Anything Else?

Rob found this online posting recently for a worship leader position:

Specific Responsibilities:

1. Provide spiritual leadership to the church at large as part of the Leadership Team.
*Participate fully in the life of our church through membership.
*Take part in shaping the future of The Gathering through leadership events and staff meetings.
*Invest yourself relationally in the lives of the people within and beyond worship arts.

2. Design weekend services that create unforgettable experiences with God.
*Develop service plans and schedules in conjunction with Lead Pastor.
*Develop a sense of unity and camaraderie among all the artists of our church.
*Involve various arts such as video, painting/sculpture, acting, and spoken word in services.
*Schedule guest speakers, bands, and artists at various times of the year.

3. Lead a team of musicians that inspire people to live passionately for God.
*Recruit and develop a consistently improving team of musicians who have a passion for Jesus Christ.
*Mentor a growing number of competent worship leaders for adults, youth, and children.
*Practice a minimum of every Sunday before service and 3 times per month outside of Sunday nights.
*Collaborate in writing original worship music and creating a unique sound/voice for The Gathering.
*Style of music to be modern, high energy, and led by multiple vocalists.

4. Provide leadership and oversight for all worship-related technology.
*Make continual improvements to lighting, sound, and media.
*Responsible to oversee the technical production team leader.

5. Assist Lead Pastor with additional projects and tasks as assigned.

Anybody else overwhelmed by a job description like this?

What stands out to you?

What's right or wrong with this job description?

I've decided to leave this post up for a couple of days in an effort to encourage some discussion. But here's the deal...I don't want you to comment. I want you to email me. That's right - email me your 100 % honest opinion...what's great or horrible about this job description. I'm posting this over at my blog and on my SongDiscovery page, too. In a few days, I'll try to collect all the comments and let everybody take a look. Be honest...

Email me at toddwrightband@gmail.com.

YIKES!

Ever had a Sunday like this?















Take a minute and tell one your worst, most stressful, horrible Sundays.

Definitive Worship Records, Episode I

Definitive Worship Records, Vol. I from Todd Wright on Vimeo.

"HEALER"

Many in the worship world were shocked last week when news broke of Mike Guglielmucci's 2-year deception regarding his illness and it's role in the history of his worship song, "Healer."

Now, information is being released that Guglielmucci has long suffered from sexual addiction and what seems to be some sort of psychosomatic difficulty. While the "why" still remains to be seen, moments like these are always great times for analysis and reflection for those of who are called to serve with songs, prayers, scriptures in the atmosphere of the corporate adoration of God Almighty.

In fact, I think there are a couple of key things that we can learn from this situation. It would be better for me to say "there are things I AM LEARNING from this situation" as it has rolled around in my head.

1. THIS IS LAME

I first found out about this through Ragamuffin Soul and I have to say that I was surprised at the initial responses. As I scrolled down, I fully expected to see lots of frustration...more "Holy cow!" or "Oh no!" Instead, I saw a majority of "This guy needs grace and forgiveness." While that is completely true, I was bothered by the lack of rage I saw. Of course, that doesn't mean that nobody felt rage, just that no one was commenting it.

But I believe it's important that people who care about worship take a moment to call "foul" on this one. This is deception on a global scale. This lie (and the work that went into maintaining it) has brought shame and hurt to multiple churches and quite a few music executives who gave this song a chance. This song, birthed in the Planetshakers movement, became an anthem for a generation of believers...and while the song remains the same, there are countless followers of God

2. THIS IS MARKETING

The most damaging thing about this song, this story, this lie...is that it shames a lot of us. I understand that a story like Guglielmucci's is a powerful one. And I don't blame Hillsong or the Integrity people for sharing it. But every song has a back-story and churches, ministries, labels, etc., have to make choices as to which back story they're going to promote. They'd be fools not to share this story...the blame is on me.

I'm better than this - I'm smarter than this - and so are all of you. You see, "Healer" suckered me, too. You know why? Because it was the story that got me. Yes, the song is good, but if I'm being honest, I'll tell you that for me, the song's biggest strength was it's emotionalism. This song was bounced off heartstrings to the top of the heap. And I don't think that's ever a good thing.

Yeah, emotions are a part of our worship. God built them into us and they do respond when we adore Him. But when we connect to things on an emotional level (which does happen,) we've got to be sure to take some time to also use our heads. Emotions are not static. They wane. And when we're connected to something built to honor a God who is forever, our connection needs to be steady as well and not victims to the whims of circumstance.

