No it’s not writing relevant blog posts or playing the newest worship song. It’s not wearing the right clothes or even how many people follow you on Twitter.

The one thing you can never do enough of is simply…

Prayer.

Yep, that’s it, prayer. Many times we do it out of necessity or obligation or for a transition. We’ll even do it religiously (pun intended) around the dinner table or before worship practice or when things are really getting out of control.

Prayer is absolutely essential in any ministry, and in the Christian life. It is our connection to God. And it’s something anyone and everyone can do.

“The greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is to pray.” S.D. Gordon

Here are a few ways in which you can pray in your life and ministry:

• Pray at night
• Pray in the morning
• Pray in the shower
• Pray at a specific time each day
• Pray with your spouse
• Pray with your children
• Pray on a specific day for as many folks as possible
• Pray over your ministry
• Pray in your worship area

You can never pray enough and prayer is a powerful and effective thing.

Are you a big time prayer warrior? What’s the hardest part to praying for you?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

So I was thinking through a few things the past couple of weeks and with a few Sunday morning mishaps along the way, I thought I would share 8 things not to do before worship.

Tongue in cheek of course!

Most of these are taken from actual experience… or failures.

8 Things Not To Do Before Worship:

1. Never check wireless batteries.

2. Don’t update slides after changes.

3. Make sure you forget to pray.

4. Stay up late and get up late.

5. Run a little late to worship.

6. Wait until 5 minutes before service starts to walk through the order with your pastor.

7. Fiddle on your instrument while the worship leader is trying to talk.

8. Never tune because it’s good enough.

So there you have it. And just to make sure I eliminate as many ‘technical difficulties’ as possible, I always have a check list that I go through. I find it’s very helpful.

What else should we not do before worship? What did I leave out?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

My family and I had such a great time relaxing on the beach. It was a nice break from everything, even Twitter and blogging. But it’s good to be back.

In case you missed anything last week, make sure to check out the three guest posts from:

•  Jason (A Worship Pastor’s Struggle and Freedom with Pornography)
•  Adam (DIAL IN: 6 Tips for Leading Worship from a Keyboard)
• Conor (Five Ways to Rejuvenate Your Productivity).

Great posts from some great guys!

I also thought I would share with you a few photos from our trip. Enjoy everyone!

Are you gonna get away this year?

We all have been there…you know, that time of the day, week, month, or year that you feel that you are worth absolutely nothing? When every time you think about doing work, you get an incredible desire to do any but that?

Okay, so maybe I am the only lazy person that struggles with this. Whatever the case, there is hope…here are a few steps I walk through when I recognize I am struggling with being productive.

1. Identify the Most Stressful Times of the Year

Stress is a productivity killer. Even if we like to believe we work better “under pressure”, too much stress can also cause us to shut down. Planning ahead so that busy seasons don’t become overwhelming allows your mind and body to not go into overload. Too much overload, and you can look for a decline in productivity ahead.

2. Have a Consistent Quiet Time

I know that my work habits are struggling when I am having trouble finding (or more likely making) time alone with God. Whether that is meditating over a cup of coffee and a journal, having prayer time, sitting at a piano and singing, the rest of my life will suffer without that alone time. Protect your personal times of worship…they are a necessity.

3. Ask Trusted Friends and/or Co-Workers to Let You Know When They See You Struggle

This is not the time to have pride. I ask my senior pastor to let me know when he sees me miss the little things, or let things slide he knows I shouldn’t. This helps me to be accountable for my responsibilities, and at the same time gives another set of eyes that can see the patterns of when I am not productive, and when I am.

4. Stop Making Excuses

Everyone has times that they are uber-productive, and times that a sloth could outwork them. Recognize both, and plan accordingly. When you know you are not working well, admit it, and change. When you are working great, don’t allow it to go to your head! Be honest about where you are, and where you need to be in your life.

5. Set Attainable Goals

When we are feeling very good about ourselves, we dream big…which is great! But when we set goals, we need to set benchmarks that are both challenging and attainable. Setting goals that are too easy will cause us to become lazy. Setting unreasonable goals will make us want to quit. Set goals, and then evaluate them. Have someone else evaluate them. Then meet them…one by one, until they are done. Having a sense of accomplishment spurs productivity.

