Brenda and I were married in Mobile, Alabama right before Christmas in 1985. Our kids, Josh and Betsy, were born over the next few years. I graduated from the University of Mobile (then Mobile College) in 1989.

I was able to connect with the music community there soon after I arrived in the summer of 1985, fresh off the bus to marry Brenda after completing 2-1/2 years as a guitar player with the contemporary Christian group, Truth. The group was founded and operated out of Mobile until they closed up shop a few years ago. For approximately 12 years, Brenda, the kids and I lived a pauper’s existence, making sacrifices to enable us to finally earn a living as a song writer. Mobile based Integrity Music was gracious enough to sign me to an exclusive writer contract in 1992, helping us to buy our first home and inch out of the abject poverty that this post-college grad and our young family endured. We also served some wonderful churches while in Mobile. My mother’s untimely death in 1997 was the impetus for us to move away to live near my dad in western North Carolina.

I have great memories of our time in Mobile. Since Brenda was raised there, and her folks are there to this day, we are blessed to visit at least once a year. One of the great memories is when I recorded songs at a small studio there. For a short time I was in a a band/duo with a talented keyboardist and singer, Jeff Reinert. We recorded our project at Bay Recording with Bill Flowers. I also recorded many radio and TV commercials there over the years.

Bill sent me this video today: an add for the studio back in the late 80’s. I am not proud of my saucer-sized glasses, or worse, the mullet hair style. But it is a warm feeling to see it again after all these years. Thanks, Bill!

I have written many installments on my hometown of Fullerton, California. I was brought home from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange to our 5 year-old home on West Southgate Avenue a few days after my July 10th arrival in 1960. Just a few miles from my home, at that very time, the world was being changed one guitar and amp at a time in a factory called Fender Musical Instruments.

The Beatles, Clapton, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix and a host of others, transformed the music world with the instruments designed and built in this little space. I look at the wood stacked high in the video below and can only imagine the guitars made from that stock, and the money those instruments might bring today in the vintage market. Even though I came into the world a year later, this was my culture. Notice the bay doors opened to let the warm, desert air blow in to cool the employees. I don’t remember air conditioning growing up except for the doctor’s office, the theater, or the market–we didn’t need it. I’m sure the workers could catch a whiff of the Hunt Foods catchup fragrance floating from the factory a few miles away, as tomatoes and spices melded. My folks may have known some of those who worked for Fender at certain times. I grew up kind of taking the whole thing for granted until I became old enough to appreciate my heritage. I am a Fender guy to this day–not because I went to the same school as Leo Fender, but because he made some sick guitars and amps!

This video is from actual restored home-movie footage taken casually at the factory. The factory is no longer located in Fullerton. Leo sold the company in 1965 to CBS, and Fender has changed ownership several times since. The main factory of their American-made guitars is in Corona, California, some 30 miles in-land from Fullerton. The images below take me back to my Mad Men beginnings.

One of my favorite movies is That Thing You Do. The story takes place in the early 60’s and involves the genesis and the subsequent full arc of a one-hit-wonder pop band. The downtown shots of the movie were filmed in Orange, California–the city in which I was born. My favorite scene in the movie was captured in that downtown setting where the band members heard their song on the radio for the first time. They all jumped for joy and ran down the street to drummer Skitch Patterson’s family appliance shop to rally the fervor. There is NOTHING like hearing your song on the airwaves for the first time.

During my senior year in high school, I was offered the opportunity, along with the band I was in, to come to Golden West College in Huntington Beach, CA, and produce two songs as guinea pigs in a lab project for their recording program. One of the songs needed to be an original and we were to be produced, recorded and mixed by students. A friend, who graduated from my high school the year before, had recommended me and my fellow band-mates to the head of the department as worthy candidates. The program at the junior college was one of, if not the only state college recording program in the entire U.S. at that time. This was the fall of 1977, and I was working on my prospects for what I was going to do when I graduated the following spring. I had written a song for my girlfriend at the time and the band set out to make this one of the two songs we would record. It turned out surprisingly well.

