Question:
Hey guys, long time reader, first time poster in this forum.
I have several questions that I hope you can respond to by telling me how you do it in your church, as well as maybe how you don't do it because you've learned from your mistakes :
1. How do you introduce new songs to the worship team? Do you bring it on rehearsal night expecting to play it that Sunday? Or do you bring it a couple weeks ahead of time and work on it each week until you've got it down good enough for Sunday?
2. How do you introduce new songs to the congregation? Ever do more than one on a given Sunday? Do you repeat the song for several Sundays until you feel they've learned it? Do you play it more than once on a Sunday (like as a warmup, then in the actual service)?
3. Where do you do announcements? We've tried at the beginning, but not everyone is seated yet. We've tried at the end of the service, but people are already walking out the doors and tuned out. We've tried in the middle, but that can sometimes break the "flow". It's like a necessary evil, but it just doesn't seem to fit anywhere.
We are a non-denominational church of about 200 adults, with one contemporary service each week. Our "typical" service format is like this:
Warmup song (instrumental)
Welcome
Call to worship (2-3 songs) with prayer/Scripture
Message
Response time (5 songs) with communion, offering, closing prayer
Announcements
Thanks guys.
Answer:
Originally Posted by walkersc Hey guys, long time reader, first time poster in this forum.
Welcome.
1. How do you introduce new songs to the worship team?
Well, that would be just my brothers and I, so I'll just say "This a new song we're doing this week, let's play it." We're good enough musicians that we can generally learn things fairly quickly; it also helps that there's just the three of us, and we all generally know what the other ones will be doing musically.
Do you bring it on rehearsal night expecting to play it that Sunday?
Yes.
Or do you bring it a couple weeks ahead of time and work on it each week until you've got it down good enough for Sunday?
Very rarely, we will wait on a song (usually because I haven't nailed the chord progression down exactly as I want it), but we usually do them the week I intended them for originally.
2. How do you introduce new songs to the congregation?
Most often, we will play the new song during the collection of our offerings (in the very middle of the service) and we'll simply perform it for the congregation rather than ask them to sing along. Almost as often, we'll do the song congregationally in between other well-known songs, and we'll repeat some sections of the song (first verse, for example) or leave out sections (bridge, harmony parts, etc) in order to make it easier to learn.
Ever do more than one on a given Sunday?
Occasionally.
Do you repeat the song for several Sundays until you feel they've learned it?
Generally, if it's not a one-time song (something that fits in specifically with the sermon or something), we will repeat the new song next week, and add in whatever we left out.
Do you play it more than once on a Sunday (like as a warmup, then in the actual service)?
We will sometimes play a song for congregational singing early in the service and then also as an invitation or benediction song, but that is pretty rare.
3. Where do you do announcements? We've tried at the beginning, but not everyone is seated yet. We've tried at the end of the service, but people are already walking out the doors and tuned out. We've tried in the middle, but that can sometimes break the "flow". It's like a necessary evil, but it just doesn't seem to fit anywhere.
We begin the service with a [usually upbeat] congregational call to worship (something like "Come, Now Is The Time To Worship" or "Let Us Love And Sing And Wonder" are common choices for this song), and then our pastor will come up and welcome everyone and give any announcements that he needs to. I think this works fairly well, as the solitary call to worship song gives people a chance to get to their seats, get in the right "mood" for the service (so to speak), etc, but it's early enough in the service that it doesn't come as an interruption at all.
We are a non-denominational church of about 200 adults, with one contemporary service each week. Our "typical" service format is like this:
Warmup song (instrumental)
Welcome
Call to worship (2-3 songs) with prayer/Scripture
Message
Response time (5 songs) with communion, offering, closing prayer
Announcements
That seems relatively reasonable. I suggest that you maybe (like I just described) sing one of your call to worship songs before the welcome time (after the instrumental song) and then put your announcements up there with the welcome.
Hope that helps some.
In His love,
Nate
Answer:
Hey, welcome to the zoo...I mean, forum.
I'll pass on to you what we do;
1. Normally I will bring in a new song by sending an email out to the team letting them know that there's a new song coming.
I'll then post the tune up on my webspace and send them the link so that they can d/l it and listen to it at their convenience.
We'll typically try the song at rehearsal (charts/lyrics are prep'ed beforehand) and 99% of the time we'll do it that weekend.
If the song is just not happening, we'll put it off and rehearse it again the following week.
My desire is that folks are comfortable enough with a song so that they don't miss out on worshipping and so that their familiarity with the music overcomes any potential for distraction during the worship time.
2. For some new songs I'll stop and do a quick teaching time for maybe the chorus or main part of the song. It's something I learned from Tommy Walker years ago. I don't wish to just toss a new song out there and have people be so unfamiliar with it that the meaning of the words blow right by them, especially once the din of the worship team rises and words/singers may become less understandable by those already unfamiliar with it.
