Andy Rowell | Church Leadership Conversations

Willow Creek's Discipleship Problem: How to Fix the Seeker-driven Church

Update, December 10, 2007

As I suspected, the interpretation and methodology of the Reveal study are deeply flawed.  I like Willow Creek's ministry model but they have really bungled this survey. 

See the Review of Reveal by Bradley Wright, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut. 

Here’s a selection from Wright’s conclusions:

The conclusion draw by the study’s authors, and loudly echoed by critics of Willow Creek, is that the Willow model is flawed. The data presented here are sufficiently ambiguous to make such strong claims. Given the weaknesses of the study design and analytic strategy, it’s possible that the results indicate strong support for the Willow Creek model . . . Simply repeating the Reveal study with hundreds more churches potentially adds very little knowledge.

Though Willow does not need to repent for its ministry strategy (though we could all repent for our ministry strategies to some extent - whose is perfect?), those who published this sociologically unsophisticated research probably need to apologize to seeker-sensitive church proponents everywhere. It is hard to say if Willow’s reputation will ever recover from the tidal wave of publicity saying that the Reveal quantitative data discredits Willow’s approach.

Still, all is not lost. The idea of doing quantitative research is a good one. But next time Reveal needs to do it right. Those who are part of Reveal need to do a serious crash course in American religious sociology: Christian Smith, Mark Chaves, Robert Wuthnow, Scott Thumma, and Nancy Ammerman.

For an example of a more a more sociologically sophisticated study see the U.S. Congregations Study which surveyed 300,000 congregations in 2001.

U.S. Congregations Survey

U.S. Congregational Life Survey, 2001, Random Attenders

Or see the:

National Congregations Study

See also the excellent summary of different recent postings about this at Leadership Networks Leanings blog "Reveal Squeal gets louder on the web" by DJ Chuang.

Original Post October 19, 2007

Though Willow Creek continues to reach "people far from God" they admit that they are not doing as good a job at helping those people become "fully devoted followers of Jesus" as they thought they were.  Of course a lot of critics are saying "We told you so" but it is good Bill Hybels and friends are broadcasting their "mistake." (Leadership's Out of Ur blog post "Willow Creek Repents?" brought this to my attention.  There are 120 comments there now on that post).  They also have an updated post with a response from Willow Creek: Willow Creek Repents? (Part 2): Greg Hawkins responds with the truth about REVEAL.  They are not giving up their seeker approach.

Below I have summarize what Willow Creek has realized in the last few years in five quick statements.  Then I have described Willow Creek for those who are unfamiliar with it.  Finally, I have tried to put in perspective their five realizations. 

"Willow Creek's Five Realizations."
1. They want to be good stewards.  They want to use the financial resources they are given in the offering plate wisely. 
2. Research helps. They did a survey. 
3. They are still effective with seekers. They find that people who are exploring Christianity or are new Christians still rate what Wilow is offering very highly. 
4.  Consumer discipleship is not working.  There are many people who are highly involved in activities (i.e. consuming the religious goods they are offering) but are not growing in Christ that much. 
5.  Many mature Christians are unsatisfied with the church. There are a number of people who are strong Christians but are dissatisfied with their church.  But, Willow has concluded, the issue is not just offering people more meaty options, rather people need to learn to feed themselves.

All of this is available on their new website (August 2007) "Reveal."  You can hear executive pastor Greg Hawkins and founding pastor Bill Hybels describe the findings in their own words in 13 minute video presentations.  (I had to use Internet Explorer rather than Firefox to make them work).   Or you can buy the book which is only available from Willow Creek Resources.  (Why not have Amazon distribute it too?)

Who is Willow Creek?
If you don't know who Willow Creek Community Church is, it is the "second most influential church in the nation" according to a survey commissioned by Leadership Network. 

Still, many mainline church leaders (Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran) have never heard of Willow Creek, which is something I have become increasingly sensitive to.  Those people have other churches they admire.  They wouldn't admire Willow even if they knew about it because they place much more value on continuity with the the great tradition of Christianity as passed down through church history and denominations. 

Anyway, Willow Creek Community Church (i.e "Willow") is led by Bill Hybels who founded it 30 years ago in South Barrington, IL which is about 45 minutes from Chicago in the suburbs.  It is a non-denominational church with weekly attendance of about 23,500 according to Hartford Seminary's database of megachurches.  It was designed specifically for "seekers" or what they now call "people far from God."  As the story goes Hybels, walked around the area going to door to door asking people why they didn't go to church and they reported things like "they are always asking us for money," "boring," "irrelevant," "nothing for the kids." So Hybels and friends started a church in a movie theater that had upbeat music, relevant sermons, and no offering plates.  As the church grew exponentially, they formed a consulting branch in 1992 called Willow Creek Association which sells resources to churches like bible study materials, sermon tapes, etc. and also holds conferences.  Churches can become a member of the Willow Creek Association but all this really means is that the pastor subscribes to their resources for about $249 a year. 

Perspective and Context on Willow Creek's Five Realizations.

1. They want to be good stewards. My comment: Amen.  May they continue to wrestle with the problem.  When you see Willow Creek's facility, you are either envious or disgusted.  There is a 7400 seat auditorium complete with state of the art lights and audio.  The building includes a bookstore, coffee shop, and expansive facilities for children.  Most people say, "It feels like a mall."  These facilities were intended to make Willow a comfortable place for people who were turned off to church and needed to hear about Jesus in a place that was more familiar than a gothic cathedral.  I think this makes sense given their philosophy of ministry.  Still, it is very good to hear them saying, "We want to welcome people well but we don't want to spend a penny more than we have to.  Are we spending God's resources appropriately?  Are there other ways that God might be calling the wealthy North American church to use its resources?"  Additional note: Willow Creek has never had a major financial scandal and their books, salaries, etc. are public.

