Creating a Blended Service Out Of a Historically Traditional Church

When I became a Christian in the late 90s, just about every church I knew was trying somehow to implement a contemporary worship service. If it was a historically traditional church, most of them (like the one I grew up in) simply added a contemporary service during the Sunday school hour while continuing to have a traditional service beforehand. You could also show up to a youth group meeting in the middle of the week to find that youth pastors and musicians had already made the more dramatic shift from "Kum-ba-ya" to "Chris Tomlin."

On the flip side, there were church plants popping up left and right whose main goal was to be "contemporary" from the get-go. That meant no hymnals, no organs, and no pews. The youth group was jammin' on Wednesday nights and the adult worship team was jammin' on Sunday mornings (much like the church I attended from 2000 - 2002). The liturgy was simple - Opening prayer, opening song, 'nother prayer, 3 songs, sermon, closing song, see ya. Nothing wrong with that...just an observation.

Enter 3rd category: The blended service. These are churches who decided they wanted to maintain some of the tradition while implementing some modern creativity. On a given Sunday, you could hear "Be Thou My Vision," "Arise, My Soul, Arise" (RUF), and "How Great Is Our God." This service probably still includes an Apostle's Creed and other corporate confessions, but the pastor may not be wearing a robe. You get a little of both worlds.

At this point in my life, I have served in all 3 of these categories. I've sung in the choir with heavy robes and stolls, I've worn jeans and a t-shirt on stage and played with a band, and currently, I wear black pants, black shirt, black blazer and play a baby grand. Of all the categories I've listed, I've found that creating a peaceful, blended worship service that meets in the same sanctuary is the biggest challenge. That being said, here are some things I've discovered that have worked when seeking to create a blended service out of a historically traditional church:

1. Take it slow: My first Sunday at St. Andrews, there was only piano. Our set list included all hymns with a contemporary offertory. I didn't attempt to change the church overnight; I simply gave a little something here and a little something there. Fast-forward a year from there, we've added guitar, bass, and rhythm and use a mix of hymns, re-written hymns, and contemporary Christian songs.

2. Establish consistent instrumentation: We still use the organ at St. Andrews - on the Doxology and the Amen following the Benediction. However, we have an introit and a 3-song set right at the beginning without a break. During this time, the instrumentation stays the same - piano, guitar, rhythm. In my opinion, this seems to help keep the congregation on the path you're wanting to go, and it establishes a flow of mood. Using the organ seems to work well after the congregation has spent some time in prayer or recited a creed. It also works well on special concerts. Not everyone may agree with me on this, but I've found it to work (see Michael W. Smith's worship albums, Passion's hymns album).

3. Find Creative Ways to Sing a Hymn - this may be as simple as Chris Tomlin's "The Wonderful Cross," or it may be Fernando Ortega's arrangement of "How Firm a Foundation." Whatever it is, find ways to enjoy these timeless texts by writing new melodies or using the arrangements other artists have written (see RUF hymnbook, Red Mountain Church, Indellible Grace music, etc.)

4. Write very specific choral music for your choir: One of the early mistakes I made was xeroxing the hymns out of the hymnal, handing them to my choir, and then expecting them to navigate their way through all the turnarounds and instrumental breaks I was taking. Now, I make sure that the choir has music that depicts every turn and angle, whether that be the intro or an instrumental break. This frees them up to worship without worrying about where their next entrance is.

5. Pray for the Holy Spirit to Move: this is always a given, but when implementing change, I've found it's easy to feel like it's up to you make your congregation like the music and want to worship God as a result. While the worship team can certainly help that by rehearsing and thinking through the transitions, the Holy Spirit is the One who changes hearts and leads us to the throne. And frankly, if it's evident that the Holy Spirit is moving in the worship team, it'll get contagious after a while and the congregation will find Him working in their midst as well.

What I Learned in 2010

Happy 2011! I figured it would be fitting for me to look back on the year 2010 and briefly mention some things I learned.

Some People Can Get By Without Time Management. I'm Not One of Those People.
I can be a very impulsive guy. Whatever I seem to be "digging" that day, I'll spend alot of time on it, when in reality, there might be other things that are more important. This year, I've made a spread sheet which blocks out every 30 minutes I spend in the office. It even includes reading and writing blogs!! This approach is very freeing to me.

