Worship Team Guide
Welcome to Pine Hills Worship!
We are so glad that you are here, and we are excited to serve Jesus and his church together with you. The Pine Hills Worship ministry exists to bring glory to God and edification to the church. We do this through Jesus centered, Bible driven, and Spirit led songs, prayers, scripture readings, creeds, liturgies and more in our corporate gatherings. As the worship ministry, our heart is to mirror the ancient calling of the Levites in the way that we “carry God’s presence, stand before Him, minister to Him, and bless in His name” (Deuteronomy 10:8). The concept of worship is an ancient idea, and we have the privilege of navigating the blessing and challenge of living out this idea each week in and through our Sunday gatherings.
In this guide, you’ll find information regarding our vision, who we are, what we do, and how we do it. Please take some time to read through it, making notes of any questions you may have along the way. This guide will be something that we refer to often, and we plan to keep it updated as well as we continue to grow as a team.
Vision
The mission of Pine Hills Church collectively is Bring, Build, Send:
Bring people to Jesus. Build people to live like Jesus. Send people out to multiply like Jesus.
General speaking, the worship ministry is mostly a BUILD ministry. In our songs, liturgies, and service elements our heart is to build up, edify, and encourage the church body. We encourage each other as we sing truth, recite scripture, and pray for one another. Our heart is that the church will come away from our gatherings with a hunger and thirst for Jesus, and the desire to pursue living like him.
This mission trickles down into other various aspects of the worship ministry as well. As team members, we build into each other spiritually and musically. As iron sharpens iron, we make the most of our times together to encourage and edify one another as we grow together. As a multiplying church whose vision is to plant churches, we have and will continue to have opportunities to send some of you out to either help plant churches, or to help assist with other sister churches along the way in the area of worship. We hold everyone with an open hand, and we’re happy to hear when the Holy Spirit calls someone to be sent out!
The first mention of the word worship is the Hebrew word, shacah, which means “to bow down” (Gen. 18). In Genesis 22, God calls Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. In obedience, he begins his journey up the mountain to shacah, or to worship with his sacrifice before God. While God ultimately ends up stopping Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, this was clearly a test of Abraham’s worship. Did he love Isaac or God more? Who really had the full devotion of his heart?
In the New Testament, we get the Greek word for worship, proskuneo. Proskuneo means “to turn and kiss” or “to kiss towards”. This idea is all about adoration. In Matthew 2, we see this played out as the Magi came to worship Jesus with gifts, falling down and adoring him.
Worship, or worth–ship in the English is the simple idea of affirming the value and worth of something or someone. Essentially, we’re declaring God’s “worth-ness” or “worthiness”.
Ok. So if we were to put all of these together in a 30,000 foot view summary or description, you could say that worship is all about submission, surrender, obedience, loyalty, love, reverence and awe. Have you ever thought of worship that way? It’s a big idea, right? If this is worship in its purest form, then everything we do must flow from this idea to retain the true heart of worship. This big idea of worship should be the filter we see everything through. Worship is so much more than our Sunday songs. It encompasses our whole lives!
Simply put, a priest is someone whose primary goal is to minister to God, to serve Him through worship and to represent Him to the people.
Think about that! In a similar way, as worship leaders, we are called to carry His presence by abiding in him, stand before him by spending time with him, minster to his heart in personal praise and worship, and to bless and serve the church body in His name. This is a high calling!
Now, in the new covenant of grace, Jesus is our GREAT high priest that has taken away our sins through his sacrifice and the shedding of his own blood. Now in him, we the church are ALL like priests, and each of us are called to live into this priestly ministry to God and each other!
“you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.. you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
– 1 Peter 2:4-5,9
It gets better. In Christ, we are also called sons and daughters (John 1:12, Galatians 3:26, Galatians 4:6, Romans 8:16, 2 Cor. 6:18)! We have been called to belong to Him, and to worship Him out of a sweet, intimate relationship with Him!
Worship isn’t just something we do. This is who we are. We are worshippers! Chosen, adopted, royal and holy worshippers, brought near to God through Jesus’ death and resurrection! As the church, you could say that each of us are “priests in training”. This is all about identity and growing into who we’ve been called to be. It’s important to note that this isn’t just for the worship team, but it’s true of every single person that comes through the doors of Pine Hills each week. Part of our job is to help remind ourselves and the gathered church who we are!
Yet, these two things exist in a tension that needs to be examined and managed. On the “worship” side of things, our heart is to glorify God in spirit, truth, purity, love, adoration, sacrifice and to sing as if He is the only one in the room. On the “leader” side of things, our heart is to encourage the church body to participate with understanding, clarity, and unity with proper teaching, communication, modeling, and shepherd like guidance. As worship leaders, we are not only aware of this tension, but we are also intentional about engaging this tension in a way that honors God and edifies the people. That said, if we had to err in either direction, we will unapologetically lean towards the direction of “worship”. We can never go wrong worshipping God as the guest of honor, exalting Jesus as the high King, and yielding to the Holy Spirit in the room, even if that means that a few people aren’t quite ready to go there. So leaders, feel free to lean in. Don’t be afraid to close your eyes and lift your hands. We must remember that we are worshippers first, and leaders second. Again, this is a balance, but ultimately, we trust the Holy Spirit to lead, guide, and speak as we pursue the heart of God with all that we have.
