Teaching Live in Brooklyn

Today I’m teaching live at The Journey-Brooklyn. We started this location back on Easter Sunday and this is my first time being there live (shame on me!).  My primary goal in visiting a location is to brag on the location pastor…and I’ll be doing plenty of that today!

Manhattan and Jersey City will experience video teaaching.  Since our Manhattan location is almost always live, I’m always afraid that they will rebel against the video.  But it never happens. In fact, most people either don’t realize its video because they watch the screens anyway or forget after about 3 minutes.  I believe its important for all our campuses to experience video teaching from time to time.

Oh, today is also Family Day at The Journey. We are hosting child dedications in all our locations (which always makes for a ton of guests) and then we have a fall festival this afternoon (rumor is that Elmo is showing up…my son, for one, hopes that rumor is true!).

Hope you have a great day at your church!

Nelson

Pastor & Worship Pastor Working Together – Part 5 of 5

Jason Hatley, Pastor of Worship Arts at The Journey Church in NYC with Nelson Searcy is our guest blogger this week – today he wraps up his five part series:

Yesterday, we talked about the first two steps in how to create an Actively Engaged Pastor/Worship Pastor relationship, and today I will give the final two steps.

Step #3 – Over-communicate:  I’m not sure if that’s a word, but I’m absolutely positive that it is a principle for radically improving the Pastor/ Worship Pastor relationship.  More than simply sharing facts, over-communication goes above and beyond to ensure that all the information that needs to be communicated is, in fact, communicated.

Much of the tension that occurs between pastors and worship pastors can be traced to not living out the Principle of Over-communication.  Pat MacMillan hit the point perfectly when he wrote, “The biggest problem with communication is the assumption that it has taken place.”

To create a culture of over-communication, you must act:

•    Openly – create an environment of free-flowing communication.  Meetings and hallway conversations are a great start.

•    Initially – Be quick to share insight with the pastor / worship pastor.

•    Intentionally – If you ask, “Should I tell _________ about this?”, then the answer is most likely “Yes!”

•    Honestly – give and receive feedback and ask for help when you need it.

Step #4 – Create Systems: The first three steps are vital to establishing an Actively Engaged relationship, but Step #4 is what will allow the relationship to stay strong, focused and effective over the long haul.

At The Journey we have a very detailed worship planning system that includes a one-year preaching calendar; a series of regular meetings that keep us focused on the future; static deadlines for Sunday that everyone must meet each week (see The Thursday Midnight Rule podcast); and a process for evaluating and improving services each and every week.

What are your systems for worship planning?

How many of those elements do you already have in place, and how are you doing with them?

Anyone can do almost anything for a season, and many Pastors / Worship Pastors can get ahead and plan this way for awhile, but it takes Systems to keep you there in the long run.

So, to create an Actively Engaged Pastor/Worship Pastor relationship, you need all four steps.  Decide this week to meet with your pastor or worship pastor to begin the process, and watch not only the relationship grow, watch your services improve and your stress level go down as well!

Thanks for allowing me to be a part of your ministry this week!  Nelson will return with his regular posts starting tomorrow.

Jason

PS:  Check out the Free Webinar I am doing for Worship Leaders on Thursday, October 30.  Learn how to overcome the Top 3 challenges that every worship leader faces in this 2-hour event.  For more info or to register visit www.WorshipLeaderInsights.com/events.

While you are there, be sure to sign-up for my free monthly newsletter!

Pastor & Worship Pastor Working Together – Part 4 of 5

Jason Hatley, founder of Worship Leader Insights, continues his guest blogging series today:

Now that you’ve identified where you are from yesterday’s post, let’s dive into how to get to the place you want to be in the Pastor/Worship Pastor planning relationship.

There are 4 Steps to Active Engagement.  We will cover the first two today.

Step #1 – Commitment: the first step to Active Engagement is commitment.  Commitment (when it comes to the Pastor/Worship Pastor planning relationship) is the sum of Trust and Flexibility.  (C = T+F)

Do I trust this person enough to receive their ideas?  Am I flexible enough to lay my ideas aside and go with their idea?

