Bryan Holten

Six Ways to Make Yourself Indispensable to Your Pastor

August 13, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

In most churches, the pastor (or senior pastor, if there is more than one) is the chief decision maker. This includes decisions about whom to hire and fire. I’ve talked about job security in the church, but not in terms of the pastor-musician relationship. As a church musician, this is the one relationship you can’t afford to ignore. A strong relationship with your pastor is arguably your best source of security. It would be far too painful for a pastor to fire someone who makes their life easier.

To that end, here are six of my ideas for how you can make yourself so valuable to your pastor that s/he would never consider letting you go. [Read more…] about Six Ways to Make Yourself Indispensable to Your Pastor

Three Lessons Church Musicians Can Learn from Salespeople

August 6, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

As you’ve heard me say before, selling is about much more than the “pitch.” It is a process, not a single action. Though most of us will never become salespeople, all of us would do well to learn as much as we can from the experts who sell for a living.

Today, instead of telling you how to think like a salesperson, I will give you three reasons why it is worth your time to learn as much as you can about selling. I will give you the “why” and leave it to the experts to show you the “how.” (To skip to the specific titles I recommend, click here.)

Why the Debate between Contemporary and Traditional Worship Styles is Bogus

July 30, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

A Tale of Two Camps

This is a story about the knots we tie ourselves into when we ask the wrong questions about worship styles.

“We used to be really close with them, but then they started going to the contemporary service.”

A longtime church member said this to me, in reference to a family she used to worship with every week. I was serving as interim organist for a congregation while they searched for a permanent replacement over the summer. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that something peculiar had happened at this church.

Three Lies You’re Telling Yourself about Church Work

July 23, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

woman looking through glass with paint over face

Everyone tells lies. Don’t believe me? You are probably forgetting about one of the most common kinds of lies: the kind you tell yourself. We lie to ourselves all the time, because it’s one of the ways we cope with a complicated and demanding world. Church musicians are just as susceptible to getting caught in our own lies as anyone else. This article outlines three lies that I feel are most destructive to those who serve the church, plus my ideas for how to push back at them.

How to Breathe New Life into Old Hymns

July 16, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

open hymnal focused on old hymn text

In the course of many conversations with other church musicians, I’ve heard about a variety of challenges with congregational singing. Because there are so many factors at play, each situation presents its own unique combination of problems. For that reason, I will tackle each problem one at a time in a series of articles devoted to church hymnody. This article addresses how to keep familiar old hymns as fresh and vibrant as possible. I can tell you from personal experience that it is worth the effort to improve your congregational hymn singing.

Bryan Holten

A Tale of Two Camps

Footer

Never miss out on free resources for church musicians.