When the year was up, the committee in charge of choosing songs for the annual record release graciously added mine to one of the ten coveted slots. The day the record was released, I hurriedly ripped the plastic wrap from the cardboard sleeve and pulled out the disc to where my 3 1/2 minute song was carved in the grooves. A dream was realized after all those years of staring at album covers and hoping for the day when I would be in the band photo and my name would be in the liner-notes. When I decided to take my college freshman year as a student in that recording program, I was hanging out near the cafeteria when my song floated out of the school’s radio station speakers. I didn’t have my friends around to celebrate the moment, but it was quietly triumphant, none the less.

Fast forward fourteen years, after traveling around the world playing music, and settling in Mobile, Alabama with my bride and children, I had the great fortune of writing Ancient of Days with my pal, Gary Sadler. Again, our song made the cut for a new recording and I was looking forward to the thrill of hearing it being recorded live in Virginia Beach by Ron Kenoly. My kids were small and we all huddled in a single hotel room, along with my parents–who joined us for the momentous occasion. I will never forget looking across the row at the moment the song was being preformed to my parents, who graciously endured band rehearsals in their garage, and years of guitar lessons, beaming with pride–almost as if to say, “That crazy kid really did see his dreams come true!” Brenda said that she once heard Ancient of Days on the radio while waiting in the pick-up line at the kid’s school. Yelling out of the window to the other moms in line with, “Hey, that’s my husband’s song on the radio!” is not something Brenda would do.

In the 20 some-odd years since, I have seen my songs recorded by numerous artists and have performed a few of them myself as the artist. My song, It’s Only You, Jesus, is currently on fairly regular rotation at a radio station in the Nashville area. People come up to me to say they heard me singing on the radio. Even though its been 33 years since my first song wafted over the school radio station speakers, it never gets old. The thrill of a dream realized is the coolest feeling. I never want to take those moments for granted.

Preparation for weekly worship is the key to success. We spent a considerable amount of time in the last installment on the pre-rehearsal phase of creating great moments in worship. Now, we will dive into the actual rehearsal.

I like to put a time limit on rehearsal at 90 minutes. In special situations when rehearsing for a special event, it may need to go longer. If we as leaders have our act together, we can accomplish much in that amount of time. Many churches don’t introduce new songs each week in the worship set–that helps tremendously! If there is a new song, it is usually during the offertory with “special music.” Since we are attempting to have our worship plan prepared two weeks away from performance, our teams should be expected to to go over the material on their own and make notes on their specific part in advance. I find it best to make as many decisions with arrangements, content, stage moves, etc., beforehand. Thinking through these things in advance will help streamline rehearsal. Always make sure that there are plenty of extra charts and words for the band and singers just in case they left theirs at home–or the dog ate it!

Ideally, the band charts will have prearranged transitions between the songs clearly written out. I am a BIG proponent of the notation software, Finale. I find that the “chords over words” style of charting is inadequate. With this format the band is many times left to interpret the rhythm and timing of the song; making assumptions about the way a song should be played causes difficulties and unnecessary delays in rehearsal. I think it’s best to have each song’s chord structure written above the melody in proper rhythmic notation to eliminate any questions. I will talk about Finale and other helps in a future installment. It’s important that the rehearsal leader keep an eye on time and move things along as items can tend to get bogged-down without direction.

When conducting a rehearsal, I use these following guidelines to get started:

1. Start on time! Create a precedent. It’s amazing how people soon comply when they straggle into a rehearsal that started without them.
2. Make sure each player and singer can hear themselves properly in the monitors before starting run-throughs.
3. Confirm the written tempo of each song. The drummer is served well if he/she brings a metronome to rehearsal. Sometimes it is helpful to wire the metronome feed into headphone monitor, along with the rest of the mix, so at least the drummer can hear the click when tempos are set (tempos can be deceiving; they may seem fine in rehearsal but feel slow in the “heat” of the performance. It’s best to trust what is decided in rehearsal.)
4. Talk about transitions between songs as well as any important dynamic issues in a set. Also, it serves rehearsal best when the singers have a lyric sheet with predetermined directions as to where to sing unison, parts, answers, etc. Discuss who in the band will pick up a song in transition: the piano, keys, acoustic, electric, vocal, etc., or if the band just keeps rolling. Make sure the drummer keeps the tempo on the hi-hat during soft sections so the singers and the band can stay together. Run the set, then talk about any adjustments. Encourage the band to write changes on their charts and singers on the lyric sheet for later reference. It’s easy to forget between mid-week rehearsal and the service.
5.The special song for the week is the most vulnerable because, chances are, you have never done it as a group before. Again, preparation is the key. Each team member should be ready to “rough-in” the song at rehearsal…not learn it. Sometimes it’s good to take a few minutes out of this weeks set to run through a song slated for future performance.
6. If a choir is involved in the weekly rehearsal, each member must also be privy to preparation materials in advance. It may be important to meet with the choir and singers before the full rehearsal. If everything can be accomplished within the scheduled 90 minutes, that will be sufficient.
7. Record the rehearsal and supply a CD afterward for each member.
8. Talk through stage moves, entrees and exits, where to pray, when to speak, hand-offs, etc.
9. Make sure everyone has the materials and information they need to take home for review. Discuss any special items such as what to wear and the next meeting time.
10. Pray that God will work in our hearts through the week in preparation for what He will do in the service.