The deep challenge here is to remember that our worship doesn’t just start on Sunday; but it is something that happens every day of the week as we abide in Jesus. We can’t lead people to where we haven’t been, so if we want to lead people corporately into the worship of God, we must worship God and individually be in his presence daily!
Many well intended people have mistakenly pinned praise and worship against each other, usually in an attempt to describe a genre or style. It usually goes like this, “praise are the fast and joyful songs, while worship are the slow and reverent ones!” Descriptions like these are not only unhelpful, but they are also inaccurate. Praise is an amazing and profound category in and of itself, and it’s important to note that the best praise flows out of proper shacah and prokuneo worship. Simply put, if true worship is the root, praise is the fruit. In scripture we see many uses of the word praise, and we are encouraged to praise often! Some examples of the word praise in the Hebrew include:
- barak – “to bless / to kneel” (Psalm 16:7, Psalm 18:46, Psalm 28:6)
- halal – “to boast or brag about God” (Psalm 34:2, Psalm 22:22, Psalm 44:8)
- tehillah – “to sing / to give public praise” (Psalm 22:25, Psalm 35:28, Psalm 66:2,8)
- todah – “to give sacrificial praise together in unity” (Psalm 100:4, Psalm 42:4, Psalm 95:2)
- yadah – “to extend or raise hands in praise or surrender” (Psalm 9:1, Psalm 32:5, Psalm 28:7)
- zamar – “to make melody / to play an instrument” (Psalm 33:2, Psalm 98:5, Psalm 144:9)
- shabach “to shout / cry out in faith, particularly in difficult times” (Psalm 63:3, Psalm 65:7, Psalm 106:47)
When our lives are given to worship, praise will come naturally. Life worship is a often a slow burn, life long process as we abide in Jesus, and sometimes the best worship takes place quietly and individually. However, praise is always expressed! Whether privately or corporately, in a journal or group prayer, in a fast song or slow song, praise is always manifested in some sort of expression.
Praise can be joyful and light in seasons of victory (halal / tehillah), or it can be curiously hopeful and costly in seasons of difficulty (todah / yadah). In desperate seasons, sometimes the best praise we can offer is a shabach, trusting God to work according to His faithful nature. For musicians, sometimes the best way to express praise is zamar. It’s important that we not pin praise down into a narrow category, as our people are coming into our house from many different seasons of life and varying circumstances. As we approach the throne with many different perspectives, it’s so helpful to remind ourselves of who God is and what He’s done. As we do, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can offer up true, pure, responsive praise.
Praise has always been a part of the church’s response to who God is and what He’s done, and as the family of God, called to a royal priesthood in Christ, our heart is to continually offer up the praise that He is so worthy of.
Culture
We live in a culture that is driven by consumption and comfort. We often dislike change, and prefer the homogenous. We don’t like to be uncomfortable, and we don’t want to be inconvenienced. This is in the very air we breathe! It’s easy to see how at odds the priestly calling can be with a culture that tends to be predisposed to comfort and consumption. Part of our job as worship leaders is to continually point people back to who we are and what we do.
If we get this right, we will come ready to contribute the praise and worship we were designed to give God every time we gather. This will come from an overflow of life worship! If we get this wrong, we will come with the expectation and posture of consumption (“what can I get from this?”). Our heart is to not polish and perfect a product (i.e., worship service) for people to consume, but to foster an environment where the people of God are encouraged to pour out the praises of God, as each one contributes their part in piling on praise on the “altar” of our worship space.
The term experience carries with it the assumption that if all I do is show up, I’ll get something in return. If we park worship under the umbrella of “experience”, then we easily start to shift and distance ourselves away from the original intent of shacah and proskuneo, allowing for words like dynamic, powerful, engaging, and moving to start dominating our vocabulary (all words which don’t describe shacah!). They describe the product that came off of the stage. Within that framework, it is super easy to let our emotions regulate our worship when we’re seeking an experience. The measure for success in an experience is anybody’s guess, and this pursuit doesn’t always lead to transformation.
However, if we pursue encounter, we can come expecting to meet with God because Jesus promised us that he’d be with us when we gather in his name. This is transformational! And the blessing is, we’ll know if we hit the target or not… “Did we meet with God or not?” Well, do we have a hunger and thirst to know him more? To repent of our sin? To forgive? To love our neighbor?
The blessing of it is, when do we encounter him, we will be filled. We will be encouraged. We will be moved. We will be transformed. A true encounter with God, together with his people will sustain and propel us into another week of encountering him every day individually. Romans 12 teaches us that worship is holistic. We’re to offer our very bodies as a living sacrifice. We’re not to conform to the world, but to be transformed, allowing our minds to be renewed. As we do that, we will continue to be able to know his voice, and his will!
Under the banner of encounter, we’re met with the question of whether our worship is true, proper, and acceptable to Him or not. These are the descriptors of worship worth talking about. When we get this right, not only will our gatherings be marked by the presence and power of God, but our whole lives will. Most importantly, God is glorified and honored!
With that said, one of things we value most here at Pine Hills is purity and integrity in worship.
