Worship Confessional Do’s and Don’ts

Posted on July 6th, 2008 in General, Worship Confessionals, Worship Leader Pitfalls by Fred

Hey Everyone,

I didn’t lead worship today, so I’ll pass on making a video “Worship Confessional” this week. I did sit in and play piano with the band, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve had two back-to-back weeks off from being the main worship leader and I’m ready to get back in that saddle again next week.

Recently I was chatting with Alastair Vance online because he was engaged in a Twitter conversation with someone about doing a “Worship Confessional”. The person he was chatting with had some concerns, and because I’ve experienced a handful of triumphs and pitfalls with them myself, I saw him recommend that they contact me.

So now a week or more later, I present to you my ideas of:

“Worship Confessionals - The Do’s and the Don’ts”

First, it’s important to understand what a “worship confessional” is. I’ve discussed them many times on the blog so you can do search the archives, or better yet - visit my friend Jay’s post, “What is a Worship Confessional” published back in June 2007 for a great read.

Assuming you “get” the concept of a Worship Confessional, let’s talk about a few do’s and don’ts. Please know that I don’t consider myself the authority by any means - make your own rules, but these are some of the things I’ve learned from doing a few of these over the last few years.

Do’s:

Mostly these are covered already in the concept of what a Worship Confessional Is. However:

  1. Do be honest and authentic.
  2. Do try to be short on video length. Nobody has time to watch your 15 minute video.
  3. Do respect your church staff, leadership, band, and singers.
  4. Do get ownership from your team members and leadership.
  5. Do share what you did to make the songs and arrangements “your own”.
  6. Do give credit where credit is due.
  7. Do try to give a text-version so those who don’t have time to watch the video can get the setlist.
  8. Do also post your setlist and worship confessional on TheWorshipCommunity.Com’s forums.
    (sorry, I couldn’t resist a shameless plug for our site!)

Now, from personal experience (my own experiences, and those around me), let me share a few pitfalls.

Don’ts:

  1. Don’t try to copy or imitate everyone else. Be real, be authentic. People who watch the videos probably care more about hearing what songs you did, and how you used them, and don’t care so much about all the cool themes, titles, transitions, and credit rolls you create.
  2. Don’t ramble on and on. Keep it around 7 minutes or less … 5 minutes or less is even better. Nobody has time to watch your 15 minute video.
  3. Don’t use the worship confessional to bash your leadership, musicians, singers, or tech team. If you had problems or issues, it’s great to hear about them … that’s why it’s called a “confessional”. However, you should never use the internet as your public stage to gripe about the people who are volunteering with you. Discuss it first, then share it respectfully.
  4. Don’t do worship confessionals and constantly mention your church by name, by link, by tags in the keywords, etc., without first getting the ownership and vision of your leadership. If your church would rather not have your YouTube videos ranked in the Top Google Results of the search for your church name, don’t mention the church by name, and DEFINITELY don’t tag it in the video tags. On the other hand - if you do have their support, GO FOR IT - it’s a great way to get additional traffic and interest in what you are doing. (and oh, by the way … all that stuff about the disclaimer you have on your blog, and how it’s your own, and you can say what you want, and it doesn’t reflect the views of your church … BULL CRAP (sorry) … if you use your blog as a forum to discuss the specifics of your job and role at your church, and you do it by name, you are linking the two, I think your leadership has a right to speak to you about how you represent your employer. )
  5. Don’t make it all about “you” … include your band and singers whenever possible. (if they want to be involved)
  6. Don’t disrespect other team members who wish to not be included. Not everyone chooses to live the super-transparent lifestyle of a blogger, twitterer, or video blogger. Not everyone wants their mug on YouTube for everyone to find.
  7. Don’t let your Worship Confessional video be the first time your Worship Leader, Pastor, Elders, Musicians, Singers, or Church Members hear your frustrations over a situation.
  8. Don’t assume that nobody from your church reads your blog or cares what you do … they WILL find it, the WILL watch it. Also, those who are looking for something “bad to say” about your church will find it, too.
  9. Don’t say stupid things that will come back to bite you.

Example: We once did a Worship Confessional where I was talking about how good the breakfast was in the green room. A lady brought some taramasou once, and of course … any alcohol used in it was likely cooked out … but I made a joke on the worship confessional that “we had rum cake and were buzzing on the platform”. Someone was pretty offended by that remark. In addition, because I’d tagged the video with strong keywords back to our church’s web site, that video was the Page 1, Link #3 result on Google Search when searching for our church by name and city. In retrospect, that was a DUMB THING to say.

