Month: July 2025

Community Christmas: Part 1

Posted on by Bill Kirkwood

The Story

Every December my church in Kent, Ohio would put on a big Christmas program called WinterSong. This event was described as our gift to the community, and included music and drama to celebrate the Christmas season and present the gospel message. Over a thousand people would attend the three shows we would put on. From a numbers perspective it was a huge success that many people looked forward to each year.

After I had been doing this in my first five years there, I assembled my team in February to ask one simple question: “Is WinterSong accomplishing what we say it is accomplishing?” Were people from the Kent and surrounding community actually coming? Were unsaved people getting saved? We discovered that in reality 99% of those attending were either from our church or from other area churches, and most were already Christians. We asked ourselves what could be an alternative to WinterSong?

The team (we called it the “Worship Think Tank”) came up with the idea of Kent Community Christmas. The goal was to get every church in Kent (17 churches at the time) to participate in a Christmas event that would be presented at the local high school. We would get as many participants as possible from these churches. There would be music, a play, original poetry, a simple presentation of the gospel, a collection of non-perishable food, and a collection of stuffed animals to be distributed by the fire department in crisis situations. 

In the next couple months I presented this idea to every pastor or music director in Kent. Eleven churches enthusiastically agreed to participate. The leadership/production team included members from 4 churches. Each church was responsible for promoting the event in the community in their own circles of influence. Actors and band members were from several churches. But the most beautiful and unforgettable moment for me was at our first choir practice where all sixty people from eleven churches stood in a large circle in our worship center. I asked them to look around the circle and marvel at what God had done to unite our very diverse churches for one event in order to share the love of Christ with our community. So many tears of joy flowed in that moment.

I wish I could say all the pieces easily fell into place but this event was one of the most stressful yet joy-filled things I’ve ever done. The three shows were very well-attended despite having an absolute blizzard on Saturday evening. We took in a mountain of non-perishable food and another mountain of stuffed animals. I still remember talking afterward to the three elderly choir ladies from the Catholic Church who were so excited to sing together with other Christians in our community.

Kent Community Christmas ended up being one of the most meaningful successes of my entire worship leading career.

The Moral

Jesus prayed in John 17:21 for his followers to “all be one, as you Father, are in me and I am in you.” Why was this important? “May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me” (emphasis added). The church has such a bad rap in today’s culture. It has moved from being seen as irrelevant to being a dangerous institution. One way churches can begin to counter the cultural narrative is to take visible steps to integrate into their communities with tangible, positive acts of service. Many individual churches may do this now, but for us in Kent, the fact that ¾ of the churches came together to help the community spoke louder than words ever could. 

The publicity was overwhelmingly positive. (Unfortunately the only negative responses came from a few people from non-participating churches taking potshots at the event.) For one weekend these eleven churches all became one—one mission, one message, one love for Jesus, one love for each other, one love for our town. The moral here is to look for ways to collaborate with other believing communities in your own town.

It becomes so easy for us worship leaders to focus on our tasks at our church. In smaller churches with bivocational leaders there is just not enough bandwidth to add another layer of work to partner with other churches. For those of us in larger churches we have such a big responsibility to keep all the balls in the air. It’s impossible to devote time to working with other churches, especially if the lead/senior pastor does not share the vision. I was fortunate enough to have a lead pastor who supported the vision of the think tank.

The moral for us is to seriously consider the impact you are currently having on your community. Here are some key questions for church leaders:

  • Do unbelievers actually walk through your doors and hear the gospel?
  • Do your “outreach” events actually reach the lost?
  • Does your church have any impact on your community?
  • Does your community even know your church exists? Here’s another quick story: Our pastor once attended a luncheon with the mayor and other civic leaders in the community. Although our church was the largest in town, as the pastor spoke with the mayor, he was stunned to realize the mayor did not know anything about the church, and was not even sure where it was located. It was a real wake-up call for us.

After asking the tough questions, if you’re dissatisfied with your honest answers, it’s time to get out of your silo and look for ways to bring unity (oneness) to the local church body. There are a hundred ways to do this. For us it happened at Christmas. For you, well . . . wait upon God to do a new thing in your town. 

Evaluating Volunteers

Posted on by Bill Kirkwood

The Story

When I arrived at the church in Ohio for my first full-time worship position, I inherited an amazing team of musicians. Most of them had been playing together for several years. As I became familiar with their abilities and personalities it quickly became apparent that there was one person, Kevin, who was going to be difficult. The most polite word I could use to describe him is dour, an Eeyore personality. A very good player, but he was not good at taking direction or participating in the spiritual discussions of the devotions I initiated with the team. 

Let me pause here and say I that when dealing with difficult people I tend to err on the side of grace and patience rather than harsh judgment. I figure they are at least involved in the church, hearing the sermons, and God is in the process of sanctifying them like he is with me. I just needed to give God time to work in Kevin’s life. He stayed on the team for several years, but always seemed to rub people the wrong way. 

A few years later another player with a very similar temperament came on the team. Sean was also a very good player, and I also showed grace as he seemed to be growing in his faith.

After a couple more years in mid-November the church elevated a long-time staff pastor to become lead pastor to fill our vacancy in that position. Sean and Kevin were opposed to this move, and began to make their feelings known. They never talked to me about how they felt, but I always heard from others. 

We’ve all been there, haven’t we? People say things to us about someone else and expect us to act on the information. We cannot go back to the person involved without betraying the trust of the informant. And we must decide if the informer is gossiping or not. At first I told the informer to go back to the person and help them understand if they’re going to be involved in church leadership on the worship team, they must be able to support the leaders of the church. If they could not, they had a duty to step down. Of course we all know how that goes!!

