Sunday, November 15

Sorry I haven’t done any set lists in a long time.  See past posts for my list of (pretty good) excuses.  ;)  But this week I HAD to post the set list, because it was just such a fun week.

Mike led this week, and he did a fantastic job!  Transitions are always better when Mike leads – he’s really got a knack for that.

Here’s the set:

WALK-IN: Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd) – sung by Krasi (Fantastic!)

Freedom Is Here (Hillsong)
You Are Good (Israel Houghton – Lincoln Brewster’s arrangement)
You Hold Me Now (United)
Revelation Song (Gateway Worship)
ON HAND: Revelation Song/Reprise
MEET & GREET: Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)

We had a great altar call after Revelation Song.  The On Hand song (basically a continuation of Revelation Song) was used during the alter call.  Awesome healings and deliverances.  The word was great today and everything went really smoothly.

Luke did Sound this morning – great job!

WORSHIP TEAM:

Mike Ingham – WL, vox
De’Reen Vyleta – vox
Loretta Ingham – vox
Tami Hoban – vox
Lex Wisniewski – keys
Krasimir Draganov – electric, vox on Wish You Were Here
Don Reed – electric
Dennis Goeske – acoustic
Bill Fetter – bass, acoustic on Wish You Were Here
Paul Friel – drums

Check out Sunday Setlists from around the world here at Fred McKinnon’s blog!

Good Stuff Happening

Wow!  …and my blog suffers serious neglect.

So we have all kinds of fun things happening with the worship team right now.  We’re (finally) recording some of our original music again.  One of the team members has a studio in his basement, where we tracked five songs one day last week with acoustic, vox, keys and some electric.  This week, a second session is scheduled for drums, and more electric leads and rhythm.  Next up: bass, backing vox and other fun things.

Also I notice that blogging and songwriting seem to compete…heavily…for the same space in my schedule.  I can’t seem to do both effectively.  I either blog or I write music, sadly.  I do not know how other people pull all this off, but my hat’s off to them.  So the good news is that my creativity in songwriting has had a bit of a surge again recently.  I’ve been coming up with some interesting stuff as well as looking at old fragments and seeing what can be done with them, if anything.  I love writing music.  I wish I had more uninterrupted quiet time and space…and skill to devote to it.

Another cool thing that’s happening is that we’re changing the structure of the worship team leadership chain a bit.  I’m still heading up the worship team and will still be leading worship, but with somewhat less frequency.  I find that when I’m off for a week, I’m able to see and hear things that I couldn’t when I was on.  When you’re on and leading, there are just too many things to juggle – it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.  But the big picture stuff comes into focus when you can step back and just observe.

This is also a great thing because it’s running in tandem with a program of training up and releasing new worship leaders on the team.  Already Krasimir led last week (October 18th), and did a fantastic job.  We have two or three others who lead on Sunday morning regularly and are great at it, and we’re starting to work with one or two others who’d be new to the experience.  What’s amazing, when I think about it, is that we really have a team that’s made up of leaders.  I can’t think of one person on the team who doesn’t lead in some capacity in the church – whether it’s on or off the worship team.  It’s great.  They’re good peeps.

Next on the agenda: Christmas Eve service.  I can’t WAIT for this!  I love the Christmas Eve service.  Partly because I just love Christmas, but also I love the possibilities.  We are going to put together a great program this year.  Hey Ben, you should probably consider dusting off your banjo.  I’ve got plans for you two.

WorshipChicks #9: Mary & Martha

Okay, we all are familiar with the account of Jesus coming to the house of Mary & Martha and their brother, Lazarus, and how Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to him while Martha grumpily slaved away in the kitchen.  There are many different angles you can come from in looking at this account.  I’m not going to get into all that, except to say that my interpretation is that Martha was not so wrong because she was serving Jesus from the kitchen, but because she did so with a wrong attitude.  It’s sort of fruitless to categorize people as “Marys” or “Marthas” and act like the “Marthas” are lesser servants of God.  We really need to be a combination of both.  At varying seasons in our lives, and even from day to day, we will be more like one or the other in whatever we’re doing, if our lives are truly devoted to Jesus.

Let me give you an example of the uncool way.  There are those who dedicate their whole lives to prayer and worship; which is great, but some do not go out and put their faith into action in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and reaching the world with the gospel.  There are others who are all about doing things for others, devoting their lives to serving others.  Fantastic.  But often times they’re too busy doing to take time to pray and seek God’s will, so all their doing can be rather fleshly indeed.

We, as worship leaders, are no different – we have this balance to keep in our lives as well.  You know as well as I do that we can become really great at the one thing and totally neglect the other.  Think of Martha as the administrator/people person in you and Mary as the dedicated worshiper and truth seeker.  How are you doing with this delicate balance?  How do you keep yourself in check?  Do you ever feel that some weeks of worship have turned out dry and “sterile”, at least for you, because you’ve focused mainly on the Martha things?  Or have you experienced total chaos with the team and gotten the “frown” from the pastor because you’re in Mary-land and forget to take care of things?

