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Name: Ed Nicholson
Spouse’s name: Tracy
Years you have been married: 8
Children: Jonathan 8 Months
Church Name: Presbyterian Church at New Providence
Year it was founded: 1737
Denominational Affiliation: PCUSA
How many active members: 800
Last two books read:
Sally Morganthaller “Worship Evangelism”
Stormie Omartian “Power of A Praying Husband”
Worship Leader: What is the historical background of your church?
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Ed: The church was founded in 1737 at its present location. The building is very old. The sanctuary seats only about 350 people comfortably. The pews are old and have doors and coal stoops on them. We are involved in a $500,000.00 renovation to the sanctuary that includes an upgrade to the sound system and video gear. The town of New Providence was originally called Turkey. (I guess they raised turkeys. Who would want to live in a town named Turkey?) In the late 1700’s there was a renovation done to the sanctuary in which a balcony was added to give more seating. One Sunday, after this was completed, the balcony collapsed onto the lower pews. It was a miracle that no one was injured or killed. The pastor at the time called it an act of God’s Divine Providence. So the people in the town adopted a resolution and renamed the town New Providence. The church literally is the center of the town, sort of an enigma; a little bit of small town USA right outside of New York City.
Worship Leader: What is the church's DNA? (median age, ethnicity, special needs that you are attuned to, etc.)
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Ed: The church is primarily made up of Caucasian, upper middle class people with an affluent lifestyle. (This is funny for me because growing up my Dad was an inner city pastor in a predominately urban area of New Jersey). New Providence is made up of people with very traditional values, and there are five other churches in the little town. Although, at the contemporary service, we have about 150 high school and junior high kids, it is mostly young couples, 30’s and 40’s with Wall Street careers and children. The average income is $140,000.00 per year. It makes it very hard to afford a house on a worship leader’s salary!
Worship Leader: What is a typical week in the life of your church from Sunday to Sunday (number of services, Sunday School, special services, weekly meetings, Bible studies, etc?)
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Ed: Traditionally we have three services on Sunday morning, one traditional, one acoustic contemporary, and one contemporary, Bible studies on Monday night, prayer groups throughout the week, staff meetings on Tuesday morning, Praise Band practices on Tuesday night, Choir on Thursday night, and hand bells for children on Thursday also. We have a Youth/High School praise team that leads one Sunday every six weeks and is run by myself and a layperson from our church who is a member of the Praise Team. Once a month we have a Saturday night “Healing and Wholeness Service” and a monthly outreach called the Fire Escape for high school students. We also have a high school group called SALT that our youth pastor, Mike Flavin, runs. Tracy and I are both involved with this. They basically are small groups for high school students, which meet on Sunday nights. Tracy is a small group leader, and Mike and I lead the worship portion at the end of the night. Its real church: intimate, personal times with God. We have about 75 to 100 kids that attend regularly. The three services on Sunday morning cause the biggest problem for me because there are only 15 minutes between services. A lot of work goes into the change over between services. However, my years on the road have helped me with fast change over, the fact that I had to do line checking at festivals and on tours, etc.
Worship Leader: Take us through a typical planning session for your weekly worship duties.
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Ed: Mondays, when it all starts for me, I am working on narrowing down my worship set for the second and third services. I have a sketch for a couple of weeks in advance, but I usually do a lot of prayer and arranging for each Sunday because our services are only about one hour each. I need to really plot out the transition between songs for the worship set. I usually have twenty minutes in the second service and thirty-five in the third service to plan for. I also spend time on special music for offering or for a special song at the end of the sermon. I write sometimes for these so I spend a little time working on new ideas, too. My worship block sort of looks like this:
-Gathering song
-Pastor’s welcome to congregation
-A worship block with prayer included during the block, six songs usually
-Offering
-Message
-Communion (two times per month)
-Closing praise
I use the offering and gathering songs as a time to introduce new choruses. I like to do new choruses at least two times prior to singing them with the congregation. At the third service I do a 15 to 20 minute set after the gathering song. The congregation is encouraged to stay and worship or pray if they feel lead after the closing praise. (This was a compromise I made with my pastor. My years in the CMA and Assembly’s of God churches keep me wanting to worship longer.)
