"The Farm Team Strategy (Connections 1-3)" Video Transcript

Video Transcript: The Farm Team Strategy (Connections 1-3)

All right, we are in the second session under vision and strategy. We're going to look at the farm team strategy connections one through three. Psalm 78, verse four, we will tell the next generation the praise and worthy deeds if the Lord has power, and the wonders that he has done, he decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to listen to teach their children. So the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born and then this and they in turn would tell their children. That the farm team parents teach the children, children teach their children and it keeps going and keeps going. In fact, if two people get married and have two children, and then those two children grow up and have two children, and every 20 years this happens in 400 years. To people will have 1 million in their family tree. In the family tree is a way of getting everyone to play. Everyone is involved. No one's sitting on the bench. 

What is the purpose of the farm team strategy? It fosters the developing of home grown talent. In the United States, baseball has been a big thing. It's been a big thing, largely not because of the World Series and not because of professional baseball. But because people actually played the game in their own backyards. The father or mother would go up with a son or daughter and they would just play catch. And then they go to school and they play on the on the playground and then they then they join a little team and then they go to the next team and then they go to high school and then they go to college. There's all these little venues, all these different levels that people can play and compete and sort of become stars at their own level and then they advanced to the more difficult level and then They have to work harder and they can improve. And so all the while people are improving, and people sort of go to the whatever level that fits them, some go all the way to the majors and they play in the World Series. Others just play and they play, just recreationally that people have a chance to get to whatever level their talent and their experience can take them. It gives everyone a place to exercise their talent at their own level. That's what it's talking about that, that, you know, it's fun to be with people who are at your level, if you're with people that are way better than you, it's no fun. Or if you're with people that are way less experienced than your it's no fun. And the same with music. 

You know, if I'm playing guitar with someone, it's nice to be with someone who's maybe just a little bit better so I can learn but not so much better, that I get discouraged. It gives everyone a chance to develop their talent and improve to whatever level they can achieve. And so yeah, so that's, so we need to create these different levels within a church. So why is the farm team so important? Without it talent gets taken from other churches. So that's what's happening a lot in your team, a church develops someone gives someone an opportunity, they get up, they shine, they excel a, they start leading music, they play the guitar, they saying they play the piano, and then they start looking for a bigger venue to play. So you know, people that might appreciate their talents and the bigger church is looking for someone that's better because the more people there are in a room the the more talented people, the more people expect things to be really good. So churches tend to steal and trade members instead of just growing their own. Without it, there are more people sitting on the sidelines watching rather than playing so an elite group learns how to play. He just happened in your church to have someone who really plays the piano. So you just make them do it. 

No one else learns that I'll just Well, I don't know how to play like that. So I'm just not gonna learn and there's no place to learn. Without the farm team system, the worship service becomes a surrogate praise time, instead of the combination of the praise that's been going on all week by all the people in the congregation. I remember when we taught a guitar class, we taught 20 people how to play the guitar. And then we had a worship service and we had all 20 people with their guitars leading. They were all practicing at home, you know, for three weeks practicing singing and through and then on a Sunday, it all came together. So all that practice all that individual praise for three weeks came together in one service. So we're going to look at this farm system and we're going to start we're going to look at seven connections and we're going to look at three of them. 

We're going to start with connection, one can One in the farm music farm team is individuals. Everybody is given a voice, you know, unless you're handicapped in terms of your voice, but most people have a voice. It's a, it's an instrument. It's a it's like a read instrument, there's vocal cords and they get stretched and the tighter they are, the higher the voice goes. It's just just like an instrument. And God gave you this, it's a gift from God gets us here, you know, I'm gonna give you an instrument. You don't have to pay for it. You don't have to rent it. You don't have to put it in a case. You get to just take it with you. It goes everywhere. And it's the greatest instrument it's it's, it's incredible. It can get loud it can get really soft. It can get high, it can get low, it's it can be filled with emotion. It's it's just it's probably the most incredible voice. You know the piano I can play it I could play all the notes but the notes don't say anything. 