2. Research helps. My comment: Make sure this research is done well.  Randy Frazee, author of The Connecting Church, has been a pastor at Willow for a few years now.  He is one of the preeminent people in the evangelical world insisting that we need to measure and assess the development of people's discipleship.  As pastor of Pantego Bible Church in Texas, he came to see the need for assessing whether small groups actually help people become better disciples.  He even made up a tool to measure discipleship called The Christian Life Profile. 

I was glad to see Willow hire Randy because I knew he would encourage them to evaluate how they are doing beyond the kneejerk way it is often done, i.e. the ABC's (Attendence, Buildings and Cash) or the three B's (Bodies, Buildings and Bucks). 

I would simply urge them to continue to get good advice about how to do sociological research well.  There are many people out there doing research on the American church and for this I'm thrilled.  Here are some that I'm familiar with: Barna Group, Gallup Poll, Baylor Surveys of Religion, Natural Church Development, Pulpit & Pew: The Duke Center for Excellence in Ministry, National Study of Youth & Religion, the Louisville Institute, Hartford Institute for Religious Research, the new book After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion
by Robert Wuthnow (chair of the sociology department at Princeton University), Church Innovations, the Alban Institute.  But the devil is in the details.  Numbers can be manipulated to say most anything.  We, as church leaders, have got to pay more attention to appropriate use of statistics.  I am not saying we need to use statistics less.  Actually, I think we need to do so more but we need to deal with those statistics and studies in a better way.  We need people who know statistics and who understand sociological research so that our numbers mean something.  (Are there any sociology majors and professors at Christian colleges out there listening to this?)  We need people who can sort through all of these statistics in such a way that it makes sense and in a way that is meaningful for congregations.  It drives me crazy when I hear stats like, "You know you need to add another service when 80% of seating is filled up" and "You know children who sit in the worship service with their parents continue to attend church after they have left home better than those who just go to youth group."  Sure, these have a glimmer of truth but they are more conventional wisdom (i.e urban legend) than solid analysis.  People build entire ministries on statistics like this.  For more outrage at evangelical misuse of statistics, see Christian Smith's "Evangelicals Behaving Badly with Statistics: Mistakes were made" from Books & Culture February 2007 and "What Scandal? Whose Conscience? Some reflections on Ronald Sider's Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience." by John G. Stackhouse, Jr. from Books & Culture August 2007 .   

3.  They are still effective with seekers. My comment: Willow Creek's gift to the wider church has been its passion to see unchurched people become followers of Jesus. Willow Creek, along with Andy Stanley's North Point Community Church, is still one of the best examples of an effective seeker model.  They see many people who were not Christians become Christians.  In this way, they are a model of contextualizing the gospel so that nonChristians can learn about it and begin to follow Jesus.  Though there are other ways of doing evangelism by the church, the seeker model is still one to be reckoned with because most the other approaches are so ineffective.  (Are lots of adults becoming Christians at the churches you know?) 

One of the principle problems with the seeker approach is that they replace Sunday worship with Sunday evangelism services.  Willow though still does have a worship service on Wednesday nights called "New Community."  Though some would see Sunday seeker services as a tragic terrible flaw, I think it is a valid move because of the lack of evangelism happening through other methods and because I place less value on the traditional-handed-down-for-centuries liturgy. 

Other resources on this topic: I recently wrote a reflection on this: Download The Seeker Model Paper.doc.  See Andy Stanley's Seven Practices of Effective Ministry for the most persuasive compelling case for the seeker-driven approach.  See my category Andy Stanley for more that I've written about him.  For a critique of the seeker approach, see The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies by David E. Fitch. 

Many mainline denomination (Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Lutheran) people who have a heart for evangelism put forward the Alpha course as the best evangelism program going right now.  It, like the seeker approach, allows people to learn about Jesus in a non-threatening way, with informational talks about the basics of Christianity by the winsome Nicky Gumbel, a meal, non-directed conversation in a non-churchy atmosphere.  The Alpha course comes from Holy Trinity Brompton in London, England.  They do this on a Tuesday night and then have regular worship services on Sundays.  Thus, you keep the tradition on Sundays but have effective evangelism program during the week.  For many people, this is the ideal approach. 

Interestingly though there are some mainline people who want to imitate seeker driven approaches (e.g. United Methodist Bill Easum and  Episcopalian Tom Ehrich).   

  4.  Consumer discipleship is not working.  My comment: Programs have limited usefulness.  It sounds good to put a system in place as Rick Warren suggests in The Purpose Driven Church (p.130) where people move from 101 (first base - discovering membership) to 201 (second base - discovering spiritual maturity), to 301 (third base - discovering my ministry) to 401 (home - discovering my life mission).  But discipleship is not an assembly line and it just doesn't work (for long) like that.  After working at seeker-driven megachurch, my friend wrote me: "I think discipling people may only be able to be done a few at a time."

Another friend wrote me about his experience working in a megachurch, "The megachurch approach can truly breed an unhealthy consumerism mentality. Specializing in everything to cater to our every need (affinity groups, a cafe in the lobby, Sunday school programs for children that are incredible, etc) isn't always bad, but can foster a 'it's all about me' mentality."  This is the concern of basically all of the critics of the megachurch approach. 