Resolution: I’m much more careful now, and I removed that video from YouTube.

I’m sure all of us have our own rules, or lack thereof. Nobody really likes rules, but boundaries can be helpful and can help save you some grief down the road. Just remember that what you do and say on the Worship Confessional videos is “public” in a major way, and once it’s online, you can’t really take it back … even if you delete it, there are copies of it in cache. Use wisdom.

Lastly, have fun. And don’t forget … you may want to remind your “viewers” what a “Worship Confessional” is every now and then … it helps new viewers “get it”.

Tell me about your “ups and downs” with Worship Confessionals!

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Worship Confessional #18

Posted on June 8th, 2008 in Church Life, General, Worship Confessionals by Fred

Worship Confessional: a candid, video recap or “confessional” of the songs, arrangements, and creative ideas used in a worship service. “Confessional” is simply meant to designate the revealing of the inner thoughts and workings of how, why, and what we did. Original concept of the “Worship Confessional” started by Carlos @ RagamuffinSoul.Com.

\0/\0/\0/

Hey Everybody -

Back by request, a video worship confessional. This confessional is “bed head edition”, shot Sunday afternoon following a much-needed, much-appreciated NAP.

Because I’ve learned that not everyone understands the “concept” of a worship confessional, I’ve added the description above at the beginning of this post.

Walk in: Mighty to Save (Hillsongs) [iTunes link]

Song 1: Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) [from this blog post]

Song 2: Let Everything That Has Breath (Matt Redman) [iTunes link]

Song 3: Center (Charlie Hall) [iTunes link]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWfs1QP_RYA

OK, so two questions for comments:

1. According to Google Analytics, about 30% of new visits last month came from our church’s website. That being said, if you are a SSCC’er … were you here today, and if so, what’s YOUR recap!? Comment below.

2. If you aren’t a SSCC’er, share about your worship encounter today. Comment below. [please] :-)

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Sunday, June 1 Recap

Posted on June 1st, 2008 in Church Life, General, Worship Confessionals by Fred

Hey Everyone,

Great services today at SSCC.

We began a series entitled “This Side Up” - which is a look at God’s “Upside Down Kingdom”. Today was the “setup” day … but was a great message. The default “coffee shop” set was removed and we had a big “warehouse” type set with lots of boxes and things.

There aren’t a lot of corporate songs that focus on these issues, so I didn’t waste a lot of time trying to pick the “perfect songs” to setup the sermon this week. Instead, I just prayerfully considered a set of songs that would have energy, worship, freedom, and I intentionally made some song decisions to reach out to some of the demographic in our community who desires to have some of the older songs and/or more traditional elements (ie. gimme a hymn).

Walk In:
“Not To Us” (my version, as recorded on Worship Under the Stars) [iTunes link]

First Set:
“Again, I Say Rejoice” (Israel Houghton) [iTunes Link]
I led this from the grand piano … Elizabeth moved over and played my Yahama Motif and knocked out the horn parts. It sounded great, and this song is always a great one to play and sing.

“Blessed Assurance” (Traditional Hymn)
This is one of my favorite hymns from growing up in the Methodist Church. I re-arranged this song in 9/8 time, with a very cool riff that we play as intro, and in between the verses. I hope to record a simple arrangement of this soon .. but wonder if I’ll find any good rhythm loops in 9/8 time. I’ve found that if I can intentionally find a good hymn, even if it’s only 1 out of 5 songs .. it makes the traditional folks very happy. I don’t feel it’s my “job to make folks happy” .. but it IS MY JOB TO GIVE THEM the best opportunity to engage with God in worship. If an older, traditional hymn is the vehicle that helps them .. I’d be foolish not to oblige. Not to mention there is rich theology in so many of our hymns.

Second Set:
“You Have Made Me Glad” (Hillsongs) [iTunes link]
This is a song that Harriet had been leading for “x” years (I dunno how long) before I arrived on the scene. It’s one that I played with her a few times and always loved this tune. I decided to reach back and give our people a chance to sing this familiar song, and they responded by singing out strong. In the first service, I actually repeated it a few extra times - it was too good to stop because so many people were singing along.

“How He Loves Us” (Kim Walker, Jesus Culture) [iTunes Link]
Probably one of the most powerful songs on the planet right now. We had a young couple at our home on Memorial Day, and the guy told me how much this song ministered to him. I thought to myself “now, I never would’ve picked this guy to love this song”. It’s an awesome song … one of my favorites right now.

