Creating A Culture of Musical Excellence On Your Worship Team

Alex Enfiedjian 00:11 Hey everybody, welcome back to the worship team podcast. My name is Alex Enfiedjian. so thankful that you’re here listening today. We are a podcast dedicated to equipping worship team members and worship leaders to be the best that they can possibly be that they might bless their local church. So today is Episode Four of the podcast. And I’m going to be interviewing my good friend and worship leader Brenton Collier, who is the worship pastor at Calvary Monterey. And we’re going to be talking about creating a culture of musical excellence. So if you’re a worship leader who’s been wanting to push your team to the next level, or if you’re a team member who just wants to grow in your craft, today’s episode is for you. So we’re gonna jump right in here today. Enjoy the conversation with Brenton Collier. Alright, everybody, so I’m here with Brenton Collier, who is the worship pastor at Calvary Monterrey in beautiful Monterey, California. And I’ve been super encouraged and blessed to know Brent, and he’s always been really wise and just giving great counsel, his team in the last three years that he’s been here has just grown so much musically, and really has begun to put out excellent music and content. So I wanted to interview him today about creating a culture of musical excellence. So Brenton say Hello, yes. Hello. Thanks, Alex. Yeah, man. Okay, so the reason why I wanted to interview you is just because I’ve seen how your team has grown musically, to be excellent in the three years that you’ve been here. So we’re talking about musical excellence, and really creating a culture of musical excellence. But, but before we talk about, like, the practical stuff, why is musical excellence important for the church? Or in the church wide? Why does it matter that we pursue musical excellence?

Brenton Collyer 02:16 Yeah, I mean, obviously, there are churches that are just all over the place on this answer, you know, and, you know, I think it’s different for different people. But I really like in leading worship to, for like, a Sunday morning church service to teaching and the role of the teaching pastor, there’s something just absolutely significant about the Word of God that is just on its own level. But I think leading worship and speaking the truths, that are found in the Word of God through songs, you know, kind of come right up behind that. And, and so I just kind of always imagine, you really wouldn’t get away with being a teaching pastor that didn’t study the Bible, didn’t prepare, and just kind of showed up and said, some stuff, you know, no one would really get away with that for very long. But yet, for some reason, if you’re on a worship team, you can kind of get away with that, and I’ve never really known why, you know, you’re, you’re sharing the the platform at your church, you know, shepherding the, you know, the flock that God’s entrusted to you. And, and obviously, again, the the senior teaching pastor is, I think, on one level, but I think the worship leader worship team is kind of right there. You know, and, and I think to take it as seriously, as as a teaching pastor would is just natural. I mean, I think that’s what you should do. So that just kind of if you’re doing that it just manifests itself. One of the ways that manifests itself is in musical excellence. It’s just like a natural byproduct of that. I think

Alex Enfiedjian 04:09 that’s like really insightful, because a lot of times we don’t treat those two things equal. But if our senior pastor showed up late and just winged it, Mm hmm. Like or didn’t rehearse his his sermon at all, we would all kind of be frustrated. Yeah. So why, why if the worship team is leading the same group of 300 200 100 500 people, 1000 people, why don’t they take it as seriously as the pastor takes his role? Seriously. So yeah, that’s really good. I

Alex Enfiedjian 04:37 like that.

Alex Enfiedjian 04:37 Any other reasons why musical excellence is important in the church?

Brenton Collyer 04:43 Well, I think it’s, you know, biblically, it’s just a matter of giving your very best to the Lord. You know, I think that’s the simple answer. I think a real practical answer to this. And something that has a lot of merit is the fact that You know, leading your church, well, people will just naturally follow you, you know. And so it will be less distracting, there will be less obstacles for people to worship. And that’s a really good reason. But I think perhaps an even better reason is just to say, well, the Lord has given me this responsibility. I desire to do my very best with it. So I’m going to do what I can. And that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to sound like your favorite worship album or your favorite worship artist. But it does mean that you’re gonna sound the very best that you can, you know, and just just really owning that role of responsibility The Lord has given you.

