Faceless International

I have been working with Faceless International on their new website over the last few months. Faceless is an organization that helps to educate people on global issues ranging such as human trafficking and fair trade/wage. The organization was founded by Stephen Christian of Anberlin along with two of his friend Sarah and Seth. I had the opportunity to travel with Faceless to work with Guatemalan coffee farmer's this past summer.

Today we launched the interact section on the new site. We are excited about the potential for this new community and hope it become a place for people to not only discuss, but to organize their conversations into action.

I started this blog because I knew that I needed to do something about the many injustices in this world. While this blog remains small (my mom doesn't even read it), I am proud to be able to work with Faceless and hope to be able to accomplish big things.

Check out the site at: http://www.facelessinternational.com

Rehearsal Scheduling: Part 1 - It's kind of like baseball, but not really.

Recently I have made a significant change to the way that I schedule rehearsals. It is revolutionizing both the quality of our arrangements and the number of new songs that we are able to learn.

First, let me explain to you the dynamics of our worship teams. We are a small church with two bands; one for the youth program and one for the Sunday morning services (aka Big Church). We have set players in our bands 1) because I feel that playing with the same individuals week-after-week helps each band to develop its own unique sound and a bond with each other that keeps out sound tight and 2) because that is what our talent pool allows. None of our musicians are paid except for myself as the part-time Worship Arts Pastor.

In the past, I would schedule rehearsals with the intention of learning one song per rehearsal. So WEEK 1 we learn SONG A, WEEK 2 we learn SONG B, etc... The schedule was developed two to three months in advance. That way the musicians knew ahead of time how to prepare. I had used this method for years, but was never entirely happy with it.

It didn't allow us much flexibility. The songs were set months in advance. If I heard a new song that I really wanted to do, it would end up at the end of the rotation which could be two to three months out. Or worse, I would have to call an audible; Sticking the new song in and ruining the schedule.

Some songs are more challenging than others. Sometimes, we wouldn't get a song done in one rehearsal or we would discover (despite the fact that I had worked it out thoroughly in advance) that we needed to change keys or instrumentation. Once again the schedule would be completely thrown off.

To solve the problem, I sought advice from my vocal coach on how he directs choirs and bands. We decided to separate rehearsal dates (the when and where to show up) from the rehearsal schedule (the what we are playing). Now instead of attempting to learn a specific song on a specific date, we have a group of four songs which are "on deck" during a given rehearsal.

We spend about 15 minutes working on each of these songs. If for some reason a song isn't quite working because a player needs to spend more personal rehearsal time working out his part or we need to change keys, we move on to the next song. This way if you have a song that is particularly challenging, you can work on it for weeks on end until you are able to get it right, while still moving forward with other songs.

After we have run through all of the songs on deck for the week, one of them becomes "at bat". This is the song we feel that with a little more practice, we are most prepared debut in our next worship gathering. To tighten the song up, we give it an additional 30 minutes of rehearsal.

The "at bat" song is finalized, moved off the rehearsal schedule, and a new song is chosen from a roster of songs that are in waiting to be on deck. This is where the flexibility lies. We are able to keep a list of potential new songs and pull from any song on that list. Because the team has already been working on three new songs (the ones that are currently on deck) for a week or longer, it is ok if they are not completely familiar with this brand new song at rehearsal.

With the last 30 minutes of rehearsal, we are able to quickly touch the rest of the line-up for our upcoming set.

There are many advantages to this method, but I think the biggest is that it increases the quality of our music. Instead of a volunteer musician having to learn a new song every week, they are able to develop their parts over time. In addition, because we are going to be spending only 15 minutes per song each week, it challenges them to do more preparation on their own. Using rehearsals as a time to learn the songs is no longer an option, they must put in more time on their own.

One tip that didn't fit any where else. I find that keeping a 50/50 mix of simple and complex songs on deck helps to keep things flowing smoothly. Plus nothing is more encouraging than that one practice where you are actually able to bust out two brand new songs.

In part two (which will be much shorter, I promise), I'm going to talk about how I have started using Google docs to keep the schedule up to date and put a stop to the infamous "What are we rehearsing tonight?" emails/voicemails.

Majoring on the Minor (aka AKA the infamous, I'm going to start blogging again post)

It is so easy to get head of ourselves. I stopped blogging because I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue with the blogger.com platform. Being a designer, I thought that if I moved to Wordpress, I could design a fancy template. So I moved my domain, installed Wordpress, and there my blog died.

This is what an old business partner of mine would always call majoring on the minor. It is so easy for me to become so involved in the details of what I am doing, that it distracts me from what I am actually doing.

For me this my great "potential killer". So much vision, so much destiny wasted on the details. Don't get me wrong details are important; brilliant design, intricate musical arrangements, thorough-well-thought-out plans are great. But if planning keeps you from doing, then it is a waste.

This past Sunday, I walked into band rehearsal and said, "Today, let's just keep it simple." And tonight we had a tremendous evening of worship. There were no big guitar solos or mind-blowing arrangements, just the band, the students and myself connecting with God.

In that spirit, I relaunch this blog.

What minor details are YOU majoring on?

