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EGG PLANT, HOT DOGS AND JESUS
by dean krippaehne

Competition, the competitive nature, winning, “just win baby!” You know the phrases, "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" number one, number uno, first place, the big cheese, the big kahuna, the big brass ring, going for the gold, guts and glory. You can even sing along to this one, "We are the champions my friend." Truth be told I am competitive. I like competition. It is in my very nature. It's wired deep inside my inner-most fabric. As I'm writing these phrases I can actually feel the juices flowing - just the thought of winning at something makes me want to hi-five the air.

My wife, however, thinks that an overtly competitive spirit is one of the most ugly and annoying aspects of all human traits. She would give me little signs during our first year of marriage that this was the case or disgusted type looks when I would get too excited after winning at Monopoly or a friendly game of cards. Therefore, I have spent the last twenty-something years of marital togetherness trying to hide my competitive traits, trying to douse those burning flames of competition, tying to subdue what my wife thinks is an extremely ugly part of me.

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Worship Team Tools

Everything you need to enhance you worship team experience is in this section. You can start with our Bare Bones Basics, where we take you through a "step by step" of exactly what you'll need to get your team up and running. From songs to sound stuff, musicians to chart arrangements, it's all here. Another cool resource in this section is our online team builder book: "If ya wanna catch a fish ya gotta have a hook" with tons of creative ideas and solid worship team and worship leader information. In addition we have some helpful links including: Vocalizing Tips ( Great tools and techniques for helping your teams vocalists become more powerful singers) and Worship Software which is Integrity Music's on line resource for worship music software.

News And Worship Articles

Writing and choosing effective praise lyrics

One key element in creating effective "popular" music is the vernacular in which a lyric is written. "Popular" songs, whether written in the 1590’s or the 1990’s contain lyrics in the language of the people of the day. We need to be able to understand the lyrics to be touched by them. Imagine the Bible never having been translated into the English, or any other language. Whenever you wanted to read the Word of God you would either need a skilled translator or you would need to spend years learning the subtleties of Greek and Hebrew.

Lyrics of praise and worship songs, in addition to being the inspired Word of God, should also be of the current vernacular of the culture that they are trying to reach. Jesus, although not of the culture, most certainly immersed himself in the culture of His day. He walked, talked, dressed, ate, drank and used the elements of the then "modern" culture so that people could relate to him and hear his mighty message.

As an experiment, try the following: Without singing, read through the lyrics of some old hymns. What you will soon find is that many words and phrases, as beautiful as they may be, are never used in speech today. The same thing happens when you read Shakespeare. Beautiful and poetic as it may be, most of us do not fully understand the language without first studying it.

Hearing current vernacular is extremely important to the un-churched person walking into your church for the first time. This person may have never even seen a Bible before let alone have read one. The best way to speak to them is in their own language.

By worship leader Dean Krippaehne from the book:
"If ya wanna catch a fish ya gotta have a hook"