of worship and witness

two new songs posted

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:06:00 +0000

I just posted two more songs over on the new myspace page. The two newbies are Psalm 67 and Hail the King. Both songs very intentionally lend a large part of their focus to the same focus of this blog: knowing Him better and making Him known... the idea that worship and witness must be inextricable linked such that worship is purposefully viewed as (amongst other things) both the goal and fuel of missions. Enjoy the new songs!

broken silence follow-up

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:07:00 +0000

It's been six months, so time to post again right? The conviction I mentioned last time to get a few of my songs out there for the world to hear is finally coming to a head. I recently sent lots of stuff off to the US Copyright Office, and now I've done what everyone other musician seems to do: I put together a myspace page. So far I only have 2 songs up, but keep posted as I plan to put some more up in the weeks to come. Also, I blogged over there on a few more of my thoughts of getting that page started. Enjoy!

breaking the silence

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:15:00 +0000

Wow, so it's been almost a year of no posting. I've had a handful of folks prod me along the way to pick it back up to no avail. I've been toying with getting back in the game lately, and this is essentially me sticking my toe back in the water to see if I'm ready to give it another go.

I've been all over the metaphorical map this last year. The highlight has certainly been joining my beautiful wife in welcoming my amazing daughter into the world, but other high points have involved doing a ton of stuff with our student ministries, seeing our music ministry continue to improve, and as of late I've begun dabbling in recording some of songs that I've written that have worked really well with our congregation. I'll keep you posted with that progress as I have a goal of making some quality recordings available within the next few months (there I said it, so now I have the vast expanse of the internet to hold me accountable, right?).

free band seminar videos

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:47:00 +0000

I just came across these band seminar videos via Bob Kauflin's blog. Some great things that every church musician playing in a band setting needs to hear (especially instrumentalists). Check out a few of the videos below as an appetizer, then go check the rest out at Zach Nielsen's blog. For you leaders, make extra sure to check out the video on leadership on his site. Enjoy!

where is your treasure?

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:44:00 +0000

It's good for me to be reminded of the important things. I just came across a great post from Lukas Naugle, the Director of Resource Strategies at Desiring God. I've found as a musician that it's deceptively easy to get wrapped up in treasuring music gear (guitars, amps, effects, etc.). In a way I'm thankful that God allowed me to buy my cheap guitar back in college, that a guy in a bible study I led accidentally chipped a piece off of the headstock, and that my guitfiddle has continued to be a decent sounding economical workhorse. It's a reminder to me that there isn't a lot that I need in order to worship and serve God - in fact, the only thing I absolutely need is the blood of Christ. This topic is also a reminder to me that our lives should strongly reflect the truth of where our treasure resides. This should be evident and palpable to the world around us.

In his post that I mentioned, Lukas points us to Matthew 6:19-20. Also check out Luke 12:33-34 and Hebrews 11:23-26. So, where is your treasure and is it evident?

one year later

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:58:00 +0000

Wow... the Of Worship and Witness blog is one year old day. When I started blogging last May I honestly just hoped it would be a blessing to my team and an outlet for me, but the impact has been much bigger than I would have expected. People from 38 countries have made their way here. Quite a few folks from the 10/40 window have even come, including people from countries like Iran, India, and the UAE. I'm blown away that God has turned this into something that is equipping leaders and teams around the globe. Incidentally, if this is your first time here I'd recommend you take some time and work your way through the four part "sorting through songs labels in worship" series in the left-hand column. A new feature that I also added recently is the the widget to the left that has a few books that I'd highly recommend.

I have some exciting idea brewing about what's next, but I'd also be love to hear your ideas on what subjects, topics, or issues you'd like to see more of, so leave me a comment!