LMNOP. Remember what you'd do when you were a kid and you'd get to the middle of the alphabet? If you were like me, you wouldn't literally say, "L-M-N-O-P." You'd bleed it all together to say, "elemenopee." While having lunch with another worship leader back in November, he encouraged me to find ways to keep St. Andrews' worship service from becoming routine, ho-hum, or lazy - "elemenopee." Good stuff.

There's Always a Reason to Justify an Addiction. Two months ago I wrote a post about college football and how it became so prevalent in my life that I began to neglect more important things - like God...like my wife. God broke through to me and brought me to a place where I was able to admit that I needed to change. He's helping me change, but there's also an enemy who likes to whispher in my ear. Alot of times, he wins. Thank God for grace and for promising not to give up on me.

Buying a House is a Long, Hard Process. Stacy and I set out to become homeowners in August of 2009. We didn't sign our closing papers until February 23, 2010. The months in-between were brutal. Some days I felt like I spent more time faxing bank statements and affidavits than actually doing ministry with St. Andrews. Oh, and our bank representative spoke broken English...

Staying Connected.
When Stacy and I were traveling north 2 weeks ago, we stopped at one of the turnpike plazas to get coffee. As I was about to order, I looked down and noticed a newspaper which said that over 94% of American couples are connected - but not necessarily with each other. I've noticed that with every electronic, internet-surfing, app-playing gadget I acquire, it's just one more thing that competes for my attention. My high calling from God isn't to come home every night and worship my laptop or pay alms to my iPod. It's to be a husband to my wife, to give myself up for her, to set my interests on hers. Not saying that laptops are wrong. We both like to use it for entertainment. Only difference is my wife knows how to shut it down after a while...

Dates Are Worth Fighting For.
Stacy and I have had some great marital advice since being married. Last year, I was reminded again (as I was the year before) that continuing to date your wife keeps your marriage fresh. In Colossians, Paul says that "in the same way you received Christ Jesus, so walk in Him." I think the same thing can be said for marriage: in the same way you dated, so be married.

Don't Just Stare at the Words

The week before Stacy and I moved to Florida (January 2009), I had the neat opportunity to play piano for CJ Blount. Here's a great video of him doing a familiar tune "Hear Us From Heaven":



CJ was asked to assemble a worship band and lead music for a college-aged outreach event in Birmingham (more recent than the video above). If I wanted to make this post even longer, I would fill up some space ranting about how amazing the musicians in this band were, but I'll stick to my point. What was striking to me was that the students knew EVERY WORD of the songs we sang. As far as I can remember, there weren't any powerpoint lyrics, and there certainly weren't any bulletins. The students simply gathered around the stage area and sang every last word from memory. They seemed to all of a sudden forget their surroundings, or who might be watching - they lifted their hands, closed their eyes and enjoyed God.

This is my prayer for St. Andrews - that we enjoy God in our worship. One of the goals of our music team is to help create an "atmosphere" of worship, meaning that we want to prepare our music in such a way that it feels effortless for the congregation to enter in to worship. I want us to be able to worship God freely without worrying about what's proper or safe. I want each person in the pew to feel the freedom to sing for joy to God. Isn't that how David described his worship experience? "How lovely are they dwelling places, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs and even yearns for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh SING FOR JOY to the living God" (Psalm 84). Oh, how much more ready our hearts will be to hear the preaching of God's Word if we have entered into His presence from the very first note.

Don't worry - we won't force you to memorize all the lyrics or learn all new songs every week. But consider this: if you know the song...is there really a need to stare at the words? Don't be ashamed! Let your heart be captured by God in worship and let Him minister to you as you meditate on the lyrics. I promise you...it's a lot better than trying to be safe.

Do What You Are

Our college group is currently studying a book by Os Guiness entitled "The Call." The perspective from this author - who by the way is in the same family as the Guiness beermakers - is eye-opening. Os was one of those guys who, maybe like some of you, was urged to go into ministry without really ever asking the question, "Is that what I really want to do?" Because he was a Christian, he thought that's what was best. But after having a conversation with a gas pump attendant (it was in the '60s), he realized that he would much rather spend time amongst people in the world rather than be confined to the walls of the church. He admits that, while he loved his pastor and co-workers, church ministry just wasn't him. He wanted to be what God created him to be.

