Blog

by Director of Music and Worship Trace Rorie

If you’ve spent any length of time on a worship team, at some point you have probably heard someone discuss the tension between worship and performance. For those of you who are unsure what I’m talking about, here’s a brief synopsis:

As artists on a platform we have a responsibility to lead others in worship—therefore we should be genuinely worshiping as well. We point others toward God, not ourselves. Therefore any conduct on stage that draws attention toward ourselves and away from God is a bad thing. Typically this is labeled as performance. It’s not the easiest of debates to find resolution to, because how can one argue against the above logic? But I think we’re labeling performance as a negative too quickly.

How many sermons, lectures or presentations have we all sat through in which the content was good, but the presentation was boring, disengaging and lifeless? If you’re able to look past a horrible delivery and focus on the content, you’re a better person than I am! In the church, we tend to focus on the content we’re delivering without giving equal attention to the way that we’re presenting it. At Granger, what we want from our artists is for the presentation to reflect the content. For example, if we’re singing about the grandeur of the glory of God, our visual presentation should be consistent with the magnitude of that idea. Why is this? Well, it’s primarily because the vast majority of people who are experiencing our services aren’t musical and therefore don’t understand musical things. Sure, they might sense that something is awry when the keyboard player misses some notes, but they likely can’t pinpoint the issue. But every single person in our services is an expert on human behavior. They can tell if that vocalist is on autopilot or the guitarist is unsure of where he’s at in the song. So delivering an engaging presentation is just as vital as the words we’re singing or the notes we’re playing, because oftentimes it speaks louder than anything else.

At Granger, we have come up with some guidelines that help us accomplish this goal. We’re a volunteer-driven arts ministry, so we can’t expect our team to be experts in this sort of thing. It’s our responsibility to help equip them so they can fulfill any expectations we have of them. We call it STEP. This is how we want our volunteers to prepare for, execute, and evaluate what they do in our worship experiences.

Continue reading on the GCC Creative Team’s Blog...

If you would like to learn more about Granger’s process for planning, promoting and executing weekend series come to our Creative & Communication Arts Workshop. In the morning, we’ll talk timelines, brainstorming, programming and decision making. In the afternoon, we’ll have small-group Q&A with your Granger staff/volunteer counterpart (like the Web Director, Production Director, Lighting Director, Worship Director, etc.), where you can ask any burning questions you have. Register today!

by Creative Arts Pastor Sean Bublitz

Leading Creatives: It’s challenging, it’s fun, it’s chaotic, it’s joyful, it’s frustrating—it’s the best.

Throw church into the mix and the haze of the how thickens.

We’re all creative in one way or another. We’re teachers, musicians, designers, writers, thinkers—we all have traits that are amazingly unique and endlessly frustrating. So how do you approach the art of moving a group of people with unique qualities from concept to performance?

Define The Box

We all create within a box. We have a facility box, a resource box, a time box, etc. Define the box you’re creating within for your team.

Set The Bar

What is excellence for you? What’s the vision? The end result? Define it so you’re all working toward one thing, not many.

Give Them Freedom

Be secure enough to acknowledge that you’re not always going to be the smartest or most creative person on your team.

Don’t micro-manage creatives. Give them appropriate space to create.

Tell them what to do, not how to do it.

Keep creating along with them. This creates empathy.

Continue reading on the GCC Creative Team’s Blog...


by Sean Bublitz, Creative Arts Pastor

I’m a huge fan of hockey and when I lived in the Chicago area I used to go watch the Blackhawks practice. It was incredible to see how the professionals prepare. They go full speed. Game speed. They practice exactly like they play in a game so that when it’s game time they’re ready, not trying to get up to speed.

We’ve applied the same idea to our weekend services. The last thing we want is to go into our first service not truly prepared. Not ready to give our best.

So each week before our first service we do, what we call, a service run through. In the run through we do everything that we’re going to do in a service, sans the message, before there are people in the room.

The benefit is that our excellence level is high from the beginning of the very first service. We’ve already worked through transitions, fixed mistakes, and practiced our cues. The nerves are mostly gone and we’re as prepared as possible.

Continue reading on the GCC Creative Arts Blog...

If you’d like to learn more about what goes on in Creative Arts and Weekend Services at Granger, bring your team to Innovate. You’ll find strategic and practical ways to explore innovation across the life of the church—in every ministry area. Register today for early-bird discounts and group rates!

Comprised entirely of former members of the David Crowder Band, The Digital Age maintains a beating-heart belief that the Church is beautiful, diverse, creative and alive—and that these qualities should be reflected in the music that the Church and The Digital Age create.

“The Digital Age mission picks up where [David Crowder Band] left off,” guitarist/vocalist Mark Waldrop says. “It’s alt-rock that’s compelling lyrically and musically, and we’re still obsessed with the concept record. So we’re carrying over what we did before. This is all we know, to write together and work together. It feels new, but a lot of it is a carryover; it’s not too huge a departure.”

There’s much to recommend about this musical expedition, which promises to reach an audience far beyond David Crowder Band territory. “Captured” gallops along on a marching-band beat Jeremy “B-Wack” Bush cooked up in his home studio between rehearsals, while the lyric revels in broken-chains celebration: “’Cause love has come to rescue me/ Your love has come to set me free/ Your love is all I need.”

Waldrop sums up the song with a simple exclamation and explanation: “Wow! What a way to start, especially in this transition time for us. We made it; we traversed through death—that’s how it felt as a band. People talk about the resurrection of Jesus, and sometimes they forget that there’s resurrection in everything. Things die and it’s OK, because the God of resurrection gives birth to new things.”

And so let The Digital Age begin, an age that mocks its very moniker by yielding music that overflows with heart and soul—not just the kind that makes for a gliding groove or an emotive performance. Yes, there’s plenty of that to enjoy on Evening:Morning. But another brand of heart and soul also manifests itself, and it’s one Waldrop sums up with high-beam optimism:

“Our God isn’t passive and in the grave. He’s active and so we thought, ‘Let’s put the flashlight ahead of us and see what step we’re supposed to take.’ We don’t know where we’re going but we’re going somewhere and we’re trusting that God is with us every step. We’ve been given the gist; we’ve been given the songs. Now it’s time to go out into the wild, follow … and see.”

The Digital Age is coming to Innovate! Register for Innovate and concert admission is on us. Grab The Digital Age's brand new record Evening:Morning on iTunes. And check out InnovateConference.com for more information.