Dan Price is the Worship Pastor for Riverview Church in Lansing, Michigan. Though the church was founded in the 70s, they have seen considerable growth and renewal over the last 10 years. The leadership at Riverview take a team approach of sharing preaching/teaching responsibilities while building up specific ministries based on their specific gifts. Dan leads several bands that offer an ecclectic array of styles. SRR will be releasing Cry Out by one of their bands, Ish..., in just a few weeks. We caught up with Dan and asked him our 10 questions:

1. How would you define Biblical worship?

Worship is a word that I have a hard time using to define our “music time” of the service. I believe worship is, in all things, understanding that we are to present our bodies up as sacrifices for the Lord in a holy and acceptable way. This is our spiritual act of worship. Singing songs to God can be a part of that, but they are only a small part of that.

2. Does Riverview follow a specific liturgy or pattern for worship each Sunday? And if so, how do you select songs for worship to fit that pattern?

Not really. We try to be “AWAYS CHANGING” in some sense and this may mean starting off with songs of lament and moving to songs of hope, or it may mean extended communal prayer or some kind of physical response that correlates with the teaching.

3. Does the culture of Lansing play a role in the music ministry at Riverview? And if so, how?

Yes, Lansing is a town that is tough to live in because the economy here is getting so bad. We live in a northern town that is very cold in the winter, and hot, humid and cloudy in the summer. I think that even the weather plays into people’s attitudes. We are maybe naturally more cynical, very independent and there is some sense of loss here compared to the glory days when GM was really pushing the area to become great. We also have quite a mixture of college students from MSU, white collar people and blue collar factory workers. I think our mixture of six bands that all sound different helps to create some unity in our worship.

4. If a young musician felt called to become a lead worshiper for their church, what advice would you give them to help in their preparation and education?

I’d want them to be theologically astute and culturally tuned enough to explain their song selections on a biblical and practical basis.

I would also hope that they would understand that their service itself is worship, even if they sometimes don’t “feel” God’s presence etc…

I also encourage all of our guys to write songs. Sometimes the songs aren’t that great and we don’t use them, sometimes they work out well, but I try to get at least one song out of every band each year and some bands end up with 6-10 songs which is great.

5. Riverview is developing a strategy to plant and support churches. What role and responsibilities do you have in recruiting and developing worship leaders and bands to send to these sites?

Well we are in the beginning stages so far of figuring out how to do this. I’d say that it is always our responsibility to be training up leaders to replace us or send out. I hope the leaders would all have the same qualities as mentioned in question 4. We wouldn’t want to send out guys to church plants if we wouldn’t have used them here!

6. How important is personal preparation and worship before coming before God’s people and leading them in song and prayer?

Very. I think the more you prepare, the better you serve. If you haven’t worked out transitions, a good song order or even a welcome, the service can end up being very awkward. If you are confidently prepared, people are more at ease and you don’t distract as easily.

7. Worship is sometimes a contentious subject in the church, what key factors from a leadership perspective have helped the elders and congregation of Riverview get beyond this?

We unapologetically target young here. This means that the music sometimes is weird and loud and we ask that people who don’t like this, to sacrifice their preferences for the sake of our mission. It’s not much of an issue anymore. If your 50 years old and your 18 year old kid is into church, you’re usually pretty happy. Of course we do have an old timey folk gospel band (Folksplosion) that plays, and we get complements from the olders and youngers when they play. Targeting young means trying different things now-there’s not just one kind of music that people like. Go on myspace and you’ll see people that love Willie Nelson and Death Cab for Cutie too. I think things would be more stale if we just stuck with one kind of music like a Chris Tomlin (love the guy) cover band, which is what I did for quite a while.

8. You’ve been doing this for a number of years now. If you could go back to the beginning of your ministry, what thing(s) would you do differently?

I’d start writing songs sooner.

9. Favorite book on worship? (And for the geeks who are reading?) Favorite piece of gear you use?

I really haven’t read any books on worship. I should probably do that…

Favorite Gear:

a. When I play guitar I love my EHX Holy Grail Reverb pedal

b. When I’m playing keys and making noise, I love Ableton Live and the Korg Kaoss Pad.

10. Lastly, if someone is visiting your neck of the woods, where is the best place to get a coffee and/or beer in Lansing?

a. Coffee-Gone Wired Café

b. Beer-Drive to Grand Rapids and go to Founder’s Brewery.

*SRR also heard that Dan is a bit of brewsmith himself. If you can't afford the gas to Grand Rapids, stop by his house and I'm sure my brutha would hook you up with a cold beverage.