7 tips on introducing electric guitar in corporate worship

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:07:00 +0000

A while back I posted about the idea of shifting from acoustic guitar to electric as the fundamental timbre in corporate worship for the sake of the music that we lead with being an honest and relevant expression of and to the culture in which we live and do ministry. That post has been my most viewed and commented post ever since I started blogging back in May of '07. The responses that I've gotten here, here, here, and via email has been really informative. Well, I finally made the leap in our more contemporary service a few weeks ago and it went great. I gave it another shot last week and it went even better. Here are 7 things I've learned about making this jump:

Pray for direction: The desire to make a switch like this can come from at least two different sources. One is a heartfelt Spirit-led desire to engage the hearts and minds of your people with the greatness of our God such that they might treasure Him more, and to use music that they more authentically connect with toward that end. The other source of this desire can be pride that wants to look and sound like a rock star. Pray that God would first show you if this move is right for your church, and then pray that He would show you if this move your heart. If it is not right for them, don't do it. If something is not right with you, you had better wait.
Poll your people: One of my big hesitations I originally had about swapping out my acoustic guitar for an electric was that I recognize that on average, our congregation is pretty conservative - leading me to think it may not be the best move for our body. In talking with some of our leadership and members (musicians and non-musicians), I came to realize that most people did not see it as a big deal and most really welcomed the idea. There was even one guy who was really honest in admitting that while the idea weirded him out, it really only amounted to personal stigmas and he encouraged me to give it a try.
Form the foundation first: Another reason that the transition went so well was because I've been blessed to have a really faithful young electric guitarist who has put in an amazing amount of time over the last year or so and is growing to be a really good player. On top of that, our band as a whole has tightened up such that they could routinely be mistaken for pros. That being said, if I had tried this out prior to the band's growth or prior to that young guy helping to establish a taste for electric guitar from the lead guitar position I might have gone down in a blaze of glory. Is it was, I had the benefit of standing on a really solid musical and aesthetic foundation.
Practice your part: If guitars were dogs, then acoustics and electrics would be two very different breeds. When you approach leading make sure to take plenty of time by yourself to think through and play through how you plan to sit in the mix, if and/or how you'll use effects, if you'll use riffs versus standard chords, and even what chord voicings you plan to use. You'll go a long way towards making your musicians feel comfortable, and an even longer way towards ensuring that quality happens on Sunday.
Easy on the effects: First time out of the chute I didn't use any effects at all. Well, I tried to use them during rehearsal and we almost fell apart. So for the first Sunday I just set my gain such that if I lightened up my pick attack my tone would clean up, but if I dug in I would get some overdrive. It worked great. The second time I brought out the electric I started using some tempo based delay. Guess what - the band adjusted, we stayed really tight, and Sunday morning was awesome. No problems.
Love your sound guy: Remember that you and the band are not the only ones making adjustments. Your sound guy has probably spent a lot of time getting your acoustic EQ'd and sitting perfectly in the house. Make sure you plan in some additional time for him to make adjustments. At the end of the day, he determines a huge part of how good you sound.
Make sure that it still is not about you: I'm hoping that if you checked your pride at the door in your decision to transition over to electric that this won't be an issue, but knowing how deceitful pride can be it probably bears repeating. Just as on any other Sunday, everything in the course of a worship service should bring all praise, glory, and honor to our Savior. Make sure that your playing continues to not get in the way of that regardless of which guitar is in your hands.

Hopefully this is helpful to some of you guys out in blog-land who are thinking about making the leap. Are there other things that you have found helpful in a similar transition that I didn't list?

emotionalism vs. intellectualism

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:17:00 +0000

I've heard it said that there is a continuum in musical corporate worship with emotionalism on one side and intellectualism on the other side and that what you need to do is to find the middle ground. I thank God for guys like Wes Crawford who showed me long ago that this idea of a continuum is false. Sure you can err on the side emotionalism and get really excited about something less than the Gospel, or you can get snooty and heady and say a lot of great things with absolutely no response from your heart... but both of these things are mistakes. The middle ground would actually result in being less excited about an average amount of truth, and God is worthy of more than half of our minds and half of our hearts.

