“Hello, and welcome to this episode of the Worship Band Builder podcast, where we are working with you to lay the foundation for skillful worship! I’m Eric Roberts. I’m joined by my co-host, Emily Roberts.”
SUBTITLE: Are you on a path to meet your 2020 goals?
Stay to the end because we are going to pray for you on this journey at the end and encourage you to keep going!
Are you implementing your plans for improvement? If not, why not?
Does the plan need revision?
What’s standing in your way to becoming the best worship band you can be?
You see the big picture but these are some steps to make it happen... Identifying weak points and get better one thing at a time.
Rewrite your plan - over and over again Build a stronger bigger team takes time and comes in waves
One new key person can catapult you to the next level. - find that person
Communicate your need
Offer training opportunities for the need Again….Again… and Again…. REVAMP and rewrite your plan again and keep going
PRAY FOR THEM
EPISODE PROMOTION: Play and Sing Music Theory Unlocked eBook It’s all about being able to understand chords and theory using memory points and patterns…. Music theory isn’t hard when you unlocks some of these patterns and you can use it to transpose to any key… sing the right key for your voice, use your capo, even start understanding the Nashville Number System…. It will unlock another level of your potential…. Available online go to EBOOK AT http://www.worshipbandbuilder.com/ebook
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Eric:
Hello and welcome to episode seven of the worship band builder podcast where we are working with you to lay the foundation for skillful worship. I'm Eric Roberts and I'm joined by my lovely co-host Emily Roberts. Thank you. Eric. Will you please tell us about your new books? Because the covers are so cute. I love them. The covers. Oh wow. She loves the covers and right now I have, I want to tell you about them actually. I really do want to uh, their play and sing music theory unlocked and it's all about being able to understand chords and theory using memory points and patterns. You know, when I went to college it was like something clicked when I started seeing the patterns of music theory. And so some people might think that guy's a nerd. He likes music theory. And I just loved it. I didn't like math that much, but I liked music theory.
Eric:
But it isn't hard when you unlock some of those patterns and you can use it to transpose to any key to sing in the right key for your voice. You can use a keto, you can start to understand the Nashville number system. This book helps you unlock another level of your potential and it's available now at http://www.worshipbandbuilder.com/ebooks Okay, so I said books cause I actually saw the ear rarely doing like two or three new books. Yes, this is the book that I was kind of highlighting today, the play and sing music theory unlocked. But the other two books are, they're playing sing guitar method and the plain sing piano method. They're all connected to my new YouTube channel called plain sing TV where I'm showing every week we're doing new songs with little chords on the screen. It's so good. It's so cute.
Eric:
It's what everybody's wanted. You said cute. So now I'm like, I all, I can think of these cute little books, these cute little chords on the screen, but for serious, many years people have been asking me to put the cords in the strumming patterns on the screen. But it is an extreme amount of work, honestly, just a ton of work. So, uh, but now moving to Nashville, we're putting our full pressure on this and I really have been able to go back and go like, what did I really dream to do? And this is one of the things I've kind of dreamed to do with the plan. sing.tv is the website and the YouTube channel is playing sing a TV. It's going to be phenomenal because I'm finally able to kind of put that push behind what everybody's been asking me for. The song books are available on Amazon, the eBooks and all the supporting stuff is available right there on our website.
Eric:
So just check it out. You, you know the links are in the description. That will always be true. So if you're on YouTube, just click down there or if you listening, just go back to our website, [inaudible] dot com so much exciting stuff going on. So many new products. But let's get onto our topic today. Yeah. Are you on a path to meet your 2020 goals? Oh, here's usually where everybody has forgotten about their goals. Yeah. Somebody said a bunch of goals up 2020 January one and now it's like March. And everybody's like, eh, I might get back to that later. Or never. I'll just wait till, I wonder if people have stopped going to the gym by now.
Emily:
Oh, that was probably like mid January, right? 10 days in.
Eric:
I always think the gym is really like, it's slammed like the first couple of weeks of the year and that feels good. It feels like, you know, everybody's trying and then midday March, nothing.
