If you follow us on Twitter chances are you’ve seen us RT and interact with Chris Vacher and Worship Rises. We even recently reviewed their first self-titled EP of songs here as well.
Worship Rises is a community of Candanian worship leaders and songwriters that was formed with the purpose of creating songs and resources for the Canadidan church. What interested me the most in the Worship Rises movement is how it went from being a vision in one person’s mind to a movement and gathering of many different worship leaders and the role social media played in the creation of Worship Rises.
The goal of this interview is partly to introduce you to Chris Vacher, the main mind behind Worship Rises, but also to encourage you to get actively involved in social media. Whether you like it or not social media is here to stay. Twitter and Facebook aren’t just for young adults and isn’t something that’s going to destroy our communication skills.
The reason social media is so important is because it gives everyone a voice (which can be a good and bad thing) and because of the ability to communicate almost instantly. If you are passionate about something you can quickly build a community of like-minded people and communicate with them. You can find and build your own Tribes.
If you have a story to tell or a message to share Twitter and Facebook can provide you with a free and effective platform to spread your message. If you’re interested in the integration of Social Media or how to use it to follow your passion check out a few of the links below:
Because of the accessibility of social media and the internet, the church has a bigger and bigger opportunity to make an impact. You, the guy who’s been pouring over the Word and deep in prayer, writing worship songs, now has the ability to share those songs with the world, quickly and easily.
So if you need proof that social media can help you spread your message then check out my interview below with Chris Vacher and see how he used social media to get his message out and to build a community of like-minded individuals.
1) Can you tell us a bit of how Worship Rises got started?
I’ve been a worship leader for 15 years and on staff at my church as the worship director for the last 5. Churches engaged in worship is a deep passion for me. A couple of years ago I was frustrated with two things – first, how willing we were to import all the newest songs from the big worship names while at the same time not doing the work of digging in to our own church’s new songs and second, the fact that there are Canadians leading the way in every genre of music except for what’s happening in the church. I began to dream about what it would look like to be part of a catalytic movement which would be responsible for developing worship resources for & from the Canadian church.
2) What role has social media played in the promotion and marketing of Worship Rises?
It has been huge. We actually don’t have our own .com site – all of our communication, promotion, resourcing happens through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We’ve leveraged the technology that is already present to reach an audience that is looking for new music in these places. We are going after the worship leader who spends a good amount of time online, reads blogs and looks for other new songs that are being sung in churches.
3) What are some specific examples of how you’ve used social media for promotion?
We released our debut EP of four songs on July 13. These are songs that came out of a couple of our songwriting days. For the actual release, we didn’t spend one dollar on marketing. We built the conversation on twitter & facebook and let it go from there. In Canada, the EP ended at #2 on the Christian chart and #20 on the full iTunes chart. We also saw some good sales in the US – all without spending any money buying ads, sponsoring blog posts, etc.
4) Why shouldn’t you have done this? What kickback did you feel internally? How did you overcome that fear?
I am a dreamer by nature. Time and time again I have had crazy ideas and tried to manufacture some energy to make them happen. This was different. From the very beginning of WorshipRises it’s been clear that God has been very involved every step of the way. To see how the movement has spread across the country, worship leaders from all over Canada are now getting involved in our songwriting days. If anything, there was the fear of setting out to be a landmark movement for the Canadian church and then not seeing people respond but that’s not at all what has happened. Every day I’m having conversations with people who are excited about being a part of this.
5) Why should other worship leaders follow your lead and create songwriting communities?
Because there are songs that your church needs to sing which aren’t going to come from anywhere but your own church. Your own congregation has a unique history, language and culture that songwriters in Nashville, Australia or the UK (or Canada!) do not understand. There’s a voice to your congregation that you can hear best. Don’t feel like it’s only the professionals who can write songs good enough for your people to sing. Pray, pray some more, dig in to Scripture, get together with some talented people, pray some more and then see what God does.
Still haven’t picked up the Worship Rises EP? Get it on Amazon
or Itunes now! Are you on Twitter or Facebook? Join in on the fun and follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook!
Will Doggett is a certified Ableton Live Instructor, musician, worship leader and educator based out of FL. He currently works in the Worship Ministry at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale and teaches Ableton Live and Ensemble courses at Ocean's Edge School of Worship . You can reach him by Email and find him on Twitter @willdoggett. He's currently available for consultation and training for churches and musicians interesting in learning to integrate Live into their setups. Want more info? Shoot him an Email!