Fair Trade for Your Feet

As promised a few weeks ago, here are some resources for fair trade items. Sarah had asked me a while back where you could find fair trade shoes. I have a short list of online retailers who sell fair trade footwear. I believe this list is fairly accurate, you may want to double check me, because I did the research a few months ago. I haven't purchase from any of these companies yet.

These first two are actually owned by the same company:

http://www.simpleshoes.com (bonus - they are eco-friendly)

http://www.teva.com/index.aspx

New Balance seems to be a good brand. As long as you don't buy ones that are made in China they are pretty much guaranteed to be fair trade.

http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=270

My First Country Single...

Some how my heart has embraced the melody of country western music and my soul has begun singing with all the twang that my voice cannot muster. As I made my journey down the hallway toward that place where I attempt to sleep, a prayer in the form of lyrics that earlier I couldn't force enough creativity to produce came with the a splendor of a CMT top 10.

While it is typically my nature to immediately dispel any thought that is accompanied by pedal-steel guitar, this thought needed to be shared. They are not complete and probably will not be anytime soon, but in their rawness there is a truth that I need to hold on to right now.

You'd think that I'd lived enough
that I'd have something worth saying now
You'd think that I'd dreamed enough
that I'd quit or they'd go away

I want to do great things
God help me with the small.

God help me with the small. How quickly do we forget that? Some how we convince ourselves that:

A. Somehow we can just go straight from mediocre to great.

B. Only the big matters

C. We we have the power to accomplish anything within ourselves.

That relates to me in a few straight forward ways:

A. I have to write a bunch of crappy songs in order to write one great song. Creativity takes works. I often forget that. I want instant gratification. Hit song, now. Award winning design in 2 minutes. Write a book on an airplane ride. Solve the world's problems with one blog. One small step at a time. That is how you get there.

B. It is not all about the end goal. The journey matters. The organizing, the planning, the little jobs that you do not want to do because they are tedious or just plan suck; these are things that make a project, a worship service, or an organization great.

C. I only breathe because God makes it so. There is nothing that I or anyone can do without His strength. He is all powerful; I have no power. Anything that I do is only because He permits it. Without His grace, I would cease to exist.

Where is the thing you hoping for instant gratification? What is the small that you have been overlooking or avoiding? What are you trying to do by your own power?

American "Worship" Idol

Warning: If you haven't watched the Thursday results show to American Idol and want to be surprised by the opening song, then do not read this.

Ok, so with that out of the way, apparently there has been a moderate sized controversy brewing over the grande finale to Wednesday's "Idol Gives Back." Due to the fact that my DVR cut out before the end of the show, I was completely unaware of even the possibility for controversy. With all the splendor and musical mediocrity that is a mid-90's Integrity worship tune, the top 8 closed out the show with a rendition of "Shout to the Lord."

For most of the world the controversy lies in the fact that they cut Jesus from the first line of the first verse. For those who weren't offended by the first performance, the idol's came back with a second performance to open Thursday's show, this time including the name of Jesus.

So the controversy begins. The lyric change was a bad idea on Idol's part and perhaps the backtracking was even worse, but that is the type of thing that is to be expected from a national television show. I'm not really shocked and their decision doesn't affect my faith and I doubt it affects the faith of many other Christ-followers. It probably was not the deciding factor on someone's decision to follow Christ either. So while it was disappointing, it is not the controversy that I wish to explore.

We could examine the irony that is self-proclaimed idols singing a worship song towards God, but perhaps they weren't singing towards God. Maybe then we should explore that controversy. Does a "secular" musician singing a "Christian" song affect its "Christianess"? Does a Christian singing a "secular" song make it "Christian"? It is a worthwhile discussion, but it is not the thought that plagues me tonight. Instead, I intend to aim for a seemly more shallow discourse.

Here I go: How horrible was that arrangement? It was everything that is anything that is cheesy about "Christian" music. In all fairness, I have to disclose that "Shout to the Lord" is not one of my current favorite worship tunes. It is a beautiful song. The words and melody are wonderful. I have sang it many, many times; however, I have grown tired of it. In my opinion it has been over sung. In addition to being over sung, it has become dated.

Please understand that I am not the guy who thinks that all music older that 10 minutes is old. I love hymns and I enjoy pulling out old standards and giving them new life. I just wish they had done the same with this song. On a show that criticizes singers for poor or dated arrangements, they pulled off the perfect mid-90's inspirational ballad. And it seems like they got away with it. This leaves me afraid for several reasons.

Night after night, American Idol rocks the stage with some fresh new musical takes on a variety of musical styles, but when it comes to the worship song they go mediocre. Is this the best that Christianity has to offer? My fear is that a majority of Christians thought that this was a great version of the song while the non-church attending masses were thinking "I am glad American Idol doesn't sound like this every week." If the majority of the songs in season 7 sounded akin to this version of "Shout to the Lord"; I highly doubt there would be a season 8.

Which makes me think that perhaps this is why for many people there isn't a Sunday after Easter?

I truly believe that worship through music should be a form of evangelism. The best band in any town should not be the one that plays at a bar. It should be the one that plays at our Sunday morning worship gatherings. I cannot think of a better way to engage a society that is driven by pop music than to present the gospel via that same medium.

