Although (hopefully) humorous, each mistake I listed \u00a0in that original post relates to some real, common mistakes I\u2019ve seen churches make when embarking on the wonderful quest to produce a worship album. This time around I\u2019ll focus on the single most important consideration anyone (church, worship band or individual) can make when it comes time to record: WHY?<\/p>\n
While initially that question may appear to fall into the \u201cstupidly obvious\u201d category, it is a question that has huge ramifications all the way down the line, and it is very worth considering carefully. Every subsequent question from \u201cWhat is our budget?\u201d to \u201cWho\u2019s playing on the album?\u201d to \u201cHow many copies do we print?\u201d hinges on being able to CLEARLY answer the question \u201cWhy are we doing this in the first place?\u201d Even if the idea was a \u201cGod thing\u201d that nagging question still remains – WHY does He want you to record? What is the purpose for which He has asked you to do so?<\/p>\n
Now, while the number of good reasons to record is almost infinite, and while there are many legitimate reasons that are not-so-readily-apparent, there are some bad reasons to take a run at a full-production recording, especially if it\u2019s your first, especially if it\u2019s a church project. Of course, or at least hopefully, at the foundation is a desire to glorify God, however, even that is, essentially, only a partial answer; there\u2019s always more clarity to be had.<\/p>\n
At the risk of sounding pessimistic, I\u2019m going to continue this series with some bad reasons to record. Remember these apply as a solo artist, a worship band, a church congregation, even a church organization.<\/p>\n
1. It\u2019s An Easy Way For Us to Make Money Doing Something We Love<\/strong><\/p>\n I know, you want to raise some money for a new church sound system. You went to the board and they said \u201c$25,000?! Well that\u2019s crazy money! We just can\u2019t commit that when our kids ministry is still using the same puppets we stole out of garbage bins from behind Sesame Street\u2019s production facilities in 1974!\u201d Then, one day, at 4am you were awakened from your slumber. An angel appeared, you were scared, he said \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid\u201d, heaven opened and, like a flash of lightning, you realized you could raise it yourself – by selling the best worship album ever recorded.<\/p>\n The idea looks great, not on-paper, but until it hits the paper. The problem here is (like in all budgets) the expense, whether time or dollars compared to the potential return. When bands come to me to record, my first question is often \u201cHow many discs do you intend to sell and at how much?\u201d. Consider a church of 500 people for instance. Let\u2019s say every single person (man, woman, child, toddler, infant) buys a copy and forks out $20 (high for an indie release, but they love you). The most you could hope to recoup in that scenario is $10,000. Of course, it is more likely that about half of the family units will buy one, so you\u2019re more likely to sell 150 \u201cin-house\u201d than you are 500. That takes the tally to $3,000, or, roughly $22,000 short of your sound system goal, provided all production, mixing, mastering and manufacturing is free.<\/p>\n How do you sell more CDs? Well, in today\u2019s day and age of internet piracy, bands of the same kind being a dime-a-dozen (market saturation) and the general economy \/ market being tricky to penetrate – you tour. It\u2019s the only way most indie bands (sacred or secular) can even break even. Now if the idea of packing your worship team of 10 into a Ford Focus built for four and hitting the road for 150 nights a year intrigues you, you may be on to something. And that sound system may not be so far out of sight. If you have a fundamentally connected web of churches, there can be some opportunity there (although you can bet they\u2019re all thinking of the same fundraiser).<\/p>\n When I was pastoring a church a church of 150, we did the unthinkable and sold 687 copies of our first disc with limited touring (about 6 stops) and a single CD release party (without CDs… they showed up late from manufacturing). Going back in time I\u2019m not exactly sure how we accomplished that feat, nor if it could reasonably be done again. It may be one of those things that falls somewhere between \u201cphenomenon\u201d, dumb luck and the grace of God.<\/p>\n Bottom line is you can make money on music, but you need to be highly realistic and put together a very accurate budget, with very reasonable projections before you put a down payment on that new PA.<\/p>\n 2. Something Deep Inside Me Says I\u2019m The Next Matt Redman<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a music pastor. Never in the paid sense; I was a pastor who loved doing music and so I added that to my portfolio out of passion for the work (before janitor, but after building administrator in my job description). I know what it\u2019s like to get off stage after God has moved and think: Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Charlie Hall, Martin Smith .. those guys are the luckiest guys in the world, and something tells me I\u2019m just as good as, if not better than, the lot of them.. And it\u2019s difficult not to think — if I could just get my name and face out there, surely I\u2019d be Kingsway\u2019s \u201cnext big thing.