What are your biggest struggles with being productive? What have you found helps you?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

*Conor Scholes is the associate pastor of worship at Noland Road Baptist Church in Independence, Missouri.  He is married to his amazing wife Elizabeth, and has two energetic boys, Caleb and Jack.  His passion is encouraging and developing people who improve both musically and spiritually, and also enjoys writing, playing golf, and watching sports.

You can follow Conor on Twitter: @clscholes

I’ve been reading Rob’s blog for a bit now and am grateful he allowed me to guest post for him. I love his practical advice for worship leaders and creatives. In the spirit of his “7 Tips for Leading Worship on Acoustic Guitar” I though I’d offer up something for those of us that lead from piano or keyboard week in and week out.

Getting DIAL IN

I’m an acronym guy more than a list guy so here’s what I developed that helps me focus in when leading from the keys. The acronym is DIAL IN.

D-Develop your own, comfortable, hand signals and cues. If you’re not comfortable giving cues, no one will be able to get them. The band you’re leading needs to know where you’re going. Several worship leaders stick to a pretty tight script but for us improvisers it’s important to find quick and easy ways to communicate with your team.

I-Invest the time-Time is a hot commodity but there’s no substitute for listening, practicing and learning. Find bands you enjoy and see how or if they utilize keys. Find tones, patches or loops that others are using effectively. Listen to how the parts of the bands come together for a complete sound. Train your ear to isolate other sounds and pieces of the musical puzzles. Figure out where you need to drive (and this could depend largely on the talent around you) and where you can, and should, take a back seat. For instance, you might play an open chord over a chorus progression and just let your bass player handle the movement. You should also take the time to familiarize yourself with your keyboard. Get to know its ins and outs and what patches work best for you.

A-Accept ownership- Walk into your setting with confidence to know what you are looking for and pray for spiritual sensitivity to lead your team in leading others into God’s presence. Prepare well and prepare for God to lead and surprise you. You must “own” the leadership, and enable others to lead out and be used by God in their callings. I’m a big fan of giving others creative input. The Lord gives gifts to each one as He sees fit. Be prepared to support. Service is the way to successfully lead.

L-Learn to think like a guitarist. Most modern worship songs (outside of the gospel realm) are very guitar driven. As keyboard players that means some adjusting for us. There’s a couple of things we can easily do that can help.Learning how to open up your chord structure (i.e. play a 5-1-5 with your right hand leaving out the third when playing chords) is a great start. These open chords will give your guitarists room to operate and are also excellent when used in a pad, organ or string patch. Also, learn how to play in “guitar keys”. I know lots of keys players who hate playing in E and B but those keys aren’t going away and your guitarist would be thrilled to not have to capo/adjust to you all the time.

I-Increase your right hand strength and independence- In a band setting, your left hand has much less weight to carry as the bass player will be carrying the bottom end. Since that is the case, it is much easier to give signals with your left hand. Work to increase your ability to play with your right hand and give cues with your left. The other advantage is that with more right handed ability you can augment some lead lines if you find yourself a guitar player short on a Sunday.

N-Narrow your sights-After rehearsal, where your influence and attention has to be broad, narrow your sights for your worship times to the things that are necessary to direct. Concentrate only on things directly related to the worship experience. Ignore one-time wrong notes (including your own), correct ongoing mistakes. Ignore one-time overplaying, correct continual overplaying or playing that distracts from the moment. Focus on where God is heading and what He is currently doing more than on technical excellence. God has a plan for your worship service and is counting on you to lead people into His presence. Narrowing your focus will allow you to concentrate on what is necessary and direct your attention to directing the band, and the people, on the journey.

 What other advice do you think is valuable for a keyboardist?

Would love to know your thoughts! You can share them in the comments below.

*Adam is a Christ-follower, husband, dad, son, pastor, worshiper, songwriter, social network nerd, Apple geek and learner. He grew up pentecostal, worked in the non-denom charismatic world then a presbyterian church and now serves as worship pastor at Quest Fellowship in Garner, NC (a “contemporary baptist” church that isn’t very good at being baptist).

You can connect with him on twitter: @adamherod or on his blog at adamherod.com.