C’mon, kids, I can’t be alone in this!  Holla’back…

WorshipChicks is a forum for conversation among worship-leading women (and their allies). Read the post, join the conversation in the Comments, and feel free to blog and link to this post. Click on Mr. Linky below to enter your URL. If you just want to link your blog, but haven’t posted on the topic, do that with Mr. Linky, too! Contact me at any time with topic suggestions, ideas, and guest blog/post swap requests.

WorshipChicks #8: From Experience, Jenni Clayville

Hey Everyone!  Sorry we’ve been off the grid for a while.  I’ve been *ahem* dealing…um…with the slightly dizzying overture before the musical that is…my fourth child on the way!  I’m not sure why I just used that analogy for morning sickness, but there it is.  Anyway, I’ve asked my lovely friend, Jenni Clayville, AKA @jclayville on Twitter, to write a guest blog post for WorshipChicks for us this week.  Yay, what a treat!  Please check out her website here, and give her some love, people!  Hope you enjoy the post, and please feel free to join the discussion as always…

Have you ever…

… found yourself the only female in the worship team?
… had a difficult time “reigning” that person in?
… felt like you were always “fighting-the-alpha-male” on the team?
… found yourself with only ONE other band member at a practice… and he’s male?

Ladies… if you answered “yes” to any of these questions, know you’re not alone.

I’ve spent most of my last 15 “Worship Pastor Years” training and creating teams for student worship programs.  You’d be surprised how much training adult teams and creating boundaries for them match training up and creating boundaries for TEENAGERS.  I’m not an expert, by any means… but I do have personal experiences in what has worked well that I can share.  Let’s talk about it a bit…

Here is ONE NON-NEGOTIABLE we need to follow if we’re going to do this “right”:

Never be alone with just ONE other male in a practice!

Seriously, ladies… it’s better to just lead worship all by your lonesome self that Sunday morning than it is to subject yourself to this.  Sure… nothing may ever happen, but the Bible says not to allow even the slightest hint of immorality to be subject to question.  Our accountability is higher because we ARE in leadership so we need to make sure we are living our lives above reproach.  Plan ahead.

Now… to address some of the practical sides of the other questions:

Always be prepared – know your music before practice. Memorize it.  Know WHERE you’re going in the music and have a flow chart ready for your tech team.  You cannot ask your team members to be prepared if you’re not.  This shows your team you respect their time.  In return, they will respect YOUR time and you end up getting more done in a shorter amount of time.

Partner with the “Alpha-Male” – if you’re feel like you’re always “fighting” that one person (male or female), your best way to win is to partner with them.  Come along side them and give them certain responsibilities.  The reality is they are in search for their own significance in this whole process.  By partnering with them, you help them release amazing gifts God has given them.  This usually muffles their need to fight you for control.  It’s a win-win for everyone.

Always respond quickly – answer emails within a day.  Your team needs to know they can contact you and you’ll respond.  They need to be able to count on you.  Deal with conflict immediately… face-to-face is best.  Conflict is hard… but your team needs to know you (1) aren’t gonna ignore a problem, (2) value them and their feelings and (3) aren’t going to disrespect them AND aren’t ok with them disrespecting you.  If you respond to them quickly and in love… and they still are disrespectful towards you and your leadership position, it’s ok to cut bait for a bit and “give them a break”.  It’s better to do without the talent than it is to infect the whole team with a “diva”.

Okay.  So, now that I’ve unveiled some icky subjects.  Let’s dialogue.

Did I miss anything?  Has something else worked for you?

WorshipChicks is a forum for conversation among worship-leading women (and their allies). Read the post, join the conversation in the Comments, and feel free to blog and link to this post. Click on Mr. Linky below to enter your URL. If you just want to link your blog, but haven’t posted on the topic, do that with Mr. Linky, too! Contact me at any time with topic suggestions, ideas, and guest blog/post swap requests.

The Legend Sounds Off

Okay, remember last April when I blogged on Ralph the Legend, the infamous racquetball hero of CITW?  Here’s my official follow up on the guy.  I hope you’re reading this, Ralph!!

So…I’m in church on Sunday, and letting the news of my pregnancy “trickle down”, one person at a time (I don’t want one of those big showy announcements from the pulpit.  I’m “secretly shy”), when Ralph comes up to me and Noeleen and says, “Break it up, break it up, you two.  I have a question for you guys,” with, by the way, a deadly serious look on his face.  ”When are we going to play racquetball again??”

“Well…” I start, “that’s a really good question.  Because I don’t know if you heard, but I’m pregnant.”