Fast forward to December, a week before our big Christmas production called WinterSong. Sean and Kevin had come through all the rehearsals and were ready to play next weekend, but their attitudes toward the new lead pastor was spilling over into the rest of the team. I had to act!

At that time I was blessed to have at least two very capable players at each position. I called the two who were not on the WinterSong roster and asked if they would be willing to jump in at the last minute. They both agreed. I ended up releasing Sean and Kevin six days before WinterSong. The two new players jumped in and learned their parts in record time. WinterSong was a beautiful experience with everyone understanding the impact of what just happened, and all pulling together to make it succeed.

The Moral of the Story

When deliberating whether to add a new person to a team, or whether to retain someone already on a team, I consider three levels. This philosophy was actually forged during this incident described above. First, I determine if this person is committed to the church. Not only if they have an active faith, but do they support this church, its leadership and its ministries. Second, I evaluate the chemistry of the person with our team. I never bring on a player or front singer without having them participate in at least two rehearsals. I observe their interactions with other members, their ability to take direction, their comfort on stage. After each rehearsal I’ll ask a couple key team members what they observed in this individual. In this way I avoid being the sole arbiter of whether or not to accept a new person onto the team. 

Finally (and lastly) I try to determine whether this position is good for that individual. Will they thrive spiritually on this team? Is their motive for participating proper? Will they improve on their instrument? 

Three levels to consider: commitment to the church, chemistry on the team, and benefit for the individual. I thought for a while that Sean and Kevin were okay with these, even though the team chemistry was off. But when they could not get on board with the new lead pastor, they had to be released. 

Another moral of the story is that it is better to have fewer people that fulfill those criteria than more that are not on the same page. We often think that in order to achieve the sound we want we have to have so many members. We have to have at least a drummer, bass player, keyboard, one or two guitars, and a couple singers. Yet the friction on your team from having even one difficult person will bring down the whole team and will be observed by the congregation. Better to have three good players and singers who love worshiping Jesus than seven who are there for the wrong reasons.

I admit I am sidestepping the whole discussion on bringing unbelievers onto the team as a way to expose them to the gospel. I’ve experienced that (I’ll write that in another story later). My philosophy is to make sure everyone who is on my church platform under my leadership does so from a place of belief and commitment to Jesus. 

As a worship team leader you are responsible for using your gifts of leadership and discernment and your team’s Spirit-given gifts to lead your church before the throne of God. Be sure everyone is on the same page.

It WasDestiny

Posted on by Bill Kirkwood

The Story

Growing up in Waukegan, Illinois my family attended the Lutheran Church nearly every Sunday. Although I remember going off to Sunday School, I guess children also attended the worship service. I vividly recall the sights and smells, the stained glass, the candles, the organ and choir leading the traditional liturgy with the pastor, including all the responses from the hymnal. Even at the young age of seven or eight I imagined myself being the one up front leading the liturgy. Sometimes at home I would pull out my parents’ hymnal and read through it. 

One Sunday somebody at home must have been sick because we did not go to church that Sunday. After breakfast when the kitchen was cleaned up I brought all the kitchen chairs into our tiny living room and set them up in rows. I then stood in front and began singing the opening hymn, then launched into the liturgy. (By the way, decades later I still can sing most of that liturgy from the Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal, second setting, page 41.) I don’t recall anyone being in the room with me, maybe mom or dad stopped in. I just remember that event and how I had dreamed for many weeks that I could be the one leading the church in worship.

A few years later in eighth grade I became an acolyte, a young assistant helping with the liturgy by lighting the candles. Most of my friends thought that was a drudgery they had to endure as part of confirmation class. I loved it! My alb (acolyte robe) was beautifully white, I was particularly keen to make sure that little flame at the end of the candlelighter would not blow out. It was a highly developed skill for a twelve-year-old!

The Moral

I believe God planted a delight in me at a very early age to be in front of his church leading his people. I don’t even know if I would call myself “saved” at that point in life. To be honest I was also involved in activities of which I am not proud today. But God was keeping hold of me. He had his eyes set on me.

Looking back today after being a (real) worship leader for almost fifty years, the seeds were planted on that Sunday morning in my little living room. I was fortunate that I did not have parents or siblings that would make fun of me. It probably would have devastated me. 

In fourth grade my parents encouraged me to learn an instrument. I chose the guitar. They also gave me a little record player and I would spend hours listening to records we’d bring home from the library. From these I learned to sing and to naturally sing harmonies.

I believe children can begin to sense a calling in their life very early on. Parents should watch for signs of this. What do their children like to do? Sing? Read? Tell stories? Write? Talk about what’s happening in their life? How can parents and children’s church leaders incorporate these young ones into the life of the church?

My own children each learned to play musical instruments. James learned piano and violin, I taught Joel guitar, and Caleb learned drums. While Caleb had an immediate outlet for playing drums in his school’s music program, the older two began to lose interest until I formed worship teams in the high school and middle school ministries of my church. Suddenly they had an outlet (other than twice-a-year recitals) for their abilities. A fire was lit under them as they learned to play in a band and lead worship for their peers, and lead worship on Sunday morning a few times a year. All three boys are involved in the worship ministries of their churches today twenty years later.

Parents, watch for how God is giving your children a gift and enthusiasm to serve him even at a young age. Church leaders, look for ways to allow children to participate in worship (beyond listening to a children’s sermon). Let them read a story, a poem, a Scripture, sing in a choir, dance (see the previous article on my church’s dance ministry). Be creative. There’s room for everyone to serve in God’s church.