What if the great deep truths about the character and works of our sovereign, sacrificially loving, all-satisfying God were worded, sung, and played in such a way that both our hearts and our minds were fully engaged? What if the fullness of emotions that our hearts are capable of giving was corresponding to the greatness of the truth packed into the words on our lips?

22 qualities of a great church sound engineer

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:44:00 +0000

Running sound certainly takes a special mix of left-brained tech-savvy coupled with a right-brained artistic bent, but I also love how this list incorporates the absolute need for the faithful pursuit of being a disciple. If you run sound, check yourself to see which areas need some growth. If you are a ministry leader, have your sound guy(s) do a personal evaluation and talk with them about how you can aid them in their pursuit Christ through their service as FOH.

making sense of gathered worship

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:38:00 +0000

A while back one of the most influential guys in my life gave an outstanding message to DBC's college ministry on worship as it is lived out as well how it looks when God's people gather together corporately. It would be highly worth your time to check it out here.

great article on writing songs for use in corporate worship

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:52:00 +0000

So ya, it's been a little while since I've posted to the ol' blog. My bad. I actually have some good stuff that I'm working on for a worship clinic that I'll be doing with one of our interns and a few select other guys. As I get that stuff together you can expect some good theological and practical things to start popping up. For today though, I wanted to point you to a great article that I just came across about writing songs for use in corporate worship. Here's a taste:

Recently I heard someone describing songwriters as ‘architects’. As writers we need to have a ‘big idea’ or a ‘theme’ that is worth working on. Often however we try and skip this architectural/planning stage and plunge straight in to building. If this was the method for structural buildings, most constructions would be lopsided, unfinished and without foundations. This is often the case for most of our songs!

Click here to read the rest. Enjoy!

tuggle and other results

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:44:00 +0000

Ok, so after doing a preview with our high school seniors for a few weeks we launched an online community this last Sunday for our student ministries. It's called tuggle, and is something created by a genius college roommate of mine. For those out there reading this who have any sort of a role in any sort of student-focused ministry, you *must* give tuggle a look-see. For others, I could still see tuggle having great implications for other areas of ministry as it has a ton of tools for building community as well as some really outstanding administrative features that I believe will make life much easier. We had some creative ways to promo the "launch" that I may put up here at some point.

On a similar note, the launch of our church's site this at the beginning of this month has gone over really well. There have been a few bugs to work out, but it's nice to have a "new front door".

Also, if you're wondering about the concert that I mentioned in the last post - it went better than I could have hoped. I've had a bunch of students asking me when we're going to do it again.

The first month of being full-time has been a wonderful thing :-)

current things I'm excited about

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:16:00 +0000

Granted most of the folks out in blog-land that are not a part of BCBC may not be overly pumped about all this, but here are two things I'm pretty jazzed about at the moment:

#1. Yesterday I put some finishing touches on the new face of Bear Creek Bible Church's website and it is officially lauches! I kid you not - when I finished it and made it live, I walked into our senior pastor's office (John Salvesen) with my fists in the air singing the main theme to Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man (one of the main themes used for the Olympics). When I paused he asked, "is it done?" To which I replied by continuing in song. A great end to yesterday.

#2. This Sunday night we're doing something with our student ministries that we haven't done before. One the first and last Sundays of the month we hold a youth gathering that we call Alpha & Omega. We have a ton of food, fellowship, praise, and relevant teaching. Well, this Sunday night we doing things a bit different. Sure, we'll be starting out with food & fellowship, but then instead of moving things into the youth room, we'll be setting up on the main stage in the auditorium. Instead of starting with a few songs and moving into a time of teaching, we'll be plugging in, turning up the amps, and spending a whole night in praise. It with have the feel of a concert, but the whole night will be focused on Christ. I sent a promo out to our students yesterday along with a flyer which they can print out and dispense to friends. My prayer is that they will be challenged to step out of their comfort zones and invite some folks who wouldn't normal step foot in a church. I so stinkin' excited.

sure it rocks, but will it last (part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:57:00 +0000