Emily:
Nobody's there anymore. So first of all, did you set goals for yourself as a musician or for your team?
Speaker 3:
Yeah. Did you
Emily:
that's, that's the question. I, I, I'm asking this rhetorically. I obviously, I can't hear you answer me, but I'm asking you to think about what you set out to do this year, if it was anything.
Eric:
Yeah. And if you're on YouTube watching, you can drop in the comments or you can go, uh, drop it in the comments anywhere on our Facebook page. Are you implementing your plans for improvement? Did you make some plans first and then are you implementing them? That's a good question. If, if you didn't make plans, why not? What's wrong with you people? What's wrong with you? People out there who made no plans for 20, 20?
Emily:
Well that's once you've been doing any job for more than a few years, it can become mundane. It can become routine. So if you haven't set goals for this year, maybe now's a good time to think about how you can improve because there's always room for improvement.
Eric:
Yeah. And if you did, if you were one of those super achievers that set some goals, does the plan need revision by now? Are you reaching the goals or are you thinking, Hm, my problem usually is I set these goals that are like way bigger than I could ever possibly reach. And so by the end of like a couple of months later, I'm like, yeah, that's not going to happen. I gotta I got to revise this. And that's part of what we're talking about today too.
Emily:
Yes. Making achievable goals is key. If it's too big, then then you will give up. It will seem impossible. So, um, smaller goals, achievable goals, and um, giving yourself the right amount of time to complete those things, um, can help you get there.
Eric:
Yeah. Also put it in the comments or send us a little note. What is standing in your way to becoming the best worship band that you can be? It's like, uh, for you all to becoming the best as a worship band. What is, what's standing in your way? This is really, really key. I mean, as we unfold this, I want you to understand this question. What's standing in your way to becoming the best worship band that you can be is really important question.
Emily:
You gotta answer that.
Eric:
So why I want you to answer that is because as we unfold this episode here and it's really just us talking more about, uh, you see the big picture. But you know, make things happen if you don't know what's going wrong. For me, it's always been hard to fix stuff if I don't know what's wrong. I always like to be able to see what's going wrong. If you can't see what's going wrong or if you can't kind of focus, see what's happening, then how are you ever going to get better? It's like if you, if you don't know that, uh, training is a problem, you're never going to go buy a training program. If you think, if you never know that your sound system is the weak link, you're never gonna put any money behind buying a new sound system. You get what I'm saying?
Emily:
Most of the time I think we already know these things. We already know what our weak spots are. Uh, but we decide that there's nothing I can do about that. And so we just put that out of our minds.
Eric:
Yeah, that's true. Um, so if you know your sound system is a weak point and you just think, I'm just gonna let that roll another year, the entire year, it's going to frustrate you. It's never going to get better. No matter how much better your band gets, it's probably going to always be putting a crimp on your style.
Emily:
Well the sound system, that is an excellent example because I mean that's, that is usually the culprit. That's, that's the hard piece of this. Nobody knows how to work that monster in the back of the room. And, uh, we're always just trying to fiddle around with it and try to make something happen. A couple cables broken and little stuff like that just can cause a lot of problems. So I, but I would say about that, that I'm educating yourself about your particular soundboard would be, um, would be worth looking into, uh, before we just blow it off as well. We can't afford a new sound system and this thing's a piece of junk. So, you know, we just have to live with feedback and whatever else you're dealing with.
Eric:
Yeah. So part of this is, it's sort of the philosophy behind what I was asking you. What's standing in your way? You've got to see the big picture and you've got all identify weak points. If you think your sound system is your weak point, we're gonna use this and roll this down the episode. If you think your sound system is the weak point, um, and you, you have to know it's the weak point, attack it as the weak point, fix it, or you're not going to be able to fix the other things. That's what I'm saying. You can't, you can't just, Oh, this, a lot of people, especially in the sound, they'll say like, Oh, our sound system just messed up. You know that that's all it is. That's it. That's it. Oh, I don't know blahahahahahahah wrong. Or they'll say, Oh, I don't know our rooms just too big.
