January 28, 2008  

Practical Tools
Vern Sanders

Creator Leadership Network

The CLN Volunteers Speak...
This month we are hearing from people who have volunteered to serve on the CLN board. We asked some of those who answered the call to participate a couple of practical questions, and their answers are below. Let's let them introduce themselves first:

• Mark Bowers is Associate Minister of Worship and Ministry at West Hartsville Baptist Church in Hartsville, South Carolina. He says "WHBC is a Southern Baptist Church. We average around 200 in morning worship in one worship service. In terms of the design of our services, most would consider us fairly traditional. The music ministry is, for the most part, chorally driven. 
  While we may not be an extremely large congregation, we are very diverse.  There are some members here who are charter members of the church (established in 1952) and there are many who have joined since then. Although we are in a small town we have a multinational packaging company, Sonoco Products, Inc., that finds its corporate offices in Hartsville. Sonoco has over 19,000 employees in over 38 countries, so the influx of outsiders who work at the corporate offices has had a strong hand in shaping our local culture. Because of such outside influence we have a strong arts community for a small town. The Hartsville Civic Chorale and Coker College both use our sanctuary quite often for concerts. The room is perfect for choral singing and we have a fine pipe organ. It's a 38 rank Wickes, and probably the best Wickes installation I have ever seen. Works such as the Brahms Requiem, Rutter Mass of the Children, Rutter's Requiem, Bach Mass in B Minor, etc have been performed by these ensembles in our church in recent years. Quite a number of our members attend these concerts. This presents to me the musical challenge of preparing a diverse palate of musical offerings to meet the needs of a very diverse congregation, with very divergent musical tastes. My personal belief being that musical style is not the end, but the means to an end, I seek to select music from a broad spectrum of musical styles so that every Sunday our congregation has several different "flavors" of music with which to communicate with God. We blend a lot of contemporary choruses/hymnody with more traditional hymns. Although chorally driven, our choirs sing music from a wide variety of composers, ranging, for example, from Carol Cymbala to Camp Kirkland to Mark Hayes to Jane Marshall to Handel or Bach."
• James Koerts is Worship Pastor at Mikado Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia. He says "We are an independent Baptist church in central Georgia. We have a growing attendance of over 700." 
• Danny Koonce is Associate Pastor for Music at Shirley Hills Baptist Church in Warner Robbings, Georgia. He says "Our church is a multi-generational church that is blended in its music format. We are located in an Air Force base town. We directly affected by the military. We are an SBC church with a membership of 2300. We currently average around 700 in SS and 850 in our morning worship services. We offer 2 morning services that are identical. The church is 43 years old. There are 7 members of our pastoral staff."
• Robert C. McGee is Associate Pastor of Music at First Baptist Church in Edingburg, Texas. He says "Our church currently runs in the low to mid 200's in Sunday School, but well over 300 in worship. We are at an important crossroads here. There are churches doing ministry here, but no one is really reaching the area. The growth in the community is booming, but the churches aren't. Over the past two to three years our pastor began work on his doctorate. He believes God called him to this and has given him specific promises concerning our church. During this time the pastor has led us to change the way we do everything, from planning to the way ministry is implemented. We are striving to get the church member involved in doing ministry and move away from a staff led church. We are seeing some success but still have a way to go."
• Angelique Black McKoy is an Evangelist and serves as Director of Worship Ministry at Love Fellowship Tabernacle in Brooklyn, New York. She says "Under the leadership of Bishop-Elect Hezekiah Walker, Love Fellowship Tabernacle was established in 1994. We were a storefront church at the time so God had it; based in a Brooklyn community called East New York, in need of this gospel for young people, drug addicts, prostitutes out in the streets, just ministering to them and their whole soul. After being in that storefront for about two years, we became overwhelmed with souls and had to move to a different facility in the same section in Brooklyn, now we over 1500 souls. We're currently into a big construction project, building The cathedral to accommodate the people of God."
• Sharon Starling is Part Time Music Director at Southside Baptist Church in Lakeland, Florida. She says "I direct the Adult "Sanctuary" Choir. I also double as church pianist, with a lay person as "worship leader", leading congregational singing. Our church has an active membership of appx 200 in a beautiful sanctuary that seats 1,000.  It is located in the downtown area of Lakeland. Many have left to attend the mega church a few blocks away.  Those remaining are strong in their commitment to serving God, with the leadership of a pastor who Godly, and has a servant's heart for missions."
• Stephen Thomas is Director of Arts for Contemporary Worship and Downtown Outreach Co-ordinator at First United Methodist Church in Anderson, Indiana. He says "We are a downtown church. We average 350 per week in worship in 4 unique services. We used to be a large traditional church with 600-800 in worship in 2 services."

