Hey all, I’m still in the transition stages to a new church, but let me tell you, God is blessing my socks off!
I have the opportunity to lead worship at the FLY Conference in the first week of July, as well as teach an elective there. I have the opportunity to help build a worship and music ministry from the ground up, and I have the opportunity to work with an amazing new pastor and church. I’m so excited about where God will take all of this!
In the meantime, there was a fantastic post on Swerve today that you should check out. So often we get wrapped up in the little world of our own churches and don’t realize the extremely pressing need of people in the world that desperately need help. Check out what this church is doing. Let’s emulate this attitude.
How are your transitions between songs in your set done? Do things flow well and seamlessly, helping ease distractions in worship, or are things choppy with awkward pauses? Here are a few do’s and don’ts when it comes to song transitions:
Don’t…
- …say “The first song we will be singing,” or “The next song will be…” More than likely, the songs are either listed in the bulletin, or the title is on the screen. The people are smart enough to figure out what the song is. This draws attention to the title of the song, rather than the content of the song.
- …have silence between every song. Learn what keys go together and how you can flow seamlessly from song to song without silence. Sometime silence is good, but not between every single song.
- …talk in between every song. Sometimes songs can jump right into each other without a need for comment. Sometimes people are in a prayerful attitude, and just playing a simple chord progression with no commentary helps people be able to pray during the worship time.
- …say, “We’re singing this song because I like it so much.” I made this mistake my last day at a church and knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as it came out of my mouth. Again, this draws attention to you and the song, not to the One that you and the song are supposed to be pointing to.
Do…
- Learn which keys relate to each other and pick songs that are in similar keys. This will help your transitions flow much smoother and create a unified song set.
- Use Scripture. Always bring people back to the Word. When in doubt of what to say, read Scripture and leave it alone. God’s Word will not return empty.
- Be careful to talk about personal issues. While some personal testimony can be powerful and appropriate, we are tools being used to magnify God, not call attention to ourselves.
- Learn to give up the reigns. Let others give a transition, even if you are the “official” worship leader for the day.
Hopefully these tips will help you construct a seamless, flowing worship set. Let me know if you use them or if you have other thoughts!
I came across a link to Time’s 100 most influential people of the year (voted by the people). I wonder, why are there no pastors in here? No missionaries? Church teachers? Bono made the list (of course), but the only outspoken Christian celebrity I could see was Tony Dungy, coming in at #80.
What happened to the days when the world’s most influential people belonged to the church? Jesus, first of all. Peter. Paul. Luther. Calvin. Wesley.  Since Jesus and into the present it seems like the church’s voice has become less influential, and entertainment’s voice has become more and more (Sanjaya Malakar at #3?? You’ve got to be kidding me).
Church, let’s make next year’s top ten list.
Anthony Coppedge and Greg Atkinson just released, in my opinion, one of the most informative and important podcasts that a church could ever hear.
It’s a podcast on the legal issues of using all sorts of types of media within the church framework (in the service, outside the service, on the internet) and you can find it here. I highly recommend listening.
*Also, I’ve been beginning to listen to the Geeks and God podcast, and it’s great. They have a dynamic website as well.
I will be posting again and regularly soon. Life has caught up with me and it’s hard to find time to regularly update!
Plus..my wife and I are going to have a baby! So that’s exciting. God is so good and I’ve been witnessing miracle upon miracle. It’s a very exciting time for us.