Alex Enfiedjian 05:46 Yeah, yeah, I like that. It’s a it’s a responsibility he’s entrusted to us. So why don’t we, you know, cultivate that and steward what he’s given us? Well, yeah, you know, I mean, everything in life is stewardship. And leading worship is one of those things that we should steward well, and you kind of hit on it, too, like, theologically, we should give God our best because he deserves our best. And because like, he gave us his best, you know, like, when he created the world, it wasn’t like, he didn’t say, hey, it’s okay. Yeah, he said, it’s very good. Yeah. You know. And so I think, in response to a God who gives us things that are very good, we should give what is very good, or at least try. Yeah, you know, he didn’t give us an angel to die on the cross. He gave His one and only Son. Yeah, you know, his best. And so, I think God wants us to give our best. And then I think, even if you look back at David, and all the, you know, songs, it says, like, I bring a sacrifice of praise immediately cost people something, you know, yeah, like the it like, there’s that one story where David wants to offer an offering. And he wants to buy this land, right to make to give an offering? And the guy goes, No, no, you can have the land. And David goes far be it for me to offer the Lord something that costs me nothing. Yeah, I pay you. Yeah. So I think all of those are, this

Brenton Collyer 07:14 is meaningful. So this is, you know, right. You know, I’m actually giving of myself to the Lord. And, you know, so that I’ve been challenged by recently is, you know, in, in First Timothy, Paul is kind of exhorting this, this young man, Timothy, in the gifts that he has of handling the Word of God and preaching and teaching, and he’s telling Timothy, hey, stir up those gifts within you, and be diligent in, you know, working on them and working them out, you know what I mean, that really hit me as a worship leader, you know, knowing that the Lord has given me gifts of music and leading and, and I feel like it would just be irresponsible, just to leave those kind of just kind of let them be and maybe let them lie dormant. But I’ve kind of took that exhortation from Paul personally and said, you know, you know, I need to stir up these gifts within me and I need to, you know, make the most out of them.

Alex Enfiedjian 08:11 That’s really that’s good. That’s Timothy, somewhere in there. Somewhere in there. Yeah, check it out. I don’t have any advice. That’s good. I love that. That’s really good. Stir up the gifts people. So okay, so how does musical excellence help people worship? Yeah, like, how does musical excellence actually facilitate worship?

Brenton Collyer 08:34 Yeah, that’s a good question. Well, I think that the short answer is, it helps people just sing along, you know, if there’s, if there’s just a clean, clear song that people recognize and can get on board with, if you can help people just get the ball rolling with singing, then that’s the first step a lot of times towards them actually worshiping and spending time in the presence of God and seeking the Lord. Yeah, you know, so, you know, there are a lot of simple things you can do to get people to start singing, you know, you yourself just singing well, so they can follow along with you. And even, you know, technical things, like displaying the lyrics at the right time having the right lyrics, making sure that the sound is clear. You know, I’ve had people, sometimes they’ll say, you know, I’ll be singing, and then I’ll take a moment between songs to say something, and I’m not sure exactly what it is maybe the EQ on the mic, or because some of the musicians are still playing or something, but I’ll have people say, Yeah, I couldn’t really hear what you were saying, you know, between songs, and, you know, and so that’s no good. You know, you’ve got to be clear, you’ve got to you know, if I’m encouraging them to worship, but they don’t hear me. Yeah, you know, that’s no Good and when things are just dis jointed and you know, Rocky at best people aren’t really hearing, you know what, what you’re trying to lead them in?

Alex Enfiedjian 10:11 That’s good. I heard kind of two things there. One is like, musical excellence in the sense of like, performing the song well, is kind of like giving people a track and saying get on the track. Here’s the track. Yeah, get on the track, it’s easy for you to follow, it’s easy for you to sing. It’s easy for you to know, to feel the beat. And yeah, like get involved, you know, yeah, it kind of gives them a clear, like entry point to worshiping through song. And then the other thing that you hit on was like, the technical side, you know, because we’re talking about, you know, musical excellence, but it really does apply to like, all everything that happens on a Sunday morning or whenever services Yeah, because like you said, if the slides are late, that’s a distraction. Yeah. You know, it’s like a rip someone out of the moment of, or like, if the EQ is bad, or Yeah, like, you know, this just sounds bad. Or I’m trying to think of kind of other things like muted mic, bad lighting, transitions, all of these things are, they actually are distractions, right. And I feel like leading worship is kind of part. It’s like two parts. It’s like one pointing people towards God and the truths about God, and to removing as many distractions as humanly possible. Yeah. It’s like, kind of like, point them to God and get out of the way. Yeah, right. Absolutely. And then if we’re like clunking through stuff, then we’re not really getting out of the way. No, we’re in the way

Brenton Collyer 11:33 your front and center away.