As people who are on an elevated stage and/or platform, we face the challenge of keeping our hearts in check and our motives right. We can’t compartmentalize sections of our hearts and bring him fragments of them in song. Again, with shacah and proskuneo worship in mind, we pursue holistic submission, surrender, obedience, loyalty, love, reverence and awe. Every part of us is given to worship, including the hidden parts of our hearts. We’re not here to secretly build our own platforms of influence or to bring attention to ourselves in worship. This is such a sneaky temptation, especially today with the advent of technology, social media, and worship celebrity status.
It is so easy to let a stage mess with our hearts and minds, making us think we’re more important or spiritual than we are. We try to take our positions on the platform seriously, but not too seriously. The stage is made up of a bunch of wood and aluminum, with cables, stands, and instruments on it. We’re elevated on it so people can see us and follow along. We’re not performing a show or displaying our skills for the purpose of drawing attention to ourselves, but to bring glory to God. The stage isn’t a reward for perfect spiritual behavior, it’s more of a microscope that reveals what’s really in our hearts. We must constantly keep ourselves in check and make sure our motives are pure before God.
The goal here isn’t to be overly restrictive or legalistic, but to be vigilant in our pursuit of offering holistically acceptable praise and worship to God. One thing to note, is that purity of worship is always driven by love. Pure worship is a beautiful thing to participate in, and every one that witnesses it can’t deny it’s power. As we pursue purity in worship, we ultimately trust the spirit to work in and through us to accomplish the Father’s will in our gatherings.
As Jesus mentioned in John 4, “God is spirit, and He is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.” As we pursue the worship and praise of God and the edification of His church, we must live and worship in spirit and in truth. This points us back to life worship, in relationship to God and in the reality of what is true. God is spirit, and in the context of John 4, Jesus is making the point that God must be worshipped not just on a mountain, in a temple, or in a church building, but everywhere we go. As we abide in Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to worship God in spirit. We worship in truth as we walk according to the full counsel of scripture, and the full surrender of our hearts to Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life.
When deciding what songs we should sing, it’s been helpful to ask these questions and to run each song through this filter:
- Is it true?
- Is it beautiful?
- Is it helpful?
- Declaration or Response?
- Who are we singing to?
- Is this our song to sing?
Is it true? Does this song hold up to scripture, and does it help us to think true thoughts about Jesus, ourselves, and our neighbors? Does this song glorify God by pointing to the truth of who He is and what he has done?
Is it beautiful? Musically or lyrically, does it help us to dwell on things that are noble, true, praiseworthy, etc.? For musical moments or songs that are just meant to be taken in, does this song provide an atmosphere of beauty, where God’s glory can be on display in this moment?
Is it helpful? Does this song help us in our pursuit of following Jesus? Does it stoke a fire in me to get to know him, love him, and serve him better? Does it recalibrate my heart, and correct anything in me that may be amiss from the chaos of the week?
The songs we sing are the stories we tell, and the stories we tell shape the people we become. The thing is, people often remember lyrics from a song better than they remember quotes from a sermon. We take this reality seriously, doing our best to filter songs responsibly, with the understanding and trust that ultimately the Holy Spirit is working in people’s hearts.
Declaration And Response
When we think about song content, we can essentially sum up most worship songs of declaration, and songs of response. Songs of declaration speak of who God is, and what he’s done, and really help to point us to his character. Songs of response can include prayers for help, guidance, and reminding ourselves of the hope we have in him. I’d say our church tends to really grab songs of response, as they usually reflect the felt need of where people are in particular seasons. Currently, there is a trend even in worship songwriting and radio singles speaking about breakthrough, miracles, and provisions. There is definitely a time and place for all of that! The Psalms are full of laments, cries for help, and prayers of dependence and faith in the Lord. We need a balance of both.
Within Declaration and Response, we also have to consider the difference between singing to Him, about Him, to us, and about us. This can get slippery really quickly, but it’s important to wrestle with it. We’re told in 1 Chronicles 16 and Psalms 105 to “sing to him, sing praise to him!” AND to “tell of all his wonderful acts”. Paul the Apostle wrote in Eph. 5, “address one another in psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit.” In our gatherings, there is room to sing to Him, AND to each other. Again, is what we’re singing true, beautiful, or helpful? If yes, then we get the joy and challenge of working through this layer of consideration in our song choices.
As the ones entrusted with leading the priesthood of believers in our gatherings, each called to exalt and bring glory to the name of Jesus, we have the responsibility to balance the tension of our local church culture and kingdom of heaven culture. Let me explain; The church gathering has long been described as a hospital, a safe place, etc, but I think one of the most helpful words to describe the gathering is a gymnasium. We come to train, to be recalibrated and reminded of what is true so we can continue to work out our salvation and all that it means. We gather to be strengthened and formed more into his image. We don’t come to get fed, we come to get formed! As we are transformed in his presence, we have a renewed hunger and thirst to pursue and hang on to Jesus, with a passion to “feed” ourselves every day in scripture and prayer. Our worship gatherings should continue to spark intimacy with Jesus!
