95:. Creative Chaos 4

So, I’m taking my contribution for Creative Chaos this week from something a good buddy of mine started. He is in charge of a lot of the production details that goes on at our church. So he started a site for his volunteers and for others to check out what is going on with the ministry. The best part, it’s put together so well! He’s got it setup as a blog, but he’s got videos of the services and of the work they did on Sunday mornings up there. Its boss. So check it out, maybe you’d like to start something like this for our ministry. It’s a great way to get volunteers interested in your ministry and to get the word out about what you’re doing.

Go here to check it out.

88:. Creative Chaos 3

First off, I’m really enjoy reading all of these great ideas that everyone posts on here. Way to go guys, we’re really doin it.

So, here’s my contribution for the week. Something that we try to do from time to time is we try to write tracks to fill out the band. Not just stuff to fill in what isn’t there, but stuff that is just nice to have on top and it fills it out. Or even just have a sick little beat (See Fee’s Beautiful the Blood) to have just a little more complexity goin on. For instance, I started to write a track last night based off this rendition of Amazing Grace that Hillsong did (Check last post). All I did was I found some decent sounding string combos and started writing it out. I added a little glockenspiel on top to give it that little extra clarity and brightness I wanted. It’s goin well, but I want to get some ears on it to see if we’re headed in the right direction. However, this isn’t the creative part of the post.

Here’s my point: You have volunteers, use them. I’m a volunteer. I don’t get paid for what I do to help the ministry. I love writing musing and composing stuff, so I jump at chances to do it when Brooks and I talk about it. Talk to your volunteers and see if they have a knack for writing tracks, or writing charts, or something that could help out the ministry and give them ownership of the ministry. Once people own the vision that you guys are putting out there, get ready. There is no limit to what God can do with willing servants.

Thoughts?

79:. Creative Chaos 2

So, we’re really starting to get this CC thing goin. I’m diggin it. Here’s my 2 cents for the week.

I really love how people are thinking outside of the box and are trying to be fresh. But what if we stopped trying to look for new things and decided to simply refresh some great ideas we have. Being a worship leader, I tend to lean for revamping songs are giving them new life, but you can use this with anything! I’m talking to you lighting guys, and cg ladies, and anything in between. A great example is a tune that a church down in Nawlins (New Orleans for those not hip enough to catch the lingo) did for a live recording. They took the song “Love Song” by Jason Morant and turned it from a chill, acoustic driven personal worship song and made it into a dynamic, rockin corporate worship anthem. Thats what I’m talking about. My advice, take something and make it your own. Break the mold. Try something new. Thats where we can think outside the box.

Had anything like that recently?

74:. Creative Chaos 1

So, I read this certain blog a lot. Carlos writes it. I dig what he does. Creativity is his junk, so he had this idea. How could we get a bunch of great ideas out of this creative group of people who read this blog? Creative Chaos. Click that link to get the DL.

Here’s my contribution for the week. I’m leading worship for our middle school ministry this weekend, Tsunami. One thing that we have been trying to do, as a band, is to teach the kids how to worship. We have a great opportunity here. We could just play loud and fast songs all the time, let em jump around. They’d love it. I love it. And that is all part of worship. But this week, we’re going to hit up Salvation is Here into Take It All and then right into an abridged version [P.C 2x's, 1/2C. 2x's, C.] of From the Inside Out.

One thing that I have seen with middle school kids is that when you pull out a slower song for them, they have usually lost interest by the second verse because they want to be jumping around and being a middle school. Slower songs usually don’t appeal to a mass of middle schoolers. So, we want to take the momentum and energy from the first two songs and continue it into the last song. By cutting some of the song out and building from nothing from the beginning of the song, we hope to keep their attention. By keeping their attention, we can allow them to maybe focus more than usual on the words, thus teaching them how to work. It’s tough stuff, but teaching another generation how to worship is a privilege and challenge I’m stoked for.

What are some idea’s you’ve got floating around in your head?