Copyright Concerns in Your Church

I started out typing a long explanation of copyright law for some church leaders who have recently been asking me questions. There are plenty of sites out there that do a good job explaining things in detail, so I’m just going to give you the basics.

1. If you are performing a song in what the Copyright Office would consider a religious service (“in the course of services at a place of worship or other religious assembly”), then you can perform the songs without any kind of permission whatsoever.
2. However, you cannot print or display the lyrics, record the service via audio or video, nor can you reproduce chord charts for your band even if they include the title of the song or any of the songs lyrics without written consent from the owners of the copyright.
3. That is where CCLI comes in. They cover chart printing (not choir or orchestra sheet music copying), recordings (not distributed or sold), and lyrics displayed among other things I don’t specifically use.
4. If your band plays other people’s songs for community events or anything that is not a “religious services,” it is considered a non-exempt public performance and you would be breaking the law without permission from the copyright holder. Contrary to popular belief, CCLI does not cover these types of performances along with many other things.

• CCLI has a limited library and includes no secular tunes or many popular songs heard of Christian radio. If you just perform the song without displaying lyrics, you’re in the clear so long as your band members learned the song on there own you did not create and distribute charts.
• CCLI also does not cover web broadcasts of the music you perform – but Church Copyright Administration does along with everything else including video. CCA is expensive and requires serious planning-ahead skills – like 4-8 weeks out planning-ahead skills. They describe themselves as the difference between buying turbo tax (CCLI) and hiring a professional personal accountant (CCA).
• With so many new artists and so many new songs that are not registered with CCLI, it is legally up to you (whoever is in charge of reporting) to locate the copyright owner/publisher and report to them your use of their song and pay the PROs (publishing rights organizations) the proper royalties.
• If you are a member of the Willow Creek Association you can get discounts on licenses that are not covered by CCLI.

Bottom line, it is expensive, complicated, and extremely time consuming to be compeltely covered, but there is a slight bit of room in the U.S. copyright law for liberal interpretation. Churches are similar to schools as they are non-profit organizations that a teach reproduces copyrighted material to a face-to-face audience for educational purposes. In that regard, the “fair use” clause in the U.S. copyright law allows for even more exemptions. Though I’ve never heard of any church being taken to court over this gray area and the chances are pretty slim it ever will, it could happen and you would not want it to be you.

Tim Stevens discusses copyright a bit in his book “Pop Goes the Church.”

This site is a nice resource and much easier to read than the pages on the official U.S. Copyright Office’s website. The laws have changed from time to time, so make sure your info is up to date.

What worship song would you rather never hear again?

What worship song could you sing every Sunday?

Yeah, I stole this from my pastor who stole it from another blogger, but hey, considering I might get one comment, I don’t really care.

Shouting and Whispers

2 Chronicles 20:18

“Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord.” And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the story of King Jehoshaphat’s prayer, he basically asked God to deliver His people out of an imminent defeat and God responded by telling the nation of Judah to “stand firm, hold your position,” for God was on their side and that meant it was God’s battle to fight. Read the 20th chapter some time to get the whole story.

The part of the story that interests me the most are the two drastically contrasting postures of worship the differnet people groups chose. It makes sense for the inhabitants of Judah to follow the example of their King. It would even make sense for everyone else to do the same out traditional of respect and honor, but the Levites did not. In fact, they chose the complete opposite repsonse and were probably a distraction for those laying prostrate on the ground. However, as far as we can tell from scripture, they were so moved by the spiri, they were completely unconcerned what others were doing around them.

You don’t see that kind of thing much any more. If you go to a church where people like to lay prostrate and worship in whispers, pretty much everyone lays prostrate and whispers. If you go to a church where everyone shouts and jumps around, pretty much everyone is shouting and jumping around. When was the last time you were somewhere God’s presence was so prevalent shouting and whispers went hand in hand or laying down and dancing did not get in the way of each other? What would it take to make every week in church so inviting and free that the grumpy old man with his arms crossed was just as moved by the  Holy Spirit as the lady down front with the tambourine?

For My Children’s Children

“For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.” – 2 Kings 21:3 (context: 2 Kings 21)

My biggest fear has always been that my children would stray away from what I tried to teach them and choose a path that does not lead to righteousness. Seriously, I remember as far back as high school thinking how devastated I would be if my kids treated me like some of my friends treated their parents. I was by no means the perfect child, but as I slowly began to realize how wise and right my parents were, the thought of my children’s choices began to change how I behaved.

And reading stories like that of Hezekiah and his son and grandson in 2 Kings does not help ease my fears. Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son, was the polar opposite of his father. In fact, he even went so far as to rebuild the idols his father had destroyed and moved some into the temple of Jerusalem. That would about like an Islamic leader today taking over Israel and deciding to give it all back to the Muslims by erecting monuments to Mohammad and turning synagogues into mosques. He rebelled against his father’s ways and I can’t help but wonder what Hezekiah did wrong and what else I can do to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to me.

I understand a king has way more responsibilities than I do and the cultural and generational differences have to be recognized. But if you strip down to the raw basics of father and son, what did Hezekiah miss that four generations before him got right? Even three generations later when Manasseh’s grandson, Josiah, ruled Judah and worked diligently to restore God’s favor, it was too late to turn back the anger God had built up against all his father’s had done.

So how do I do it? How do I raise my children in the way they should go so they do not stray from the straight and narrow? I believe it all comes back to how I worship. That outward expression in response to what God is doing and has done in my life must be authentic, consistent, and obvious. My children should see a difference in me as much as I hope and pray every stranger I come in contact with can tell I am filled with a passionate love for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If they can’t see that, what are they seeing and how can I expect them to follow anything but my example?