Everything has its pros and cons

The entire KP music team will have something to say about this next comment, but it's just true.

Having the metronome is a really great thing, but some times it can be so confusing.

Today we played:
Your Grace is Enough (Chris Tomlin Version)
Consuming Fire (Tim Hughes)
Grace that is Greater (Bart Millard)
I Could Sing of Your love (Delirious)
Not to Us (Matt Redman)

It was a good set and everyone did a great job playing/singing.

However, on "Your Grace," We spent most of the song, or at least I did, finding our way back to the metronome. Either we wanted to play it faster, or a couple of us were dragging the others away from the metronome, or the metronome was possessed. Either way, I could just not enjoy that song 'cause all I could do was fight to stay with that thing.

The rest of songs were very natural and the metronome fit right in, and we with it. What was unfortunate about it was the fact that it was the first song and it may have given us, and those gathered, a rocky start to the worship.

We're still learning a lot about wearing in-ear monitors. Everyone uses them differently, but I'm more and more convinced that everyone should have control of their own. It sounds ridiculous, but the ideal way to go is to have an Aviom and a wireless system for each of the front people. It just seems like such a ridiculous waste of money, but communicating with the booth and getting what you need from the system are just way more difficult, and costly, than just buying the darn things.

I'll have to get some more equipment when we can afford to do that. In the mean time, thanks to our sound people for being ever so patient with us.

You might have to be on-stage to appreciate this next part, although I'm sure it will make perfect sense. It really takes some getting use to when all you hear is what's coming out of your headphones, but I've gotten so used to it now that I just feel like I'm right in there with everyone, sitting in a chair just worshiping alongside the others. If the metronome is set to a good tempo for the band, I don't even notice it there. I guess if I distrusted the person mixing the house you might not be able to concentrate, but I do trust the people back there, so as long as I can hear what I need to worship and to lead, I'm good; and that's a really big blessing to me.

I got a few pictures today from one of our photographers. I really like the lighting in these.

Walk it off!

I always thought telling someone to walk off an injury was kind of stupid. If I've hurt my ankle or my knee, how will walking help? I know it applies some times, and it's not always bad advice, it's just odd.

Well, we had to "walk it off" Sunday. Everything for first service went as planned. Then second service got off to a good start. We played:
Friend of God (D)
The Heart of Worship (D)
Grace that is Greater (G)
Open the Eyes of My Heart (E)
Everlasting God (B)

However, it was when we got to Everlasting God during second service that we ran into unexpected problems. They were not only unexpected, they were unexplainable. There was a strange feedback noise coming from the guitarist's (Aleks) effects pedal, the wireless in-ears were dropping in and out, even the Avioms were behaving in that way. We have no clue what happened, why it happened, or how to avoid it. After service we tried to figure it out and could not. Your guess is as good as mine.

The "walk it off" bit is that we just played right through it. I thought "maybe the guitar is a little wak and my ears are losing the battery, the rest of the band is fine, we'll keep going." Little did I know. So what did we do? We "walked it off," we played through.

I don't know what the church heard (or thought), but I was really proud of us for playing through it in what seemed like a pretty strong way.
After we "played it through," we laughed it off. Hope it doesn't happen next week.

Oh, and cudos to Nancy on her first week at keyboard; she did a fantastic job. And thanks to Carri for filling in at the last minute.

June 14, 2009

Week 3 in the building!

I'm putting a picture on this post of Sam and I only because it's the only picture I got from one of our photographers. Otherwise I would put something more inclusive up here.

It's so funny how different things are for the band on Sunday mornings.
I came in at about 7:10 and I just sat down at the coffee shop, checked my email, brewed some coffee, and then casually walked into the worship space. It used to be 6:30 am, Kevin's waiting for me 'cause I have the key to the school, and then hit the closet with a furry.

Then, we got through all the songs during our sound check, with time to spare. Ahhh!

There are several things I want to remark about this week and I'll start with the people that stick out in my mind.

We were blessed to have Rich play guitar with us. He's been a friend of KP for some time and has seen us go from school to ministry center. He's a great guitar player and he did an awesome job of stepping in last minute and playing with us.

Everyone really did a great job, but a highlight for me was our drummer, Jason. He's really a different drummer than he was 9 months ago (approx.) when he started playing with us, and I'm just really excited to watch his journey.

Someone said something to me about the young fellow that plays piano at church. That's Sam. They highlighted mostly the passion with which he plays and worships. Then the photographer told me that if I would keep my eyes open a bit more we could have a few more good pictures. I agree with him, but I am so thankful to be on a team with people who are passionate and not afraid to show it. May we serve with a pure and holy passion always.

It never fails, however, that something doesn't go the way you want it, or that someone really didn't like what happened. Fortunately, for me, I didn't get to hear any of that, but our good friend Bryan, the sound man, did. I guess the music was too loud for someone's taste and they let him know. I hate he has to deal with that. He, and all the techs, really work hard as a team with me and other leaders, and then they single-handedly bare the brunt of the complaints. I don't want to pick on anyone, but I do want to reflect on the eternal discussion of volume and music at church.

"I don't like the music style."

"I think it's too loud."

"It's not loud enough."

"Turn down the guitar." (I always laugh a little on this one because I just know enough guitar players to know how that makes them feel)

Obviously I can't solve any of that on a blog, but I want to take a stab at some of the things that I believe are at the root of this problem.

I spent a lot of my formative years in church and I still vividly remember the music and the lyrics. I remember fondly what it was like to sing in the church choir, and in special productions they called Cantatas. Still don't know what that means.