You can read a bit about it here, but I want to spend this post talking specifically about how I have found victories against temptations.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:13,

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

When it came to my sexual sin in viewing pornography, I laughed at this verse. There was no way this could be true.

Many of you may feel the same way I did… hiding it feels SO much easier than dealing with it. I can tell you from experience that this is so far from the truth. If I could take back the hurt in my wife’s eyes or the time spent away from ministry… I would. I regret so much of how I handled this sin, and how I ignored the power in this passage.

When Paul talks about “a way out,” I don’t believe it’s always as simple as closing your browser window or bouncing your eyes. Both things are a great things to do, but think about the strategy we use when planning our services… We read blogs and books and go to conferences until our leadership toolbox is full of resources with which to lead. We pray over transitions and songs, and this is all a very worshipful endeavor as we co-create with the power of the Spirit to glorify His name and grow His Kingdom. I think that to be true worshipers and worship leaders, we need to use the same tenacity to find the “way out” the scriptures promise.

Is There Victory Over Sin

Tangibly, what this looks like for me is analyzing my behavior and recognizing patterns that lead to sin. I learned that after a victory came the greatest temptation. So, I block my schedule to keep those reoccurring times occupied. The main one for me was Sunday afternoons (most popular day of the week to surf porn). Another bad pattern was at night after my wife went to bed. I would stay up to write or work, but almost always surfed porn. Now I go to bed with her, even if I’ve got stuff to do, and am not tired. I’ve put X3watch on all computers and cell phones in my home. I have no unfiltered access to internet. EVER. No one should if you ask me. A tenth of it is porn and a third of online downloads are porn related (http://onlinemba.com/images/internet-porn.jpg). I could not willingly and regularly expose myself to that and expect to be successful.

As new temptations arise, like a runner chick on my commute to work, an attractive girl that will be in my life regularly (think singer, or assistant… innocent ministry partners that could over time become major temptations), or an app on my phone that provides unfiltered web access, I discuss these with my accountability partners. They get in my kitchen and help me make good decisions. (James 5:16)

Finding Victory

I’ve never found victory over this sin without strategy. The “way out” for me as a porn addict only came when I, with a LOT of help from accountability dudes and my amazing wife, aggressively found creative ways to shape my daily life such that I am set up for success. This sounds to some like a prison, but I’m telling you it’s freedom! I’ve never given God more worship than I am now! My latest effort is training for my first Ironman to raise money and awareness for XXXchurch.com. You can read more about that at myxxxchurch.com/jasonshafer82.

The Bottom line

If you’re struggling, do something about it. The “way out” is right there, but will most likely take some work. Take out obvious obstacles. Strategize with a partner committed to your success. Then watch your freedom grow. Then share it with others. Rinse. Repeat.

How are you at battling and confessing sin? What’s your next step? Feel free to share in the comments below!

*This is a guest post by Jason Shafer. Jason is a music pastor for Southwest Community Church in Indian Wells, a city in the Southern California desert. He and his wife have been serving there for the past 3 years and are in the process of adopting their first son, Weiland through their local county. 

You can follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonshafer

I’ve enlisted a few friends to guest blog next week and having already read through their posts… all I can say is wow! We’ve got a post on pornography, keys for keyboards, and productivity and I’m excited to share them with you.

And as much as I’m looking forward to a break, I’m also looking forward to spending time with my wife and kids. After a seven year hiatus, my wife and I (and our kids) are heading down to the beach for some much needed R & R. I’m going to unplug from everything… well almost.

I think I’ll still share some photos via Instagram but that’s about it. I’m going to soak in the excitement of seeing my 5 year old son Robby see the ocean for the first time. I’m going to do my best to corral my 2 year old twins from crashing the waves and attempt to keep my 10 month old son from eating sand.

We’re going to unwind and just enjoy each other. But don’t worry…

The Blog Must Go On!

That’s why I enlisted a few friends to guest post while I’m gone. And I’m so excited to share their posts with you.

I’d like to introduce these kind gents to you and encourage you to not only read their posts here, but also on their own blogs. We have a lot of sharpening to offer each other and these guys have put together some fantastic posts.

