Sunday Summary – Music: June 29, 2008

Man, what a fun weekend. Jennie and I love it when Michael and Ashley come and stay with us for a few days. Although I think Ella loves it the most! She can’t get enough of those two. We’re certainly gonna have a good time when we all get together with Mom and Dad next week on vacation in Florida. Can’t wait!

So this was a no-frills Sunday. No opener. No closer. No worries, man.

Instead, we got lots of extra time for worship, and we were able to take the crowds to some great, deep places of worship that we don’t often get a chance to do. There can be a lot of power in just an extra, freeing minute or two at the end of a set to say a few words about worship, and follow it up with a few tags of intimate, personal worship. I know that’s a bit of the old Charismatic in me poking through, but it sure beats being song-regurgitating robots…

We also had double Michaels, and both were great.

East – Michael Olson

West – Mike Gleason

BUT!!!!! The week was not without controversy!!!

We started Andy’s series “Letters to the Next President” this past Sunday, and had penciled in Chris Tomlin’s “God of This City” as a closer. However, Andy indicated that the song wasn’t related to where he was ending the message, Eddie and I opted to stick it into the worship set as the 3rd and final tune.

But, we honestly didn’t think it through. Taking it from a worshippy-performancey closer to a full blown worship tune – never having done the song here at all before – was not the right call.

On Tuesday, when I was really listening and learning the song, it felt weird to me for us to be doing it as a worship tune, especially in the 3rd slot. It was lacking that personal, vertical conversation between us as worshippers and our Savior. Normally that doesn’t bug me – we do lots of songs about God. It just felt awkward, especially since we had never done it before. (We like to put new “slow” songs in the #2 slot, so that folks can still worship with a familiar tune in the #3 slot.)

Then on Wednesday, Todd and I got to talking about it, and he had been feeling the same way. Then when Michael Olson arrived, and we got talking about it, he had the same issues. We called Eddie, who was away, and he shared that he’d been feeling the same things.

And so, on Wednesday, just a couple hours before everyone was slated to arrive for rehearsal, we called an audible.

It was a bit of a pain, and a few guys had to shelve what they had been learning and do some last minute woodshedding, but in the end it was very much worth it.

We replaced it with the Starfield tune “Son of God” which Todd covered on our Louder Than Creation CD. It seemed to be a tune that got lost in the sea of tunes that have come out of that project, but it’s a really great song – and a VERY powerful and personal “vertical” song of worship to our God.

Great, great tune. And a real chance to sing personally to our Savior, especially if you freely tag the Bridge and Chorus at the end…

So you can imagine how elated I was when our big boss Julie came up and told Todd, Michael and I that she was glad we switched tunes.

Sometimes you’ve just got to follow your gut.

WORSHIP:

God Is With Us by Michael Olson

Let Me Sing by Todd Fields

Son Of God by Starfield

It was fun doing these 3 together, since Todd, Michael and I all played on these songs on Louder Than Creation .

And now, everyone’s favorite feature: Candid Stage Shots (during the Welcome from the West Auditorium)…

Danny Grady

Michael Olson tuning…

(or staring at his shoes. I don’t know…)

Todd Fields on Rhythm electric/BGV, Wayne Viar on drums, Richard Meeder on bass, Andy on the screen…

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East Band – Michael Olson, Todd Fields, Danny Grady, Wayne Viar, Richard Meeder, Me

West Band – Mike Gleason, Danny Howes, Daryl Lecroy, Chris Arias, Guy Strauss, Earl South, Rachael Gillis

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POD X3 Live count: 4

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Did you personally worship YOUR God this week?

I did, and that makes a world of difference…

Pay to worship?

Young worship leader and faithful reader Cam from Auckland, New Zealand sent in a very thought provoking question:

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“Do you think it is ethically right to pay for worship?

I’m not talking about paying the musicians or the speaker, which are issues in themselves, but I’m talking about copyright. Obviously you dont need to play copyrighted music to create effective worship, but for practical purposes this is often the case. My problem is, as an outsider, I see CCLI as charging my church, and almost every other, to worship.

Shouldn’t bands creating popular worship music take out a creative commons licence, meaning we can play their songs in our church free of charge?

It just doesnt seem fair, the way it is right now. My background, uh, I’m 19, a new worship leader at a small church called hillside in Auckland, New Zealand.

Any opinions, information, details, ANYTHING is appreciated, I just want to know more about what I’m talking about.

Keen to hear from you,

Cam”

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Cam – thanks for the question!

At first, the answer seemed easy: It is important to pay if you use someone else’s intellectual property.

But then, as Eddie, Michael and I began to discuss it yesterday, some deeper points arose.

What, essentially, does copyright do? Yeah, there’s a ton of legal mumbo jumbo associated with that term, but I think it exists so that someone cannot earn money from someone else’s work. That’s stealing.

That’s why one pays to buy CD’s or downloads from iTunes. That’s why one obtains and secures mechanical licenses to rerecord a song to put on their own project. That’s why one obtains and secures a synch license to put the song on a video (yep, even a worship tune under a youth camp highlight video…).

I only took Copyright 101 in University, and that was more than a decade ago (and forgot most of it) but I do know that one of the primary issues for the existence of copyright is to protect the creator (or copyright owner) of the intellectual property.

Intellectual property is a funny thing. It’s something someone has created, but is not tangible. You wouldn’t steal a loaf of bread from the store, or even a created work like a piece of art. You also wouldn’t steal a CD from the store, nor should you share files (MP3’s, etc.) that are covered by copyright protection.

But what about the heart of your question – playing the song yourself (not the original recording) in a church setting, leading a congregation in worship. Why do you have to pay for that?