With that in mind, we have the unique responsibility of taking where people are, serving them accordingly, and stretching them when needed. Specifically with songs, there is definitely a “sound” that most people tend to prefer, and we can usually tell what songs are “working” well in the room. It’s okay to lean into those! Again, sometimes what’s most familiar is what most people will be able to participate in. And participation is the goal. We don’t want to leave anyone in the dust. However, sometimes the best thing we can do is push and stretch the church with something totally different. Our culture tends to dislike change and often prefers familiarity and predictability, almost to a fault. It’s helpful for us to shake things up every once in a while and to stretch us outside of our comfort zones!
Being aware of the tension of culture is half the battle. We must be intentional about knowing our people well enough to meet them where they’re at and helping them stretch and grow into healthy followers of Jesus. May the Holy Spirit lead us with wisdom as we navigate manage this tension well!
There are so many worship songs out there, and new ones are being written every day. With local church expression and culture in mind, we must conclude that not every song out there is our song to sing. It’s perfectly alright to celebrate an expression of praise and worship from another church culture, while recognizing that it may not translate and serve us well in our context. May songs have been written in response to a local church family’s specific experiences, stories, and seasons of life together. Sometimes the best way we can honor those songs are to let them be. Then we write our own 🙂 Again, our guiding principles of true, beautiful, and helpful come to our aid in navigating song choices for our local church body.
JI Packer also describes something similar about the problematic spirit of our age, “the newer is truer, only what is recent is decent, every shift of ground is a step forward, and every latest word must be hailed as the last word on its subject.”
In other words, the idea is if it’s newer, it’s better. Needless to say, this idea is a myth. Every moment in history is just that, a moment. Every moment has its flaws and imperfections, and every moment is better analyzed and understood in the days following. It’s important to realize that the cultural spirit of chronological snobbery is in the very air that we breathe, and it makes its way into worship music. With the advent of technology and the ability for churches, creative teams, songwriters and producers to crank out content comes the challenge of inundation and over saturating the worship culture to the point where it can be overwhelming. I don’t think it’s possible to even keep up with all the new songs that are coming out, and I believe we would exhaust ourselves and our people trying to do so. Chasing what’s new because it’s new is a great temptation in this current cultural moment.
However, we could also fall into the same trap with songs of the former days. Some hold to the idea that older is better, hymns are more biblical, and new songs can’t be trusted. The attitude of “they don’t make em’ like the used to”, is certainly shared by many who feel uncertain or even skeptical about where worship culture is today. Often times, people lean more into nostalgia and reminiscence of years past, and unintentionally fall into a reverse chronological snobbery. This often presents itself in the form of a critical spirit, and the unfortunate result is that people miss out on all the sweet things God is doing, because they refuse to trust the fact that he continues to work and move in fresh, new, and exciting ways.
Again, this is where we have to balance tension. The Psalms tell us repeatedly to “sing a new song”. Ephesians tells us to “address one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and to make melody to the Lord with our hearts”. Even Revelation paints a picture of those surrounding the throne singing a “new song”. When the Israelites were delivered from the Egyptians at the parting of the Red Sea, Moses and Miriam immediately responded by singing a new (and the first ever written!) worship song. When David was delivered from the hands of Saul, he sang a new song in response to God’s saving power. Mary celebrated all that the angel Gabriel had spoken to her with the Magnificat. This point is clear, new songs are important!
Yet Scripture also gives us repeated songs and themes of worship. Jesus often recited the Psalms. In fact, at the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn (most likely Psalm 118) before going out to the Mount of Olives. Revelation 4 says that “day and night, they never cease to sing, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty.’’ Church history gives us prayers, creeds, and liturgies that not only give us context for how the church has worshipped through the ages, but it also anchors us to our rich heritage that often gets lost in our disconnected, noisy, non-denominational evangelical culture. It’s important (I would argue, essential) to understand where we’ve come from in order to know where we’re headed in worship culture. We must be diligent in keeping alive the seasoned songs and liturgies that have stood the test of time in order to be balanced and healthy in our expression of worship. The most compelling argument for the value of “old” is the library of Scripture itself, which is actually an ancient text!
It’s also important to appreciate the fact that music has an interesting power to imprint moments and memories in our lives. Think of your favorite worship song, and where you were when you first heard it. Where does it take you? What feelings does it invoke? Worship songs have a way of reminding our people of the faithfulness and goodness of God within their own personal stories. For some of our people, hymns sung a cappella take them back to the days when they met Jesus. For others, the loud anthem about God never letting go takes them back to that moment at summer camp where they rediscovered the love of Jesus. Keeping this reality in the back of our mind not only helps us when considering if a certain song may be useful in our context, but it also may help give us understanding when responding to comments and critiques from people who have feedback on our song choices.
This is an area we are growing in, and we’ve seen time and time again, when we leave room for the Spirit to move, he usually does. In fact, some of our most powerful times of prayer and song have been unplanned and spontaneous as we “make room” and wait on the Holy Spirit in our gatherings. We use the language of “making room” intentionally, as we desire openness and flexibility, without forcing or manufacturing these moments. Part of making room is doing all that we can to be prepared and ready with the planned service elements, as it’s much easier to go “off grid” if you know the general road map. It’s helpful to be familiar with the planned songs, and to also have a wide vocabulary of “back pocket” songs ready to sing at any moment. *We are currently working on developing a catalog of back pocket songs and chord progressions for us all to learn so we can be as prepared as possible for those moments.
