Every so often we get philosophy-of-ministry type questions from folks in other churches. Its humbling to know that people would come to those of us at Mars Hill for answers as we feel like we’re constantly figuring things out as we go. But it is a great honor to have the opportunity to share our thoughts. Our hope is that whatever biblically faithful insights we’ve gained along the way would honor Jesus and build up the church. Here is an exchange between a ministry leader in Australia and our own Deacon Joel Brown.

Brother Down Under: Our church has three male band leaders and we’re considering the Mars Hill style “band model” instead of the “worship team” model. If we move to a band model it will mean either having women band leaders, or cutting the volunteer pool for the sake of three smaller manageable bands. I’m hesitating from the second option because of the pastoral implications it could have, but am I still being faithful to scripture if women are in the role of leadership?

Joel Brown: First thing to consider as you transition is, what has God called you to, specifically? As a leader of these people, if he’s called you to the band model at your church and you feel it will be the best way to minister to your people in your time and place, then the folks currently serving in your ‘teams’ need strong vision casting from you up front.

I suggest you get a game plan together – some sort of proposal that tangibly lays out the best case scenario for this group that you lead. Prayerfully consider how you want the “band model” structured in your specific context. What leaders and members do you want in and which do you want out? Give this proposal to your pastors/elders and have them edit, change, or approve it. Meet with the leaders you want to keep and make sure they’re on board. Then, pesent your plan in a meeting with all of your department’s volunteers. Maybe the meeting would go something like this:

• Vision cast for the new paradigm
• Call those who will be cut to give grace and trust the leadership
• Invite those who will be cut to serve in a different area of the church where their gifts (musical or otherwise) can be used to glorify God and bless his people
• Answer questions in the group setting
• Have follow up meetings with the few people who need pastoral care 

As far as women as band leaders, I would say that there is no biblical office of band leader. So though the bible is clear on whether or not women can be pastors, the decision on band leadership is totally a matter of conscience for your church. At Mars Hill, worship leaders have very little spiritual authority and don’t perform a lot of pastoral duties in their role, so we have several woman band leaders. We work towards helping the ladies succeed when they work with men but help safeguard them from the need to lead spiritually and men leaders step in when there’s the need for a little more authority in a given situation.

BDU: Bands have identities. How do we avoid glorifying the bands over glorifying Jesus? Perhaps its cultural but on the Central Coast in Australia, bands are worshipped. Does this make it wrong for us to follow this model?

JB: If your bands develop identities and you see people leaning towards idolatry, then it’s time to call out your people’s sin. Idolatry isn’t caused by creation, it’s caused by our hearts and not having a right view of God’s surpassing worth over the things which catch our eye, and we all need to be reminded of that. Of course if this is a larger issue for your people then you should, of course, avoid leading them into temptation.

 If your bands develop identities and you see people leaning towards idolatry, then it’s time to call out your people’s sin. Idolatry isn’t caused by creation, it’s caused by our hearts and not having a right view of God’s surpassing worth over the things which catch our eye, and we all need to be reminded of that.

A couple years ago I was at a party milling around and overhead someone talking about a 100 guitar symphony. I was intrigued. Personally, I can’t think of anything more exuberant sounding than 100 electric guitars playing at the same place at the same time. The artist that conducted the event’s name was Glenn Branca.

Branca is one of the forerunners of the short lived NYC No Wave scene from the late 70s and early 80s. No Wave was basically an arty / extreme response to the “commercialization” of punk. Basically, No Wave is pretty much unlistenable music wise. But it’s interesting. Check out the documentary Kill Your Idols for more info.

Branca is conducting his 100 guitar symphony Hallucination City this friday night (hosted by the Seattle Art Museum) starting at 7pm down at the outdoor Olympic Sculpture Park. I was hoping the event would be free since it’s outdoors. Unfortunately, admission is $175. Apparently you have to be rich to experience anti-art these days.

In other news myself and a couple faithful Doxologist volunteers are busy building an extensive MP3 | song sheet repository. Basically we will have a page dedicated to providing this content together in one place so that you don’t have to go hunting for it anymore. Oh, and my beautiful first born baby girl came into the world a month ago so blogging hasn’t been too much of a priority these days. Stay tuned on the songs page.

This week I have the pleasure of leading worship and doing a little teaching at the Dwell Conference in New York City.  I have never been to NYC and am thoroughly enjoying it.  Dwell is a corporative effort between the Acts 29 and Redeemer church planting networks and features CJ Maheney, Ed Stetzer, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll and others.  Ironically it is being held at 4th Unitarian Universalist Church.

This afternoon I taught a breakout session on Missional Worship.  Thanks to all who attended and all your great questions.  I hope it was helpful.

As promised, here are links to the resources I mentioned in my sesh:

Here are the notes.

Here are the slides.

Here is a link to the talk I referenced detailing our new mission statement.

Here is a link to a resource page with our band development syllabus and a bunch of other stuff.

This week Mars Hill is hosting the Leadership Network “Multi-Site Exposed Conference”.