I've been through that. When I was in my early 20s I was urged to take part in mission trips and cross-cultural projects that, initially, I didn't want to take part in. Looking back, I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. I believe God intentionally provided a way for me to attend those events, and I literally will never be the same because of those experiences. At the same time, I felt an overwhleming pressure from the people that urged me to go to become a missionary after I graduated college. I wrestled with that for a long time. While I learned alot about relational ministry and really developed a heart for those people, I wasn't passionate about being a missionary for the rest of my life. For years, I wrote it off as sin or as "not really pursuing God with all my heart." Now, in my later 20s, and with this book helping confirm it, I don't believe it's sin or a lack of commitment to Jesus that I want to do something else besides being a missionary. If life is lived forward and understood backward, then I can look backward and see God molding me and gifting me in a much different way...

Here's some food for thought: if every Christian became a full-time missionary, we would not have policeman, firefighters, bankers, doctors, lawyers, chefs, delivery guys, secretaries, veterinarians, plumbers, architects, writers, governors, presidents, senators, naval officers, army generals, photographers, electricians, lifeguards, tailors, musicians...This is what "ruling and subduing" the earth looks like in modern day. It's not that Christians who do every-day jobs aren't following Jesus, but it's because God has called the lawyer to exercise justice. He's called the chef to cook so man can eat. He's called the president to rule the nation and bring order to the land. He's called the musician to create art and express the glory of God through it. How can our world function without these people?

Thank God for the Christian missionary. Thank God for the Christian policeman. Both can make disciples. Both can rule and subdue the earth.

Slow Down - Updated 9/28/10

I work really well under pressure - especially when it comes to writing and arranging. When I was at Montevallo, I took part in our school's homecoming show - College Night. Each year, the university divides itself into "purple" and "gold," and each side writes its own musical. Students are recruited to write a script, act, stage-manage, play an instrument, buy snacks, etc (I met my wife during College Night - she was the hot stage manager). I was the composer for the "gold" side my junior and senior year. I didn't really have time to write 7 or 8 chorus pieces, but somehow I cranked them out (all while balancing preparation for major junior and senior piano recitals). I wrote on various themes from love songs, to aliens (the outer-space kind), to Cognac. I had the neat experience of pulling something out of the air, trying it out, revising it, trying it again, and ultimately performing it with a full cast. For the experience and skill level I was at, I think I did a pretty good job. I learned in those 2 years that writing and arranging for vocalists and choirs was something I was good at.

There are times in my job where I get to function like I did during College Night. We have big Christmas & Easter concerts at St. Andrews, and even though I can spread out my planning and arranging, there's always that sense of urgency to get it done. Or, on a weekly basis, there may be a change in sermon text, and I have a good song for the choir to sing, but no music. I write it out and print it as quickly as possible so I can teach it by Wednesday night. God's given me the ability to function like this...when it's necessary.

When it's necessary? The follow-up question should come naturally. Should all of my life be a rush? No. I need to slow down sometimes. Sometimes I get so used to the rush of cranking out a new arrangement that EVERYTHING I do becomes that way. Hurry up and plan the music for this Sunday so I can start charting. Hurry up and get the songs ready for the bulletin so I can start on another Christmas tune. Hurry up and do the dishes so I can watch tv...while working toward a deadline is fun, my whole life doesn't need to be a deadline. Sometimes it's good to say to myself, "Self - this is what you're working on right now, and whatever is supposed to come next will come when this is finished," or "hey you, slow down with that dishwashing so you don't find crusted food on the side of your plate next time you eat." Maybe all of this is because I tend to miss the forest for the trees. Maybe some of you are like that.

God has a calling for each of us. He holds our lives in his hands. If that's true, then what's the rush? Just do what He's called you to do. Don't live your life in fear of not getting it all done, but trust that your Caller is in control and that He will enable you to fulfill what He's called you to do. "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough trouble of its own. Today's troulbe is enough for today." -Jesus

Great Quotes

"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

-John Piper

The Choir

So I've been watching this reality series called "The Choir" for about the past 20 minutes. It seems to take place somewhere in England. The synopsis is as follows:

"Choirmaster Gareth Malone searches for the talent to create a high school's first competitive choir. New. Series Premiere."