I prefer a mid-week rehearsal to allow a few days to make adjustments before the weekend service. I usually do a tech run-through with everyone before the service–a dress rehearsal of sorts–to smooth out any changes made to the set since mid-week. I use this final time to make a practice run with the projected lyrics, too. Make close inspection to find misspellings, poor grammar, punctuation, missing words, etc. This attention to detail will save disruption of flow for you and the congregation in the service. I find it helpful to have a TV monitor with the words pointing back at me so I can sing the correct lyrics (my biggest flaw while leading worship!) and to monitor any needed changes to be made for the service. When the pre-service run is finished, clear the stage of any impediments, and try to not congregate there before the service. It is helpful to have a full 30 minutes of time between concluding the pre-service run and the start of the service.

Be ready for surprises and expect spiritual resistance. The enemy would want nothing more than to disrupt. Things can and will go wrong (that will warrant a whole installment in the future!). Prepare “escape routes” if any thing does goes awry. Always be as ready as possible to catch something before it crashes! Sometimes we can recover the fumble–sometimes we might not. I always find it helpful to have as many questions answered before the service as possible. With prayer, a plan, patience and practice, God will do mighty things! Just watch and see!

Look for Creating Great Moments in Worship, Part 6: When Things Go Wrong, in the coming weeks. Any comments, questions or suggestions may be directed to: jamie@jamieharvill.com. Also, ask how Jamie can help your church attain a more effective worship experience.

Been at a crossroads lately? I don’t mean the one in Mississippi where blues singer Robert Johnson supposedly made a pact with the devil to have his dreams fulfilled. I mean a crossroads where dreams are secondary to survival. Many times in life we come to the end of a trail to a fork in the road where we are forced to make a small or even a life-changing decision. No one likes to be re-directed–the way we were going was predictable and comfy.

When I was in my late teens, I worked at Cypress College in southern California as a classroom assistant where mentally challenged adults learned to acquire independent living skills. One day they would make their own hot lunch in the classroom kitchen to eat it on site. The next day they took a sack lunch somewhere on campus. Another day they would take money to the campus cafeteria where they learned to navigate through the maze of students, buy and eat their lunch, then head back to the classroom. Sometimes one of my “special friends” would get off the prescribed course and simply sit down in front of the door they thought was the one to enter. When it was locked, they knew no better than to just stay put. It was my job to find them. The leader of the program told me that they would stay there until they died if we didn’t go after them. Some of us would do the same if we were stuck at a crossroads of decision.

In Jeremiah 6:16, the prophet writes not only to the hearer of the day but to those of us in the future.

This is what the LORD says:“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”

It is not a sign of weakness when we have no idea where to go at some points in life. It always gives us the opportunity to look to God for direction. I believe He allows His children to end up at a crossroads from time to time for just that reason. In the passage the Lord says to ask for the ancient paths–the tried and true path which has served as a sure highway for believers in the past. We must also consider the way taken by those who have walked away from God. Then He says, ask for the good way. Isn’t it interesting that, as adults, we still need to heed this advice?–you’d think we would have learned. But we still make fatal choices that send us headlong into the ditch.

The last verse of this passage is the sad part: with all the wisdom they were given, they chose to not walk in it. I am challenged to make a covenant with God and myself to scrutinize my life direction, what I allow my eyes to see, my mind to ponder and my flesh to pursue. God help me to take the good way so not to find myself getting off track to languish, or worse, to die at the threshold of a locked door.