Alex Enfiedjian 11:36 Yeah. So musical excellence. I think it’s a bad rap. Because people think of it as like performance ism. Yeah. They’re just trying to, you know, sound like Hillsong. But really, I think if our motives are right, we want we want to do well, so we can kind of disappear.

Brenton Collyer 11:51 Yeah, you know, and I think it’s worth clarifying. You know, at least in my mind, musical excellence doesn’t mean musical extravagance, or, or, you know, just in elaborate arrangement of, you know, just these incredible changes and stuff like that, you know, that that’s not what we’re going for here, you know, musical excellence, meaning the team, you do have the songs you do do, leading those with, with musical excellence. And it definitely does mean, you know, developing and growing, but, you know, I just don’t want people to feel like, you know, musical excellence means you sound like Hillsong, or something like that. And, you know, I kind of witnessed I was at a conference recently, and one of my, you know, an artists that I’ve really respected for years was there, Shane, and Shane, if you listen to Shane and Shane, and I’ve always just been really impressed with their songwriting, the depth of their lyrical content in this, I’m not sure I even totally understand or can process exactly what kind of this experience of, of being led in worship by Shane and Shane, but they were there. And, you know, Shane Barnard is playing an acoustic guitar and singing, Shane Everett is singing no instrument, and they had a drummer, so three of three of them, so not elaborate or extravagant. And, you know, throughout a conference, you’re always like, listening to the singers watching the musicians. Like, it’s just hard not to, you know, enjoying what they’re doing musically. But man, they were just on another level of musical excellence, they really were, I mean, just so good. And, and in it, and it was almost on this level that I completely just forgot about listening to them. It was just, just wonderful, incredible music that was lifting up God. And there was just something about it. And certainly, I believe part of that was just the anointing of God on their lives, you know, the hand of God. But just musically, I didn’t find myself getting distracted with enjoying the music. It was just so wonderful. I just couldn’t help a worship God. You know, I don’t know if it was because I was just thinking, like, God is amazing, because he makes such beautiful things on this earth, you know, I don’t know. But again, it’s not like a totally big idea. I was just, I haven’t really experienced that for a while. Just just music that was so good. That you just totally forgot about the music. And it was just you just praise the Lord.

Alex Enfiedjian 14:28 Yeah. And I think, you know, that’s a great point. Because like, God is beautiful and God is excellent. And as his image bearers like he’s given us the capacity to create and be and make things that are beautiful and excellent. And when we do it always points people back to God. Oh, yeah. So it’s like this transcendent thing that happened. Yeah. In in excellence in beauty in.

Brenton Collyer 14:52 It was it’s kind of an inexplicable thing. All I know is it sounded amazing. And I was worshiping you know,

Alex Enfiedjian 14:58 so that’s awesome. That’s so good. It’s good to experience that every once in a while. Yeah. Okay, so moving past the kind of like, theoretical, philosophical, like, let’s talk practical, like, your team has really grown in their excellence of music. Mm hmm. How did you? Or how do you create a culture of musical excellence in your church? Or in the church in general? Yeah. And kind of like maybe give us like three things that have really helped in this process of creating a culture of musical excellence?

Brenton Collyer 15:28 Okay. Yeah, I think I think the first thing a lot of times, so if, if, if I’m speaking to worship leaders, now, if you’re in a position as a volunteer, or a staff member, that you’re leading a team in some way, I think that where you’ve got to start is it starts with you, it starts with you, as the leader, you know, it’s one thing to kind of implore your team, like, hey, practice the songs, and, you know, tell them all of the reasons why it’s important to sound good. You know, that’s one thing. But it’s just better if you yourself, are reaching towards a high level of musical excellence. So that means, you know, just being prepared for practice, whatever, if you’re singing or whatever instrument you’re playing, you know, play it well lead well, and that just inspires your team, I think when they see you, they see you challenging yourself, as a musician, they see, you know, if they’ve been on the team with you for six months, and six months from now, they’d say, Man, you know, my worship leader, they’ve, they sound better, they sing better, they play better, they must be practicing, they must be working, you’ve kind of got to be the front runner, you know, and that. I think another thing is just setting up your team for success. You know, they’re just some practical things you can do to say, I want you to grow musically, but I’m going to help you. And you know, Alex, I think I’ve seen you do that with your team, just really working hard and giving your team tools to grow. So that could mean, you know, making sure you’ve got the setlist out in enough advance that they actually have the time to practice, you know, if you if you get it last minute, and there’s, let’s say, a drum groove that your drummer may really need some time to work out. But you don’t give him the chance. And then you’re frustrated, he doesn’t sound that good. Well, you know, that’s kind of on you a little bit, you know, so setting up your team for success, you know, giving them direction, giving them specific feedback, having that open dialogue, having that be okay, sending them training videos, or podcasts or things like that, and just kind of always fostering this, like, Hey, here’s some things we can work on. And there’s a way to do that, that isn’t condescending, but that’s uplifting and exciting and enjoyable. That’s really good. You know, I think those are two things. And we may get to this in a moment. But I think maybe if if you wanted a third thing of fostering this culture of musical excellence, it also comes back to not allowing team members on your team that are just going to kind of suck, suck everything down. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t say team members that are gonna suck. Team members that are gonna bring suck down, drag them down. So that that was completing that’s then, you know, that are gonna bring down the team, you know, so that just starts with making good decisions. Yeah.

