i am an offering

In a recent conversation I had with my pastor, who is also my spiritual mentor, he mentioned that he had been seeing some very positive fruit in me over the summer.  I asked him, “Anything specific?”  to which he replied with one word - “Discipline.”

My Discipline Journey

I have never been a very disciplined person.  I achieved my first degree black belt in Taekwondo in MIddle School, but then lost the discipline to keep going with it.  I was smart enough to have possibly achieved a 4.0 GPA in HIgh School - but wasn’t disciplined enough to actually achieve it.  In college - my lack of spiritual discipline led to some major personal struggles that eventually led to all sorts of problems.  I believe I always fell short of so many things because of a lack of displine in two areas: my physical life, and my spiritual life.

Physical Discipline

Maybe you’re like I was, and every time you went to the doctor you had to sheepishly answer “no” when the doctor asks if you’re exercising.  Maybe you kept hearing everyone talk about physical fitness and thought to yourself, “Yeah, I know I should do that, but I just don’t have time.”  As Paul is speaking to his young charge Timothy he says this:

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:7-9

I don’t think Paul was brushing off physical training in this passage - just comparing it as far less valuable than training to be godly, which we’ll get to in a minute.  “I don’t have time” doesn’t work when you’re beginning to discipline yourself.  Part of discipline is finding the time it takes to carry out what you’re trying to accomplish.  I finally realized that everyone was right when they mentioned the importance of physical fitness - and after running and walking for just four days I am already feeling astoundingly better physically.

Spiritual Discpline

As Paul says in the passage we read earlier - “godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”  Godliness has an eternal reward.  This discipline is even more important than physical fitness because our bodies, no matter how fit we are, will decay and turn to dust.  Our souls, however, will go on for eternity.  My spiritual discipline of a devotional life was an on-again, off-again affair.  But now, after being disciplined to read and study my Bible almost every day - I feel astoundingly better spiritually and emotionally.

My Challenge to You

Are you making time to discipline yourself, both physically and spiritually?  If so, bravo!  If not, I highly encourage you to do so.  And don’t just do so with no goals in mind, or no way to track your progress.  Find a training program for your physical fitness.  I found one that even has a way to track your progress.  Here’s a look at mine:

Keep a journal for your spiritual discipline.  If you’re online constantly like I am (another reason why it’s so Important that I discipline myself physically), try using the wonderful You Version internet app.  It has a built in journal right there with any Bible version you desire to use.

Physical discipline + spiritual discpline will equal a very healthy outlook on life.

Yesterday I was blessed to have an article in the “featured articles” section of The Worship Community.  I wanted to point you over there to take a read.  The article talks about five things that are needed to orchestrate effective rehearsals.  Here are the five things (read the article to get the details about each step).

1. Preparation.
2. Have the Right People in Place.
3. Proper Use of Time.
4. Respect Each Other.
5. Leaders lead.  Followers follow.

Go over and take a read - and while you’re at it sign up to participate in the forums.

For a long time I’ve subscribed to the school of thought that playing by chord off of lead sheets or chord sheets is a much better way to go for piano players than playing straight from the actual piano music.  You only have to have a couple of pages to turn through, you learn how to play chords just in case the piano music is unavailable, and you develop your ear.  However, there is a problem:  it’s much harder to lead if you don’t have experience.

Without Rhythm and Melody - Chords Don’t Go Anywhere

As I’ve begun to teach several piano players how to play by chords instead of by the piano music I’ve run into a problem that I completely didn’t expect.  Chords, without being driven by rhythm and melody, don’t really go anywhere.  I can tell the piano player to “just play by the chords on this one” and it leads to a great fit when I’m leading from the guitar.  I can carry the rhythm from the guitar and let the piano color and accent the song.  But if I say, “I’d like to you lead this one on the piano,” many of the piano players are not quite sure what to do.  They can play the chords, but haven’t really been taught the rhythms to apply the chords to - so the song lacks movement.  They can play the chords, but haven’t really been taught how to break them up and use passing tones to create interest - so the song lacks character.

What to Do?

I guess that is my dilemma.  I can show the piano players what to do by saying, “Let me sit for a second and show you what I’d like.”  But then they’re just watching me do something instead of actually learning how to do it.  I would love to know what you’ve done to teach piano players how to play chords but play them rhythmically and melodically - able to lead a song well.  Some things I can think of might perhaps be:

• Writing out piano parts for them for a while - then saying, “Okay - your turn to apply it - make up your own now.”
• Having a workshop with piano players on how to do these things - which is something I’d like to do - I just lack the time at the moment.
• Have the piano players listen and watch professionals to try and develop their ear and mimic what the professionals are doing
• Create an online youtube / vimeo video to help train - another thing I’d love to do - again with a lack of time

Are there any other suggestions that could help?