(Ridiculous pause)

“What?”  (Do I detect irritation?)

“Yeah.”

(Ridiculous pause, accompanied by long, slow head turn, then whip back around)

“Why didn’t you guys think of ME in this?  What about me?!  Who am I gonna play racquetball with now?”

“But…but, Ralph…I’ll still play again once I’m feeling better and before I get really big.”

*Sigh*  ”I just can’t believe you didn’t consult me on this.  I have mixed feelings!  I’m gonna be honest with you.  It’s great news, but bad for me.”

This conversation made me so happy.  I laughed so hard.  Later on, he caught me at the Hospitality Center and said, “I feel guilty.”

“Why, Ralph?”

“Because I’m still irritated by this.  Okay, look, I’ll leave it at this.  Congratulations.  I’m happy for you.  Thanks for ruining my day.”

HA HA HA – hooooo…it made my day.  :)

How Do They DO It?!

Okay.  I just have to say, I don’t know how they do it.  These “homeschool bloggers”.  What superhuman gene did they receive that I was passed over for?  I can’t see how someone could do both successfully.  I’m talking about being a real blogger.  Not like me, I’m a pretty pathetic blogger…primarily because I don’t do it very often and I’m just not as tech savvy as my relational associations may cause some to assume. (My husband’s the techie, I’m the one who says, “Sure.  Just teach me how to use it.”)  I’m talking about these video-uploading, link-tweeting, demographic-studying, creative designing bloggers.  Who homeschool.  Wait.  Maybe I don’t know anyone who does all that.  Maybe I’m not crazy.  oO(I wonder if it’s a little crazy to brain dump all this in a blog…)  Maybe it’s not just the one-two punch combination that I find difficult, maybe it’s more like the barrage of merciless rapid-fire demolition that comes in the 7th round between the Mohammed Alis and the, well…slightly less focused contenders.  I feel like that sometimes.  Not Mohammed Ali.  That’d actually be a cool feeling.  More like the less focused contenders.  So it’s also the worship leading, songwriting, pastoring, baseball mom…ing, spread-too-thin thing.

I often describe myself as an “organized artist”…having qualities of both the pocket protected CD-alphabetizing crowd and the bohemian go-with-the-flow daydreaming crowd.  In fact, it’s sort of weird.  It’s like I can’t make up my mind which camp to stay in, or how to reconcile the two if I choose to create my own camp.  The problem is that it causes me to have too broad a scope of interests (if that’s possible) and too much of a sense of responsibility about all of them.

And then there’s that whole, “because it’s just part of life” thing.  You have to do that, because it’s just part of life.  It’s weird when you neglect those things in favor of taking care of the other things.  It’s like trying to balance your life on the end of a wet noodle.  (oo…I like that imagery.  paint it.)

This is the point in a good blogger’s blog where they come to a great conclusion.  In the case of a Christian blogger’s blog, they tie it in with scripture and you walk away without that anxious, cliffhanger feeling you experience at the end of every frussin’ bussin’ episode of LOST (including, I predict, the last episode of the last season).  You leave with a great “take away”.  Probably still some great thoughts and questions to ponder, but that’s all part of the take away.

But, I’m sorry to say, my point isn’t to have a point.  It’s mostly just to say my piece and recognize, publicly, that  I don’t get it yet.  I’m still trying to work a lot of this stuff out, and I probably always will be, to some degree.  Life is complicated…and sometimes just really hard.  When I’m in the zone, and I’m seeing myself through the lens of Jesus, I gauge my parenting (and now, homeschooling) skills not by how much knowledge my kids have stored in their brains, but by how they treat other human beings, and by how they see the world, and by how sensitive they are to the voice of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  When I’m out of the zone, I get a little hung up on unimportant things.  But thank God for grace.  God helps me pull it back together and press on.

And press on I will.

The Knight’s Dream

Homeschooling is nothing if not an adventure…and today’s adventure included Art Appreciation.  In the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling, art appreciation involves “picture study”.  Picture study, basically, is holding a reproduction of a great work of art in front of the child(ren) for a while, letting them study it well, then taking it away and asking them to tell you about the picture.  Fun, huh?  Like one of those baby shower games…only way better.  And more life enriching.

The students learn about a great artist and study six of his or her works per term (this term is Sept-Nov).  This week’s painting is The Knight’s Dream by Raphael Sanzio which, of course, THRILLED my boys, who are great fans of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle series (my fault).  RAPHAEL?!  Awesome!!! (They were only slightly less thrilled when I explained that it wasn’t the teenage mutant ninja turtle, but the guy he was named after.  But still…)

So the boys looked at the painting for a while, then I turned it away from them and let Sean start.  He did pretty well for a 7-year-old who’d rather be karate-chopping and takin’ names.  He said that he saw a young knight, whom he thought was in his grave, since the one lady was bringing flowers to him.  And he described the other lady well, and the castle, etc.  Great start, I thought.  (Interesting insight on the grave thing.)