Alex Enfiedjian 18:23 And that, and we will get to that, because you I think you’re really good at like keeping a high standard. Yeah. So so you know, you’ve come in, you’ve created this, this culture of musical excellence, and hopefully all of your team members are on board. Mm hmm. But, you know, let’s say just one of your team members, isn’t maybe living up to the culture that you’ve created, or the standard of expectations that you’ve kind of created. So how do you deal with, you know, a team member who maybe isn’t living up to your expectations? What would you say to maybe someone who’s listening to the podcast right now, who is is not really coming to rehearsal prepared? Or how would you encourage them? What would you say to them?

Brenton Collyer 19:06 Yeah, well, what I’ve tried to do as a worship leader is communicate those expectations at the forefront, you know, and we actually even have like a printed out volunteer handbook that they’ll get that just has details about when to show up, you know, practical things, but as well as like, what to expect at a rehearsal, how to prepare, when you know when to be there, the importance of being on time. So, you know, I’ll speak first to the leaders if you’re a worship leader. First you’ve got to define what your standard is. And then you’ve got to communicate that to your team. That’s step one. And then, you know, if I’m approaching a team member that isn’t quite meaning that I usually just refer to that just say, Hey, remember, we talked about, you know, when you join the team, you know, we said that coming prepared to the rehearsals is just you know, it’s just a crucial part. Making sure we can have a strong Sunday morning. So I just feel like you could do a better job with that. You know, is there anything I can do to help you with that? You know, just kind of being direct and being honest. And usually people receive it, you know? And so did that answer that question. Yeah.

Alex Enfiedjian 20:17 And I think what you know, like you said at the front door, yeah, you give them like, very clear, like, maybe it’s a sheet of paper. Yeah. When they come into the team, like they know what you expect of them, they know what you’re looking for the team member, so that it’s really, you know, the the clear we can be upfront, yeah, the more we have, you know, that shapes the culture one, but two, it also gives us stuff to point back to remember, this conversation came on, you agreed to, you know, things. And I would, I would encourage worship leaders that if you’re trying to change a culture, if you’re like, Okay, I want to create a musically excellent team, for my church. If you’re going to try to change a culture and a team that you already have, like, don’t be discouraged. It’s going to take a long time, like just keep plodding away communicating the standards, because it’s like, it’s trying to, you know, turn a cruise ship in the ocean, it’s not going to turn around over, you know, quickly. Yeah, a long wide turn to get there. Right. Yeah. But keep going? Because it’s worth it. Right. Yeah. Okay, so you’ve, you know, you’ve communicated up front, what you expect your team members have, have bought into the ideal, and you’ve got this, you know, really great team. But let’s say that some of the people on your team or maybe a faithful team member, who’s who’s been there for a long time is consistent. But as the team grows, as the church grows, and more people come onto the team and the talent level rises, yeah. This person who maybe was at the top of the talent level on your team now finds themself in the middle, or maybe the bottom? Yeah, that clear? Yeah. So okay, so what would you say to a person like that? Who might even be listening to this podcast right now? Like, they are part of the team for a long time? Yeah. But as the talent level has gone up, they’ve kind of maybe they’ve gotten scheduled less, because they’re not as good as the other players? Like, yeah, what would you tell that person listening?

