New Worship Songs For 2012?

Choosing to introduce a new song at North Point is a bit of a challenge sometimes. The song has to be very singable, memorable, and scripturally true, but also not have too much “insider” lyric content so that we don’t leave first time guests scratching their heads. That’s a really delicate balance to find, and only a few songs fit the bill. Plus, we only do 2-3 worship songs per week, so whenever we introduce something new it needs to be really solid– we can’t afford to have 50% of our music bomb on a given Sunday! Plenty of great songs end up on the cutting room floor, simply because they don’t tick all the boxes for a Sunday service at North Point.

Needless to say, finding those songs is a difficult task. Recently, our team has been trying to compile a list of new worship songs to introduce at North Point in this coming year. A few suggestions that have been thrown out are:

- “Our Great God” by Casey Darnell (really great tune, this one’s a matter of time)

- “10,000 Reasons” by Matt Redman (one of my personal favorites)

- “Give Me Faith” by Elevation Church (Gwinnett Church has been introducing this one)

There is a mountain of worship music out there, and I know there are tons of songs we haven’t heard or thought about. So this is where you come in–

Do you have any good suggestions? What songs seem to be connecting with people at your church? What songs are you listening to that are worth taking a look at?

Beware The “Death Spiral”

This post comes courtesy of Aussie Dave in NYC (Thanks for the link, Dave!). It’s a pretty amazing infographic about the creative process that Fast Company blogged about a few days ago.

I think the reason why this strikes home right now is I’m trying to finish songs for a full-length record to release later this year, and I feel like I’m trapped somewhere either on the death spiral (Spaghetti-junction style) or in the “Desperation – Fear – Pettiness – Insecurity” loop. It’s hard for me not to let the anxiety take over in this process. Writing and recording songs is such a final process, and I’m paralyzed by the fear of what others will think of the end result.

Obviously, this isn’t the “freedom” that I repeatedly sing about, and on the surface it can be pretty discouraging. The positive of this experience, though, is that it has unearthed a dependence on my own reputation as my main source of comfort and worth. The paralyzing fear of “What will ____ think of it?” is a telltale sign that I’m being directed by something other than what I should be focused on. The fear is an indicator, a light on the dashboard that points the way to the real issue that is rooted somewhere deep in my soul. Now comes the task of uprooting what has been uncovered, and that of course is the hard part.

In a strange way, I’m actually kind of thankful for the “Death Spiral” and the fear it induces. Without it, this problem would remain rooted in me for a long time, and I’d go on living with a terrible dependence on the opinion of others for my value and emotional stability. Hopefully because of this painful process, I’ll find a way out of the “Death Spiral” and not just end up with a finished record, but a more peaceful, anchored soul. That’s the goal, anyway.

Where are you on this road-map? What jumps out at you as all-too-familiar?

3 Lessons From A 6pm Service

If you attend church here at North Point, you probably have heard that as of last week we have launched a new service at 6pm on Sunday nights. Although it makes for a really long day, it’s actually something our entire team has been pretty excited about getting going. Everyone has been really positive and ready to take on the challenge, despite the extra effort it is going to require out of all of us.

This overwhelming positive attitude in the face of added responsibility is yet another indicator of why I am extremely lucky to be a part of this organization. Here’s 3 lessons I’ve learned in the process of this launch that hopefully will stick with me for a while:

1. Ask questions first – Before any decision was made, all the people who are directly affected by it (namely our entire department) were notified when it was just an idea, and asked what it would require. Instead of being told this was the decision, we were asked for some input on the idea, and it gave our team enough time to get excited about the opportunity instead of grumbling over the challenge.

2. Remember your team’s needs, not just the goal – Doing a Sunday night service created some complications in our world. How would we get volunteers? Would people stay through the entire 12-hour day, or would we need a new team? What do we do with Inside Out that meets at the same time across the hall? Would people come on a school night? All of these things could’ve been solved by simply doing a Saturday night service instead. In fact, most church staff members that I talk to say that Saturday night is wildly popular with their attendees. But, the leadership of our church talked to some of those churches and their staff members all said a Saturday service is a “Staff-Killer.” The loss of a real weekend and time spent away from family meant a huge drain on staff. Thankfully, our leadership decided this was a non-negotiable and no matter how popular it would be, we weren’t going to try it. That meant a ton to all of us, and made us all so much more willing to jump in and help out with all our efforts.