Scriptures tell us over and over to “sing a new song”. As brothers and sisters, we each have unique perspectives and are walking through different seasons in our journey with God, and we each have the opportunity to write and sing about who he is and what he’s done in a special way. Psalm 45:1 says, “My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is like the pen of a ready writer.”
New worship songs must start with a “good theme”, and we know that good theme starts with God’s character (who he is) and the ways he’s displayed his character (what he’s done). As we consider these things, we have the blessed challenge of coupling our personal experience and expression with God and the truth of Scripture to craft a song that resonates with our larger church body as a whole.
In a market oversaturated with songs, emerging worship bands, and a lot of uninspiring Christian branding, we are not interested in building another worship platform that just adds to the noise. Our heart is to obey scripture, and to creatively find new ways to sing to and about God and his goodness as a ministry to God and our church family. If God chooses to expand our creative efforts and uses them to bless other churches and ministries, that’s great! But the goal is first and foremost ministry to His heart, and the people that he’s entrusted to us week in and week out.
Expectations
In light of our high calling into the family of God and the priesthood of all believers, we take our calling into worship ministry seriously. Each of us have sensed a calling from God to take what He’s given us in skill, talent, gifting, and experience, and to give it back in service unto him and to the church body. We also take timing into consideration. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is a “time for everything”. This is true in our seasons of serving! As we see in the story of King David, he was anointed to be King when he was a child tending sheep, but he wasn’t actually appointed to be King for another 15+ years! It’s important to note that there is a difference between anointing and appointing, and God often takes us into seasons of growth and preparation in between. Simply put you may feel called, but you may need a season to grow in your skill first. You may be skilled, but the timing may not be right. Maybe God wants to take you through a season of being known and building relationships in the community of the church before he releases you into a season of serving in leadership.
With that in mind, we are not interested in just filling the stage with people who are simply skilled. The truth is, God can use one anointed leader to lead a room acapella with more purity and power than a stage full of skilled leaders who aren’t surrendered to Him. We desire our team to be fully surrendered to God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, given to growth in their skill, and serving in the right season according to where God has them in their life journey and the season of the church body. Our heart is to help navigate this aspect of serving with you, with the counsel of our team leaders, Pastor Mike, and the guiding of the Holy Spirit.
We value skill and the stewardship of talents and abilities through personal growth and in growth together as a team.
In Exodus 25-26, Yahweh gave specific details on how the tabernacle and all of its furnishings should be constructed, and he called for skilled workers to participate in the process. God cares about details, and he loves careful, thoughtful, skillful work. He later says in 31:6 that He gave skill to all of the craftsmen to make everything the way he designed it. It’s a beautiful mixture of a natural and supernatural ability to serve him. He gives us gifts and talents, and we develop our skill. There is a cool parallel here with how the Holy Spirit animates and breathes life into our efforts as we continue to grow in our gifts. He continues to empower us as we are faithful.
In 2 Chronicles 2, King Solomon wrote a letter to the King of Tyre requesting help with laborers and supplies, essentially asking for the “best of the best”. He says, “this temple will be great, because our God is great!” I love this heart. He is worthy of greatness, as long as whatever efforts we put forth exist to reflect his greatness! The pursuit of skill can easily become an idol. Excellence and skill are often slippery and hard to define. How good is good enough? Who are we doing this for? His glory must be at the forefront of our minds. Skill must serve our purpose in bringing Him glory, not us..
However, also note, in vs 1 it says that he decided to build a temple for the Lord.. and also a royal palace for himself!!! Obviously, building a palace isn’t out of place for a king like Solomon, but I find it concerning, and I think built in to this verse is a warning for us: Be careful not to use the Lord’s house as an opportunity to build a platform for yourself. Are we leveraging our skill for the sake of God’s glory and the church’s edification? Or are we leveraging our skill to make a name for ourselves? Another rock in your shoe, it took Solomon 7 years to build the temple, and 13 to build his own palace. Follow that rabbit hole at your own risk!
Keep in mind, excellence and skill are not at odds, but they do hold tension with “heart and passion”. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.” This includes all of us! Sometimes we can forsake heart, honesty, and sincerity in pursuit of skill. Sometimes we hold skill as the highest value, and forget to bring our heart into the picture. Sometimes, our hearts are in the right place, but our lack of skill can be a distraction to the church body. Heart and skill are a tough tension to manage, but they are so important to get right! Again, tension – not either or.
This tension comes to life even more so with the advent of livestream and social media with church. For better or worse, our “offering” of worship is now broadcasted, streamed, and replayed for people to watch, critique, and/or celebrate. Often our worship offering is chopped into clips and sound bites for social media. We should shepherd our hearts well here, and we should relentlessly check our motives before we hit “repost”.
All that said, when it comes to skill and heart, we’ve arrived at the idea of giving our best. That is what God is requiring of us! To bring our best is to bring all of us. Our skill, talent, gift, time, growth, practice, honesty, sincerity, joys, struggles, hopes, dreams, etc.. When we remember that our worship is an offering, we are reminded to bring our best. He is worthy of it!