Social Media and Following Your Passions: An Interview with Chris Vacher
Posted by Will in Chatter
If you follow us on Twitter chances are you’ve seen us RT and interact with Chris Vacher and Worship Rises. We even recently reviewed their first self-titled EP of songs here as well.
Worship Rises is a community of Candanian worship leaders and songwriters that was formed with the purpose of creating songs and resources for the Canadidan church. What interested me the most in the Worship Rises movement is how it went from being a vision in one person’s mind to a movement and gathering of many different worship leaders and the role social media played in the creation of Worship Rises.
The goal of this interview is partly to introduce you to Chris Vacher, the main mind behind Worship Rises, but also to encourage you to get actively involved in social media. Whether you like it or not social media is here to stay. Twitter and Facebook aren’t just for young adults and isn’t something that’s going to destroy our communication skills.
The reason social media is so important is because it gives everyone a voice (which can be a good and bad thing) and because of the ability to communicate almost instantly. If you are passionate about something you can quickly build a community of like-minded people and communicate with them. You can find and build your own Tribes
.
If you have a story to tell or a message to share Twitter and Facebook can provide you with a free and effective platform to spread your message. If you’re interested in the integration of Social Media or how to use it to follow your passion check out a few of the links below:
Crush It!
Trust Agents
Chris Brogan’s Blog
Because of the accessibility of social media and the internet, the church has a bigger and bigger opportunity to make an impact. You, the guy who’s been pouring over the Word and deep in prayer, writing worship songs, now has the ability to share those songs with the world, quickly and easily.
So if you need proof that social media can help you spread your message then check out my interview below with Chris Vacher and see how he used social media to get his message out and to build a community of like-minded individuals.
1) Can you tell us a bit of how Worship Rises got started?
I’ve been a worship leader for 15 years and on staff at my church as the worship director for the last 5. Churches engaged in worship is a deep passion for me. A couple of years ago I was frustrated with two things – first, how willing we were to import all the newest songs from the big worship names while at the same time not doing the work of digging in to our own church’s new songs and second, the fact that there are Canadians leading the way in every genre of music except for what’s happening in the church. I began to dream about what it would look like to be part of a catalytic movement which would be responsible for developing worship resources for & from the Canadian church.
2) What role has social media played in the promotion and marketing of Worship Rises?
It has been huge. We actually don’t have our own .com site – all of our communication, promotion, resourcing happens through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We’ve leveraged the technology that is already present to reach an audience that is looking for new music in these places. We are going after the worship leader who spends a good amount of time online, reads blogs and looks for other new songs that are being sung in churches.
3) What are some specific examples of how you’ve used social media for promotion?
We released our debut EP of four songs on July 13. These are songs that came out of a couple of our songwriting days. For the actual release, we didn’t spend one dollar on marketing. We built the conversation on twitter & facebook and let it go from there. In Canada, the EP ended at #2 on the Christian chart and #20 on the full iTunes chart. We also saw some good sales in the US – all without spending any money buying ads, sponsoring blog posts, etc.
4) Why shouldn’t you have done this? What kickback did you feel internally? How did you overcome that fear?
I am a dreamer by nature. Time and time again I have had crazy ideas and tried to manufacture some energy to make them happen. This was different. From the very beginning of WorshipRises it’s been clear that God has been very involved every step of the way. To see how the movement has spread across the country, worship leaders from all over Canada are now getting involved in our songwriting days. If anything, there was the fear of setting out to be a landmark movement for the Canadian church and then not seeing people respond but that’s not at all what has happened. Every day I’m having conversations with people who are excited about being a part of this.
5) Why should other worship leaders follow your lead and create songwriting communities?
Because there are songs that your church needs to sing which aren’t going to come from anywhere but your own church. Your own congregation has a unique history, language and culture that songwriters in Nashville, Australia or the UK (or Canada!) do not understand. There’s a voice to your congregation that you can hear best. Don’t feel like it’s only the professionals who can write songs good enough for your people to sing. Pray, pray some more, dig in to Scripture, get together with some talented people, pray some more and then see what God does.
Still haven’t picked up the Worship Rises EP? Get it on Amazon
or Itunes now! Are you on Twitter or Facebook? Join in on the fun and follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook!
Wills website
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