3. Communicate quickly and clearly - After some fact-finding, the decision was made, and the word started to spread. But the news was spread in exactly the right way, and it made a huge difference. People who were directly involved with the service were notified first, then the rest of the staff team, then the key volunteers, and then the entire church. This eliminated a bunch of needless chatter and speculation, which really helped everybody stay positive.

I know these aren’t earth-shattering, but they’ve been incredibly encouraging to me. I am really blessed to work in a place where I see decisions being made and think “I need to remember to do that,” instead of “I need to remember NOT to do that.”

So if you attend North Point, come check out the 6pm service. It’s a blast, and worth the schedule shift. And if you’re currently doing a night service, let me know what you’re doing to make it fun, exciting, and engaging. We’re newbies in this world!

…And Everything Changed

As I said in my last post, I realize it’s been quite a while since I posted anything on my blog. That’s a bummer for me, because I didn’t want to be the guy that flakes out and stops blogging after a month. Turns out, I am that guy. Oh well.

But the reason for my blog hiatus is pretty cool. On December 14th, my wife Danielle gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Emmeline Rae Kirkland. She is absolutely adorable, and has already been an incredible addition to our family. She was 8 lbs, 7 oz, and already she’s so much bigger than Jude was at this age, which is nice because I don’t feel like I’m going to break her! I have absolutely no idea what I’m in for having a baby girl, and more than likely I’m completely done for! But I can’t wait to see what happens over the next few years.

Right now, I’m trying to put the pieces of life back in place one-by-one and find some semblance of a routine. Balance is something that I strive for in life, trying to maintain a healthy balance between my life, marriage, family, and work. Right now, that balance is completely out of whack and for good reason. It seems like certain seasons in life tend to tip the scale one way or the other, and I’m definitely in one of those seasons. Slowly but surely, we will find a new “normal.”

Anyway, here’s our amazing little girl. She is blue-eyed, tall and beautiful, cuddly in some moments, fierce in others, and we love her like crazy. We are incredibly blessed, and so thankful for every day we get to spend with the kids God has entrusted to us.

btw: Her name is pronounced Em-A-Lyne. Just to clear that up. She’ll probably hate us for that one day, oh well.

Today, Don’t Change The World

Hey everybody, I know it’s been a month or so since my last blog update, sorry for the delay. I’ll explain why in the next post, but needless to say we have a beautiful baby girl at home and are not getting much sleep these days!

Every once in a while I will see a date associated with a saint, or other historical figure in the church, and it will catch my attention. Today just happens to be about one of my heroes– January 11 is the feast day of Brother Lawrence. Nicolas Herman (he took the religious name “Brother Lawrence”) lived in the 17th century in a monastery in Paris, France. For many people, as for me, the writings of Brother Lawrence have been a huge inspiration. His small book, The Practice of the Presence of God, is life-changing and definitely worth the read.

But to me, the most interesting thing about Brother Lawrence is not what he accomplished in his life, but what he did not accomplish. He wasn’t a revolutionary thinker, he didn’t fight to change the world, he didn’t devote his life to solving poverty or hunger, in many ways he was overlooked and under-appreciated. Brother Lawrence didn’t even have the education to become a religious figure, instead having to enroll as a “lay brother,” the enlisted man of the monastic community. Lawrence was a dish washer. Literally, he washed dishes in the monastery for most of his life. But he was a dish-washer with a relentless desire to experience God in all His fullness. He was known for his peace and intimacy with Christ. God was real to him, walking alongside him in every mundane task, and people flocked to him for wisdom, trying to find the secret of how he drew so close to his heavenly Father.

In our current world, especially in our current Christian culture, we are quick to encourage people to make bold, revolutionary changes in the world through their lives. We encourage everyone to devote their life, and all their energy, to a cause or an accomplishment. Of course, there is nothing wrong with desiring to impact the world in a huge, tangible way. We need leaders, we need prophets and visionaries, they are all essential to the kingdom. But we also need dishwashers.