Whereas my voice can not only mimic an instrument, la la la la la, it can it can just do the notes but I can also put words to it God is the greatest of all, you know, I can I can I can, I can just put music to it, I can put words to it. It's an incredible thing that every single person has been given it you can take it anywhere. You know, the sporting, I came here and I forgot something. I left that at home, but I didn't forget my voice. It doesn't matter what I think about my voice just comes with me and everyone has one and everyone's voice is unique. And somehow when we sing together, the uniqueness of all these voices come together and create a sound. By the way, you know, I acquire sounds so good. It's because all the voices are different. And when they all sing, there's a little bit of difference between all of them and it sounds Like a choir, you know, whole choir can sing one note. And it doesn't sound like just one person singing really loud. It sounds like a choir. And it's largely because the voices are different from each other. But it's also because every voice is slightly off from each other. It just creates a bigger sound. Well, how, how do you help people make singing happen in their own life? 

They have this incredible voice, but how would you help people? One thing you can do is help help them memorize songs, people, people will sing what they know. But when we taught our kids the hymns, we made them memorize the hymns. And guess what when they were absent mindedly doing something they weren't thinking about it? They weren't saying, Hey, I think I'll say they're just, you know, doing something. They would accidentally just start singing the songs why because the songs are there. Especially when you When you're during a time when you have needs and you're going through something hard, all of a sudden the memorized thing, that thing that's in your head will switch you down to your heart and all of a sudden, those words will come out in a different way. But unless they first get into your head, they don't have a chance to get into your heart. So teach people songs, have them memorize the song of the month, we're going to memorize this song, we're going to sing it every month. And at the end of the month, we're not going to have the words we're gonna have to sing it all on your own. I have them practice with recorded songs. 

We do this with the band we do this with our singers when I do this with the whole church, that we made a a CD of songs 12 hymns, and we put all the parts the the tenor the bass and put them all on one CD and had people pick one, and they could just sing them just in their car, and they could not only learn the melody, but they could also learn apart. help those who cannot carry a tour, tune learn, note Some people can sing No problem, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. And they could just sing with you. They just hear it and they just sing along. They, their ears are in tune with others are like, amazing grace how sweet as they just have a monotone. And if you say, Well, you know, you got to sing different notes and they go Amazing Grace how, as you know, they don't know what different notes are. Remember one kid I was trying to teach. We're on a mission trip in Mexico. This was maybe 35 years ago. And he would just sing monotone like that. And I said, Well, I can teach you how to sing and I had never taught anyone how to sing. But I sat down with him. I'm like, Okay, let's, let's, let's start with Do, Ray, Me Fa, So. You know, we'll learn that one. Okay. Simple, simple, little thing, little tool to to learn the scale. 

So I said, you just try to follow me. I'm going to do He will do and I went Ray he went Ray and I went me and he went me and adore Ray me. And then I went far and he went fa. I said no fa no fa fa and I say get a little higher is that there's way too high go low again. Ah, you know, what I discovered is you know, he didn't have those notes. He had three notes on the bottom and then he had two notes up on tie but he didn't have any of those notes is like, you know, on a piano like they just don't work. And when I'd say higher, he'd go way too high. I said no, just one note he couldn't do he could not get one note. Now I think what happened to him he was a guy and guys you know when you're when you're a kid, your voice is really high. Hey, let's go play ball. But puberty, guys, their voices change and all of sudden they got to go an octave lower. And some guys never figured that out. Some guys have no trouble with some guys like that went an octave lower and all of a sudden, they just talked down here and they stayed on here, this is everything is down here. It just, they get stuck on there. They don't know how to adjust, they don't know where to go. And then for the next 10 years, they reinforce three notes. So that's what he had done. And he didn't have he literally did not have those notes. So I had to painstakingly go okay. You know what I'm trying to get you to go one note, that's way too high. I got to get you just from this note to just a little bit a little by limb, just push it because his vocal cords don't even know what to do. You know, it's like, you know, if I were to tell you, you know, wiggle your ears. See, I can do it. But if you can't do it, you'll be just gone.

Okay, I don't know. I mean, I don't even know what to do. And then that person doesn't What to do so I people can learn, but it's going to take some time because they've been reinforcing this, you know, no ear. Now, my guess is there's some people that just do not have an ear, they just can't hear. They can't get it no matter how much work you put into them. But I doubt if there's that many, there's a lot more people just singing monotone. But they just lost it at some point. And reinforcing that over the years. They just need someone to work with them. Well, how to help people make music happen in their life, help them learn the guitar, not just singing, but why not the guitar. I mean, it's a great instrument and we're going to have a whole session on on how to help people learn the guitar, the guitar, really not that hard. If you learn three chords, you could sing like 100 songs. If you learn just one chord, this is an E chord. If I take that he and go up here I get, I get three chords out of one chord. 

