[Nomes]

Hey ya'll,

Do you have an over-arching 'vision' for worship in your church's context that you share with your team or your congregation or both?
Do you think it's important to have such a vision?

I've always taken what some might think a simplistic approach. To grow in all ways in our abilities to lead the church into worship and most simply - to worship God together. Do you think that's a naive kind of idea?

Discuss.

[gtrdave]

Like you, I'm into the simplistic.
The vision I have for worship/music in our church is to )1 worship God and 2) invite others to join in. Sure, there are details to how all that is executed in the contexts of music and corporate church gatherings and culture and reverence and all that, but I think that if someone understands what worship is then the details don't have to be explained so much.
The "vision" is still ultimately to worship God.

[Aiken]

Originally Posted by gtrdave

Like you, I'm into the simplistic.
The vision I have for worship/music in our church is to )1 worship God and 2) invite others to join in. Sure, there are details to how all that is executed in the contexts of music and corporate church gatherings and culture and reverence and all that, but I think that if someone understands what worship is then the details don't have to be explained so much.
The "vision" is still ultimately to worship God.

Maybe I'm the one that's naive, but the lack of vision is one of the problems I had with my last worship leader. I'm sorry, Dave, but as much as I generally respect your opinion, I don't think that the vision you've outlined above is really a vision so much as some reaaallly high level goals or objectives.

A vision would seem to imply a picture of what something would look like. Does your vision involve a stripped down, intimate, single guitar and voice leading in worship songs? Does it involve a polka band interpretation of praise songs? Does it involve doing a Love Boat-esque version of old hymns? Vision is important and it needs to be clearly communicated and then actively pursued.


--Aik

[gtrdave]

Originally Posted by Aiken

Maybe I'm the one that's naive, but the lack of vision is one of the problems I had with my last worship leader. I'm sorry, Dave, but as much as I generally respect your opinion, I don't think that the vision you've outlined above is really a vision so much as some reaaallly high level goals or objectives.

A vision would seem to imply a picture of what something would look like. Does your vision involve a stripped down, intimate, single guitar and voice leading in worship songs? Does it involve a polka band interpretation of praise songs? Does it involve doing a Love Boat-esque version of old hymns? Vision is important and it needs to be clearly communicated and then actively pursued.

--Aik

So, you think that the worship of God is a "reaaallly high level [goal] or [objective]"?
Interesting.

As I said above, "there are details to how [the vision] is executed in the contexts of music and corporate church gatherings and culture and reverence and all that", but anyone who visits my church once KNOWS what our style is. Stripped-down bands or polkas or cruise-ship hymns are styles, not examples of vision, imho.
So, when someone asks what the "vision" is for the praise team at my church, I'm not going to say that our vision is to have a rock band with lights and media and we'll be playing songs about Jesus. That's our style...our execution...our format.
Our vision is to worship God and the worship of God is so much more than a music style and goes well beyond what happens in church during a weekend service.

I can easily define for you my idea of a praise team; how it functions and how it sounds musically. Maybe your former wl had trouble communicating that, I don't know. My team knows clearly what we're to sound like and how we're to function musically That's not worship, though, therefore it's not what I would need to define in a "vision for worship".

Let me use another example:
I have high respect for the folks at Church of the Highlands in Alabama. They are a fellow ARC church. Having some 15,000+ church members, 7 or 8 satellite campuses and a slammin' praise team, most people would concede that they're doing something right. Their music is in the style of Hillsong United (if I had to pick only one example).
Their "Worship Team Member Guide", which communicates their "vision", contains nothing about music style, but it has info w/ scriptures regarding worship, excellence, community, being prompt, personal health and attire.
Again, nothing about musical style...no mention of polkas nor intimate music nor Jack Jones-esque tunes...but the 4 page pamphlet does conclude with this:
"I will extol the Lord at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips"

I agree with you that "vision is important" and it does need to be communicated clearly, but a vision for worship can, and imho should, be very simple.

[Aiken]

Originally Posted by gtrdave

So, you think that the worship of God is a "reaaallly high level [goal] or [objective]"?
Interesting.

Yes, actually. When stated that way, it's not a vision, it's a goal. Your goal is to worship God through music and to use that music to lead others in worship of Him. I'm paraphrasing, I know, but that's not unique to you and your team. A vision is a word picture of what the team will look, feel, and act like. A vision does have some level of detail.

Originally Posted by gtrdave

I can easily define for you my idea of a praise team; how it functions and how it sounds musically. Maybe your former wl had trouble communicating that, I don't know. My team knows clearly what we're to sound like and how we're to function musically That's not worship, though, therefore it's not what I would need to define in a "vision for worship".

It is, indeed, the form your worship takes and therefore should be part of your description of your vision of worship.

Originally Posted by gtrdave

Let me use another example:
I have high respect for the folks at Church of the Highlands in Alabama. They are a fellow ARC church. Having some 15,000+ church members, 7 or 8 satellite campuses and a slammin' praise team, most people would concede that they're doing something right. Their music is in the style of Hillsong United (if I had to pick only one example).
Their "Worship Team Member Guide", which communicates their "vision", contains nothing about music style, but it has info w/ scriptures regarding worship, excellence, community, being prompt, personal health and attire.
Again, nothing about musical style...no mention of polkas nor intimate music nor Jack Jones-esque tunes...but the 4 page pamphlet does conclude with this:
"I will extol the Lord at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips"

I agree with you that "vision is important" and it does need to be communicated clearly, but a vision for worship can, and imho should, be very simple.

A worship team member guide may or may not explicitly state the vision of the worship leader for how the worship team will achieve the goals set out for it. The number of members and skill of the praise team has nothing to do with whether or not they have effectively communicated their vision. It may be communicated through enculturation without ever being explicitly taught. However, it is usually apparent when the leadership actually HAS a vision vs. when they are just thrashing around looking for something that works.

--Aik

[gtrdave]

I guess I prefer simple 1 or 2 sentence vision statements. The details of the execution of the vision can be as complex as we want to make them. Your mileage may vary.

[Aiken]

To be honest, I'm probably blending my words. Sorry for any confusion and for overstating my case. A vision can be a high level concept of what you want to achieve or where you want the group to go. But there has to be a strategy to get there that accompanies that vision. Otherwise, the vision will probably remain unrealized. My previous worship leader did not have a well-formed vision in my opinion. Perhaps that's what led to his strategy for achieving that vision being so mutable. Every day the rules changed.

--Aik

[Nomes]

I'm sort of wanting to change the way I communicate this stuff with my team. In that, I need to start communicating it more But I have no idea how. I'm not a preacher, and I find it hard to inspire people more than 'check this out' followed by 'we should do it!' - which I don't respond well to, so why would anybody else?

Any pointers?

[jeepnstein]

You could probably just have a sit-down session with them and say where you'd like to see the group go. Maybe they'll have some input of their own. Musicians always have some place they want to go, musically. Take a little time to discuss it and maybe plan a road map to get there.