In an Actively Engaged relationship, there is give and take on both sides.  If the message needs more time, I am willing to cut a song.  If there is a creative element that will really highlight the theme of the day, the Pastor is willing to make room for it in his message, and even teach in a way that sets it up.

This is just one aspect of the Trust+Flexibility equation, but this can be applied to almost any decision making process in the church.

Step #2 – Clarify Roles:  In his book, The Performance Factor, Pat MacMillan states, “You must have role clarity, or you will have role confusion.”

Understanding the role that each of you play in the relationship is paramount, because the understanding of each others roles shapes your expectations of one another.

In The Journey’s worship planning process, Nelson’s role is leading the teaching team which sets the direction for the day.  My role is leading our creative team to work hand in hand with our teaching team to produce creative elements that will enhance the main theme.  I also lead the worship planning meetings (more on that tomorrow!).

Because I know what to expect from Nelson, and he knows what to expect from me, there is no tension over misplaced expectations or lack of clarity.

In tomorrow’s post, I will discuss the final two steps to an Actively Engaged Pastor/Worship Pastor relationship.

Jason

PS:  Check out the Free Webinar I am doing for Worship Leaders on Thursday, October 30.  Learn how to overcome the Top 3 challenges that every worship leader faces in this 2-hour event.  For more infom or to register, visit www.WorshipLeaderInsights.com/events.

While you are there, be sure to sign-up for my free monthly newsletter!

Pastor & Worship Pastor Working Together – Part 3

Jason Hatley, Pastor of Worship Arts at The Journey Church in NYC with Nelson Searcy is our guest blogger this week:

So, how did your homework go from yesterday?  Hopefully you have some clarity on the important relationship between the Pastor and Worship Pastor.

Since you did so well on yesterday’s homework, today I have a quiz for you.  Of the four choices below, what set of words best describes your  current Pastor/Worship Pastor relationship when it comes to worship planning?

1.    You do your thing and I’ll do mine.  I’ll see you on Sunday morning.

2.    We’re not against planning life-transforming worship services together, we just don’t have the structure, system, time and/or resources to do it.

3.    We are working together to implement some creative elements, but it’s not always consistent.

4.    We are working together in a structured way to plan in advance, and create relevant, creative, God-honoring, life-transforming worship services every week.

Ok – so what number did you choose?  Like it or not, getting honest on the answer to that question is the starting point for maximizing the Pastor/Worship Pastor relationship.

As you might imagine, #4 is the goal, and what I refer to as a Actively Engaged Pastor/Worship Pastor relationship.  In this relationship the pastor and worship pastor are hands on in creating the worship service from start to finish (not just their respective parts).  They are both giving and receiving ideas and feedback on the service.  There is a true synergy to the worship planning process.

So, if the Actively Engaged Relationship is the goal, how do you get there.  That is the question I will answer in the next two posts.

For now, answer these two questions:

1. Which of those four scenarios represents my outlook on planning worship services?

2. Which of those four scenarios represents my pastors/worship pastors outlook on planning services?

The key is getting on the same page. Tomorrow, we’ll figure out what page that is!

Jason

PS:  Check out the Free Webinar I am doing for Worship Leaders on Thursday, October 30.  Learn how to overcome the Top 3 challenges that every worship leader faces in this 2-hour event.  Visit  www.WorshipLeaderInsights.com/events for more info.

While you are there, be sure to sign-up for my free monthly newsletter!

Pastor & Worship Pastor Working Together – Part 2

Jason Hatley, Pastor of Worship Arts at The Journey Church in NYC with Nelson Searcy is our guest blogger this week:

Yesterday I began this guest-blogging series by talking the importance of the relationship between the Pastor and the Worship Pastor in planning life-transforming worship services.  In fact, I believe that it is the most important relationship in the church.

