Tag Archives: worship

Understanding Is Not Our Job

A question I get asked often, and one that I’ve asked myself, is “How do we as visual worship leaders help the congregation understand the visual media we use?”

The conclusion I’ve come to is this: getting the congregation to understand the visual elements we as visual worship leaders use during worship is not our job.

Art is by nature open to interpretation – each person is going to walk away with a slightly different understanding. The same is true of the message given by the pastor on a Sunday morning – each person, based on where they’re at in their journey, their past experiences, etc., is going to walk away with a slightly different understanding. And that’s okay!

I’m not sure we’re asking the right question when we ask “How do we help the congregation understand?” Perhaps a better question is “How do we help the congregation engage with visual media?” Although I think we have to be careful in defining what “engaged” looks like as it too looks slightly different for everyone. And while I contend that understanding isn’t our job, I think we do have a responsibility to invite people to engage with the visual media in worship…to create an environment where people feel free to worship with their eyes and through their eyes. I think without that we fail to lead…without the invitation to participate I think it can quickly become a show for ourselves. It is no different than the invitation a musical worship leader offers for people to join their voices in song.

So what exactly does that look like in a service? There are as many answer to that question as there are churches. But, based on my experience, here are a few things I’ve seen work:

  • A couple of sentences in a bulletin or program of some sort literally inviting people to engage with the visuals and helping them feel free to walk away with a meaning that is significant to them.
  • A similar message to the above but one that appears on the screen before the worship service.
  • I think the most powerful is an announcement from the “stage.” Whether that announcement comes from the pastor or the music worship leader, taking two minutes to invite people to engage visually in worship and conveying the freedom to find meaning in the visuals is extremely powerful.

Whatever it looks like in your environment, don’t worry so much about understanding…that’s something we can’t really control, but don’t forget the invitation.

Have you seen this done in your church’s worship environments? If so, how?

Comment Visual Worship

Just a Building

I spent this past weekend visiting my family in Minnesota. I was paging through a church anniversary book when I came across something that made my heart smile. The book was celebrating the 125th anniversary of what was my one grandpa’s childhood church and the one where my other grandpa was involved in a major building project. There is something sweet about the blending of the two sides of my family in that one church.

I was paging through the book and found a letter my grandpa wrote at the end of the building project. They had successfully moved the hundred year old church building to a new location, all stained glass windows in tact, and added on to it the space they needed. The result served their people well.

My grandpa passed away four years ago and I smiled when I read the last line of his letter: “The church building itself is the structure that we worship and glorify God in. The real church is the people.”

I think my grandpa was wiser than I knew.

1 Comment Deep Thinking, Just Life

Live it. Sing it. See it. Worship.

A couple of weeks ago, Stephen Proctor wrote this post about 3D Worship. The idea is that worship has 3 dimensions – up, across, and out. If you haven’t read it, you should. I think we are pretty good at expressing the up dimension most of the time and even doing well with the across dimension. The whole out dimension, however, I think the Church struggles with. We sing a lot of songs about “out” but how often do our visuals reflect that? I don’t think they do a lot of times. How often does worship flow from being focused on the out? Sadly, I don’t think very often. I would contend that part of that is because we aren’t living the out. When we live the out, the out dimension of worship flows naturally – both as we worship corporately and how we as visual worship leaders lead.

Last week I had the opportunity to lead some visual worship for just under a 100 teens at Hope Experience in Memphis. First, let me say, if you don’t know Paul Briney, you need to! Truly an example of a worship leader. Not someone who stands up to perform but someone who stands in front of a group of people broken and humbly pouring out his heart to lead others to worship freely from their hearts. That makes an incredible difference. If that isn’t happening, I’m not sure that what I put up on a screen is going to matter a whole lot. Leading and serving with Paul and all of the others involved was truly an honor. There were some incredibly powerful moments in worship but I wanted to share my top three. Moments that I look at and say “Thank you, Jesus! This is how it should all work together.” Moments where the music and the images on the screen become the backdrop and people are truly worshiping freely and with their whole hearts.