I really like it. It's better than American Idol because it's more down my alley - people trying out for a choir as opposed to trying out to be "a star". So far, it looks pretty good. It's Wednesday night from 10 - 11pm.

Here's a quote that Gareth made that's pretty cool:

"Singing in a choir is like swimming with a school of fish: you just get caught up in the stream."

Can a Classically-Trained Pianist Learn to Play Chords?

Yesterday after church a middle-aged woman who was visiting our church approached me to express her enjoyment of the music. I told her thank you and that I was glad she was able to attend. She mentioned that she was a music teacher and piano player. She also mentioned something that I hear alot: "I really want to learn to play chords, but I'm stuck in my classical background." This is something I think about alot, so I thought it was time for me to blog about it.

Like this woman, I was also trained classically. I remember going through all the kiddie piano books with the art work of animals and children frolicking around. I remember graduating up to Bach, Mozart & Beethoven. I also remember the first time my teacher bought me a "pop" song to add to my repertoire. It was "A Whole New World" from the Aladdin movie. I stunk at it! By the time we got done with it, my teacher had written in every single beat (1, e, &, a, 2, e, &, a) and even drew lines to the notes that the beats went to. I could fly through my Beethoven, but when it came to syncopated pop music, I was not very good...at all.

Yet during that time of my life (age 5 - approx. 14), my ear was developing. My mom kept our car radio tuned to Magic 96 which was the adult contemporary station. They played anything that was 70s, 80s or 90s, so that included Elton John, Billy Joel, Bruce Hornsby, Richard Marx, Mark Cohn, Michael McDonald, Rod Stewart, Toni Braxton, All 4 One, Mariah Carey, etc. Although I didn't yet have a concept of chord theory, listening to these artists over and over and over began developing my ear for pop piano. As my interest in piano and music continued to grow, I started buying more pop song books (I still have alot of them at home, including Boyz II Men, Pop Chart Hits '96 Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone"...). Slowly but surely, I began to learn what it felt like to switch over from classical piano to pop piano.

Once into high school & college, my life as a Christian had come in to play, and I had opportunities to take part in worship bands. These guys required less and less of note-reading and more and more of chord reading, and they showed alot of patience with me. I began listening to "Christian pop", which had a very similar piano style to "secular pop," so the switch was pretty natural. Although I was still taking classical lessons, the technique and performance experience I gained from that aided me tremendously when it came to chords and church music (contrary to popular belief, classical music is made up of all chords - they're just broken up). The more opportunities I had to try out the things I was hearing on my cds and playing from my pop books, the more I started sounding like them.

So here's my observations from my own life as to how a classical pianist can also switch over to pop/contemporary Christian styles:

• listen to piano players that play the way you want to play.
• Play from the songbooks (Fernando Ortega, WOW Worship, others)
• Try it out, mess it up, try it out again.

I'm an advocate for chord playing AND note-reading, classical training AND pop training. Both are valuable and both have relevance in church music.

Playing Hymns Like Fernando

In my last post, I mentioned that I've been re-writing some hymns. In this post, I'd like to focus on hymns with timeless melodies. Consider the following:

Be Thou My Vision
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Come Thou Fount
Fairest Lord Jesus
Rock of Ages
Abide With Me: Fast Falls the Eventide
Amazing Grace

One of the cool challenges I've had in the churches I've worked in is seeking to preserve timeless hymns while playing them on the piano in a way that an 80-year-old and an 18-year-old can relate to them. Most hymns are written in choral format, so if you were to play them exactly as they are written, you'd be duplicating the vocal parts (i.e. soprano (melody), alto, tenor, bass). For my ears, I find this to be mechanical. Instead of duplicating the vocal parts, I like to use the piano as accompaniment, not as a vocal-part reinforcer.

Fernando Ortega has mastered this. If you're someone who really wants to learn to play hymns with a contemporary accompaniment style, but your ear doesn't seem to allow it, listen to Fernando. Check out his arrangements of "O Sacred Head Now Wounded," "Give Me Jesus", and "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence." Fernando's style is very simple, but his chord-voicings are lush. He's got some song books with the accompaniment written out exactly like you hear it on the recordings. Learn to play his songs note-for-note, and you've got yourself contemporary piano accompaniment!