Eric:
There's too much stuff bouncing the walls when really nothing we can do about it. Yeah. Just they're just, the bottom line is, that's what I was trying to get to in my mind when I was trying to get that thought out, is they just go, well, it's the problem with the subs. The subs just are never loud enough that that's a problem, you know, and they just kind of live with it. So identify the weak point and, and try to get that one thing better over time. What if you're not the mechanical type, can you maybe find a volunteer that is more suitably inclined? Yes, and many of you guys out there leading worship, it can't, you know, can't even adjust a compressor or you don't know how to fix gains or you've not even trained yourself to do that basic stuff, so you're always going to feel like, Oh, I don't know what's going on with that because I don't know about it.
Eric:
And I think, no, you got to change that mindset and that's what this is about. You got to identify the weak points and get better one thing at a time. Now, if you think there's no way I'm ever going to be able to be able to understand that soundboard, then you've got to find somebody to help you fix the soundboard. But you have to identify that. Put that in your goal and say this year and that, that's the goal. That's a good point because it doesn't happen overnight. A sound system fixed could take a couple months, could take six months, could take a year. But here's what I've found. You write it down. You say, our sound system is terrible, our subs are this, or our sound proofing is wrong and this is the problem. This is the main problem this year and I'm going to fix that now. Six months from now you're going to wake up and you're going to go to church on Sunday morning and things are going to sound really good and you're going to be like, wow, we got that one sub fixed and that was the biggest problem and now our whole sound system sounds good.
Eric:
So it's about dialing in on each part of this and then fixing that part individually, systematically. So that we're focusing on the sound system as an example here and but you're saying in general, do we attack the biggest problem first I attack? Yeah. I like to say biggest problems and building a stronger, bigger team. It takes time and it's going to come in waves. So let's say the biggest problem is that your drummer is too loud. That's, that's a big pro. That's so known in terms of many times. Yeah. In terms of your sound system. If you're, if you're a drummer is too loud all the time, no matter how good your vocalist are, it's going to be hard to hear those vocalists. You're not going to get a good vocal blend. There's going to be a lot of problems. So you've got to look at this as a, as a leader and as a four.
Eric:
You're pioneering this program in your church. Okay? The drums are too loud. That is, that is a problem that is not going to go away and you're not going to fix other smaller problems. I wouldn't know if I'd call them smaller but like our vocalists aren't singing on key. Well it probably can't even hear themselves because the drums are too loud. Is all stacks up and that's why I said in my notes here and these are show notes. You can get all these on our website and you can ask to actually get the transcript of the podcast too, but it comes in waves. So you might, the first wave might be you fixed a sub and now that you can hear the bass and everything sounded good. Now the next phase, maybe a couple months later, you're like, okay, we got an electric drum kit, we, we solved a problem with the drums. One one solution might be you got the electric drum kit
Emily:
and that's not the only solution to drums that are too loud, but that is a potential [inaudible],
Eric:
right? It's not the only solution. But eh, you go like, okay, well that's some, sometimes it's the easiest solution and a lot of people would gravitate towards it. I have different thoughts, but Hey, whatever's easy, whatever's going to take you to the next level. Now all of a sudden you can hear the drummer, you can hear the vocalist, and each time you do this, a wave of more excellent starts piling up. Like now we've, we've got a better sub. Now we've got a drum set that that isn't so loud. So now we can hear our guitar player can hear to play on rhythm. He's playing on rhythm and our singers are being heard. This is what it takes to build excellence in your worship ministry. Okay? So you can take this and apply it to every single problem. And Emily's right, I would attack. At least I would attack the biggest problem for me.
Eric:
I always have felt like now I have been gifted in the area of music, so I'll go into the scenario and immediately I'll be like, something's bothering me the most. This is bothering me the most and that's what I will kind of weirdly be fixated on. Like these drums are so loud, I can't even think that's what I'm thinking and something and whatever we got to do to fix that and we fix it. So part of being a good leader and building excellence is sort of having that skill set in yourself, developing that skill set in you to go, you know what? I'm smart enough to know that if we just fix these drums, like all four other problems are going to be solved.
