Welcome to part two of Joel’s interview at Consuming Worship. I know this one is a bit longer than usual, but trust me, you WANT to read the whole thing.
Joel Klampert
How did you fare during the “worship wars?”
Actually pretty good. No injuries that I can see. Our church is a modern historic church. We believe in the blending of what is new with what is ancient. Of course there are exceptions like I will not play Carman. Ha! But you will see a Getty hymn with a Crowder song and maybe all hail the power and end with a United song. We don’t ignore the churches musical heritage and we don’t ignore the music coming out every day. I think it is foolish to write one or the other off.
Describe your process for planning a worship service:
I plan worship around a basic structure or skeleton of our service. I pray about the songs and message or vision of the church and pick music based on that. That may be in words or may be in the feeling or tempo of the song. There is usually a progression of welcoming in the Holy spirit and casting our cares on him…offering ourselves and remembering the cross. And in the end going into the world rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.
Sample worship set list:
The bold is where the songs are within the service
Processional
Come thou fount Come thou King - C (Hymn/Gateway)
Gloria
We Praise Your Name – C (Klampert’s)
Praise
O Taste and See - A (Brian & Jenn Johnson)
Marvelous Light - A (Charlie Hall)
Majesty - A (Martin Smith)
Jesus Paid it All - A Alternative Song
Gospel
Open the Eyes of My Heart - E (Paul Baloche)
Offering
Lead me to the Cross - Bm (Brooke Fraser, Hillsong United)
Sanctus
Holy – C (Brenton Brown)
Mystery of Faith
Mystery of Faith 1 – Dm (Klampert)
Communion
Center - E (Charlie Hall)
I’ll Hide in You (Klampert, Hanlon)
Recessional
Everything Glorious - A (Crowder)
Do you write music for your congregation?
Yes I do. Song writing for me has been very odd. I am now trying to create a process so I will have to get back to you on that one. So far songs have just come to me or I have been blown away by a verse and it just fits something I have been playing with on the guitar. A few songs people have handed me lyrics and they fit with some stuff I have been messing with. I will normally tweak and adjust the lyrics and then go from there. My song more of you had a few lines and the music. I handed it to my dad who is also a song writer and he had the rest of the song written in ten minutes. God has really given us some great songs that we can use to bless people and give back to Him.
(Disclaimer…this stuff has not been done in a studio. Although I can’t wait till it can.
There are some modern worship and some of the liturgical stuff we do as well.)
When you look back decades from now, what do you hope to see you’ve accomplished as a worship leader?
I would love to know I was a catalyst for the kingdom of God. I would love to know people were able to come to know Christ, get closer to Him and affect the people around them as a result of the gifts God has given me. I would love to be able to be the hands and feet of Christ and unify people from different denominations. I would love to be able to see Jesus work in me and through me and that eventually He would be my focus and not myself.
What are your predictions for the future of worship?
There is a ton of talk these days about modern hymns and the emergent church. Sadly some of it is getting a bad rap because of a few people who are not using the bible as their absolute. I think the new generation is looking for hope and looking for a church that is real. The future of worship to me is tapping the historic church. Learning about what the church fathers did in worship. The mysterious and awesome greatness of God these days is kind of lost. I think we need to bring it back. We are attached in worship to 2000 years of amazing people not just 10 years of cool music.
Bible says our act of worship is to be living sacrifices. To me this is where the rubber meets the road. We need to sacrifice our time, talent, and money for the kingdom and we need to like Christ within out community.
What is something you wished every worship leader knew?
That we need to be committed to excellence, but even we are not in tune, in a funk, and not even focused on him that Christ is still working through us.
Explain to us who are non-Charismatic Episcopalians what being one means to you? How has your denomination’s particular practices impacted your life?
I think it is best to start with explaining why the word Episcopal is in our denomination’s name because that does confuse people. I mentioned we are not in the Episcopal Church. The word actually means “governed by Bishops,” and we are. The problem is when most people see the word we are associated with another denomination and most are not running home to dictionary.com to look it up. OK, that was just to clear up the confusion.
Now onto who we are. I mentioned three streams of worship in part 1. We blend these three streams into one river of worship. Our worship is biblical and sacramental, liturgical and Spirit filled, ancient and modern, holy and joyful.
I am not saying we are the greatest thing since sliced bread, but there is a wholeness I see in this style of worship that I have not seen in many other churches. I think some churches are all about modern and forget about the Church fathers and those who went before us. There are some who are super traditional and are not moving with the culture. There are some who are all bible and nothing else. There are some who are everything else and hold the word up but never use it. There are some who are all about experience and forget that even if we don’t get that super nice feeling that we are to worship because Christ is worthy.
