lancaster area worship network

What I Learned at Harvest

Jun 02

brettMiscellaneous 3 Comments

I was at Harvest Bible Chapel in Elgin, IL for 3 weeks at the end of April and beginning of May. Harvest is a huge church with 5 campuses and well over 10,000 people who attend every weekend. Their pastor is James MacDonald, and Andi Rozier is the guy I got to hang with most of the time. As you can imagine, they do a great job with their weekend services, so I got to experience that and even played acoustic guitar for two weekends at their Elgin campus. That was a blast, but that, along with the time I spent in the office, helped me to learn some things I’d like to implement at NewSong when I get back from sabbatical. Here’s the list…

Clicks

You would think that with so many talented musicians on the stage of such a large church that they would be pretty solid with their tempos. Well, they were, BECAUSE THEY USED A CLICK TRACK FOR ALMOST EVERY SONG! And when they didn’t use the click, it was obvious that the tempo would fluctuate and the band was not as tight (maybe not to the person in the congregation, but it was to me, the guitar player). The other surprise was that the click wasn’t really a bother. I barely heard it unless the band’s tempo began to rush, then we would just readjust and keep going. Anyone out there using clicks that could give some tips?

Loops

I met a guy named Matt McCoy who uses loops for just about all the worship songs he does. He showed me the ropes with Ableton and gave me some helpful hints. I’d really like to use loops at some point, but will need to make some investments first (i.e. MacBook pro, upgrade Ableton, training, etc.). Through his Twitter site I also came across another great website, LoopsInWorship. I’ve been reading that blog and have learned a ton already. Does your church use loops in worship services? Do you think it’s a good idea? Why or why not?

Humility goes a long way

I’ve been around great musicians and folks who’ve “made it” in the past, and most of the time they make sure you know that they’re great and you’re not. Not so with the Harvest gang. From record deals to books to incredible talent, you name it they had it. But they interacted with me as if I were one of them, making time for me and having lunch and meeting with no qualms. These guys and gals are the real deal, and that’s probably why God is doing such a great thing through them.

Planning is really important, but so is flexibility

I was surprised at the balance the Harvest peeps carry in this area. They spend a lot of time planning their services, being creative, communicating to all the volunteers at all the campuses. But they only had their services planned out for about 2-3 weeks in advance. And at times, they don’t exactly know how the end of the service is going to go or what song they’re going to close with until the service begins, or even after that! I thought their planning would be much more rigid than it was, but it helped me to see that flexibility is not my strong suit and is a growth point for me. How far in advance do you plan? How do you deal with last minute changes?

Every service should look different

One of the values Harvest holds is to look at last week’s, this week’s, and next week’s services and make sure they are distinctly different from each other. It doesn’t have to be a drastic difference, but something that sets it apart in the mind of the person in the congregation. I like that. Andi also gave me a huge list of creative ideas they’ve used, and I’m hoping we can use many of them. What are some creative ideas that have worked in your services?

Ministry is about relationships

Andi is so good at this. It seemed to me that he spent most of his time meeting with people. Shepherding them. Being personal with them. Talking about ministry, but not treating people as a means to an end. It was really refreshing, and convicting. How well do you do this? Any tips for boneheads like me who need to get better?

Communication is so important

With the uncertainty of the close of the services, it was crucial that the people on stage could communicate with the people in the sound booth who were communicating with the folks from the other main campus. So the sound booth guy had a feed to the in-ears of everyone on stage. Brilliant! And obvious at the same time. I can think of times when guys in the booth have had to furiously wave their arms, or used some sort of sign language that made sense to them but obviously not to me. Also, they use a band leader (one of the instrumentalists) on stage with a mic who says “verse”, “big chorus”, “here’s the break”, etc. and this goes to the ears of everyone else in the band (it’s not in the house). These were a couple simple communication tools they used that made things go smoother. Practical or impractical for you at your church?

Time is of the essence

Harvest uses their service time very well. They run through their service exactly as it is planned before the first service. This includes announcements, prayers, call to worship, and special music. They then use this to make adjustments and give direction to those involved. The idea is to make the most impact possible in 90 minutes. Even if we don’t do the run-through, all of us would do well to look at what we give time to in our services and ask if it is the best use of the time. How can your church use  your time better? How have you made changes in the past to improve?

I am so grateful to NewSong’s elders for allowing me the opportunity to take this sabbatical and have the experience at Harvest that I did. I really feel that it was a good use of the time and will benefit NewSong in the short and long term. Thanks to Andi and everyone at Harvest for being so willing to have me hang out and shadow and learn. I hope we cross paths often in the future.