Closer:
“I Will Never Be” (Hillsongs) [iTunes Link]
This song has become a theme anthem for us … our church is about “changed lives” and our tagline with our logo is “Never be the Same Again”.

Finally … I’m about to save this entry and head off to our first of 3 summer baptisms. Lots of people getting baptized this afternoon, which is more evidence of changed lives at SSCC. Praise God.

How has your weekend been?
Fred

Being Filled, Worship Confessional

Posted on May 15th, 2008 in Church Life, General, Worship Confessionals by Fred

Hey Everyone:

Hope you’ve had an awesome week thus far. I wanted to take a moment to recap our service from this past Sunday, May 11 at SSCC.

We’ve been in a series called “Just Breathe” which centers around the person of the Holy Spirit. This past Sunday, David taught on “Being Filled with the Holy Spirit”. Spending the last 20 years in a more “charistmatic church” setting, I’ve heard this taught many, many times. I can honestly say that David’s teaching this week was perhaps the best teaching I’ve heard on it. It was the straight truth, Biblical, and communicated in such a way that it could be received from anybody who has “ears to hear”.

The sermon was illustrated with three basketballs. One basketball was flat, with all the air sucked out of it. This was a picture of someone who doesn’t know Christ, and the Holy Spirit had not been breathed into them. (breath, or air). Then he had a basketball that looked fine … it was round and inflated, but it only was about 1/2 full of air. It bounced OK, but didn’t bounce well, and was harder to control. This was typical of so many Christians who have received God’s Holy Spirit, but weren’t filled … and as a result, weren’t as effective as they should be. Finally, he got a big air pump and began to pump it into the basketball, filling it completely. This ball was full of air and David demonstrated his dribbling chops as he bounced it around on the stage and between his legs. Then, another guy who was a basketball-dribbling MASTER came out with two basketballs … and the sound guys started the “Harlem Globetrotters” sound track … this guy whirled those basketballs around like a pro.

The point was that these were not only filled, but in the right hands. How could be live if we were filled with the Holy Spirit, and surrendered into the Hands of God.

One of my favorite lines was (paraphrased) when David said “I don’t really care what you want to call it … baptism of the Holy Spirit, infilling of the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, receiving the Holy Spirit, surrendering completely to the Holy Spirit …. but all of these theologians have come across multiple viewpoints and agreed that there was a point in time after their salvation where they realized they needed to truly surrender to the fullness of the Holy Spirit”. (you’ll have to listen to the podcast to get that quote just right)

So, I’d encourage you to take a few and listen to this sermon on the podcast. It was awesome.

Now, onto the songs. (where available, songs are linked to iTunes)

Open: “In The Secret” (Vineyard)
(great opener, old-school Vineyard song)

First Set:
“Fix My Eyes” (Fred McKinnon) [Video Available]
(2nd week in a row, chose this song because it’s about being filled with God’s Holy Spirit).

Second Set:
“Surely the Presence”
(low lights, sweet, quiet arrangement with piano, led by Kim Dixon)
“With All I Am” (Hillsong)
(continued worship led by Kim Dixon)

Just Breathe Intro (view it at TravisPaulding.Com)

Closer:
Consuming Fire (Tim Hughes)

Well, that’s a wrap for this confessional. (sorry no video this time!).

How was your Sunday?
Fred

Worship Confessional #16 - SSCC

Posted on April 21st, 2008 in Worship Confessionals by Fred

Hey Everyone,

Long time no “worship confessional” video. I decided “some video” is better than “no video” … I simply don’t have time to edit, add titles, add background music, fades, etc … all that fancy production work takes too much time - even in iMovie. So, all you have is a quick, easy 5 minute recap of our worship services here at St. Simons Community Church from Sunday, April 20, 2008.

Here’s the video, with the text recap below.  And does ANYONE know why YouTube puts this greyish blackout on the first few seconds of the videos I’m uploading?  It happened the other day - the .mp4 looks just fine, and if I upload the same video to Google Video, it works fine.  Go figure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu21hMwdW0c

Sermon Series: Vintage Faith

Walk-in Song: Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble (Delirous) [itunes link]

Opening Set:
Your Grace is Enough (Chris Tomlin version) [itunes link]
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (my arrangement)

Second Set:
Mighty to Save (Hillsongs) [itunes link]
Here I Am to Worship (Tim Hughes) [itunes link]

Closer:
All Who Are Thirsty (Vineyard) [itunes link]

Sermon: Vintage Faith: Sacrament of Baptistm [podcast]

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