\u201d While it\u2019s not absolutely impossible, your indie CD release could be the gateway to a lifetime of touring, writing, worship leading and appearing on obscure Christian TV and radio shows, there are two issues for consideration here.<\/p>\n First, the odds of that success are stacked against you in an enormous way. Again, I don\u2019t mean to kill anyone\u2019s buzz, just to be honest. Just as 90% of the money in Hollywood (if not more) is made by 10% of the actors there (if not less) the number of worship leaders who \u201cgo big\u201d pales in comparison to the number who work one or two jobs in order to support their weekly worship leading habit. Further consideration needs to be given to the fact that becoming successful (again, in *that* way) is going to be a long-term process, and a lot more work than cutting a single disc. Bands and solo artists who make a career of music generally do so after years of work in obscurity, complete with line-up and style changes, failures and disappointments galore. Those who don\u2019t take long or work hard but still make it usually have sugar daddies (again, another column \u201cHow to Find Your Sugar Daddy\u201d). Can God do the impossible? Absolutely. Is potential fame a great reason to tackle a recording? Not so much, in fact in the kingdom doing almost anything (preaching, serving, administrating, leading the kids ministry) \u201cfor the fame of it\u201d generally turns out poorly.<\/p>\n The second consideration is more of an ethical \/ moral one. If the church (congregation, music department, organization) is bankrolling, praying for and supporting your project, one must ask one\u2019s self if it is entirely fair to have personal fame as a primary (or even partial) objective. Now if you\u2019ve saved up your pennies (and by pennies I mean several savings bonds) and you\u2019re the executive producer (the cash behind it), clearly it\u2019s your money to spend how you wish. If, on the other hand, the community is behind it in word, prayer and gold bullion, and you\u2019re hoping this will launch you into stardom, one would hope you\u2019d at least be very up front with your board, and very honest with those around you.<\/p>\n 3. Because Being a Worship Leader \/ Band is a Lucrative Career<\/strong><\/p>\n I know what you\u2019re thinking – it IS for Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Martin Smith, Darlene Zschech (pronounced \u201ccheck\u201d – I think) and it is true that there are some people making a dandy living loving God and leading people through music. But let’s go back to the “Hollywood” example (90% – 10%) which is not confined to worship, or Hollywood, or preaching, or any industry I can think of. The few, the proud, the brave and noble who are making the killer coin are, indeed, few in virtually any arena. They are a minority like top-level CEOs, high-end actresses, and Enron Executives. Church \/ Ministry \/ Non-Profit employees by nature are paid less than their comparable “worldly” counterparts, and church artisans are no different (sorry folks, if you want to rake in cash hand over fist while playing guitar, be the Jonas Brothers).<\/p>\n Consider as well, that almost all “lucrative” (and I hope none of them take it the wrong way) worship leaders \/ bands came to be in a phenomenal sense, rather than as a calculated stab at stardom.<\/p>\n Delirious was doing guitar \/ rock worship at a time in the early nineties when few were, in a densely populated, easy-to-travel country, just as people were awakening to and craving more modern sounds in their expression to God worldwide.<\/p>\n Matt Redman was a regularly-occurring worship leader at a church festival that literally exploded with growth as a move of God swept the Anglican church, and subsequently the world.<\/p>\n Darlene Zschech (maybe it’s ziz-chez..?) emerged as somewhat of an icon, worldwide, for a generation of (and rapidly emerging market of…) relatively recently leadership-empowered and musical women.<\/p>\n Now please don\u2019t think I\u2019m in any way detracting from the blood, sweat, toil, tears and prayers the aforementioned would have poured out along the way. But for every Darlene, Matt or Martin there\u2019s a Dan (great guy I know, leads worship weekly in front of up to 100 people), a Mac (I think he fronts a Celtic band now), a Chad (lucky guy moved to Argentina) or a me .. I\u2019m writing a blog about recording and the largest crowd I\u2019ve led has been 1,500 people. Total worship album sales to date: 687.<\/p>\n Like potential fame, potential fortune is, theoretically, just not a good foundation for doing anything in the kingdom of God. In the words of a great Canadian musician by the name of Matthew Good \u201cif you want to be rich, become an accountant.\u201d If your plan is to press an indie worship disc and sell a billion copies to pad your retirement fund, think again.<\/p>\n Okay, now that I\u2019ve probably blown holes in the dreams of every church musician who ever had a dream, it\u2019s time to sign off this time around. Please don\u2019t think I\u2019m one of those \u201cvision-killing-realists\u201d, I\u2019m not saying don\u2019t record, don\u2019t have hope and a vision, I\u2019m saying first things first – why are you doing it? – and if you\u2019re doing it for fame, fortune or as a \u201cquick-and-easy-fundraiser\u201d – you\u2019re probably in the wrong game or at least in it for the wrong reason. I mean, hey, I\u2019m working on my worship writing and have plans for some EPs in the not too distant future, but I have those plans for different reasons.<\/p>\n
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