Next is Tuesday. We have staff meetings on this morning. We basically debrief the prior Sunday, and we go over the particulars of the Sunday coming up, like any special announcements for Power Point and anything else that will disrupt the flow of the service. We have a Bible Study and time of prayer during this meeting. Tuesday night I have rehearsal for Sunday mornings. It takes a half hour to set up and 1 to 1 and a half hours to practice. I lead a book study once a month on a Saturday for the Praise team. We are studying Rory Noland's “The Heart of the Artist”. It has been an eye-opener for all of us. On Wednesdays and Thursdays I spend most of my time in the office doing paperwork, etc. and meeting with people, teaming with our youth pastor on youth events, the fire escape, and other special events. Once a month we have Worship Committee Meetings on Wednesday nights. We plan out special events and discuss the budget, etc. Thursday I do a lot of writing and work on the company I am President of (I talk about this later in the interview.) Friday I am off but… NOT… I usually am busy with youth events or concerts for my ministry. Saturday is the same. And Sunday….just CRAZY.
Worship Leader: Tell us about the religious landscape of your community. What is the percentage of Christians? What is the denominational breakdown?
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Ed: New Jersey has a huge Catholic population. We have two communions because we have a large Catholic group who attend mass and then come to our church. They enjoy the liturgy so we given them an honest personal version of it. People are very critical of Christians here so it has taken a long time to crack the back of the traditional church and forge on with new ideas. Christians have sort of adopted this separatist attitude of hiding behind the walls of these beautiful grand buildings we’ve built. God seems to be bringing down the walls, bringing us together especially after the events of the last year. I see God at work in mighty ways here in the northeast. Change is happening and it’s good to be a part of it.
Worship Leader: Tell me about the church building. Is it conducive to worship? What are the acoustics like? Any special problems the architecture poses? Any things that were done to overcome them?
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Ed: Wow, the building! I could write a book on this. As a matter of fact when I speak or consult with other churches it’s one of the primary topics. The building is old. I mean pews with doors on them. Coal stoops for coal boxes; the way the pilgrims got warm on Sundays…haha.
Well let’s see, when I arrived at the church in 1998, they were talking about repairing some structural problems; mainly the sanctuary was caving in. The plan for major repair work was started and included in that would be the renovation of the sanctuary. When I started at the church I was given $20,000.00 to purchase a sound system. We purchased a Mackie 24 channel board, a snake, some Mackie power amps, mics, and some Yamaha speakers. It was a good system that we could set up and tear down quickly, a sort of portable sound system. Another issue that I addressed was drums. We could opt for a good acoustic kit and get a sound baffle, but in looking at the room and its size I wanted to have more control over the drums. Volume was the issue. We wanted the presence of the drums but didn’t want it to be so loud that it distracted those involved in worship. This was another dynamic between what I was use to in being in the rock show and where I was in a church leading worship now. I went with Roland v-drums. They sound incredible and we had total control over volume. The church definitely had issues acoustically but for a year this system worked okay. There were issues of slap, delay timing under balcony in the back of the sanctuary but we dealt with these after the structural repairs were done. Once the repairs were completed we started planning with a committee first, but later because of scheduling, the pastor delegated the sound upgrade to me. I got all of my wishes….haha. Because of my background, God had given me a lot of knowledge in this field. I didn’t necessarily know how to do everything, but I knew what good sound was and what bad sound was. I felt, and this was my argument to the elders, that we needed to get a system that enhanced the worship experience of the flock, especially because of our diverse worship formats. A lot of people opt for the cheap way or cutting corners. My argument was, knowing that a lot of the elders are from a corporate background, “If your company were going to put on a presentation would you hire the best you could afford? Well shouldn’t we do that? That is… put our best before God?” They agreed and gave me an $80,000.00 budget for the sound upgrade. I found a company here in NJ that I had worked with when I was in Three Crosses. They were pros. They have done sound in a wide variety of applications. We hired Panavid (www.panavid.com) in September of 2001, and they completed the whole project by November of 2001. They really took control of the situation. They loaned us gear to try out on a trial basis before they actually installed it. This allowed us to make sure that the system was right for us. Because the sanctuary is small, and the plans for a new sanctuary are 5-8 years away from completing, I really needed to get a system that would fill all of the worship applications and needs that we have and will have in the future. We decided on Tannoy speakers. They have a great range and can go from rocking (loud) to moderate or quieter levels like micing a choir. We covered the whole church with sound. Speakers in the back balcony on delays, two recessed in the walls in front and a matching pair under the balcony in front, smaller speakers on delays under the balcony (timed with back balcony speakers), and then two sub woofers for a full range of sound. We also went with in-ear monitors for musicians who always want it loud: the drummer, keyboardist and percussionist. Then four floor monitors for acoustic guitars (me) and vocals. This also helps with controlling the levels of volume also. Musicians tend to want to pump up the volume. This created a problem for our soundman because the volume on the platform would be greater than the room level and this allowed us to cut back on this problem a great deal. We also went with two Allen and Heath boards, 3300 and 2200 series consoles. One for room sound (front of house) and one record board for our TV and recording room. *More information about system can be supplied if you would like it.
