Adam. Paul goes to great lengths to establish Christ as Second Adam. Jesus was reversing the curse (think: Boston Red Sox, or not) set forth by a man (to say that Adam was created first is no threat to mutualism – anything but). 

 

Some additional thoughts of mine

The conference really got the wheels turning for me. It wasn’t so much that anything said at the conference changed my views about gender and faith, but it did stir some thoughts from the back of my mind toward the front.

 

As someone who is very, very much in favor of women being granted access to all that is good and bad about ministry leadership, I don’t necessarily envision a Church where fifty percent of leaders and men and the other fifty percent are women. Being egalitarian does not mean I vouch for genderlessness. I am comfortable with the notion that God might lead more men into vocational ministry and might direct more women than men to be the parent who is home most often (not saying that’s the case – just saying I’m cool with it). 

 

We live in a funny culture that thinks of control in two sharp categories – the first being full-out control by one party, the other being 50/50, “halfsies,” a direct down-the-middle split. Both are mechanisms of control and regulation. There’s nothing flexible about either one; both mentalities can be guilty of exalting the importance of control over the people themselves. To me, an egalitarian church might mean that 79.88% of pastors are men. (I’m not going to be making many friends with this one, am I? Losing extremists on both sides.)

 

I’ve met some women in recent years (I’m married to one of them), who either are currently in, or are interested in, vocational ministry and are completely cut-out for it. I’ve met other women who are considering church leadership, and I wouldn’t sit under their leadership if they were men, women, or kangaroos. (This is a point that Winner and Cho touched on at the conference.) For this reason, I’m not a fan of organized initiatives to place women in ministry. My fear is that they’ll become a church-related gender-based version of Affirmative Action, and congregations will be worse off for it.

 

I do think it’s important for every church to get a woman on to their leadership team as soon as there is both need and the right woman for the need. Many of the women I’ve known in church leadership have brought things to the table that none of the guys were offering. Again, egalitarian does not equate with genderlessness. While not all women are the same, and not all men are the same, the average woman is different than the average man – which is the very reason why we need women on our leadership teams. Come on, people. This is really obvious.

 

I believe the change in leadership dynamic needs to be pioneered by men. It’s a whole lot easier to contend for power than it is to share what you could hoard. I worry that too many of the women raising their voices over this issue are the ones who shouldn’t be in leadership regardless of gender; it’s not fair to women who are viable pastors.

 

I also think the conversation about faith and gender needs to become much more robust than its current propensity to hone in on the subject of ministry leadership. The topic of gender also has to become about more than just women. Pastors need to minister to men and women alike who are struggling because they sense the Spirit leading them in one direction and the voice of Christian culture sending them the opposite way. In these cases, it’s great when pastors join the Spirit rather than grieve the Spirit. 

 

We need to promote genderedness in our churches (lest we find ourselves in a situation where many people regret or rebel against their particular genderedness, or genderedness altogether). There are tons of different ways for women of God to be women of God, and for men of God to be men of God. The way that previous generations of Christians have dealt with gender, it’s left those who disagree with the narrow definition overcompensating into an agendered, asexual lifestyle, or one that is “anti-” to their gender and sexuality.

 

We can be much less narrow about our gender roles, and at the same time be esteeming gender as an intentional creation of God, an intentional manifestation of a God who is in community, who calls us Imago Dei.

And I play one on TV

Talk about taking your role seriously. An actor who is part of a recent blockbuster movie released this week in Britain on the Naples Mafia known as Camorra was arrested over the weekend for actually being part of Camorra.

The irony! 

My guess is that he really nailed the role. Can you imagine, during the making of the film, the director giving this guy a whole bunch of critique on his role. He just rolls his eyes and plays along. Awesome.

On ridiculousness

Why say it myself when Bob already said it better (and in less divisive language than I could’ve managed).

This topic came up briefly during the Faith and Gender conversation at Quest Church last weekend. Maybe tomorrow I can post a few words on how Lauren Winner and Eugene Cho responded to the latest Driscollincident (that should totally be a word), and about the event in general.