Don’t forget: Our skills serve a temporary purpose! When the temple of the Lord was finished, they brought the ark, which represented God’s presence into the temple. The temple was the resting dwelling place for God to exist, where he would interact with the priests who were called to minister to Him and to the people. As the musicians and singers gathered around the ark to praise, the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud. Note, 2 Chronicles 5 says, “the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.” It was clear that this was God’s house, and no building or priest was going to be honored that day. When God is exalted in purity, his glory eclipses our skill, as our efforts evaporate in his majesty. When his glory is on full display, there is no room for even a hint of our glory in the room.
In Revelation, every worshipper in the picture of the throne room is on their face before King Jesus, not on a stage, and certainly not on a screen. Jesus’ glory will be on full display, and he will easily remain the center of all attention and affection, as we worship him in our perfected bodies, with our work, life, pleasure, and praise. Our skills, (as it pertains to worship leading as we know it) serve a unique purpose for this time and place in the church age. Our heart is to steward our season well!
In relationship to skill, here are some general requirements needed:
- Be able to play / sing by ear
- Vocalists should be able to hear parts and harmonies
- Band members should be “at home” on their instruments, as if instruments are an extension of themselves
- Be committed to growth, learning
- Be teachable and humble
For those who are interested in serving in the worship ministry, here is the current process:
- Apply
- Audition
- Membership
- Integration
- Growth
1. Application
This is a simple form with some basic information, a few questions on your experience in personal and corporate worship, and a place to list a few character references.
2. Video Audition
For the band and vocals, we are currently accepting video auditions! We’ve found that a video audition really allows you to put your best foot forward, as you can take your time to get it right, in the comfort of your own space. Also, having an audition documented is quite helpful in getting feedback from team leaders to help you grow in your journey. All you need to do is record a video of yourself playing or singing a song or two from our current setlist at Pine Hills, and send it in. Here are a few helpful details to remember:
- The goal of is to simply highlight your skill, and it gives us a chance to see and hear what you do, so don’t worry about leading or stage presence!
- Video and Audio quality don’t have to be perfect but do please make sure we can see and hear you!
- If you are applying for multiple positions, please make sure to send multiple videos (one per position).
- For uploads, we recommend using YouTube (unlisted), Dropbox, or Google Drive (just send the link). If sending direct, we recommend WeTransfer.com.
Our heart is to help make this process as easy as possible, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! After our team reviews your audition, we will reach out to you with the next step. Note, if we determine that the audition video isn’t quite up to the skill necessary, we will do our best to help you along in this process. If we determine that the worship ministry is not the perfect fit for you in this current season, it is our desire to help you along the path towards finding your place within the church body (1 Cor. 12:12-30).
3. Membership
For anyone desiring to lead in a position of influence over the church, we require church membership. Membership is our way of pursuing alignment with our teams and leadership, and it provides an avenue for accountability as well within your scope of ministry. In short, if you’re in a place of leadership, representing the mission, values, and heart of the church, alignment and accountability are key. Currently, we are requiring all vocalists to be members of Pine Hills Church. That said, the path to Membership includes a series of classes: Essentials, The Hills, and Membership. Please contact the Worship Pastor to help get you started on the path to membership!
4. Integration
As there are many moving parts in the workings of our team, we tend to take it slow with integrating new members. We are intentional about making sure you are not only “at home” with things like the stage, in ears, click track, and the rhythm of serving, but also to make sure you are building relationships and integrating into the team culture first. As we serve together, we’re constantly developing relational equity with each other, as well as the church! Everything we do well flows from deep relationship with God and with each other. This process often looks like having you attend rehearsals, team nights, trainings, shadowing / meeting with other team members in their roles, having you sing/play with the team just for rehearsal, etc. Our heart is that you will be fully prepared and confident not just in your ability, but also in your place in the team, that way you can be ready and free to worship the Lord during a Sunday service.
5. Growth
As each of us lean into the rhythms of serving on the team, we are constantly pursuing continued growth and development in not only our skills and talent, but in our heart for worship as well. It is a large part of our responsibility to the Lord, each other, and to the church body we’ve been called to serve well to continue to grow in our craft, and in our zeal for God.
So whether it’s reading theology books, practicing scales, ear training, or tweaking our guitar tone, our heart is to continually be refining and sharpening our craft as an act of worship and stewardship unto God (see “Resources”). We’re not going for perfection, and we’re not simply chasing excellence, but we’re passionate about bringing our best. God is so worthy of it!
For rehearsal, one thing we stress is that this is rehearsal, NOT practice! Practice is and should be something you do on your own time in preparation for rehearsal. We often have some slight tweaks to make between Thursday rehearsal and Sunday service, however we do expect that you come as prepared as possible for Thursday, so we can honor each other with our time and be as efficient as possible.
Dress
We hold fast to a “come as you are” culture here at Pine Hills. We value authenticity, sincerity, and purity in all things, even when it comes to dress. We’re not a “Sunday best / suit and tie” church, though some people feel convicted to approach dress that way. While we don’t have an official dress code per se, we do have a few things that need to be considered in this area.
First, dress is something we can simultaneously demonstrate our unity AND our diversity! We each bring unique expressions with the manner in which we present ourselves, and yet with some intentionality, we can also highlight our “togetherness” by aiming for a similar standard. Our goal is not to be legalistic or restrictive, and we’re not interested in policing dress and clothing, however, we do want to establish the heart behind our vision when it comes to how we present ourselves during worship.
