Breaking Bad Habits

In church we ask for the Holy Spirit to have his way in us and move in the service. Sometimes I think it’ll take the Holy Spirit’s movement to get some of us to move on the platform at all!

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We’re all creatures of habit. We’re almost programmed for it from an early age.

Routines can be good, and are very needed in a lot of ways, but bad habits can be formed in those routines and they are very hard to break.

I remember one Sunday my Pastor said from the pulpit that he can see who’s not there on a given Sunday because we all sit in the same seats. So the following Sunday, after taking that message to heart, my dad got the whole congregation to stand up after worship and switch sides of the sanctuary just as Pastor got up to begin his sermon. It was pretty comical and our Pastor appreciated that we had obviously been listening the previous week, but the following Sunday we were all back in our normal seats.

Lately, my wife and I have been talking about putting down some roots. It’s come up in various conversations and with some varying meanings, but it led me to thinking about it in another way. I’ve been blessed to work with a lot of artists and some churches over the years and I’m still gaining new client partnerships, but the work I do with them takes time.

I can inspire people and make great progress and changes in a few hours of rehearsal, but it needs to be carried out.

That part is no longer up to me. We arrange the songs, edit and mix the backing tracks, create lyric videos and other content, hash-out talking points and work on purposeful movement and communication in rehearsal, but it takes a great deal of effort to carry that onto the stage.

We get onstage and all of the hard work in rehearsal goes right out the window. It’s not that we don’t take it to heart, but if it’s not a conscious continual effort to break our bad habits and to create new ones, adrenalin will take over and we become forgetful and go back to doing what we know.

I’ve found that with many of us musicians, what we know is actually habits that we’ve created and those habits can often be counterproductive. I see that it can be even more noticeable for us church musicians. Serving on the platform every week can be such a great thing! It can also be a place to form some really bad habits. We’re on the same platform and stand in same spot where we remain in the same bubble of space for the duration of worship. Some of us have roots so deep of comfortable bad habits, that I think it’ll take the Holy Spirit’s movement to get some of us to even move on the platform!

Having roots is good, but instead of blooming where we are planted - continuing to grow, be pruned and repeat - we can be stuck in the mud and start to rot. We need to nourish ourselves in our performance. However, it’s not a “diet.” It’s a lifestyle.

Putting down roots in a good foundation takes time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Just take it one step at a time. Being conscious of any potential bad habits and getting in the race is a great place to start. When you have an open mind to experiment and try new things, and have the willingness to be challenged and pulled out of your comfort zone, the possibilities are endless! This is where we can begin our journey together.

Are you interested in diving deeper into these areas for YOUR show? I’d love to get to know you and learn about your journey in music! Let’s schedule a FREE discovery call today!

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