Brenton Collyer 22:14 Well, I think the the first encouragement I’d give is just, you know, don’t let that be you. You know, it’s, it’s, it can kind of be in your hands. So, you know, certainly no one wants to find themselves in that position. It doesn’t happen overnight. So, you know, don’t become complacent, as you see the team growing, and perhaps, you know, they’re introducing new musical styles that you’re not comfortable with, or they’re playing arrangements of songs that are a little bit more in depth. You know, don’t just say, well, that’s not what I do. That’s not how I play. So I’m just gonna do my thing, you know, do your best to grow and to adapt. But then on the other hand, I think not only with worship ministry, but with anything the Lord has given us, you just have to hold it with open hands, you just have to, you know, no position is guaranteed forever. You know, no, you know, really nothing in life is. So just just just having an open heart, having an open mind and being willing to say, Well, perhaps the Lord is doing something different, perhaps the Lord is doing something new, perhaps I need to just say, you know, the Lord use me in this way for a period of time. And I’m going to begin seeking the Lord on how he’s going to use me in a different way for this next season. And that is hard, you know, but that can be okay. And you know, who knows, I just spoke with someone this week and other worship leader who described a conversation like that, that she had to have with someone, perhaps, like a year, a year and a half ago, and that it was a really hard conversation. But but that person came back around and said, you know, actually want to thank you for sharing that with me and releasing me from the team. Because I have, since that time, found what I feel like is really the calling that the Lord has on me, and I maybe never would have found that otherwise, you know, so you just never know what the Lord is doing. But I guess the short answer is you just just have to be prepared for that. You know,

Alex Enfiedjian 24:24 yeah, I think a Bob kauflin book worship matters where he says like, no team members should assume their role is permanent. Yeah. You know, in fact, I think he says something like that team members should expect to cycle off the team as better players come and they should even rejoice when the overall talent level of the team is going up. Because they recognize that the church will be even more blessed. Yeah, but but at the same time, I think like a wise leader. If there’s someone on the team that maybe isn’t like the best, but they’ve been faithful, they’re familiar face, maybe they are relate to the older generation, the Wise worship leader is going to say, well, they still bring a lot of value to the team, whether or not there may be as good as all the other players, they still bring something Oh, yeah, and how can I keep them around and still utilize them? Oh, man,

Brenton Collyer 25:14 Alex, that’s such a good word. I think, you know, you don’t, as a leader, you don’t want to fall into this trap of the be all end all kind of is the musical proficiency or excellence, you know what I mean, there are just such invaluable qualities of the team member, that go beyond their musical competency. And, obviously, you don’t want someone that is just a terrible musician that is just clashing constantly. But you know, if it’s like, hey, I’ve got this excellent guitar player that plays just all the right parts. And I’ve got this, you know, medium in, you know, maybe not mediocre, but like mid level guitar player that is more just basic, but they still sit in the next well, you know, but this is a person that’s faithfully serving that connects with our church family that’s invested in the vision vision of this church. Yeah, you really need to spend some time before you ask that team ever step off your team, you know, because they can contribute to your team and in other really valuable ways. So, you know, just don’t get caught just only feeling like the very best. And you know, that was a good word from you, for sure.

Alex Enfiedjian 26:24 Yeah. I think that, you know, we need to be careful not to only let you know, musically excellent people, on our teams, or we don’t want to cut people off who, you know, aren’t quite there without giving them a chance to grow. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Like you said, talk to them, spend time with them? Yeah. urge them to grow? Yeah. And for those team members listening, like keep growing, don’t give up. Don’t stop learning. Yeah, push yourself, right. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Okay, so, um, one thing that you kind of mentioned earlier was not not letting people on the team who, you know, aren’t to a certain proficiency level. So let’s say you have no bass players in your team at all, like none zero, like all of them moved to Canada or something. Okay. And you? Would you honestly choose to be without a bass player, rather than take someone who’s maybe mediocre?