Take caution! If you re-write the piano part, you'll need to tweak the vocal parts, too!

5 things I’m doing to be more productive these days

My friend Brett Trapp has an excellent blog called TRAPPSTR. Brett is a thinker, and he's got some great thoughts on life, God, work, etc. Here's a recent post:

5 things I’m doing to be more productive these days

Is It The Worship Songs or The Choral Anthem?

I grew up in a traditional church. It's about 15 minutes outside of the heart of Birmingham, AL. We had a pretty active music ministry - adult choir, youth choir, childrens choir, handbell choir, pianist, organist, etc. The adult choir, robed in white & green, consisted of approximately 20-25 members on a given Sunday, with a few extra for the special events. When I came in to 8th grade, the adult choir director (who was also my high school choir director) invited me and two of my buddies to join the choir. My voice was just starting to change, but somehow I sang bass. Because I had already taken 9 years of piano lessons and had sung in a boy choir for 5, my ear was already very well-trained, and the men were happy to have me sing.


Our choir rehearsals consisted of choral anthems that were sung during the offering. That's all we worked on, and I enjoyed it. We usually had no idea what congregational hymns were going to be sung until approximately 15 minutes before the service started, but it really didn't seem to matter to anyone. We all enjoyed singing the hymns with the congregation, but the choral anthems were what we worked for every week.


When I was entering into 12th grade, I attended a different church. It was the complete opposite of the church I had been attending. The music was as contemporary as you can get. Hillsong and the Passion Movement were spreading like wildfire, and this church was the place to go if you wanted to hear that kind of music. Within two weeks of my first visit, I was playing keyboard/synth for the youth worship band and the adult worship team. We had bass, electric guitar, 2 acoustic guitars, drums, percussion, praise team, choir and a worship leader. All-in-all, there were about 40 people on stage each week. It was a big, upcoming church, and today has a sanctuary that seats approximately 1500.


Our rehearsals at the new church had a completely different focus. Not only did choir/band rehearse together, but we spent our time on the worship songs that the congregation would be participating in each week. I can hardly remember us spending any time at all on music to be sung while the offering plate was being passed around. Usually, it was some choir or church member singing to a track. The focus here was on the worship songs, not the choral anthem.


So you have 2 choirs with 2 different goals: one spent its time on choral anthems, the other on the worship songs...is one more important than the other? People have made cases for both (i.e. "anthems are more musically challenging," or "it's easier to worship when there aren't so many notes to learn"). But I'll ask this question first: what is the role of a choir in worship? At its core, a choir exists to help the congregation worship. A choir is (hopefully) a group of singers using melody, harmony, rhythm and text to guide the congregation through a creative art experience that God supernaturally uses to help us experience him. Music is universally understood, and God uses it to speak to us, to humble us, to draw and woo us, and to encourage us. It's powerful stuff. So a choir is assembled to help create this powerful thing called music. And that music is part of a worship service where the end result is God's glorification.


My answer to the other question: Both the worship songs and the choral anthem have good use in a worship service. Like I said, God uses music to draw us to himself. However, I think in order for the choral anthem to work, the choir has to help the congregation get started from the get-go. Our goal at St. Andrews is to put together a complete worship service from start to finish. If the choir has no idea what the worship songs are until Sunday morning, we'd be sight-reading, and from my experience, it's VERY DIFFICULT to worship God from the heart when you're on stage, under the lights, sight-reading. The mind is just too distracted by notes and unfamiliar lyrics. And if the choir doesn't know the worship songs, they won't be doing any favors to the congregation by sight-reading. In this case, helping the congregation worship means knowing the songs they'll be singing and being able to express them in worship. So when I'm rehearsing our choir, we learn the songs the congregation is going to sing first, then the we work the piece(s) the congregation will be listening to for the offertory. When the choir is familiar with the worship songs, even impacted by them, it keeps our heads from being buried in our folders and allows us the freedom to "get lost" in God's presence. If this happens, a choral offertory will simply be a continuation of praise and worship. If not, it's just a nice performance.