Impressions of Matt Maher and "Life On the Road"
Wow! I wish every Catholic friend I’ve ever had could have been at this concert. Matt Maher was an awesome man of God to meet. In less than five minutes of arriving at the Life on the Road event, I bumped into Matt Maher; I probably sounded like a complete dork talking to him because I admire his ministry so much. He, however, seemed really peaceful and humble in everything he did.
The first part of the praise and worship concert started like most do. The worship started with lots of cool driving tunes from the new album. (Overflowed) To help people sing along to the new praise and worship songs, they had a projector with all the lyrics to the song. It was interesting to note that they tried to put all the lyrics to the song on one slide… This enabled the praise and worship leader to jump around the song a little bit more and underscore certain parts of the song without driving the projectionist crazy. I probably do this to Matt Desalvo all the time at CCM!
Sarah was definitely happy that a certain Jewish sounding praise song called “It is Good” was played. I have avoided playing this song with CCM for a long time, but it was really cool to see how Matt used it. I’ve never seen so many people dance joyfully before the Lord. It was really a cool moment.
One signature of Mr. Maher is his ability to mix extremely classic melodies and prayers together with new material. I loved how he introduced “Resurrection Day” with an old “Glory and Praise” song with lots of Amen’s. You’d know the song if you heard it… At the end of adoration, they played a really neat setting of the divine praises mixed with “His name is Jesus” by ThirdDay for the refrain. It was really a well crafted prayer.
So… All of this is good and cool… and then Jesus shows up! Matt Maher mentioned that during the middle of the concert they would have a little bit of time for Eucharistic adoration. The whole dynamics of the event changed from being just another Christian concert to true Catholic worship and praise! It was really moving for me to see some of our students from CCM break into tears just from joy for the Lord. At this point, the whole focus of the worship was on Christ. I greatly noticed that Matt left a lot of room in the worship for God to speak. There were long extended moments where he was doing nothing more than picking his guitar.
On a personal note, this event made me reflect upon all of the work of the past year with our new parish and our students at CCM. It made me think hard about how God had moved in our lives… It got me excited about the work that’s to come! It was really awesome for me to witness this mini-retreat. Praise the Lord!
Needless to say, after adoration, the praise and worship was absolutely through the roof. I hope I can post some pictures soon. It’s amazing how powerful praise and worship can be when Christ is really REALLY there! Lots of praise… Lots of dancing! (Yes.. dancing!!)
It was really an awesome pleasure to see Matt Maher in action. Though he’s a very gifted song writer and prayerful man, he does not seem to like to be the center of attention. Like every cool man of God, he simply points to Christ through his actions, music, and attitude. I really thank Matt for taking special time to visit with our CCM’ers too. It ment so much to them that he just “hung out” and “chatted” with them. The rest of Matt’s band had the same attitude too. After this evening of worship, it really made me excited to go home to praise the Lord again with Most Precious Blood! Thank you Lord for putting such wonderful servants into our church family!
Spirituality in music ministry
Talk by:
Randy Raus
Vice President
Parish Ministries
LIFE TEEN Office
Marietta, GA
800.809.3902 or 480.820.7001
rraus@lifeteen.com
18 years of service
http://www.lifeteen.com/default.aspx?PageID=CTHOME
Personal spirituality and God comes first
- Order of operations: God, Family, (everything else)
- Give yourself the best gift – silence
- Some of the best adoration time is just being quiet before the Blessed Sacrament; Let the Lord speak to you.
- “How are you?”
- If your most common answer is “I’m busy”, it might become important to adjust some aspects of your prayer life
- Thought to pastoral workers – Speaker strongly encourages time in daily mass
- Try to avoid comparing yourself spiritually to others; evaluate the quality of your spiritual life with God! He’ll let you know how you’re doing
- Let God shape you!
- Let God work on you!
- Make sure not to minister to yourself during worship; For this reason, it’s important to keep your spiritual life thriving!
- Pay attention to lyrics!
- We sing about amazing realities of the universe!
- Inspirational exercise – Try getting one of your best lectors to do a dramatic reading of a common praise and worship song ;
- The church wants authenticity!
- Therefore…
- Don’t feel like you have to be a comedian
- Just try to bring people to prayer
- Be real!
- Music
- It’s always about God
- It’s never about us
- It does have a profound impact in helping people to pray together
- Cool Story : St. John Bosco
- St. John Bosco had a great love of teaching children to love the Lord. For his young men, he had a very clever way of getting them to enjoy prayer; He would encourage his students to play outside in the heat… Immediately following, he would lead them into a very cool prayer chapel with Eucharistic adoration. This sound like something Josh would do!
- Cool Story 2
- A traveler was visiting a Catholic mission; This humble mission in some third world country would serve various workers of the village and the spiritual needs of the children; During adoration, they would always encourage the children to be closer to the Blessed Sacrament; They found that the older members of the church were so encouraged and inspired by observing the developing lives of children and seeing how they react to the Lord’s presence.
- Cool Story 3
- The speaker told us a little bit about his brother who had passed away from illness. His brother, who was not always close to the church, had some form of cancer. (I think?) In this story, the speaker recounts how encouraged his brother to deeply consider becoming Catholic with the time he had remaining. His church and the community at large really had a large role in helping make his brother feel welcome and loved by God. Because of the small efforts of so many faithful people and lots of love from God, the speaker was very proud to profess that his brother is Catholic and probably in heaven… Since he is part of the community of saints, he is now praying for them now. This helps underscore how God can use our efforts in ministry.