Imagine if someone stood up in your small group or church service and said, “I feel the Lord calling me to wash dishes.” What would the reaction be?

“You mean, to wash dishes at a food bank or homeless shelter?” We might ask, trying to find a bow to tie on the story.

“No…just wash dishes. For whoever needs clean dishes. Washing dishes and spending time with God, that’s my plan.”

…awkward silence and polite smiles, no doubt.

Please hear me, this is not a prescription. This is not me saying we should all quit our jobs and go “wash dishes” for a living, so that we can know God. But I think the story of Brother Lawrence is shouting out to us, as members of the Church. It is shouting a message that often gets lost, especially in American/western culture. The life of Brother Lawrence reminds us that life is about becoming someone, not accomplishing something. The short life God gives us on this earth can be spent in a thousand different ways, working on a thousand different projects. But if we accomplish the most earth-shaking feats and miss out on intimacy with God, we’ve missed the point. If we are the most revolutionary leader, but “have not love,” then we are literally background noise to the story of God that is playing out in our souls.

So if you think about it today, take a moment to remember Brother Lawrence. Pick up his book, read his Wikipedia page, whatever you have time for. I pray that God would use today as a reminder to slow down, stop stressing about climbing the next mountain, and remember that God’s most important work is not what He will do through you, but what He is doing in you.

What would it look like in your life, if you stopped focusing on changing the world, and instead asked God to change you?

Seminary for Worship Leaders? What do you think?

I loved school. Seriously, I’m glad I married my wife when I did, because if I was still single I’d probably be a professional student still to this day. I love learning, and I love books – especially old books. Thus, I really love school. Weird, I know.

So here’s my question… Do you think it’s important for a worship leader to have a seminary education? If so, why?

I know it seems like the pre-requisites for leading worship are a decent voice and skinny jeans, but is there value in having a solid theological understanding as a worship leader? What do you think?

Checking The Gauges

A good friend of mine told me just the other day that one of the biggest challenges of becoming a man is finding out whether or not you can balance all of the different responsibilities God has entrusted to you. I don’t know how close I am to becoming a real man, but I understand that feeling completely. Right now, I am trying to be a man, father, husband, worker, writer, son, brother, friend, and child of God…all at once. Needless to say, I consistently feel overwhelmed.

 

I’m the type of person that likes to tackle one thing at a time, knock it out, and move on to the next project on the list. But I’m quickly learning that life doesn’t work that way. I can’t tell my son I’ll see him in 6 months when I finally figure out how to be a good husband, or tell my boss I’ll be taking a sabbatical while I work on being an honoring son. Life just moves on, there’s always something that needs urgent attention.

Thankfully, my counselor suggested that I try to boil down my life to four main purposes – four main things I’m going to focus on right now. In a way, these four things serve as a dashboard for my life. They are four gauges that can tell me when I’m running low in a critical area, and when I need to refuel or focus my efforts in one direction. For me, these are the 4 basic things I want to be…

- A Healthy Man

- An Engaged Father

- A Faithful Husband

- A Prolific Writer

These four things obviously don’t cover everything in my life, but they help keep me focused on areas that are non-negotiable for me. I have to maintain spiritual, emotional and physical health. My kids are my greatest legacy on this earth, and probably the area where God will show grace to me the most! If my marriage falls apart, so does everything else in my life, I have to maintain a healthy marriage. Finally, being a prolific writer is something I have a deep desire to do. I can’t control whether or not people like what I have to say, but I can control how much work I put in, and hopefully I will put in enough to find some diamonds in the rough.

So these are my four things that keep me somewhat balanced in life. What are yours? What gauges are you watching?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving for several reasons: the food, relaxation, family, and football. But this year, more than years past, I’ve found myself thinking all day about how grateful I am for many things in my life. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m enjoying my last holiday in my 20s, or the fact that my little boy is old enough to enjoy watching the Snoopy balloon in the parade. Whatever the reason, I’ve been pretty overwhelmed today with gratitude.