We'll normally do the song 2 weeks in a row and then give it a rest for a week to bring it back again the following. There's no formula...it's whatever works at your church without becomine noticably redundant.
Yes, sometimes we'll play it twice in one service; once at the front and once more to reprise, maybe near the end or do it instrumentally with one of the instruments leading on melody.
3. We do 2 services and the announcements are at 2 different places:
Saturday night @ the end of service before closing prayer.
Sunday morning @ the close of the music portion of the service and normally during offering.
Announcments can be awkward regardless of where they're placed...you just do the best with them as you can and always try to maintain a flow throughout the service regardless of where you put them.
A service can be like a boat on the water...you can try to fight the waves and smack them with a paddle, trying to turn the boat to avoid them or you can float on top of them and praise God for all of them; the high spots and the low (figuratively speaking).
Answer:
99.9% of the Sundays we go something like this
*Before/between services (we have two services 9:00 and 10:50) they usually have a mixed CD playing just for some background noise.
*Being a 1000+ crowd per service I think we do a pretty good job of hanging out in the worship center before service so when things are ready to get started our worship leader starts up the band and they go through the intro to the first couple of songs and Jeremy (the leader) says something like "Lets give worship to our God this morning" and that kicks things off.
*Whenever we have a baptism, then they'll usually do 1 or 2 songs and then our pastor will get up and introduce the person getting baptised (we believe that the senior pastor doesn't have to do the actual baptism) and then he might say a couple of things to the congregation and then they'll finish out the songs.
*Once we've gotten through the songs and worship kind of comes to a close (if the Holy Spirit has us worship for 5 minutes or 5 hours, we'll typically try to go where the spirit leads) our pastor will go back up to the platform and get the offering started and while they are doing the offering he'll make the announcements.
*After announcements he'll go into his message for the day.
*Usually at the end we'll just end with a prayer, maybe an alter call. If we do an alter call then the worship team usually has a song planned out.
Its kind of confusing but it really does work, especially considering the size of the church and all the difficulties that come with it.
As far as the actual songs go. On wednesday afternoon the worship leader will give me the plan for the next Sunday (which has the songs and what key they are in) and I'll pull the chords and stuff for the band. We typically do 5-6 songs (or at least have them at our disposal) and they are usually our of a set of 10-15 that are kind of standard for the season but every once in while we'll introduce a brand new song. Usually they'll just give it to the band at Wednesday practice and have it ready for sunday (we have been so blessed with so many talented musicians). As far as teaching the congregation, we try not to pick songs that are so out of the blue that no one would know them. Usually "new" songs are 2-3 years old but they are new to the church.
Answer:
Our church is about the same size....
We practice on Saturday nights for about 1 1/2 hrs and again on Sunday morning for the same. A new song is usually introduced at that Saturday night practice. It's then used the next day and for a few subsequent services.
About announcements. Our service is 2 hours long. We normally take a break shortly after the music portion, which is the beginning BTW and the announcements precede that. The 10 - 15 minutes of mulling around talking is fun and promotes relationship growth too. After the break we usually have about an hour left for the message. When the message is done, we're done, again - usually. We've found that any attempt to keep the flow quite often ends up being a 'religious' thing because Holy Spirit can and does work with or without a 'flow'.
Answer:
New songs:
Sometimes we play them the week that we practice, other times we practice them a couple times ahead. I tend to prefer a little advance notice. We'll usually include the song as a prelude or offertory for a week or two before we put it in as a congregational song. Then, we'll usually include that song in the service for a few weeks in a row.
Announcements:
If they're "operational" sorts of announcements, they go at the beginning. If they're prayer related announcements, they go right before the "prayers of the people". The beginning works for us because people know that we'll generally start on time, and by the time that pastor gets up to the pulpit, people are quiet.
Answer:
Interesting thread.
1. We meet every Monday evening and spend time reviewing what we did Sunday. This gives us a chance to evaluate what worked and didn't work. As far as new songs go, we will sing them that Sunday unless as others have stated that the team can't quite nail it. However they all have the rest of the week to do that. Won't be the first time I've changed an entire song service on Sunday mornings though. We tend to rely more on getting up their and playing every note unto the Lord, He normally carries us whether we've rehearsed a song or not.
2. Introudcing new songs to a church can sometimes be a tricky buisness. If it's an upbeat song then playing first to get it out the way is not a good thing, because it doesn't really get people into the flow of praise. Playing it after the first song can stutter the flow. So what do you do. Well after doing this for 17 years I tend to get the team to just get up there and sing it like they've known it for years with all enthusiasm and energy they can find. Normally the congregation get caught up and really after a couple of times through they are buzzing with it. Sometimes however a song just doesn't work and after singing it thast week we rarely sing it again.