What I’ve found in my ministry and in the coaching and training of worship leaders around the country, is that there is an interesting paradox in this relationship.  Here’s the idea…

•    The most important relationship in the worship planning process is the Pastor / Worship Pastor relationship.

•    The greatest tension in the worship planning process tends to be in the Pastor / Worship Pastor relationship.

It stands to reason then that one of the major reasons why many churches struggle in designing relevant, creative, God-honoring, life-transforming worship services every week is the relationship (or lack there of) between the pastor and the worship pastor.

Most of the time, the problem is in the area or communication, though it may be any number of things.  Whatever the problem, an ineffective Pastor/ Worship Pastor relationship leads to:

•    Frustration
•    Poor worship services
•    Misplaced expectations
•    Lack of clarity about the vision
•    Damaged trust
•    Loss of friendship

Just to name a few.

So what are a Pastor and Worship Pastor to do?

That’s what tomorrow’s post will focus on.  But before then, I have some homework for you.

Take 5-10 minutes and write down on a sheet of paper the number of interactions that you have with your pastor or worship pastor every week.  What is the general point of your interactions?  Are there scheduled meetings to discuss worship planning?  If so, what do you bring to those meetings, and what does the other person bring?  What is working and what is not working in your worship planning process right now?

Answering and discussing these questions will help you understand your role in the process, and most importantly, how the other person sees their role as well.

Jason Hatley

PS:  Check out the Free Webinar I am doing for Worship Leaders on Thursday, October 30.  Learn how to overcome the Top 3 challenges that every worship leader faces in this 2-hour event, visit  www.WorshipLeaderInsights.com/events for more info.

While you are there, be sure to sign-up for my free monthly newsletter!

Pastor & Worship Pastor Working Together – Part 1

It is a pleasure to serve as this week’s guest blogger!  My name is Jason Hatley and I serve as the Pastor of Worship Arts @ The Journey, which my wife Karen and I helped start in 2002, and as founder of Worship Leader Insights.

As the Pastor of Worship Arts, I invest a tremendous amount of my time in creating the weekly worship experiences.

This is the part where I usually take all of the credit, but since I’m on Nelson’s blog I want to be 100% on the level with you.  I don’t accomplish this on my own.  In fact, if I am serious about our worship services being the very best that they can be every week, I can’t do this on my own.

It takes a team effort.  That team is founded on the Pastor / Worship Pastor relationship.

This week I will be talking about how the relationship between Pastor and Worship Pastor is a central issue in planning effective worship services, and I will teach you the four steps to maximizing this relationship, and your worship service planning.

So, let’s get the ball rolling on this topic by defining worship planning.

Worship Planning Defined: the process by which the Pastor and Worship Pastor work together to strategically design worship services that are relevant, creative, God-honoring and transformational.

There are three important distinctives in this definition.

1. …Pastor and Worship Pastor work together – Do you have a scheduled time for meeting with your pastor or worship pastor to plan, implement and evaluate your worship services?

2. …design worship services -  Do you have a process for worship planning that can empower you to work with your Pastor / Worship Pastor to plan 6 months to a year out?

3. …relevant, creative, God-honoring and transformational. – At The Journey these words describe our values for worship services.  What are your values for planning worship services?

By the end of this series, you will have some insights and systems that will help you maximize the Pastor / Worship Pastor relationship, and ultimately help you plan more effective worship services.

Jason Hatley

PS:  Check out the Free Webinar I am doing for Worship Leaders on Thursday, October 30.  Learn how to overcome the Top 3 challenges that every worship leader faces in this 2-hour event, visit   www.WorshipLeaderInsights.com/events.

While you are there, be sure to sign-up for my free monthly newsletter!

Debt Free Day @ The Journey

Today I’m teaching live at all four Journey services in Manhattan.  The topic: How Do I Become Debt Free?

In all four services we are going to help someone become debt free.  Through the generosity of members in our church we are going to select one person and help pay down their debt. I love it when the church acts like the church!