3. THIS IS IMPORTANT

We should be glad that "Healer" is, in fact, a good song. It says things that are true and right. These lyrics line up with scripture. They do not, in my opinion, present an unbalanced view of God's purposes or His provision. But can you imagine if they did?

What if "Healer" was a horrible song? What if the tune had shoddy theology and declared things that were detrimental to the faith and we missed it because of a guy's cancer story?

That's why we talk about these things. That's we take a moment to slap ourselves and get our heart and heads straightened out again. I'm surprised I'm not seeing more discussion about this song on worship-related blogs. Stuff like this matters...to those who lead worship and to those who don't.

Some questions...

1. Have you heard the song? What were your initial thoughts?
2. Think this revelation will hurt the song's success?
3. If the song still prospers, what are your thoughts on royalties? If the song survives, Gugglielmucci is bound to receive some pretty nice financial rewards from it? Does that make it better or worse?

A CONVERSATION

Heard a great question on Sunday from a guy at church.

We were talking about worship and new songs and he mentioned that he spent a lot of time in his car, listening to worship music.

He also said he would love it as a member of the congregation if he could be listening to some of the worship songs we're teaching before they're actually introduced.

This is a great concept - I tend to plan sets in advance, so my band has the songs relatively early...and here's a congregant wanting in on the fun. So I started thinking how I might make that available. Burning CDs or sending him the little band website doesn't really seem like the best way to do it. What to do...what to do.

And then I remembered MUXTAPE. If you follow my other blog, you'll see that I just setup a Muxtape Site for all the stuff I'm digging. Since Muxtape prevents folks from actually "downloading" the tracks, it might be a great way for folks to check out what we'll be singing over the next two months. Sure, it requires some early planning, but who doesn't benefit from that, huh?

Go over and check out Muxtape. It's a cool site. It makes me sad that we, as leaders, have access to some great web applications that could really help us stay connected, get info and involve ourselves in "faith matters" every single day.

Thoughts on Muxtape? Thoughts on other tech developments that might bless and encourage the church?

NEVER FAIL SONGS

What's one your "Never Fail" songs?

Meaning this - what's one song that your church always, always, always seems to dig. Usually, the sorts of tunes work with full band, one guitar, acapella, with pipe organ, with children's choir, etc.

Got any of those? Got a song or two that just always works?

What is it?

SETLIST SIMULATOR #1

Alright....we're kicking off a brand new thing here at worshipnotes called the "Setlist Simulator."

As you guys know, I love resourcing - sharing ideas and songs and tips and lessons with each other to make us better at this very odd job of ours called 'worship leading.'

So here's where the Setlist Simulator is going to come in. For this new feature, I'm going to throw a setlist challenge out there. Your job is to take the info I come up with and then "build" a figurative list of songs, scriptures, prayers, videos, etc. to meet that challenge in the best way you see fit!

And the more specific, the better! Tell us what key you'd do a song in or how you'd transition from media to a hymn or how you'd teach something new to the congregation. It will be great creative exercise for you and a fantastic way for us to learn from each other.

Alright...here we go. Here's your first Setlist Simulator. Have fun!

Setup: "Back To School" weekend - Pastor is kicking off a new series focused on making a fresh commitment to ministry. Pastor will be using two-three New Testament text to challenge people to do more than just attend church - they need to serve! They need to live out of their gratitude for God's grace and provision.
Need: Twenty-five minutes of worship, relatively free flowing. (No announcements, special speakers, etc.) Pastor pretty intentional about having at least one song tied strongly to the sermon theme.
Special Additions: New volunteer director of greeter ministry wants to run a two minute informational video on how to sign up for Greeter Duty. Video is a fast-paced, lighthearted look at greeting ministries. Video was purchased from an online church video provider and has been downloaded onto projection computer for quick projection within the service.

What would you do?

WHAT MATTERS MOST

If you voted in our recent poll (see sidebar to the right,) I'd love to know what influenced your vote.

I think the responses in this poll speak volumes about us...but I want to wait to share my theories until I hear from you. So...who did you pick? And why?

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE CROWD?

Do me a favor! Open up this video on YouTube and "subscribe" to my YouTube feed. For now, I'll be including the videos here on the WN site, but some stuff may be YouTube posts only. (I want to see if I'm able to connect/reach/build relationships with a whole other technological segment of the globe!)