Today we welcome guitar extraordinaire Michael Pope to the podcast. Michael has played on numerous Bethel Music recordings and has traveled the globe, doing ministry with the Bethel team.

He has nice guitars. And pedals. And amps. But he’s also a great player and an even better human. We talk about all things creativity, guitars, pedals, amps, practice, coffee, and more.

Enjoy!

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What do you think of when you hear the word innovation? I immediately think of Apple products. Airplanes. Skyscrapers. We think of the grand scale result. But do you know where those grand solutions began? Within the courageous heart of an individual who overcome the fear and shipped their vulnerability out the door.

We all love the word innovation. It sounds exciting. Potential. Possibility. But how many of us actually foster and encourage innovation in our teams?

Did you know that Google allocates 25% of an employee’s hours to work on whatever they want to? It’s paid company time to be curious, to explore, to see what happens. Do you know what came out of that? The Google search engine.

Sometimes I fear many of us are paying our employees and team members to maintain the status quo – to simply get work done and not create problems for anyone. But innovation comes at a cost. Breakthrough teams need to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.

I’m not going to give you a long list of steps in this post. Matter of fact, I want you to do one thing. Innovation doesn’t need to be grand. Actually, starting simple is best. Because then you don’t get overwhelmed before you start.

Get a piece of paper and a pencil. Of course, you can use a computer. But I’m a firm believer that disconnecting from the digital will open up new pathways in your brain. But I’m no neuroscientist. In one sitting, I want you to come up with 15 new ideas for your team. Not what you’re currently doing, but something brand new. Don’t judge your ideas. Don’t evaluate if they’re possible. This isn’t a tasklist. It’s a way of giving your brain (and heart) permission to dream.

Now, do this every single day for a week. No pressure to do anything with these ideas. You’re simply collecting them in a notebook. After a week, you’ll have written down 105 innovative ideas. Of course, you won’t implement all of these. But you’re 105 ideas closer to breakthrough than you were before. 

Now, take that list and pick one single item that you’re going to implement this week.

This is an incredible, simple way to break out of a creative and cultural rut. Creating a discipline out of this will cause you to find innovative solutions to problems more often. You won’t be reacting to problems, you’ll be proactive about them. And you’ll have a handy dandy list that you can always refer to.

Are you ready?

What a treat to welcome Meredith Andrew and her husband Jacob Sooter to the podcast…together! If you don’t know Meredith Andrews, she is a wonderful worship leader, songwriter, and vocalist based out of The Belonging in Nashville, TN. Her husband Jacob is an incredible producer in his own right.

And this interview covers the spectrum. We go deep into Meredith’s new project Faith and Wonder and discuss the heart of the project as well as talk production, how to create a great pad sound, keyboards, creative process, songwriting, and best practices for a live recording.

So good!

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Show Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by the Pads Live app from Coresound Pads.

Coresound Pads are my favorite pad loops on the market.  If you’re looking for a way to raise the quality and sound of your worship team, this is probably the easiest way to do that.

And Coresound now has a powerful, easy-to-use pads-player app called PADS LIVE that helps you transform your worship service’s atmosphere INSTANTLY by downloading and playing their top-rated pad loops on the fly from your mobile device.  This is an POWERFUL tool for worship leaders at any-size church.

If you go to PadsLive.com, you can link to download the app for FREE, which also comes with all of Coresound’s Pads in the key of D for free.  You can let the pads loop infinitely, crossfade gently into the next pad or into silence, and build songs & playlists.  And when you’re ready to unlock all 12 keys instead of just the key of D, you can purchase and download those pads directly within the app.

Now the app doesn’t take promo codes, BUT if you buy a Pads Bundle online from Coresound and use the promo code BEYONDSUNDAY, you’ll get an additional 20% off your purchase.  And your online purchase WILL unlock those very same pads within the app, as well as let you download the 20-minute MP3s to use the pads elsewhere.

In This Episode You’ll Hear More About:

• Managing the tension of parenting and ministry
• The science behind pads
• What makes a great pad sound
• Creative process and productivity
• Why Jacob & Meredith decided on a live project for Faith and Wonder
• Special moments from the live recording
• The tension between pleasing your congregation and pleasing God
• Best practices if you want to do a live recording
• When to write a lot of songs and when to hone in your ideas
• Why some great worship songs don’t work in your church

Resources Mentioned:

• Show Sponsor: Coresound Pads
• Music: Faith & Wonder by Meredith Andrews
• Podcast: Meredith Andrews on Vertical Worship, Songwriting, & Balancing Family & Ministry
• Website: Meredith Andrews
• Instagram: @meremusic
• Instagram: @jacobsooter

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Your Feedback

If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see, a special guest you’d like to hear from, or a question for an upcoming episode, please email me.

