Little Tests
Week after week, we stand in church during worship and wait for the lyrics to appear. Well, most of us never see the lyrics, but our congregation does.
Recipes
Many mornings, I’m on breakfast duty. One of my favorite kitchen tools is our griddle. It’s big. 720 square inches of cooking area. That’s about the same as ten 12-inch sauté pans. When you’re cooking for a family of nine, that comes in real handy.
Fractional Priority
One of our Denver coaches (Orin) was telling me about the latest rage: part-timers are now being called “Fractional Employees.”
Why?
An amazing, Jesus-loving drummer approaches you after church on Sunday and asks about joining the team. He’s available, hungry to serve, and you’re really drawn to him.
Plan In Bulk
If you can help it, never plan one week at a time.
Make More Excellent Music
We want to make excellent music. And by “excellent,” I mean the best we can do with what we have. It’s a continuously moving target. It’s personal - you don’t become excellent by comparing yourself to others but by comparing yourself today to yourself yesterday. Movement matters.
Tell Me Your Story (Podcast Interview)
I was interviewed on the More Than a Worship Leader podcast, and he sent me the questions beforehand so I could prepare. I wrote my answers out and am sharing them with you for this week’s Fertilizer. (Make sure to respond to the questions at the end.)
What’s Your Secret?
You want to be a good steward of the leadership opportunity God has given you, right? You want to help your team be more confident and comfortable as they serve. You want more capable, Godly people on your team. You want to experience joy as you pour out each week. You want to complete your calling to the very end. You want to experience fullness.
Close Singing
Just under a month ago, worship leaders, pastors, and teams from 22 churches in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, gathered to learn about some foundational aspects of worship.
Punt
On a long enough timeline, we all need to punt. What does that mean?
Why Songwriting?
I sat in the senior pastor’s office as we hammered out the details of the 12-month coaching program we were beginning with their leaders. Something he said, so flippantly, still haunts me after ten years.
Hire From Within
After two and a half decades of supporting churches in your worship ministry, we’ve noticed something. The longer we’re around, the more the church personnel change. While we do know some leaders who have been at the same church since 2002 (when Ad Lib started), many have moved on. Even though some leaders feel like fixtures, even they are no longer leading worship.
The Last Five Percent
We helped unload a shipment of ten 4x4 crates containing donations for needy families. Since they had no further need for the crates, the Central American Mission Projects (CAMP) leaders said we could have them. With my help, the three youth I had brought along began disassembling them. Each crate was made of about 80 screws, six 4x4 sheets of 3/4-inch plywood, and other assorted support lumber.
Lead Pastor, We Need Your Voice
Imagine a world where the two people who share the vast majority of stage time at your church were best buds. I know that many lead pastors don’t have anything near that on their radar screens for how they work with their worship leaders, but John Maxwell’s leadership Law of Connection is still irrefutable:
“Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand”
Improving Your Worship Experience
How can you improve your worship experience?
There are at least two perspectives as you read that question. One says, “yes, I’ve been wanting to up our game for the worship experience!” The other says, “I don’t like that you call it a ‘worship experience.’”
Confidence
The note ringing out from the bass in my hands was jarring and dissonant. I quickly stopped it and frantically tried to find out which key we were playing in. If you had been in my head a few moments before, it might have sounded something like this...
The Mirror
Here’s the strange thing. I ask good questions for a living. As I coach worship leaders, I listen to what they say, what they leave out, what they focus on, what their perspective of reality is, and I ask questions from the OUTSIDE. I’m not better than them; I’m not a better leader than they are; I can’t outplay them as a musician. My value is that I’m not them. I’m not on the INSIDE.
Post Conference Blues
Conferences are great! I used to be the guy who would sit in the auditorium in the afterglow. I didn’t want to leave. I had been inspired, encouraged, stretched, and poured into. What I received was not just information, it was impartation. I wanted to take many of the presenters home with me.
The Biblically Ethical Use Of AI
This is a beautiful treatment of this topic by Ad Lib coach Craig Knapp.
Something I hear constantly in conversations, especially in the tech realm, is the fear that AI is replacing human jobs. Frequently, I get asked the question, “Aren’t you afraid that (fill in the blank) job will be replaced by AI?”
Singing With A Click?
“Should the singers have click in their ears?” many a worship leader has asked.
I can almost feel the visceral reactions as you read that.