Worship Leader: Do you have a choir? (Tell us how is it utilized.) Do you have a worship band? (Tell us how is it utilized.)
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Ed: We have a choir. The choir sings at the 8:50 service. This service is more traditional and our Choir Director handles this. We have occasionally done things together (the praise team and the choir). I am in charge of the Praise Team. They lead worship at our 10:00 acoustic worship service, which is contemporary music, but with a lighter flare. They also lead the worship at our 11:00 service, which is a full band service with bass, drums, guitars, keyboards, percussion, etc. The 10:00 service is shorter, a 15-20 minute block of praise music, offering song, and a closing praise. I usually do hymns at this service, mixed with praise songs. The 11:00 has a 25 minute praise block with a gathering song, then a praise block, prayer in the middle, the intercessory prayer at the end of the praise block, followed by an offering, the message, then communion and closing praise song. The praise team is involved throughout the service. I feel it’s our job to help as God’s instruments to prepare people’s hearts to receive what God wants to say to them on Sunday.
Worship Leader: In your duties as a worship leader, what technology do you use? Is there any one technological device or innovation that has made your job easier?
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Ed: The Diaper Genie!!!! Hahaha! I am a new father. No, seriously though, the thing that has helped me the most is the sound system; a system that is tuned to the room and puts out quality of sound at all levels. This makes my job so much easier. No distractions during worship except when ‘the soundman drives the levels too loud’ and the people participating in worship complain!!
Worship Leader: What issues do you struggle with to balance family needs with the needs of the ministry?
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Ed: Well I’ve always struggled with this as a musician. Even when I was touring with Three Crosses, being away from my wife has always bothered me. Musicians carry such crazy hours to begin with. For me the balance has always been my wife Tracy. She supports me wherever God leads me, and we’ve always felt like our ministry was being together and then, hopefully, letting God affect those around us through His grace in our lives. It’s such a huge ministry. Even now, whether I’m singing at a concert or planning for Sunday worship, just knowing she’s praying for me or knowing that I can bounce ideas off her for the worship services or songs I’m writing, it’s just so great to have a helpmate like that. Then now through the birth of our son and passing on the legacy. When I was playing in rock clubs, I could tell she didn’t like it, but she prayed for me, and in her silence to me, God heard her cries. Now I spend my time in worship; something that’s always been a huge part of her life. Now God’s burned that desire in my heart also. Seeing God in my wife’s life has always allowed balance in mine. She is a real testimony.
Worship Leader: How do you remain a worshiper while leading worship?
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Ed: It’s so hard on Sundays. I call it “welcome to Ed’s chaos!” We have very little time to make changes between services. I love the fact that it’s so much about the Lord and so little about us and our performances. Even when we don’t have time to get ready or equipment fails, God shows up and makes His presence known. For me it’s always been about “feeling His pleasure”. Remember the movie Chariots of Fire? Eric Little, the runner, says, “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” Well I’ve always felt that way. From the time I was a little boy singing in church in which my dad was a pastor and my mom was a choir director/organist. Even through my years playing in clubs, I knew God was there and when I sing to Him or write a song I always feel His pleasure. Now singing and leading worship…. it just seems so natural. I mean I have been very blessed to sing in front of a lot of people in my life, but when God’s people come together to praise Him…. it’s incredible.