As you can see, most of these responses come from those serving in the southern part of the US. Yet even within this geographical region, there is a wide variety of ministries represented.

Communication

How do you communicate with the people involved in your ministry?

I think that one of the basic things to make ministry work can be summarized in a paraphrase of the old real estate slogan: "Over communicate, Over communicate, Over communicate." We wanted to know how our CLN panel did that:

• I oversee all aspects of the music ministry. The only group that I do not personally conduct at this time is the Children's Choir. We have had some significant pastoral turnover since I came here. I'm now with my third pastor in 6 years. During the two interim periods that I have been through I carried most of the pastoral administrative duties. One of my ladies in the Adult Choir, who is very gifted, asked to take the Children's Choir during the second of those two interims. Her gifts are strong and she has done excellent work with the choir. We communicate regularly by e-mail and telephone and she is also on our music committee. The music committee functions regularly to assist me in planning the overall ministry. We meet monthly. This group involves my accompanists, my children's choir leader, my adult choir president and a representative from the youth choir. Mark Bowers
  
• Every music group has a leader, and I view them as a team. We work together, and we have a good spirit together. I mentor them and promote their groups as if they were mine. It's well worth our effort, because I just don't have time to do everything. We communicate via email a lot. James Koerts
• I do not conduct every group. I schedule each group. I have 5 other directors who lead some of the groups. They are given a schedule at the beginning of the August & January. I have a children's choir director who supervises the 3 children's choirs. My assistant directs the senior adult handbell choir and I have an orchestra director. I meet with these individuals to make sure that they have all of the materials that are needed for the rehearsals. We communicate by either email, phone calls or conversations during the week at other rehearsals. This seems to work well for us. Danny Koonce
• I oversee everything. The only groups that I do not direct are a youth praise band and the children’s group. The children’s group is new so I have just begun to line out the relationship with the worker that leads. I have given direction on music but in large they have been self guiding to this point. The youth band is directed by our youth minister. We communicate regularly (His office is next to mine) regarding music and I have rehearsed with them recently as they prepared for Disciple Now. This group has been difficult to keep active, but with our new commitment for growing participation new energies have been focused there by our youth minister. Robert C. McGee
• I have direct responsibility for the Tehillah Singers; I am the Director and Head Worship Leader. I recruit, oversee and mentor the Youth Praise Team. I communicate with the other groups through the Minister of Music and the Executive Director of the Fine Arts Department. In terms of adding value to the other ministries, I give insight and training to various other ministries including vocal training for choirs, teams and individuals and add value to choreography for the Praise & Worship Dancers, which dance solely for my ministry. Angelique Black McKoy
• I have a typed worship agenda for each Wednesday night choir rehearsal. All announcements, special musicians, etc., are included in this agenda. If necessary, I will give them a call, or e-mail. This works very well. Sharon Starling
• I used to oversee everything. It was too much. In our congregation it was hard to find qualified, willing volunteers. I ended up turning the traditional side over to our organist who is also an accomplished director. I do most of my standard communications through email. Stephen Thomas

Repertoire 

Would you give us 5 (any combination of anthems, choruses, instrumental charts, etc.) pieces that will give us an idea of the kinds of music you use in your ministry?