5.  Many mature Christians are unsatisfied with the church. Their conclusion is that people need to learn to feed themselves.  My comment: I think probably people want tradition and depth not just a personalized spiritual growth program. John Ortberg, now pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian (PCUSA), was a pastor at Willow Creek for many years.  He has written one of the very best books on "feeding yourself" called The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People.  These were originally sermons at Willow.  It is not new to Willow to feed yourself.  Thus, I think they probably need to dig deeper in order to find out what the path forward should really be. 

Hybels says that one thing they want to do is help people design a personal spiritual growth plan.  On the one hand, this still sounds consumeristic.  But on the other hand, my experience in theological education does lead me to believe that when mature Christians want to dig deep intellectually in order to further grow in their faith, they have very different interests as is evident in any list of course offerings at a seminary.  (See Fuller Seminary's School of Theology courses or Duke Divinity School's list of courses). 

This leads to my other point.  I think some of the mature Christians who are dissatisfied with what they are receiving at Willow, want a better connection to Christian history.  You find this in spades here at Duke Divinity School.  People want to connect to Augustine, Aquinas, Barth - someone with more worldwide and historical importance.  Traditional liturgical churches have a taste of those resources in the music and liturgy of every worship service.  The most extreme form of being unsatisfied with the nondenominational church is converting to Catholicism which a few of my friends have done.  Because church tradition is the one thing Willow decided to systematically expunge during its founding, its people miss it.  Like most churches, its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. 

If Willow's mature believers long for history, there is no quick fix.  But here are some suggestions. 

• Give each of the staff a subscription to Christian History. 
• Encourage mature Christians to take seminary correspondence courses. 
• Foster connections with local Roman Catholic priests and nuns to do spiritual direction. 
• Attempt to introduce a modified Anglican eucharist to the mid-week service (Invitation, Confession, Gloria, Word, Eucharist, Benediction). 
• Use Robert Webber's outstanding eight volume Complete Library of Christian Worship which gives us an easy to use reference for deepening worship through the insights of the centuries. 
• Have the staff and congregation work through some of Richard Foster's Renovare resources like Devotional Classics and Spiritual Classics. 
• Have learning sessions with mainline people who have confessional (orthodox) theology and are pro-evangelism who are positive about things like the Alpha course (described above).
  
• Listen to North Park New Testament professor, amazing blogger, and Willow Creek attender Scot McKnight.
• Ask Mark Noll, preeminent historian and former Wheaton College professor, now at Notre Dame and author of Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. 

 
If those solutions seem too far removed from the Bible-centered non-denominational tradition, then at least read the very best Biblical Studies people that you can find (which I am told Randy Frazee is now doing).  I recommend An Annotated Guide to Biblical Resources for Ministry by David R. Bauer or Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources by John Glynn as a way of sorting through the vast array of commentaries out there.   When you are preaching, you should always (if possible - I have always been near a theological library), consult commentaries.  Use these resources to find some good ones.  When you begin a series, invited your congregation members to buy a commentary and read through it with you.

Update.  Here are a couple of "I told you so" articles:

"Willow Creek Repents?
by Diana Butler Bass, author of Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith.  Book description: "A detailed survey of progressive church growth in recent decades reveals how non-evangelical, neighborhood churches are flourishing without emulating the tactics of mega-churches, in an analysis that counsels Protestant readers on how to remain authentic to denominational traditions while promoting one's spiritual community."

A Shocking “Confession” from Willow Creek Community Church
by Bob Burney, a Christian radio host in Columbus, Ohio

FAQ about Worship: Seekers, Emotions, and Me-Songs

Some students at Taylor University, where I taught the last two years, have asked me eight questions about worship.  Their questions touch on a number of issues related to contemporary worship but also worship in general.  Here are my responses. 

#1: What is your definition of worship?

• It is not really a definition but I like 1 Corinthians 14:15 (TNIV) "So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding." Paul here is arguing that there should be an affective (emotional, hearty, tongues) part of worship but also a part that is cognitive (intellectual, heady, prophecy).  He actually thinks that tongues are a good thing but if you do focus too much on emotional stuff in worship that only resonates with you (uninterrupted tongues) than a lot of other people will be annoyed and not edified (built up). 
• I think Communion/Lord's Supper/Eucharist is probably the best example of what worship is.  It is centered on Christ, communal, symbolic, looks forward to him coming again, tangible (you eat and drink something), involves prayer, and singing (in the gospel accounts), remembers back, and builds on the Old Testament (Passover).  You can't go wrong with this as a starting point. Catholics and Anglicans/Episcopalians center their worship around the Eucharist for this reason.  Jesus told people to celebrate it in the gospels and then we see people doing it (Paul in 1 Cor 11). 
• With regard to definition: one Hebrew word means work/worship; a Greek word means bow. 
• Declaring to God what he's worth (worth-ship = worship). 
• The chief end of human beings is to worship God and enjoy him forever (Westminster Catechism). 
• People often look at Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4-5 as other paradigm examples on which to build your theology of worship.   

    #2: How do you wrestle with the "me" focus and making a meaningful response to God?

• Some people go crazy turning "me" songs into "we" songs but I think this is too simplistic.  Even if we are a community, we are still a community of individuals, right?  Also, the Psalms have lots of first person singular language (me, I) and they were used in the temple and then in the church (John Calvin especially) as the corporate prayerbook.  Monks have prayed the whole Psalter (all 150) every week.   However, those who think that they would be better off worshipping by themselves on a mountain top rather than joining a community, have missed Christianity.  But again, there is a place for personal retreats.  The thing to emphasize is that we become part of the people of God when we become Christians.  Becoming a Christian is not just fire insurance for when you die someday, then you can go to heaven.  Yes, it is that but it is about being part of a community of disciples of Jesus who God has called to be his ambassadors here on earth and that we embody the kingdom of God already but not yet fully.