Worship Leader: What is the hardest issue you deal with as a worship leader, the thing you really struggle with the most?
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Ed: Church Politics. I hate it! But every church has it in some way, shape or form. The balance of everyone’s needs or should I say, wants, is a struggle. I think you have to be sensitive to people and their concerns, but the leadership has to shepherd. My pastor is great at letting go and trusting me with picking the worship songs, formatting, etc. I really appreciate this. A lot of pastors try to dictate to their worship leaders, and I can’t really work in that sort of environment, especially because my gift is really on the creative side, writing songs and recording music, so he really lets me decide for my own. I mean he trusts me. I think that’s critical. He does suggest things from time to time but he lets me take it with a grain of salt and it usually works out great anyway.
Worship Leader: Can you tell us how you utilize drama in your church?
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Ed: We utilize drama less often then we would like. I know that we have done a few Willow Creek Dramas for Easter and Christmas. They do a lot with Children’s ministries but I’m not directly involved with this.
Worship Leader: What words of encouragement do you offer the worship community?
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Ed: It’s such an exciting time to be involved in what I would call a worship revival. Even up here in the “dry well”(what some others have dubbed the northeast) God is moving so powerfully through worship. I get calls weekly from pastors saying, “Can you come help us start contemporary worship in our church.” I wish I could clone myself sometimes for the whole community, but basically my word of encouragement would be “to humble yourself.” Allow God to work through you in His creative way. For so long many of us as musicians have chased the ‘rock star dream’. We need more worship leaders and less rock stars. “The harvest is plenty but the workers are few”.
Worship Leader: Can you tell us how you’ve come to be in the position of worship leader? (different experiences that God has led you through…)
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Ed: Well you set yourselves up for this answer (hahahaha) If someone would have said to me five years ago that I would be a worship leader in northern NJ, I would have told them they were “off their rocker”. In 1997 I was in a contemporary Christian Rock Band on the verge of breaking into the big time…. At that time we just had a #1 song on the Christian Hit Radio charts called “The Stone Was Rolled Away” that one of my band mates, Ralph Barrientos, and I had written with two of the members of Jars of Clay while we were touring with Michael W. Smith. Up to that point I had been playing with “Three Crosses” for five years, which is a story/interview in itself. In February of 1997 I left the band, disappeared from Christian music, and started seeking out where God wanted me to be next. My journey was long. I must say it was hard, eye opening, refreshing, restoring to a point. I burned with the desire to serve God with my music but not seeing beyond the CCM marketplace I continued writing with friends in Nashville and getting my songs cut by other artists. One was the song, “Restoration”, that ended up being the title track to a Phillips, Craig and Dean album. Then a friend approached me with consulting with churches on developing contemporary music services here in the northeast. I started working with several local churches, one of which ended up being New Providence. They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse at the time (lol) so I decided to come aboard. It’s been a blessing to be in a place of support. I still get to do concert ministry. I have a new album coming out on a label that the church is helping me develop….1737 Records. Last year the door opened for me to go to Washington, DC every week and work with the Senate Chaplain, Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie, and lead worship for a Bible Study that he leads for the Senate staffers. Recently, I’ve been able to lead worship with my band for the Christian Missionary and Alliance Metro District Youth Conference at Lake Champion, NY, so God has continued to bless the artist side of me by giving me opportunities I never could have imagined.
Worship Leader: What are the choruses that you’re using right now which are a blessing to your congregation?
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Ed: For our congregation it’s been “We want to See Jesus Lifted High.” That song is such an anthem for us. Our community was hit hard by the events of September 11th so it really has become our prayer to come together in our community and build ‘community’ where Jesus is elevated. For me personally it’s not a song but it’s been U2. I have been a fan for years and it’s so exciting to see them come full circle. I read Randy Rowland’s article about them in your magazine, and I totally concurred with him on the experience I had at their concert here in New Jersey. I went with our youth pastor, Mike Flavin, and his son, Andrew, and at the end we were so amazed that God’s presence was felt in such a mighty way.