Continuing from my last post, there was a question raised about whether or not guys like Isaac Watts intentionally wrote songs to stand the test of time and whether we really should be shooting for such timelessness. Here are some thoughts:

Ultimately our sovereign God chooses what will last, but at the same time there are surely certain qualities that songs which have stood the test of time for hundreds of years have in common in terms of substance. Sure it helps that Charles Wesley and his brother were dominant forces in the starting of the Methodist movement, and sure Isaac Watts is recognized as the first prolific writer of his time to step away from the traditionalism of only singing translated Psalms and start actually writing new material for the Church to sing in English (he was doing something "new/controversial" and doing an incredible job), but their historical ties aside, there is so much in terms of solid content in their songs that has surely contributed their still being used in such wide circulation today.

Think about the last 20 years. There have been a lot of new songs published for use in corporate worship in the last two decades. Many are still in regular use, but I would reckon that a great deal more have fallen into obscurity. Couple that with some of the more substantial lyrics that guys like Matt Redman and Tim Hughes are starting to write, and I think we may be seeing a great [old] "trend" within songwriting for the Church that may be helping to produce songs that will certainly be worth singing 20 years from now or however long the Lord tarries.

All that to say, Watts probably didn't purposefully set out to write songs that we would sing centuries later, but he did write with such depth of praise that gives his songs a timeless quality that I think is worth striving for on some level. If we're going to write something new, it should be at least as good as everything else we have to choose from. Right? If our new songs are less fitting to the praise of the God than other songs we have to choose from, then the choice should be obvious. Right?

sure it rocks, but will it last?

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:18:00 +0000

A while back I posted a bit about several historical figures' takes on the classification of hymns.

Jeremy Killian had a great post recently that has my gears turning again. Here's a highlight:

According to Carl F. Price (1937) of the Hymn Society of America, there are several necessary ingredients that distinguishes a hymn from other forms of music. Price’s criteria are as follows:
A hymn is…
1. a metrical poem
2. reverent and devotional in nature
3. poetic and literary in style
4. spiritual in quality
5. expresses the worshipper’s attitude toward God
6. unites the congregation who sings it.

I love the inclusive yet controversial nature of old quotes like this because they suggest that every song that we sing on Sunday, both old & new, classifies as a hymn (as an added bonus, the folks who wrote many of these types of quotes died before our hymnals were published, so there's no getting mad at them). I love that taking this more inclusive approach creates a more vibrant and real connection between our current generation and our brothers and sisters who walked with Christ before us. It puts us into the context of the history of the Church: our family history.

A great byproduct of this more inclusive ideology of hymnody is that it ups the ante to modern-day men and women who are writing songs to be used in corporate worship with a plea to view the songs that we write against the backdrop of the treasure chest of songs that have been written of the last few hundred years and it begs the question of whether our songs measure up in terms of substance. Will our songs last as theirs have? *Should* our songs last as theirs have? These are questions worth asking both in the songs that we write as well as the songs that we pick for our congregations to sing each week.

really? ham?

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:02:00 +0000

I just came across this picture over at Seth Godin's blog. It got me thinking... I'm going to give someone the benefit of the doubt and assume the person who made this blunder in regards to Jewish kosher dietary laws meant well. They probably work in the deli section of their store and felt they were be kindly inclusive of their Jewish patrons by recognizing their traditional eight day festival. Good intentions aside, they probably also alienated at least a few folks by not really understanding the people that they're seeking to serve.

I can't help but see a correlation back to the Christian life and to the way that we "do church".

There are certainly times when we make a small efforts to do like Paul and be all things to some group of people for the sake of loving them and seeing them come to embrace the all-satisfying joy of knowing Jesus as their Savior, but in reality we totally miss the boat. My guess is it's in part because we still care more about us than about them. Think about it, if that guy in the deli truly cared about the Jewish community in his town, and actually had real relationship with even one Jewish person, he or she would have been less likely to cause such a faux pas. The same applies to us, if we are really going to reach out to the communities that we live in, we must get in the mix and rub shoulders with the people we want to see saved.