Everybody likes to know what other people are doing. What's hot? What's not? Our CLN panel came up with an impressive variety of resources, some of which may be familiar to you, but others of which may not:

• Mark Bowers 1. Hallelujah - From Handel's Messiah
  2. Breath of Heaven - Arr. Don Hart
  3. Mary, Did you Know? - Arr. Jack Schrader
  4. He's Been Faithful - Carol Cymbala, Arr. Camp Kirkland
  5. A Mighty Fortress Is our God - Arr. Mark Hayes
  
• James Koerts Here's what our adult choir is currently working on...
  1. Sinner Saved by Grace (Gaither, arr. Gardner)
  2. Welcome Home, My Child (Cindy Berry)
  3. No Other Name (James Koerts)
  4. In Christ Alone (arr. Russell Mauldin)
  5. Saved By Grace (Tunney, arr. by Sterling)
• Danny Koonce 1. Everlasting God  Benton Brown
  2. Orphans of God  Bradley Knight
  3. Saved Brooklyn Tab
  4. Praise You for the Cross Noblitt
  5. How Great Thou Art arr. Kirkland
• Robert C. McGee One of my goals at Christmas was to get the choir out of the church and into the community. So we did some secular stuff. The most challenging for them was “Carol of the Bells” Almost all of the anthems we do come from the quarterly package of Worship Today. I don’t have a huge budget so this is a way to keep cost down and still get a lot of music. We do choruses and hymn arrangements from Word’s Songs for praise and worship series, through More Songs For Praise and Worship 3 and Hymns for praise and worship. I have also written 2 or 3 choruses that we have done in worship. 1. All Who Are Thirsty- Chorus from More Songs for Praise and Worship 3
  2. Sing For Joy- Walt Harrah arr. Russell Mauldin- Allegis Publications
  3. Various Medleys from Ancient of Days- Marty Parks, with some additional arranging for ensemble by me
  4. O Sing A Song of Jesus – Words by Louis Benson, music and arrangement by Glenn Wonacott, from Worship Today
  5. Sweet Rivers of Mercy- Sheldon Curry, from Worship Today
• Angelique Black McKoy We are a traditional Pentecostal church so we sing gospel songs and traditional hymns. Our LFT Mass Choir is an award-winning recording choir so the majority of our choir material is original. The songs are full of God's Word and challenge the congregation to praise and worship Him in the fullness of joy. You will find foot-stomping, hand clapping melodies along with soulful ballads that stir the heart and soul.
  
• Sharon Starling 1. Worship 3 collection of P&W arrangments
  2. Octavos by Mary McDonald  I Must Tell Jesus with Blessed Assurance, Lift Your Light, Hallelujah By and By
  3. Collections chosen through workshops given by Jack Price Come To Me,
  Heaven's Jubilee (We used this gospel book combing our choir with a local
  church choir for a Gospel Sing worship service)
  4 and 5. Praise Team music from Praise and Worship (Word), I Worship DVD (Integrity)
  This gives you a good idea of the variety of music we use. I like to use a
  variety of styles to meet the worship needs of a variety of personalities
  in our church!
• Stephen Thomas I use contemporary hymn arrangements from hymncharts.com such as Come Ye Thankful People Come, Come Christians Join to Sing, and Be Thou My Vision. I primarily use contemporary Praise and Worship music. I usually make charts myself but sometimes can find pre-charted music I can use. We sing songs such as How Great is Our God - Tomlin, Blessed be Your Name - Redman, Let everything that had breath - Crowder, If we are the body - Hall

Final Thoughts 

If you are a registered member of CLN, and you are logged in, you have access to even more repertoire information. We have begun to put our Select 20 anthem reviews on the site, and we're only making them available to registered CLN members. To see the Select 20 reviews, which include a sample page from the anthem, click here.

There are many other folks who have volunteered to be members of the CLN board, and we hope to introduce them to you in future weeks. There is still room for you to be a part of this group! We're specifically looking for people who serve in churches who primarily use a more liturgical style of worship, as well as people from the Northwestern and Mountain areas of the US. We would also like to have more people from outside the US, who can help communicate their perspectives, experiences, and information. The bottom line is, though, if you have a heart to serve this ministry, we'd love to have you be a part of it.

 Blessings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Vern Sanders

Vern is the publisher of Creator Magazine. He has served in some form of church music and worship leadership for 40 years in a variety of denominations both in the US and in Canada. He is currently Director of Worship at First Presbyterian Church, Grover Beach, California. Vern regularly consults with churches and church leaders. Click on his name above to email him.  

© 2008 Creator Magazine All Rights Reserved