So if I just learn one chord, I just slide it up. I get three of them house just learning one shape, but take you you know, 5 10 minutes just to get this one shape down with a few places do a little strolling. It's, it's not that hard. So, how do you how do you help people overcome? Most people think it's like, you know, this impossible thing. It's a magical thing that they could never do. You just have to get them to a class and and show them little things and then send them home and and off they go or, or help them with a keyboard. The keyboard is the same Now, my wife teaches piano. She teaches the traditional way, you know, you learn the notes. You get this to a piano setting. You learn the notes.

Okay, there it is. There's that do re mi fa so thing I was talking about, but it is somewhat a chord. You know, here's a chord C. Here's a G, there's an F, three chords. It's not that in fact, you know, we'll do more with this with a piano thing but I can just get teach you one, you know your one hand to do one thing. I'm just gonna do this. We're just gonna change the bass notes. I just changed the bass note two or three times, and it's a whole song. It's something someone can learn in, you know, 20 minutes. So how do you help people get this idea that you know, while I don't know and that's when I get I don't, I don't, I don't know music, I don't do music. They could if so it's just a language. It's just like English. English is one of the hardest languages to learn in the world. Some of you that are taking this class English is a second language for you, you know how hard it is. But for me, it was easy. It was easy. I just grew up with it, it was just around and I learned it.

And people can learn the language of music to. Help them learn percussion. You know, beating something, you know, I remember going to something in a little conference or something. And we had 10 people, and they each in the leader gave us each a little drum. So each had a little drum. And they pointed to me and said, okay, just beat out your name. I am Steve. I am Steve. I am Steve. I am Steve. They said well, others, you know, what's your name and Murray Am Marie. Okay, so go for that for a while I am Marie. I am Marie. I am Steve. And then it would be back and forth and then people have their other name and people just start playing on their little drums. And you know what it sounded good. 

People had never been on a drum before. It's like in our hearts beat in a particular rhythm. And eventually we kind of learned it and get kids give them little things that that make beats and, and have them you know, learn and it's a way that you can start getting into music, learning rhythm and how to stay with everyone else. You have to listen to what other people are doing. Okay, that's connection one. So you're blessed with a voice you're blessed with fingers that can play things and learn things. connection to the music farm team is couples. If someone is married, the most important relationship that they have next to the relationship to God is their relationship to a spouse and the most important relationship that a couple has together is their relationship to God. Since music is a powerful connecting language, why not help married couples make use of it? So how do you do that? Well help couples sing together. Teach them both how to how to sing. Help couples learn an instrument together. So the boat maybe one is learning the guitar and one is learning the piano. And then they can go home and kind of practice together. 

Help couples sing harmony. Harmony isn't we're gonna have a whole session on on how to learn harmony, how to teach harmony. And it's not that hard. People know Row, Row Row Your Boat, it's just around you sing it around it's harmony. Harmony is just an alternate melody. And so husband and wife You know, my wife and I we will play together. We can sing songs together. It's a beautiful way to worship God in your own home. 

Connection three. So there, you know you're individually a voice, you can learn an instrument, if you're married, you can do things together as husband and wife, by the way, your husband or wife, you know, when you get when you get married, you're attracted. And there's a physical thing that helps bring you together and helps you keep coming back together. But as you get older, that physical thing gets less and less. And I think God gives us this a physical attraction, while we're young, to sort of force us to keep coming back together. 

But we need to make hay. While we have that we need to find things that we actually enjoy doing together. And if we waste that time where we have the help of the physical attraction, if we waste that and don't do things that we can enjoy together, then when we don't have the physical thing going as strongly as we once did when we're older, we will have nothing in common with one another so, so couples, you need to find things that you can really enjoy doing together and Why not music? Why not? Why not?Worship? Okay, families, connection three in the music farm teams, families, if one has a family, the most important relationship they have next to the relationship to God is their relationship to the family. 

The most important relationship that a family has together is their relationship to God. And since music is a powerful connecting language, that's what it does. Why not help families make use to make use of it? So how do you do that? How families sing at home. You know, as a church, we give families an assignment every every month, we have a song and scripture song that we're trying to learn and we give a copy to the family. We put it on our internet, we put it on our website. And so people and families can sing this. You know, I encourage almost on a weekly basis that families go home and at the dinner table, you don't just eat you don't just read the Bible, but have every kid pick a song that they want to sing together and family. They're young. They Want to sing? So don't waste that, that opportunity. Help establish singing time habits. I said when my kids were teenagers, we learn the hymns and it was in the evening and nine o'clock. That's what we did. 

