Vern Sanders

Stepping Into the Light… The title of this article perhaps made more sense in 2011 when it was originally written. You’ll get the reference (at least the non-musical one) further on in the article. Many years ago, I was sitting in my office, when a phone conversation with a friend brought…

Life For the Living When you come to the end of the day, or the week, or the year, or your career, in most cases you still have time. But if your work is tied up in your life, and your life is defined by your work, what are you…

One of the difficulties in worship ministry is that as a leader, one must be rehearsing for the current season, preparing for the upcoming season, and planning for the seasons to come (I talk about that in more detail here). While we think it is normal, it seems strange to an…

Builder or Maintenance Person? Would you rather change the oil or design the engine? It isn’t a rhetorical question, so I’m asking you to ask yourself seriously what you’d rather do. Changing the oil is a routine task. It takes place within known parameters, and there is a predictability to…

Leveraging Your Ministry Small is beautiful, right? Here are 31 small things a director can do to have a big impact on a choir ministry: 1. Greet everyone by name as they arrive at rehearsal 2. Change the rehearsal seating arrangement to best fit the current week’s music 3. Work…

Being Totally Focused I noticed something again at my last rehearsal. We had a new choir member come to rehearsal, and my rehearsal technique was much more focused. Part of that is the time of the year, when there is a lot to be prepared, and there isn’t time to…

You Said What? If you are reading this in disbelief or as a skeptic, please bear with me…this is actually a neat thing. But first, the set up… As a worship music professional, my idea of rehearsal is get as much work done in as short a time as possible.…

Here & Now and There & Then As a worship music professional, my work flow is constantly taking place in two alternate universes. The First Universe In the first universe, I need to “be present in the moment” with what is happening now. This is particularly true on the platform…

At a recent choir rehearsal, I worked on, among other things, Since By Man Came Death from Messiah. Most of you now have that running in your heads, I know, but as you replay it, how long is the space between the slow part and the fast part? How long…