Jason Lee: Worship Blog

Many churches are dying today but no one is willing to do anything about it.  We’ve become too comfortable in what is safe and familiar to us in our own churches that we hold on to beliefs, programs and traditions that satisfy US.  Meanwhile the world is going to hell and we sit back and watch and just hope and pray that somehow they’ll come into our worship services and be changed for eternity.  We’ve become nothing more than a country club for Christians that look and act just like us.  In fact if you’re comfortable with everything you’re doing at your church – you probably aren’t doing anything that will reach people that aren’t like you!
 
The number of Christians is declining in America and the numbers for every single denomination is dying.  If Jesus is still the same as he was – then the only reason we are losing is because of US.  Don’t blame others, let’s blame ourselves.  It’s [...]

 
So you’re bored with your church’s music and you want to change.
 
BEFORE YOU EVER CHANGE ANYTHING MUSICALLY IN YOUR CHURCH – YOU SHOULD ANSWER THIS QUESTION:
 
What is the purpose of corporate worship in your church?
 
I know that sounds like a very basic question.  But it’s extremely important.
Most people should answer this question one of two ways.  Depending on how you answer will determine what TYPE of change you should make.
 
Most churches either believe that the purpose of their corporate worship is either
  1) RESTORATION   or   2) TRANSFORMATION. ( I know those are really churchy words and I’m sorry, I don’t like them either!)
 
Restoration – is for churches that come together to worship so they can “prepare” to go out into the world and survive another week.  In other words, they need a weekly gathering to focus on Jesus so they can be refreshed, renewed [...]

I’m going to make a lot of people mad with this statement but it’s the truth - the instrumentalists in your band are the most important element on your team.  Don’t tell your singers, but your band is actually more important than they are!  Listen, don't you think if Kurt Cobain can make it as a singer, anyone can?  Vocalists, now that you're good and offended, hang with me.  With a good band behind you, singers can hit a number of wrong notes and most people simply won’t notice.  I’ve been around long enough to figure out when your band is pitiful, people say “those singers just aren’t that good”.  However, if you have a kicking band with average singers, people compliment the entire team.  If you don’t believe me, ask your sound tech if he’s ever “solo-ed” a singer in the headphones. (By the way, if he's any good he has, but that's a different topic.)  In most cases it ain’t [...]

Some churches pay their instrumentalists, some are made up of volunteers.  I’ve been on both sides of the coin.  There was a time in my life that I got paid very well to play a B-3 organ for the worship services at a large church.  To be honest, it was a portion of my income that I needed in order to support my family.  If they would have taken that away and asked me to volunteer, I probably would have made the decision to leave the church because that was a major source of income for me at the time. (There was nothing wrong with the church at all, but I needed the money). However it was never fair.  It was a church that had grown from the traditional pianist and organist to a full band and orchestra.  Yet for some reason, they still only paid the pianist and organist and no one else.  Even though the other players were putting as much of their time and effort into it if not more than I was – I somehow got paid to do it and they didn’t.  [...]

We’ve all witnessed it. Most worship leaders, myself included, have planned it.  We plan a worship service and then let someone else ruin it.  There was a time when I used a rotation of soloists.  Some were incredible, but if I’m being honest, most of them just took a way from the over all theme of the service.  I got into the habit of scheduling different soloist to sing a song of THEIR choice to be included in the worship service.  Why? Probably because that’s what everyone else does, so I thought I should too.  I later realized that I was mistakenly communicating the wrong thing to God, the congregation and to the artist. 
 
Worship ministries do not exist to further the artistic development of our worship volunteers!  (Read that sentence again and let it sink in).  I would plan moments of worship, pray about it, change it, add something, take something out, practice it and realize something else would be better in order [...]