I’m passionate about the area of becoming debt free because I know the bondage of debt and the power of being debt free (you can read about my story here…and yes, you can still request the free resource I mention in the post).

This afternoon we have a membership class – over 65 signed up!

Should be a fun day….off to the first service,

Nelson

A Word to Media Pastors

My primary audience for this blog is Senior Pastors, but I know other pastors and church staff sneak a peek from time to time. Today, I want to say a brief word to Media Pastors. (You might want to forward this post to your staff member in charge of media.)

Over the last 10 months, I’ve had the opportunity to visit about a dozen churches. Every single one of them had some sort of screen or media presence during the service. I was surprised at how many times the image on the screen looked worse than the ‘live image’ I could see on the stage. This has led me to a “Rule for Screen Images” that I’d like to share:

Rule for Screen Images: The Image on the screen must be better than the live image. If it’s not, you don’t need the screen.

Screens should always complement and enhance the image attenders are seeing live with their own eyes. (They can also be used for special videos or song lyrics.) Unless I’m sitting in the first few rows of the auditorium, the screens should give me a better picture of the service than I can get by looking at the stage. They should give me a crystal clear image of the worship team or the speaker.

So why is the image on the screen so poor in most churches?  Here are my thoughts:

- Bad lighting. I don’t think most church leaders realize just how much lighting it takes for a clear image to be projected on a screen. Most of the churches I visited needed, at minimum, twice as much lighting as they had. My personal observation: if I can stand onstage and see the audience, then the light isn’t bright enough. Crude but true.

- Awkward camera angles. I’m not talking about the ‘cool camera angle’ you want on the drum solo; I’m talking about a camera angle that distorts the speaker by shooting him too high, too low, or with too much room on one side or the other. These awkward camera angles are usually the result of a remote camera or an untrained operator.

- Wide zoom or static camera. If the speaker walks off frame of a static camera shot or the camera is zoomed out too far, the screens become useless.

- Poor equipment. This is a broad one. Either your projector is too old, your camera is outdated or you aren’t using the equipment properly. Either way, the result is a poor image.

Senior Pastors and Media Pastors: let me challenge you to get the video tape of what is being projected on your screens, watch it on a regular sized television and then ask: If I had to watch this every week, would the quality be high enough?

I could write another post about how we waste money in the media area by investing in equipment we don’t need when we could get the same result by fully understanding and using the equipment we already own. So I’m not suggesting you go out and spend a bunch of money. Just get some smart people in a room and ask: How can we make a 1 – 5% improvement in our media area this week? Little steps taken consistently over time can make a huge difference.

Nelson

P.S. If you are media pastor and you’ve been trying to get your Senior Pastor to invest in improving your area, feel free to forward him this post!

Material World – Sunday @ The Journey

Today Kerrick is teaching live at The Journey as we continue our Financial Peace series.  The topic: How Do I Overcome the Desire for More?

Have you fallen into the trap of materialism?  Do you find yourself constantly wanting more or coveting the latest gadget or filling up more and more storage spaces? If so, maybe you need to ask God to break the bondage of materialism in your life.

I’m away today for a long weekend with Kelley and Alexander.  We will be benchmarking with this church and this one (both are alumni of my Advanced Coaching Network).

Have a great Sunday!

Nelson

Finacial Peace @ The Journey Today

Today we are kicking off an 8-week “Financial Peace” series.  We planned this series in November 2007! We had no idea when we did the preaching calendar that we would launch this series in the middle of one of the greatest financial downturns ever.  Only God!

Today I’m teaching live in Manhattan for all four services and our location pastors are teaching live in Brooklyn and Jersey City (yes, we did 3 message run thru’s this past week!).

Here’s the breakdown of the series:

October 5 – How Do I Find Financial Peace?
October 12 – How Do I Overcome the Desire for More ?
October 19 – How Do I Get Out of Debt?
October 26 – How Do I Save in this Economy?
November 2 – How Do I Manage Wealth?
November 9 – How Do I Make Wise Financial Decisions?
November 16 – How Do I Honor God with My Finances?
November 23 – How Do I Start Living Like No One Else?

