My New Ebook: The Choir in Modern Worship

Yesterday was a big day for me. In addition to getting up before 4am (ouch!) in order to begin my week of travel, conference speaking, and meetings (I’m sitting in a hotel room near DFW right now, but I’ll be in Atlanta later this evening), my first Ebook – The Choir in Modern Worship – was released. If you’ve been following along, you know that one of my goals for 2010 was to produce four of these books, and I’m pleased that I finished the first one two weeks ahead of my plan.

Lead a successful
Choir in Modern Worship!

<an aside…I’m about 75% of the way through Elizabeth Gilbert‘s book Eat, Pray, Love (both my wife and my daughter strongly encouraged me to read it, so I am…), and one of the things that appears, particularly in the latter stages of the book, is the linkage between discipline (in the form of regular practice of an activity) and process–toward what is always a metaphysical question, so let’s just leave it at toward progress for the moment. I am finding that the discipline of writing for two un-interrupted hours each weekday has had the side benefit of re-ordering a lot of priorities in the rest of my day, and made me more productive in a lot of the little things that used to get left behind in the distractions…I do recommend the book, by the way…she’s an outstanding writer>

<second aside…for those of you who have been asking…my “worship wars” book has been on hold for some time now, because I found that it was becoming impossible for me to write a “positive” book, and I didn’t want to just sound like I was whining. In Gilbert’s book, however, I found one pure nugget which I think gives me a way to re-visit that book, and perhaps it will see print after all. I’ll keep you posted…>

The concept of the Ebook is something this old dog is still trying to get his head around. I’m not so much talking about a kindle version of the latest best-seller, but instead about the “shorter than a regular print book” publication that aims to be to the point without a lot of the background and set-up information that you can find in a “traditional” book. It seems that the expectation is that since you are reading the document on your computer, you can use your favorite search engine to chase down anything that you don’t understand in the context of the book.

As a writer, this means that I could cut to the chase, and the book hence becomes a reference/tool/resource for someone in the field, rather than something that strives to cover many bases in order to recover print costs. So, in the case of my CIMW Ebook…

You want to get this book if you are:

• New to the church choir leading ministry
• Struggling to adapt the choir choir ministry to the new realities of modern worship
• Never led a choir before, and now find that you are (or are going to be doing so)
• Under pressure to eliminate the choir from your church’s music/worship ministry
• Under pressure to “step up your game” or have your music/worship ministry position eliminated

It is not a conducting book. It is not a book on vocal technique (well…not solely anyway…).  It is not about how to get along with your choir. It is not about the classroom training you need to do to become a choir director.

It is a book that identifies the three specific attributes that are found in every successful choir in modern worship.  It addresses very specific ways in which a choir can participate in, and lead worship more fully. It has specific tips and tricks to help your choir expand the scope of their repertoire, and do so authentically. It gives you the tools to combine a choir with a worship band, and have the result be uplifting. It explains how to get from your choir “that sound” that you hear on the radio, or on those demo CDs. It shows you how to “change up” the way a choir contributes to worship, and this information alone will change for the better the way your congregation looks at the choir program.

And more…

So now for the promo…

In the last week or so I wrote about the “1000 True Fans” model of economic sustainability. I’m going to say that my goal is to get my 1000 true fans to buy this book. I don’t know how long it will take, but if yesterday was any indication, it won’t take too long. I hope you’ll consider getting this book. So if you consider yourself a fan…please consider buying the book. I think it will be a great help if you are in the music/worship ministry. But if you don’t like it, or it isn’t useful for you, I’m happy to give you your money back…no questions asked.

If you’ve read the book, and have a reaction, please, please let me know by leaving a comment below. That’s the cool thing about an Ebook…I can edit it simply and revise it according to need.

Oh…and I’m already working on the next one…look for it around the middle of April.

Tagged as: 1000 True Fans, choir ministry, church choir, Eat Pray Love, Ebook, Elizabeth Gilbert, The Choir in Modern Worship, worship wars