Moment #1:
Song: You are Here (Same Power) by Hillsong
Media: Christ in Me Longplay from worshipVJ
Context: The constant prayer for the week was “Christ, may you live in us. May we reflect your love. May you be glorified.” As we were serving the community, that was our focus – to share the hope that we have because Christ lives in us. We prayed it, we lived it, then we sang it and saw it on a screen. We worshiped.
Why it moved me: First, I simply LOVE this longplay. LOVE it! On this particular night we were worshiping and I looked at the three slides that were coming up and where the video was at. This was one of those God orchestrated moments where the words & the video timing matched up and I paused the video on this screen. Sure, the image wasn’t crystal clear & polished as a result but it fit. It worked with the mood and couldn’t be more perfect for the words. And we all worshiped – fully, freely, from our hearts.

Moment #2:
Song: God of this City by Bluetree
Media: Walking Street Sample (I think I got this for guessing the fact that Proctor didn’t like the use of Papyrus in Avatar:)) You can find a similar loop on the new Playback Drive though. As well as self created photo video.
Context: Serving the city of Memphis every day – taking Christ’s light to the darkness, His hope to the hopeless, & His peace to the restless. We lived it then we sang it and saw it on a screen.
Why it moved me: I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’ve sang that song. And on different occasions in different contexts and at different points in my personal journey it has had unique significance. But, last week I think tops them all. When you are spending your days serving a city like Memphis and you see the darkness and have the chance to bring Christ’s light & hope this song takes on a whole new meaning! We sang this on the last night of worship. Paul encouraged everyone to worship freely – some gathered together to pray, some wrote prayers on posters outside that had been filling up throughout the week, some reflected silently, and some sang their hearts out. During the last Chorus we cut the lyrics and put up some images from the week of the hope that had been given. Wow! Talk about out. Talk about brining it home. What a powerful moment to be singing “You, God, are the God of this city…you are the hope to the hopeless,” while looking at images of how He had used us to give hope to the city of Memphis that week.

Moment #3: Acoustic Worship
One night we turned it all off. Lights off. Candles. Very few background images – lots of white text on a black screen. Everyone seated in a semi circle surrounding the candles – not facing the worship leader. A guy and his guitar. It was beautiful. We sang many of the same songs we had sung throughout the rest of the week but it’s amazing what a different feel they take on when you curate a completely different worship environment. My favorite part about it was the set up. Paul came to me about two hours before worship and told me what the plan was. He pointed to a box of candles and said he wanted them put on a platform around the projector and then the chairs arranged in a semi circle. I asked what the platform was going to be. The answer: whatever you can find. What I could find were three bread crates/trays, two empty coolers, and a case of bottled water. Arrange these items and you get a platform with some height variety. Cover it all in a couple of black sheets and place the candles on top. Done.

Did I mention our screen for the week was a full size white sheet pinned and duck taped to the wall? And that we had to cover the to windows behind it with black garbage bags to kill the light? It was great!! Seriously, it all reminded me once again that the tools are only part of the equation. Having a full stage sized, professional, triple-wide screen can be great and a powerful tool in leading worship. But so can a simple projector on a simple white sheet pinned to the wall in a gathering room with terrible acoustics at a camp outside of Memphis. At the end of the day, it’s about the heart and the focus. Through the words that were spoken, the Scripture that was read, the songs that were sung, and the media that was used people’s attention was directed not only up and across but out. And really the three dimensions intersected because one amplified another. As Proctor likes to say, the screen became a window to the world, not simply a mirror. But I think in order for that to happen we first have to live it. Then, we can sing about it and see it on and through a screen while worshiping fully and freely from the heart in a whole new way.

8 Comments Missions, Visual Worship

Heartless Worship

“I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” – Amos 5:21-24

To be honest, before now I haven’t spent a whole lot of time in the book of Amos. When I asked my pastor for his commentary on the book, he gave me a really odd look and just kind of laughed before pointing to the book on the shelf.

But, that scripture has been heavy on my heart since someone shared it with me last Thursday. I’ve read it over and over. Read commentaries on it, cross referenced it, all sorts of stuff. Spending my days planning “religious feasts” this scripture struck a cord with me and I can’t help but wonder if what I’m doing is beneficial or if God sits up in heaven laughing because it’s so absurd.