Emily:
I feel like as we're talking about this, that really probably the, the key to working towards excellence is simply determining that these are not unsolvable problems. To overcome the mindset that that's just the way it is. We, there's nothing to be done about that. We just have to live with it
Eric:
right. If you have that mindset, then you're not, you shouldn't be. You should probably just take a break, let somebody else try. And that's okay too if you can't handle that over time. The longterm, I have noticed in, in the ministry that I've been in and in the struggles that I've been in, that the S the, the excellence comes in waves. It's a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger. It's a building block thing. It isn't like, um, one day you're, you're kind of stinky and everything's just out of mess and the next day you're like, bam, we're the best band ever. It is. We'll stagnate
Emily:
if you're, if you're not, if there's nothing pushing those waves. Yes.
Eric:
Right. And that's what the whole thing that we talked about writing your plan down, rewrite your plan over and over again. And I think I skipped that. But, so let's say you write the plan and then six months later you're like, you got the drum set. Rewrite the plan. Okay, now we need a better this. Now we're going to need more harmonies. You get this, rewrite the plan, you keep coming back again and again and revamping and rewriting towards excellence. Now it's your job to figure that out. I want to tell you about this one, one key. And I know that some of you are probably thinking like, I don't know, I, I'm just, I'm overwhelmed. I'm not sure how I'm going to get there. Um, I'm not sure how it's gonna work. I don't know if I have the skill level. I'm struggling to even just lead worship week by week and the drummer is driving me crazy because so loud I can't even handle it.
Eric:
So you have to write down these things. I'm a visual guy, so I write a lot. I write stuff and I just, I'll go back three years later and find a notebook and I'll see where I have written down like major goals and I'll be like, Oh, I did that. That happened. And that's been over even 20 years. I'll go back and look year after year, you know, five year after, five year and go, wow, I did that. I wrote some crazy stuff down and I did it. It's the same way in your worship ministry, but one new key person can catapult you to the next level. Okay? What do you mean by that? One new key person can catapult you to the next level. And what you need to do in your ministry is find that person. Now it's not like we're always trying to plug our, uh, worship band builder foundations.
Eric:
But if you're not training, uh, intentionally and continually, then you're not going to grow. So I'm going to give you an example of how one key person could catapult you to the next level. In our modern worship, we're a lot of electric guitar driven stuff. So if you don't have a good electric tar player, you're not going to be able to do a lot of the intros. You're not gonna be able to do a lot of the modern stuff that's out there. And one time, years ago when I was in full time ministry, I was in this church, pretty, pretty medium sized church, about 400. And we were doing our thing. And there was a guy sitting in the Pew for about two years. He was a phenomenally good electric guitar player. And one day he just kind of wandered up on stage and we started talking and he said, Hey, I play electric guitar.
Eric:
And after a couple months I got him up there and he started playing. He became our lead lead lead guitar player. And I asked him later, I'm like, why did you, what were you doing? Like, why were you not, why did you stay for two years in our church before you ever tried to play? And he said, well, I thought you guys were fine. I didn't think you needed me. So it was like he was just sitting there because we weren't saying, Hey, you should come up with lay with us. And we had a lot of musicians. We were doing pretty good. But um, this is a, this is a thing where one key person changed our band because now we had an electric guitar player, a good one consistently every week that was able to come in and play the parts. It allowed me to play the secondary electric parts. It took me through another wave of where I wanted to go. But it was one person, one key person. So I want you guys to think about that and your ministry now. What's missing? It could be just a really good sound guy. One really good sound guy could change a lot.
Emily:
Oh, the sound guy, sound person. Some people, the sound person, uh, is a vital part of this ministry. And this is not the first time I have said this. But um, yeah, they, they really are an integral part of the band and they don't get half of the recognition that they deserve.
Eric:
Yeah. So part of this is communicate your need. If you feel like your sound system is kind of messed up, if you feel like it's not going so great, then go up to the front and say, we are training sound guys starting now. We're opening a training program for sound guys. And you can say that because with the foundation's audio bundle, you can do it right from our website. You can offer training to everyone in your church for, for audio. Now if you get that one extra person, you could go through a huge wave up, another wave of excellence. Could happen to you, just one person. So when you look at your whole ministry, you could be thinking, I need all these people when really you just need one more good person, one more good person to fill that one key spot that might be missing right now.