The tradition of thanksgiving began when a boatload of Europeans risking their lives and enduring weeks and months of hardship to start a new life in a new land. In many ways, that is a pretty good metaphor for where I am right now in life. This has been a hard year, with many moments I wish I could bypass for an easier road. Now, looking back at the last 12 months, I find myself grateful for the hard lessons I’ve had to learn, the long nights and tearful conversations. I’m grateful for the baby bottles and dirty diapers that taught me a bit more about what it really means to love someone. I’m grateful for the men God brought into my life this year that walked faithfully with me. I’m grateful for the times when I was humbled, and the times when I was broken enough to actually learn something.

Sure, there have been many moments in the last year that made me smile, moments of peace and joy. But now, looking back, the challenges of the last year are the things I am most grateful for. I know this won’t change, and this coming year will probably be just as difficult, if not more so. But for the first time, I’m beginning to understand that the hard road, the “road less traveled,” really does make all the difference.

What about you? What are you most thankful for this year?

Worship or Singing?

A few years ago Andy Stanley, our Senior Pastor, laid out a framework for our Sunday services called the “Rules of Engagement.” Actually, the first name he gave it had something to do with a funnel, so most of the time that’s what I affectionately refer to it as. I remember the first time I heard it, my initial reaction was to be nervous and afraid, worried that this new system was going to eliminate all creativity, all room for the “Holy Spirit.” But as I pondered the idea, I realized once again how gifted of a leader Andy is, and how thankful I am to have an opportunity to work at this church.

The Rules of Engagement are actually very liberating and challenging. They aren’t the walls of a prison, they’re the rails on a sandbox. Everyone who’s creative works within limits. A painter only has so much canvas. A dancer only has so much stage. A musician only has so many notes. Everybody has to work within boundaries. The ROE simply lay out those boundaries, inside of which we are free to be as creative as possible. And the biggest thing is, it just works. It does, I’ve seen it over and over again. In this culture, with this group of people, it works like crazy.

One of the things Andy said in that first talk that set off alarm bells was that we were no longer going to call our worship time “worship.” Instead, we were going to refer to it as “singing.” Once again, at first the worship leader in me started preparing for battle. But over time, what I realized is that this is really a very healthy way of looking at the service. Everything we do is worship, from the parking lot to the final goodbye. Worship isn’t just musical, it’s every bit of life. We say that a lot, but it’s hard to remember it sometimes, and these words really help me remember that singing is just a way in which we worship God.

After giving that first ROE talk, Andy came and met with our worship leaders and laid out a strong challenge. He challenged us to think beyond the typical “worship leader” role. He challenged us to try and find ways to connect with people who are far from God and people who intimately know Him, all at the same time. It’s easy to be a worship leader to Christians. On a Night of Worship, when only the core of our church attends, we could sing “Here I Am to Worship” 12 times and it would probably be a powerful worship experience. It’s much harder on a Sunday morning to try and reach the atheist who doesn’t want to be there in the first place. But that’s our challenge, and it’s what we set out to do each week.

I constantly have to re-train myself. I have to watch what I say and constantly re-evaluate it to make sure I don’t slip into “worship-leader lingo” that makes no sense to people who aren’t church insiders. I have to work hard on my heart to remember that the measure of effectiveness on a Sunday is not how many hands are raised. Who knows what God is doing in the hearts of people who aren’t even singing? For some of them, it’s a miracle that they’re standing in the building and reading the words to “Mighty to Save” for the first time.

These things are so hard to remember every week, it is a constant challenge, but I think it’s one worth fighting for. People need to experience the power of God’s love through music, and hopefully through our preparation and the Holy Spirit’s power, that can happen for anyone and everyone who walks through our doors on Sunday.

What do you think? In your church, is it “worship” or is it “singing?”

What Makes A Great Opener?

Yesterday was a really fun and rewarding day at North Point. If you weren’t here or didn’t see it online, you definitely missed out. I know I’m biased, but I think it was one of the best days we’ve had in a while. And it all started with a great opening song, “Dream On” by Aerosmith. That song was perfect for the day, the people we had singing with us, and our crowd, and I’m so thankful to our SPD team for coming up with the suggestion.