I remember my friend Josh getting lead parts as a singer and actor in those and thinking he was the man.

I watched some of my friends play the guitar and just wished I could do half of what they could do.

Then I had the guilt of not taking piano lessons seriously when I realized playing the piano could have been such a cool thing (sorry mom!)

Church music has evolved for me considerably, but it's been a more natural growth for me from something I did in church, to something that more closely resembles what I was listening to outside of church.

I'm taking the long, long way to say that I think at the root of the volume problem at church is not that it's in fact too loud, but that we don't like the kind of music that's being played. It's one thing for a desirable noise to be loud and a whole other thing when something that you just don't find interesting has you cornered and you can't get away. Of course, that can't be the universal answer to the volume question, but I definitely think it's a good start. If you don't like the music, you don't really want to hear it loud or soft.

Lots of people don't like the rock n' roll guitar sound. They don't enjoy the high gain crunchyness of the guitar. I love it! It's very common, and necessary, in contemporary worship music, and for those who like it, it touches something very deep inside of us. It's literally "moving," as weird as that may sound.

Now, the volume and music discussion will be around for all generations, but at KP, we will continue to live in the tension of making worship comfortable for as many people as possible, while holding to the idea that we cannot play music that absolutely everyone will like, and that we cannot be a one-size-fits-all environment when it comes to worship or to anything, for that matter. That was definitely a run-on. Sorry!

We will do as good a job as possible with the genre we feel called to, and we will do it all to the glory of God, and with a missional attitude. We will be as balanced as we can be without compromising artistic or biblical integrity.

The dialog is always welcome, and we might be slow to change, but we will always do so with the leading of the Spirit and the leadership of faithful people who are laboring for the gospel side-by-side with us. I don't mean to dismiss any questions about volume. I'm simply affirming our vision and inviting the conversation, wherever it takes us.

After all that blah blah blah. It was a great day of ministry at KP and I pray people were ushered into God's presence and had the opportunity to ponder the questions posed by the "Payday" sermon:

What is my motivation in giving to the church?
Why does the church needs financial resources?
Am I giving because I have to or because I'm a part of a mission?
Am I giving my resources or my heart to God?

Thanks PD for a very challenging message.

Are we getting the hang of it?

Another week of ministry in our new building has come and gone, and it was another great week.
I had to be gone for the first service, because I was flying in from Oregon, but I was there for second service.
Everything went really well; the lights folks had to improvise, and they did great; the video tech did a nice job of keeping up with a different worship leader; the sound tech has nearly mastered that new high-tech machine; the band did an amazing job without me, too good of a job really.
I want to thank of all the above mentioned folks for their hard work. Doing ministry, as a lay person or as clergy/staff, can be a very draining task, but I pray it was also a fulfilling experience.

So here are some of the things we're learning:
-We cannot over-train in any of our tech jobs. All four+ jobs need ongoing training simply because we keep running into stuff that we had not encountered before.
-Communication is really important, in ways we don't even know about yet. Maybe we should have a short meeting before church every week to go over little details.
-Set up and tear down is a good little chunk of work. Those teams are nothing short of heroes.
-We need more volunteers all around the church. Let's do this, if you're reading this, you are agreeing to our site agreement that to read is to volunteer?

There is no such agreement, but if you want to volunteer, there is a place for you at KP.

Oh, the set list for this week was:
Sweetly Broken
Not to Us
What a Savior (a Jill Phillips arrangement)
Beautiful the Blood
We Fall Down (the Kutless version)

Great job Sam, Ethan, Doug, Kasie, and Aleks!

See you next week.

Our first day on Meadow View

Ever since Sunday I've been thinking about starting a blog for Kaw Prairie. I finally sat down to do it.

I'm entirely sure what I will put on this blog, but for now I want to start with reflections from our first day in our new toolbox, the ministry center on K-7 and Prairie Star Parkway, in western Johnson County.

What a day!

Unfortunately for you, you'll get to read most of my impressions. If you could talk to Kaw Prairiers, you'd get a much cooler, and more diverse story.

Sunday started off being interesting when I realized I was the first guy at the building. To my great surprise, the key I'd been given worked. Woohoo!

My priorities going in the door were, make sure everything still turns on, get my instruments ready, prepare anything I can for the band and singers, make sure everyone knows what they're doing, make sure I go to the bathroom before church, and try to stay awake.

I was worried about a few things: will it sound good? Will we remember the music? Will the systems all work like they're supposed to? Will people be really freaked out? Will it be worship or just some kind of showcase?

All things considered, it all turned out perfectly. The band did an awesome job. We even improved some stuff. The ushers knew what they were doing, the greeters seemed to be smiling plenty, the tech stuff was sweet, and nobody made the bitter-beer face when the lights dimmed and we started singing.

Don't like to see the bitter-beer face in church.

It wasn't until the end of the second service that I breathed and realized what was happening. PD had just inspired us with a fresh coat of paint on our calling, the church had responded to worship, and nobody seemed to be frustrated with anybody else.

It really was a great day!

Now I'm sitting at an airport lamenting the fact I'm going to miss first service of week 2, but feeling very thankful that Kaw Prairie exists because of people who serve with passion and authenticity, and who work really hard for the Kingdom of God in our little corner of the world.

Church tomorrow will go well; the band will do great; the tech stuff will be classy; ministry on the prairie will be fun and authentic, like the Mexican food we all love so much (right?).

Oh, and the songs we did were:
You are Worthy of my Praise
Not to Us
Take my life
Breathe
How Great is our God/How great thou art.

That was a fun set.