Brenton Collyer 27:27 Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, I think the short answer is yes. You know, I would prefer to have a small, strong team than a growing, struggling seem, you know, I just, there’s no magic formula for you know, if you have this, this and this instrument on your team, your band’s gonna just be great. You know, so there was a time as a young worship leader, when I did believe that and I thought, you’ve got to have drums, bass keys, a couple of guitars, a couple of singers, and only then will you have, quote, unquote, good worship, you know, so I would, you know, do whatever I needed to do to make sure those musicians were there. And I think the Lord graciously kind of kind of led me out of that. And the way he did that was by putting me in a position where I had hardly I didn’t have hardly any of those people. And I was kind of forced into this team of, you know, just a few musicians. And it kind of revealed to me, hey, the Lord can still move here, you know, the Lord can still use this man, who am I to think that I’ve got to build this particular thing? You know, who knows what the Lord wants to do? And so, yeah, I think that if you just you’re you should be very slow to add a new team member, you know, because, you know, I’m sure you’ve heard it said, it’s much easier to add a team member than it is to come back around and ask that team member to come off the team, it’s, you know, so you don’t want to be put in that position. So the short answer is, you know, yeah, you know, if you if you don’t have a bass player, don’t, that’s okay. Don’t sell. Yeah, don’t settle, lead well with who you do have. But I think on the other side of that coin, if you wait for people that are at that highest level of musicianship and only allow them on your team, sometimes you’re going to be waiting for a long time. You know, those people don’t just show up all the time, you know, and something that that a good leader does, I believe, is train and equip those beginning, struggling, maybe mediocre musicians, train them up into becoming your maybe some Have your strongest musicians, you know, and I can think of one particular example of a young man in our church, a high school student who was just playing drums, like a little bit, you know, and I’m someone, you know, I want some kind of drums involved, whether it’s a simple, you know, hand percussion kind of thing, or a full drum kit, not all the time, but more often than not, I’m gonna want that. And so here’s the young guy, we really didn’t, there was a time we really didn’t have any other drummers. And so, you know, I came to him and I just said, Hey, I’d like for you to play with us pretty regularly. You got some room to grow. So I’m going to choose songs that I know you can play, and I’m going to get with you early before practice begins. And we’re going to play through them together, and then we’ll play through them with the team. And I want to challenge you, I think you can get better and so I’m gonna really lean on you. And, you know, and it wasn’t like, I wasn’t talking down to him, I feel like I was, you know, lifting him up and saying, like, Hey, this is a chance for you to step up to the plate. And so there’s time, he was just playing home for a couple of weeks, and then I moved into the full care and, and, you know, over time, the Lord has brought some other, you know, wonderful drummers to our team. So he’s in the rotation with some other people. The man Alex, I have to say, he’s now just one of our best drummers. He really is. He’s a great, great drummer. And the truth is, you know, if he had never been given the opportunity to grow, there were a couple of rough weeks in there, you know, but it wasn’t awful. If he had never been given that position, he would still be on the sidelines still just maybe in the wings for like, if there’s no one else, we’ll get him in here. And he’s still probably wouldn’t be that great, because he never would have had a chance to practice and get in there. So, you know, I think that short answer is, you don’t want a mediocre, you know, musician on your team. But if you’ve got some other strong players that can hold, hold it down. Go ahead and get someone else in there that’s maybe at that mid level,

Alex Enfiedjian 32:09 to train them to train them. Yeah, I think that’s a good word to leaders is like, we are called to train and equip our teams. Yeah. And musician. So maybe you don’t want to put them on the Sunday morning team, but maybe create some other environments like a youth band. Yeah. You know, Junior High band, high school band, college band, kind of stepping stones where they can get progress. You can check in with them, they can get experience, and they can move their way up so that they’re comfortable eventually to play. Yeah, Sunday morning team.

Brenton Collyer 32:38 Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think of the musicians that that come to me and say, hey, I want to be on the team or singers. You know, there might be one in five, on a good day, that’s like, Oh, yeah, you nailed it, let’s get you in the team. You know, usually it’s more like one and an eight or something, you know, so but there might be another three or four out of that five, that are like part of the way they’re they just need to be, you know, given the opportunity. So having those venues to train them is huge. And

Alex Enfiedjian 33:10 one thing you I thought of while you were talking was like just for the team members listening, like, you know, first Corinthians 12, every part of the body matters. Yeah. And so if you have a weak player, the whole body is weaker. Oh, yeah. And the whole team is dragged down. So just an encouragement to team members. Like Don’t be the weaker? Yeah, like, yeah, the chain is only as strong as the weakest link. So everybody should be pressing towards musical growth and and trying to get better, because it’ll lift the whole team up. Yeah, you know, so practice at home practice with a click track, like, do all the stuff that your worship leader probably is telling you to do? Do you actually do that? Because it’s going to make the team better? And the culture, you know, better? Okay, let’s kind of wrap things up. But one thing that I wanted to talk to you about is using milestones to push the musical bar up, you’ve kind of talked to me a little bit about that. Yeah, share? What What is that? What is it using a milestone for your team to push the musical excellence bar?