    #3: How do you choose worship music? Are there certain themes that you look for? Does that change depending on environment?

• By the way, these are excellent questions.  Yes, choosing worship music. I have a blog post about some of the practical ways we tried to plan worship at the church.  I would recommend reading that.  It is very practical. 
  

  How to plan and lead worship

• Does it change depending on the environment?  Yes.  I think as worship leaders we should think of ourselves as missionaries or educators. (Here is where your Christian Educational Ministries classes might help.  We need to know our audience / students, etc. and help them to praise the Lord.  We need to speak their language and begin where they are at.  As Thomas Groome, in Shared Christian Praxis would say, we need to bring people from where they are at (their "present action" = Movement 1) to reflecting on that (Movement 2 = Confession) to God (Movement 3) to action (Movements 4-5).  In order to do that, we need to know the people.  For many years before Vatican II in the 1950's, all Roman Catholic worship services or "mass" as they call it, were in Latin. But most people couldn't understand it.  They decided at Vatican II (a big conference of Catholics) to let the mass be done in people's everyday languages!  Similarly, I think we should lead worship in a way that "speaks the language" of teenage African American kids (hip-hop) or whatever language the group understands.  This is what a good missionary does and what a good educator does.   

   #4: How do you react to the statement "One cannot sing praise songs without noticing how first person pronouns tend to eclipse every other subject?"

• I think the person who is saying it (I don't know who but I know the type) wants to beware of narcissistic (self-centered) tendencies.  They want to correct the excesses of consumer culture which says everything only has value in what it can do for me.   But I think they are reacting in the wrong sort of way.  Like I said above, the Psalms are often first person singular.  We/us songs can be just as vacuous (shallow) as I/me songs.   I would be sympathetic to the person's concerns in that we want people to focus on God, not themselves, but the pronouns I and me are just part of the way we speak and are not inherently bad.  Again, I would want to sympathize with the person making the criticism that Christianity is more than just praying a prayer to go to heaven. It is not just individualistic one-time thing that excludes ethical commitments, commitments to Christian friendships/community/church/accountability/critique. Again, the danger of the individualistic thing (me and my Bible on a mountaintop  - I don't need anyone else ever in my life) is not generally the problem with people who are passionate about contemporary worship in my opinion.  But there may be exceptions.  I see the Vineyard, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin worship folks as quite committed to Christian community despite some of their I/me songs. 

   #5: How does the corporate worship that occurs on Sunday morning differ from the corporate worship of chapel or other Christian formation experiences throughout the week?

• Again, excellent question.  I think it makes sense to worship with those who are your primary community.  I think it makes sense that those who hold you accountable (those who would call you on sin in your life) that those people are the people you worship with.  Thus, I think there is some rationale for chapel at a Christian college or even worship in a small group. 
• There is some reason by Christian tradition to worship on Sunday (the Lord's day) but I don't think this is crucial.  I think Sat night services (or any other day) is fine!  Additionally, I think that Sunday worship in a church may offer some things you don't get in chapel and dorm floor prayer and praise.  For example, intergenerational relationships (we can learn from older people and from kids); stability (it is not an entirely new group of people every four years); and locality (ministry to people locally).   Again, I think there is great value in extended evenings of singing (it teaches musicians new music, people learn to sing better, it is good to refocus, etc.) but just a worship night and never being part of a community would be a deficient Christianity (need discipleship, evangelism, ministry to the poor, and community care). 

    #6: What can seekers gain from worshiping?

• See 1 Corinthians 14:23-25 (TNIV).  23 So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 24 But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, 25 as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"
• What Paul is saying here is that worship should be comprehensible to non-Christians.  That does not mean it should be watered down.  Paul is simply saying that new people will probably attend every worship service and the basics of the service should be fairly understandable to them.  If everyone in the room is speaking in tongues, than the new person would understandably be confused.  Paul thinks that it is possible that the observer will be moved by what he or she sees when they observe Christians in worship when the service is intelligible. Now there is a wide range of applications of this that I think are legitimate.  A Roman Catholic feels they have made it understandable enough by having the liturgy in the hymnal and in the common language. Andy Stanley / Willow Creek / and Granger Community Church (Granger, IN) would say these verses are their primary purpose.  Their primary goal is to inspire and intrigue seekers to come back and to say, "God is really among you!"  In order to do that, they meticulously plan their worship services to praise God and tell about his truth but doing so in a way that the average non-Christian in their community would understand.  They try to rid their services of extraneous theological jargon while still conveying accurately the truths about God.   Some would say that this is putting the cart before the horse or having the tail wag the dog, "Why would you let non-Christians decide what Christian worship is?  Worship is for Christians!"  But the seeker driven people would respond, "But aren't we supposed to be 'the one organization that exists for non-members' (William Temple)?  Isn't the point to 'make disciples' (Matt 28:18-20 Great Commission)?"  I would urge the seeker-driven church proponent people to make sure they are not just reaching people where they are at but also helping them develop into sacrificial close imitators of Jesus.  I would urge the worship purists to make sure they have other ways of reaching non-Christians for Christ (such as the Alpha course or vibrant personal evangelism).  I think either approach can be legitimate. 

    #7: What kind of music we should sing, particularly in regards to worship music?