With that in mind, here are some of our guidelines and expectations of dress in the worship culture at PHC:
All team members are expected to look showered, presentable, and put together. This may seem obvious, but our goal is to avoid distraction, and to make sure we don’t look sloppy or careless in our appearance. Hats are okay, just be mindful that part of your leadership is reflected in your countenance. Don’t hide your face!
Pastor Mike has personally requested that there would be no shorts or ripped jeans on stage, as it is a bit “too casual” for a Sunday morning. And if you happen to play guitar, shorts are probably just a bad idea anyway! In regards to distressed jeans, please be tasteful and consider the difference between current style and jeans that are too worn. Clothing that looks like it need to be retired may be an obstacle to people participating in worship. Something else to consider, we do serve on a platform with stage lighting that can be more revealing than typical home or natural lighting. So when it comes to the style and material of clothing (male and female!), it may be worth the extra care and consideration.
When it comes to logos/colors, our goal is to not promote any brand or image that would take the focus off of Jesus. While we don’t want to limit style or expression, we also don’t want to draw attention to ourselves, and often times major logos, brands, and bright colors can be a major distraction. With Philippians 2 in mind, we recognize and celebrate the opportunity to serve each other in this area, giving honor and preference to the church body above ourselves.
As you continue to abide in Jesus and walk in the Holy Spirit, our desire is that you enjoy will the freedom to make decisions that honor God and each other. Again, the heart behind all of this is to emphasize the glory of God, while giving preference to others above ourselves. If you have any questions or need help in regards to clothing and dress, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask!
Participation When Serving
For Sunday gatherings, we encourage all worship team members to sit in at least once for the message, communion, and other forms of worship. Most people choose to eat breakfast and fellowship in the Green Room for one, and sit in the other, but feel free to pick whichever service works for you! The heart of this is not only for self-participation in the fullness of Sunday worship with the church body, but we are also modeling and leading what it looks like to follow by sitting under the teaching and preaching of scripture. We need it, and the church needs to see us participate! This will add to our weight of ministry with the people we serve.
Participation When Not Serving
When it comes to Sunday gatherings that we’re not scheduled to serve, the expectation is that we are vigilant to participate and engage in worship with the church family. We have to be mindful of the reality that there is no “us” and “them” / “worship team” and “the church”. We are a part of the church, and as leaders, we need to participate in not just showing up, but in full expectation and engagement. Remember, we are constantly leading on stage and off, and sometimes the best way we lead is setting an example of how we follow. Again, this example will only add to our weight of ministry with the church family!
Resources
(Login: [email protected] Password: PHCworshipfam)
TheBibleProject.com – Video resources, teachings, podcasts, Greek/Hebrew word studies, etc.
BlueLetterBible.com – Bible with word for word Greek/Hebrew resources, study tools, commentaries, and devotionals.
Whether you use the online site or the app, this is where you’ll plan and prepare for weeks that you’re serving. Here are some helpful links to get you started:
Getting Started for Team Members PCO Mobile App:
https://pcoservices.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204460240
This article provides quick navigation through the PCO Services Mobile App. If you want to avoid reading, you can click on the following links for the video walkthroughs.
The first video walks you through navigating the PCO Services App to setup your profile, accept/decline dates or setup Blockout Dates.
https://planningcenter.wistia.com/medias/wsqrqz7kqc
Utilizing PCO Services for practicing:
https://planningcenter.wistia.com/medias/tjbod6f7tr
You can also sync your PCO schedule with Outlook, Apple or Google Calendar.
Be sure to also download Planning Center Music Stand. This is a great resource to access lyrics or chord charts that are available for your scheduled event. You can use it for rehearsal and Sunday Worship Encounters.
You can access Music Stand within PCO on the web:
https://pcoservices.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204261824
Or download it from your mobile App store.
Here’s a quick overview for the Music Stand App:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFRXlLesW28
Best practices:
We will send out reminders every couple of months for you to set up Blockout Dates. This will help ensure that we schedule you based on your availability. If you know dates when you will be unavailable, please do not wait for a reminder. You can update your PCO calendar as often as you’d like!
If you have a Blockout Date that renders you unavailable for rehearsal but you are potentially available for the Sunday of the service, only input the date of rehearsal. The OP will take that into consideration if we should have an imminent need and need someone on standby, and knowing who is available is really helpful to know for last minute tweaks!
We do our best to have songs/set/flow up as soon as possible, we do often have last minute changes. As you practice, make sure to continue to hit refresh on your app and/or online so that any tweaks will be reflected.
Introduction
This guide will give you a quick introduction to the M48 Personal Monitor Mixer that we use for our Sunday Worship Gatherings. If you still find it over-whelming, that’s okay. Feel free to ask the OP, MD, or any of your fellow team members on the platform to help you navigate. Once you get into it, you’ll pick it up quickly! Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Our heart is that you’d feel as comfortable and at home with your mix as possible, so you can fully engage with Jesus and the church body.
The Layout (see photo below)
LAYER
Bank 1-8 is INSTRUMENTS:
Click – This provides the metronome/meter for each song. We occasionally use guide tracks that help provide instruction for where we are going in the song. You must have this in your mix for you to follow. This is crucial to keep track of timing for a song. Never trust yourself to keep time, we all will follow the click to keep the meter to ensure we are all together.