Then Liam opened his mouth and blew me away.  He said, “I see a young, untrained knight…and this is just my personal opinion…and he’s having a dream of who he’ll be someday.  Young knights don’t fight with real swords, they fight with wooden sticks, so he’s dreaming about having a great sword of his own one day.  And also a really great handbook for knights, about horses and swords and all the things knights need to know.  And he’s also dreaming of getting married, and that’s what the young, beautiful lady is representing.  The flowers represent getting married.  And the other lady is sort of like a maid.  That’s why she’s the one handing him the tools he’ll need to be a great knight.  He’s also dreaming of the castle he wants to live in someday, instead of the small house he lives in now.  And you see he’s kind of smiling, so it’s obviously a good dream.”

He’s 9, by the way.

Char Mason is My Homegurl

Okay…so this is my 30-second post. Picture me saying all of this really really really fast. I’m trying to. My typing WPM is not what it used to be. Which means, yeah…it used to be up around 60, it’s now dangling on the edge of hunt & peck at around 20. Pathetic. But I digress (so frequently and with such vigor).

It’s Labor Day! And that’s great. Everyone’s going boating or camping or fishing or…whatever they do on Labor Day. Wonderful. And I’m not jealous. I mean, seriously, I just got back from an awesome songwriting conference in Santa Cruz. Before that I went camping with the fam. My getaway cup runneth over.

But I’m still working.

I just discovered the Charlotte Mason Method of homeschooling and I’m sooo sold. To briefly describe the method with my own introductory understanding, the idea is to use “living books”, as opposed to dry text books, for learning; putting children in direct contact with the great works, authors, composers and artists. Instead of testing what they DON’T know, the focus is more on what they have learned and their unique retelling of information absorbed. They learn composition through narration (the retelling of a passage read or heard). They learn natural science by experiencing it. The books they read/listen to are not dumbed down. They’re reading Dickens and Kipling in the early grades. Courses include (besides the usual basics) literature, history, geography, art appreciation, music appreciation, foreign language, poetry, and the formation of good habits. Sweet.

The only problem is that it’s September 7, and I need to get homeschooling rolling. I scheduled myself to start today, but I think it’s going to take the better part of the day just to figure out a plan for the week/term/year. Why couldn’t I have discovered this in May?! Anyway…it’s cool. Just gotta hit the books.

By the way, if you’re curious, here are a couple of great sites about Charlotte Mason method:

http://simplycharlottemason.com/
http://www.amblesideonline.org/

SIDE NOTE: I can’t believe how darned near hostile some people can get toward you when they hear you homeschool. It reminds me of the breastfeeding/formula debate. *sigh* Hotheads.

UPDATE: People are still hotheads. And we did a science study today. It was fun. Beehives and sketch pads were involved.

Songwriting Conference

I’m so excited! I’m flying to San Jose, CA, next week for the Christian Songwriters Conference at Mt. Hermon. I’ve been finding lately that I get a lot of “blocks” to my songwriting. Oh, let’s face it, “lately” means “since I had children”. I don’t want to use that as an excuse anymore. I also want to get as much knowledge as I can about the art of songwriting so I can use what time I am able to carve out for myself to hone my craft and write really good, meaningful material.

The time to myself. The surroundings (Mt. Hermon is set among the Redwoods). The company of songwriters, musicians and worship leaders. I need this. Even today – I’m trying to pick a set list in a room with three children, ages 3 (well, nearly 3) to 9, crashing matchbox cars, jumping around and arguing at the top of their little, but well-developed, lungs. I’m as much a multi-tasker as the next woman, but it can be overwhelming.

So if you think of it next week, please say a quick prayer for me. Pray that God will refresh me and help me to really hone my songwriting skills. Pray that he’ll give me great, innovative ideas; increase my skills; reveal his heart to me for the church and for the lost; and draw me closer to himself.

Worship Chicks #7: Out of the Zone

WorshipChicks is a forum for conversation among worship-leading women (and their allies). Read the post, join the conversation in the Comments, and feel free to blog and link to this post. Click on Mr. Linky below to enter your URL. If you just want to link your blog, but haven’t posted on the topic, do that with Mr. Linky, too! Contact me at any time with topic suggestions, ideas, and guest blog/post swap requests.

Hey Worship Chicks!

Sorry it’s been so long. My family and I were camping in Wisconsin for two weeks. Yep. I’m either tough or crazy. Maybe a little of both.

How about something fun this week? Let’s hear your best out-of-comfort-zone moment stories! Many great lessons are learned (and learned well) when we are out of the zone. It’s good to know we’re not alone. Share some of your stories!