As for the second area is how we "do church"... I'm totally on board with the concept that our worship services are not to be man-centered, but rather God-centered. Therefore, in a sense it would be crazy to structure services for the sake of people who do not worship God. We should make sure that our Sunday mornings have their foundation on the rock of Christ and their roots in the deep soil of Scripture. At the same time though, the way that we communicate ideas, the way we our music sounds, the way our aesthetics are structured, and so on all relate to culture whether we like it or not. I heard our youth pastor say something great the other day. He said that part of what it is to love someone is to love what they love, and God loves missions. If God loves bringing people into relationship with Himself, then we should love to be a part of that. Our worship services should certainly be rooted in our Bibles rather than our world's culture, but we should also have a realistic understanding of the culture around us so that we can authentically engage with it and communicate to it in ways that make sense to that culture. We shouldn't ignore it, but we shouldn't engage it haphazardly either and risk being disqualified as irrelevant in our attempt to deliver so great a message as the Gospel. Granted, we assured that there are many who won't like our message because it reveals their sin and need of a Savior, but let's make sure that we aren't getting in the way.

Jesus wrapped Himself in flesh to save us. Divinity came down covered in humanity. What are you willing to get covered with for the sake of Christ's lost sheep?

saving time via Google

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:09:00 +0000

Two things today, first a great experience I had the other day that saved 10 minutes of my life. As I was leaving church on Sunday I talked with my wife about picking up some incredibly tasty hamburgers from Chapps here in Keller - soooo tasty. I thought of calling ahead so that the order would be ready when I got there. At this point most of us just drop the idea of calling ahead because we don't have the numbers to all of our favorite "eateries" programmed into our phones, and because we don't want to pay the minor fee involved with calling 4-1-1. May I introduce you to 1-800-GOOG411? Go ahead and program it into your phone now, it will you save, and you will thank me later.

Second item on the list today: I've noticed that a lot of you who frequent the OfWorshipAndWitness blog come directly to the site. Awesome as that is, it's probably not the most efficient use of your time because, as you've likely noticed, I don't get a chance to post here every single day - maybe someday ;-). Also, I'm guessing that if you read my blog, then you probably read other blogs too. What if you had a magical site that checked all the blogs that you frequent for you, and brought all of those posts together to one spot so that you only had to visit one page instead of many? There are a lot of RSS readers out there that exactly that, and Google happens to have made a pretty good one. Check it out here.

Now, go get productive for the Kingdom!

coffee as an analogy for worship and witness

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:49:00 +0000

A while back Brent over at worshiptrench.com had a great insight on how the inability of his local Starbucks to have real coffee ready mirrors how we as worship leaders sometimes unfortunately miss the fundamentals for the sake of the bells and whistles. Check it out here.

Also, today Perry Noble had some really well thought out applications about how a recent Starbucks experience hit him in regards to our personal witness as Christians. You can find his post here.

If you can't tell, I like coffee... a lot.

no apologies

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:50:00 +0000

How many times have you heard a speech or sermon started with an apology?

"I know it's early, but..."

Among many of Seth Godin's great insights on communication is this concept: Don't do anything you need to apologize for. Or to put it another way: If your speech needs to be prefaced by an apology... don't give it.

I wonder how much more effective many of our sermons / lessons / Bible studies / times of corporate worship would be if all of us as communicators started with this mindset. For Seth's complete post on this topic, go here.

free book

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:56:00 +0000

Thanks to Nate over at Practical Worship for this great find. We all love free stuff, and if you're reading this blog then you probably care about reaching people for the sake of the glory of Christ. Looks like the Barn Group just put out a new book that came out of three years worth of research on how teens to 30-somethings really perceive Christianity.