If you enjoyed the show, I would be so appreciative if you would rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That helps me so much! Thanks.

Question: What was your biggest takeaway from this interview with Meredith & Jacob? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with goals. Sometimes I set them and forget about them. More often than not, I never meet them. I feel like a failure most of the time.

Of course, the problem isn’t with goals. Goals are a wonderful tool. I’ve even started using Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner and love it. Highly recommended. But if you’ve been disillusioned with goals, I recommend trying a different route this year.

One of the best books I’ve read this year is Atomic Habits by James Clear. There are many books on habits. I also enjoyed this one. But what I loved about Atomic Habits is how motivating and actionable it was. It got me thinking about habits for those of us who lead a worship team in a local church.

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When was the last time you evaluated if your worship team was healthy? Is your team thriving? Are your volunteers growing? Is your church engaging?

Focusing on your volunteer culture is important, but it’s often overlooked. There’s simply too much to get done. Rehearsals need to be productive. Services need pulled off. You have to reach your goals. Week after week after week.

But what happens overtime if you don’t invest in your volunteers is they will leave. They’ll find a place where they feel more appreciated and alive. No one simply wants to be used. Of course, the goal isn’t to please everybody and cater to multiple preferences. The best team members want to submit to a vision and be led.

Now is the best time. Especially as we race towards the new year, this is an important season to plan and brainstorm how to have the best year on our teams. Build disciples instead of abusing volunteers. Invest in people. Let’s make this the year we don’t just barely squeeze by.

1. Breathe Encouragement – An atmosphere of encouragement makes all the difference. It needs to be a way of life and communication for your team. Celebrate. Celebrate. Celebrate. As a kid growing up on my worship team, this is what kept me coming back. I was believed in and  encouraged on a weekly basis.
2. Offer the Right Amount of Challenge – What do I mean by the “right amount” of challenge? Studies show that there’s a sweet spot to feeling satisfied in your work. If it’s too difficult, you’ll back away and lose interest. The pressure will be too much to bear. But if the work is too easy, you’ll get bored. Pay attention to your culture and find a way to challenge your team on a regular basis. Keep that challenge coming, both musically and spiritually. Don’t let your vision drift.
3. Hold to High Expectations – The word “expectation” can have a poor connotation. Think of expectations as good communication for the excellence you’re striving for. Volunteers want to do a good job, but if they don’t know what that means, the culture becomes clouded. Create a standard of excellence that your team can strive for in an atmosphere of grace and love. You just might see everyone rise to the next level.
4. Foster One on One Conversations – No matter how large your church and team grows, one on one conversations will always be important. Because you don’t just lead a random, large group of people. You lead individuals with individual insecurities, dreams, fears, and hopes. Create a system where those conversations can happen regularly. If your team is large, raise up leaders to help you with this. It’s that important.
5. Cast Individual & Corporate Vision – There needs to be a corporate vision for you team – a direction you’re all heading. But I’ve found that tremendous momentum can be created when you cast vision to individuals. Every team member is at a different place. Some have worship leader potential. Others have music director potential. Identify those individuals and help them with their next steps.
6. Climb Mountains Together – Not literally, necessarily. Although a summit of Pike’s Peak is never a bad idea. What was the last project you took on as a team that scared you silly? There should always be a mountain on the horizon that you’re planning to climb together. Think of this as a large project beyond the week to week execution of Sunday services. I don’t mean to say the weekend is unimportant. But we humans are prone to complacency if we’re not being challenged on a regular basis. The “big project” could be something like writing an EP together. Or, it could be something as simple as a new song or a new creative element in the weekend experience. Determine what will challenge your team. It will vary from church to church, but find what that is and start climbing together.
7. Build Relationships – This is a big deal. One of the churches we visited this last year had numerous volunteers that were fiercely committed to the church. And they traveled upwards of 45 minutes to get there! The distance wasn’t a factor in their choice because they were committed to relationships. That’s what drew them back and kept them active. This is easy to miss. Be intentional about how you build relationships and create context for connection.

God is doing a great work in your team. But we need to be good stewards of the people he sends our way. We have the incredible privilege walking with God’s people as they discover who He’s designed them to be.

Are you up for the challenge?