• There was a time that drums were seen as the music of the devil.  But people responded by saying, "Martin Luther put hymns to bar tunes" and redeemed that musical genre.  (I'm not sure if that Luther thing is actually true.  Perhaps it is.  People repeat it a lot though).  I think it is conceivable that some music in itself is incompatible with Christian worship.  I think of shrieking heavy metal where the words are incomprehensible.  I think this is comparable to the discussion by Paul in 1 Cor 12-14 about tongues.  That just because it moves you emotionally and it is done with a Christian motivation, doesn't mean it is appropriate for Christian worship.  But maybe those people who shriek the 23rd Psalm can do it by themselves or with a small group of people who appreciate that in a setting outside of corporate worship. They should still be going to a church service where there is in Paul's words "intelligible" content to the worship services.   

    #8: What part do you think that traditional worship should play in corporate worship?

• Again, as an educator or missionary, you are trying to help the whole audience understand the message.  Thus, I think if you have lots of older people who have difficulty comprehending the words and singing contemporary worship, then it is your job to help them do so or to incorporate aspects of worship that they do understand (like hymns).  This is what we did in our church as you can see from the worship guidelines I mention above in number 3.   However, I would also try to make the case to the older people that "the church is an organization that exists for the purpose of its non-members" and thus we need to continue to pursue methods that make it more likely that when "inquirers or unbelievers come in" (1 Cor 14:23) and young people come in, "they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, 'God is really among you!'" (1 Cor 14:25) because the service is designed to be intelligible (1 Cor 12-14) to them. 

CCLI's SongSelect - Why Every Church Should Pay $179 and Get It

Here are seven reasons why every pastor should make sure their church coughs up $179 to get a 1-year subscription to SongSelect Premium from CCLI.   

CCLI are the people that give you the copyright to sing the songs and this is an extra service they offer.   

1. Because you can instantly get perfectly spelled and formatted lyrics for projecting songs on the screen or printing words in the bulletin.  No errors and consistent copyright information - can you imagine that?   

2. Because your musicians will love you for it.  This is a godsend for musicians.  They can get chord sheets, lead sheets (those things with notes - yes they have them for contemporary music), and hymn sheets for virtually every worship chorus and hymn.  Not only that but the musicians can simply choose what key to put the song in and the chord/lead/hymn sheet automatically changes.  Incredible.  Can you say "better music with less headaches?"  Can you say "organized musicians" without feeling faint?    

3. All your worship leaders, the pastoral staff, the secretary, (even all your musicians if you trust them and I suggest you do), can have access to this awesome resource online anytime.  In the old days, churches kept file cabinets of choir music and in the 90's we all kept three-ring-binders of worship chorus chord sheets.  It was a big pain to access and it did not foster good communication among people!  So use this resource and let everyone have access to it.  The only limitation is that you can only print 200 lead sheets per year.  As long as you make it clear that only a few designated leaders can print out lead sheets, you can make a "regular musician account" for the rest of your musicians.  Do it.  Let everyone share the wealth and have access to this tool.  If you let just the "worship pastor" have access to it, you are killing the spirit and potential of other musicians.  Give as many people access to the music as possible.  Don't you want to develop other musicians?      

4. It is a good financial investment.  In the old days, churches spent lots of money on choir music, robes, and hymnals.  Today they spend it on technology.  $179 is not bad considering the potential for better communication, better quality, increased creativity, and less stress. 

5. You can make song books.  For home groups or a retreat outdoors, you can make lyric sheets.  You are allowed to do that.  I think you are supposed to collect them at the end though but you would have to read the fine print.  You are not supposed to allow people to use your SongSelect for anything unrelated to the church where the license is from I think.

6. Lots of people on your staff will use it if you allow them to (and since you bought it and that is what it is for, let them use it!)  Let the youth pastor use it.  Let the people who plan worship use it.  The pastor will use it to look for songs that might go with the sermon.  It will be well used.  Stop using google and illegally posted song lyrics to find "that song you were thinking of."  Use SongSelect. 

7. It may help bring unity.  Having worship choruses with notes (lead sheets) and not just chord sheets will make your musicians better and will bridge connections between the young and old.  Having worship choruses arranged as hymns with four parts will also draw young and old together.  Having chord sheets for hymns will allow your guitar playing musicians to play hymns more easily. 

Conclusion:  Church musicians, worship leaders and secretaries have it hard enough and pastors have enough trouble getting along with them.  Don't deprive them of this resource.  It will make their lives easier.

Here is the CCLI's price list for SongSelect.  Their demo is here.  (As for me, I am impatient watching demos and just want the facts).   

See my suggestions for coordinating worship at my post entitled "How to plan and lead worship."

How to plan and lead worship

I have provided below the set of practical guidelines for worship that we operated under at Granville Chapel during my time as an Associate Pastor there from 1999-2005.

The guidelines address questions such as:

• How do we help musicians and sound techs get along? 
• What should be the criteria for a worship leader? 
• Why do we do pulpit announcements?

If you are a pastor and can't understand your artistic worship leader, this may provide some common ground for discussion.  If you are putting together guidelines with your worship planning team, this may give you some good ideas. I think you will be struck by the value we placed on communication, collaboration, seeing-the-big-picture, sensitivity, participation, organization, thoughtfulness, creativity, and empowerment.

I must add however that good policy is no substitute for good people.  "First, get the right people on the bus," as Jim Collins says in Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't.  If you have the right people, good policy is probably not that big of a deal.  If you have the wrong people involved, no amount of good policy can keep them in check.  So use this document as a catalyst for conversation, not a law to be imposed.   