Brenton Collyer 34:12 Yeah, yeah, you know, this is something that just kind of fell natural to me, you know, I think each of us, you know, have built into our year, some of these kind of bigger events, you know, obviously, like a Christmas Eve service, Easter Sunday, maybe a night of worship event, or, you know, here in our church, we have a couple of night of worship events throughout the year. So these are kind of these, you know, out of the regular Sunday routine type of events where you want to really go for it musically with your team. And, and so, you know, you can just kind of take them as they come and do what you do, or you can kind of plan ahead and say okay, we’ve got Christmas coming up, you know, this is a good time. We’re going to have a couple of Extra rehearsals probably. So, you know, now’s the time to maybe introduce some new instruments that I’ve been wanting to get incorporated into our team or, you know, there’s, there’s this great, you know, track to this song, and I haven’t used tracks and worship before, but I’m gonna have a couple extra chances to practice. So I’m going to try using tracks for the first time at this, you know, for this Christmas Eve service, or I’m going to try having maybe a small, like praise choir of some kind, you know, put that together, or, you know, there are all these different things, both musically and technically, that you can kind of you go for it with these kind of bigger services. And just to take advantage of that, you know, that’s really the point. But then what you do is, you say, okay, we’ve kind of pushed the boundaries of what our team is capable of, you know, in for the sake of this event, don’t let it stop there, you know, and then you say, That’s our new normal, that’s just where our team is all the time. Now. You know, we know we can do it. So let’s do it all year long, you know, say that was Christmas Eve. And then you know, in the spring, when Easter Sunday comes around, you you you work towards maybe taking it to the next level, and that becomes your new normal, and so on. And so I think just kind of challenging and encouraging your team in that way is great. So however, that looks for you. You know, we just last year, put out a live worship album, and that really stretched our team, you know, that I had never done that before. But I thought it would just be really great. So it was a big learning curve. It wasn’t perfect, you know, it, you know, but we did the best job we could do. And it was just exciting for our team, you know, I told them, hey, let’s really practice let’s really do well, we’re going to record this, we’re going to give this to our church family, we’re going to put it online. And we really pushed the boundaries for that it was a lot of fun. But a lot of the things we incorporated for that night are just things we do all the time now. So that’s kind of the power and using these milestones to stretch your team. That’s a super good, good word. And

Alex Enfiedjian 37:12 I think it’s a good way to kind of close out. But before we do just Is there anywhere if our listeners want to connect with you or your church, like where would you send them online to find you or your music? or?

Brenton Collyer 37:24 Yeah, yeah, that’s a good question. So our church, you know, here at Calvary Monterey, our our church website is real simple. It’s just calvary.com. So you can get on there and check out past services, listen to the worship music and get a feel for kind of what we do here if you’d like. And honestly, the best way to get in touch with me is probably just to email me you know, I I’m not on social media a whole lot. So you do have a Twitter I do. It’s you can follow me if you’d like but it’ll be quiet. It’ll be quiet. Yeah, so you know probably the best way to get in touch with me I’m just Brenton br e n t o n at Calvary comm I love hearing from people and sharing, you know, different resources and things. So yeah, let me know if there’s any listeners that have any other follow up questions and get a hold of me. They’re

Alex Enfiedjian 38:15 super awesome. Hey, thanks for taking the time today. Yeah, let’s actually close in prayer, that God would help us to be musically excellent for His glory. So awesome. Thanks, Lord. You’re awesome. You’re good. You’re excellent. You’re beautiful. And help us to be a reflection of that. And to make music that reflects you and helps people see you more clearly. And to help us to be excellent for your sake. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thanks, Brandon. Yeah, thanks, Alex. All right, well, hopefully you found something in there helpful or insightful. If you did, I would encourage you to send this episode on to someone else who might benefit from it. Maybe it’s a team member, maybe it’s your worship leader. Maybe it’s the worship leader down the road at another church. We just want as many people to be blessed and encouraged by this content as possible. So thanks for your help in spreading this podcast around town. And thanks to those of you who have already left a review and rating on iTunes, that helps us a lot. If you haven’t already subscribed, please do just go to iTunes and type in worship team podcast. And you’ll find us there near the top and we’re going to be delivering great content to your ears on a semi regular basis. So keep subscribing. Keep checking in and keep being blessed. And I just pray that God would bless your leading this weekend that your church would be encouraged that they would see Jesus that they would worship Him in spirit and in truth, and that you would take them to the throne. God bless