Please understand, I am not saying good worship music is about style. Neither am I trying to detract from the main focus of worship music which is the worship of God. Rather, I wish to make a point that as a secondary purpose worship music is about connecting those who are disconnected. Whether it is country, rock, pop, hip-hop, r&b or one of the other dozens of styles out there, I believe that if we present musical worship in a way that is creative and that people can enjoy, God will use it to connect people to Him.

It is common for great bands who do not reinvent themselves in order to keep up with current musical tastes to fall out of favor and fade into non-existence. Unfortunately, I believe the same can happen with the church. I am not speaking of changing our message. For just as rock music will always sing about common human themes such as love, pain, beauty, and the quest for truth; our message will always be that God's love is unconditional, He can heal the pain, He makes all things beautiful, and He is the Truth.

Fair Trade is Hard

This year I made a personal commitment to buy more goods that are fair trade. It is not going so well.

If I was looking for coffee, then it would be easy. In fact, if you are looking for coffee may I recommend 963Coffee. (I will be going on a trip to Guatemala that is partnering with 963 to promote fair trade, more about that in another blog.) Alas, I do not drink enough coffee to feel that I am living up to my fair trade commitment.

What then shall I do?

For me the big issue is clothing. There are other fair trade issues out there, but clothing seems to be the largest portion of my spending that I know is made by people who are likely not being treated fairly.

How then shall we change this? To start, much research. I have done some research, but it's not easy. For the life of me, I cannot find fair trade clothing that is affordable (not cheap, just affordable), stylish and easy to obtain. Walking into a department store is out of the question. Fair trade and major retailers do not seem to go together. A few of them, such as the Gap, have adopted a "supplier code of conduct"; however, the actual implementation of this code is spotty at best.

I wish that I could say, "you can buy all your clothing from XYZ source and feel assured that it is a fair trade product", but it is much more complicated. Over the next few days, I plan on posting what I have found in my research. If anyone has some good resources, I'd love to see them in the comments sections.

Album Review: Jared Anderson - Where Faith Comes From

This is not so much a review as it is me telling you to go to iTunes and download this album. Every song on it is incredible. The lyrics are raw and honest and the melodies are powerful. It's what Ben Folds would sound like if he put out a "worship" album.

Track 1, Promises, will definitely be integrated into my upcoming sets. This Is Life, track 7, is a song that everyone needs to hear with it's poignant statement that "this is life and it's hell if you only live for yourself."  

I could go on about the entire album, but you should just head over to his myspace and check it out yourself.

Music Worship without Interuption

Tonight at 24.7, we had an entire night of musical worship. No message, just 10 songs, an offering and some closing announcements. It has been a long time since I have been able to lead an entire hour of music. I really miss it.

Music creates such an instant connection. You say something over and over again and people won't get it, but put it in a song and somehow information transforms. "Conjunction Junction what's your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses..." communicates so much better than "an uninflected function word that serves to conjoin words or phrases or clauses or sentences." It's so easy to say or instruct "surrender everything to God" but when you sing "Jesus, I surrender" it somehow penetrates the soul. That's because for most people, singing is honest. It is hard to sincerely sing without being sincere. We can lie in prose, but somehow melody forces us to tell the truth.

Tonight there were students kneeling and crying out to God. Sincere prayers that were not coaxed or prodded - there was no come to Jesus speech. The spirit of God used the music to move them. I could hardly hold back tears as I tried to sing. It was incredible. It was also tiring.

After a 10 song set, I am completely exhausted. There is something about crying out at the top of your lungs that will wear you out. It is a special exhaustion that is brought on by worship. Not just worship in the form of music either, but most forms.

I worked construction for many years with my father and would often come home exhausted; however, my exhaustion was mainly physical, sometimes mental, but my spirit never felt the impact. It was like there was something inside of me that wanted to "do more" even though my body could not handle it. I have also worshiped through construction. Various missions or church projects have given me more than my share of days doing manual labor and somehow the exhaustion from those days is different. At the end of those days when you rest it is like you are really resting. Your whole self is on the same page and sleep feels good.

I know that sounds weird, but for me, sleep doesn't always feel good. It does not hurt or anything, but it takes me a while to fall asleep at night. My mind, my spirit, tend to keep me up as they wander through my day and my future. I find myself asking, "Why do I need to sleep? There is so much more to do." So sleep becomes less rest and more a "if I don't do this I'll die" thing.

But tonight, I do not think I will have trouble sleeping. You see, I don't have to think about the day or the future. By exhausting myself through worship, I have fulfilled my day. There is nothing better that I could have done with my day. As for tomorrow, who worries about tomorrow when they had such a great today?

What if in Mathew 6 when Jesus says "do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own", he wasn't telling us not to worry as much as he was telling us to make today count.

Worry that tomorrow could be like today? On a day where you feel you have completely fulfilled your destiny, you do not worry, instead you have hope of seeing another day of the same.

Perhaps this is why the bible says that the true act of worship is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. (Rom 12:1) Whether through song, justice or whatever God has called you to do, when you have pushed your body to exhaustion through worship it is worship in the truest form.