The offer is limited to one copy per church. Get yours here.

significant investments

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:43:00 +0000

A while back I posted about a great outlook at retirement. This morning I came across the following two videos of John Piper speaking on retirement. As someone who by necessity worked in the field of finance for a while, this is a refreshingly Godwardly focused, eternally minded, and greatly needed perspective of how to approach the final decades that God gives us as His blood-bought children. Will we truly worship Him with everything we have, even those final years that our culture tells us are for us to spend on self absorbed pleasures because we "earned" them?

is acoustic guitar still contemporary?

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:34:00 +0000

Something I've been stewing around in my head for a while is whether or not to bring out my electric guitar on Sunday morning. I regularly lead from acoustic (as do a huge number of other guys out there), and as much fun as playing electric is fun isn't the reason I've been considering putting it up front. My main reason is this: the vast majority of music produced by our culture in the last 40 years is driven by electric guitar. It's odd to me on some level that we still consider a band led by an acoustic guitarist to be "contemporary" or "modern". Granted, the first time I ever was present at a Sunday morning worship service/gathering with a worship leader playing electric guitar, it came off to me as weird at first (and this was within the last two years). It never seemed strange to me to have electric be the lead sound at youth gatherings, but in "big church" it threw me at first. The main reason was likely because I had never seen it done in an all-church setting before.

If our musical style should be contextually relevant to our culture (content is a different story), then this really should be a logical next step. Shouldn't we be seeing more and more worship leaders trading in their acoustic guitars? At least one very influential guy out there started making this transition quite a while ago:

So here are my questions to you other leaders: have you thought through this issue? Have you tried it out? What has been your congregation's response, or how do you think that they would respond? I'd be curious to hear thoughts from folks who are not regularly in front of a microphone as well.

how are you viewed?

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:02:00 +0000

Yes indeed, the sign is real. The heart behind this sign is obviously meant to be good, but some lack of thought on someone's part led a local church to publicly declare a passion for the abuse of their fellow neighbors rather than a passion for the showing of mercy to those who are going through pain.

We may snicker at this sign, thinking we would never do something that silly. The truth is though that we often do worse. Every local church sends different messages through sermons, marketing, song choice, building decor, volunteers, ministry structures, choice of staff, instrumentation, web presence, community outreach, focus on missions, and so on. Do all of these areas of your local church point towards the glory of Christ or something else? Most of us have experienced ministries and people within ministries that give greater importance to other things than the Lord. Whether it be the exaltation of tradition or newness, isolationism or a focus on solely on numbers, emotionalism or stoicism... We need to step up and ask what kind of message we are really sending to the world around us. Are we authentically communicating the love of Christ in our communities in ways that are clear, understandable, and palatable... or do we send the message that we might club you if you get too close?

How do you gauge this at your local church?

what are your visitors experiencing?

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:45:00 +0000

Another blog I frequent just finished up a series on the perspective of visitors at your church. In this last part of their 9 part series they reference an article by a Seattle publication that sent out 30 reporters to 30 different houses of worship (not all were churches). They all reported back the fears they felt, the community they shared, the absurdity they experienced, and so on. This isn't for the light of heart or for those offended by language, but still it's an incredibly eye opening look at how non-Christians interpret Sunday morning corporate worship. The article can be found here.

Take some time today to think about what visitor experiences at your church on Sunday morning. Consider querying some of your newer members about what it was like to be brand new to your local church body. What did they respond well to? What rubbed them wrong? What made them stay?

modifying you methods

noreply@blogger.com (travis ham) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:57:00 +0000

I was reading the other day in Mark 4 where Jesus got into a boat so that he could teach a much greater number of people at once. He hadn't taught from a boat up to that point in His ministry. He had surely taught outdoors before along with teaching inside synagogues and homes, but this boat thing was new. Some people might have been appalled that He would utilize a new method in His teaching process rather than sticking to the old established ways, but He swept tradition aside for the sake of those He was trying to reach.

What are you doing in life or in your ministry right now that could be modified so as to make a greater impact on the people you are reaching? What could be changed to make that greater impact reach out to an even larger number of lives?