A final guideline: No discussing policy unless you are eating lunch or drinking lattes.  Policy should only be discussed in such settings.  The letter kills and we need all the help we can get. 

Background: Granville Chapel is a 450-attendance, non-denominational evangelical church with Plymouth Brethren roots in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  I wrote this document in September 2004 after four years overseeing worship planning at the church and after meeting individually with each musician who was involved in worship.  I have recently unearthed this document for discussion with church leaders at Upland Community Church where I attend.  (I am currently a professor of Christian ministry at Taylor University).  The people at UCC have commented on its helpfulness to them and so I thought I would post it and see if it helps anyone else.  Here you can download the three-page Microsoft Word version.   

Working Document of Guidelines for Leading Worship

Introduction:

The reason we put this document together is so that we can better discuss worship issues.  “I think we should change #19,” etc.  These are not intended to be hard and fast rules.  This document is open to negotiation.  We want to encourage a liberating worship environment, not a straitjacket.  Many of the guidelines are common sense and are what we have been doing for years but we just want to articulate them so we are all on the same page. 

Andy Rowell, Associate Pastor, Granville Chapel, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, September 2004. 

Section 1: Expectations for Worship Ensemble Members

1.    Resolving conflict: If an existing team member (someone who has been on a team for awhile) is not fitting in because of character, personality, or musical reason, the ensemble leader will meet privately with the team member to try to resolve the issues.  Sometimes it is also helpful to have one other person involved as a supportive presence in the room.  Before an ensemble leader asks the person to step down from a team, a meeting with the Associate Pastor and those involved, must take place. 

2.    Relations with Sound Techs: Sound techs deserve respect and calm, considerate words because of the stress of the work, their hard work, servanthood, and special talents.  Ensemble musicians can help the sound techs by assisting with setup and takedown of equipment. 

3.    Sound Issues: Concerns about sound or sound equipment should be directed to the individual sound tech or to the sound tech ministry leader.  Additional concerns should be made known to the Associate Pastor. 

4.    Sound Equipment:  Ensemble members should only use the sound board in accordance with their ability.  It is a very expensive board and we need to be careful with it.  If you do know what you are doing and there is a need for you to be using the sound board, by all means, do what you need to do. 

5.    Ensemble Members relating to Leaders: Ensemble musicians are to respect and listen to their leaders.  For the purpose of variety and quality of music, not everyone needs to play their instrument all the time.  The leader has final authority about the arrangements and song selection.  Concerns with the decisions of the ensemble leader are to be made known in private.  If there is a further problem with an ensemble leader, the Associate Pastor is to be consulted. 

6.    Rehearsal and Promptness: Ensemble musicians are expected to attend rehearsals and be on time in order to play on Sunday mornings.  The ensemble leaders have the authority to decide how strictly they want to enforce this expectation. 

7.    Minimizing Distractions: Because we desire to lead the congregation to worship God, we will be careful not to be distracting.  This is an inherently subjective matter.  But long musical interludes, one’s dress, long pauses between songs, and other stage issues are to be considered carefully.  We want to facilitate the participation of the congregation and they may not be participating if they are distracted. 

8.    Stretching our Understanding of Worship: In order to encourage freshness in worship, we will invite outside musicians to come and teach us about worship at least once a year.  We also encourage and facilitate musicians attending outside worship conferences.

Section 2: Expectations for Worship Ensemble Leaders

9.    Qualifications for Ensemble Leaders: Because being an ensemble leader is an important leadership position within the community, we are looking for ensemble leaders who have (1) spiritual maturity, (2) leadership skills, (3) experience at our church and (4) strong musical ability.  These can be defined more specifically.  Spiritual maturity includes honesty, integrity, demonstration of the fruits of the Spirit and the practice of spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Bible reading, involvement in a small group, and church attendance.  Leadership skills can be demonstrated in other areas of a person’s life or can be attested to by other ensemble members.  Experience at our church almost always includes playing as an ensemble member on a team before being a leader.  It might also include leading worship at other church events besides Sunday mornings. 

10.    Encouraging Potential Leaders: Our desire is to see potential ensemble leaders trained up.  Therefore occasional and gradual sharing of leadership responsibilities with potential leaders is encouraged.  We also desire to make available less pressure opportunities outside of Sunday morning available to growing leaders.  We typically have three complete teams who rotate leading on Sunday morning.  In this way, people do not get burned out and we continually give experience to three drummers, bassists, etc. so that we are close to being "three-deep" at each position.  We are very much in favor of giving teens experience as ensemble musicians and as opposed to limiting them to the youth group worship band.

11.    Ensemble Leaders Succession: Ensemble leaders are chosen by the Associate Pastor in informal consultation with ensemble members and leaders. 

12.    Inclusiveness: We would like to incorporate as many gifted musicians in the church as possible.  Our desire is to try to find a place for each person to fit if they have the ability and spiritual character required. 

13.    New musicians: Willing musicians who have shown commitment to the church may audition with an ensemble leader or leaders.  Ensemble leaders have the authority to discern whether a person is a good fit.  If a person is interested in being part of a team, he or she should be in touch with one of the ensemble leaders.

14.    Outside Musicians: We encourage our ensemble leaders to utilize musicians from our church.  In-house musicians know the people of our church and therefore can encourage, love and challenge the congregation.  In turn, our congregation knows those musicians as people and can therefore encourage and correct them.  Because of the wealth of musicians that we have at the church, we see very little reason why outside musicians might be needed to fill gaps.  Even if an ensemble leader is stuck on Saturday evening, he or she is encouraged to first call in-house musicians to fill in.  We keep an updated roster of musicians with email addresses and phone numbers.