I have been to many many kinds of churches in my life, but in the CEC and within this type of worship I see Jesus come alive like never before.
I believe that we are to have communion like the bible says “as often as you meet”. Having our service centered around the table really changes the focus. Yeah we have to killer music and I love to rock but the center of our church stage is the Altar not the worship leader. I think this is huge for me. It really makes you focus on why we are there in the first place.
Our whole service is considered worship. Not just the music. The music is wrapped up in everything. I love doing the sanctus. It is like we are singing with the angels in heaven what we will be singing forever. Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God almighty.
Having the ancient with the modern really ties you into something bigger. I love the mystery and the awe of God.
You recently announced on your blog you have a vision for your denomination when it comes to music, arts, and worship. Could you share some of that vision with us?
I originally started CECWorship as a resource site for worship leaders in my denomination. It took off, but I didn’t have much involvement from my denomination mostly because it was hard to get the news out there. That is changing and communication is improving as websites and policies are being developed. We have many churches in the US but thousands in other countries.
I have been extremely excited about the direction of this blog and have made many connections that are fantastic. With all of that I have been praying and hoping for things in the future.
I would love to put together an ancient-modern worship conference. I have been to worship conferences and the thing that was lacking is the historic church, and surprisingly, communion. This would be open to any denomination.
In the vein of Vineyard Music I want to create CD’s featuring original worship from multiple CEC churches and with separate worship leaders. I believe original music in the church is huge. It can create unity and also represent the vision of the church. As far as arts I have been very happy with what we have been doing with every sense in church besides the eyes. I think we are lacking in the visual design and I want to find ways to create better atmosphere for the ancient/modern worship.
Another recent announcement was your formation of a community praise band. Tell us how this came about, and what impact you hope it will have on your community.
When we first got here my Dad jumped in head first and started praying with a few pastors frequently and then knocking on doors and asking pastors if he could pray for them. As always there is a history of churches not trusting other churches and Unity becomes a four-letter word.
Then we decided to do a multi-church thanksgiving service. I expected 30 or so people. It was amazing…it actually worked. I think there were 200 or so that came and four pastors spoke with different kinds of worship.
That day God started jabbing at me. There was more to be done with this whole unity thing. I somehow found a local youth pastor here via his blog. We emailed each other and then decided to meet. It was fantastic and he and I were on the same page of trying to change the culture here via unified churches.
I met with one of the young pastors that my Dad was praying with and he invited me to go check out their worship practice and give them pointers. I went and they were great. I gave a few pointers and also networked a little. Then I decided to go again, but this time I had the multi-church band idea to present to them. They were gung ho about it.
At this time the band is comprised of members from three churches. I put out the word to a select few about this because to start I did not want to open it to everybody. The fourth church I called the worship leader was a little too busy and his drummer was going to be out for six months recovering from surgery. The youth pastor I mentioned though will be rapping with us on some songs. That will give it a 4th Ave. Jones kind of feel.
I don’t know the future of the members of this band, it may be like menudo with members changing all the time. But I do know the vision of it. It is first and foremost a forum where local believers are getting together and fellowshipping outside of their own little circles. A place where relationships will start and flourish. A place where The unified love of Christ will really shine. Then the icing on the cake is we can take that and our talent, bless the church, worship our king, and change the culture.
Even if this band never plays in front of anybody our two practices have already effected so much. It is that I am more excited about more than anything. Of course I am also excited because this band is really good and I love the rock!
I want to mention some of my greatest influences old and new.
Music: Crowder; Baloche; Michael Neale; Misty Edwards; The Choir; Mad at the World; Phil Keaggy; Mark Heard; Second Chapter of Acts; Charlie Hall; Kings X; Sara Groves. Of course there are tons more, but that would be a lot of reading for the readers.
Books: Anything by Robert Weber; Stephen Lawhead’s books; Mark Batterson: In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day; Dangerous Act of Worship: Mark Labberton; Praise Habit: David Crowder.
One last thing for all you songwriters.
I saw Michael neale speak on song writing and he said something that blew me away. He was discouraged that people didn’t like his songs and God told him. “You write for me…and I love your songs” Unto Him that loved us and washed us in His blood. Easier said than done, but keep that quote on your fridge. God loves your song.
Thanks Joel for letting me interview you, and thanks to all the readers for stopping by Consuming Worship. Back next week with an interview straight at of SoCal.
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