Jason Shafer: A Worship Pastor’s Struggle and Freedom with Pornography

Jason is a music pastor for Southwest Community Church in Indian Wells, a city in the Southern California desert. He and his wife have been serving there for the past 3 years and are in the process of adopting their first son, Weiland through their local county.

You can follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonshafer

Adam Herod: DIAL IN: 6 Tips for Leading Worship from a Keyboard

Adam is a Christ-follower, husband, dad, son, pastor, worshiper, songwriter, social network nerd, Apple geek and learner. Adam serves as worship pastor at Quest Fellowship in Garner, NC (a “contemporary baptist” church that isn’t very good at being baptist). He’s a self-described contemplative charismatic.

You can follow Adam on Twitter: @adamherod and read his blog at adamherod.com

Conor Scholes: 5 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Productivity

Conor Scholes is the associate pastor of worship at Noland Road Baptist Church in Independence, Missouri.  He is married to his amazing wife Elizabeth, and has two energetic boys, Caleb and Jack.  His passion is encouraging and developing people who improve both musically and spiritually, and also enjoys writing, playing golf, and watching sports.

You can follow Conor on Twitter: @clscholes

Give these guys some love and have a great week everyone!

Rob

*Oh, and today is my oldest son’s birthday… Happy 5th Birthday Robby! Love you boy. 

And although being busy is in many cases just a way of life, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, it shouldn’t be.

As worship leaders, our lives are chock full of to do lists, task management apps, meetings, rehearsals, and more things to do than we care to admit. But if we can learn anything from Jesus, we learn how vital it is to be constantly plugged into God.

We cannot buy into the lie that by ‘doing’ or ‘serving’ is what we are called to do. Check out the video below as I explain this a bit more from my pastor’s heart.

Are all of our to do’s and tasks important? Probably. Are they more important than plugging into Jesus every day? Not even close.

Make sure you are not getting caught up in the ‘works’ of ministry rather than the ‘work’ of Jesus. Stay connected to Him first and foremost.

Are taking enough time away from the busyness of ministry (and life) to remain connected to Jesus? What’s the biggest obstacle in ‘remaining in Him?’

I think we could all learn from each other’s struggle, please share your thoughts below in the comments!

Is it more than just playing technique and a dynamite sound system? Yes. Is it more than a $5,000 guitar? Uh huh.

So what is it and how can you get there too?!

Once again, following up on last week’s brief post on 7 Tips for Acoustic Guitar Worship Leaders, here’s a more in depth look at three helpful areas to get you where you want to be.

If you’re looking to take your acoustic guitar sound from average to amazing, here are a few ways to help you get there.

Be a Tone King

What does that mean? If you ask any serious guitarist what’s most important, they’ll always come back to finding a great tone. This is the holy grail for guitarists. It’s one thing to be able to play really well and it’s another to finding that perfect tone.

If you’re just plugging your acoustic straight into a direct box, you’re going to be fighting flat and unresponsive tones. Plus, you’ll have to rely heavily on your sound engineer to EQ your guitar which isn’t always an easy thing.

One way to add some punch, vibrance, and better tone is by using some sort of external processor. There are plenty of options to choose from and price ranges as well. You can use an EQ like the Boss GE-7 to really dial in your sound or you could use a Boss Acoustic stomp box like the AD-3 or AD-8. Both are great pedals for acoustic guitars that help eliminate feedback, give you a touch of chorus if you like, and help round out your acoustic tones.

However, when it comes to the best equipment, look no further than L.R. Baggs. They are the foremost experts on all things acoustic. If you really want to add tone and get your acoustic sounding like it never has before, make sure to check out the Para DI and the Venue DI. These are amazing acoustic direct inputs. The Para DI is the more basic of the two, but it’s absolutely solid. The Venue DI has a few more features like an onboard tuner but you can’t go wrong with either one. They will run you anywhere from $160 to $300. But if you call them directly and tell them your a worship leader, they’ll cut you a great deal!

Be in Tune

There’s nothing more distracting than a guitar out of tune. Even if it’s a touch sharp or flat, it can be a killer. And this not only goes for you and your acoustic, but for the whole band. Get everyone in tune first.

I recommend two ways to get and stay in tune… buy a tuner and use it!