15.    Who is the congregation supposed to be following? Though we do not want to be pretentious or a “rock star”, it is good for the congregation to know who is leading each song so that they know who to look at.  This person should be singing the melody because worship choruses are sometimes difficult to sing and no sheet music is typically available. 

16.    Scheduling Rehearsals: Ensemble leaders are responsible to book their rehearsals through the church office.  They will get a key and security code ahead of time if necessary.  If their rehearsals are regular, they will be given a permanent key and code but this should only be used for the scheduled rehearsals. 

17.    Arriving on Sunday mornings: Ensemble leaders must arrange with their sound tech and the church office about what time they would like to arrive on Sunday morning in order for the building to be open.  If this is a regular problem, ensemble leaders may be given a key and code for this purpose.   

Section 3: Worship Planning (for Ensemble Leaders)

18.    Worship Oversight: The Worship Planning Committee intends to do these two things: (1) Debrief past services with input from fellow ensemble leaders, congregation members and pastors.  (2) Plan for upcoming services with this same group.  The way that this is done and how often this group meets has evolved over the years.  Whatever consensus the pastors and ensemble leaders agree upon will be the preferred practice.  These meetings and this group is the appropriate place for ensemble leaders to express their concerns about worship at the church and to voice leadership concerns.  These meetings will not encourage micromanagement or the stifling of creativity.  Rather we want to be spiritually attuned to what God is doing and give one another constructive feedback.

19.    New Songs are Encouraged: We want to add freshness and vitality to worship services.  Therefore we encourage the incorporation of new songs.  We also value the writing of new songs by our congregation. 

20.    Limited Number of New Songs: The issue we are trying to address is “how many new songs can the congregation realistically learn?”  We would like the congregation to be able to lift up their voices to the Lord and worship Him.  We value participation.  Therefore, we would like for there to be only 1 new song per Sunday (defined as not having been sung in the last 4 years or so.  We keep a Songs in Use document that lists the continually growing number of songs that are part of our church repertoire).  Ideally, ensemble leaders would consult with one another on which new songs they would like to introduce and to institute a plan for teaching the song over a number of weeks. 

21.    Criteria for New Songs: Songs should be evaluated on the value of their music and lyrics.  Lyrics must be biblically accurate.  Ideally, they would be theologically strong and their message would be clear.  We should also ask the truth question: Does this song communicate what we want to teach people about God or something that is not quite true?  New songs must be vetted by the Associate Pastor. 

22.    Song Explanation: A song with unclear lyrics may need the appropriate Scripture passage read in conjunction with the song to explain it.  The use of Scripture can help the congregation appreciate and understand a song which may otherwise be repetitive or informal.  A song that is primarily a youth or camp song should be explained as such.  “This song has been very popular at camp and so we wanted to teach it to you.”  This can help explain its informal tone.   

23.    Lyrical flow: Because we would like to prepare the congregation to hear the sermon, we would like for there to be some lyrical flow.  Sometimes this has been called a “worship theme.”  There should be some common thread lyrically through the songs – ideally connected to the Scripture text which the sermon will be based upon. 

24.    Musical Progression: Some believe that there should be progression in terms of tempo from fast to slow.  Some believe this can help bring people from “the outer courts” into the “holy of holies.”  This is the responsibility of the ensemble leader to do what seems best to them artistically.  It need not follow any set pattern.  See “#37 Crafting and Evaluating the Song Set” below.   

25.    Hymns: One or two hymns are required each Sunday because we want the whole congregation to worship and some worship best through hymns.  We value participation.  Furthermore, hymns provide some appropriate stable, theological and historical balance to “praise choruses.”  In other words, even if we were doing a service for just young people, probably a hymn or two would be included in order to enrich our worship experience.  Like fresh fruit, choruses tend to have quite a short shelf-life.  Hymns are defined as being in our church’s hymnal.  Hymns should be practiced.  It should also be considered how they might be best led.  For example, an ensemble leader should consider doing things such as 4-part harmony with 4 microphones, play the hymn by the ensemble, include the organ for a fuller sound, include another instrument, acappella, etc. 

26.    Gathering Songs: The first one or two songs are meant to be “gathering songs” as people are still arriving and others are entering into a spirit of worship.  We start on time.   

27.    Songs Deadline: The songs should be turned in the Thursday before (1 ½ weeks) the service.  The reason for this is so that the PowerPoint can be made, words can be double-checked by email, and changes can be made if necessary without unnecessary stress.   Words, audio samples and lead sheets are available for virtually any song through our SongSelect Advanced subscription through ccli.com.

28.    Ending on time: We desire to end the service at 1 hr. 15-20 minutes.  We do this because of children’s ministry and the nursery.  Ensemble leaders and the Associate Pastor need to work carefully at planning the time in order for this goal to be accomplished.                

29.    Repeats: Words in songs are often repeated in order to (1) teach people the words, (2) help people to meditate on the words, to “feel the words.”  Contemporary worship choruses are written to be repeated.  Ensemble leaders will decide how many times songs are repeated.  How many times a song should be repeated is a notoriously subjective matter. 

30.    Spontaneity:  A very well-known worship song or chorus may be sung without the words on PowerPoint may be sung spontaneously by the worship team.  Probably a maximum of one per week is a good rule of thumb. 