Then I stop myself.

It’s not worship that God “cannot stand.” It’s worship without heart, faith without action.

And I start to think I’m okay.

Then I stop myself again, wake myself up, and remind myself to be on guard against such worship and faith everyday, because I’ve been guilty of it, and am just as capable of it as the next person.

How can we prevent worship that God “cannot stand” from becoming the norm in our churches?

5 Comments Deep Thinking, Technology, Visual Worship

The Rhythm of Worship

A quick Google search on a definition for “rhythm” provides, among many, the following:

  • In the widest sense, a dividing into short portions by a regular succession of motions, impulses, sounds, accents, etc., producing an agreeable effect, as in music poetry, the dance, or the like.
  • The harmonious flow of vocal sounds.
  • The pattern of recurrent strong and weak accents, vocalization and silence, and the distribution and combination of these elements in speech.
  • Procedure marked by the regular recurrence of particular elements or phases.

We are surrounded by a variety of rhythms in our lives everyday. We tend to intentionally create rhythms (a.k.a. schedules) to provide order and structure for life. I think we are naturally inclined to live in rhythm. After a really busy season of life we naturally are drawn to take a step back, take a few days off, maybe a vacation. We can’t live in high gear all of the time, it wears us out.

I wonder if the same is true for our worship gatherings – they need rhythm, which by definition is variation. Perhaps the high times of great celebration would be a little bit more meaningful if we had more subdued reflective times in between. And then, maybe there are times when we don’t need to live in either extreme.

I think how we go about creating rhythm looks different in every church’s context. I had a discussion this past week about the church year calendar. For us at The CORE, celebrating specific times of the church year builds a natural rhythm of highs and lows, busy and calm, celebration and reflection, into our worship gatherings.

Do you think rhythm in worship gatherings in important? Do you build rhythm into your church’s worship gatherings? If so, how?

Comment Visual Worship

God: A Motion Background or a Foreground Video?

Earlier this week, Stephen Proctor was sending crazy late night DMs on twitter. Anne Jackson (@flowerdust) had sparked a conversation on Twitter earlier in the day about coaching and mentoring. Proctor thought he’d be funny & say he was starting worshipVJ coaching network (by the way, his next DM said NOT!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha). That sparked a conversation though about coaching. Is it good? Necessary? That led into the whole idea of “church idols” (elevating someone in the church world who we think is doing amazing stuff to the point that we worship the person not the God who gifted them). That led to the thought that sparked this blog post. The essential part of the conversation went like his:

Me: “As someone said at a conference I attended this fall we have to get behind the cross & let God use us. If we try to stand in front with him in the background we fail.”

Proctor: “In other words, God shouldn’t be a motion “background.”

Me: “VERY true! God should be the foreground image covering all and we are the background text peeking through simply trying to help people connect the dots.”

Proctor: There you go. Now go write that into a blog post.

That nugget of wisdom I’d heard at a conference – it was from Stacy Spencer who I heard speak at STORY. WOW! Amazing. I had never heard of him before that but will never forget him. Not only is he one of the best speakers I have heard but his content was rock solid. My notes from Stacy’s talk say this: Telling the story is about getting behind Calvary’s cross to tell the story so someone can see Jesus.

Back to the twitter conversation: God shouldn’t be a motion background. God should NEVER be in the background, that’s where we belong. He should be the foreground image over which nothing else can cover. Yes, God supports us and holds us up and i that way is our background but the minute we try to outshine him we have failed. The minute we think we can tell the story better than the cross can tell the story we’ve failed.

Our roll is to put God in the foreground by putting ourselves in the background. That whole “you shall have no other gods before me” includes ourselves in case you were wondering! That includes our media, our videos, our photos, our music, our cool typefaces, all of it. When we try to stand in front of the cross and tell the story we are in the way of what’s most important. However, when we get behind the cross and reflect it with our lives, in our churches, with our music, through our visuals, then God can and will use us as his tools to communicate His Story in a powerful and meaningful way.

Now, how does that apply to your specific area of ministry? Ready, set, share!


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