Seems simple right? If you don’t have a tuner, I’d encourage you to do whatever it takes to get one now. There are a couple of really great ones that we use. The Boss TU tuner pedal is a rock solid workhorse, the Korg Pitch Black is really nice too, and we can’t leave out the Polytune by TC Electronics. All great pedals that will not only keep you in tune, but are easy to use and have the ability to mute the guitar so you’re the only one that hears it.

On top of having a tuner and using it before worship, I would also encourage you to look for other opportunities during worship to check and see if you are staying in tune. Many times, if you play your guitar hard, it can slip out of tune just a bit.

Use transitions, videos, or any breaks between songs to check and get a quick tune. But always be in tune.

Re String Often

The average life of a standard set of strings is about two weeks when played regularly. For a set that has an outside coating like Elixirs, you can usually go about four to six weeks. If you can afford to change your set regularly, then you should.

There are a couple of reasons why changing your strings often with help you get the best sound possible. After time, you can get used to the lifelessness of your strings without even knowing it. But when you swap out your set, you’ll immediately hear a major difference. New strings have life and zest and brightness. And this in turn helps you sound your absolute best.

You don’t want to take a chance of a string breaking during a live set. This will not only make it sound terrible, but it also throws the whole guitar out of tune. Don’t roll the dice when it comes to something you can control.

Change your strings as often as you can. You feel better and you’ll certainly sound better.

If you want to get your acoustic sounding at it’s absolute best… follow these three tips: Be a Tone King, Tune Always, and Re String Often!

How do you get your best tone? Do you use a DI? Do you tune a lot?

I’d love to know, you can share your thoughts in the comments below!

acoustic basics: part one

Today I’d like to explore two key areas: Knowing When To Play & Strumming the Right Way

Leading worship on acoustic guitar isn’t as easy as it appears. Especially when attempting to do it right. The acoustic guitar has the ability to not only be the strong lead in a song, but many times it often fades and becomes the glue.

Finding the sweet spot is such an important aspect of leading worship and learning when to play and how to play is absolutely essential to acoustic worship.

So let’s take a closer look at these two areas:

Knowing When to Play - This is an often overlooked aspect of playing and leading with acoustic. Knowing when to play, how to play, and the right way to play helps separate strong worship leaders from beginners.

Certainly their are songs that maintain a strong acoustic presence throughout the whole song. ‘How Great is Our God’ and ‘Everlasting God’ immediately come to mind. Songs like these require a good rhythm and very distinct strumming pattern.

Like wise, there are songs where the acoustic only has a minimal presence. Songs like ‘Mighty to Save’ and ‘From the Inside Out’ have drops and builds where the acoustic plays a big part and then they get lost in the arrangement.

What you have to keep in mind, is finding your place and the right space for the acoustic guitar. Just because your the worship leader, doesn’t mean you have to play every measure. Be sensitive the mood of the song and learn to rely on your other musicians. This takes some time, some trust, and a few bumps along the way.

Learning to Strum - There is so much more to playing guitar than hammering away at those six strings. Technique has to be a top priority to anyone leading worship with an acoustic guitar.

This goes beyond straight down strokes or a learned pattern like ‘down down up down up‘. Certainly those patterns have their place, but you can’t limit yourself to a handful of playing techniques.

When I was in college, I had a guitar teacher who had recently been accepted into Berklee, give me a piece of advice that I’ve never forgot. He told me to always keep your arm from the elbow to your wrist, always moving. Keeping a solid rhythm from the elbow down is key to solid strumming.

However, this doesn’t mean that you are always hitting the strings. Keeping your arm moving while pulling off of the strings, helps free you from any specific strumming pattern while maintaining a solid lead sound.

You can also vary your strumming by simplly palm muting on certain songs. This is done by placing your palm on the bridge of your guitar while strumming and it gives you a bit of a muffled sound. You can also use your chording hand to help mute and create some different tones.

There’s really no right way to strum. There’s no perfect pattern for when you should be playing. And there’s no short cut to better acoustic playing.

It’s going to take a little experimenting and work to get to the next level, but you can do it. Learning when to play and how to strum will help get you there.

What’s the hardest part about learning when to play? Are you working on your strumming? Share your thoughts in the comments below!