31.    Optional Creativity: There are many things that we have done in the past during worship services.  Here is a long list: special music, responsive readings, facilitated confession, testimonies, open sharing, recitation of a creed, parallel Scripture readings, dramatic reading, skit, story, video clip, poem, symbol, banner, visuals, body movement, sit when we sing, and communion received at stations.  Our services are jam packed without these things.  However, if they fit, they can be very meaningful.  We should also take note that these creative endeavors take extra energy.  A person is needed who will be responsible to carry through the idea, and lead the activity meaningfully and appropriately.  These creative endeavors need to be worked out in advance in consultation with the Associate Pastor. 

Section 4: Worship at our Church: Why We Do the Things We Do.

32.    Hosts, Pray-ers, Readers, and Communion Pray-ers:  Because we believe worship is the congregation participating in worship together, we include “regular members” of the congregation each week in various aspects of the service.  They are given some freedom within parameters to uniquely craft that aspect of the service.  We do not want to imply that only professionals can lead worship, rather the idea is that “everyone pitches in” and uses their gifts.   

33.    Announcements: Announcements are made in the worship service because Christianity is more than just Sunday worship and we want to invite people to realize that and consider further involvement.  The church staff prioritizes one or two major events to highlight each week that affect all or most the church.  These announcements should be crafted to achieve the right tone and emphasis in the least amount of time – almost always under 1 minute with a story, object, video clip or PowerPoint slide.  All announcements are to be made as briefly as possible and information should be in the bulletin so that details from the pulpit need not be given.  Most events should only receive one announcement from the pulpit and perhaps 5 second “reminder announcements” in the following weeks.  People should be encouraged to read their bulletin and the bulletin should be done attractively and accurately.  When someone besides the regular host gives an announcement, they should be coached to immediately begin their announcement rather than greet people, joke, clear their throat, test the mic, etc.  Pastoral care emergency announcements will usually be made before the prayer. 

34.    Announcements Placement: It is possible to have the announcements put either after the gathering songs near the beginning of the service or at the end of the service.  We should not have the announcements at the end of the service when we intend to have people respond to the sermon by coming forward for prayer. 

35.    Children in Service: Kids are included in the service for the first fifteen minutes in order to: help them get a sense of the wider church family, learn the worship songs, and for people in the congregation to get to know them.  Parents also appreciate having a few songs without their kids around them (distracting them) so this is why we do not have the kids in during all the singing.  It is important for the children’s ministry teachers to have the kids arrive upstairs about 15 minutes into the service because this the time period they plan for.  We like to allow kids to see baptisms.      

36.    Long Sets: Music is a great vehicle for worship.  Therefore, we value long sets of music in order to allow people to engage, connect and focus on God.  It may be more difficult for people to focus, if it is just two songs. 

37.    Crafting and Evaluating the Song Set:  The final song set selected should include a balance of:

a.    God’s initiative & human response
b.    A sense of awe at God’s transcendence & a sense of intimacy with God
c.    Corporate (“we”) & Individual (“I”)
d.    Hymns & Praise Choruses
e.    Well known songs & 1-2 newer songs. 
f.    Fast & slow songs
g.    Joy & grappling with the pain of this world

38.    Communion: Communion songs should be done in a spirit of reverence and reflection.  Communion songs should  usually focus on the work of Jesus at the cross.  A period of instrumental music or silence may be appropriate during this time.  People should not be asked to stand until everyone has been served.

Additional resources:

At the following links, you can also download the following Microsoft Word documents which formed some of the infrastructure for our worship planning at Granville Chapel. 

1. a sample order of service we used
2. our instructions to those who would serve as hosts, pastoral pray-ers, Scripture readers, and communion pray-ers
3. our stage manager instructions
4. and our PowerPoint operator instructions.

Thanks to the leadership and people of Granville Chapel, who I deeply loved serving with and still love.  In particular, a few people played a huge role in shaping these guidelines and more importantly the ethos that they represent.  They include the devoted Lynda Kennedy, the tactful Tim MacIntosh, the compassionate David Sayson, the curious Jennifer Legare, the detail-crunching Joan Messer, the gracious Andy Reid and the visionary Ken Smith.   

Thanks to my friend Jim Garringer for his permission to post here this behind-the-scenes photo of Taylor University Chapel from May 2006. 

Is Congregational Singing Seeker-Sensitive?

Last Sunday I visited Willow Creek DuPage, one of Willow Creek's Regional Campuses, which meets at Wheaton Academy.  I actually just made it for the end of the service because I went to another church service first. 

The Willow Creek DuPage room seemed quite full.  All of the rows were 70% full.  400 people perhaps?  After the service, they had lemonade and cookies set out at different tables labeled with different high school names in the area.  The idea is that people can more easily find people who live near them. 

But I had one question.  At the end of the video message by Mike Breaux, the worship leader came up and led three songs.  He invited people to stand and later to clap their hands.  It didn't seem to me like many people were singing.  Then again, I was in the back.  Perhaps many of the people visiting are "seekers" and thus feel uncomfortable singing. 

For this reason I thought that Willow Creek did not invite people to sing very much in their weekend services.  I thought the focus was on performed music as opposed to congregational singing.  Is this still the line of thinking?  Or are Willow Creek and other seeker-driven churches incorporating more congregational singing?  Just curious.

P.S. I'm sorry for not asking the regional pastor this question but I felt bad because I hadn't been at the whole service and he had invited people who were hurting to talk with him.  I threw away my brochure but I have sent an email to the general DuPage regional church email address to see if someone wants to comment. 

I'm also sorry for not carrying my camera and taking a photo.  The law of copyrights with photos is that you usually don't get in trouble if you post your own photos.  So I'll have to do that more often.  This photo is free to use because I found it on stock.xchnge

See my recent post about video venues for more discussion about this concept.