Off to the first service!  Hope you have a great Sunday at your church!

Nelson

Salsa Service on Sunday

On Sunday we are doing a Salsa service at The Journey. No, I’m not talking about the style of dance or the refreshment selections, I’m talking about the style of worship order.

If you’ve listed to my Worship Planning Seminar, then you know that we have three different types of worship orders that we use regularly to give variety to the service each week.  They are:

Simple Worship Order (most common)

Split Worship Order

Salsa Worship Order (Least used)

In the Salsa Worship Order, the control of the service goes back and forth at non-even points between the teaching pastor and the creative team.  In other words, my sermon is split in at least three parts and is surrounded by three or four elements designed to teach the previous point through a different medium.

Here’s the elements for this Sunday:

Worship Song

Sermon Intro and Part 1

Testimony

2 Worship Songs

Center Stage Screen Image Reflection

Message Part 2 (via video on-location in Pottery class)

Worship Song/Movie Clip

Message Part 3

Conclusion and Lords Supper

Worship thru Giving

Send Out

All of that in 65 minutes….now that is Salsa!

Because it’s so complicated and requires such detailed preparation, we only use this style of service about 5% of the time (or two or three Sundays a year).  We are doing it this Sunday as an ‘experiential’ worship service to wrap up our One Month to Live Series.

I like this style of service….it keeps people on their toes, it allows for a lot of creative elements. It also breaks the monotony of a ‘Simple’ service where the sermon is all together at the end of the service.

Have you fallen into a rut with your worship orders? Maybe it’s time for some salsa!

Nelson

It’s Baptism Day!

In addition to the 6 services we conduct on a Sunday (four in Manhattan, one in Jersey City and one in Brooklyn), we are holding a special baptism service this afternoon. Pastor Taylor Field of Graffiti Community Ministries and East 7th Street Baptist Church graciously allows us to use his church (check out his books about Lower East Side Life here). Our two churches couldn’t be more different, but I love doing baptisms at Graffiti because so many in our church support his community ministries to those in need.

Baptism is my favorite event in the life of our church. It reminds me how much I love being a pastor. I never get tired of hearing the stories of life change. We’ve baptized 103 people so far this year and today I’m hoping we’ll top 130. 130 stories of life change… that’s what keeps me going.

It’s going to be a great Sunday. Hope it’s a great Sunday at your church, too!

Nelson

6 Sundays Ago…

It’s been 6 Sunday’s since I’ve preached at The Journey (or anywhere for that matter)….this is the longest I’ve gone without teaching on a Sunday since…well, maybe since I went in ministry in 1990.  It’s been healthy, restful and positive (and some people might say the last 6 weeks at The Journey have been the best ever.  Ha!).

Today I’ll be continuing our One Month to Live series with “Live Passionately.” Can’t wait!

This afternoon we have Growth Group Leader training and tonight we have a ‘Welcome Back’ party for our college students.  Should be a great day all the way around.

I hope its a great day at your church too!

Off to the first service,

Nelson

One Month to Live Begins Today @ The Journey

Today at our Manhattan location we kick-off a four week series based on the bestselling book “One Month to Live” and the author of the book, Kerry Shook, is our guest speaker.  Kerry is the pastor of Fellowship of the Woodlands in Woodlands, TX.  His church was one of our sponsoring churches when we started in 2002.  I can’t wait for Kerry to share with our people.

Off to the first service!  Have a great Sunday,

Nelson

Sunday in Phoenix

I arrived in Phoenix yesterday and today I have a rare Sunday off. I’ll be attending a private event starting later today and going throughout the week. On Thursday, I’ll be teaching my Fusion Seminar at Camelback Community Church. (It’s not too late to register if you are in the area. Just click here.)