I had the privilege to teach a breakout session this afternoon entitled “Musical Multi-Site Missionaries”. We dug into Acts 17 and John 4 to define both worship and a missionary mindset and then applied these truths to music and worship bands. We didn’t record it but here are the resources I referenced…

Here are the notes.

Here are the slides.

Here is a draft of the mission statement I have been working on.

You can find the syllabus for our band development process along with other leadership development resources here or under the “leader training resources” page link on the right.

Pastor Tim

Last Saturday we had our first “Doxologist Intensive”. We invited all Mars Hill Church and regional Acts 29 music and production leaders and volunteers together for a time of teaching and discussion. My plan is to do these events quarterly at a way to maintain unity and fellowship across MHC and A29. If you didn’t hear about it or want to be on the invite list next time around talk to your team or band leader or post a comment to this thread and we’ll keep you in mind.

This first event focused on a new, departmental mission statement I have been working with pastors Matt Johnson & Joe Day. I have been the worship pastor for over 8 years now and yet there has been no single document detailing the core purpose of gathered worship and the role of music and production. Most of our unity has been maintained through relationship but with 6 MHC campuses, 17 bands, untold production volunteers and numerous A29 churches, this will simply not suffice any longer. As much as possible we need to articulate key ideas and “DNA” in writing and teaching that is captured so it can spread.

My plan is to continue to refine the statement and update it here as well as in “the city” for you Mars Hill folks. Just to be clear this is a draft and not the final copy. I already have a host of changes and edits to work on from this weekend. Feel free to post ideas here and they may be considered.

As promised here are the slides I used.

Here is the current draft of the mission statement.

Audio will be posted within the week.

Thanks to all who came out on a beautiful, sunny day to dig into the scripture together, especially the Acts 29 guys. Let me know if it was helpful and how it could be more so in the future.

Pastor Tim

What does the children’s television network Nickelodeon, artists Chris Cornell, The Foo Fighters, Korn and Clothier’s Nordstrom all have in common? They share the same design firm, Invisible Creature. The two brothers Don and Ryan Clark co-found the firm and are regular Mars Hill attendees and all around swell guys. If you missed our plug the first time, the Invisible Creature design firm has a mid-century themed gallery showing in Ballard day after tomorrow (Saturday the 12th through May 2nd).

By guest blogger Brian “E-pop” Eichelberger

This last year, my band E-pop had the opportunity to record one of the strongest songs in our repertoire “I’ll Fly Away” for the Rain City Hymnal compilation record. Over the three years we’ve played the song, it has become a signature piece for us. At it’s inception, I awkwardly strummed an acoustic guitar in triplet rhythm against a robotic drum beat. As we developed the song, our friend and ex-multi-instrumentalist Zach Hodges threw down an unbelievably catchy piano line (to which we jokingly sing the lyric “this is a hook, an obvious hook, this is a hook…” during rehearsal) and Jordan and Thadd tightened down the groove to produce a really polished pop song.

A problem for me arose last summer as I was doing some rough mixes of the song for the record, and I began to listen to the lyrics in a new light. I was floored when recognizing that several aspects of the song explicitly promoted idolatry in place of right worship of God. I had to face the fact that I could never use the song in the setting of corporate worship again! (more…)

Corey Smith, one of our up and coming music leaders, is in need of a bass player. Below is Corey’s “want ad” and contact info for anyone who is interested.

“What we need: bass player. What we are: western rock band; roots oriented but with sonic depth; think Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, The Band, Superdrag, Fog, Human Beast, Hood, Palace, etc.”

cell (206) 406-1361
Email: corey@liftdesign.org

Easter is full of distraction. For us who are involved with music and production at churches it is an extremely busy season filled with programming, details and a desire and pressure to make sure all our carefully laid plans come off as well as possible. For children is a time that can easily be about bunnies and baskets. For the rest of us it can easily become a brief remembrance of a often told story; a small bump of religious observance along the road of life.

However, what we remember in Good Friday and Easter is the most essential and profound event of all time. It cannot even be contained in human words. The death and resurrection of Jesus, with all it’s implications, should shake and affect us to the very core of our being. Peter said it this way:

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,”
(1Pet 1.8 ESV) (more…)

Our very own Nathan Burke (bassist for MH Worship band, Ex-Nihilo) has a project band called the Out_Circuit with a new CD titled Pierce The Empire With A Sound. For more info and a sample of some tunes check out his virb page here.

Here’s additional info from Buzzgrinder: “Previously working with one-time Lujo artist Chase Barber aka Brahm in his Out_Circuit debut Burn Your Scripts, Boys and again in their side project Night Is Invisible, Nathan has since expanded his collaborative palette to include friends Dustin Kensrue (Thrice), Sean Ingram (Coalesce, The People’s Court), Matt Johnson (Roadside Monument), wife Rachel Burke (Beauty Pill) and more. And if that’s not enough parenthetical nudging for you (oh yeah, artwork by Don Clark), the album was produced [by Jared McFarlane and] mixed by Teppei Teranishi, also of Thrice, which undoubtedly pushes the final product’s quality to unquestionable heights”. (more…)