Emily:
I guess I would like to to say at this point that, um, this excellence that we're striving for, we have to remember who we're doing this for. Okay. It's not about making ourselves look like rock stars. It's not about getting more young people in the pews. It's about honoring our God. So, um, you know, do everything as unto the Lord. Let's, let's strive for this excellence for God, for his glory, um, and do that with joy.
Eric:
Yeah. And you got to bring people along with you. You are there to sort of facilitate this as a worship leader, as a worship team member. And as you do it, as it becomes, as it grows and as more people get involved, you'll see those people pouring out their heart, living out their life, living out their worship through, through the opportunities that you've been able to give them through training them, through camaraderie of being in a band. Um, some of those guys that, that I met during that time were, have become really lifelong friends and some friends come and go and you talk to people and you then you move out of state and stuff. But you can create really great friendships and become a part of their ministry journey, their, their faith journey really, um, being able to offer the training to them, um, and be a part of their life.
Eric:
So communicate the need there. There is somebody sitting there and they're like, yeah, I could probably run sound if I knew how I want to be apart, but I don't know how. And so that's where our training is. And again, you're going to have to revamp and rewrite your plan again and again and revamp it and rewrite it and again, and revamp it and rewrite it. I used to always love the new years because we don't do this anymore. But we used to do this when we would get together at your parents' house and we wouldn't have, yeah, it was like in my mid twenties and we would have like these big new year's Eve parties and uh, then I don't know if your parents led this or if we all just sort of like had time where we're supposed to be thinking about what the new year. I mean it was like there was time to think about the new year or maybe I just ran off and did this myself.
Eric:
I'm making stuff up. People, I just had my little paper, but we did have a few times where as a family they would like write down your goals or something. Um, and I think that our, I just did that they would have communion to start the year and maybe, maybe there was a time of reflection within that. Yes. I, I think it was pretty cool because it was like if you just let the year kind of come and go and you don't really stop and think, what do I want to do this year? It's kind of cool. The beginning of a new year at the beginning of time, it kind of gives us all that, you know? Yes, you can start over, but you can start over right now. You can start over anytime of the year when you get out a clean piece of paper and you say, what do I want to do next?
Eric:
What is, what is what is really messing with my ministry? What are really the weak points? Where's the cracks? Where are the holes and what do I want to fill? Not tomorrow, but like this year, this quarter, this, this season I'm going to, I'm going to fix this. I've always grown in excellence, in waves over time by revamping and rewriting and revamping and rewriting and I wake up one day and I'm like, Oh, this is pretty good and you can kind of see it coming true. It's all, I think it's having a vision. One of my favorite scriptures is where there's no vision that people perish. And I always used to think about vision and I was thinking about how I see what I want to happen and then just pushing forward. If it's worth hap happening, if it's worth doing, it's going to take that extra time but it will be so worth it.
Eric:
Yeah. So at the end of this episode is a little different and I forgot to tell you this at the beginning, but we are going to pray for you. We're going to pray for you. You can write down your goals. We're going to pray for you right now before we end the episode today. That you can take, uh, encouragement and that you can write down some new goals and that you can have the clarity of mind to see what's coming next and what God has for your church and your ministry and that you can do this all like for Emily said, for God's glory to be skillful. That's what the Bible tells us to sing, sing a song to, to play skillfully for the Lord. And that's what you should be doing. So keep pressing on. Keep rewriting, keep revamping, but we're going to pray over you right now. You want to do that, Emily?
Emily:
Sure. Lord, thank you for each listener that has been on this journey with us and is listening today, I pray that you would give them insight and that you would give them the ambition, the motivation to move forward and the capability and Lord, where they don't have the capability. Bring volunteers to them, help them, um, to work together as the body of Christ, to raise the voice of worship on the earth. In Jesus name. Amen.
Eric:
Thanks for listening and we will see you on the next episode.
Speaker 4:
[inaudible].