Do you know what I’m talking about? You know….(long awkward pause)…. quiet song …… (long awkward pause with weird, random instrument noises) …. Loud song (scared to death from the shock of the loud sound, heart rate jumps through the roof). ….. beuler….beuler…. Etc.

Picking up from last week’s episode we’re talking once again about creativity, and specifically about how to create good flow when we’re incorporating some of these creative elements. We don’t want the people whom we are trying to lead in worship to be victims of a worship tsunami, we want them to enjoy worship flow.

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders at http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by joining our network, filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

34:48

In this edition of the Worship Ministry Catalyst Podcast, David & Kevin talk about breaking out of that box and trying to do something different. I don’t want to spill the beans, so you should just listen to it!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders at http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by joining our network, filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

First, let’s start by defining what a Creative Team is (and isn’t). I’ve been doing a lot of research on other creative teams out there, and what I’ve found is that there are two types of creative teams – at least the term gets used in these two ways quite regularly. In the first it is used to describe a team of people who do the creative stuff. They’re the dancers, singers, actors, etc. This is NOT the type of creative team I will be discussing. The type of creative team I will be talking about is the group of people who meet to brainstorm creative ideas about a sermon or sermon series and creative worship elements that will enhance the point of the sermon or sermon series.

With that out of the way, I want to talk about one of the biggest hindrances to the success of a creative team – Patience. I haven’t talked with a ton of people who have been doing this, but one of the common threads in these discussions seems to be that the ideas just don’t seem to come. It seems, in our culture, we can’t be satisified unless we get the resolution we’re looking for immediately. It’s this desire that forces us to settle for the lesser creative ideas and not plow through to find the absolute best ones.

It’s like that at times – plowing. The old school kind, you know using horses or mules, etc. Coming to the best idea can be a lot of hard work and take a lot of time.

So, in your meetings, do everything you can to excercise patience. Wait. Don’t get in a hurry (if you can help it).

Also, don’t be afraid of the silence. People need time to think. You need time to think. Most people (men and women) can’t think their best if someone is always talking. Stop talking. Encourage the silence. This is the hard part, ask others to be silent. If you have someone on your team who jeopardizes the conversation, talk the him/her in private and ask them to try to allow more time for others to talk.

Along with patience and silence you need time. It’s different than patience. You need to have enough notice on what the sermon or sermon series is going to be that you don’t have to be rushed to come up with something. You’ll never get the good stuff that way. This will be something that you’ll have to work with your Senior Pastor on. It might be a hard conversation, but it’s absolutely necessary. If you’re not far enough out in advance, you’ll always be behind the eight ball, only able to do what you can accomplish at the last minute. You’ll also be frustrated. You’ll come up with really good ideas, where if you had just a couple more weeks you could pull off the really good idea, but because the weekend is only days away you’re forced to do what you can not what you could.

One last though is that your patience and time may need to span multiple meetings. (If you’re planning far enough out) you don’t need to feel like you have to come up with the final idea at this week’s meeting. One of the best creative ideas a team I was working with came as the result of four weeks worth of meetings. It won’t always take a long time, but it might. You need to give yourself the time for it to take time. You need to give yourself permission to not make a decision right away. Let it simmer in your brains for a week or two. Then after the whole team has had time to process the idea, make a decision as a team on what the best idea is.

That’s it for the first round. There’s plenty more to come, stay tuned!

Here’s the link: http://www.chrisfromcanada.com/?p=1033

Here are some of the highlights from the article:

• 12:37 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #1 Define Your Purpose
• 12:38 Chris - ‘Songs that have universal appeal fall in to that trap. They have no specific purpose and no specific meaning.’
• 12:40 Chris - Lots of worship songs are filled with phrases that have worked really well in other worship songs.
• 12:40 Chris - ‘What is my purpose here? Is this how I would talk with someone I love? It this really how I talk or am I treating people like cattle?’
• 12:43 Chris - Example of specific songs with specific purpose – Heart of Worship by Matt Redman, God of Justice by Tim Hughes.
• 12:44 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #2 Eight Seconds
• 12:44 Chris - ‘Whether it’s A&R or a congregation, you don’t have more than about eight seconds to get them engaged.’
• 12:47 Chris - ‘Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.’
• 12:49 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #3 Show and Tell
• 12:49 Chris - ‘Communicate the image by telling them what it is.. but you also have to provide them with a picture, something they can see, something that they can put in context.’
• 12:50 Chris - Don’t go overboard on the pictures – make sure part of the song also TELLS the meaning of the song.
• 12:51 Chris - Examples of songs that show and tell – East to West by Casting Crowns, One by U2.
• 12:53 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #4 Strong Lyric and Melodic Hook
• 12:53 Chris - ‘If it’s not entertaining or captivating or interesting you’ve missed your point.’
• 12:54 Chris - ‘We’re all free – create whatever you have to create. But if we want to be better communicators with our music we have to do things that are captivating and interesting.’
• 12:55 Chris - ‘Lyrically, people just get lazy. Melodically, you’re just not daring enough.’
• 12:58 Chris - Sound of Your Name by Above the Golden State, Crazy Beautiful by Chasen.
• 13:00 Chris - Weave hooks through different sections of the songs.
• 13:01 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #5 Critique and Re-Write
• 13:01 Chris - ‘When you co-write, critiquing happens in real-time.’
• 13:02 Chris - ‘I think it’s important that you let the song happen. Give the song an opportunity to be birthed.’
• 13:04 Chris - ‘Don’t do critique and re-writing right away. It’s a creative thing and you need to give it time before you can come back to it with a little more objectivity.’
• 13:04 Chris - Listening to the first two versions and then the final take of Great Things by Matt Maher.
• 13:07 Chris - ‘A melody is good if you can remember it after going for a drive and spending the day at work.’