Drums – This channel will provide a summed mix of the drum kit and alternate percussion (SPD). Bring this in the mix to give you some melody to the rhythm over the click.
Bass – The bass guitar helps to reinforce the rhythm and lower end frequencies. Bring this in if you feel like your mix is missing some oomph.
Lead Acoustic – Primary Rhythm instrument. Important to keep up in mix for reference and direction.
Lead Electric – Helps to bring energy into most upbeat songs, can have some overlap with vocal ranges, so be cautious with level.
Piano – Acoustic piano, mainly rhythmic backing and carries most ballad style songs, can be crucial to have in the mix.
Keys – Usually synth or pad sounds.
Alt Instrument – This can be secondary acoustic guitar, rhythm electric guitar, and ambient pads. If there are multiple instruments on stage that are in use on this channel and you need levels adjusted to get an appropriate mix, let the FOH engineer know at an opportune time.
Bank 9-16 are all MICROPHONES:
Red – Typically the mic for the Lead Worshipper or OP. Always good to have up in your mix during rehearsal or to know who to follow for harmonies.
Green / Yellow / Black / Blue – These mics are for “main” vocalists. You will find that each mic has a colored ring at it’s base, and we will have a coordinating body pack for your earbuds to plug into. Your mixer will be labeled to match the mic and body pack. Each color also indicates your placement on the platform from Stage Left to Stage Right.
Alt Mics – This channel will have the mics for the teaching pastor, guest speakers, announcements, and testimony mics. If you see a mic in use and you can’t hear it, it’s likely in this channel.
Room – We have two microphones set up at the outer edges of stage. These provide you a way to hear the room and church body. Using IEMs can be a little disorienting, these mics will help provide a sense of space.
MD/TB – This channel has the microphone for the Music Director and the FOH Talk-Back. Both are critically useful. The TB will be used for the FOH engineer to communicate with you during soundcheck and rehearsal. The MD will be providing instruction for the flow of the song arrangements and will at times be giving a play by play throughout the service. You will want to ensure that you can hear the MD above all things in your mix.
CONTROL:
Reverb Send – When selected, it enables you to adjust the main knob for the individual channel to adjust how much of the affect is applied to the corresponding channel. A touch on each vocal will work wonders.
Pan – This will enable you to place each instrument and vocal in a spacial spectrum.
Volume – When selected this enables you to set the volume for each channel via the 8 rotary knobs at the bottom of the M48.
EQ – This allows you to use the rotary knobs to adjust the corresponding frequency.
HI GAIN – boost/cut your treble or brightness.
MID GAIN – boost/cut your mid-range frequency.
MID FREQ – select what frequency within the mid-range that you’re adjusting.
LO GAIN – boost/cut your bass or low-end frequency.
*It can be helpful to cut (CCW) some low-end from vocals and certain instruments to help free up some dynamic range. If you have difficulty getting clarity in your mix, start here before making significant adjustments to volume.
AMBIENT MIC – Turning this up allows you to use the built-in mic to hear what is happening around you. It’s best to leave this off.
LINE OUT – This sets the volume level for what is fed to your wireless pack. This should be set at 3/4 of max volume. You’ll notice that there is a line slightly thicker denoting Unity level for this. *See diagram*
PHONES – This section provides you with a basic overall EQ (bass and treble) and a Limiter.
Volume: For those on a wireless pack, the volume here does nothing. But keep it set at Unity (about 2 o’clock for reference on the LED meters beside it). For those that are hard-wired to the headphone output of the M48, this provides your overall output volume. It is ideal to have this set at unity as well. There is an additional attenuator next to the headphone jack to adjust the level back down if it is too loud at unity. We have found that adjusting it in this manner allows for better resolution.
EQ: The BASS and TREBLE control will provide some adjustment to the overall EQ for the whole mix. These controls enable you to boost or attenuate the highs and lows. The 12 o’clock position is neutral; turning to clockwise boosts, counter clockwise will cut.
Limiter: This control will help keep the overall volume from peaking and damaging your ears. Be cautious about using this as it will affect the dynamic range of your mix and cause things to sound mushy or muddy if set too high.
Reverb: When lit red, it means that reverb is enabled on the mixer. You can then add it to individual channels to add space or room to an instrument or vocal. A little can go a long way. If your vocal feels too dry or boxy, add some reverb via the REVERB SEND in the CONTROL section.
Best Practices
The Click is a necessity! You must have the click in your in ear mix.
*Hint – We will know when you aren’t following it!
Before plugging in your in ears, make it a habit of turning down your mixer / pack volume all the way first! This is an easy way to avoid potentially harmful sound level and/or the pop sound of plugging your ears into a loud mix. After you’ve plugged in, slowly turn the volume up to a comfortable setting.
Instead of turning a particular channel up, try turning other channels down to make room for what you’d like to hear more of. This is called “subtractive mixing”, and can often be a great way to overcome the challenge of getting “more” out of a particular channel.
Vocalists: Make sure to incorporate a melodic reference for you to follow to stay on point and in-pitch. This may be tricky as the lead instrument may change week to week, and even from song to song. Having the lead acoustic and/or piano as a melodic reference is usually a safe bet.