As I meet people from other churches across the country, I hear one question a lot of the time. “Do you guys do a secular opener ever week?” For now, we’ll leave aside the matter of what music is “secular” versus “sacred,” that’s a conversation for another time. But I understand the question and totally get where it is coming from. The answer is no, we don’t do an opener every week, or even every month. We don’t do opening songs just to do them, or because we think they’re “cool.” Instead, we wait and work hard to find the perfect song for the perfect moment. We try to put all of our efforts towards a few of those moments each year. This fits in with the overall philosophy of our church, we don’t try to do everything well, instead focusing on a few things and executing them as excellently as possible. But this inevitably leads to another question— what makes a great opening song?

Over the past few years, we’ve thought long and hard about what makes openers successful at our church. After some unforeseen successes and big mistakes, I think our team has learned a bit more about how to find an opener that will be a success. Finally, instead of just picking songs out of thin air, we’ve landed on something that helps us pick the best song for each situation.

What we’ve noticed over the last few years is that our most successful openers have some distinct qualities:

1. Fun – For those of you that witnessed the YouTube phenomenon that was the iBand, you know that it was simply a blast. Secretly, we all thought it was going to flop, we thought people wouldn’t get it. And honestly, if we had taken ourselves seriously, I think it would have. But by wearing Santa hats and playing “Feliz Navidad,” the audience knew we weren’t taking ourselves too seriously, and once they started laughing, it was over from there.

2. Multi-Generational – We found a comedy routine on YouTube involving a four-chord song medley that was hilarious. We tweaked it a bit and did it live, and people went nuts. Afterwards, what we kept hearing over and over was that people of all ages loved it because everybody had a song or two (or ten) that they loved, and they were eagerly waiting to hear their song. In a room of people of every age, we unintentionally connected to all of them by spanning the generations, musically. Had it been only pop songs of the 2000s, it probably would’ve gotten a few yawns.

3. Wow-Factor – A few months ago we opened a service with “Free-Bird,” for no particular reason. The song was fun, it was multi-generational too, but unless it had the wow-factor of actually being done well, it would’ve totally flopped. Any time you can see two slayer guitar solos, it’s pretty impressive. Basically, we want people asking themselves, “How in the world did they pull that off?” You can’t do these all the time, they’re far too difficult to pull off more than 3 or 4 times a year, but everyone once in a while they will bring the house down.

4. Topical/Seasonal Tie-In – Topical openers are actually quite rare for us. We typically don’t just find a pop song related to the series or message and play it, because of one big reason: the curse of knowledge. We know what the sermon is about, the people who attend don’t! So as much as this great song ties in perfectly with the message, no one knows that until after the message, and chances are they’ve forgotten it by the time the service is over so you just thoroughly confused them to begin with. For this reason, we use these openers rarely, and only when we can tie them in immediately following the song. Now, if the tie-in is related to a season or a holiday – like doing a Beach Boys medley during summertime, that makes sense to everybody. We do those types of things all the time.

5. Culturally Current – Every once in a while we’ll find a song that’s culturally very current and find a way to bring it to life on Sunday. We just recently did this with “Rolling in the Deep.” There isn’t always a reason to do these, but when it’s a super-popular song it can make sense.

Now I know, this isn’t rocket science, and we should’ve figured these 5 things out a long time ago. But here’s the thing we realized that has really helped us in our search for the perfect opener: having one of these qualities isn’t enough. You have to have at least two, and the more you can have at the same time, the better.

For instance, the iBand was fun, tied in seasonally, and had a bit of a wow-factor. “Santa Went Down to Georgia” had the same three characteristics. The Love Song 4 chord medley was fun, topically tied-in, multi-generational, and had wow-factor. Again, the more of these you put together, the better the opener gets.

Many times, we will get stuck on a song that only has one of these characteristics. We’ll think to ourselves, “But it’s so big on the radio right now, people will really like it!” And they might. But without more than cultural relevance, it doesn’t stand a chance of being a show-stopper. And if there’s no chance of it being a show-stopper, why do it?

This has worked for us, but I’m sure this isn’t an exhaustive list. Surely there are more characteristics that make openers successful. What have you found that works? And have you seen this play out in your own church?