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| Jeff & Karen Merry |
by Tim Swanson
Jeff Merry is an experienced worship leader and leadership coach in Phoenix. In 1992 he started Worship!Arizona, a network for worship leaders to get connected and share resources. Then in 1996 he started Worshipnet.org, a nonprofit designed to develop worship leadership through mentoring and coaching. Last Wednesday, Jeff came to my house. We had breakfast, and talked shop about worship in our community.
We had just finished eating breakfast and caught up on each other's ministries when we sat down on the couch in my living room. I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Opening the voice recording app, I asked if it would be okay for me to record our conversation. He said 'yes'. So I hit 'record' and started in:
Tim: "Jeff, how long have you been leading worship?"
Jeff: Rolling his head back to do a few short math equations, "Let's see. It's been forty two years now."
Tim: "You've been leading for a long time. What is the one thing you would tell young worship leaders that you wish you had heard when you first started off?"
Jeff: "It’s not about you. It’s not about your performance. It’s not about group dynamics, and volume of participation, or volume of voices, or clapping or anything like that. It’s more about connecting people to God."
Tim: "Let me shift direction with you. In a conversation we had the other day you mentioned this idea that worship is kinda like baseball. Would you describe that?"
Jeff: "Well I was talking about how baseball and worship services can be similar, in that there’s a lot of traditions that are formed. In baseball, when you watch somebody step up to the plate to swing away, they go through a number of rituals to get ready. They may say a little prayer, cross themselves, swing the bat a certain way, or tap their foot. Why do they do that?"
"Well, because the last time they did that, they hit a home-run. So they want to hit another home-run. So they try to do exactly what they did before. Say they ate Mac ‘n’ Cheese before the game that day. Now they gotta have Mac ‘n’ Cheese out of their green bowl every time before the game. The superstitions go on and on."
"How much is the church like that? Our home-run is, getting people to respond, and getting people saved. When we see people respond like that, as worship leaders ,we say, ‘Okay, I did these specific songs. Then at the second chorus people all stood up, and it was amazing. I gotta do that again” or we do communion a certain way, or we pray before the message. We do offering after the message because we got a lot more money when we did it that way. We create superstitions. We call them traditions or liturgy, but in essence, we’re doing the same kind of thing."
Tim: "What kind of rituals have you faced in your career as a worship leader?"
Jeff: "For me, it’s songs that worked certain ways, dynamically. I find myself doing them the same way if I found I got a response before. I’ll do ‘Blessed Be Your Name’. And one time I created a little more energy by doing a little drop out during the chorus. And people went, ‘Wow, that was cool’. Now every time I do the song, I do it the same way. And Now I don’t get the same response every time."
"We develop formulas for things we think are going to please God. But when we do that, we miss something really powerful. What we’re missing is the readiness of God today to do something new. We talk about Scripture that says, ‘sing a new song to God’ (Psalm 98:1; Psalm 96:1-13; Psalm 40:3). And we become the biggest offenders of that because we don't do it new. We do it the way we think it worked last time. But God has asked us not to do it that way. Why would he do that? Well, it’s because He knows the unique needs of the people coming. He knows their feelings, and exactly what will help them to seeing His face, receive forgiveness, encouragement, and whatever kind of wisdom they need in their marriage, their parenting or whatever they’re dealing with.."
Tim: "If somebody is caught up in rituals, what do you suggest they do?"
Jeff: "I think the best thing is to get out of the reactive mode, and spend some time thinking through, ‘What is our ‘big idea’ for this week?’ If you have a weekly Sunday planning session and you have the Scripture from the pastor or the theme for the week, step back and ask, ‘God how do you want me to contribute to what you want to accomplish in the hearts and minds of the people?’"
Tim: "What are a few good action steps that people can take if they want to connect emotionally with their congregation. Things that if they haven’t tried, you would recommend?"
Jeff: "Get out there and know them personally. Don’t assume that the people are on the same page as you and your team. Some of them may have no clue what you mean when you say ‘Okay, let’s worship God now.’ Start with the cookies on the bottom shelf. Say something that simplifies it like, ‘Today we’re going to sing some songs about the God that we believe is here, cares about us, and has power to work in our lives.’"
"I think the way to initiate them is like in Andy Stanley’s new book, Deep and Wide. Get people connected, get them engaged. Then you can take them someplace. But if they’re not engaged they’re not going to be able to go with you."
Tim: "What is the one thing you want worship leaders to know right now?”
Jeff: "Yeah, God loves you. And he’s delighted with what you’re doing. So don’t give up."
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