Worship Leader: How can worship be used to reach the un-churched?
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Ed: I have a friend of mine, a professor at Nyack Seminary, Dr. Martin Sanders. He says that when unbelievers enter into true worship they experience God’s love in a way and with an emotion that they never felt before. It is a place of safety, an escape from the harsh realities of life. In this safe haven they find God’s peace, something they experience for the first time. They feel the pull of God’s Spirit in that safe haven, a longing to be in that place is planted in them and they long to return to it again and again. I think this is inherent in the heart of all mankind: to want to be at peace and experience the Father’s love. That’s found in worship and I believe that it is such a power tool for evangelism. We build community with the body of Christ coming together to praise God, and then we affect the community around as through our worship of God. It’s more than music or chords; it’s your allegiance to the King. The Master of the Universe, the Giver of Life. You reach out to the community of believers and unbelievers around you in worship to God, and through His power, evangelism just happens. Not beating people over the head with the Bible, but people entering in to worshiping God and for us to allow His spirit to evangelize the community; you come into contact with allowing them to find that safe place.
Worship Leader: What has your church done to reach out to the community around you with music.
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Ed: Well each year I’ve done a worship concert at the “town fair”. Its been very well received by the community. Through the church I have been able to create a company, Creative Vision Media(CVM). It will help me, through God, to reach out to our community and then expand into reaching out to other communities around us. One of my visions is to start in my tri-city area, then reach out tri-county, then tri-state, and eventually, if God wills, Nationwide. The record label to CVM is called 1737 Records and we’re hoping to release my album (our first project) in the next few months, but people can get information at the web site and concert information on where I’m playing at (www.ednicholson.info). The church has been a great support of this venture, which has a broader vision than just records. One of the key elements in reaching our community is live music outreach. This year we will have the first in what we hope will be many worship festivals, which will coincide with the local town fair. We’re inviting the local churches and worship leaders to participate in this event. It’s very much like how I think that Soul Survivor started in England. The name of it, well so far, has been dubbed “Worship More” Festival. (www.worshipmore.com) It’s been underwritten by gifts to CVM. I’m excited and once again blessed to be at our church. It has been a real challenge setting up companies and understanding non-profits, etc. A lot of really talented businessmen have put a lot of time and effort into helping Tracy and I with this vision.
Worship Leader: Do you or anyone else in your congregation compose choruses? And if so, can you send us a sample?
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Ed: It’s so funny because I’ve written so many commercial Christian songs. Some of those have been #1 chart toppers but when I came to the church or first started consulting with churches, I really didn’t have much knowledge of the resurgance of worship music coming from the UK, Australia, and the Vineyard. I knew about all of them, but worship choruses were somewhat different in structure then the commercial Christian Radio songs I was use to writing. It’s a real gift! I use to say “it’s funny, I just don’t write those kind (meaning worship songs) of songs.” There always have been an element of worship in my songwriting but that had never really crossed my mind. I always looked at it as “I am an artist and this is the kind of art I create.” My album that’s coming out is sort of that typical Christian Hit Radio music. But as God would have it, being exposed to so much worship music, I have felt inspired to write some myself, and God has blessed me with a few worship songs. (It seems that worship songs are all I have been writing lately (). It’s been cool, too, because I have a place to share them in as the Lord gives them to me. The church is a captive audience. I try them and some stick, some don’t. Some even end up being great special music pieces. I have about six or more worship songs now that I rotate regularly in the worship schedule, and once I’m done writing a few more, I will compile them for my next album called, “Humble”. That’s the song that Ralph Barrientos (also from Three Crosses) and I just wrote, and it seems to be a blessing to a lot of people. It’s been a real healing experience for both of us to be turning our creative juices back toward God.
Worship Leader: What makes your church a place where people want to come and worship?
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Ed: God….Totally God!!! I have a song on my album called “Totally God”. The chorus goes “And it’s all totally God, It’s out of my hands, It’s bigger than anything I could plan!” That’s it!!! I try to just be there, working in my chaos and God reveals His self and I feel His pleasure. Others see that, and I’m blessed and God’s blessed.
“He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.”(Col.1:17) That was the verse at Tracy and my wedding. It’s all about His grace!
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