We gathered around the piano we say. Daily events, you know, can can be interesting. A few years back, I was in Australia. I was on the island of Tasmania. The Tasmanian devil, and I was on this island and I had to do some talk at some church. And I stayed at some family's house that wasn't involved in the seminar. So they didn't know who I was or what I was there to do. But I stayed at their house and the next morning I ate with the whole family. And the family did their thing a they prayed. They did a little devotional reading, and then the father handed out these little songbooks and as he singing out the songbook to me he's sort of apologizing You know, well, you know, this is kind of what we do we, we sing a couple songs out of this out of this book and you know, it, you know, I felt like he was like, you know, I'm sorry, you know, we're gonna have to make you sing here and so on. And he didn't realize that this was my message at the church that night and it was so powerful to this family is just a simple little thing that they did, but they did it together. My guess is one day their kids are going to remember that and when they have a family, they're going to do the same thing. 

These are the kind of connecting habits that we need to do in our homes. weekly events we go to church we saying maybe young people's or small groups, we need to start seeing it all the events that we do together, especially as families, monthly events. My kids come home and and sometimes we sit around the piano but we need to make that a habit. Why not just do that every time they come over. Hey, you know there's eating we do the eating thing. We we play some games. thing and we do the singing thing. yearly events, Christmas time, you get together you open your presence but why not have a time of singing as well? special events, baptisms, family events that you want to mark with singing. When with our baptisms, we have people pick out a song and then we encourage them to use that song on the yearly when the when the date comes up for the baptism every year you sing that song to mark that occasion. 

Why is this? Why is this is so important. On page 56 of the secret to a great music ministry. I tell the story of it was friend of my wives. And, and and wow. My my wife's friend while her parents were both dying in the hospital. The family would come and they would sing and one evening they came in and sang and they they wheel the mother to the Father and so they were both in the same room. And everyone was there all the brothers and sisters and cousins and all the grandkids and so on. And they started singing. And the singing went down in the hospital and nurses and different people started showing up and it was like a little impromptu congregational singing time. And, and, and the, and the doctors and the nurses commented on how powerful that was. Those words, and the reason is it's it's it's all that history. It's all It's mom and dad and growing up and in all the, the good things that that the family had in it all comes back in that scene and there was tears and, and it's all mixed in with their history and love and the hard times and all the difficulties and everything that God has done. And it's all encapsulated in these songs, but that isn't going to happen. 

That is Is it going to happen one day when you're dying in the hospital room and your family comes, and people don't know what to say and, and they don't know what how to express their feelings because there won't be any song that will do it. If you haven't done it, okay, the songs only work if you start singing them, and over time they build and they, they have all these memories attached, but you have to do it. Or there be nothing to communicate. And you know, that's the powerful thing about music, it can say what you couldn't say. So families in these difficult moments, they sit, they sit there, and they, they they're all thinking, really deep thoughts, but no one knows what to say. So often, you know, these moments pass in silence. But a lot of times there's a song, there's a song that could just say, what the family is thinking. And so someone starts singing that song and they all join in, and they're able to communicate with one another, their love, their concern for each other. They're dependent God, even in these trying moments that God your presence is right here. And we don't have to come up with the words because the the music will do it for us.

You're helping families create powerful bonds that connect memories and people and God in the collective laying on of these memories creates powerful relationship, emotions. You're creating a huge potential talent pool from which to develop future musicians for worship leading. I mean, if if you have 200 people in your church, and 100 of them are taking guitar lessons, and 10 keep going. Five of them are gonna become awesome guitar players. I mean, that's kind of you know, how it works with baseball, you know, we all play and then you know, the people that really like it and naturally gives it out and they just keep going and become something but we don't give everyone a chance. We'd never know who who could develope and who could. So I want to encourage you, at least in your individual life, your marriages, your families to just try. And we'll get to these sessions, where I'm actually going to show you how to get how to start singing, how to sing a part, how to try the guitar, and listen to these things. And if you're the music director you already know how to sing you already know guitar you already know piano. Listen, to try to help others. It's not just about the worship team learning. It's about trying to help everyone in your congregation with this language of music.