Ever feel that a worship song is “played out?” So have I – you reach that point where it feels like you’ve done a song to death – the spark is gone and you need to think about singing the song less often, or even retiring it. As a former worship leader, I still have songs from years ago that I would happily never play again because we did them so my times! Or did we…?
Let’s take a look at the average week at a broadcast campus – let’s say currently three services on a weekend, one on Sat. and two on Sun. You start getting ready for the weekend – ideally you practice the song at least three times on your own to prepare. Then there’s a rehearsal midweek – probably three more times there. On Saturday, a band warmup, where you might do it twice. Then two full run-throughs – that’s two more times. Then the service. On Sunday, there’s a warmup/runthrough, and then two services. That’s three more times, for a grand total of (at least) FOURTEEN times for every ONCE the congregation sings it (assuming they are there that weekend).
The moral of the story? Don’t kill a song that the congregation is actually still learning. Have someone outside of the worship team – whose opinion you trust – give input on whether or not a song is played out.
Hmmm - well, let's see...
I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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