This brings up some strong questions:

“Doesn’t the writer want us to lead others in worship with their songs? Don’t they have a heart for the Kingdom? Why are they so greedy? I don’t feel right about paying TO worship…”

There are some deeper issues that will hopefully resolve these questions for you…

After being involved in the Christian music industry for the last decade, I believe with all my heart that paying for what we use, especially worship music, is integral for the health of the Christian creative community.

99% of the people that create the content we rely on for the health and furthering of our churches are not rich or greedy. They’re just trying to survive in this crazy world, yet still being faithful to the creative passions they have been entrusted with by God. They have kids, mortgages, bills, and life to deal with. Many of them rely on live gigs and bookings for their day-to-day livelihood, and pray for residual income to help carry them through the rest of life.

CCLI exists to help make sure that happens. So that churches can perform songs in a live environment, while still honoring the individuals who have used their long-developed skills and abilities to assist us in facilitating great worship through their songs.

Without their songs, the church as we know it would be up a creek without a paddle.

Truth is, CCLI is a brilliant, easy and effective way to distribute royalties to the copyright owners. CCLI charges fees based on the size of a church and global region, collects reports from all churches, and distributes those fees – now royalties – based on a song’s activity. The more popular a song, the higher a percentage of the collected fees it earns. Pretty simple. I’d really advise everyone to spend some time at www.CCLI.com . They’ve got a TON of great info there.

In conclusion, Cam, it’s not wrong for you to question this topic (or any, for that matter). You really make a great argument for “Why do we have to pay to worship”.

My answer is that it ultimately honors God by honoring those that created it, allowing them a realistic livelihood, and the furthering of creativity in the Christian community for the future.

But that’s just my first instinct – what do the rest of you think?

(PS – I just read this to Michael, and he dug it. He mentioned that what we need to do is get a few of us in a room and record our discussions on these type of topics. That’d be cool. Well, there’s always the future….)

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Late Night Fun…

Michael and Ashley (my sister) are in town this week. Michael’s leading worship on Sunday, and so he and Ashley came down for rehearsal last night and are hanging for the weekend.

So you get the four of us sitting in our microscopic living room late at night (WAY past our bedtime!) watching SNL reruns on the DVR, add in some of our favorite YouTube clips, Ashley’s under-baked ginger snaps, giant bars of dark chocolate, RM, Spicy Guacamole Pringles, and some long-day-delirium and you’ve got the recipe for a good time.

So check out a few of our new favorite funny YouTube clips:

Dramatic Hamster:

Dramatic Lemur:

Hitler sings “The Jeffersons” theme:

Kiss – A special, rare performance:

Music Dept. Roles…

Les, at one of our international partner churches, is doing some hiring, and asked about job descriptions for Music staff.

You might be interested in my answer… (Or not – I don’t know!)

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Les,

I’m not aware of any of those descriptions off the top of my head, but I’ll look around…

We’ve actually taken the route of molding jobs (at least within music) to the strengths of our team members. It’s also based on folks outside schedules (3 of our team members are part-time).

Also remember that we have 2 stages (East and West) happening simultaneously. That’s 2 Worship Leaders and at least 10 musicians and at least 2 BGV’s each week. So over the course of a month we book 8 WL slots, about 40 band slots and around 8 BGV’s.

But here’s a brief overview:

Music Director – Eddie Kirkland:

Responsible for overall health and vision of Music Department, overseeing team members, booking Worship Leaders, overseeing song selection, Department budget, assist SPD in service planning, floating live Music Producer

Eddie is also one of our main Worship Leaders and leads 1 or 2 X per month as part of his job duties (meaning he’s not paid extra).

Associate Music Director – Reid Greven:

Responsible for booking all musicians, floating live Music Producer, music technology creation (loops, tracks, programming, etc.) and maintenance, oversee rhythm chart creation, instrument maintenance, liaison to SPD tech teams, assist in song planning, assist in SPD service planning, oversee North Point Music content creation, and all the other stuff…

I also book myself on stage 1 or 2 X per month as a job duty (meaning I’m not paid extra).

Music Assistant / Vocals Director – Karyn List (Part-Time):

Responsible for compiling lyrics and copyright, entering lyrics into Pro Presenter, booking and working with Background Vocalists and special vocals, floating live vocals Producer, rehearsal CD duplication, assist with song planning, benevolence and celebration items for musicians and singers (cards, gifts, etc.), assorted duties as needed…

Music Assistant – Jared Hamilton (Part-Time):

Assist with Rhythm chart creation and music technology, assorted departmental administration duties (check requests, etc.), assorted North Point Music creation and maintenance needs.

Head Worship Leader – Todd Fields (Part-Time):

This is a unique position created to take advantage of Todd’s natural strengths, and would probably not exist without Todd.

Lead Worship at least 2 X per month (as part of his job duties, meaning he’s not paid extra), assist in song selection, North Point Music guidance and steering committee, album project guidance and steering committee.

Todd also has a unique gift as a Pastor / Shepherd to our Worship Leaders, and spends significant time pouring into their lives.

Again, each of these roles have evolved over time to each person’s unique abilities and passions.

In staffing, we’ve seen success in a two step process:

1 – Identify your organization’s / department’s weakness and need.

2 – Identify the individual who, through their own existing day-to-day life, naturally fills that role.

Allowing people to do what comes naturally to them redefines the workplace experience. I tell people that even though my role is not the most glamorous, it’s what flows out me naturally.

Only then do I get to say that “this is not what I have to do, but what I get to do!”

Hope that helps!

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True Music Fans Only…

Saw this on a Middle School small group room.

You’ll only find this amusing if you’re a true classic rock fan…

Sure, the spelling’s off a tad, but it’s still funny…

And for those of you who don’t have a sweet clue as to what I’m talking about, here’s a cute pic of Cooper getting a bath at Yaya and Papa’s for your enjoyment…

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