Here are a few of my favorite Phoenix churches:

Radiant Church (We visited Radiant last night…great service! Lee is still the man, even if he didn’t take me for a ride on his Harley – check out his blog here)

Palm Valley Community Church (I love Greg Rohlinger …he’s been so gracious to me over the years. And he’s buying dinner on Wed but doesn’t know it yet! Check out his blog here)

Camelback Community Church (One of my Advanced Coaching churches and host of Thursday’s Fusion Seminar)

Fellowship of Anthem (Ted is the man!)

Phoenix First Assembly (One day I hope to dream as big as Tommy Barnett)

Of course, there are dozens of other phenomenal churches and more are being planted every week. This is just the list of churches that I am most familiar with. Phoenix is a great city and I’m excited about spending the week here… although I’m already missing The Journey!

Make it a great Sunday!

Nelson

Accelerate – New Series on Spiritual Habits

I’m excited about a new series we begin today called Accelerate: 5 Basic Spiritual Habits (Bible Study/Journaling, Prayer, Solitude, Friendship, etc.).  Here’s the graphics:

Off to the first service.  Have a great Sunday!

Nelson

Greg Surratt at The Journey Today

Today Greg Surratt, Senior Pastor Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC, is speaking at all four services at The Journey-Manhattan. I’ve know Greg personally for a couple of years, listened to his sermons/podcasts for even longer and been a fan of Seacoast for as long as I can remember.  Greg has been super-gracious to us and our multi-site expansion. I know he’ll hit a home run today!

I’ll be there hosting each service and encouraging our volunteers (something I don’t always get to do when I’m speaking).  It’s rare for us to have a guest speaker and even more rare for me to be in town when we have a guest speaker.  I’m looking forward to hanging with Greg and ‘walking slowly through the crowd’ today.

In Brooklyn and Jersey City I’ll be teaching on the big screen and challenging everyone to do a Servant Evangelism project right after each Service.

We also have 50+ people for membership class this afternoon.

Should be a unique and fun day!  I can’t wait to share with everyone that we baptized 50+ people yesterday at Jones Beach (the weather was perfect!!).

Off to the first service…hope you have a great Sunday!

Nelson

Your True Identity – Romans 12:3

“As God’s messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.” — Romans 12:3

Today I’m teaching a message on ’seeing yourself as God sees you.’ I’m continuing our God on Film series with “Hancock: Discovering My True Identity.” I’ll be teaching live in Manhattan and via video in Jersey City and Brooklyn.  We have canceled our evening Manhattan service today as a gift to our staff and volunteers on this holiday weekend.  It’s rare for us to cancel a service but its nice to do from time to time, especially on weekends where attendance is already going to be low.

The Journey-San Francisco, our latest church plant, is also doing God on Film.  God is really blessing them and using Pastor Chris Brady in big ways!  Check them out here.

I hope you are as excited about Sunday as I am!

Nelson

P.S. We are currently praying about starting another Journey video venue in metro NYC – anyone interested in leading it?

The Power of Sunday

Here’s what I read every Sunday morning:

The Power of Sunday
Sunday is . . .  game day . . . impact time . . . evangelism hour . . .resurrection day
. . .prime time . . . focal point . . . the super bowl, world cup and world series all rolled in one!  Sunday matters!  THIS Sunday Matters!

I love SUNDAY!  I’m teaching live in the first three services in Manhattan this morning and then tagging Kerrick in to teach tonight.  Elliott is teaching live in Brooklyn and I’ll be on the big screen in Jersey City.  I can’t wait!

Hope you have a great Sunday!

Nelson

P.S. The quote above is from my latest church system seminar called The Worship Planning Seminar.

God on Film Begins Today

I can’t wait to kick off our new series today at the Manhattan location of The Journey!  This is the 7th Year in a row we have done this teaching series and I still love it!  In fact, about 20% of our church says they first attended a Journey service during God on Film!

Off to the first service….I hope you have a great Sunday!

Nelson

P.S. Our church plant in San Francisco is also doing this series starting next week.  If you know someone in the San Francisco area who needs a new church please direct the to www.JourneySF.com