3. Our anouncements come after the worship when Helen our bridger works with me and we plan a come down. I will get the worship to a place ready to hand over with some gentle music playing from the team and then she will come up and offer a prayer or some encouraging words (softly spoken). and then we will stop playing half way through this and she will then invite everyone to greet one another or take a seat. This is where she will do anouncemements. However we print a weekly buletin that gets handed to everyone as they walk in therefore the anouncements are minimal. She will then lift the offering and Welcome the Pastor.
Notes: Destroying the flow of a service? What you have to ask yourself is what is the service for? It's for the believer, the unbeliever, unity, fellowship, prayer, family, worship, mission, purpose, encouragement, inspiration etc. etc. There is an old cliche where Pastors want the worship to flow right through because they believe that worship is the platform for their message. Well I disagree. If all worship is is a platform then who get's the true glory. Worship is to God and about God only. It was created by him and for him. It should be a seperate part of the service altogether. Where the confussion comes in is that when it comes to ministry we can have music leading into the gifts and flow of the Spirit of God this would be like a healing crusade or end of service ministry times or maybe God would flow into this area through the worship before the service. IN the OT Elijah called for the minstrel to play so as to soften his heart before prophecying (ministry). If our congregations think that worship is a platform then we are in trouble.
I remember an Old Lady said after being at a worship conference, "Lord why all the Razmataz, their was loud drums and electric guitars and dancing and shouting and flags, what is it all about isn't all this fuss a bit too mucH." God answered her and said, "My dear I don't look at the owtward appearnace but only their hearts. Look at it from my point of view." As He showed her the people praising all she could see was hearts lifted up before God in worship. He then showed her the people after the worship service was finished and their was silence. That was the sermon. God then said to her, The worship is the part of the service solely for me, the rest is for the body." Now I know it's a story but it get's a good point across.
Answer:
Originally Posted by walkersc 1. How do you introduce new songs to the worship team? Do you bring it on rehearsal night expecting to play it that Sunday? Or do you bring it a couple weeks ahead of time and work on it each week until you've got it down good enough for Sunday? For most songs, I believe this is how we do it.
Originally Posted by walkersc 2. How do you introduce new songs to the congregation? Ever do more than one on a given Sunday? Do you repeat the song for several Sundays until you feel they've learned it? Do you play it more than once on a Sunday (like as a warmup, then in the actual service)? My church usually just does it, sometimes prefacing it with a "this one's new." Most of the time there is at most one new song, but there is occasionally two or even three (out of like seven.)
We somtimes do new songs every week for a month, but not always. It makes some sense to me to do it that way.
Originally Posted by walkersc 3. Where do you do announcements? We've tried at the beginning, but not everyone is seated yet. We've tried at the end of the service, but people are already walking out the doors and tuned out. We've tried in the middle, but that can sometimes break the "flow". It's like a necessary evil, but it just doesn't seem to fit anywhere. Though evil might be a little much, I certainly know where you're coming from. It has to be done, and there's no truly good time. The current way my church does it works pretty well, I think. We start one song as a "song of preparation," by the end of it prettymuch everyone is where they need to be and such. At that point the announcements are done. It's after this that the service formally begins, by transisioning with a musical meditation (a passage is printed in the bulletin and usually read aloud to reflect on while preparing for worship.)
Answer:
Wow guys - great replies, each and every one of them. Thank you!
I guess I'm walking away from this discussion with the sense that we are doing pretty well at my church - new songs and announcements are things that can really be done a lot of different ways (and we've tried them all! ), and it probably comes down to exactly what "works" with your congregation and worship team. There's no "right" way. It's funny how many of you seem to just be willing to "wing it" with the song choices, even changing things on a Sunday morning. Our team likes to have everything planned out, which admittedly leaves us with a problem when we feel the Holy Spirit tugging at us. There's little room for spontaneity, which is a whole other topic!
Generally we've sided on practicing a new song on Wednesday nights and then playing it that following Sunday. But we've recently introduced some new vocalists to the team, and they've been holding us back with their lack of comfort and confidence with the new song (which can also be a song which isn't "new", but we haven't played in a long time). It's been frustrating, honestly. Sometimes I wonder if we're becoming too perfection-oriented that we can't mess up once in awhile.
But anyway, I've gained a lot of useful ideas from this discussion and will be discussing them with our team. Let's keep the discussion going if it's useful!
Answer:
I play guitar for our church's youth band and the only time we have to practice is like 2hours before youth group so we pretty much get introduced to the song right then and play it that night lol. We wing it I guess.