What's Next-Part 2

With my last post, I wrote about some plans and ideas I have for 4 of the different teams within the Creative Arts Ministry here at MPBC.  The teams discussed were the Praise Team/Band, the Drama Team, the Children's Choir, and the Worship Technologies Team.  You can check that post out here:  http://mpbcworship.blogspot.com/2015/01/whats-next-part-1.html.  With this week's post I am going to share my plans and ideas for the other 5 teams/ministries within the Creative Arts Ministry.

The first one I"ll discuss is the Worship Choir.

1. We have a wonderful choir that LOVES to lead worship.  They are truly a blessing!  One of the things I'm really looking forward to is the worship concert on January 25th.  In the past, the Praise Team/Band has always done the concerts, while the choir focused more on the Passion Play.  Now, the choir gets to participate in the concert and I'm really looking forward to what they will add to the worship experience.
2. With the choir now participating in our worship, one of the things I would really like for them to do, is be a part of our next worship CD.  I think that they would be a GREAT addition to the overall sound of the next project.  Plus, it would definitely make the CD sound a little more like our Sunday morning experience where the choir helps to lead in worship.
3. My next plan for the choir is to do another Passion Play in 2016.  I'll discuss more about the plans for our next Passion Play in the following section, but as always, the choir will play a major role in pulling it off.
4. Finally, we are always looking for new members in choir.  So, if you know of someone who can sing and loves to worship, send him/her our way.  We'd love to have them!

The Passion Play

1.  As many of you know, we have performed a Passion Play each year at Easter time for the past 7 years.  Well,
   
   this year I needed a break from the chaos, so we aren't doing the play.  I'm taking this year off to gather some ideas for potential scenes, but the biggest thing I'm doing is looking for someone new to play Jesus.  For 7 years, we've had the same person play Jesus and he has done an incredible job!  But the burden of playing Jesus is a lot, and I told this man that I would not ask him to do it again.  He and I both believe it's time to pass the baton on to the next person.  So, I'm looking.  And as soon as God reveals who this next man is, I'll start making definite plans for next year's play.

The Ladies Ensemble

1.  I've started working with this group of ladies and I really enjoy the music that they sing.  Three part harmony for women just sounds nice.  And the only real plans I have for them are to expand the group from 6 ladies to 9.  That would give us three 1st sopranos, three 2nd sopranos, and three altos.  I believe it would really strengthen the overall sound of the group.

Music Lessons

1. We currently give lessons in acoustic guitar, piano, voice, and drums.  I'm hoping to incorporate some other musicians and expand into other instruments (i.e. violin, mandolin, etc...).  This would allow us to reach and equip even more people musically.  Plus, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, the best way for us to get new musicians is to teach them ourselves.
2. I've also got some ideas on how to possibly organize this ministry a little better, but I've got a number of things to figure out before any potential changes are made.

The Blog

1. First off, I would just like to say how proud I am of our worship team here and the job they have done of contributing to our worship blog.  This post is the 73rd post from our team in the last 17 months.  Recently, I looked online for other worship blogs to get some ideas and to compare how they did things.  I think I looked at around 20 different worship blogs and I would say that 18 had only 1 or 2 posts.  And most of those posts had been made at least 2 years ago.  Apparently a lot of people had the idea to start a blog but then abandoned them within the first few weeks.  So, thank you team!  Thank you for being diligent and sharing what God has shown you and done through you in the area and ministry of worship. 
2. So, for this year, I'm hoping that we can continue the blog.  I'm also hoping to find a way to get even more people to read it.  Currently our blog has been viewed well over 5,000 times, but I believe it could be a place of great encouragement to other worship teams and leaders if we can just find a way to make them aware of it.
3. I'm also hoping that our worship team will continue to "dig" into what the Bible says about worship and how we can all continue to be better worshipers and worship leaders.  This is a great place to share with each other the insights we have gained about worship.
4. Finally, I'm hoping that we can get some of our members who have yet to write a post to get involved.  I believe every team member has at least one good post in them.  Even if it's just to explain why or how they got involved.  I always enjoy reading those!

So, those are the plans for 2015.  I'm sure that some of these will work out perfectly and some will have to be postponed or changed in some way, but that's the way ministry works.  And that's especially the way that Worship Ministry works.

Worship Big!

Brad