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Author Archives: Craig Colson
Craig Colson
Blog
LET’S START A GARAGE BAND
I have to admit that in my day I’ve played with plenty of garage bands. When I was in high school, there was nothing more exciting than setting up all your equipment in your friends garage, turning the amps up to 11 and playing all the songs you knew as loud as you could until [...]
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Gearing Up For A New Year
Working around the parish in the summer may get you down a bit. School is out, people are on vacation and you may even be trying to figure out what it is you should be doing to get ready for the New Year. Well, a new school year is right around the corner and people [...]
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Practical Tips for Forming a Solid Music Ministry
Maybe this has happened to you. Coming home from a Life Teen conference, you returned home in a fog of doubt and confusion at your ability to recreate the vibrant music you heard at a conference. With hands in the air, enraptured in worship, you made an internal commitment to take your music ministry to [...]
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Less is More, Sometimes
You may have at one time or another heard the expression: “Less is more.” This is very true when it comes to music. Sometimes the notes we don’t play are just as important, or more important, than the ones we do play. By this is mean that sometimes we can play too many notes, rhythms, [...]
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Thank You for Your Prayers and Support
It has been some time since I have written an article on lifeteen.com, so first let me apologize for being away. Some of you may have heard that on July 3rd my wife Kristen was in a bad accident. She was struck by a car while she was jogging and sustained two broken shoulders and [...]
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Lessons from Infomercials
Have you ever been up late at night and seen those infomercials for exercise equipment or jewelry? Have you ever wondered why people buy this stuff? It may be that they have nothing better to spend their money on, but I doubt it! Usually the people who sell these things to us are so full [...]
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We’ve Always Done it That Way
I once worked with someone who had a T-shirt that said “We’ve always done it that way” with a big red mark slashed through it. A lot of times we fall into this rut…What did we do last year? Let just do that again. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of wisdom in [...]
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Music and the Communion Procession: Making it Work
Everything we do should flow from the Eucharist. Life Teen is centered around the Eucharist and has built its whole philosophy on the true presence of the body and blood of Christ, truly present in the Eucharist. This being said, great care should go in to everything we do that deals with this great Sacrament. [...]
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What’s with those guys in the jackets?
Have you ever been to a church and seen those guys in the red sport coats running up and down the aisle waving 2 fingers in the air, right in the middle of the readings? Does this sound like your Church? If it does, you probably have figured out by now that we’re talking about [...]
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Pass it On!
Our Church is in need of good, solid musicians who are filled with the Spirit and who give their talents back to God through music. We need to seek those people out and encourage them. At one time or another, each of us was mentored by another musician. We either learned from watching another Music [...]
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More of Him, Less of Me
This is exactly what Music Ministry should be about: Glorifying God and not ourselves. Unfortunately, it is human nature to want to be in the spotlight. In a way, when we lead worship at Mass, we are in the spotlight; in front of the whole Assembly, but the focus needs to be on God, not [...]
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Knowledge is the Key to Success
Whether you’re a Doctor, a Lawyer, or a Teacher, the key to how successful you will be in your field is how much knowledge you have. The same goes for Music Ministers. The more knowledge we have about music and the Liturgy, the more fruitful our Ministry will become. Where do we get it? Although [...]
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Don’t Get Bent Over Lent
So it’s Lent; a season of penitence, prayer and fasting. To some, that may not sound very exciting, but it’s nothing to get bent out of shape about. The reality is: our Liturgies should change. In order to experience Resurrection, we have to first die to some things that bring us joy. We put away [...]
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Take Time to Pray
Does this sound like your life? Spend all week picking out the greatest music that your assembly will love Prepare the sheet music for your music group Lead 1 or 2 rehearsals Chart out new vocal harmonies for the singers Prepare a worship aide for the Assembly so they can participate Attend 4 or 5 [...]
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New Music
It seems as though there is more new music out there today for worship than we know what to do with. The Holy Spirit is definitely moving in our Church and inspiring many composers to write spiritual songs that worship and glorify our God. The challenge that lies before Music Ministers is discerning which of [...]
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Clean Your Room
How many of us growing up got chills down our spines at the sound of these three little words? Clean Your Room! Hopefully it wasn’t a phrase you heard very often. If you did hear it, hopefully it was said with love. Well, our music areas in our churches are in some ways our rooms. [...]
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Mass Confusion!
I once attended a Mass where the music group sat in a circle of chairs during rehearsal and without any instruments talked about each song one be one. The arrangements were made, verses split up and it was all done with everyone’s input. Although that may sound nice and caring, it took three times as [...]
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A Few Tips
Here are a few tips when putting together a Music Ministry: Model good musicianship even if you have to stipend a few musicians for a while until you get some volunteers. Remember…Good musicians want to play with other good musicians. Always meet with people outside of a rehearsal before they start to explain to them [...]
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Words of Encouragement
It is sometimes easier to focus on everything that is going wrong with a ministry than to see the good that God is actually doing through you. It is no mistake that you were given gifts and talents to play music and sing God’s praise from your heart. If God has truly called you to [...]
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Song After Communion