- Random other tips
- Interaction with teens (or your congregation) before and after mass is extremely important. Try to make yourself available and willing to “hang out” with your church.
- “Be God’s” (Common Quote from Rich Mullins)
- Be available to pray with your teens or church members. Taking time for personal prayer with someone in need can really show the love of Christ.
Playing Vs. Praying
Notes from Matt Maher
- "Singing Isn't Always Praying"
Matt Maher, the famous voice behind XLT, puts down his guitar and steps in front of the camera to explain how singing isn't always praying. - http://www.lifeteen.com/default.aspx?PageID=MEHOME&__DocumentId=33213
- “Be Context Sensitive”
- Become profoundly aware of where you are…
- Know who you are praying with…
- Adjust your music and temperament for your environment
- Thoughts on “Blessed Be The Name” by Matt Redman
- http://www.justworship.com/worshipsongs/blessedbeyourname.html
- At some point Matt Maher was going through some form of chem-o therapy. At this very vulnerable time of his life, he talked a bit about how he emotionally reacted to this song just driving in his car. Though this was a very powerful song to him at this time, he mentioned that he was glad that he didn’t immediately use this song in worship. It just wasn’t the right time or context for him and his congregation.
- Teens, Young Adults, the church long for authenticity – Just be real… Don’t force yourself to do things that don’t feel natural to your personality. (i.e. Don’t feel like you have to be a comedian)
- Important things to consider when leading worship
- What’s the KEY of the song?
- If you’re struggle to vocally hit notes or form chords, your congregation will be struggling pray with you too.
- Context, Context Context
- Warm UP’s with the congregation – Do them!
- Opportunity to teach new music
- Opportunity to for you as a music minister to engage the congregation to sing and worship
- Opportunity to pray
- Order
- Music, Music
- Cell Phone
- Silence (very important)
- “Congregation Warm up” starts at published mass time! Not 10 minutes before the start of mass.
- Make sure to do simple things well.
- Try to become part of the assembly; If EVERYONE in your church knows you by name, how cool you are, and how technical of a musician you are, then something needs to change. Again, mass is about God… Not you!
- In the best of all cases, try to become as invisible as possible
- I really like this idea… I think I want to call this Ninja Music Ministry(“you must become za shadow..”)
- How does the Congregation song?
- Catholics unlike protestants sing in octaves
- Men are always one octave below woman
- Fact: Women sing more than men!
- Therefore, play to the women when possible…The men will catch on..
- If songs have musical phrases that consistently hit notes above C# or D, you will probably start losing some of the women… Be aggressive in changing keys!
- Be mindful of your vocal style
- If people are having trouble understanding your words, focus on pronunciation and diction
- Be very careful who you emulate – Avoid trying to model yourself after Michael Jackson or other pop artists who use a lot of “style.” Watch out for Chris Tomlin who sings much higher than normal men should! (i.e. How many people can actually sing along with Indescribable? This comment is probably good for Michael W. Smith too)
- Great quote about Chris Tomlin: “He’s an extremely small human being.” [Let the record show that I love Chris Tomlin… He really rocks and is a Holy man! I just thought it was funny to hear Matt talk about him this way.]
- Try to sing like you say simple words. Clearly and boldly… Avoid weird and strange vibrato
- What if your congregation is not singing?
- Make it your goal that the congregation sings the Psalm response well.
- Make it your goal that the congregation sings the closing song well.
- It’s okay to review more songs with the congregation including the Psalm. Be bold during your congregation warm up!
- Don’t give what you don’t have… Make sure to you fill your own spiritual cup! (Most important)
- On recording CD’s
- Great songs take time. Matt talked about instances where good songs failed to sell simply because the author did not take the extra time to really refine his or her work.
- Want to make a CD?
- There’s no better marketing agent than the Holy Spirit
- Make sure what you write or perform is prayerful.. God will do the rest
- DON’T CALL YOUR MUSIC MINISTRY A BAND – LIFE TEEN BAND—BAD!
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- Little bits on Matt Maher’s music background
- Jazz – Helped Matt learn what NOT to play
- Classical
- On planning
- If you’re the only person planning your liturgy, Matt greatly encourages directors to find another model. Ego does not belong in mass. Plan with a team of people who really care about making the liturgy powerful, prayerful, and Christ centered. The team should also include people who aren’t musicians.
- Plan with your priest(s)!!!!
- Note from Fr. J.
- On Political correctness
- God = Father = Abba
- “Father, forgive them… They know not what they do..”
- Therefore, there is no need in lyrics to remove the “Father” from God
- On The Psalm
- There’s a new resource published by OCP by Craig Holson(sp?) that will provide Psalms for all 3 church years
- When it’s really hard to find a psalm response for a week, here’s some things you can do
- Read the verses! The US Conference of Catholic Bishops calls us to really try to stay as close to the verses as specified by the lectionary; There’s a greater degree of freedom on the “refrain” of the Psalm.
- On the authority of the music director
- Matt had a really funny way of expressing the music minister’s authority; if the bishop of your diocese had the ability to sing and play guitar at all the masses in the diocese all at the same time, he would! Since he can’t, music ministers are called to lead worship in the form of music; the music minister extends the power of your pastor and the bishop; you, therefore, should feel empowered to make hard choices at times in regards to the direction of your ministry and helping people to pray. Again, try to plan with your priests or pastor! We are always called to show respect and consideration towards our priests in what we plan.
- Stay up to date on your reading in regard to official teachings on music in liturgy
- Big take away! True prayer is the key to everything.. That's what we're called to do in the mass. Amen!