During the last several weeks I’ve had the privilege of connecting with a bunch of new worship leaders through blogs and various twitter accounts.  Through conversations I was introduced to The Worship Community, a grassroots community site for worship leaders.  It had started out as just a forum a little over a year ago and has now grown into a one-stop resource with videos, the original forum and featured articles from worship leaders all over the country.

One of the coolest things about it is that it is featuring “every-day worship leaders,” those of us that are “in the trenches” in the local church.  As great as it is to see writing and resources from “the big names” it’s so cool to see a bunch of local people featured.

Another cool thing is that I’ve been asked to write for the site!  I’m very excited to be a part of it and so thankful that God has blessed the time spent on this blog to be able to expand and encourage others.  So please, check it out and join the forums or leave a comment on any articles that are there.  It will definitely encourage you!

I’ll give you a little hint behind this one.  This post comes directly out of personal experience.  Keep that in mind as your reading.

There are probably going to be times when something is out of tune.  Badly out of tune.  It could be your own instrument.  It could be the instrument of an inexpereinced player.  Regardless of whose instrument it is, something that’s out of tune is a major disctration that keeps us from focusing on Jesus.  If something is slightly out of tune it will distract any skilled musicians in the congregation because they can pick it out.  It will distract average non-musical people in the congregation as well because they know something is wrong but can’t quite figure out what it is.  If something is badly out of tune, everyone notices and everyone is distracted.  So what do you to when this happens?

Plan Ahead

Like yesterday’s post on screen projection, it is so important to plan ahead.  If you are the guitar player - make sure you have fresh strings and you are in tune.  Get a tuner or ask the church to buy you one (preferably a pedal tuner that you can use during the worship time to always make sure you’re in tune.)  If you are the piano player know how to tell when the piano is out of tune and make sure the church is on top of getting it tuned.

If you are overseeing guitar players always make sure that they tune before rehearsal, before soundcheck, before the worship time and during the worship time.  Ask your church to be able to budget for new strings for the guitar players.  Buy your guitar players tuners if they don’t have them.

A Personal Account

These things seem fairly obvious to most of us, but let my share a story that happened when I was a bit more inexperienced.

We made plans to bring Arlen Salte from Break Forth Ministries to do a worship team workshop at our church.  We had planned well and there were about 300 people from different states coming.  It was an exciting time for us.  Our worship team agreed that we would do a worship set in the afternoon and them let him critique us.  Unfortunately, in my excitement about the workshop, I forgot to plan ahead so that I would have new strings that weekend.  My strings were old.  Ancient.  It was bad.  In my rush to make sure all of the logistics were worked out for the weekend, I completely forgot about the fact that my strings were not going to stay in tune.  We started our set with “Blessed Be Your Name” with a driving acoustic guitar part.  After about two measures I thought, “Uh-oh.  This is bad.  Really bad.”  What did I do?

What To Do If It Happens

I could have kept going and played through the whole song with a badly out-of-tune guitar.  But I knew it was a major disctraction - especially in a room full of musicians.  So, I stopped the band, addressed the problem, admitted that I was out of tune and had the band restart the song without me.  Things went well and Arlen mentioned that it was better that I took a couple minutes to address the distraction and then move on, rather than letting the disctration keep going.  That night, I bought new strings and restringed my guitar as Sunday morning worship was the next morning. (Although, I hate to admit it - I bought strings from Wal-Mart.  They’re the only place open at 10:30pm that sold guitar strings!)  What I probably should have done is just let the band keep going without the guitar.  At the time, they relied heavily on the guitar leading things, so sometimes if I would stop, the whole band would stop.  So, if you’re the one out of tune, drop out in a non-distracting way, tune if you can and then come back in.  If you can’t tune, be able to communicate to other musicians that they need to lead the music.

But, what if it’s not you that’s out of tune?

Work out a signal before hand that might be able to let your guitar players know that they are out of tune and they need to drop out (hint, don’t use the hand cutting through the throat signal!).  Find a subtle gesture that says “sit out” to someone.  If you have an opportunity to lean over and talk to them quickly (during a prayer time or instrumental interlude) tell them that they need to retune and ask for a thumbs up or some sort of signal that lets you know they’re back in tune.

Being in tune is so important in music and is a skill that we should always take care to remember.  Do you have any suggestions for a situation like this or any stories of your own experience?